Innovative? - What does that mean?

By Chad Hall

BSC Innovative Church Team Leader

It never fails that when I am introduced as the leader for the Innovative Church Team someone will ask, "What does it mean for a church to be innovative?"

The word "innovative" brings to mind different things for different people: churches meeting in warehouses; guitars in worship; perhaps the pastor wearing jeans; certainly there must be some sort of screen with a Power Point outline of the sermon. While these may be fine characteristics of a church, they are not how I define "innovative."

Here is my definition. An innovative church is one that understands we no longer live in Christendom, and ministers out of this understanding.

What does it mean that we no longer live in Christendom? Christendom was that stage in western history beginning about 300 years after Christ, when Christianity was the predominant force in culture.

All of this began to change about 100 years ago and most people mark the mid to late 1900s as the end of Christendom in America.

With globalization, secularization and immigration, America has been ushered out of Christendom. In a way, America has become much like other countries where Christianity either no longer dominates or has never dominated culture.

In this post-Christendom society, churches cannot assume that most people go to church, know the Bible, understand the lingo used in church, or have a favorable opinion of church and Christianity. Though that may sound like a tough environment to do ministry, it is the world we live in.

While some churches are oblivious to the change, and others want to go back to the Christendom days, innovative churches understand they must minister differently in this different environment.

In this post-Christendom society, an innovative church might be a new church or one that just celebrated its 200th homecoming. An innovative church might be in a big city, a small town or a rural setting. An innovative church might worship using a worship band, a choir, a praise team, a quartet, or a guy with a guitar. An innovative church might have a Sunday School program, small groups, cell groups, or home fellowship groups.

The key is simply to understand the surroundings and minister in ways that match the changing surroundings.

If you are interested in networking with other innovative churches - or perhaps interested in learning more about being innovative - the Innovative Church Community of N.C. meets every second Monday at Integrity Community Church in Burlington. For more information visit www.innovativechurches.org.