My mate Thomas, from across the pond, has an insightful post on imagination vs. memory.
He brings out a number of good points.
How many times have you heard a great idea, or had one yourself only to be shot down with, “Well we’ve never done it that way” or “Well this is how we’ve always done it.”
I know it can happen every day in a church, business or government setting. I’ve heard many friends complain that they’ve come into a job, anxious and ready to make an impact, they look around, come up with some new imaginative ideas, only to get shot down with similar comments.
Working for two different newspaper companies and being the “new kid on the block” I experienced this a lot. It seemed that 90% of my ideas (at one paper especially) were shot down only because “You don’t know anything about newspapers. When you’ve been in the business as long as I have you’ll know better.” And because of the unwillingness to change, print newspapers continue to see a decrease in their subscriptions and rack sales.
Sure, I may not know as much about newspapers as someone who’s been in the business 20 years, but I do know about my generation and I know they’re not reading newspapers.
Thomas writes:
My friend Stewart over at Scream Without Raising Your Voice made an interesting point in a recent post. He spoke of his church needing to look to imagination rather than memory.
This struck a chord with me… On Sunday, at the Salvation Army in Bellshill, we held a business meeting to discuss some options that have come to light with regards to the new building for the corps.
We can either move within the main street… or move to a nearby location… either way, we’ll need to move from our present position…
What we need is imagination… the ability to design the future of Bellshill… create something new rather than rely on what has been.
Thomas said his church hit roadblocks along the way while trying to find a new location for their church and much of the debate was based on what’s happened historically, not what’s happening now or in the future.
Thomas quotes from Edward de Bono:
Any new idea that does not raise a howl of protest is probably not a good idea. Those who are comfortable in the use of the old idea find it difficult to see the inadequacies of the old idea. If you have to imagine new benefits and you cannot achieve this effort of imagination, you have no choice except to resist the new.
I like that. Granted, just because your idea raises a howl of protest doesn’t mean its a good idea and also realize that just because there’s protest doesn’t make it a bad idea either.
I’m reminded of Paul’s instruction to Timothy:
Get the word out. Teach all these things. And don’t let anyone put you down because you’re young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching. And that special gift of ministry you were given when the leaders of the church laid hands on you and prayed—keep that dusted off and in use. – I Timothy 4:11-14
Finally, Thomas adds:
Imagination is checking out all possibilities… not accepting things as is. Its about looking behind the loin cloth of some classical statue… instead of accepting what should be there.
Read his post for more
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