Sean Payton, Risk and Church Leaders
As I watched the Super Bowl I couldn’t help but be struck by the boldness and guts it took to do the onside kick at the beginning of the second half. I applauded New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton for having the idea and nerve to go for it. For me, I think that recovery of the onside kick changed the rest of the game – there was a momentum shift and the Colts never recovered.
As you know, I’ve been traveling the country for the last 2 years speaking on the subject of innovation. I’ve taught on innovation at several conferences, schools and to regional meetings of Church leaders around the country. After the past 2 years of studying, reading and forming my thoughts on innovation, I’ve come to realize that innovation and risk go hand in hand.
A lot of churches want to be “innovative”, but don’t have the guts or faith to take strategic risks. Hear me Church leaders: sometimes you must be willing to risk it all – that means your organization’s culture has to have a freedom to fail. Successful and innovative organizations and businesses actually reward failure because they realize it’s necessary for breakthroughs in innovation.
I’m working on a book on innovation in which I’ll go into much more detail, but for today I encourage you to chew on this notion of risk and being willing to fail – it just might lead to something amazing in your ministry.
Let me know: When was the last time your church took a risk?
February 11th, 2010 at 1:21 am
2 months ago we announced that we were launching our next campus (in Detroit) on January 10, 2010. At the time of this announcement, we did not have ANY idea where we would be meeting – no building or space – and, it's dead of winter… but, we knew God spoke that date and we had to be faithful.
On January 10, 2010 we opened our midtown Detroit campus! One week before we opened, God made a way for us to secure really cool space (rooftop solarium – penthouse – of tallest building in that community)! We're now packed & need new, larger, space…
Faith is spelled: R-I-S-K
http://1RealChurch.com
February 11th, 2010 at 1:47 am
That's awesome! Love to hear stories like that. I hope to get to Detroit and visit sometime. Thanks for sharing.
February 11th, 2010 at 1:32 am
It's seems we are always taking a risk. We want a huge God blessing and know that's He's asking us to step out and risk it all. We've given our savings away to help others, we've hired without having the means to pay, we've opened our church for skaters and said goodbye to being a Holy Huddle at the expense of losing people who just want to come and be fee.
February 11th, 2010 at 1:48 am
I know you're a huge risk-taker. Love to see what God is doing through you guys. I hope to get back soon for a visit. Keep risking it all for Him!
February 11th, 2010 at 4:01 am
2 years ago last weekend the elders of our church fired our Senior Pastor and a week later our worship pastor resigned as well. They asked me; a single, never married 36 year old career youth pastor to step in as the interim minister. In August of that same year the congregation voted to call me as the Lead Minister. We were running about 195 people at the time. We made the decision to continue moving forward with our plans to build, even though the "experts" were telling us to hold off. We moved into our first building on October 4, 2009 and we had 749 people at our grand opening. Last Sunday our attendance was 611 and we are continuing to grow and are contemplating adding a third service.
It goes back to 6 godly men discerning that it was time for a signficant leadership shift. They had the courage to hire a passionate, unproven, single guy to take the lead! What were they thinking?
February 11th, 2010 at 5:08 am
Wow – that is a huge risk. Glad to hear it worked out.
February 13th, 2010 at 1:02 am
Two things:
1) The first $100K from our capital campaign was given to an orphanage in Honduras. (PromiseHome.org)
2) Listen to this: http://www.genesismetro.org/media/audio/messages/... (My pastor was interviewed on KLTY a couple weeks ago…great story.)
February 13th, 2010 at 1:06 am
That's awesome, Patrick. Way to go!