From Thinking to Doing: Fighting the Inertia of the Church

Doug’s Law

A long-time voice of wisdom in my life, Doug McClintic, once captured a hard truth about church decision-making with a simple equation:

Meetings required to make a decision = Church’s age ÷ 10

Stated simply, “Doug’s Law” holds that the number of meetings required to make a single decision in your church is directly proportionate to the number of decades your church has been around.

If your church is under ten years old, decisions often happen in real time, sometimes without a single meeting. If it’s fifty years old, that same decision might require five meetings with different committees and stakeholders. And if your church is a century old or more—according to Doug—may God have mercy on your weary soul.

If you serve in an established church, this probably doesn’t surprise you. You know how difficult it can be to launch something new. You’ve felt the institutional gravity that pulls even good ideas back toward the center, where safety lives and movement slows.

New ideas often get stuck in the same loop:

• “We tried that before.”

• “Let’s do more research.”

• “We should survey everyone.”

Sometimes an idea is quietly dismissed. Other times it’s endlessly delayed. Occasionally it’s approved, but no one knows how to take the next step. The result? Churches trapped in conversation, task forces, and committee meetings thinking a lot, doing very little. It often feels like the church is allergic to trying something “off the map.”

Beyond Here, There Be Dragons

Maps are useful tools. They show us what’s known, measured, and understood. They tell us where to go and how to get there.

But maps also reveal what we don’t know.

Centuries ago, cartographers marked the edges of the known world with warnings: dragons, sea serpents, monsters. “We don’t know what’s out here,” the maps implied. “Proceed with caution.”

We laugh at those maps now. We’ve crossed oceans, mapped the globe, and sent people to the moon. Our fears have shrunk to places with poor cell service.

And yet.

When it comes to ministry, many churches still treat anything off the map as dangerous. New ideas feel risky. Experiments feel irresponsible. Innovation feels like sailing straight into dragon territory.

The early church didn’t operate this way. They were constantly crossing boundaries—geographic, cultural, theological—learning as they went. Somewhere between “Jesus and his disciples” and “institutional church,” we lost that posture. Today, “doing something new” often feels synonymous with danger.

The Antidote: Set Sail

There’s only one reliable way past the edge of the map: you go there and see for yourself what it looks like. You stop debating the dragons and you set sail.

Innovation in the church doesn’t begin with perfect plans. It begins with movement and small acts of courage that shift us from thinking about change to actually practicing it. Here are three small steps that help loosen the gears.

Three Small Steps Toward Innovation

1. Run a small experiment

Churches often feel pressure to guarantee outcomes before taking action. But innovation doesn’t work that way. You don’t launch something meant to last decades on day one. You test. You learn. You adjust.

Lower the stakes. Name success as learning, not longevity. A small, time-bound experiment is often enough to reveal what’s possible and what needs to change next.

2. Gather extra hands

Ideas die in isolation. Bring yours into the light. Invite a few others to help you test and learn. You don’t need a committee. You don’t need universal buy-in. Three committed people are better than one exhausted idea-carrier who’s out on their own. Momentum grows when ownership is shared.

3. Ask forgiveness, not permission

Somewhere along the way, churches became convinced that faithfulness requires unanimous approval. But you already have permission to make disciples. You already have permission to respond to the Spirit. Take the people you have. Take the idea in front of you. Try something small. See what happens. Nothing is learned without action.

From Thinking to Doing

The church of tomorrow is waiting for the church of today to move.

Not to dream more or do more research.

Not to meet longer or ask everyone’s permission.

But to act; to take steps toward doing something differently.

The future belongs to churches willing to take the first small step beyond the map and learn their way forward. Thinking produces ideas. Doing produces transformation. And the only way forward is to set sail.