Innovating for Love

May 03, 2022•3 min read

Innovating for Love: Christian Social Innovation by Kenda Creasy-Dean is part of The Greatest Expedition series that I was so fortunate to be able to collaborate with amongst nineteen thought leaders from around the country. Each author and each resource offer precious golden nuggets of wisdom and next bold steps for this post-modern and post-pandemic culture the church finds itself needing to navigate. Innovating for Love is no exception and very timely for conversations that are occurring at many church council meetings of late.

Often, church leaders and pastors are a bit adverse to the word innovation when it comes to the church. Criticism about innovation may come in pushback such as the gospel hasn’t changed, so why should how we do church need to change. Or innovation is about business, not about the church. I even had a young pastor scoff recently when I used the word innovation suggesting that innovation is just the latest trend in church revitalization language. But true Christian social innovation is about adding sacred value to the lives of the people in the community the church is called to serve and share Jesus. It goes well beyond strategic plans, simply a tenant in the building, or the latest buzz words and trends. It is about loving the people in the church’s mission field as Jesus taught us to love.

In the Greatest Expedition series book, Innovating for Love: Christian Social Innovation,Creasy-Dean describes Christian social innovation in this way (page 53): “The impetus for Christian social innovation is not having a great idea, maximizing productivity, or needing to survive. We innovate for love in order to give shape to a prophetic imagination, and to embody a vision for human flourishing patterned after Jesus, whose way of being human is the template for our own.”

In my consulting work, there is often the controversy about whether the church is or should be a business or whether a ministry or innovation can be profitable for the benefit of or reinvestment into the ministry. I think the answer is a definite YES! It is not either/or. It is both. And, our roots are founded in such history and logic. Wesley was a Christian social innovator. He created businesses that provided jobs for the poor. He launched a publishing business. When a community had the need for medical care, it was the Methodists who built the hospitals. The Methodists also provided the much-needed orphanages and schools. The church needs to become a vital part of the community. It is when we separate the two that the church becomes insular and loses relevancy and competency for how to reach the people in our mission field. It is both an investment in the people and for the people because we want to love like Jesus loved.

If you are ready to begin your journey of innovating for love, consider Creation Incubator for your guide. From asset mapping, discerning, analyzing, and walking alongside leaders and congregations, the experienced practitioners at Creation Incubator will be your constant companions and cheerleaders every step of the way.

Kay Kotan

Kay’s purpose is to Equip and Empower Leaders of Faith Communities How to Engage in More Effective Ministry. Kay Kotan is the founder of You Unlimited (coaching, consulting and training company) and The Greatest Expedition – a collaboration of more than twenty thought leaders providing resources and insights for a congregational journey to develop new MAPS (ministry action plans) to reach new people in your community. Kay also launched Multipliers’ Movement – a gathering of kingdom multipliers for sharing, equipping, and encouraging. She is a CoachU and Advanced CoachU Graduate, an accredited coach (PCC: Professional Certified Coach) with the ICF, International Coaching Federation, a Certified Path 1 Coach, and once served on the faculty at Coaching4Clergy. As a passionate lay person, she has a banking background and has been a business owner for more than 25 years. Kotan has served as a church developer for conferences and worked with churches, pastors, conferences, and judicatory leaders across the country for more than a decade. She is most proud to be the wife of Bob for over 30 years and the mother of their adult son, Cameron. Kay is the author of multiple books, workbooks, and resources including Gear Up: Nine Essential Processes for the Optimized Church, Cry From the Pew, Full Schedules, Barren Souls, Being the Church in the Post Pandemic World, and Journey Preparation: Surveying Your Church’s Landscape, as well as the co-author of the books titled: IMPACT!: Reclaiming the Call of Lay Ministry, Small Church Check-Up, Insights on Productivity, Renovate or Die – Ten Ways to Focus Your Church on Mission, Ministry 3.0 and Get Their Name , Ten Prescriptions for a Healthy Church, Necessary Nine – Nine Things Effective Pastors Do Differently, Launching Leaders: Taking Leadership Development to New Heights, Strategy Matters: Your Roadmap to Planning a Strategic Ministry Planning Retreat, Voices of Christmas: A Daily Devotional for Advent and Expanding the Expedition Reach Through Marketplace Multipliers. Mission Possible for the Small Church. Inside Out: Everting Ministry Models for the Postmodern Church, and more. Kotan and her co-author Bradford published their third version of the best-seller, Mission Possible: Simple Structure for Missional Effectiveness. Mrs. Kotan spends her time investing in pastors, laity leaders, congregations, and judicatory leaders through equipping, coaching, and creating resources to help them discover and live into their fullest missional potential of effectiveness and fruitfulness to reach people for Jesus Christ. Through her enthusiasm, truth-telling, and passion, she challenges those who encounter her in both their thinking and their doing.

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