At the Innovation Lab, we often say that listening is a powerful, sacred act of ministry in and of itself. But amidst a culture where “listening” has become trendy, the Lab means something different.
We mean nothing less than to follow the example of Jesus when he encountered a man lying beside the pool at Bethsaida and asked, “do you want to be made well?” Or when Jesus encountered a man named Bartimaeus, who was blind, and asked, “what do you want me to do for you?”
Jesus asked some version of the question, “what do you want?” more than any other question in the Gospels.
He knew what it meant for people on the margins to be genuinely listened to and heard. Today, the Church is called to continue the ministry of listening and question-asking modeled by none other than Jesus the Christ.
This calling is why enacting change or experimenting in ministry cannot be done apart from authentic listening. But faith communities who begin our Theological Innovation Process must also be willing to truly hear what people in their midst are saying, and then allow it to shape the ministry ideas they develop.
Innovation Isn’t Linear
Any leader who has ever tried to enact change or experiment in their ministry knows that innovation is anything but linear. This is why at the Innovation Lab, our Theological Innovation Process is designed to be iterative. It includes five phases of innovation and we typically begin the process with Phase 1: Describing.
The Describing phase involves asking deep questions about the people in a given ministry context, questions like:
- Who is present?
- What joys and struggles are they facing?
- What do they see as strengths and challenges within their community?
This phase guides faith communities through structured activities for listening and understanding what people share.
It’s a process of identifying and challenging assumptions. It requires thinking outside the box. It’s also a time of learning about the assets and needs within the specific place God calls people into ministry. Once Phase 1 activities are complete, faith communities move to the next phases to deepen their understanding of their context.
But the reality of faithful innovation is that the listening never truly stops. Or at least, it shouldn’t.
More often than not, faith communities encounter additional information in each subsequent phase of the Theological Innovation Process that elicits new and different questions. Sometimes that sends innovation teams back to a previous phase to re-engage its activities before moving forward.
In Phase 4 of the process, faith communities draw upon all the information and listening they’ve done in Phases 1-3 to develop a ministry idea. At this stage, it would be easy to simply ignore any emerging questions — and the people they concern. It would be far simpler to plow forward with the idea already taking shape in the faith community’s collective imagination.
Doing so would make the purpose of ministry innovation about the faith community, not about the people God is calling a community to love in a new way.
This is why innovation often fails. Leaders and faith communities with good intentions sometimes put their fingers in their ears and stop listening to those in their community and to the Holy Spirit.
Listening is the Heart of Innovative Ministries
During the coaching process, when new information threatens to steer a faith community in a different direction than their original idea, we remind innovation teams that slowing down to consider new questions is actually the faithful way forward. Moving forward with an idea that isn’t what the community originally imagined is the definition of innovation, and it’s something to celebrate.
Our Theological Innovation Process, which prioritizes people over institutional growth or survival, can cause anxiety. This work takes courage and patience. Faith communities must embrace gray areas, new information, and, in some cases, rail against the expectations of their congregations and denominations. But the fruit and growth that emerges in people is always worth the effort.
You can join countless faith communities around the country who have learned to listen and innovate in their contexts by checking out the Innovation Lab’s Community Discovery Package.
About the Author: Meghan is the director of the Innovation Laboratory. She has served diverse faith communities through pastoral leadership, youth ministry, new church development, community engagement, and ministry innovation. Meghan has a Bachelor of Journalism, a Master of Science in Sustainable Development and Applied Sociology, and a Master of Divinity.