Out of the Box Theory for Seminarians: an Autoethnography of Facilitating Workshops

Components of a discovered-in-practice, Out of the Box Theory, can come together in the spiritual formation of seminarians being theologically trained. The process of change can be witnessed in facilitating life writing workshops. Shellseekers Art + Soul life writing workshops has some of the answers to fill a gap in the practical aspects of embodied spiritual formation. In creating and facilitating contemplation and creativity workshops in churches, the classroom, and other venues, as a visual artist and practical theologian, I have observed participants for over a dozen years. In this paper I offer a window into the workshops, with insights gleaned.

The methodology used here is autoethnography. “Auto” is for self, “ethnos” is for culture, and “graphy” stands for writing.[1] It is one person’s subjective observation.[2] This is a methodology that shows the experience and insights of one woman in the field of giving workshops[3]. I am a middle class white elder woman, visual artist, and practical theologian, who creates and facilitates life writing workshops in church and community in Metro Vancouver.

In a mandatory pass/fail year long series of workshops using the spiritual disciplines and life writing, as an everyday practice, seminary students and leaders in training will gain from Out of the Box Theory in this period of vocational transition. They can be caught for habits of spiritual formation and thereby train as models and participants in non-hierarchical ministry in their communities. This can flow out to secular spaces as creative writing skills are offered. As they read us, the Spirit can move in participants’ lives indirectly in this post Christendom era. It strengthens Christian leaders in being real in order to connect on the level of life writing with those of other faiths, or none. Seeds of the gospel are sown and watered. Workshop participation lessens the gap between theory and practice for seminarians and church leaders.

The Out of the Box Theory rose out of the practice of facilitating workshops: part of my practice-led research. It seems to fit with a sub category of Otto Scharmer’s Theory U which can be used as a model for change both at the individual level and also to incite systemic change. Participants sitting in the workshops will change in an iterative manner as they read authors, write, and read their writing for technical feedback.

In contrast with Theory U, which is a formalized well developed social science management theory for wide use, the Out of the Box theory, I discovered in practice, is a narrow exemplar of Scharmer’s theory. His work holds, but mine is a powerful tool in hands of the Spirit for formation and even for spiritual transformation on a personal level. Each person changed, can pass the practice on to others. In this informal way, spiritual formation can reach a tipping point of practitioners leading to a systemic change renewing church and culture from the edges. Like the Spirit being exemplified by wind being unseen, yet its results are visible; so the invisible work of the Spirit in the workshops is shown by a simple smile observed on previously serious or sad faces of participants.

Otto Scharmer, a senior lecturer at MIT, informs that these life disruptions that many people have can take them “out of the box” in their ability to change.[4] This is affected by the leader’s own “inner condition.”[5] They can become aware of who they are and what they want.[6] Some begin to see the ways that they are embedded in a system, and some advocate for change in the larger systems they participate in.[7]  Scharmer names this process as being enabled by being listened to in a deep way[8].

Scharmer explains three impediments to people seeing their blind spot: judgment, cynicism, and fear.[9] In my own practice-led research of the workshops as autoethnographer and observer participant, I note that people who are in a transition period of their lives suspend these barriers. Change emerges out of a burning need to find a new way of living. As leader, I prepare in personal prayer, in listening skills, content and agenda creation, and in the gathering of interesting materials. I set the stage and guide. They create. Change is a byproduct.

Theory U is complex and all encompassing, with change symbolized by the movement down one side, across, and up the other side of the letter ‘U’.[10] Scharmer mentions an ‘out of the box’ experience.[11] I recognize it. I take it and double down on this aspect of Theory U. As I reverse engineer what I have observed in facilitating the workshops into Scharmer’s theory, I realize its macrocosm as I discover similar aspects in the microcosm of the workshops. He writes of an inner shift that takes place to seeing the real self.[12] I see this shift as a shift in the spiritual self, seen through the simple symbol of an emerging smile on the faces of writers as they read and hear other readers. This is like Scharmer’s collective capacity.[13] The warmth[14] of welcome, generative listening,[15] and holding of space[16] supports them to begin to make explorations into the world. As they see who they are, they develop agency in their own lives and see ways to relate to others. (Scharmer xi) Scharmer sees the real power as being more aware to see patterns in our thinking. (S20) Through personal participant observation in the workshops, I have seen this change happen most reliably when people are in a life transition or personal period of upheaval in their lives.

Out of the Box Theory as seen in the workshops captures change at the bottom of the ‘U’. Perhaps in the deconstructing circumstances of their lives, they have called out to God. The Spirit answers with the workshops.

We find the workshops and our theory under the spirituality part of Schumer’s three parts of what he calls the ‘blind spot’. He unpacks it as burnout, loss of meaning, and loss of Self.[17] The autoethnographical research of facilitating the workshops define spirituality as part of practical theologian John Swinton’s wider use of the term spirituality: “While institutional religion is in decline, all of us . . .  remain centrally concerned (implicitly or explicitly) with meaning, value, transcendence, connecting with others and becoming–discovering who we really are.[18]

In a thick description of the workshops, in the first session, we gather in a circle in person, or the square of Zoom. I begin by asking that we take turns telling our birth stories. We assemble our memories of what relatives or carers have told us of our birth. I go first. If some do not know the facts of their birth, they can use the creative non-fiction writing technique of ‘perhapsing’. They consider what their birth could have been like for someone of their demographic. They are invited to write their stories in detail for the next session’s reading. I then read quotes from an author’s story of their birth. It is surprising that trust can develop quickly on Zoom. Although in person, we get a faster feel for a person’s habits, personality and physicality.

No required homework, is a vital part of the sense of freedom the workshops elucidate for seminary students. It is a foil for the disciplined coursework needed in their theological studies. When practices are offered in the congregation, they offer a chosen alternative to study in immersion in a biblical story. An embodied learning takes over intellectual learning; which is now caught rather than taught; experienced rather than studied. The act of speaking and hearing one’s own voice, in the midst of eyes all agaze, leaves the reading as an indelible memory along with the verses the story is a response to. Sometimes I recall things like the quality of the light coming through the window as my words are received. The experience of camaraderie feels like validation of my life experiences.

Workshops contain experiences. The contemplation and creativity practices have no expected outcomes and few guidelines. This is enjoying God’s words and relaxing in them, like drinking tea in the garden. There is no competition to get the right answer to the meaning. The meaning saturates the senses and results at times in slowing my breathing. The words, I am living my best life here, have often whispered from me. It is like the difference between a garden work party and a garden party.

This natural relaxation and enjoyment of words and community evidences the gap between direct Bible study and indirect sitting with the words as catalyst to the peace that passes all understanding.[19] Repetition of the verses aids this. We experience the words rather than always thinking about how we can accumulate them into our systematic worldview. There are few discernable differences in how the workshops are received over Zoom and in person. If anything, it is easier to focus on the words we hear and create when not distracted by in-person side conversations. Also people who cannot attend in person can be included.

There is not a lot of analysis in the workshops. There is good listening to previously unstated feelings and views from women’s and others’ experience. The workshops do not replace the practices of analytical Bible study. Study is necessary in other spaces.

As an artist, I am no threat to participants. As a servant leader, mistakes and weaknesses are on full view as we read to each other our writings from everyday living. There is no expected outcome as we learn the process skills of creating together, as we contemplate life. We share in an agreed space of confidentiality. The practices we learn are peer practices with pleasure and no judgement. Knowledge is gained indirectly.

When people are unable to engage in creative writing, we do collage. Sometimes I call this prewriting-as-healing from trauma or grief, the need to gain distance before one can write about it. For other workshop series participants who want to engage but physically cannot, a caregiver is present who will place the collage pieces or the words in ways that please the one who is the creator. They flourish because they are included. They see what they have been aided to contribute. The caregiver becomes her hands and follows her intuitions resulting in her laughter. We all laughed along with her. My work can be ephemeral; an experience in the moment.

A chaplain in the same ministry setting said with delight that she did not know that she could create something so beautiful. Another person made a short pithy poem that encapsulated her experience. They had never taken the time to slow down and simply create. This all happened with ambulance sirens blazing outside the windows.

In an article about seminaries, Dr. Arch Wong et al informs of their being great at preparing minds for traditional ministry, but fall down on the practical aspects of skills, values, imagination. These are necessary for a flourishing ministry in the current cultural changes in church and society.[20] This gap dovetails so well with what I have been practising in the workshops. It helps me think of how to deepen and widen my practices in facilitating.

I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Wong present a paper over Zoom held by the Canadian Practical Theology Network on March 1, 2024. In the question and answer period at the end, we had a five minute conversation about hiring theologically trained artists (not musicians). He responded: “I don’t know why we don’t do more of that, Deborah.” Shellseekers Art + Soul Workshops can fit into this gap in all areas of learning because of their flexibility, quality of hospitality,[21] and option for written response in small groups.[22] The workshops encourage people to think in out-of-the-ordinary ways opening up new opportunities for life practices like self-care, every day writing and the pre-writing of intuitive collage.

In a study at Fuller Theological Seminary students conveyed that they received excellent training in systematics, church history, pastoral ministry and Biblical studies but not given the practical tools to know how to implement what they had learned into everyday life practices. Faculty convey: “If a student articulates a vocation of being a scholar and teacher but has no practices around reading, writing, or teaching, then the student’s embodied practices are out of alignment with his or her vocation.”[23] This disconnection can be ameliorated through informal but mandatory out of the box experiences with contemplation and creativity practices like life writing and spiritual disciplines.

The theory comes to the fore in times and places of uncertainty and transition. Events could be happy or sad: in college, times of illness, injury, childbirth, divorce, moving house, a friendship betrayal, death of a loved one, or when God seems silent. In these liminal spaces we grope, we seek; we have lost our bearings and need to find new horizons of hope. I have observed[24] that writing as an everyday spiritual practice can help us to rest in God,[25] rather than striving for perfection.[26]

As we read scenes from our lives, we grow spiritually by telling our own stories.[27] In the practice of facilitator hospitality[28] and the kindness of participants, healing from church wounds can come.[29] In this time of declining or no faith,[30] an out of the box practice like everyday life writing can offer a way to think about the deeper issues of life and faith. We can relay the gospel by example, without using words.[31] By encouraging out of the box questions, we can begin to offer hope in different,[32] yet simple ways.[33] We listen as they respond.[34]

Out of the Box Theory is birthed in desire, created from a place of need, and grows as a byproduct of practices. The practices enable us to see new horizons of possibility for our lives. When we are ready, we can act differently using fresh ideas and skills. We can cope and thrive.

As practitioner theorists how can we build creative practices into spiritual formation? This is what I found through:

1. Offering low barrier writing practices
2. Engaging in process collage
3. Ensuring a no judgement practice
4. Preparing the self to create an oasis of calm
5. Presenting new learnings in an informal way
6. Bringing in quotations and images borrowed from art history and poetry
7. Laying out wisdom from various religious and philosophical traditions
8. Using the non-hierarchical tools of adult education
9. Showing ideas of hope and building justice
10. Praying for each participant

Informal data collection is gleaned from fifteen years of facilitating contemplation and creativity workshops and mini-retreats, as well as from personal creative practices of writing poetry and prose; painting, collaging and exhibiting work. A balancing practice has been over two decades of family caregiving, exampled through a caregiver portrait painting series permanent exhibition. Fieldnotes were taken in the home and care home. The strategy has been to answer the questions: How can we pass on these learnings to others to build hope for a horizon of coping and even flourishing in the midst of difficult days? How can we turn the learnings in practice toward a field of faithful practice for seminarians and congregational leaders, be made for a broader practice in the community as urban mission and witness?

An emergent insight from facilitating the group was that learning comes about like osmosis. The needs of the group come together in a mutually beneficial relationship. As the facilitator and participants write or collage together separately, few questions are asked. The collaboration is in the non-hierarchical practice, not the product. The learning is mutual in that the facilitator shares knowledge with group participants who in turn provide gentle feedback to the autoethnographer as participant. Like a new person gaining courage to enter a double-Dutch skipping rope game, the beginner watches and then jumps. Trust is built. Care for each participant’s writings and therefore life experiences results in community building.

Some demographics come out of the box of their isolation into the open air of wanting to share; even to the point of desiring to share in a newsletter or on a blog. Some will begin to speak their stories from a microphone. Instances of this phenomena are seen when some participants have told me that they have tried writing before but the critiques were harsh. In this method of learning by osmosis their guard is let down, so they write. Their passion to be seen and heard now emerges in a culture that silences some voices.

Along the way, God-given wisdom will leak out of our lives. We can relax the doing and enjoy the being. When Jesus was with the fishermen, it was he who provided the catch.[35] Jesus was known for upside down, out of the box kingdom thinking. God works best in our weakness.[36] We rest. God works.

The risk[37] of this theory, in my own experience in the Vancouver area, is that some of the practice will be seen by traditionalists as just arts and therefore of no interest. Instead it is an accessible practice like hand-writing itself. Another criticism from evangelical fundamentalists would be that it is not direct Bible study, or direct evangelism.

Yet in the contemporary landscape of uncertainty, innovating[38] indirectly out of the box is crucial for flourishing. The recommendation from personal observation is to train leaders personally in the habits of spiritual disciplines, creative writing practices and process art, in order to reach varied participant groups of faith or none. The evidence of change can be a simple smile. It is really only time that reveals the depth of a person’s spiritual formation, in a roundabout way through their out of the box actions over time.

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[1] Jackson and McKinney, Self+Culture+Writing, 3.

[2] Jackson and McKinney, Self+Culture+Writing, 4.

[3] Jackson and McKinney, Self+Culture+Writing, 5.

[4] Scharmer, Theory U, 15.

[5] Scharmer, Theory U, 7.

[6] Scharmer, Theory U, 16.

[7] Scharmer, Theory U, 33.

[8] Scharmer, Theory U, 25.

[9] Scharmer, Theory U, 28.

[10] Scharmer, Theory U, 19.

[11] Scharmer, Theory U, 15.

[12] Scharmer, Theory U, 12.

[13] Scharmer, Theory U, x.

[14] Scharmer, Theory U, 31.

[15] Scharmer, Theory U, 26.

[16] Scharmer, Theory U, 31.

[17] Scharmer, Theory U, 5.

[18] Candy, Spirituality and Mental Health Care, 118.

[19] Phil 4:7.

[20] Wong, “Are You Listening?,” 1.

[21] McAlpine et al, Signs of Life, 144.

[22] McAlpine et al, Signs of Life, 101.

[23] Wang et al, Spiritual Formation, 65–86.

[24] McAlpine et al, Signs of Life, 68.

[25] Matt 11:28.

[26] 2 Cor 12:9.

[27] McAlpine et al, Signs of Life, 112.

[28] McAlpine et al, Signs of Life, 136.

[29] McAlpine et al, Signs of Life, 137.

[30] McAlpine et al, Signs of Life, 137.

[31] McAlpine et al, Signs of Life, 206.

[32] Bick and Schuurman, Blessed are the Undone, 7.

[33] Bick and Schuurman, Blessed are the Undone, 9.

[34] Bick and Schuurman, Blessed are the Undone, 10.

[35] John 21: 6–11.

[36] 2 Cor 12:9.

[37] McAlpine et al, Signs of Life, 68.

[38] McAlpine et al, Signs of Life, 68.

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Bibliography

Bick, Angela Reitsma, and Peter Schuurman. Blessed are the Undone: testimonies of the Quiet Deconstruction of Fatih in Canada. (New Leaf, 2024), 7, 10.

Candy, Julian. “Spirituality and Mental Health Care: Rediscovering ‘Forgotten’ Dimension: By John Swinton.” Psychiatric Bulletin, vol 26, no 3(2002): 118.

Jackson, Rebecca L. and Jackie Grutsch McKinney, eds. Self + Culture + Writing: Autoethnography for/as Writing Studies. (Utah State University Press, 2021), 3–7.

McAlpine et al. Signs of Life: Catholic, Mainline, and Conservative Protestant Congregations in Canada. (Tyndale Academic Press, 2021), 68, 101, 112, 136–137, 144, 206.

Scharmer, C. Otto. The Essentials of Theory U : Core Principles and Applications. (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2018)  x–46.

Wang, David C. et al. “Spiritual Formation in Theological Education: A Multi-case Exploration on Seminaries and Student Development.” Christian Education Journal, vol. 20, no. 1 (2023) 65–86.

Wong, Arch, et al. “Are You Listening? The Relevance of what pastoral/denominational leaders and theological educators are saying about preparing leaders for ministry.” Practical Theology, vol. 12, no. 4 (2019), 415-432.

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© Deborah Stephan, 2025.

This work is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Cover Image: Provided by the author.