Re:Vision: The Key to Transforming Your Church

by Aubrey Malphurs

A third team could be a creativity and innovation team with the primary objective of helping the church recognize and adapt quickly to cultural change. Here are some optional goals of such a team: Determine if the church keeps up with and relates well to the culture in its community. Interview people within and outside the congregation and ask what the church is doing that’s become outdated and irrelevant. (What’s not changed in the last five years?) Develop and apply a biblical theology of change. Constantly challenge the church’s views and assumptions about what is true about your community, your congregation, your ministries, your leaders, and the way you do things inside your organization. Take nothing for granted. Develop a process for generating hundreds of new, strategic ministry ideas each year (team and staff brainstorming sessions, for example). Gain congregational permission to experiment with new things. (This means they and you will have to become comfortable with failure. It’s far better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all.) Consider and evaluate creative and innovative ideas from the congregation and others. Identify innovative and creative churches in America and discover what they are doing and how that may help you in your ministry. Allocate funds in the budget to fund new ideas (recommend 1–5 percent of the ministries budget). Read books and articles on creativity and innovation (for example, check out the magazine Fast Company) and on...

Issues to be addressed by sub committees