Last week I finished Daniel E. Pink‘s A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. Great read full of good analysis, helpful illustrations (not just stories, but pictures, too!), and practical suggestions for developing your right brain abilities. This book has been on the shelf for a few years, but it contains the type of stuff that was never talked about in seminary, and thus, for me, was exciting, informative, and suggestive. There is plenty of stuff in here that I think could be utilized by any church leader, especially since church leadership demands employment of our creative capacities.
Here are Pink’s “Six Senses” of right brain thinking that he believes will define the future:
- Design
- Story
- Symphony
- Empathy
- Play
- Meaning
I never considered myself a right-brain person growing up. Maybe it was just me. But over the past few years my ministry has demanded that I employ right brain capacities. I’ve had to tell stories, design experiences, put together devotional guides using creative tools (writing, layout design, images, etc.), paint a big picture for people as I’ve exercised leadership (symphony), employed empathy in understanding the people I lead, played alongside children, students, and other adults leaders, and helped groups derive shared meaning. I’ve been doing this right brained stuff.
The church is pegged as being a left-brained institution with a very left-brained discourse. We have a chance to redefine that stuff. Logic will continue to be important, but this right brain stuff cannot be denied. We need a whole new mind. And this means reclaiming the right brain and doing some cool, creative stuff.







The Curse of the Analytic Mind
Posted in Church Ministry, Cultural Commentary, Theology, tagged Analytic, Andy Crouch, Christianity, Church, Create, creativity, Critical, Culture, Culture Making on April 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This week I’ve been reading Andy Crouch. It has been quite enjoyable. In fact, this is one of the best books I’ve picked up in a while that offers a helpful challenge to Christianity. I’ve been convicted just as much as I have been encouraged. That is the mark of a good book.
I’m analytical and critical. I love to break down a discourse, a book, an event, a newspaper article, a poem, a piece of art, a movie, a play. I enjoy asking questions. And I enjoy sharing my opinions.
But the true desire of me heart, in recent days, has been to undertake a creative, cooperative venture with other like minded people to create something in our world that is helpful, hopeful, and true.
For those of us (myself included) who tend to analyze culture, I hope that Crouch’s words remind us that to think about and analyze our world is not alone sufficient. We have to create. We have to get about the business of bringing about new things. You don’t like the current culture, whether it be national or ecclesial? You’re discouraged by an institutional or communal structure you think is outmoded, outdated, sluggish, apathetic, restrictive, or errant? Quit complaining and get to work.
As Crouch himself has written, “The only way to change culture is to create more of it.“
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