Let’s transition out of “warning” mode into something that feels more positive! My friend Bill Mowry wrote an excellent article on the importance of innovation in ministry, adapted from his new book, The Ways of the Leader: Four Practices to Bring People Together and Break New Ground.

Bill opens by pointing out that the familiar Navigators verse pack was once a ministry innovation of the founder of The Navigators, Dawson Trotman:

Early in his Christian life, Trotman’s life was transformed by memorizing Scripture. As he ministered to sailors in the 1940s, he wanted to create a way to encourage Scripture memory. His imagination led him to create verse cards that fit into a packet that a sailor could slip into his chest pocket so he could review verses anytime of the day. To encourage memorization, Trotman grouped verses around topics. Nothing like this existed at the time.

This was the birth of the Topical Memory System (TMS), the most widely used tool for memorizing Scripture today.

Here was a local leader meeting a local challenge with an innovative solution. Life and ministry today need more ministry innovators! – Bill Mowry, Wanted: Ministry Innovators (I recommend Bill’s article in its entirety.)

Bill goes on to point out that while “local challenges demand local, innovative solutions,” church services, for example, seem to be the same all over the world.

I’ve written about this before. If someone does try to innovate, they’re often met with, “That’s not church.” Seth Godin, the marketing guru I quote from time to time, could have predicted that response. Stay tuned.

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43.18 – 19, ESV)