Don’t Innovate, Imitate

If you’re like me, you like thinking of new things.
You like dreaming new dreams.
You like thinking up new ways of doing things.
You like imagining what could be.

Sometimes, though, you can’t reinvent the wheel.
Sometimes, the way someone else does something is the same way you need to do it.
Sometimes, you can take what someone else is doing and adjust it to work for you.

We do this in church work all the time.

We’ll try to think up something completely new to be ‘cutting edge.’
We’ll spend time and money creating something from scratch when there’s something else out there that would work perfectly.

I’m not saying we should do things just like everyone else.
In fact, I’m totally against copying the church down the street, the family next door, or the person beside you.

I’m not saying you should steal someone else’s intellectual property.
You need to be sure it’s okay to use it.

But sometimes, we don’t need to innovate, we need to imitate.

They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery.

Sometimes, it’s okay to go ahead and flatter away.

Just something to think about…