Innovate or Die

Business innovation is a change process that leads to new products and services to gain more market share. Church innovation is a change process that leads to renewed focus and effectiveness to make more disciples.

Some readers might find it out of place to bring business-speak into Church-talk. But innovation is not a business concept.

Innovation comes from the language of greatness, not business (Jim Collins, Good to Great). Great organizations all around the world and in every industry are constantly innovating. That’s what makes them great.

Church innovation is a change process that leads to renewed focus and effectiveness to make more disciples. It's not about becoming more like a business, it's about becoming great. Share on X

If any organization should be concerned, even fanatical, about becoming great through innovation, it is the Church. In fact, innovation should be discussed as often and as passionately by pastoral councils in parishes as it is by executive teams in board rooms. Why? Because our mission is the one and only mission that has eternal consequences – we gotta get this right!

Innovation should be discussed more often and more passionately by pastoral councils in parishes than executive teams in board rooms. Because our mission is the one and only mission that has eternal consequences. Share on X

The number of those who do not know Christ and do not belong to the Church is constantly on the increase. Since the second Vatican council, just 50 years ago, this number has doubled. If innovation is driven by data, this metric should drive all kinds of innovation in our parishes.

If innovation is driven by data, then this metric should drive all kinds of innovation in our parishes: the number of those who do not know Christ and do not belong to the Church is constantly on the increase. Share on X

Here are five things every pastoral leader can do (and stop doing) to drive innovation.

One, what’s new about the New Evangelization? Every organization, including your parish, is perfectly designed to get the results it is getting. It’s simple but so very true – you cannot do what you’ve always done and expect different outcomes. Pope Saint John Paul II launched the new evangelization in 1983, when speaking to a group of Bishops in Haiti. The evangelizing mission of the Church needed newness – new ardor, new methods, new energy and new expression. In other words – innovation.

Two, re-clarify mission. The Church is missionary by nature, she exists to evangelize. Innovation in the New Evangelization always (yes, always) begins with pruning. The first step isn’t creating a “to-do list” it’s actually creating a “stop-doing list.” When you stop doing things that are not aligned to your mission, it frees up time, talent and resources that can be re-invested into initiatives that actually move the mission forward.

The first step in parish innovation isn’t creating a to-do list it’s actually creating a stop-doing list. Stop anything that isn't on-mission to free up resources to re-invest into initiatives that will drive your mission forward. Share on X

Three, overcome the status quo. All significant breakthroughs are a break-with old ways of thinking. The biggest shift most parishes need to make to is this: they need to shift from focusing on who they are trying to keep to focusing on who they are trying to reach. If you don’t know where your parish focuses more attention, look at the calendar and the budget. How much time and money is trying to ‘keep people’ and how much is spent on trying to ‘reach people.’ Innovative parishes spend a disproportionate amount of time and money reaching new people. It’s also the best way to form missionary disciples in your parish but more on that in another blog post.

Innovative parishes spend a disproportionate amount of time and money reaching new people. It’s also the best way to form missionary disciples in your parish. Share on X

Four, assign leaders a threefold mandate. Every ministry leader in your parish should be responsible for three simultaneous agendas – the sustaining agenda, the improvement agenda and the mentoring agenda. The sustaining agenda is about doing what they do well, it’s about execution. The improvement agenda is about doing what they do better, it’s about evaluation. The mentoring agenda is about investing in next generation leaders who will take the ministry to places you can’t, it’s about succession. Sadly, many ministries are stuck in the sustaining agenda. They rarely evaluate the effectiveness of what they do against their mission and fewer think of investing in future leaders. They. Get. Stuck.

Every ministry leader in your parish should be responsible for three simultaneous agendas – the sustaining agenda, the improvement agenda and the mentoring agenda. More in the blog post. Share on X

Five, create a system of innovation. Pastoral leaders should stop treating innovation as a one-time event. It’s not about brainstorming sessions or suggestion boxes. Too many of those activities increase noise but produce no signal toward something transformational. Innovation is a continuous never-ending process. It’s a habit, an organizational competency. When the parish puts in place structures and processes to define problems, generate and evaluate solutions, and develop action plans to implement those solutions by current and future leaders, innovation is starting to take root. Of course, none of this usurps the Holy Spirit’s presence. He is the principle agent of the new evangelization and the principle catalyst for innovation.

Pastoral leaders should stop treating innovation as a one-time event. It’s not about brainstorming sessions or suggestion boxes. Innovation is a continuous never-ending process. Share on X

Pope Francis has spoken frequently about the danger of communities becoming self-referential. He wrote, “Pastoral ministry in a missionary key seeks to abandon the complacent attitude that says: ‘We have always done it this way’. I invite everyone to be bold and creative in this task of rethinking the goals, structures, style and methods of evangelization in their respective communities” (EG #33).

In conclusion … The Pope is exhorting the Church – every parish and ministry in the world – to be what we are meant to be, missionary disciples and communities of dynamic apostolic activity focused on the ones we are trying to reach. His challenge is to reach out to the periphery in a creative and missionary dynamism. He encourages our parish communities to become field hospitals, to engage in ‘out of the box’ thinking and to execute uncomfortable things.

The number of those who do not know Christ and do not belong to His Church is constantly on the increase. The new evangelization is a challenge to innovate and pastoral innovation begins with an all-out commitment to re-focus on the ones we are trying to reach not the ones we are trying to keep. The new evangelization needs new methods, new ardor, new focus, new energy and new expression.