When the movie Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile came out, my kids absolutely loved it. The story follows Lyle, a singing and dancing crocodile, on his journey to find a home and a family. It’s a fantastic movie with an even better soundtrack. Like all obsessed kids, they wanted to listen to the soundtrack nonstop—for weeks and months.
There’s a song in the movie, sung by Lyle (voiced by Shawn Mendes) and the mom, Katie Primm (played by Constance Wu). Katie has been stuck in a rut of routine and rules, and this song is her moment to break free—to step beyond the recipe and try something new.
Check it out below
The lyrics that stand out to me the most are:
But when the sugar hits the fan
You make a mess of your perfect plan
And you’re facin’ the face of somethin’ strange and new
If it’s not what you had prepared
In the scramble, you can’t get scared
Oh, let somethin’ wild and wonderful break through
Over the years, I’ve realized that we can fall into a similar rut of routine. Ministry can—and often does—become formulaic. Sunday mornings or youth nights tend to follow the same patterns, involve the same people doing the same roles, and our calendars can stay surprisingly similar year after year.
Throughout my career, I’ve watched leaders (and have been encouraged myself) to create five-year plans that simply get recycled. Eventually, the plan feels new again to someone, and all you need to do is tweak a few things here or there.
In some ways, that’s fine. I’ve been known to have legacy events and plans that repeated year after year. But I’ve also met people—and have sometimes been that person—who got stuck. People who clung to a “perfect plan” and struggled to adapt as the needs of their community, church, and team changed. Ministry is a lot like a recipe. We work with familiar ingredients, blending them together to accomplish our goals. But here’s the thing: there’s more than one recipe in the world.
If you’re feeling stuck, if the old strategies aren’t working anymore, if you’re feeling uninspired, maybe—just maybe—rather than fearing change, it’s time to…
“Let somethin’ wild and wonderful break through.”
Fresh Challenge
Try one new thing in your ministry.. It doesn’t matter what you choose—what matters is that you start ripping up the recipe.
- Maybe it’s a new event you’ve been dreaming about.
- Maybe it’s reorganizing your space or updating how you structure your events.
- Maybe it’s letting your student or leaders call the shots for an evening.
- Maybe it’s just about slowing down and asking the question, “Is what we are doing working?”
Whatever it is, take the risk. Step beyond the familiar. You might just discover something wild and wonderful waiting to break through.
Fresh Ministry Consulting 