When new ideas become bad

I'm currently re-reading Andy Stanley's book Deep and Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend. I read the book last year and decided I needed to read it again because of all the powerful ideas presented in the book. One of my favorite quotes from the book is "New ideas are good ideas as long as they don't require anyone to actually do anything new."

Any minister who has ever presented new ideas to a church has experienced that. It's fine to talk about ways the church can reach new people until folks find out that it's going to require them to change something or do something differently. At that point that new idea doesn't sound so good. Older members will begin to firmly explain that this new idea is not the way things are done around here.

Church people fall in love with the way things are done. They fall in love with the place where they sit in church. When I was in judicatory ministry one of my colleagues was visiting one of his churches and was asked to move twice before the service began because he was sitting in someone's seat. I know a church that insists that the pulpit chairs are on the platform for the worship service even though the previous three pastors did not sit in them. A friend told me one church in their state has a clause in their constitution that a black KJV Bible must be used in the pulpit. I've known of KJV only churches, but it was the first time I had heard of a church that specified only one color cover was acceptable.

Stanley points out that this is nothing new. The Pharisees in Jesus' time loved their model of ministry. In fact, one of the things that kept Jesus in trouble with them was that he kept introducing a new model of ministry. He healed on the Sabbath. He offered forgiveness for sinners. He spoke with and dined with those considered outcasts by the religious crowd.

If a church has discerned God's vision for their church the only real question it needs to ask is "What is the best way to fulfill that vision?" Very often the current programming is not the way to fulfill the vision. Much of what many churches are currently doing was the way they fulfilled their perceived ministry decades ago, but they've never stopped to determine if this is still the best way to do ministry today. By asking this question people may begin to realize that what they are currently doing really isn't working, and perhaps hasn't worked in years.

 New ideas become bad when people learn they will be personally impacted by those ideas. The best way to avoid their rejection is to explain first why the new ideas need to be implemented before describing what those new ideas involve. Always explain the why before presenting the what, and the likelihood of acceptance of new ideas will be far greater.