Guitar Hero & God

From Monday Morning Insight:


If you have a teenager (or a Playstation), then you’ve no doubt heard about ‘Guitar Hero’. Guitar Hero is a music video that uses a guitar-shaped peripheral (resembling a miniature Gibson SG) to simulate the playing of rock music. It’s all the rage. The player must play scrolling notes to complete a song. The more notes you play correctly, the harder it gets, and the higher your score. Pretty neat idea, right? I’ve played Guitar Hero, and it is a lot of fun. But according to David Riley, a video game analyst (how would you like that job?) in this month’s Fast Company magazine: “I’m tired of repeating myself.” In other words, once you’ve played Guitar Hero for 100 hours, it gets old...

The innovators at Guitar Hero’s parent company, Activision, understand this reality as well. That’s why they’re set to release version three of the Guitar Hero series. New songs, new skill levels, and a whole new level of play and challenge for Guitar Hero fans is just around the corner. Rather than see their product sales slide, they know they need to constantly improve the product for their customer.

Meanwhile, Activision’s rivals over at Electronic Arts are getting ready to release “Rock Band” for Playstation. Rock Band includes not only a guitar simulator, but also a drum kit and a microphone. EA has seen the success of Guitar Hero and improved (or at least expanded) on the idea. They are advertising it as a “band in a box”, and it will for sure interest a whole new set of young gamers.

What does all this have to do with the church? Well, I’m glad you asked.

Church innovators also have the job of looking at what they are currently doing and tweaking or improving it to reach a whole new audience. The true leaders and innovators in today’s church are looking for ways to do things better, to be more efficient, and to utilize their time, finances, people, and resources to best leverage their return for the Kingdom.

The true innovators find ways to do this without compromising the message of the gospel. How do we attract more people to hear the gospel? What do we need to change with our discipleship program to help people understand the gospel and grow faster? How can we make it easier (that what it is now) for people to take their next step toward Christ? What can we do better? What can we learn from other churches? What do we need to stop doing? These are all questions asked by true church innovators.

As these questions are being asked and answered, in individual churches, by individual leaders, all over the country, change is happening; and I am encouraged.

Are you an innovator? What small decision can you make in your ministry this week to leverage your resources, people, time, and money to be most effective for the Kingdom? Maybe you need to add a ‘version three’. Maybe you need to introduce the ‘drum and the microphone’.

Have fun with it this week… and give the glory to God for what he will do through your leadership!