Jesus Frees Us to Experiment in Ministry
What does "high agency" look like in ministry practice?
This week,
, , and I found ourselves deep in a conversation about agency—that hard-to-define spark that helps some people get things done in circumstances where most of us would freeze. And more specifically, we asked:Why are Christians often reluctant to try new things in ministry?
The jail-cell thought experiment
We kicked off with a thought experiment from George Mack’s essay on high agency:
If you woke up in a third-world jail cell with one phone call, who would you ring?
The person you thought of—that’s someone with high agency. Someone who moves problems forward instead of getting stuck in them. Someone who acts.
It’s an unsettling but really helpful diagnostic.
When good theology becomes hesitant practice
From there, we found ourselves talking about the strange tension that conservative Christians often feel. We don’t experiment with the gospel. We don’t reinvent doctrine.
But sometimes that conservative theological conviction bleeds into conservative practice. We become afraid to experiment even with the methods of ministry.
The insight that landed for all of us was this:
Strong theological convictions don’t restrict experimentation—they enable it.
When the gospel provides the guardrails, we’re actually freed to try new approaches, explore new contexts, and run creative experiments without fear of getting lost.
We’re not experimenting with truth.
We’re experimenting with how to communicate truth in a changing world.
Five low-agency traps that hold churches back
A big part of our conversation unpacked what George Mack calls the “low agency traps,” and applied these concepts to the patterns that keep churches from trying new things, even when they know change is needed.
The vague trap — getting captured by problems instead of solutions
The midwit trap — overcomplicating decisions and waiting for validation
The attachment trap — clinging to ideas without remembering why
The rumination trap — spiralling in “what if?” loops that freeze action
The overwhelm trap — drowning in options and choosing none
Every church leader has been in at least one of these. I’ve personally been in all five.
Building bridges, not blowing things up
We also explored the importance of bridge-building—experimenting by adding new pathways rather than destroying what’s already working. Change doesn’t have to be disruptive. It can be additive.
Then we wandered into Sun Tzu’s “75% rule”: if you have 75% of the information, act. Waiting for perfect clarity is a form of avoidance. Eventually, you need to book the tickets and run the experiment.
Does the Holy Spirit change our agency?
We ended by asking whether the Holy Spirit actually helps us grow in agency.
My reflection was that faithfulness in small things matters far more than impressive output. High agency isn’t the same as cultural success.
Stu took it even further:
Being in Christ is agency.
Jesus is the new wineskin, and we express that newness in our generation.
High agency isn’t something we manufacture. It’s something we receive—and then steward—in the service of the gospel.
And as always, listen along to The Shock Absorber podcast on your regular podcasting platform, or click through on one of the links below.