Review
1. Creativity includes innovative
solutions to problems, innovative responses to life
situations, and so on.
2. Stages of Creativity
a. Identify; last session
i. Defn: You see a problem, a need or a solution, and
you decide to work
on it.
ii. You will get better results if you determine the source of innovative
idea, select those that come from God or your own spirit.
iii. Those ideas which come from conscious thought often are not very
innovative.
b. Investigate; discuss today
c. Ponder
d. Evaluate
e. Implement
The Need for Investigation
1. Innovation is based on knowledge
a. New ideas always based on old ones
b. Human creativity is combining existing things in new ways
2. May need to do some research
a. technical: Is it possible? Has it been done
before?
b. biblical: What scriptural principles or examples?
c. moral, ethical, legal.
3. May not seem very spiritual
to talk about doing research, gaining knowledge
a. Some Christians seem to view knowledge as evil, or inferior
to faith & love.
However:
b. Rom 11:33 "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom
and knowledge of
God!"
i. "knowledge" = gnosis
ii. gnosis is more than intellectual or abstract knowledge
iii. knowledge based on experience (both good & bad), personal
acquaintance or familiarity with subject.
iv. Rom 11:33 does not refer to your personal knowledge of God, rather
God's personal knowledge of everything — he makes that knowledge
available to you.
v. That's what we're after!
(1) Identify — God points something out to you.
(2) Investigate — God gives you benefit of his personal knowledge,
which you need to develop idea he gave you.
c. Col 2:3 In Christ "are hidden all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge."
i. Jesus said everything that is his the Holy Spirit will reveal
to you,
because he makes available to you (Jn 16:14-15).
ii. God will reveal appropriate knowledge to you, whatever you
iii. Col 1:9 "[W]e have not stopped praying for you and asking God
to fill
you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and
understanding."
iv. This wisdom & understanding come through your spirit; from
God's
Spirit to yours.
v. The next verse shows why God will fill you with such knowledge:
"And
we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and
may please him in every way."
vi. Does this apply only to spiritual matters? No!
vii. God will supply you with whatever you need to accomplish his will
and
live a life that pleases him.
viii. Does this mean you sit around and wait for
supernatural impartation of
divine insight? (Intentionally chose religious-sounding words)
No!
d. You have to do your homework.
i. Research is your homework.
ii. Rely on God to show you what research to do.
iii. Through your research, God will show you what you need to know.
Stage 2: Investigate (Research, Prepare)
1. Defn: Investigate ways
to develop your idea.
2. Draw on available resources,
including your natural & supernatural abilities.
a. What character traits has God given you that you can use
to solve the problem
or meet the
need?
b. What resources available to help you or supplement — people,
materials, books,
finances, etc.
3. Explore
a. Consider all possibilities you discover.
b. Try combining parts of several solutions.
4. God may direct you to limit
yourself to a certain approach or area of investigation.
a. this could save you time & effort.
b. may be the difference between success & failure.
5. Psychological test results
a. Tests have shown that highly creative individuals often
spend more time in the
initial stages
of problem formulation, in broad scanning of alternatives.
i. That is, more creative people do more research, explore
more
possibilities.
ii. Therefore, one easy way to arrive at a more innovative solution
is to
consider more possibilities.
b. Less creative individuals are more apt to "get on with it."
Pumping Your Imagination
1. Increasing creativity and change
requires conscious mental effort. Sometimes you have
no flow of ideas for solutions or methods.
a. One resource God has given is your imagination.
2. God may not be speaking to you,
but it's also possible your mind has blocked out his
thoughts.
3. At times like these, you can
pump your imagination with questions that help you work
through issues.
a. Is one way of preparing your mind to receive thoughts from
your spirit, &
therefore from
God.
4. Questions to use when dealing
with issues
a. What seems to be the problem? (State as specifically
as possible)
b. What are some conventional ways for handling this kind of
situation?
i. Proven methods, human experience
c. What are some very unconventional ways?
i. Important at this stage not to eliminate ideas that don't
make sense.
ii. Evaluation comes later.
d. Picture Jesus in the situation. How would he handle
it?
e. What biblical principles or stories might apply?
f. What biblical principles seem to be in tension with those?
g. From what totally different perspectives could you view
this? What new ideas
come from these
perspectives?
Overcoming Ruts and Boxes
1. Normal human thinking
a. Follows patterns, based on association, relies on previous
experience.
b. People learn best when they can relate new knowledge to
something they
already understand.
c. Example: technique for remembering people's names
is to relate it to
something familiar.
i. Personal experience: terrible problem remembering
names.
ii. New pastor at church, unusual name (unusual to me): Mancari
iii. Church had been having problems, so I imagined him as a man carrying
a heavy load. It worked; I never again had problems remembering
Pastor Macaroni's name. (Okay, that’s a joke)
2. Attribute analysis
a. If you consider the attributes of people, things or situations,
you may reach
different conclusions
than if you held to our stereotypes.
b. By considering attributes rather than stereotypes, you can
jog your brain into
different level
of problem-solving.
i. Exercise: make a list of God's attributes & abilities,
consider ways in
which he may choose to act in your behalf.
ii. Exercise: Consider attributes of a toothpick.
(1) Is small, slender, pointed at both ends, round, made of wood.
(2) What is conventional use? "Toothpick"
(3) What unconventional uses might it have? Consider its attributes.
(a) Small, slender, pointed: use it to clean in tight places
(under fingernails, in corners)
(b) Small, slender: stick in top of freshly iced cake to hold
waxed paper off of the icing
(c) Pointed: apply glue or paint to tiny area
(d) Slender, pointed: convenient for scratching your head
without messing up your hair
(e) Slender, pointed: skewer a marshmallow & roast it over
a match (I prefer to ignite the marshmallow, then blow it
out; crunchy on outside, gooey on inside)
(f) Wood (burns): use for kindling to start a fire.
(g) Wood (floats): if shipwrecked & have several cases
of
toothpicks, could use threads from clothing to lash
toothpicks together, make a life raft. Might be indecent
when you're rescued, but survive. If too immodest for
you, try sticking toothpicks through material of clothing
(toothpicks are small & pointed); convert your clothes
into life vest.
(4) Some of these are "good" & some are bizarre.
(a) Important point is (not another pointed toothpick joke):
By considering the attributes of your resources, you can
come up with innovative uses, some of which may be just
what you need in your situation.
3. Problem definition
a. Specific problem statements often lead to quick solutions,
but general statements
allow more creative
approaches.
b. You tend to pick the most obvious (to you) cause for a problem
and set to work
on it.
c. Problems:
i. Incomplete data (need research, may cause you to redefine
the problem)
ii. biased perspective (personally involved)
iii. selfish motivation (you're human)
iv. focus on symptoms rather than finding cause.
(1) Frequently makes you miss the real cause.
(2) This is why God sometimes answers your prayer by drawing
your attention to something that at first seems unrelated to your
problem.
(3) For example, ways of healing a broken relationship, ideas for
strengthening a family bond, ideas for reconciling a theological
disagreement.
Conclusions
1. First stage of creative act
is identifying a problem, or a need, or a solution.
2. Second stage is investigating,
gaining knowledge about subject.
a. As you study the subject, allow God to direct your investigation.
b. Be willing to follow his gentle lead, because he will lead
you to the information
you need.