Thoughts Along The Journey

I was on a hiking trail with my wife in southeastern France when it hit me.  It was an idea, an innovative idea let’s say, for how we could structure a training time with a group of summer interns.  Of course, I was “out of the office” on vacation and was supposedly not to be thinking about work related matters, but the idea just seemed to come together at the moment. 

I’m sure that being on a “pilgrimage” trail to the chapel of St Pancras helped in this process.  You may remember that St Pancras was a Roman citizen who converted to Christianity and was martyred for his faith at the age of 14 (304 AD).  I’m sure that the book I had read during the week had provided some necessary input.  Maybe you, like me, use vacations to read more widely and broadly since the time is there.  And I’m sure that the idea would be worthy of a discussion because innovative ideas and processes are refined and improved in community.  However, in thinking back over the whole process that led me to this idea, I realized it was more than just the location, the resources or the innovative plan.  I was “out of context”.

What I mean by that is getting out of my usual life and ministry “context” allowed me to look at an idea, plan or ministry project from a different perspective.  Often I (we) have a tendency to tread the same water in discussions about new ideas.  Within our given “context”, we may not perceive unique avenues to pursue in discussion.  We may find ourselves immediately turning to certain reasons why an idea, event or plan will not work.  We might hear ourselves say, for example, “It’s not the right time of year,” or “We don’t have the resources,” or “I just don’t have the time to give to that.”

Granted that these may be true at certain times, but stepping “out of context” from time to time would free us to consider other ways to address ministry needs and concerns.  You don’t have to physically step “out of context” as I did while on vacation to hold this kind of discussion, but I would challenge your team or your field to look back over any recent idea or project that was set aside, and ask the question as to whether your discussion was limited to just “in context” thinking.

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I used to tell our kids that every philosophical question should be answered by a “yes” and a “no”.  What I meant by that is that you had to approach such questions from multiple perspectives.  Shouldn’t it be the same when we talk about innovation? I am often very good about arguing or looking at an issue or a problem from one perspective, but struggle to be able to examine the same issue or problem from other perspectives.  Often people will say to me (and I find myself saying the very same thing as well) that we need to “think outside the box”.  By that, we imply that what we are currently doing represents “in the box thinking”.  It’s actually answering the question by choosing only one response.

In my experienc, it’s just hard to do both.  It’s hard to free ourselves and others to creatively imagine new approaches to ministry needs (for example, discipling, mobilizing new workers, or engaging those who come for 1-3 months of ministry) all the while working in a defined framework of guiding principles and strong community.  It is thinking “in the box” and thinking “out of the box”.  The sandbox metaphor used by T.J. Addington in his book, Leading from the Sandbox is one effort to try and capture this idea.

If I fail to think both “in the box” and “out of the box”, I may find myself:

• Proposing innovative ideas, but being “closed” to the input of others in my community which would refine and improve those ideas;
• Arguing against changing certain structures of ministry because it might challenge what I “know” as life and ministry right now; or
• Working as if no one else is in the “sandbox” with me, and missing the fruit of interdependence (or the gift of accountability) which would allow me to grow further in my journey with Christ.

I can get stuck very easily in one type of thinking, but then again, that’s why I need community; that’s why we need community.

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