October 3, 2008 Mount Vernon, Ohio, United States…Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN
Raj Attiken wants ideas. The more unconventional, the better.
The Seventh-day Adventist leader in Ohio is calling for a “culture of innovation” within the church that encourages and applauds relevant and effective ways to worship and do outreach. Attiken worries that when members become “so self-absorbed in preserving tradition and protecting truth,” they can easily “slip further and further into inaction and irrelevancy.”
Attiken and the church in Ohio head up Partners in Innovation, a group of people and organizations — including the church in North America's Church Resource Center — that provide support and resources for innovators. The group's 4th Annual National Conference on Innovation from October 5 to 7 is expected to draw pastors, church administrators, lay leaders, educators, students and business people to Dublin, Ohio this weekend.
Attiken says innovators “often end up leaving the Adventist Church because they don't feel they can take risks.” When the church isn't a “safe place to take risks for God,” it becomes “stale and stagnant,” he says, something he hopes the conference will help change. “You shouldn't feel you need to go outside the church to try something bold for God.”
The conference targets “members willing to stick their necks out” who represent less than 2.5 percent of the church, Attiken says, nodding to the Diffusion of Innovations theory. With subgroups ranging from “innovators” to “laggards,” theorists use the model to explain how everything from blue jeans to democracy finds wide acceptance over time.
“We don't expect everyone to jump on board right away, and that's OK,” he says. “But we cannot afford to only do what we've always done.”
That's what members of the once insular Madison Adventist Church in Tennessee concluded in 2006 when they decided to keep their doors open seven days a week, not just for a few hours on Saturday. They began offering the Madison community health support, English as a Second Language classes, an Adopt-A-Grandparent program and birthday parties for local foster children, among other projects.
Madison is one of nine finalists vying for Innovative Church of the Year, an award announced at the conference by the Church Resource Center (CRC).
“It seems that there is something contagious about serving,” says Julie Vega, pastor for Outreach Ministries at Madison. “Our church is rediscovering the truth that it is better to give than to receive.”
That's exactly the broader purpose Attiken says all innovation must serve.
“We have to realize that we do not exist for ourselves. We must turn our face outward, beyond our church walls and toward the community,” he says.
Attiken isn't pushing for an unrecognizable form of Adventism, nor does he want to alienate more traditional members. “Adventism is big and strong and dynamic enough for everyone. We don't all have to be innovators, but we shouldn't stifle our innovators, either.”
“We need to remember that every traditional idea was once an innovation,” says Dave Gemmell, CRC associate director. “A lot of churches are doing things that have worked great for generations, but are just not working as consistently now.”
Attiken says the change is due in part to shifting attitudes toward religion, especially in North America. “We felt we needed to provide a forum that stimulates new thinking about ways the church can reposition itself — reinvent itself — and stay relevant,” he says.
Conference keynote speakers include Robert Wuthnow, author and chair of the Department of Sociology at Princeton University; Leonard Sweet, the E. Stanley Jones professor of evangelism at Drew Theological School; Kelly Monroe Kullberg, founder and director of project development at The Veritas Forum; James Tucker, professor of educational psychology at the University of Tennessee; and Julius Nam, associate professor of religion at the Loma Linda University School of Religion.
To learn more or register for the Conference on Innovation, visit sdapartnersininnovation.org.