We can define creative thinking as the ability to invent original ideas for accomplishing goals. The source of creative thinking is our imagination. This is a faculty of mind given by God, which He expects us to use. Guidance from God often comes through the application of our own mental faculties. Why are we not better at creative thinking? Laziness Thinking is hard work. Creative thinking is hardest of all. Just ask a novelist. Most will tell you they only write three or four hours a day because it is too exhausting. theology about guidance Christians sometimes have wrong concepts about the mind. They wait for God to give divine revelation, while God waits for them to use the faculties He gave them. Result: Nobody is moving and nothing gets accomplished. Repression of creative faculties A high school teacher put a small dot on the blackboard. Then he asked the class what it was. The students all agreed that is was nothing but a dot of chalk on the blackboard. The teacher replied, “I did the same exercise yesterday with a group of children. One thought it was an insect egg or perhaps a bird’s eye. Another thought it was the head of a bald man seen from an airplane.” Why the difference? In the years between kindergarten and high school students were discarding their imagination. Why? Because they were learning to be “specific” about things, learning the “right answers” and learning what is “realistic.” Absorbing facts is not the same as exercising the mind. In some countries, the education system is based on rote memorization. Students write down verbatim what the teacher says, then copy it neatly into a notebook at home. This is supposed to be education. It is not education. It is brainwashing. Fear of failure or ridicule
STUDY QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 1. Why is decision making in leadership sometimes stressful? 2. What is the role of the personal devotional life of a leader when it comes to making decisions? 3. Describe the process of reasoning by which a leader makes decisions. What are the sources of evidence a leader uses for making decisions? 4. What is the incubation principle? 5. What is by “the multitude of counselors”?
Contemporary research into business management shows no relationship between personality types and success. Instead key virtues make personality differences irrelevant. Integrity, the courage to take risks and total commitment to a vision make personality typing secondary. Any given personality, however extroverted, strong willed or forceful, will fail in leadership if lacking these qualities. Management studies have discovered quiet types zipped past some aggressive personalities and outperformed them...IF they possessed the above character qualities. The underscores virtue. The world values personality. How will my trainees recognize my call to mentor them? In Ecuador, a student displayed a hostile attitude during a course I was teaching. He ask feisty questions in a disrespectful tone. As a professor, I welcome questions. This student, a civil engineer in his late 30’s named José, clearly disliked me as well as the subject I was teaching. A year and half later, my wife ran into him at a grocery store. He expressed he wished to visit me and insisted it was important. He sat on our couch and said... “Do you remember your class I attended?” “Yes,” I replied. “I gave you a rough time. I’m here to repent for the sin I committed against you.” It seemed he was too serious, when a simple apology would do. But he continued... “Let me tell you what happened. I saw you last, I lost my job, my house and nearly lost my family. I was falsely accused of fraud and almost landed in jail. I have been cleared, but asked God why he allowed these things. He showed me I was arrogant and proud, self-sufficient and independent. He reminded me of the way I treated you in class. “Jose, I forgive you.” “One more before I finish,” he said. “God told me I should sit at your feet and learn.” “If your pastor is in agreement, I’ll do it.” “He is,” José replied. “I already asked him.”