Hoverboards In Church? 22 Differences Between Gimmicks and Innovations

Gimmicks are like candy. They can attract our attention to a blog post, or give us a moment of fun in a church service. But you can't build a steady diet – or a strong church – on them. Instead of chasing gimmicks, church leaders need to be innovators. Like good web design, innovative leadership doesn't detract from the message, it clears a path to the message. It doesn't change eternal truths, it helps us apply them. With that in mind – including the acknowledgment of my own complicity in using a gimmick to get you to read this post – here are 22 ways to tell the difference between gimmicks and innovation.

December 30, 2015

by Karl Vaters

Instead of chasing gimmicks, church leaders need to be innovators. Innovative leadership doesn’t detract from the message, it clears a path to the message. It doesn’t change eternal truths, it helps us apply them.

Here are 22 ways to tell the difference between gimmicks and innovation.

Author

Karl Vaters

Karl produces resources for Helping Small Churches Thrive at KarlVaters.com.
He's the author of five books on church leadership, including his newest, De-Sizing the Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What's Next. His other books include The Grasshopper Myth and Small Church Essentials.
Karl also hosts a bi-weekly podcast,The Church Lobby: Conversations on Faith & Ministry, featuring in-depth interviews about topics that concern pastors, especially those who minister in a small church context.
Karl has served in small-church ministry for over 40 years, so he speaks and writes from decades of hands-on pastoral experience. He and his wife, Shelley have three children and two grandkids.

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