How to Foster an Innovative Spirit

In the 1980s, GM and the United Auto Workers said they were ready to step into innovation by creating “a different kind of car” and “a different kind of company.” The result was Saturn.

• You may remember how successful this new venture was! Saturn was short of vehicles for the first five years because of overwhelming demand. They were one of the top three cars in customer satisfaction. They saw 100,000 people come to Saturn celebrations in 1994 and 1999. Production ended, and Saturn closed in October 2010.*
• What happened? How did so much success come to an end? The truth is that GM and the United Auto Workers didn’t really want “a different kind of car” and “a different kind of company.” They let Saturn go off on its own for a bit, but in the long term, they brought it back to how things were “supposed to be.” When it was clear that wasn’t going to happen, both GM and the United Auto Workers took steps that assured the end of Saturn.

What does this have to do with church renewal? Churches need to be like Saturn by innovating and finding new ways of doing ministry and mission for a new day. Even more critically, churches need leaders who will allow the space and resources to experiment — leaders who will not pull the rug out from beneath the innovators and move things back to the way they are “supposed to be.”

• How can leadership facilitate ongoing and wise innovation to ensure church meets this new ministry and mission day? Below are seven council/board/consistory commitments that provide a good foundation for innovation.

Seven Board Commitments to facilitate innovation

1. The umbrella of protection commitment

• The council provides an umbrella of protection for innovation and experiments. In the late 1980s and into the 2000s, Christian Reformed Home Missions provided this umbrella of protection for church planters. When complaints came in from one place or another about something a church planter was trying, CRC Home Missions shielded the planter so the work could go on, often by taking the hits on itself.

2. The celebration commitment

• The council celebrates when ministry and mission innovation is going well and invites the congregation into that celebration. They celebrate even when it means that the ways things used to be done are overtaken by a new way.

3. The ministry and mission focus commitment

• The council assures that day-to-day ministry and mission continue as new strategies and methodologies are tried.

4. The feet up time commitment

• The council ensures that those involved in innovation (including the pastor and other staff) have time to step out of the whirlwind of ministry, put their feet up, imagine what could be, and then make that imagination a reality.

5. The innovation commitment

• The council commits to innovation for God’s glory, the church’s good, and the blessing of the community. It upholds innovation in difficult times and doesn’t pull the plug.

6. The discernment commitment

• The council commits to being a body of discernment—not opinion. It learns how to discern God’s heart and desire for the church. Council members are constantly asking, “What is God saying to our Church?”

7. The Wisdom commitment

• The council speaks wisdom to the renewal team in confidence. The wisdom flows from discernment. It desires God’s glory and the advancement of God’s mission in the world.

*Ideas about Saturn are from David Hanna in “How GM Destroyed Its Saturn Success.”