It’s good to have experts. Those tried and true stalwarts of a field. Those who established methods and products and even entire industries that have become the standards we trust and rely on. We need those kinds of “mothers and fathers” to look up to, to look back on, to emulate and draw inspiration from.
But we also need the innovators. Those people in a field who are looking not only to the past, but also to the horizon. Those who take what we have already collectively learned and practice and re-imagine them. We need those people who ask questions that are relevant to our times which the former generations of experts could not have imagined, those who keep things fresh and on par with new challenges in the world.
I don’t mean to say that experts and innovators are in competition. Rather, there is an expert-innovator loop that keeps things moving forward. At one time those who eventually became experts were innovators themselves. And any innovator worth their salt humbly and gratefully acknowledges the experts whose foundation they build upon.
This is just as true in matters of faith as it is in science or medicine or technology or psychology or any other field.
In the New Testament, the Jewish people put so much stock in their experts (Abraham or Moses, for example) that they missed what the innovator (Jesus) was really doing and saying. Every generation since has faced the same challenge. The powerful experts of Augustine or Calvin or Wesley (or in my own tribe, Wimber), for example, have been blinders that caused some to discount later innovators.
The experts will always serve as solid examples and foundations. Thanks be to God.
The innovators will continue to innovate. Thanks be to God.
Here’s one thing I believe to be true: Jesus was, and still is, an innovator. Even in his earthly ministry, he rarely did the same thing the same way twice. His kingdom is perpetually breaking into this world in fresh and creative ways. And he uses human innovators to do that work just as he used the experts whose work they build upon.
