Creative Destruction

Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, along with Joel Mokyr were awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics today. Drs. Aghion and Howitt, according to the NY Times announcement, were awarded for their work on “the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction.”

“They built a mathematical model for growth, with creative destruction as a core element.”

I have no idea what this means in the context of economics, but I do know something about creative destruction. Yes, it is a core element of ministry if the Church hopes to grow.

A colleague and friend often describes his congregation as a healthy dinosaur. Changes – big ones that will involve some level of destruction – are in their future, but for now, there is plenty of money and human participation is impressive. They are flourishing. Nevertheless their leaders are aware that sustained growth will only happen with creative destruction.

Unfortunately, some of our congregations are dead dinosaurs. They have been destroyed by cataclysmic shifts in the world which triggered an increase in secularism and a dearth of spiritual nourishment. There are literally hundreds of books on the causes of this cataclysm:

• Once Constantine became a Christian and it was a good idea to practice the same faith as the Emperor, people identified as Christians for the sake of cultural inclusion instead of counter cultural ways of living in the name of Jesus.
• We taught our children to be good church members but we didn’t teach them to be disciples of Jesus.
• We focussed on the ABCs of ministry (attendance, building, and cash) instead of the NOPs of ministry (neighbors, organizational structure, and partnerships.)

I could go on and on. The bottom line is that it will be impossible for the Church of Jesus Christ to thrive unless we are open to new ideas and willing to make changes. This is true for our economy. This is true for our institutions, including The Church.

I love spending time with both healthy dinosaurs and newly discovered species in Church World. I do not love spending time with dead dinosaurs even though they mean well. But nothing can keep them alive without a willingness to creatively destroy what no longer serves God or feeds God’s people.

Maybe our churches need to tear out the old kitchen and add an institutional kitchen that can feed the neighbors. Or maybe we need to tear down the whole building altogether and resurrect something utterly different. This kind of destruction hurts only if we do not trust God and a vision of wholeness and healing for these days. Before the landscape is covered with dead dinosaurs, how about we pray that God introduces us to new forms of life?