Innovation and Faithfulness
Keeping our ears tuned to the Spirit
ould you believe that algae will soon become a source of energy? Just minutes from our house, at Colorado State University, there is a department called Cenergy. Its goal is to bring renewable energy technologies to the marketplace. Currently, Cenergy officials are working to commercialize the tools needed to abstract oil from this slimy ooze. The necessity of the energy crisis has forced us to innovate. RV owners can now rejoice.
Necessity is the mother of all invention, and the gospel itself is pure innovation: God becoming man, the God of life dying, God becoming sin so that we have a right standing with God. The call today is for men and women who are captivated by God and His work to join Him in His creative redemption.
This call to innovation is simply a call to faithfulness. Since we are captivated by God’s kingdom, we will naturally desire others to be as well. We will seek new methods and ideas to communicate an eternal kingdom.
Publishers tend to billboard the gifted pastors and herald them as today’s best practitioners of innovation. Yet Jesus is not calling us to do their appointed work. He urges us to be faithful as we answer the questions of how we communicate His Word and how we are going to make disciples. Think about it: Every sermon hammered out in the late hours of the night is an innovation.
Fear is the greatest enemy of innovation: fear of what others think, fear of losing members and even fear of success, as it may lead to further loneliness. Every innovation has a cost.
My own story of allowing Blue Sky Church to become a homeless shelter had a cost. We lost two-thirds of our families. For a church plant, this loss was devastating. I do not regret what we did, but it had a cost.
Whatever our church, whatever our challenge for innovation, we need to tune our ears to the Spirit first. This is how we innovate: by delighting ourselves in the Lord and following His lead.
No doubt, when we enter Heaven, we will not hear the Lord say, “Well done, my innovating servant.” But if we are not laboring in His creative, innovative work of redemption, I doubt we will be considered faithful. 
Joe Schimmels launched Blue Sky Church, in Loveland, Colo., in 2002 and serves as lead pastor. His best innovations are bedtime stories with his kids.
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