Imagine That!

C. McNair Wilson is crazy. The nephew of Billy Graham’s chief financial officer, Wilson grew up in the church. We use the term “grew up” loosely. He describes himself today as a “former third grader.” Part Rip Taylor, part mad scientist, his mission is to bring fun to our work.

Drawing on his ten years as a Disney Imagineer, designer on six major theme park projects, artist, actor, and playwright, Wilson inspires business and church leaders in the fine art of creativity.

At pastors’ conferences and Christian media conventions, his sessions are easily spotted. Look for the room with people sitting two to a chair and spilling into the hallways. Listen for the room emitting hoots and cheers and all manner of raucous noises. We wanted to share with you a C. McNair Wilson imaginative problem-solving session. We meant well. That’s all we can say by way of apology.

Creativity can be frightening—also disorganized, noisy, and chaotic. And, by the way, “Who’s gonna clean up the mess in the Fellowship Hall?!”

Creativity. It’s so much more than artistic expression, though the artist, composer, actor, author have powerful tools for presenting fresh perspectives. These are, quite simply, tools of human imagination. Everyone is born with imagination—your creative spirit—though few pursue and develop it beyond early childhood. The few who keep their imaginations active become theme-park designers, write multi-volume end-times bestsellers, or—if they can’t make a living that way—become youth ministers. So just what is creativity?

creativity (kree-ay-TIV-eh-tee) verb

1. to make the new, or rearrange the old to appear new. 2. action taken as a result of imagination.

Notice, the word “art” doesn’t appear in that definition. Is there creativity beyond artistic expression?

Creativity can be frightening—also disorganized, noisy, and chaotic. And, by the way, “Who’s gonna clean up the mess in the Fellowship Hall?!”

Ask any church with a reputation for innovation if they’ve ever tried something that didn’t work. If they say no, they’re lying.

My assignment is quite simple: inspire pastors and ministry leaders to be creative, in 2,000 words or less, “with bullet points.” Along the way, remove personal insecurities (“I am NOT creative” and “What will people say?”).

Before you read on: get three colored writing instruments—NOT ballpoint!—and unlined paper, to take notes. I’ll wait here …

Onward!

In the image of God—the Creator—we are made. First, a myth dispelled: there’s no such thing as creative people and NON-creative people. It would be nice if it were that simple. No, we are all actively or inactively creative throughout every single day. How does one craft a sermon or Bible study when you don’t feel inspired? How does one lead a planning team when dry, tired, and crabby? (If you’re crabby, call in sick. Please.)

Start by believing that new, wild, powerful, creative thinking can be used throughout ministry, and lurch forward toward the impossible.

Christianity changes through its youth. “A child will lead …” the young man from Galilee said (I take that as a command). As children, not a one of us had to be encouraged to paint, sing, draw, dance, make up stories. Playfulness is a naturally occurring human activity. Good news: we can reignite those early flames of creativity any time we want by calling on the long-dormant curiosities of youth. They’re in there, way in the back, behind the Mimeograph.

We followers of Bethlehem’s Star have journeyed from a young man on a shoreline telling stories to fishermen, to a kid named Booth on street corners in England who brought a brass band to get folks’ attention, to a young Mr. Hybels on the stage of a smoky suburban movie house with a light show and rock band, to a warehouse filled with skateboarding pre-teens and blaring hip hop gospel music. It’s all the church of the Creator God.

We’ve changed the way we tell the story, but the Story remains the same. And we have changed more in recent decades than in the preceding centuries.

Pastors, elders, Sunday school teachers, and parking lot volunteers can all recapture their original creative spirit by practicing four traits we have in common with the most actively creative people in history—from the Wright brothers to Einstein to Walt Disney. Enthusiastically and relentlessly applied, our creativity can change lives and reinvigorate the church. Understanding these traits is easy, putting them into practice, well, your mileage may vary depending on doctrinal climate and willingness to rethink EVERYTHING.

The four traits of the actively creative (watch out for bullet points) are:

1. Taking Risks, proceeding without control over outcome.
2. Challenging Assumptions, ignoring all unwritten rules by which we’ve been “doing church,” so far.
3. Seeing Differently, trying everything in a new way, “Behold! All things have become new.”
4. Pursuing Curiosity, a great place to start: “What if …”

Next staff meeting, ask everyone, “What have we never done here before?” It’s not a trick question, but it is tricky to answer. Great answers come from great questions. The question is not “What have we never done before that we can afford, that we know how to do, that we can get away with before the denominational police catch us?” Look again, “What have we never done here before?” Period.

Much of my consulting with churches is leading brainstorming for new facilities. They think hiring a former Disney Imagineer will net an amazing (looking) facility. I begin with “How do you want to serve the community that current facilities are preventing you from doing?” Good use leads to interesting architecture.

Try this:

Divide into groups of 3-6 people (no more than 7 per group) and come up with 100 “things” (each group) to answer that question. You have 15 minutes.

Share your lists and pick ten from all lists.

Then each small group brainstorms two or three of the ten.

Then the whole staff selects which ideas to expand, plan, and put into action—on even a small scale. Change is doing, not talking.

Questions are a powerful tool for jumpstarting creativity. So you might want to:

1. Select and post a “Question of the week” (or month), which everyone discusses and brainstorms informally.
2. Conclude with a staff powwow to plan and implement the best idea.

While writing my latest book (YES, AND … Brainstorming Secrets of a Theme Park Designer), I created an entire chapter comprised solely of “Great Questions” to accelerate brainstorming.

Seeing Differently can be as simple and powerful as rearranging the furnishings in your office (after repainting) or holding a worship service in a movie theater. (Nah, that won’t work!) Or try:

1. An otherwise formal worship now done in shirt sleeves, no ties, no choir robes and no …

OR

1. Decorating the rest of the church to be as colorful and exciting as the children’s ministry area. (Why do I have to go down to the basement to find life and color in a church?) Apparently the age of accountability comes with drab surroundings.

If your facilities could become corporate offices or a junior college by merely changing the activities, it’s time to rethink, repaint, redecorate. “But we don’t want it to look churchy.” Fine. But does it have to be boring?

Try this:

Give each staff member a small budget and one month to make their office their office.

1. No rules about what’s “appropriate” or fits in the denominational palette.
2. One rule: what works for me to do my ministry.
3. Upon completion have a Sunday “open church” (house).
4. Everyone in church votes on the offices with the most personality.

A pastor in Dallas had a small room—adjacent to his large formal office—for studying. Therein: no phone, few books, and a writing desk facing a window looking out on trees. The small sign on the door: “Alabama.”

If you called on a Thursday or Friday, you would be told, “Pastor’s in Alabama today.” Church members knew this meant he was not available. Folks from outside the church left a message. “Alabama” was what worked for him to study, prepare, and still be on site. Another pastor friend outside Detroit has a room called “Mississippi.” The movement is spreading. Attention youth ministers: practice saying, “I like my office like this. It works for me. Thanks for stopping by.”

Taking Risks means just that. Try something for which no one is certain of the outcome. The current corporate buzzword is innovation. Ask any church with a reputation for innovation if they’ve ever tried something that didn’t work. If they say no, they’re lying. When you try something new, there will be failure and there will be discovery. If a team, a staff, works together enthusiastically on anything, they at least learn teamwork. Risk big, learn big. Try it again, bigger.

During my decade at Disney, designing theme parks as an Imagineer, I heard endless stories of risk and failure. Disneyland opened July 1955 and lost money, lots of money, for three years. The Wall Street Journal predicted its failure. They said the same of Disney World (’71), Epcot (’82), and in 1989, upon the opening of Disney-MGM Studios, they penned, “The world awaits Disney’s newest miracle.” (The Journal has a long learning curve.)

When Bill Hybels preached from a movie theater stage in the 1970s, no one was flying to Chicago to copy him. No one.

Try this:

Everyone arrives for worship and the bulletin is a blank sheet of paper (and comes with a colored felt pen), the stage is empty, and there’s no “pre-show” music. At the appointed time, someone stands (from their seat among everyone else) and recites a simple verse or two. (Silence.) Another stands and prays a short prayer of thanksgiving or praise. (Silence.) From the balcony or back pew a song begins. Others join in. (No projection of words-on-the-wall.) It might even be, hold on, an old hymn. (Silence.) A member of the pastoral staff, or junior high group, stands near the front and asks, “What is God doing in your life this week?” (Silence.) Call it “Saints Alive!” Call it church. Be careful, it could go on all day.

Why must worship always be ordered? If there was NOTHING planned, could we still worship? Do not presume this would not work with a huge church. Assume you will not be able to stop it once it gets started. Assume that where two gather in Jesus’ name—wonder! (Let me know what happens.)

The church I attend in San Francisco has a moment of sharing after every sermon. We complete the lesson together, then, “What is God saying to you this morning?” It’s always good. It has even been miraculous.

Challenging Assumptions. We all live, work, and “do church” following a series of procedures and prescriptions. Most of them are assumptions, not written down anywhere. If it’s a tradition, is it valuable, meaningful, or just the way it’s always done? Remember: tradition is suggestion, not law.

Our assumptions stem from the Eleventh Commandment: “We’ve never done it that way here before.”

Try this:

Ask, in a staff or board meeting, “What’s the least best thing we do? Why do we do it that way? What are 10 (or 27) other ways to do it?” Try one of those “other ways” NOW.

Example: Are staff meetings long and boring? (This happens in corporations; I’m guessing it may occasionally occur in the church.) Try rotating who chairs the meeting. Each person’s personality will affect agenda, use of time, and flavor of the discussion. When my theatre company of 40 performers rotated the chair for our fortnightly company meeting among three directors, we each brought a different temperament to the proceedings. Productivity in those meetings improved.

When the staff gets “stuck” on a problem, ask, “What assumptions are we making that are blocking creativity?” Make a list of assumptions. Tear up the list. Burn it. Dance on the ashes. Move on! (Wipe your feet before going back inside.)

Managing creativity in a ministry staff: When anyone comes to you (as their assumed boss) with an idea, a question, or proposal, let your first response be, “Yes … and tell me more.” Even if you know it’s a hare-brained, way-outside-the-pew, impossible, discord-among-the-brethren-(and sistren)-producing idea, say, “YES!” The bond you form dreaming and planning the impossible will be a lifelong asset to your ministry two-gether.

Walt Disney said, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” Jesus agreed, “Ask (the impossible) and it will be given to you. Ask me!”

We are servants to people in need of the life that flows from Creation, through Calvary and an empty tomb. We are backed up, Paul says, by “the power of the Resurrection.” Why squander it on the ordinary?

Try this:

Let your curiosity get the best of you. If nothing else, you’ll save money from all those workshops you’ve been attending.

C. McNair Wilson is a writer, consultant, and self-proclaimed Emperor of I!MAGINU!TY Unlimited. He says he lives in baggage claim at the San Francisco Airport. www.mcnairwilson.com

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.