Innovation Cultivation
I just read an article entitled “Innovation Cultivation” by Larry Boatright. It is brilliant. I felt as though he was describing some of my story in this part:
I think a pretty dramatic shift is occurring regarding innovation and the church. For so long, the conversation has centered around the church creating a new program, ministry, or innovative initiative to meet needs. There’s been an unhealthy culture of dependence on the “professionals” to drive innovation. We find a need, we design a plan, we allocate funding and resources, find a leader, and move on to the next innovative task. But I think that’s changing. More and more followers of Jesus are heeding the call to make a difference, to demonstrate the love of Christ themselves rather than depending on the church to do it all. And this, honestly, sets pastors up to make a pretty dramatic shift as well.
So many pastors are simply exhausted from being the CEO of an organization that drives and creates innovation. They signed up to shepherd a people, to reach a community, but lay in bed at night feeling like they are pimping a product, trapped in a cycle that is dependent on their ability to create, create, create. What if pastors made a dramatic shift in the way they did things?
What if they shifted from being drivers of innovation to being cultivators of innovators.
I think the shift that he is suggesting is a critical and profound change (that is desperately needed) in the nature and role of leadership. As I’ve moved towards this type of leadership myself over the last several years, I have seen incredible things happen. I’ve seen people feel empowered and move from being a consumer to a creator. The entire article is worth a few minutes of your time. I would love to hear your thoughts on this as well.
11/09/2009 at 1:58 pm
I think this is a getting back to center movement. I have seen this in our own ministry. We were talking about what we as a church can learn from a bar. We interviewed the owner of a local establishment. She said that she thinks “the reason people come back is b/c of her bartenders and the atmosphere they create.” One of our people equated that to our church and said people come here b/c of me and my wife. We are the pastors. I was shocked. They saw us as the gate keepers not them. I see them as our bartenders.
This is the shift that needs to happen. God gave the apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers, and pastors to equip the church to do what God has called THEM to do. Not to have them accomplish what God has called us to do.