(Note: Today’s Weekly Reader post is part of yesterday’s message at the Community Church, where I introduced the Center for Innovative Ministry to our church family. I thought it might be valuable to explain how it all came about, and what we are trying to accomplish. – TD)

 

A friend of mine whom many of you know closes each and every email with a provocative postscript. After the text of the message and his name is this two-word phrase: “What’s Next?” If you asked “What’s next?” for American churches, the news is not good. Don Underwood, writes in the UM Reporter “the church as we know it today is dying. It is a slow death, perhaps imperceptible to most, but it is a reality that cannot be denied.” Another periodical, Ministry Matters, put it this way “Studies show that if (these) attendance and conversion trends continue, many of our mainline denominations will be facing certain death.”

 

Now, I suppose on one level it’s not that big of a deal to us – for we as a church are doing quite well. And, it’s also true that our church has always had a bit of an anti-organized religion bias. For a lot of people, that remains part of the appeal of this place.

 

Yet care we must about the plight of other churches. Why?

 

– we live in an era when values CAN be learned in the classroom and they CAN be learned on the athletic field – yet in our zeal to measure and test and avoid litigation in our schools – and amidst our passion to make our children winners – the kinds of life values about how we are to treat one another are not being transmitted in the classroom and on the playing field in the ways they might we need the church

 

– we who are followers of Jesus must care because churches have for 2000 years more effectively than any other vessel deliver his message of God’s love and how we are to care for one another and all creation – and if the mesage matters to us then we must do what we can for our children and their children we need the church

 

– and, if the health and well-being of this country matters to you, we must care because research shows that of all the volunteers hours people give in the United States each year – in schools / hospitals / homeless shelters / food pantry / every volunteer hour – 75% of those hours come from people who are active in churches – in a day when the government seems to spend more and do less – people on the margins of our society – all of us we need the church

 

Yet what do we do? What can we do? We who are the lucky ones with a unique & healthy church? A church that is bucking the trends, particularly for more theologically open-minded congregations that are on life support and dying in record numbers? Can we sit on the sidelines and do nothing? I think not. And I am either bold enough or crazy enough – and I am rather certain the answer is “both” – to think there’s an answer.

 

The answer? It’s something I’ve consistently seen and experienced in 30 years of ministry. And that’s innovation. I’ve seen and experienced the power and impact of innovation:

 

– at the tall steeple, Second Presbyterian of Indianapolis, a BIG place with a rather traditional culture & 6 full time ministers – when I was there I started “Aquatic Experience” where I taught church folks in their 20’s and 30’s to windsurf – it not only was a great equalizer because everyone fell in and got soaked and generally looked ridiculous as they learned, but it was the last thing that anyone thought a church in central Indiana would offer, which might have been one reason it was such a success – it was using innovation to create opportunities

 

– and at a struggling suburban church that went from 200 members to 66 in less than 5 years (following a fight over a proposed pipe organ) – we were able to turn things around primarily through assimilating young families into the church – by attracting their children in a wacky, once-per-week afternoon program called “D.U.C.K. Club – again, it was using innovation to create opportunities

 

– finally, here at the Community Church where 15 years ago this place was just an idea with no money, no members, no outside support, no committees, no building – we still don’t have a building, but we have wonderful places to worship like this Chapel and the beach – we still don’t have any committees but we seem to get things done – we still don’t have any members but we have about 200 active families – how did that all happen? – certainly by the grace of God, but also through innovative thinking and action

Innovation is not THEE answer, but it is ONE OF the answers. We’ve all heard about innovation and what it has done for so many different sectors of our economy. Innovation is HOT! The Tribune has a new innovation section. Last week was “Chicago Ideas Week” which was devoted to innovation. You hear about innovation everywhere these days!

 

Yet churches with their turtle-like cultures tend to move like molasses. When the very word “change” or “innovation” is mentioned it’s like a pirate ship sailing into a Yacht Club.
“NO!”

 

Yet the very survival of the church depends in large measure on its ability to change and adapt, and upon its openness to innovation.

And I for one believe that innovation will:
– save some churches gasping for air right now
– but that innovation will also be part of what occurs when present day denominations and churches die and are someday resurrected in new and meaningful life forms that exist to serve rather than to maintain power and control.

 

And so in the same way:
– I could not sit still when I felt called to start a new kind of church
– and I could not disregard the call of orphans and needy Ugandan children when as a church we started KidsUganda
– I cannot sit still when there is such great need – and for 30 years I have seen & experienced an answer – innovation

 

So for last year I have wondered about an answer to my friend’s provocative postscript asks “What’s next?” “What am I to do? What are we to do?” And as I have reflected my background providing workshops & doing corporate training & consulting came to mind. And my 30 years of innovation in the church. What followed (duh!) was the idea of doing workshops on innovation that would equip other churches with the ability to think innovatively as a means of tackling problems and creating opportunities.

 

And I took my idea to the Samaritan Center for Congregations in Naperville – a place devoted to helping congregations – and Exec. Director Nancy Sayer said “Yes!” After 8 months of preparation and planning we did our first workshop this past week. And I began a blog on Innovative Ministry and most of the response was “Yes!” So I incorporated the two – the workshops and the blog – as a new non-profit called the Center for Innovative Ministry. We even have a new website www.centerforinnovativeministry.com. And my twice alma mater McCormick Seminary heard about the Center and wanted in as a partner and sponsor. Then, a short time back while at dinner someone who expressed real belief in the power of what the Center for Innovative Ministry is trying to do offered the Center a $50,000 matching grant if we could raise another $50,000 by the first of the year. Frankly, that’s HUGE – because if we got the grant, and we have $10,000 right now and $40,000 to go – it means that the Center for Innovative Ministry budget will be covered from now through Jan. 1 of 2016. It also means we will be able to serve all churches without regard to their ability to pay for workshops or consulting services. To have our budget covered through Jan. 1 of 2016 would be amazing.

 

So, in the same way I asked your blessing 7 years ago to spend a fair amount of my time developing a new ministry that is now a stand-alone charity, KidsUganda, I once again ask your blessing to focus some of my ministry time on reaching out to churches as – the best phrase I can think of is – an innovation evangelist.

 

And as I do that I want you to know that in the process of our reaching out to others this unique and innovative ministry that for 15 years has been quiet and low key will gain a higher profile. The bushel basket is being lifted from the lamp of this place. Not as a model of how to do ministry, mind you. Our church was designed for right here, right now – not for other places & times. It’s not a model for Peoria or Paduca. But the Community Church can be a powerful source of inspiration about what can be accomplished.

 

The provocative email post script asks “What’s next?” This morning the passage from Isaiah provides a one-line answer:

 

“We are about to do a new thing.”