Traditioned Innovation

I first heard the intriguing phrase, Traditioned Innovation, a few years ago while I was attending a seminar at Duke Divinity. Last week several of our KCD ministers had the privilege of participating in the annual Estes Park Consultation on Clergy Development, in which Greg Jones, the creator of the phrase, Traditioned Innovation, was the major presenter. Dr. Jones is the author of Christian Social Innovation: Renewing Wesleyan Witness, a book about the need for Christian entrepreneurship that stimulates renewal, reestablishes trust, and cultivates sustainability.  

Traditioned Innovation speaks to the practice of moving forward by imagining a new advance that is properly anchored in what lies behind. Traditioned Innovation acknowledges that while those of us in leadership are called to paint, we are seldom presented a blank canvas on which to do the painting. Usually the canvas we are presented already has a significant amount of paint on it. The question becomes, “How do we paint in such a way that both honors the artists who have gone before and is a fresh expression of the new thing God wants to do?”

Jones suggests that Traditioned Innovation calls for several virtues, including (among others) a sense of awe, hope, gratitude, wisdom, and trust. He also suggests that true innovation usually necessitates change in about 3% of an organization/institution. The key is to discern which 3% needs to change!

Christian leaders were once social entrepreneurs who built hospitals to heal the body and universities to shape the mind. Jones suggests that today we need similar Christian leaders to lead us forward by displaying a “holy ambition” willing to creatively engage the needs of the world around us, develop creative innovations, and foster flourishing communities.  

May God help us be leaders who produce Traditioned Innovation as we “ponder anew what the Almighty can do.”