Over the past few weeks we are spending some time working through The Big Idea: focus the message, multiply the impact. The book is part of the Leadership Network Innovation Series. It is written by Dave Ferguson, Jon Ferguson, and Eric Bramlett, who are staff leaders at Community Christian Church in suburban Chicago. Today will look at Chapter 4 entitled, “The Genius of the And”.
The church needs to learn how to live in paradox. It is a characteristic of great organizations according to Jim Collins. But it is also in the Bible:
- The first will be last, and the last will be first.
- The greatest will be the least, and the least will be the greatest.
- The rich will become poor, and the poor will become rich.
- To save your life you must loose your life.
- What once was gain is now counted as loss.
Christ followers should be comfortable in the land of the paradox, and I don’t mean two surgeons. [rim shot please...]
The Paradox of Ministry: The Big Idea is Less AND More.
Common thought is that the more options you have, the better off you are. But social scientists are discovering that too many choices can create a problem. The church needs to think of the paradox: more is less and less is more. More often results in less action and less often results in more action. Offering people just one idea at a time results in more action, not less.
The authors then describe six benefits of this paradox:
1. Energy: Less Effort and Better Stuff
The big idea is a process designed for teamwork. As a result of collaboration, the team will produce better stuff with less effort which results in greater stewardship of energy and time.
2. Innovation: New Ideas and Always Good Ideas
Each week, as the church pulls together its team, the team will come up with brand new and creative ideas. And these ideas are almost always good ones, though they don’t always start out that way. But the collaboration time is an opportunity to innovate and brainstorm freely with confidence that the process will allow only the good ideas to survive.
3. Target Generations: Boomers, Busters, and Mosaics
The Big Idea offers both an experiential and a propositional truth. The Big Idea process appeals to the postmodern mind because every Big Idea is a new and unique experience in which people have a chance to respond to God’s prompting. The Big Idea also appeals to the modern mindset because each week every gathering includes a clear application of what to do next and how to take the next step.
4. Curriculum: Targeted and Reproducible
The Big Idea is more than a curriculum; it is a process for creating God experiences for anyone in any place.
5. Creativity: Planned and Spontaneous
It is a paradox because it is both planned and spontaneous. It is planned weeks in advance, but if an issue arises that requires a change in direction, those adjustments can be made.
6. Christ followers: More and More Maturing
The Big Idea has an empowering quality that increases the evangelistic potential of every Christ follower by giving them knowledge, which in turn gives them confidence to talk about the Big Idea with others. It also is relentless in making sure that people are not just getting information but experiencing life change.
