It's Time to Come Back to Innovation! Yes, now!

So, after finally finishing my book last year I was pretty worn out on writing to be honest. I was also just out of new ideas. It felt like it was time to hunker down and just make my operation run. Well, now seems like a different kind of time. It feels to me, even in the midst of Covid-19, that this might be precisely the time to Innovate in youth ministry and in the church in general. Let me share with you some thoughts I have been having.

1.) I am not sure that things will ever be the same.

I don’t want to overstate this reality, but on Sunday I spent the better part of 3.5 hours wandering my neighborhoods, praying for churches, and just pondering. As I walked I had this sense that I was in a new kind of open space. Here I was on a Sunday and I wasn’t in a church. I was walking, praying, observing, and actually reflecting at great length with the emotional energy to do it. The open space in my heart and mind seemed to be this idea that I was becoming aware of certain things in my youth ministry’s life that simply didn’t need to exist any longer and other things that were emerging that maybe needed to remain once our quarantine was over.

And this is not to say that all the old things are going to pass away. I have seen a few of those blog posts this week. Rather, old and new might be combining into new News, so to speak. In her book, The Great Emergence which I read many years ago, Phylis Tickle writes:

“From time to time the only way to understandwhat is currently happening to us as 21st century Christians in North America is first to understand that about every 500 years the Church feels compelled to hold a giant rummage sale. And we are living in and through one of those five-hundred-year sales” Tickle meant that when she wrote it. If the sale had started then, this virus and its attendant changes may have catapulted into high gear now.

My sense is that things were dying, being born, and being reborn all at the same time. And for those of us that are wired for the staid and the status quo, it could feel pretty disorienting.

Will people come back to church after this?

Will this reveal their deep need for God, the church, and Christian community or simply confirm their suspicions about the relative irrelevancy of the whole enterprise? Crisis tends to erode polite fictions rather quickly.

2.) This may be there real birth of the kingdom based social enterprise movement.

Throughout this week I have been deeply thankful for the ministry model we have been building. While the economic numbers are scary, our insistence on building a church based social enterprise that has minimal rent, no debt, and a sustainable revenue stream is paying remarkable dividends! Unlike many non-profits, we don’t spend tons on program. We also keep healthy amounts of cash in reserve. We do that out of a desire to figure out what the next business/ministry leap might be. But, in this moment of crisis, that cash reserve will allow us to survive. Since we own all of our equipment outright, if the worst happens we can always shut down a re-start! Don’t get me wrong, this thing could still take the legs right out from under us, but we are poised to weather it better than many ministries if it drags out for a while.

We all knew, before this, that church attendance and giving patterns were on the decline. I have long felt like we need to take our focus off of that “problem” and instead focus on building intriguing models of ministry that would actually inspire people to participate and compel them to part with their hard earned dollars. If we knew that before, we certainly know it now. Going forward from this crisis we will need to build ministries that do business. Many many businesses have been conceived and launched during downturns and this might be the time. It’s time to build self sustaining models (for-profit and non-profit) that generate return and accomplish compelling Kingdom work!

3.) It is precisely time to INNOVATE-

I mentioned the head space to think and dream above that this time represents. One way to think about this time is as a partial sabbatical from all our toxic busy in our culture. It may feel like our backs are against the wall, but my entrepreneurial experience tells me that when your back is against the wall you are most likely to discover your resourcefulness and grit! Now is not the time to retreat and to reify! Now is not the time to double down on what was! Now is the time to conceive of something new. Now is the time to reflect on what ministry is worth doing ministry for. People and systems are crumbling and bursting open. This is the time to run through the gaps in the line. Hunker down where you must, but explode with hope, glory, and Kingdom vision where you can!