Collide Magazine

Innovation Is Easier And Harder Than You Think

Ben Arment - Originally posted Monday, September 22, 2008 -

It cracks me up when I see a blog or a magazine list "the most innovative churches" in America. The list reads like a high school yearbook where the same homecoming king gets crowned every year because he looks like a Ken doll and stars on the football team.

Somehow, we've changed the meaning of innovation to popularity. We're not measuring innovation as much as we're rewarding impression. The same mondo churches win every year because they've erected something close to Space Mountain in their children's wing.

Listen, your church doesn't need to be large to be innovative. If you've got zero funds and limited resources, out-of-the-box thinking belongs to you. If you've got a small church, creativity is your playground. So take heart, innovation is not as exclusive as you think it is.

Big breakthroughs come from humble beginnings

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In 1921, a 14-year-old boy named Philo Farnsworth was plowing a field in Rigby, ID when he noticed how the even rows of dirt formed a beautiful landscape. Applying the same principle to light rays, Philo, a humble farmer, went on to invent the television. Humble surroundings give you a unique vantage point. When expensive solutions are not an option, you begin to see new uses for old methods.

Eleven years ago, Chris Mavity was given the responsibility for a video overflow room at North Coast Church in Vista, CA. This was a time when overflow rooms were nothing more than a clunky TV set and some metal folding chairs. Let's just say it wasn't his dream job. But Chris took the opportunity to create a thematic cafe environment, and the video venue movement was born.

Are you seeing possibilities in your humble surroundings?

Innovation happens when something is missing

Great innovations not only come out of difficulty, but they're often created because of it. Take the ice cream cone. A waffle vendor named Ernest Hamwi invented the ice cream come when he noticed that an ice cream salesman ran out of dishes at the 1904 World's Fair. When you lack nothing, it's easy to miss out on new opportunities. What you see as a limitation could actually become your signature creation.

Brandon McCormack of 12Stone Church in Duluth, GA started making short films as a teenager but didn't have the money to run sound production for his movies. So he produced stories without dialogue and made beautiful cinematography the focus of his pictures.

Today, Brandon is creating some of the most visually stunning films in ministry through Whitestone Productions. His trademark style is communicating powerful stories without any dialogue. Even Walt Disney Pictures has asked him to start pitching ideas for production.

How can you turn your limitations into a signature style?

The greatest discoveries are accidental.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote in his best-selling book The Black Swan that the most important advances are the least predictable ones. In other words, most innovations happen by accident.

Two years ago, Camron Ware and a friend at Irving Bible Church in Texas were removing stage decor in front of the auditorium when they uncovered a large, open wall of sheet rock. Out of curiosity, Camron decided to test two video projectors on the plain, white surface.

Once the space was filled, Camron decided to keep going. He pulled the projectors to the back of the auditorium, which filled the entire space with moving images. The effect was stunning. It created an immersive worship environment like none he'd never seen.

To convince the church staff to make it a regular part of their services, Camron synchronized some images to music and gave them a live demonstration. They were blown away. You can see Camron's innovative work for yourself at www.visualworshiper.com.

Are you seeing the possibilities for your environment?

A New Kind of Innovation

If we understood innovation on these terms, our lists would look completely different. They would include scores of unknown churches that are forced to innovate without any resources. The reason these lists don’t exist, however, is because most innovators live in obscurity. No one recognizes innovation while it’s innovating. And once they’re successful, it can still take years for their ideas to be accepted by the masses.

Your church might not make it on any lists. But if you lack resources, money and opportunity, innovation is not only within your reach, it belongs to you.

Ben Arment is the Director of Experience and Innovation for Catalyst in Atlanta, GA. He is a former church planter and a daily blogger at www.BenArment.com.