Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about my own personal comfort level. I write this as I sit in an office surrounded by books on a really nice computer. Today I received a paycheck which is always nice. One of my sons had to go to the doctor yesterday so I was grateful for the medical insurance that comes with my job. I really enjoy the comfort’s that my job provides to me.
I’ll be honest too in saying that I’m probably not really innovative. Yes we are doing great things here and I love my church and our youth ministry staff team. But, we’re not at work 7am-7pm trying to keep things afloat. We don’t feel a huge amount of pressure or need to create something that is hugely successful or even sustainable. We have budgets to cover the costs of things.
In the geek side of my life I like to read a lot about technology and am always fascinated by startup companies that come up with ideas and go “all out” to try and make things happen. When I watched the “Social Network” I was enthralled by all the late nights and dedication he put into developing “The Facebook.”
So how do we get innovative?
Recently a couple friends of mine started something that I’m super impressed with. And it’s not what they are doing that is so impressive but they way they are doing it.
The Youth Cartel started by Mark Oestreicher and Adam Mclane is a new thing. And it’s a fledgling start-up with a bunch of cool things on the horizon. But, they are doing everything in a new way that is in part encouraged by what I called “forced Innovation.” Since they don’t have the luxury anymore of working for big churches or companies they have to be out there on the edge making things happen. This last couple weeks I was super impressed with how they were planning “Extended Adolescence Symposium” they are planning on doing in Atlanta November 21. When they first started planning this event they basically were honest and said they had no money and the only way for this thing to work was if people sponsored it, bought into the kickstarter mindset and as a community made it happen. I think they had to raise $6,000 and at the time of this writing they’ve raised over $8,000. There were different ways of supporting them all the way from being a full sponsor and getting to hawk your stuff to the group to just paying $250 to have lunch with one of the speakers or paying a little bit more to get an e-book and audio of the event. Brilliant stuff I think and super innovative. Great reward of pulling off something cool but little risk since they were raising the money before hand and if it wasn’t raised they couldn’t cancel without any problems.
Who knows how this thing will end up with those two but if the present is any indication of the future promise I’m looking forward to seeing.
There’s a lot of need for innovation in the Youth Ministry world now. I’m hearing quite a bit that Youth Specialties is going to be rolling out a new vision and plan this fall and I’m excited for that. I’m a fan of Mark Matlock and Doug Fields and the rest of their team. This is a good season to be a youth worker and I’m hoping that with all of this going on that more of us get creative, innovative and strategic.
Maybe the biggest problem with me right now is my comfort level. Maybe I’d get a lot more done and be way more innovative if I was desperate. I don’t know if that’s the case but I think on one level it has to be true.
I think you’re dead on. We don’t start getting innovative until it’s a necessity. I think complacency plays a part. For someone like me, I get really excited by ideas. I’m great at coming up with ideas, but get bogged down with how to actualize them. For me, this post goes well with your “sharing resources” post because resourcing talent is just as important, I believe. I’m glad I can work with people who are always looking for practicality because they can help filter my ideas into what is actually practical, and what isn’t. You make some great points here. Thanks for the post!
Eric
Unfortunately one solution is to be forced through circumstance to innovate. I wish that we could figure out a way in churches to encourage it without the fear of failure. Google dies it right with their 20% deal. You get 20% of your week to do whatever you want and be creative. No strings as long as the rest of your job goes well. Thanks for your comment