So I’ve spent the better part of this week in Atlanta, with most of the Highland Staff. We’re at the Catalyst conference, and it is seriously rocking my world. It’s been great hearing speakers like John Ortberg, Francis Chan, Andy Stanley, Seth Godin among many, many others. The Worship has been amazing too…imagine singing with 13,000 other Christian leaders who are worshipping out of a life of wounds and triumphs.
But the best part is this: Innovation.
I feel like I have been immersed in a sea of creativity. From how they do announcements or fundraising, to how the speakers communicate, or the strategies that different churches have employed. It’s been amazing to be around so many people who asked the question, “is that the only way to do it?”
This is a video that the showed today, one of the many things that was made for this event that is outside of the box. Last year they had a high-diver jump 50 feet into a kiddie pool, Today we had a fundraiser that involved a guy who threw knife…at people.
Yesterday, I heard about a girl who had the gift of photography, so she decided to go to the homeless people in the city she lived in, and give them a professional photo, kind of a “Glamour Shot” ministry. And this ministry was so effective that it swept across the world. It was more than just a handout, it gave people back their dignity.
All because someone stepped back and thought, “but what if we tried this…”
It’s a shame that this isn’t the norm at our churches. We worship a God who creates, and who did and does it well. Part of what it has to mean to be people who bear His image is that we admit that this is important. I’ve said it before on here, but churches ought to be the most innovative places on earth. We ought to be the kind of places that our so bursting with creative juices that people see what God is like.
There is a reason that the roots of Renissance art came from the church. Because we knew that once, and maybe we are on our way to learning it again. It’s not that we have to keep re-inventing the wheel, or that we don’t remember the creative ways that people have approached God in the past, it’s just that we remember God didn’t just work then, or through that. He’s always creating, innovating, and he’s looking for people to join in.
Which is a bit more than a video about a haircut.
