Toolbox For Faith

I read an interesting article this week entitled, “Think Visual” by Clive Thompson. Drawing on the work of an author named Dan Roam, Thompson argues that “our culture relies too heavily on words.” He believes that “dynamic, complicated problems . . . often can’t be boiled down to simple narratives. They’re systems; they have many little parts affecting one another. In those situations, drawing a picture can clarify what’s going on.”

In the church, we do words well. We have scripture. We have tradition. We have liturgies. We have prayer. We have lots and lots of words, so it shouldn’t be surprising that when faced with a problem we often try and talk our way to a solution. I was a part of a conversation last weekend where we discussed an organizational vision. One of the documents we were using had only words and one of them had a picture which incorporated the same ideas and fewer words. Guess which document was referenced again and again and which one was mostly ignored even though the concepts were virtually the same. Increasingly we live in a visual world and perhaps sketching out the problems we face may inspire us to see new connections and discover new solutions.

Now that I have finished my interim, we are worshiping at churches near our home for the first time since we moved. I have picked up several good ideas and here is one that you might wish to use next year.

Here’s the first idea. The first church we visited had a wonderful recognition of their students leaving for their first year at college. At the conclusion of the service, they had a sending service where each of the students came forward with their families and one girlfriend. The congregation presented each student with a Snuggie in their college colors which had the name of the college on the back. A reception in their honor was held in their fellowship hall after the service featuring cupcakes in the colors of the chosen colleges. Large boxes were placed in the fellowship hall where people brought all kinds of fun gifts for the students to take with them. It was a wonderful celebration!

I discovered a website this week called TED.com. According to its website, TED is a small non-profit that focuses on presenting ideas worth sharing. The videos on the TED website are approximately 18 minutes long and cover an amazing range of topics from design to technology to the arts. They feature some of the most engaging speakers in the world today. I have only seen a few of the videos so far, but I would highly recommend the site.

If you would like to see one of the TED Videos, here is one I particularly enjoyed by the Rev. James Forbes on compassion. He makes a compelling case for compassion, noting at the end of his talk that we are called to receive God’s love and give it away. You can find the video at: http://www.ted.com/talks/james_forbes.html

Millions of dollars in advertising money and marketing surveys to discover what Christians have known all along.

I came across this poster from Creative Communications called “The Bible in 50 Words” a while back and thought it was extremely well done. We gave the bookmark version of this poster to everyone in the congregation yesterday when we had “Bible Sunday” (a Sunday where we give away various translations from toddler Bibles to large print Bibles). I got very positive feedback, so I thought I’d pass the information along. You can find the bookmarks here.

Over the last few days, I was participating in a continuing education event and someone asked about their “budget/spending plan”. Dr. Callahan suggested that instead of using either phrase that we instead talk about our ministry investments. It’s not a budget. It’s not spending on ministry. It is a financial investment in the ministry God is calling us to do. This way of describing our finances appealed to me and so for 2011, I am going to suggest that we propose to the congregation our “Investments in Ministry” instead of a “Spending Plan for Ministry.” Given the structure of our finances, the investment document will probably contain these categories.

Investments in Ministry

• Investments in Core Ministries
• Investment in Facilities Expansion
• Investments in Preventative Maintenance and On-going Restoration
• Investments in Ministry Partnerships

I need to determine the specifics of how all our our ministries will fit under these categories, but I hope this will be an effective way to discuss our stewardship of God’s gifts to us.