I always wanted to be an inventor. I even have a notebook at home full of “Million Dollar Ideas” (Which probably means that they would cost a million dollars to invent, and not make any money!). When I graduated from high school, my plan was to get a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and then invent stuff.
This plan got derailed when a good friend of mine died in a hiking accident, and I went off to Bible college instead to train for the pastorate.
However, my love for innovation never left me. I am always looking for new ways of doing old things. For this reason, my favorite issue of TIME magazine is always the “Best Inventions of 200?” issue that comes out this time of year. The 2007 edition has me dreaming on every page, and wouldn’t you know it, one of the “best of” inventions utilizes an idea I had about 20 years go. Oh well… I’m glad someone else saw it and is putting it to good use. (In case you’re curious, it is the invention that puts a little wind generator on the top of a car to create electricity off the forward motion of the car to reduce the amount of energy the car uses. This idea could be used on any sort of vehicle as long as the generator produces more electricity than it uses due to wind resistance.)
The “Best Invention” of 2007 went to the iPhone, which I am not sure it deserves, but maybe that is because I don’t own a cell phone, much less an iPhone (or even an iPod). The invention I thought was the coolest is the car that runs on nothing but air, and the only emission is cooler air! WOW. Read more about it at www.theaircar.com. There’s still the question about how it powers the compressor…but still, this is cool.
There were others that got me drooling as well. Since I want to write books, I drooled some over the Print on Demand technology which allows any author to print his/her book for only $3! Amazing.
You can read more about these and other inventions at the TIME Magazine website.
Reinventing Church Planting
As I read about these inventions, I often wonder if I “missed my calling” and I should have stuck with Mechanical Engineering. But it hit me earlier this week that I am an inventor, though I prefer to think of myself an innovator. I have several notebooks full of ideas on things churches could be doing to share Jesus more effectively with the world, to do a better job in making disciples, to help children grow up and “stick” with Christianity, to make the services more meaningful, to help people connect with God, to develop real and genuine friendships within the church, and on and on.
Some of these ideas I see being implemented in churches across the country. And as it turns out, most of these churches are new church plants. It seems that the innovators, the visionaries, the “inventors” in Christianity are most often church planters. Generally, established churches are quick to shoot down new ideas with many reasons why something cannot or should not be done. Church planters, however, go out and do them.
Once I graduate from seminary next spring, I am not sure where God will lead me. Maybe I will stay at my current job. Maybe I will take an established church here in the States, or around the world. Maybe I will go into church planting. Maybe I will do some crazy combination of all three! But whatever I end up doing, I hope and pray that God allows me to innovate. It is who He made me to be. It is who I am. Innovation for the Kingdom of God is what excites me.
Do you know of any churches that are creatively and effectively making disciples and spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Share them with others below.
