The FREEDOM to DO

Why reinvent the wheel?  If it’s not broke, why fix it?  We’ve all heard these phrases before, right?

Generally speaking, when we first get into ministry, all we’ve ever have known about how to minister is what we have seen before.  That’s not to say we completely duplicate old ideas or what has been done before, but we keep to what has been done before because that is what we have ever known.  Whether it’s programs, contact work ideas or service opportunities, there seems to be a lot of recycled ideas.  And that’s not a bad thing.

But what if you were given the freedom to think outside the box and DO?  You may think you have the freedom to do and create, but do you really?  Do you really have the ability to move away from the “script” and do what has never been done before?  The reality is that I think we all want that freedom but ultimately we retreat from those ideas and keep to what is familiar and never give ourselves the freedom to do new things.

After all, it is risky to do something new, especially when it may fail.  But I love the saying that Young Life had for many years. They said “the best Young Life is yet to come” inferring that what Young Life looks like today, won’t be how it looks years from now because they are trying new things to reach non-believing students for Christ.

So what would those “yet to come” ideas be?  It could be…

• Creating a YouTube channel to share about what is happening and giving your audience and online devotional in a format they know and like.  I just started one with a few videos geared towards families. Check it out here.
• Bringing donuts and drinks to students at the bus stop.  What a great way to do contact work and meet new students?  Go to them with food in the morning.  Also, what about on some rainy days you bring a tent or umbrellas for students to stay dry under while they wait for the bus stop.  Truth in sharing, I didn’t think of either of these ideas, other leaders at my church did.
• Streaming your Church services so that other people who can’t go to church can hear about him.  When I was at the iMinistry Conference I saw churches as little as 200 stream their services online.  It doesn’t matter if you are large or small, you can impact so many people by doing it.  Lifechurch.tv has tons of ideas and ways for you to get started right here.  We stream our services here.
• Nerf War.  Instead of playing paintball outside for a hight price, we created our own field, provided nerf guns and bullets and made up different types of games such as Zombie Apocalypse.  It was a blast with many guys and girls participating for such a cheap cost.

I’m sure some of these ideas are not new ideas.  Maybe you thought of them or something similar, but for some reason you never pulled the trigger on it any of these.  I would encourage you that take a risk and not just think of new and fresh ideas yet to come, but actually do them!  We should all have that freedom.

What do you think?  Share your thoughts below so we can all learn and benefit from.