Over the next four days, I'm going to expand briefly on the four learnings I identified in preparing my time at Gathering of Leaders. I'll say here what I said there: a "learning"doesn't mean it's something I have learned ... some sort of done deal. It means something that I feel like I'm in the process of learning. Something that is beginning to emerge and become clear for me. Take these in that spirit ... and thoughts still in process for us all to play with.
With that said, here's the first learning:
We need to remember how to play.
The first thing I did with the GOL group was an exercise in play that I got from this TED talk by IDEO CEO Tim Brown where everyone had 30 seconds to draw a picture of someone sitting next to them and then had to show it to them. When you do this with adults, the most common word you hear is "sorry"and embarrassment. When you do this with children, there is no embarrassment. Only pride.
If you have 30 minutes, watch the video ... or you could just watch the first 5 minutes that has that exercise ... or you could just read on.
Somewhere between childhood and adolescence most of us learn to fear the judgment of our peers ... especially groups of our peers. So we start to censor ourselves -- our ideas, our creativity, everything. And this causes us to be conservative in our thinking.
Kids don't have this problem. Kids learn to fear as they grow, but if they're in a trusted environment where there is room to play, wonderful creative things happen. And there is great, great joy in it!
There's this wonderful passage in Matthew 19:
Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.’ And he laid his hands on them and went on his way.
I wonder if this isn't part of what Jesus is talking about here. That it is when we embrace our creativity and play -- when we allow ourselves to be the image of God the creator that we are created as -- the kingdom of heaven opens up to us. It's no accident that the very next thing Jesus says is "it is easy for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." When we are weighed down ... be it by possessions or fear of judgment ... it's hard if not impossible for us to embrace the glorious creative joy that God dreams for us.
Maybe we need a new operating system for this new era in the Church. Maybe we should call it OSP – Operating System Play. Or if PLAY is somehow a stumbling block to you, think in terms of "creativity" or "sense of adventure." Either way, it's when we look around ourselves and see what we have to work with ... and then create.
My best model for this is my nine-year old son, Hayden. Hayden has two great loves in this world – penguins and Legos. Hayden saved up his allowance and bought every single SpongeBob SquarePants Lego set they make. And as soon as he got each one, he got it out and followed the instructions and made the set exactly as it looked on the box.
But then he didn’t stop there. He just started cannibalizing the sets and creating. He made bizarre and beautiful abstract villages for Squidward and Patrick and SpongeBob. And he kept coming and dragging us into his room – “Look at this!” “Come see what I made!”
And it was joy-filled and awesome!
What if we did that as a Cathedral. What if we took all the pieces of this great life God has given us together. All the pieces of our building. All the pieces of our history. All the pieces of the people who have been here for decades and all the pieces of the all the people who have just walked in ... and maybe all the pieces of those who haven't found us yet but whom we know are out there. What if we took all those pieces and just started playing. Made one of our priorities approaching it all with a sense of grand adventure. Started looking for what we could create that we think makes God laugh and dance and sing.
It would mean not worrying if things change or are different.
It would mean not being afraid to fail.
It would mean learning to "play nice" and work together, sharing our toys as we build whatever this is ... and maybe even take turns trying different things if we can't agree what to do next.
But most of all, it would be a commitment to joy.
I've seen us do this at Christ Church Cathedral. And I'm trying to do it more myself. It's hard to re-learn, but it is possible. And here's what I'm learning:
I'm learning that as we do this ... other people want to play with us.
I'm learning as we do this ... we get a taste of God's love for us and joy in us.
I'm learning as we do this ... we get a taste of how joy-filled and awesome Christ Church Cathedral can be.
Why is this important for Christ Church Cathedral?
Because creativity is in our DNA. Not just as a Cathedral that has a long history of being a haven for the arts (which we do), but because we are members of Christ's body and as human beings we are made in the image of God the creator. This is important because cynicism, anger and fear are the voices of the worse angels of our human nature and because creativity, hope and joy are the better angels that call us to our best future.
What do you think?
Where have you seen us play well together? How has it felt? Do you feel we are playful and creative enough? What are the challenges or even the pains of this way of thinking and being? Do you think play/creativity/a sense of adventure is important to being the Body of Christ? Why or why not?
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