[a post from 2015]
“Every church should have a Research and Development department – that is, a forum for dreaming, where nothing is impossible, and no thought too outrageous. And every authentic missional church will experiment like mad in order to find new and accessible ways of doing and being the people of God.”
THE SHAPING OF THINGS TO COME, Frost & Hirsch
Churches are known for certain things. Some of them are good, some of them are bad and some things just are. But being original is seldom one of them. We think of business and the arts as areas of creativity and experimentation. But the Church not so much.
But if we truly are living life unleashed by God shouldn’t we be leaping new hurdles and innovating in church? Shouldn’t we be dreaming? God created and we are made in His image. So, shouldn’t we be willing to try new creative things — new forms of church, new methods of making disciples?
I’m not saying we compromise or change the message but church leaders through the ages have been innovators and how can we be any less?
We’re not reaching our culture. Our irrelevancy grows in the minds of the world around us. And, make no mistake, it is OUR irrelevancy not that of Jesus. He is always relevant but our expressions of church don’t connect with most people.
So, let’s try something new in our churches. Let’s dream dreams, try things, and take leaps of faith
Diaspora is an attempt to reach out to the ones who are, as I once heard a church leader say, “falling through the cracks”. They comprise the majority of our country’s population today. So, it’s time for dreams of a new method, a new spin, a new wineskin for the new wine that Jesus brought
Diaspora is an experiment. It is trying something new for us. Being willing to dream, to try, to adjust, to fail, to adjust, take steps forward, to take steps back and to persevere in trying new things to reach people for Jesus. I like the way Hirsch and Frost said it,
“every authentic missional church will experiment like mad in order to find new and accessible ways of doing and being the people of God.”
