The Blind Beggar

A missional church must be an innovative organization that looks at itself and its community in brand new ways, see things it has never noticed before and pays attention to how others do things differently. Alas, most of our faith communities are not innovative organizations.

Jim Carroll is a nationally recognized futurists and innovation expert. He has some interesting insights, that are very applicable to the missional church, on how innovative organizations differ from those that are innovation dysfunctional.

Signs that you’ve got an innovation dysfunction:

• People laugh at new ideas
• Someone who identifies a problem is shunned
• Innovation is the privileged practice of a special group
• The phrase, “you can’t do that because we’ve always done it this way” is used for every new idea
• No one can remember the last time anyone did anything really cool
• The organization is focused more on process than success
• There are lots of baby boomers about, and few people younger than 25
• After any type of pleasant surprise — product, market, industry or organizational change — everyone sits back and asks, “wow, where did that come from?”

According to Carroll, innovative groups act differently. In these organizations:

• Ideas flow freely throughout the organization
• Subversion is a virtue
• Success and failure are championed
• There are many, many leaders who encourage innovative thinking, rather than managers who run a bureaucracy
• There are creative champions throughout the organization — people who thrive on thinking about how to do things differently
• Ideas get approval and endorsement
• Rather than stating “it can’t be done,” people ask, “how could we do this?”

So, if you are a leader in your faith community, takes some time to reflect on these points and ask yourself, “do I encourage innovative thinking or I’m I just a manager who runs a bureaucracy?”