Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Earlier this week several congregants from St Lydia's gathered in our new space armed with cardboard and packing tape. We recently signed a lease on an empty storefront and are working with an architect on the design of the new space, so we made rough mockups of the table and counters and placed tape where some of the benches and other furniture might go. We walked around it a bit and made some observations and decisions about what worked and what didn't, which we'll take back to the architect.

It was helpful to stand in the space and physically try things out. It's a reminder that sometimes talking through ideas and looking at plans isn't enough, sometimes thinking ideas through requires movement and experimentation.

There are many ways to do this. Recently, I went to a brainstorming meeting at work that included toys scattered on the meeting room table simply to give us some inspiration and loosen us up a bit. We wrote on large notepads and used stickers to indicate which ideas we liked best.

When I'm having trouble keeping track of my tasks or thinking through story lists for Trinity News, sometimes I will write ideas on the whiteboard or post sticky notes around my office, anything to help me view things differently.

I'm not sure we were built to sit at our desks and think all day long (part of the reason I use a standing desk). Perhaps this is one of the reasons our liturgy includes movement as well as spoken prayer, because we are bodies as well as minds.

It can be helpful to try looking at our ideas and our problems from a different angle, quite literally. There are many ways to brainstorm and think, and some of them include quiet discussion and others include movement and imagination. It’s best to mix it up.