Put Your Thinking Cap On

Do you remember ever being told to put your thinking cap on? This notion repeated

countless elementary teachers has more truth to it than perhaps we realize. There are often time we need to practice looking at things in a different way.

Edward de Bono developed a process that he calls the “Six Thinking Hats” meant to invite people to look at situations from six different angles. It is a brilliant process that can be used in a group setting or by an individual when brainstorming on their own.

I will briefly summarize the six hats and their approaches but you click here for a PDF that has more detail. If you want to learn more about this process, you may want to pick up de Bono’s book “Six Thinking Hats”. If you don’t feel like you can add one more book to your pile, you can simply Google it to find out more. In the meantime, here's a quick summary:

White Hat: What information is known or needs to be known. Wearing this hat invites the person to look at things objectively, only viewing the known information or asking questions about the information that needs to be known.

Yellow Hat: An optimistic outlook on the idea. This hat invites a person to look for all of the good that is present in the idea or the good that will result.

Black Hat: This hat explores the idea more critically and looks for what might go wrong with this idea or what the risks associated with it might be.

Red Hat: This hat is about feelings: what does your intuition tell you about this idea. This hat also can explore how the possible audience might react to the idea.

Green Hat: This hat invites creativity into the process and asks questions or explores options that will help develop the idea.

Blue Hat: This hat controls the thinking process so that it stays on task.

How could you use this approach in ministry? Let’s pretend that your church has recently decided to start a parent ministry. This ministry will focus on providing parents with the tools and support they need to help their children in the journey of life because let’s face it, kids don’t come with instruction manuals.

You’ve assembled a team who has come up with the idea of doing a daylong workshop that will provide different sessions that parents can choose from. Before you pursue this idea, you implement the six hats in your committee. These are some questions that might be asked using the six hat approach:

Yellow Hat: How would this ministry benefit parents? What are the things about it that would make them want to come?

Black Hat: What are the risks of holding this day? What about it might turn parents away?

Red Hat: How will parents react to this? How are you feeling about this event? Do you have any hesitations? Do you feel excited about the idea? Where is this excitement/are these hesitations coming from?

White Hat: What information are we still in need of? How many parents do we have in our church? Where are they on the parent scale (young children, preteens, teens, empty nesters)?

Green Hat: What should our topics for the day be? How will this event be unique?

Blue Hat: What are the next steps? Should we consider looking at this further through the lens of one of the other five hats?

My impression is that these thought patterns already take place in our heads, but this process invites us to do so with consciousness. Thus, we end up developing something that is both unique and well-rounded, allowing it to be a well formed idea.

Imagine what our ministries would look like if we practiced this, especially in committee or staff meeting settings. It would stir up thoughts and excitement within everyone. Plus it would welcome everyone’s feedback and contributions. Our ministries would experience a strength that they might have not possessed before.

May the Creative Spirit stir within you!

Prayer of the Plunger: Using Objects to Inspire Creativity

I was once asked to talk to a group of about 120 eighth graders on contemplative prayer. I was extremely excited because this is a subject that I love to share with others. I’ve been practicing a particular form of contemplative prayer for about ten years now. It has completely changed my understanding of prayer to the point that I can’t even speak of prayer the way that I used to because that has become a foreign concept. While I speak on this topic on a regular basis to adults, I had never actually spoken to 13 and 14 year olds on this subject matter.

I began putting my thoughts together, choosing words and examples from teen culture that I knew would help me get my point across but I wanted some type of object lesson; something that I could physically hold in front of them to use as an analogy for this type of prayer. I love to use these object lessons because I feel that it gives my audience something to walk away with. I sometimes talk too much and while I like to believe that what I’m saying is valuable information and that each person listening is glued to my every word, the reality is that a lot of times they’re only hearing every other word, or none at all.

The beauty of having an object is that when you hold it up, you have the attention of everyone, including those whose minds might have wondered. But also, this analogy gives them something to hold on to. They won’t remember every word I said but hopefully they’ll remember the analogy associated with the object. Also, it might stick with them every time they see that object outside my talk, hopefully recalling whatever it is I intended for them to learn.

I sat at my desk for hours trying to come up with something to compare to this type of prayer, looking around my office for something that would help me explain what could not be put into words. I began to get frustrated as nothing in front of me seemed to lend me the ability to convey my message. Finally I decided I needed to move outside of my office to find something. I decided that I would stop at the local Target on my way home and I wouldn’t leave there until I found something that I could use.

As I walked through the aisles of Target I continued to grow frustrated as I failed to find anything, but I stuck to my mission and refused to leave until I found something. Finally I walked into the bathroom section and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw a plunger. I didn’t know how I would use it but I knew that this was the object I needed.

I couldn’t shut my brain off as I drove home and within twenty minutes I had it all figured out. I would use three different objects typically found in a bathroom and compare them to the ways we might treat prayer. This is how they ended up looking:

Toothbrush: We use it in the morning and the evening but we don’t give much thought to it outside of those times. Brushing our teeth is a habit and often we don’t really focus on what we’re doing because we’ve done it so many times. Our prayer life can be treated the same way. We say a quick prayer when we get up (maybe) and say a prayer before we go to bed. But we don’t give much thought to it outside of those times. And when we do pray during these times, we don’t give it much mental thought.

Plunger: When I held this up, the teens started cracking up while simultaneously yelling “Ewww!” While sparing the details on what a plunger is used for, I explained that sometimes we only pray to God during emergencies; when our life feels clogged or when it feels full of, well, crap. While this example might seem crud, it definitely got my point across and a lot of them understand and could relate to what I meant.

Deodorant: This is the prayer life we’re meant to have. Putting deodorant on allows us to feel confident throughout the day. During moments we’re stressed and begin to perspire, we don’t have to worry about smelling bad. If you’ve ever had a day when you forgot to put on deodorant and found yourself in a close-crowded situation, you know the lack of confidence you experience. Similarly, a contemplative prayer life affects us throughout the day. No matter what the situation, we feel confident that God is in the situation and will not abandon us.

In the weeks following my talk, I heard from parents who were not present when I spoke about how their teen came home and shared these analogies with them and the parents were so excited that this had stuck. Further the parents expressed how much they appreciated the imagery for their own prayer lives.

This would not have happened had I given up and decided not use an object lesson. I truly believe that this was inspired by the Spirit, who was working through me to express the importance of deepening our relationship with God. It also opened up the door so that I could then teach a method to these teens for experiencing this type of prayer, which perhaps they wouldn’t have been open to had I just talked rather than shown.

I often frequent places like Target, party supply stores and craft stores in an effort to come up with object lessons. Sometimes I don’t find anything, but often the effort pushes me to think outside the box and causes me to look at things in a new way. Perhaps I end up not using an object lesson but what and how I say something is different.

I would encourage you to consider using objects as a way to inspire creativity in your ministry. Whether it be a lesson plan or in giving a reflection, to inspire a new ministry or strengthen an existing one, or just to invite yourself to view ministry in a new way, try it. See what it stirs up. Allow it to break open your thinking so that those juices start flowing.

May the Creative Spirit stir within you!

What's the reason for this blog?

I have been working in Youth Ministry for about seven years now. My particular ministry requires being creative if I want to keep the young people I work with engaged. I’m constantly seeking to connect faith with their culture in ways that will stick with them as they go out into the world. I have found myself continually reading up on ways to stir up the creative juices both in myself and in those I work with. In the past seven years, I have discovered more techniques and have learned more about how we come up with ideas than I ever thought I would. I see this process of creativity as the Holy Spirit working in me, bringing to life the Spirit’s ideas through my ministry. These techniques help me think outside the box (isn’t that how Jesus was thought to think) so that I can hear the Spirit.

Which of us hasn’t sat in on a meeting where nothing new was discussed and instead people just went around the table sharing reports rather than seeking feedback? When we feel that our opinions are not valued in these meetings, we find ourselves staring at the clock wondering when this torture will end. Imagine what these meetings look like if instead everyone was excited about seeking new ways to improve their ministries. Our church would look very different.

There are many ministries that are dying because they’re outdated and lack creativity. My fear is that in avoiding creativity and blocking the Spirit, our churches become lifeless. The people in our congregations need to be engaged. They need to know that the body of Christ is a living body in which they are a part of. They need to hear how their faith is something that does not end when their hand hits the church door on the way out but rather something that they must live.

Being open to creativity can allow us to solve problems in our ministries. Maybe we feel that people are losing interest or that we’re not speaking on the topics that really matter to the lives of those we are ministering to. Creativity invites us to look at things through new eyes. Sometimes the simplest technique can invite a whole new perspective for us.

This blog has been on my heart for some time. I’ve spent so much time trying to understand creativity and have benefited from it but now I feel that it’s time to share what I’ve learned with others. How can we apply these techniques that many thriving business use to make millions of dollars so that we can turn millions of souls to Christ? So I plan to share with you what I have learned and what I continue to learn. I hope that you will find what I have here to help you in your own ministry.

May the Creative Spirit stir within you.