Guest post by Ryan Borowicz
Each year here at Appleton Alliance Church, we (Xcel Sports) put on a Wild Game Dinner. This February 19th will be our fourth one and it has gotten bigger and bigger every year. Since we don’t have an all purpose room, we use our worship center with the chairs taken up, which just leaves open floor space. The first year we did it, I was hoping and praying for 50 people. A week before the event, we were at 250 people. OK…plan B…which meant moving it from our youth room to our worship center. This year, we have room for 400 people around round tables with eight at a table. We have 440 signed up and we’re 2 1/2 weeks away from the event. OK…Plan C. And here’s where the title of the blog comes in, “But that’s the way we’ve always done it!”
I’m sure you have either heard someone on your staff or one of your volunteers (or yes…even you) say that about something you do. I’ll admit, when I was thinking of our round table format with seating for 400, my first inclination when I looked at the overblown registration was, “We can only seat 400 around round tables…because…that’s the way yada yada yada.”
So the question then becomes, do you keep doing it the way you’ve always done it, or do you seek out new ideas? Do you think outside of the box? And you know something…it drives me nuts when I hear people say “I hate the term ‘Think outside of the box. It’s so played out and overused.'” My response to those people is “Fine…you can stay in your box then because clearly you are not capable of thinking outside of it. Have fun in there.” We all need to be outside the box thinkers if we are going to stay relevant at reaching people in a changing culture. The message doesn’t change…but the way the message is delivered may have to. And as I mentioned in a previous blog, for me, the best way to think outside of the box about a different way of doing things is to get other people involved in the discussion of ideas. So instead of me staring at our worship center trying to figure out how to fit more people in, I asked our custodian to help me out and give me his ideas. Heck, he’s the one wheeling chairs and tables in and out of there all of the time and he’s going to understand the dimensions and the carrying capacity of the room better than anyone…especially me! Because when I look at it, the first thing that runs through my mind is, “But that’s the way we’ve always done it.” And the first thing that runs through his mind is, “Well, you could do it like this!”
Outside the box (and the round tables)…now that’s what I’m talking about!!!
