By The Rev. Dr. Carl Grosse

One of my former bosses once told me that Henry Ford felt that if he had started out by giving the people what they wanted, he would have made faster horses. Most change and innovation happen incrementally. Visiting the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, you can see how year after year inventors and engineers made tweaks to materials, designs, and construction during the early decades of aviation. Over time, this “continuous improvement” can result in dramatic changes as you expand the window of comparison.

Truly disruptive innovation is less common. Modern refrigeration (and its wonderful grandchild air conditioning!) was a big step from ice boxes and root cellars. Both fixed-wing aviation and chemical refrigeration solved problems that were as old as humans: the quickest way from here to there and preserving food. Disruptors usually come up with a radically different way to do something we’re already doing. Just think if DaVinci and Newton and Descartes had computers (I doubt they’d invent TikTok)! 

We are in a pivotal stage of church history. So much is changing in the world around us, and for church people the reality of change confronts us every Sunday. Things just aren’t what they used to be. Disruptors have jumped in, launching radically new forms and ideas of worship and ministry. Most change, if there is any, happens incrementally. You know the question, “How many church people does it take to change a light bulb?” Answer: “Change?! What do you mean, ‘change’?” 

Change for its own sake isn’t our goal as followers of Jesus. We’re building on the disruptive innovation brought by Christ’s righteousness replacing our unrighteousness, incrementally growing into the likeness of Christ. The real questions about what to do differently and what to maintain revolve around whether or not an idea fits this two-fold work of Christ. Is what we’re already doing, or what we’re considering, helping people exchange their unrighteousness for Christ’s righteousness? Is this idea helping people become more Christ-like? If so, how does it do that and is God supplying what we need to do it? If not, why are we doing it or thinking about doing it?