“Quench not the Spirit” (I Thessalonians 5:19).

“Do not put out God’s fire” (NIV translation).

A church group from a small Texas city was visiting a large dynamic congregation here in New Orleans not long ago.  The music was lively, people were rejoicing in the Lord, and joy was filling the air.

At one point, a deacon in the Texas bunch leaned over to his minister of music and whispered, “Don’t get any ideas.”

Was he teasing?  Perhaps.

The person who told me that added, “At last report, that Texas church has continued to be weak and divided, and to struggle.  The local church however flourishes.”

“Don’t get any ideas.”

Has there ever been a more Spirit-quenching statement than that?

I know none of the people involved, but I do know God’s people. I will venture to say that even if that deacon thought he was only teasing, he wasn’t.  He was voicing the hard facts of their situation, pointing to the standard of his church, expressing the restriction that they had clamped upon their leadership, and serving notice to the Almighty that no change would be allowed in “their” church.

Everything about that is sad, sad, sad.

“Fresh ideas” is a great concept for every church, particularly yours! 

Many churches are mired down in the past and doing ministry the way they’ve always done it. “If it was good enough for the grandpa and grandma, it’s good enough for us.”

A bedrock truth I’ve learned over a long lifetime of serving the Lord is that God does not like to do the same thing twice.  He’s always doing new things. Always.

Even when the Lord makes twins or triplets, He sees to it that each is different.  Each human is differentiated by voice print, fingerprint, DNA, and a hundred other ways, some of which we have yet to discover.

“Behold, I make all things new,” God said (Revelation 21:5).  Those words seem to be concerning Heaven, but the statement is true of earth, too, and in fact the entire universe.  The Master Creator is forever busy doing new things.

When you take in a glorious sunset today, keep in mind there has never been one just like that, in the entire history of this small planet.

You are unique. Today is one of a kind. This moment is an original, fresh from the Creator’s hand.

Because you are one of a kind and your spouse is also an original, there is no other marriage like yours, and thus no home just like yours.

God is doing a new thing. Always.

This means that your church is different, unlike all the others.

As its Owner and Operator, the Lord Jesus has promised “I will build my church.”  The question is not what do you and I want to do with His church. The question is not what do the deacons want to do with His church. The question is not what does the congregation want to do with His church.

And because your church (His church!) is unlike the others, it figures that His decisions concerning it–its leaders, its members, its program and ministries–will be unique to itself.

“What does He want?”

Nothing else matters.

The Lord is forever sending messages to His people, ideas to his leadership, instructions to those listening.

“Don’t get any ideas” is hellish counsel.

Don’t listen to it, church leader.

Always be watching and listening for the Holy Spirit to show  you something you had not seen, teach you something you had not learned, push you into something you had not thought of, pull you back from something you were not aware of.

He is always at work and never idle.

At a retreat for pastors and deacons, I was surprised (and more than a little disappointed) to see that very few brought note-taking material with them.  They were attentive and responsive, but only one or two could be seen jotting down notes and ideas.

Hearing another servant of the Lord speak His message can be a time of great creativity when ideas and insights and innovations rush at us. If we are not prepared to jot them down, we lose most of them.

The Holy Spirit knows who can be trusted with a fresh insight.

That’s doubtless the reason some pastors and some churches have not had a new idea in a generation: They do not welcome them, would not recognize it if it arrived at the front door in a UPS box, and would not know what to do with them.

So, God gives His ideas and insights to those who value them, recognize them, and are willing to act on them.

Where do we get new ideas for ministry?  Well, there are the usual suspects…

1. We do what the Texas church did and visit other churches, paying close attention to what the Spirit says to our spirit.

2. We read and read and read some more, always alert to the Holy Spirit triggering something inside us.

3. We bring in outside speakers with considerable experience and excellent judgment, asking them to minister to our people and then share with the leadership their suggestions.

4. We go online and check out other churches of good reputation.  Thanks to the internet, this is so easy and so doable.  There is of course a limit to what you will find out on their websites. But you will learn enough to tell you whether to pick up the phone and call one of their ministers and pick his brain.  This is how our church began doing “wild game dinners” nearly 25 years ago. The Georgia Baptist Index ran a feature about a church in their state that had one each year. I called the minister and got all the details, then put our minister of education in touch with his, and voila!  A great addition to our work.

5. Go to conferences.  Which ones? Ask other pastors where they’ve been and which they recommend.  Read “Christianity Today” magazine (in print and online too) and check their ads. That’s how I found out about a month-long conference being held at a Kentucky college one summer and made arrangements to sign up. It remains a pivotal event in my ministry.

6. Bring in outside consultants to study your situation and make recommendations.

7. Listen to newcomers who are visiting your church. They have noticed something you are not doing or not doing well or should be doing or could benefit from learning about (something they did in their last church). Listen closely.  This is how my church (20 years ago) went to a security program for the children’s building.  Until that moment, the possibility of some person stealing a child from our church had never occurred to me.

And there are those other ways of finding new ideas…

1. You see something industry is doing and the Holy Spirit sounds the alarms inside you.  The fact that no church is doing this (which you can copy) means nothing. You may be the first.

2. You are reading non-religious material and suddenly an article or ad pops out and you realize the Lord just sent you a message. That’s why I recommend an hour browsing the periodicals at your local library from time to time, scanning magazines you’ve never heard of and would not buy in a hundred years.

3. See what the off-brand religions in your community are doing.  Do not do anything they do just because they are effective. You’re looking for messages the Holy Spirit is sending you and you only.

4. Consider inviting to your church the Christian writer/thinker/minister whose stuff you read all the time and from which you always benefit.  Even if you have to rally the troops to find the finances to fly him in and host him in a Hampton Inn and give him a worthy honorarium, the benefits could last forever.  Again, listen to the Lord.

5. Pull together a handful of your key leaders and make arrangements to spend a full day with the staff of a wonderful, healthy church in your part of the world, learning from them.

6. Ask everyone you meet, particularly pastors and staffers and seminary profs: “Tell me a great idea you ran across lately.”  Or, “What’s the most exciting–and healthy!–church you know of?” And listen well. Take notes even.

7.  Have an idea folder on your laptop or an idea notebook in your car.  Jot down every idea you find. From time to time, convene your leadership team and share yours with them. Then, have each one open their notebook and share the contents with you. Oh? You did ask your leaders to make such a notebook, too, didn’t you?  If not, do it now!

Have fun. Listen to the Holy Spirit and obey Him. Love one another.

See what God does.