3. IMITATION KILLED INNOVATION
Of all three points, this one probably bothers me the most.
To begin with, when churches imitate each other, we rarely borrow all the best practices—we just borrow the ones that are easy to see or seem obvious.
But what’s made growing churches grow is deeper than the cool factor.
Consequently, leaders who finally get what they were longing for—a cool church—are often shocked to discover they don’t deliver what they promised.
And in the process of all that imitation, something even more important is lost: innovation.
What’s needed now more than ever is church leaders willing to pioneer…to go deep into a culture that keeps changing to reach people who are increasingly resistant.
What’s needed most as we look at what’s ahead is innovation. And it’s sorely lacking among many church leaders.
Should you never imitate? No…that’s not wise either. To refuse to borrow best practices from others is arrogant and, to a large extent, futile thinking.
The point is simply this: Don’t let imitation kill innovation at your church.
IRRELEVANCE ISN’T THE ANSWER EITHER
So should you run from all things cool, trendy or hip?
No.
Relevance is better than irrelevance. Relevance matters simply because it gains you permission to speak into the people and culture around you. The culture simply doesn’t listen to leaders it deems irrelevant.
The answer to the challenge of keeping up with relevance is not to return to irrelevance.
Relevant church has many critics, but to not bridge the cultural gap is even more ludicrous (in my view) than trying to bridge it and maybe failing.
To agree to be irrelevant, ineffective and bad at what you do is a terrible option.
So what do we do as we head into the future?
