Is newer always better? Many churches seem to be perpetually clamoring for innovation, perhaps as reaction to those churches that have stayed the same for so long and lost their voice.
What could be more important than staying fresh? People have short attention spans. We have to keep them engaged. Keep them guessing.
I’m all for following the Holy Spirit into new territory if that’s where He leads. And what does God want? Where is he leading? Many would say, “Revival!” The interesting thing about revival in the Church is it has nothing to do with doing new things, but rather returning to the old things that work; shedding those things that don’t work along the way.
And many (if not all) of those non-working things we would shed were once innovative ideas. They were implemented in a good-natured attempt to jumpstart something that wasn’t happening. Namely, numerical growth. But God is interested in another kind of growth that isn’t happening. Namely, discipleship.
We’ve forgotten that there is something more preeminent than innovation: listening. Listening to God for the next step, and the next, and the next. And teaching others to do the same. A convert who can’t listen to God can’t follow God.
All this listening can and often will lead us to innovation, because Yahweh is a creative God. But most often it will lead us back to the old ways that work. The ways that we have forgotten and tried to replace with our inferior human inventions.