Where Innovation Happens (and Doesn’t)
I often tend to think that when innovation isn’t happening in a specific ministry of a church, it’s because the ministry leader isn’t thinking very innovative. While that may often be the case, I’ve started to question more the role that the culture and circumstances of their church play in the lack of innovation.
Mark and I tossed the question around a week or so ago, and the question has become even more specific this week at Orange: Why (in certain churches) is the children’s ministry innovating and trying all sorts of things, while the student ministry still looks like it did 10 years ago?
A lot has been said this week about the essential role the senior pastor’s support plays in the health of their church’s children’s and student ministries. I think it is essential, but I wonder if the support being given to each of the ministries is currently really different. And is that difference playing a role in stunting innovation in some student ministries?
For instance, I’ve talked to a number of youth pastors who feel the pressure of their senior pastor to continue the “great tradition of student ministry” in their church. Some times, I wonder if this is less about the church’s legacy, and more about the senior pastor’s legacy, or what the senior pastor thinks youth ministry should look like based on their own experience as a youth pastor.
Also, I’ve talked to some youth pastors who feel like they are in a perpetual job interview for an associate pastor role in their church, one with broader responsibility than they currently have. Some of them don’t mind this, and want a role-change like that. For others, this is a pressure that can feel crushing, and the fear of failure edges out any desire to try new things in their ministry.
Maybe more than anything else, I’ve talked to a lot of youth pastors who feel like they are being measured by the exact same metrics their senior pastor uses for overall church success. This can create unspoken expectations about what the student ministry should look like, or “how close it’s getting” to the success of the larger church. And so lot of student ministries end up looking and feeling like “Jr. church”.
I wonder if the greatest gift of support a senior pastor can give their student ministry leader is a surrender of their own expectations. What if a senior pastor became consumed by the dreams and expectations of their youth pastor? Might we see youth pastors freed up to innovate in ways they hadn’t previously felt permission to?
04/30/2010 at 1:13 pm
funny you should bring up the associate pastor thing… my pastor offered me a position in that yesterday…wants to hire another Youth Pastor and i would be over Family Discipleship (small groups, events) and creative Culture shaping (i don’t think he knows what that means… i sure dont). but through the creativity of our ministry over the past 20 months of me working here we have seen tons of growth and new blood come into our ministry…
I would agree with your above comments that with the model of church a senior pastors support of any ministry is the make or break in most instances. If you don’t have a dynamic leader in that ministry who can break free from a certain model it…
you talk a little bit about what i have been researching in ministries as the major cause of burnout and just down right failure in ministry. EXPECTATIONS. They are needed don’t get me wrong…but falsely placed and unbiblically founded and you have a disaster waiting to happen. something that has hit me lately though is the expectations put on the senior pastor (both real and unreal-meaning those they assume are put on them and those that are really put on them) causes many pastors to function in this manner… a lot has got to change
04/30/2010 at 1:28 pm
Yes, I know this post doesn’t even mention the expectations on senior pastors. I appreciate the empathy you express here. Church boards, congregation members, staff members – senior pastors have to balance a lot of people’s expectations.