Vision Navigator

Wanted to relay some powerful thoughts from Will Mancini’s blog:

Walk into a first grade classroom and ask the kids to raise their hand if they can draw. All of the kids will raise their hand. Ask if they can sing. All of the kids raise their hand. Ask if they can dance. All of the kids raise their hand. Ask them if they can read and only some will raise their hand. Now do the same exercise with a ninth grade classroom. The results are opposite- the only time they all raise their hands is when asked about reading.

Noting Einstein’s quote about imagination being more important than knowledge, he goes on to ask, “Where doe our extreme capacity for imagination go?”

What’s the state of your imagination? Is your view bounded by what you know, or by what God says is possible?

What is impossible with men is possible with God. Luke 18:27

[Silver frame photo courtesy of Michal Zacharzewski, SXC]

Auxano’s founder, Will Mancini, is one of the presenters at the PGF conference (Presbyterian Global Fellowship), going on this weekend. Sharing a coaching platform with Alan Hirsch yesterday, Will relayed on his blog a great quote from Alan, which ties in with my recent posts on doing church and kingdom imagination. He writes:

My favorite quote of the day was, “There is no silver bullet, but there is a silver imagination.” “Constantine is still the emperor of our minds” when it comes to how we think about church, Alan states. The silver imagination is about re-calibrating to our founder- Jesus; a process Alan calls radical traditionalism. He urged the presbyterian leaders wrestling through missional transformation to think like beginners and not experts- “we have to be OK with not knowing all of the answers.”

These are great thoughts. Rather than a quick fix or silver bullet, we need silver imaginations.

Minds that are transformed and renewed by our willingness to sacrifice everything at the feet of our Savior. Minds that are taken captive, and are captivated, by Christ. Minds fueled by the Spirit to see beyond current circumstances and past experiences. Minds that can only imagine where God is leading…

Do you tend to look for silver bullets, or silver imaginations? What has God placed in your imagination?

Ran across a great video today from Fuzz Kitto, founder of Spirited Consulting in Austrailia. It’s a short video, but it’s packed with a load of truth (ht: Steve Knight).

Most notable to me is the idea that the Kingdom of God is not a far out concept that we’re disconnected from. Rather, the Kingdom is near — God places it within us. And as we take time to explore and imagine how it can be realized in our context, it takes shape.

This is what forms a church’s Kingdom Concept — how God uses the uniqueness of our local context, collective potential, and leadership leanings to forge in our imaginations a calling and vision that is all our own…

How has God used your imagination to speak to you? How can God use your unique circumstances to reach out to others no one may reach?