When Innovation Isn’t the Answer
I recently asked an equities investor what he thought of a well-known publication. "It serves as an excellent contrarian indicator," he said. “I read it to find out what I don’t believe.”
It made me laugh, but it also made me think that this is a good way to approach many ministry resources.
When I read that effective ministry needs innovation or new trends, I follow my friend's advice and do the opposite. A.I. is the future of pastoral ministry? I lean into the analog and the personal. Someone's come up with a new theological insight that nobody's ever seen before? I dig up an old commentary. A new way of doing church or a new kind of Christianity or a new perspective on Paul or something else? I go looking for what’s old.
Effective ministry isn't found by looking for the new and novel or adopting new techniques. It's found in the faithful things that pastors have been doing for centuries.
This problem isn’t new. I was shocked the first time I read Preaching and Preachers by Lloyd-Jones, based on a series of lectures he gave in 1969. People said preachers needed to adapt, Lloyd-Jones says, because modern people supposedly don’t listen like earlier generations. “I maintain that this new kind of thinking about these matters is entirely wrong… It is wrong in general, first of all, because it is wrong in fact, and it is wrong in experience. It is wrong in its whole psychological understanding of the situation.” People haven't changed, and ministry hasn't changed either. Lloyd-Jones believed that we should speak to the people of our day, but he also warned against falling:
…into the grievous error of adopting modern psychological theories to such an extent that we evade the truth, sometimes to protect ourselves from the message, and certainly often to justify methods that are not consistent and consonant with the message which we are privileged to deliver.
Elasticity, he wrote, has its limits.
It's a mistake to think that innovation is the key to effective ministry. More often than not, the opposite is true. Go back to the same things pastors have been doing for hundreds of years, the same things that God has promised to bless, and keep doing those things faithfully until the end.
The world is full of promised upgrades and “proven” strategies. I’m not impressed.
Instead, keep going. Keep doing the plain, time-tested things God has called you to do. Stay faithful, and let your suspicion of trends grow. Read old books. Root yourself in what is deep and durable, not what is new and loud.
When the newest blog post tells you to change everything, let it be a warning. Remember to go back to prayer, the Bible, the ordinary means of grace, and love for your people. Faithfulness is not flashy, but it is fruitful, and it will last long after the trends are gone.
