Carey Hardy: Creativity without Compromise

Is there a way to be innovative and still remain faithful to the word? In the 1870’s a bill was introduced in congress to disband the patent office because there were those who were sure that everything significant that could be invented had been invented. Fortunately, the bill was defeated, but the commitment to the status quo lives on in churches across the nation. We are creatures of habit, which can be a wonderful gift of God or also a detriment to ministry.

Off the cuff decisions can and do have long term detriments.
Questioning every decision can mire a church in a rut. By never changing anything, you are not being creative and are not seeking to improve anything. You can be locked into mediocrity and mistake that for faithfulness.

The Lord deserves better than that. Stagnation is not honoring to God, neither is change for the sake of change. When it comes to methodologies, it is possible for people to become more attached to the methodology than to the ministry. The methodology may have been their idea and may carry their identity. Change can be traumatic.

Embracing cultural fundamentalism can be another difficulty in change. If you are known more for what you are against than what you are for, that can produce unneeded arguments.

Laziness is another reason it can be hard to change. TV is so much easier and hobbies are so much more attractive at times. Sleep is an absolute necessity! But is this reason to maintain what we are doing?

Apathy can set in because we have done things the same way, we just stop caring about it. Auto Pilot can take over, and people may not even know why. It is because you are doing the same thing for no reason.

Fear can stifle creativity and innovation. We could be afraid of being called seeker-sensitive, which is an unbiblical anthropology rather than a form of biblical theology. Romans 3 contradicts this notion that you can convert anyone with the right lever or even the notion that there are any seekers out there. It is a man-centered approach to theology that is blasphemous. This is not what we want to look like, but should this stifle our creativity?

No. We must not use human means to accomplish spiritual ends, but we do not honor the Lord if we rely on our dogmatics more than on Him. Advertising is not as important as Bible teaching, but that is the image put forth by the seeker churches. That and comfort. And we don’t want to be seen as guilty by association. This fear can stop our creative juices.

Creativity without compromise is possible. It plays a role in the church’s vitality. You do need to determine what are the non-negotiables and the negotiables of ministry. Where scripture speaks, we are bound. But there is a lot of freedom beyond this. We need to begin with a Biblical definition of what constitutes our ministry. It is a list of boundaries that define what is within the allowed practices, not unlike a worldview. A ministry philosophy needs to be defined through the study of scripture, looking for both explicit and implicit signs of how a ministry should be done. How often is this kind of inventory done? Churches generally think they’re doing fine when they don’t know what they’re doing.

You don’t innovate with any program, your own or anyone else’s. You don’t focus on church needs. Don’t even set any goals. This is because these things define success by human terms, not necessarily God’s terms.

Grace stipulations for any changes they will consider:
1. High view of God, to be known as a God-centered church and not a man-centered ministry.
2. Affirmation of God’s word, if we believe in the authority and sufficiency of scripture, we believe the Bible is relevant without any changes that we could make.
3. Accurate anthropology. This means that man is depraved according to the way the Bible defines us. Our purpose is to glorify God, but our sin causes us to glorify ourselves, which causes us to seek out those who will embrace our felt needs.
4. Correct understanding of the purpose of the church. we are not here to help people fix their cars of lose weight. We exist to worship and glorify God through worship. We exist to be a deposit of divine truth. We have the truth and must teach it. We offer loving fellowship among one another. We train others to apply truth to their lives. And we are a light to a dark world, seeking to work toward the conversion of the lost.
5. godly qualified leadership. Leaders must reflect the character of Christ and be a model to the flock of character. This is more important than skill. If we do not understand this, we will have unbiblical priorities.

With this set, you are able to see what changes can be done and what cannot be done. You need to set these buoys in the water, lest you smash the boat on the coral reef. Traditions may be seen as negotiables as can methodologies. Cultural opinions become negotiable.

You need to be accurate about the teaching, and that cannot change. But there are things you can. Many things that you can. You can take advantage of many opportunities when you let the word of God define your ministry, rather than your traditions. You should evaluate your ministry to see if there are ways you can be more effective, just so long as they remain within your guidelines.

Quote of the session: “There are churches who want to remain faithful to the Bible, so they continue to faithfully sing all of the songs that they have sung since the 1970’s.”

What makes you seeker friendly is the reversal of what is important to your church. The content must be king, but do not neglect your peripherals.