I love reading about the way different enterprises are reinventing themselves. It helps me think about ministry in new ways. One of the ways I try to remain an open-system is by staying on top of the sea change.

About a year ago, I blogged about the evolution of the restaurant industry and juxtaposed it with preaching. Here’s a link: Sermon Salt.

Read an article in Motto magazine about wedding photography that made me think. The article focused on a photographer who has “created a cool niche in a tired industry.” Matt Hagen approaches the wedding like a photojournalist. So instead of the stitled poses, he takes an editorial slant and tries to capture the spontaneity and candidness.

Hagen says, “It’s those spontaneous and even ridiculous moments that everyone remembers best, so why shouldn’t the photos be centered around that? I want to tell the story of the day as it really hapepned.”

Just made me think. I think spontaneity and candidness is precisely what’s missing from most church experiences–NCC included. I’ve always wanted to make church, especially in our coffeehouse, more interactive. We’ve thought about Q & A. I think it’d be cool to have people email questions during a message and respond to them afterwards.

What would happen if we set up our services more like a talk show? Or a town hall meeting. Or the View?

Just thinking out loud.

What I know for sure is this: there are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet!