{"id":18847,"date":"2018-09-13T18:42:29","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T01:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=18847"},"modified":"2018-09-13T18:42:45","modified_gmt":"2018-09-14T01:42:45","slug":"18847-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/18847-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are you going to be?"},"content":{"rendered":"

While I was reading this weeks book,\u00a0Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World<\/em> by Tina Seelig, I was struggling with the fact that I have never been very creative. In fact, it is one of the hardest parts of my job as a pastor. Then in the introduction I read the following “Many educators believe that you can’t teach those skills.” (referring to creativity, innovation, etc.)[1]<\/span>\u00a0The author goes on to talk about education and it’s lack of teaching students to be creative. I have always heard and thought either you were creative or you were not, I am one of the “were nots”. Seelig does recognize the advantage other fields of study have “physics, biology, math, and music–have a huge advantage when it comes to teaching those topics. They have defined terms and a taxonomy of relationships that provide a structured approach for mastering needed skills.”[2] She then goes on to argue that creativity can be taught, she gives the example of the “nine dots” puzzle.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have never been able to figure this puzzle out, it perplexes me to no end, and she then gives us the answer, you have to think outside of the box. I know most of you would probably say something like, “How did you not know that was the answer?” My answer to you would be it frustrated me, I quit trying and moved on. I feel like we should have read her first book in<\/em>Genius<\/em> before reading this book as it\u00a0 would have dovetailed nicely into this reading (just a hint Dr. Clark), I have ordered her book and intend to read it but I digress. I can learn to be creative. I can learn to be creative, in fact, l probably am already since I write a sermon every week.<\/p>\n

In his review of\u00a0Insight<\/em>, Amal Chaaban argues “Businesses who are looking for a way to release all of the creativity they feel is locked up in their\u00a0human capital\u00a0should pick this one up and share it with upper management.”\u00a0[3]\u00a0He is right in saying this, but not just businesses, but any leader who is trying to help those who they work with to be the best they can be.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the chapter\u00a0Motivate<\/em> Seelig recounts how former CEO of Juniper Networks, Scott Kriens, interviews candidates, he asks them “Who are you?”[4] I took this question and posed it to myself. Who am I? Well, I am a husband, father, pastor and friend. I love my wife with all my heart and am blessed to have her in my life. I consider myself a scholar of some degree as well as a theologian of some degree. I have an intense desire to live a better life than I did when I was younger and as part of that to follow Christ as best I can. I want others to know Christ and am willing to sacrifice my comfort for that to happen. I want the best for my sons as they grow and mature into young men. I do not desire for them to have it easy but for them to be shaped by their experiences by God. That is the short version. I wonder how many people have actually asked themselves this question. I wonder how many churches have asked themselves this question. In my dissertation I am trying to figure out why the North American church, specifically the small Southern Baptist church has such an inward focus. I believe this may be a great start for a church, look deeply into itself and see what drives it. Is it self comfort, or is it the Glory of God? If it is the later then what must be done to see this come into being. These are the first steps in making a change, and they are the hardest steps to take. Seelig reminds the reader it is alright to fail, in fact, it is good to fail because it spurs us onto greater things. The first time I tried to preach, let’s just say it was not what I would call a success. I ended it with this line “and that’s all I got”. Not the greatest job, but it made me want to get better. I am no Billy Graham but I do alright. If I had not let my failure spur me on, I would not be where I am today.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Seelig gives us the opportunity to learn to be creative, the ability to fail and move forward and this is a good thing. I know to many people who are so afraid of failing they will never try anything great. I always said I would never go back to school for a doctorate and yet here I am. I may not be the best but I will continue to try, anyone can do that.
\n[1]\u00a0Seelig, Tina.\u00a0Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World<\/i>. New York, NY: Harper One Publ., 2015. 3.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[2] Ibid. 3-4.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[3]\u00a0Chaaban, Amal. “Book Review: Insightout By Dr. Tina Seelig.” Entrepreneur. January 02, 2016. Accessed September 13, 2018. https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/article\/254404.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[4]\u00a0Seelig, Tina.\u00a0Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World<\/i>. New York, NY: Harper One Publ., 2015. 73.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I was reading this weeks book,\u00a0Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World by Tina Seelig, I was struggling with the fact that I have never been very creative. In fact, it is one of the hardest parts of my job as a pastor. Then in the introduction I read […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18847"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18883,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18847\/revisions\/18883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}