Innovation 2007, which makes its debut on February 9, is guaranteed to spark lots of discussion for a long time to come. The 64-page glossy book is the single biggest compilation of ideas and insights about North American churches ever undertaken by Leadership Network.

"We serve a God who is constantly creating and inventing -- and churches need to be constantly innovating to remain faithful to God’s redemptive message to the world," says Dave Travis, Executive Vice President of Leadership Network and the driving force behind the project. "Innovation 2007 captures the current state of this process in the North American church."

Encouraging innovation in churches is nothing new to Leadership Network. Since its founding in 1984, its activities, programs and publishing partnerships have dramatically accelerated innovation in churches. Innovation 2007 is the next step in this process -- and it is a very big step, indeed. "Innovation 2007 is not a statistical analysis, research paper or encyclopedia, but rather a helpful and easy-to-read executive summary," Travis says. "Each year, we send highly skilled teams out to discover what is happening in God's Kingdom work. Innovation 2007 is a short visual and verbal summary of this year's findings.

The book is designed to help Christian leaders quickly digest current topics of discussion in churches of various traditions, regions, and size -- and clarify what is most useful in their individual context."

Four Angles on Innovation
Warren Bird, Leadership Network’s Director of Research and Intellectual Capital, directed and served as principal writer on the year-long project. Bird, who has co-authored 16 books on various church-related topics, organized and grouped Innovation 2007’s information into four primary sections:

Snapshots ("Why churches need innovation") reports on the huge societal needs and challenges to which the church must respond. Quick, at-a-glance statistics and summaries reveal, for example, startling facts on poverty, AIDS and literacy -- as well as telling trends in church attendance, giving and pastors’ use of their time.

Discoveries ("How churches use innovation") covers 10 crucial approaches to ministry that are extending the reach and changing the face of today’s church. Topics range from churches innovatively addressing healthcare to churches with significant recovery ministry. In each case, Innovation 2007 explores the hows, the whys and the emerging models of ministry uncovered by Leadership Network’s research.


Commentary ("In-depth perspectives on innovative trends") analyzes two particularly significant trends in even greater depth.
• "Inside the American Megachurch," by Warren Bird and Scott Thumma (of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research), shows how megachurches are often different than the picture assumed by many stereotypes.
• "What to Do with Talented People," by Robert Lewis, pastor-at-large of Little Rock’s Fellowship Bible Church and founder of Men’s Fraternity, discusses how churches can use an innovative "catch-and-release" approach to ministry to boost their impact in a local community.

Resources ("Strategic readings about leading innovations") directs readers to a host of materials they can use to further their understanding of high priority topics. Coverage ranges from Leadership Network’s recent "Salary and Economic Outlook," to overviews of some 20 books and 39 helpful online resources.

How to Order True to its mission of extending the best in innovation to as many church leaders as possible, Leadership Network is mailing printed and bound versions of the richly illustrated book (free of charge) to more than 2,000 identified innovative churches, media, thought leaders and other influencers. All churches that are part of a Leadership Network Leadership Community will automatically receive a copy of Innovation 2007. The book will be mailed by Febuary 9. You can request additional copies at a cost of $10 each by completing a short signup form online at www.leadnet.org/links/innovation2007. Copies will be distributed as long as supplies last. According to Dave Travis, Innovation 2007 is the first of many such compilations. "Our mission as an organization is to identify, connect and help high-capacity Christian leaders multiply their impact. Leadership Network will continue to explore and develop new areas of innovation and share the results with others." Rick Long is the president of Source Publications, a Tulsa-based marketing and communications firm that serves leading non-profits and businesses. Source managed the design, layout and production of Innovation 2007.

What Is Innovation? "Innovation, fundamentally, is a change in practice that leads to an increase in performance. Innovations in churches can be small things such as a new staff role, a new method of telling a story, or a ministry which reaches a new niche. Hymnals were an innovation. Innovation in churches typically shows up in one or more areas: Leadership Cultural relevance Authentic community Lay empowerment Kingdom impact. "It's easy to confuse what is 'cool' with innovation. It's stylish to label innovators as having huge crowds, great media marketing, jazzy sermon titles and flashy web sites, while ignoring those with great (and innovative) outreach to the poor. It's easy to confuse innovation with one style of church to the exclusion of what God is doing in other types of churches." --Dave Travis