Wonder Day
Every six months, our staff spends a little time during our regular weekly meeting dreaming about the future. About five years ago, we noticed that, as a whole, our staff was really good at making the same thing happen every year. Whether it was Ministry Fair, Vacation Bible School, Christmas Eve, or Sunday Suppers, we had a knack for making everything we do a little bit better and doing it again next year.
But what about the things we haven’t thought of yet? What about the opportunities that haven’t been explored? If the calendar is already full of all the things we did last year, will there be enough room for something new? And who will give voice to those unmet needs that are not being addressed by our current lineup of offerings?
With the help of an assessment from the business world, we discovered that one or two staff members had deep gifts for wondering, dreaming, and idea generation, but the rest of us were so predisposed to evaluating suggestions, implementing plans, and improving techniques, that, as soon as one of our dreamers offered an idea, the rest of us pounced on it, assessed it, weighed the possibility, and usually threw it out before it could breathe. Only the very best ideas had a chance, and, without realizing it, our collective strengths were stifling creativity. The dreamers had learned to keep silent.
Our initial solution was Wonder Day—a staff meeting set aside for identifying those unmet needs and brainstorming possible responses without any evaluation or operationalization. First, we asked ourselves what are the unmet needs in our church, our neighborhood, and our wider community. What itches aren’t getting scratched? Without regard for who might be responsible for addressing those needs, we made space to think about the longing, hurting, yearning, dreaming, and hoping of our community.
Then, after sharing our wonders, we brainstormed ideas. We grouped those unmet needs into categories and then spent some time thinking of possible responses to those categories. What are some ways that our church could address those hungers in our community? If we were to come up with a program designed to meet the desire for deep spiritual friendship, what would it look like? What would it mean for our church to be a place where people learned how to put their faith into action? Could we dream up a way to promote universal access to housing?
At first, we had a hard time knowing what to do. We knew what questions to ask, but it felt strange coming up with a long list of ideas without knowing what to do next. More than once, we had to remind ourselves not to evaluate an idea for its potential effectiveness and instead just let the idea sit long enough to take root or to scatter in the wind. The first time we attempted this we came back a week later and tried to assign staff members or potential volunteers to take the lead on each project, but we quickly realized that the benefit of this process was not in putting every idea into action. Our staff had enough gifts for implementation that we could trust the right ideas would come to fruition in the right time. Our job on Wonder Day was to make space for them in the first place.
Over time—though not as quickly or profoundly as I would have hoped—this process has deepened our staff’s ability to generate and promote new ideas without relying on Wonder Day. In part, the makeup of our staff has changed, and we are not as operationally one-sided as we once were. More than that, though, taking time every six months to honor the brainstorming process and resist the instinct to evaluate and plan fully every idea has taught us to honor creativity and lateral thinking more regularly. Yes, the staff can attest that I still have a hard time keeping a straight face when someone makes what I think is a bad suggestion, but, as a group, we have learned that those instinctive reactions are not always right.
This week during Wonder Day, we restated some of the same needs and ideas we always identify, but there were also some new things on the list. We always include the desire for more connection within our community, and I suspect in a church our size that need will always exist. This time, though, likely because of the transition in our music program with Jack’s immanent departure, we expressed a desire for a renewed appreciation of our musical offerings and our organ.
Some of the ideas we have generated through the years have come into being, though most never take shape. Such is the nature of a productive brainstorming session! Although Wonder Day may not be directly responsible for it, the new monthly family play date reflects a frequently named desire for more opportunities for the parents of young children. Our Top Ten Anglican series in the Adult Forum was not identified during a Wonder Day, but the desire for more in-depth formation as Anglicans and Episcopalians was, and that series is a response to it. Choir Club got its start in Wonder Day.
There are plenty of ideas that seem like they are one or two volunteers away from becoming valuable offerings at St. Paul’s—like a walking group, a birding group, a handbell choir, a composting class, an improv club, or a traditional skills class. Our staff is a tiny sliver of the St. Paul’s congregation. As a congregation, you have thousands and thousands of ideas any one of which could blossom into a vital ministry of our parish. Perhaps the most important outgrowth of Wonder Day is to remind the staff that, no matter how full our calendar feels, there is always room for the next new thing that God is doing in our midst. Our joy is to say yes when someone comes up with an idea, but, as some of you have learned from experience, that yes almost always comes with a follow-up question: what are you going to do about it?
Ideas and dreams will remain ideas and dreams until people make them happen—until you make them happen. Every member of our staff is fully engaged in ministry. None of us is waiting for more work to do. For us, Wonder Day is not about coming up with additional responsibilities but helping us identify new priorities that might take the place of something we have been doing for years. In order to pick up something new, we have to put something else down or hand it off to someone else.
When you bring an idea to the staff, we can help you know how it might fit at St. Paul’s—on the calendar, in the buildings, in our communications cycle, in the budget, and as part of our overall identity. We can help you think through what it will take to get an idea off the ground. We can publicize it to the parish and allocate funding for it. We can help you think of other people who might want to be involved. But we need you to supply the hard work it will take to make it happen.
Our church is full of programs and ministries that began just like that—parishioners with ideas and with the willingness to see them through. If you, like our staff, are better at making things happen than coming up with new ideas, try setting aside some time to dream or perhaps find someone else who is good at dreaming and offer to share your gifts with them. If you are better at dreaming than putting ideas into practice, tell those ideas to anyone who will listen. Eventually, you will share them with someone whose passion aligns with yours and who has the time and skills necessary to bring them into reality.
Most of all, know that we are a church that always has space for something new, even when the calendar seems full. Any community that is open to the work of the Holy Spirit will always be unfinished and open to something they have not imagined yet. In your prayers, ask God to help you dream about what is possible and to find the time and space to make those dreams—whether yours or someone else’s—a reality. If you have an idea for how our church might address an unmet need, share it with me, with other staff members, or—even better—with other parishioners. When our faithfulness to God incorporates intentional wondering, dreaming, and being creative, good things happen.
Yours faithfully,
Evan D. Garner
