Where do you get ministry ideas from? Do you get them at all?
Last Sunday we had a bit of a brain-storming session regarding our evening service for 2011 and perhaps beyond. I have only very briefly had a look through them but there are some great ideas there.
When 25-odd people come together there is a chance of having more ideas and better ideas to work with. Ideas need time to fester, space and time in people’s heads is required so that ideas will flow. There seems to be a bit of a zone as to when ideas start popping up all over the place. While i’m not really up with any scientific thoughts on ‘ideas’ for me there are a number of things that help me to get into this ‘idea zone’. Examples of these would be reading a blog post about ideas others have thought about, reflecting specifically about a certain work that needs to be done or problem that needs to be sorted through, simply writing out my thoughts, using a mind-map to see where my thoughts lead etc. All of these things help in giving me the space to start to think of different ideas.
Quite often ministry workers, whether that’s in churches, missions, or para-church organisations don’t really have the time to think of ideas. Ministry ideas are sometimes few and far between when there are plenty of other things taking up ones time. In between service and sermon preparations, pastoral care, organising weekly events, bible studies, and generally dealing with the week where is the time to think of ideas? They are cramped out due to other things.
Lately i have been encouraged by reading a book, Linchpin, by Seth Godin. In it he talks about trying to be the person within your company to solve those problems, think of new ideas, and drive the company forward. In many respects it is rather business orientated, but i thought that there were some good things for churches and ministers to employ too. Ideas don’t have to be big, they don’t have to be perfect, but they need to be tested – ‘thrown out into the marketplace’ so to to speak. What better place to test out ministry ideas than in a church where you are the minister? What ideas for ministry have you thought of lately?
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