As I wrote this book, I couldn’t escape the feeling that I might be
missing something important. I wanted to be able to provide you with a
guarantee—a promise that if you practice the seven perspectives
described in this book you will see success in all your endeavors. I
wanted to be able to give you the magic formula for ministry
innovation. But I don’t think there is one.
I believe the approaches and ways of thinking I have shared in this
book will make you a more effective ministry innovator and better
kingdom collaborator. It will shape you into the innovator you need to
be to solve the complex problems you face. However, I cannot guarantee
that you will see immediate success. This has been my own story in
ministry innovation. In many areas, I am still waiting to see results
from the seeds I have planted and cultivated over years of effort. I
have sown into many people, projects, and processes, but I have never
seen my work produce an extraordinary transformation. I have to warn
you not to expect to see the fruits of your labor either.
Do we work for the fruit? Or do we work to faithfully serve God?
Ministry innovation is different from business innovation. Many ideas
and approaches I have included in this book are from a business
context, where innovation is promoted for its guarantee of success. It
is sold to us with the promise that if you innovate, your business
will profit. Innovating will help you sell more products, attract more
customers, and build a bigger brand. But those are not our goals in
ministry.
Jesus has already warned us that the way to life is hard. The gate is
narrow and few will find it (Matthew 7:14). We work to reach the whole
world with the Gospel, even knowing that most will reject our message.
We do the best we can, but the Holy Spirit is the only one who can
move people to believe.
I am not the first writer to wonder and worry about whether my work
will be helpful in the great conversation. Where success comes from
has been a central debate among human authors for thousands of years.
Across the span of classic literature, there is an ongoing rivalry
between poets and philosophers. Poets follow a tradition of seeking
divine inspiration. The epic poems by Homer, Virgil, Dante, and
Spencer all begin by appealing to God or some sort of divine muse.
Poets seek inspiration from supernatural sources of goodness, truth,
and beauty and depend on those for their success.
The philosopher, on the other hand, believes that there is no need for
supernatural revelation. Philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle,
Cicero, Descartes, and Hume focused on making sense of the world
through human logic. They believed all truth could be attained through
reason. The philosopher’s tradition of inquiry and observation has led
to many of humanity’s great advancements over the years.
So who is right—the poet or the philosopher? A great amount of human
wisdom has been shared in this book that would naturally fall into the
philosophy category. My goal has been to teach you the perspectives
needed to practically pursue innovation in your ministry. There are
many things you can go out and do today to increase your chances of
success. You should be a philosopher who takes the very best the world
has to offer, learns from it, and uses it for ministry.
However, you also need to be a poet who acknowledges that human wisdom
will never be enough. God is the author of all creation and the
ultimate source of truth. To build on any other foundation is
foolishness. Our ministries are powerless and fruitless if God is not
at their center. It is only by drawing near to God that we can move
closer to reality because God is the source of reality! My prayer for
you is to become the ultimate poet-philosopher who
steadfastly seeks guidance from God, while also doing everything in
your power to steward your skills and intellect to further His
mission.
God rewards the faithful servants who multiply what has been given
them to invest. We are called and equipped for this mission, so “let
us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes
on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:1–2, NIV).
Fix your eyes on Christ, not on what the world calls success. Make
space to be Spirit-led and be sensitive to listen for God’s voice. Be
prayerful about your projects and seek divine direction. He is the
ultimate Innovator. See God’s hand at work both in successes and in
the valuable lessons we learn through our failures.
Fix your eyes on Christ, not on what the world calls success.
If you feel alone, ask God to send you like-minded people to join you.
Even Jesus did not minister alone. He built a team around Him and
commissioned them to build His church according to their talents and
abilities. They faithfully continued in partnership and collaboration
for the Gospel. Paul planted seeds and Apollos watered them, but
ultimately God is the one who brings the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6).
All our efforts must be rooted in Scripture’s truths and in God’s
values. The kingdom economy is not like the business economy. We are
not creating profit margins, but seeking to save souls for eternity.
This work is not easily measured. How will we know if our innovations
are a success? In many cases, only God will know because only He sees
the heart and the transformation occurring there.
We are simply called to be faithful. Even if we never see the fruit of
our labor, we can trust that God is still at work through us in ways
we cannot even imagine. Because of Christ, victory over death is
assured and mankind has the opportunity to walk with Jesus every day.
This is the Good News we bring to a lost and broken world.
