"Innovation: Living into Your Next Potential"

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Carolla

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This blog popped up today in my feed - by Susan Beaumont, a respected author on matters of church life. I like the use of the metaphor of "Innovation Zipper" (coined by Markus Peschl). The matrix is also quite useful I think, although it is duly noted that this article referred to business, not church, so there may variations. Sometimes churches skip the work of defining & articulating their 'why', and honestly evaluating what they do well (and not so well, despite their claims to the contrary, and how it is/is not a reflection of Christian presence.) Connecting with neighbours is often also a missing step, so those adjacent opportunities may not be realized or developed.
Interested in your thoughts.
 
Sometimes churches skip the work of defining & articulating their 'why', and honestly evaluating what they do well (and not so well, despite their claims to the contrary, and how it is/is not a reflection of Christian presence.)
I think it is a missed step with a lot of organizations. All too often people in a group assume all of the group know "why" they are there and share a mission, when in fact that may not be so. While you would think a church would be easy and obvious ("We are here to worship and serve God through Jesus Christ"), there is often more nuance there that is missed, and those nuances are what can trip you up.
 
This blog popped up today in my feed - by Susan Beaumont, a respected author on matters of church life. I like the use of the metaphor of "Innovation Zipper" (coined by Markus Peschl). The matrix is also quite useful I think, although it is duly noted that this article referred to business, not church, so there may variations. Sometimes churches skip the work of defining & articulating their 'why', and honestly evaluating what they do well (and not so well, despite their claims to the contrary, and how it is/is not a reflection of Christian presence.) Connecting with neighbours is often also a missing step, so those adjacent opportunities may not be realized or developed.
Interested in your thoughts.
Thank you Carolla for the link. As I work on transition stuff with a congregation, this is a perfect article to share with thr board.
 
Here is a simple innovative strategy that can attract newbies and energize spiritual growth. When I was a UMC pastor, I started a monthly Friday potluck dinner and movie night. One key was a prior 35-word (or so) ad promoting the movie in our weekly newspaper. This advertisement enticed many visitors. I spent countless hours researching quality movies with strong provocative spiritual themes. Several Christian movies were shown, but these often lacked the production values of top-drawer Hollywood movies with solid spiritual themes. The combination of table fellowship over a meal and a provocative movie created an atmosphere of bonding that enticed people to become regulars. I led a brief 5-minute discussion of the most challenging issues raised by each movie after the showing, but this had to be brief to avoid creating too long an evening. I retired in 2015, but strangers still sometimes approach me, expressing appreciation for these evenings.

After I retired, the new pastor discontinued these monthly movies. Poor families who also attended our weekly Monday lunch brought their families for the lavish meal, but left before the movie and this was ultimately deemed unacceptable, much to my chagrin, but it's now none of my business. Sigh!

If you google, "Christian movies" and "movies on spiritual (or Christian) themes," you can quickly come up with a huge repertoire of movie options. Of course, it's crucial to preview each movie to see if it lights your fire and to prepare stimulating discussion questions afterwards. I tried to select a great variety of movies with very different themes to avoid repetitive themes. Here is a brief sample of just 6 of the many movies I showed:

(1) "The Mission:" starring Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons (with Liam Neeson in a minor role!), based on a true story about 19th century Jesuit efforts to convert an Amazon Indian tribe at the same time the Spanish and Portuguese were trying to enslave them. (Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Palm d'Or)
(2) "Shadowlands:" starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, based on the true story of famed author C. S. Lewis' late life romance and marriage to a Jewish woman, who ultimately contracts terminal cancer. The movie takes material from Lewis's latest book "A Grief Observed" about his ordeal. IMO, yhid the best ever movie on grief.
(3) "Les Miserables" starring Liam Neeson (not the musical)
(4) "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" starring Ingrid Bergman in probably her greatest performance, based on the true story of Protestant missionary Gladys Aylward's missionary efforts in China at the time of the Japanese invasion. Gladys Aylward's transformation from an English cleaning lady with dyslexia to probably the most spiritually effective Protestant female missionary ever is deeply moving. The movie also brings out her great achievements for Chinese social justice in the pre-Communist era.
(5) "The Song of Bernadette" starring Jennifer Jones, who won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Bernadette, the simple peasant girl whose visions of Mary led to the many millions who visit Lourdes to seek healing from the Marian stream there. This of course greatly appealed to Catholics, but I was delighted by how well it was received by evangelicals as well.
(6) "Chocolat": an endearing movie about a young woman who creates a scandal by starting a bakery with assorted pastry and chocolate delights in a religiously uptight French town during Lent.
 
I saw Inn of the Sixth Happiness WAY back in my younger days. It has remained with me ever since. When was it released, does anyone know?
 
When I showed the movie in church, a retired army vet shared that in his military training he had to study Gladys Aylward's tactics in evading Japanese patrols in leading over 100 war-orphaned Chinese children across a mountain range and large rivers with no bridges to bring them to safety in unoccupied territory, all the while being hampered by several untreated ailments. That adventure forms the climax of the movie. When she arrives at the safe Chinese city, the missionary leader who had rejected her in England because, as a dyslexic cleaning lady, she was "unqualified" encounters her as she brings in her large group0 of refugee children. An incredible vindication!

During her ministry, she is challenged by a Chinese leader to quell prison riots. She actually enters a large prison alone, risking her life and winning over the prisoners by recording their grievances and helping implement prison reform. In the movie one of those ex-prisoners joins her children's hike and gives his life to distract Japanese patrols from discovering Gladys and the children. She also successfully fights to eliminate ancient customs about foot binding for young Chinese women.

As an English cleaning lady, Gladys was too poor to pay for a boat ride to China. So she took the trans-Siberian railroad through Josef Stalin's Russia to get there. The Communists took her passport and booted her off the train in Siberia. So she had to walk to China to establish her missionary base. That ordeal is not in the movie.
 
There are some BS and religions that do not believe in underground or gorilla activities as they believe their brute nature is a better forte!

It comes simply from excess competitive BS!
 
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