PART II

See yesterday’s post for a primer.

Sometimes when you’re hearing a sound that no one else hears, you’ll end up building things that have never been built.
Think of Noah. Building an ark… according to blueprint… for protection from the flood… before he’d ever seen a drop of rain! (I’m picturing Steve Carell as Noah and I can’t stop… )

Here’s a more modern example, (and these guys will be pretty amused that I’m putting them on the level of Noah, but the principle translates) think of Craig Groeschel and Greg Surratt.
LifeChurch.tv and Seacoast were two of the first churches to launch campuses that featured sermons on video exclusively.
In 2007, the concept of a multi-site church utilizing video teaching is nothing revolutionary. In fact, it’s quite commonplace. You could even argue that it’s somewhat in vogue.
But these guys (and their brave leadership teams) launched new campuses with video teaching at a time when the reaction wasn’t like:
“Oh cool, you’re going multi-site too? Are you going HD or standard def? 2 screens or 3? Same week or week delay? Got any plans for a lock shot?”
The reaction was more like:
“So you think people are actually going to show up and watch you preach on a… um… video? Let me know how that works out for you… “

In retrospect, these guys look pretty smart. We call them pioneers, innovators, visionaries, and trailblazers.
But for both of these men, who are friends of mine, I think they felt a little more like Noah-”God, I really really really hope this works“-than like forerunners for the Most Innovative Pastor award. Nevertheless, they heard the sound, and they made the move… even when nobody else was hearing it or doing it. And it changed the game for everyone.

For this reason, when I’m excited about a crazy initiative, and someone objects: “That’s never been done before”, I get even more excited.
If it’s never been done before, that might be because it’s meant for us to do it!