by The words “church” and “innovation” have been lumped together for quite some time. In fact, Ed Stetzer co-authored the book, 11 Innovations in the Local Church, over ten years ago. So it’s not new. However, with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, many have reminded church leaders how they need to be innovating.
I’m sure that when pastors and church leaders hear the word “church” and “innovation” they probably resort to one of the following four positions:
- Apprehensive—because they don’t know how to innovate
- Indignant—because they don’t think the church needs to be innovative
- Ecstatic—because they’ve been waiting on an opportunity to innovate
- Stubborn—because they don’t believe they need to innovate
When church experts or leading church practitioners encourage churches to innovate, I’m assuming they are telling them to do something new compared to what they’ve been doing. For instance, when churches had to pivot from in-person gatherings to streaming online services, many saw that as innovation. We figure that could be called innovation since Joseph Schumpeter, a seminal thinker on innovation and economics in the early 20th century, characterized innovation as:
- Introduction to a new good
- Introduction to a new method of production
- The opening of a new market
- Access to new sources of raw materials or components
- The introduction of new forms of organization[1]
I like Schumpeter’s characteristics as they give us a broad description to at least understand innovation and define it as “the development of something new.” However, let’s be clear, just because a church “innovates” doesn’t make them innovators. Below is a chart that displays the “Life Cycle” of innovation.
In looking at these stages, many churches would be considered “Late Majority” or “Laggards.” For instances, streaming church services online or conducting some kind of ministry on a digital platform may have been “new” to some churches, but it wasn’t new. Such innovation (and technology) has been in existence for quite some time.
Nevertheless, I believe the church should be actively involved in innovation as it relates to ministry and mission, given we are strong advocates of contextualization. Ed Stetzer defines contextualization as an attempt to present the Gospel in a culturally relevant way. Therefore, as culture changes, our means and methods to engage that culture—in that particular time and place—with the Gospel would change as well. But contextualization could also be broadened to include how churches engage the saints for their edification and discipleship.
I understand the debate revolving around the normative and regulative principles of church worship. Given my understanding of Scripture (particularly our understanding of the New Testament) I am pro normative worship principles—as I believe missiology should drive our ecclesiology. In other words, I am Christ-centered, mission-oriented, and church-driven. To put it one more way, the goal isn’t to get people to church, but to get the church out to the people. And as the church goes into the world, they are demonstrating the reality of the inbreaking of God’s kingdom as they share and show the Good News of King Jesus. As a result, God draws people to himself and becomes incorporated and grafted into the church.
Having laid that brief groundwork, I want to help pastors, church leaders, and church members think biblically about the role of innovation and technology, and then conclude with some sound theological questions church leaders should be asking during this heightened time when churches are being told to innovate.
Innovation and Technology are Identical Twins
For many, innovation and technology probably are synonyms. I like to think of the two as identical twins.
Earlier I outlined what innovation is according to Joseph Schumpeter. But what is technology? According to the dictionary, technology can be: (1) the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, or (2) the methods, systems, and devices which are the result of scientific knowledge being used for practical purposes. According to John Dyer, author of From The Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology, technology is, “the human activity of using tools to transform God’s creation for practical purposes.”[2]
In light of the cultural mandate (Genesis 1:28), here’s how I define technology: An activity of the cultural (or creation) mandate whereby humans make, consume, or use tools not only for practical purposes but for the enactment, exercise, expression, and enhancement of God’s kingdom on earth. In other words, technology is a way by which we reflect God’s character, attributes, nature, and thus Kingdom in (and through) our lives.
Technology also has layers. According to philosopher Stephen Kline, there are four layers of technology.
- Hardware (i.e., physical pieces or objects)
- Manufacturing (i.e., molten steel for our cars; systems that need to be in place for factories to operate)
- Methodology (i.e., routines, methods, skills, “techniques)
- Social Usage (i.e., customs or rules of how to use the hardware)[3]
Take the four layers of technology and compare them to Schumpeter’s descriptions of innovation:
- Introduction to a new good
- Introduction to a new method of production
- The opening of a new market
- Access to new sources of raw materials or components
- The introduction of new forms of organization[4]
Comparing both innovation and technology, it is safe to conclude that innovations are new technologies that are introduced to a society and culture. In other words, they are identical twins—alike in all characteristics and similar in appearance, but two different things.
Why Innovate and Use Technology
At some point the following companies failed to innovate and use current technology: Blockbuster, Kodak, and Circuit City. For Blockbuster, along came companies like Redbox, Netflix, and Amazon. For Kodak, along came the smartphone and a change in the way pictures were taken. And for Circuit City, they failed in their methodology and became obsolete in the market. All of these companies (and I could name more) stopped innovating and leveraging new technologies (or were late to the innovative and technological party), and as a result lost their customers and were knocked out of the competition.
What can we learn from such companies (and our current cultural milieu) about the ultimate goal of innovation and technology? Let’s put it this way, it isn’t to make a quick buck—in being transactional with a customer or client. That might be some people’s goal. But the ultimate goal for innovating and utilizing technology is transformation.
When a person, group, or organization innovate and leverages technology, they do so with the purpose of transforming how people live. In other words, they want to enhance some element of a person’s or a peoples’ life. And when you transform people by making their life’s better, then you’ve produced to a degree loyalty as well as community.
Groups, companies, and organizations that fail to innovate and leverage technology—that enhance people’s life—will, at some point, become irrelevant and then die off the scene. [Churches in need of revitalization, please take notes.]
Where Does Innovation and Technology Fit Within the Biblical Narrative
Having planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, I understand how hard this will be for churches. Churches are notorious for not wanting to change and constantly evolve to be a more effective and missional church. I understand how many see the immutability of God factoring into the way many churches view and practice ministry.
However, the church isn’t detached (even in a corporate manner) from participating in the creation mandate (Genesis 1:28). According to God’s command in Genesis, not only were human beings to “be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth,” they were to “subdue” the earth they occupied. “Subdue” denotes working the land that God had made with intensity and intentionality.[5] In other words, in astonishing fashion, God commands humanity to take the raw materials (of God’s good creation) and enhance them.
The development of the raw materials includes both innovation and technology. Innovations are the new ideas, goods, markets, methodologies, structures, etc., that lead to the development of new technologies (tools) that make the innovations possible. Both innovations and technologies—yielding from the raw materials—would bring about the enhancement of God’s “good” creation and thus the total flourishing (shalom) of the world. As a result, mankind would end up cultivating a culture rooted in [imaging] God’s glory for the good of creation. In short, this is part of what it means to be human.
But the biblical narrative quickly notes the fall of Adam and Eve. To be clear, the fall (or sin) of mankind didn’t destroy (or disband) the creation mandate given to humans but distorted it. In other words, rather than cultivating for the glory of God and the good of others, mankind would pridefully cultivate—innovating and creating technologies—for their own glory and renown (see, Genesis 11). But in a dark world where mankind strives to cultivate and produce cultures seeking their own prideful agendas—even if some of those agendas would be deemed morally good—God is going to select his own people (via grace) to operate as human beings for the glory of God towards a broken (and dark) world.
In the unfolding of the biblical narrative we see that God’s ultimate grace has a name—Jesus. Jesus is the “Good News,” the gospel for all of creation. And the “Good News” isn’t only that Jesus came to “save” sinners, but that he came to redeem all of creation and thereby inaugurate the Kingdom of God. As such the scope of redemption, as Albert Wolters expressed, is as great as that of the fall. In other words, since sin damaged and distorted the creation mandate, Jesus—through his death and resurrection—is redeeming (all aspects of) what it means to be human.
Applied to churches, when churches fail to innovate and/or leverage technology that would enhance life—that would enhance ministry and mission—they miss out on an opportunity to reflect a more complete vision of God’s Kingdom inaugurated by Jesus. The reality is, God is not just interested in people coming to know him, but also in his people glorifying him in all spheres of life—enacted individually, corporately, and institutionally—as they reflect the already but not yet kingdom.
Innovation and Technology in the Ministry and Mission of the Church
In light of what I have described above, innovation and technology have a role to play in the ministry and mission of the church. Given that I believe the church reflects the kingdom of God in the in-between time of the already but not yet—that the church is a city on a hill (Matt 5:14), that the church is the ambassadors of God’s coming kingdom (2 Cor 5:20), and that the church is a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for [God’s] own possession” (1 Peter 2:9)—the church is therefore a microcosm (both independent and interdependent) of the world.
The church has Jesus as her head along with [flexible and thus varying] ecclesial structures that include church leadership to help equip the saints for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:12). But what is the church’s ministry? The church’s ministry cannot be constructed outside of a missional understanding of God and what he is accomplishing in the world. In other words, the ecclesial structures must have in view the missional impetus of God. And God is on mission to redeem the world and to create a people from all peoples who will glorify him by sharing and showing the gospel of King Jesus in the power of the Spirit.
Any church that seeks to be a missional vehicle of God that shares and shows the gospel of King Jesus will inevitably be a “body” that enacts and reflects a vision of God’s kingdom via individuals, corporate expressions, and institutional organizations. This vision is bound to include innovation and technology.
When churches look at what God has called them to do, they [hopefully] will ask what is the best way to effectively equip the church for the work of ministry and the building up of the body (what we would call “missional formation”) without inherently changing the theological essence of what “church” means?
As such, churches might create, adopt, or integrate newer innovations and/or technologies that would enhance their missional formation as the people of God. This might mean utilizing digital platforms for discipleship and mission, adopting or experimenting with diverse small group or church planting methods or models, integrating innovative techniques to reach and speak to a more Post-Christian (biblically illiterate) audience, or creating other non-profit or for-profit organizations and/or businesses for the flourishing of the communities and cities where they reside.
If there’s one thing we have learned in over 2000 years of church history, church methodologies and styles do not come in “one size fits all.” The methods and tools may change from season to season or from one context to another, but the message and the mission do not change.
Closing Questions to Ponder in the Pursuit of Innovation and the Leveraging of Technology
We are definitely in a season where the “church” experts are encouraging church leaders to innovate. But I would caution churches and church leaders—don’t innovate for innovation sake, nor innovate to be the cool or hip church.
Understand theologically and missiologically why churches would (or should) innovate or leverage technologies. [If you didn’t notice, we tried to help you out with this earlier in the article.] This will at least provide you with a biblical foundation to helping your people understand the “why” behind the “what.”
Once you have a biblical and missional foundation for innovating (a new way of doing something) and utilizing technology (making, consuming, or using tools not only for practical purposes but for the enactment, exercise, expression, and enhancement of God’s kingdom on earth), here is a list of questions you might want to ask yourself before, during, and after implementing innovations and technologies:
- What does God’s word teach about this area?
- Would this innovation or technology distort our understanding of what God’s word teaches?
- Why are we wanting to implement this new innovation or technology?
- In what ways do we believe this new innovation or technology will enhance our ability to participate in the mission of God—in shaping a people in Jesus’ image and reaching a lost and dying world for Christ?
- Is our church’s identity more rooted in “how” we do church or “why” we are the church?
- Have we come to worship (rely too heavily) on our current technology (model or method)? In other words, have we succumbed to worshipping the “tools” of the church rather the “King” of our church?
- Is what we are currently doing in the form of methods, models, or styles the most effective way to [currently and contextually] equip the church for the work of ministry?
- What scares us in creating, adopting, or integrating this new innovation or technology into our church?
In closing, this crisis over the past year and a half has once again brought up the subjects of “innovation” and “church.” And yes, I understand that this makes some people nervous, others roll their eyes, and others go crazy innovating. Nevertheless, I’m an advocate for innovation, and believe innovation (and technology) rightfully viewed and thus used can enhance the ministry and mission of the church.
[1] “Technology, Innovation, Management,” https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=27445&printable=1
[2] John Dyer, From The Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology, 65.
[3] Ibid, 60–65.
[4] “Technology, Innovation, Management,” https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=27445&printable=1
[5] Hamilton, NICOT: Genesis 1-17, 139. Hamilton describes, “subdue,” as a word that connotes force as to abuse or assault. However, since this command precedes the fall, it is better contextually for subdue to refer to intensity and intentionality.
Josh Laxton 
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