Day 21: Big Ideas

Out of the box thinking is one of my birthright.

Sometimes my Dad would wake me up at night to share an idea that was keeping him up.  I loved big ideas. 

Sometimes I  would join him on long road trips for business. He had inventory to deliver.  I had an insatiable appetite for adventure. We would rock out to Chicago and Simon and Garfunkel while passing through endless cornfields of the Midwest all while coming up with new business ideas and random inventions. 

I grew up not even knowing there was a box to think outside of. My default worldview was that life presented problems to be solved. 

When I was in library school, I learned a lot about organizational knowledge and structure. Some organizations are designed to bring about innovation and others are slow adapting,  designed to preserve values and tradition. All organizations change and adapt but over different periods of time. 

Decentralized,  nimble organizations like start ups and small non-profits are structured around innovation.  Government,  education, Healthcare, the church gave very good reason to move slowly,  adopt cautiously and value tradition first. 

This can be a source of frustration for people who want to reform these kinds of slow moving organizations. It's easy to get impatient with beaucracy and out of date practices.  But moving slow gives innovation time to mature, be understood and allow ethical debates to occur. This can,  in the best space, create space for wisdom and a protection of people from harms.  In negative ways,  perpetuates harm.  

I'm currently studying the history of the constitution with Eddie and continuing my study of church history. Both histories are heavy with examples of slow change that led to both wisdom and perpetuated harm.  

I was walking with a friend today and we talked about strategic leadership. Setting a vision and bringing people along. Different types of organizations need different types of leaders. 

It got me thinking how someone like me,  born with new ideas popping like popcorn in my brain can work in realms defined by tradition,  rules and hierarchy.  This is one area that has always caused me to pause at the idea of doing ordained ministry.  I love the beautiful traditions of the church. I think they are important and should be preserved and yet,  I can not help myself but think of 100 different ways to wrap those beautiful traditions in new ministries to reinvent church.  

This is the contradiction with my prior post on being the holy remnant.  Being faithful to our faith and traditions and allowing God to do the work of rebuilding the church.  

And yet, it is who I am, to reinvent things. I don't actually know how to live without doing it. My brain wakes up with 20 ideas how to move in strategic new directions with experiments that would provide insight on how to build and refine a plan,  the resources necessary to get started in a minimal way and what questions need to be answered to understand if the whole premise is viable. Im a start up guy,  through and through,  but morally,  I struggle with the start up world. Only billion dollar ideas cut it there and you have to be willing to throw people under the bus to be successful. 

I loved having a start up.  But I would love more to launch ideas that changed lives more than they made money. And so, right now,  I bring big ideas to Sunday school and parenting and homeschooling. And sometimes it's ridiculous. But God has been using my big ideas in small ways and they've made a difference for kids in my life.   

But I keep wondering... is there a place for wild ideas outside Silicon Valley? How can I be faithful to my faith and faithful to who God made me to be?