Why Not Ask This Question?
It’s rather cute when a three-year-old first asks you, “Why?” It’s not so cute when it’s the 800th time on the same afternoon.
“Percival, I’m glad you want to learn, but can you stop asking questions for a few minutes?”
“Why?”
I won’t get “parent of the year” for this statement, but I’ll confess that the onslaught of “why” questions becomes downright draining after a while. They wear me down. We endure these questions, though, because we know little Percival will outgrow this phase.
And that’s too bad.
Somewhere along the way, we stop asking “Why?” From a positive perspective, we may stop asking because we’ve learned to look for the answer ourselves. But for too many of us, we stopped asking because we lost our curiosity. We just adapted and accepted the way things are.
We’ve benefitted from the inventors and innovators who kept asking “why” questions, those men and women who chose not to accept the status quo. “Why is it this way?” leads to “Can we make it better?” which leads to “Why not?”
The Washington Post has launched a column by Daniel Pink that wants to ask the question, “Why not?” As I understand his goal, he does not plan to deliver great ideas. Instead, he just wants to raise a question to get people talking. As they talk and debate, maybe along the way they’ll come up with a great idea. For example:
- Why not pay public school teachers a minimum salary of $100,000?
- Why not relocate the U.S. House and Senate to a different city every few years?
- Why not create a new job category for people over 65 as mentors to young employees to ease the transition to retirement and prepare the next generation of workers?
- Why not give presents on our birthdays rather than receive them?
What would your church look like if you took on the attitude of a three-year-old and started asking the “Why?” question.
- Why do we plan our church service the way we do?
- Why do we only reach people who look and think like us?
Let’s go a step further. Let’s think outside the box and ask the “Why not?” question.
- Why not host Sunday School classes on other days besides Sunday?
- Why not let teenagers serve on committees alongside other church members?
- Why not have the sermon first in a Sunday service?
- Why not invite the entire biker gang to Sunday lunch?
- Why not invite the neighborhood kids to use the church parking lot for their skateboards?
I know what’s happening right now. Some of you immediately thought of a reason why at least one of those ideas is a bad idea. It takes more work … there are insurance/liability issues … no one will volunteer to help … it’s better the way we do it now …
I’m not saying all these are good ideas (although I think some are). I’m calling us out for losing our sense of imagination. We have forfeited our ability to think creatively beyond the status quo. We’ve become satisfied and, therefore, cynical of new ideas.
Let’s be open to new ideas. We won’t embrace every new idea, but as we discuss an off-the-wall idea, we’ll likely land on a creative idea that breaks us out of the status quo … infuses us with new excitement … launches a unique ministry to a group alienated from the church … breathes new life into our stale church habits … draws our attention to the wonders of God … leads people to faith in Jesus we’d never think would accept Him.
Why not?
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