{"id":37603,"date":"2026-02-21T10:15:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stpaulsanglican.org.au\/?page_id=37603"},"modified":"2026-02-21T10:27:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:27:36","slug":"the-power-of-what-if","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stpaulsanglican.org.au\/zh\/resources\/training\/the-power-of-what-if\/","title":{"rendered":"The power of what if?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The power of “what if?”<\/h1>\n


By Pip Witheridge<\/p>\n

February 2026<\/em><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

All leaders are different. For some, thinking outside the box comes naturally. Others find it difficult to imagine anything besides the status-quo. Whatever your tendencies, if you are a leader in ministry it will be incredibly helpful to develop the habit of thinking outside the box.<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Even if you are one-hundred-percent sure of the purpose of your ministry area, it is worth acknowledging that there may be a hundred different ways to achieve what you are trying to achieve. We should also admit that the way things are currently set up might not be the best way!<\/p>\n


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So how can we think outside the box?<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

I want to suggest one powerful way to think outside the box: develop the habit of asking, “what if?”.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Hypothetical questions are powerful because they force us to think outside the box. They make us consider alternate realities, and sometimes we realise that there is an achievable alternate reality that is better than our current one!<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Let’s take an example. Imagine you are in charge of the “Membership” area of your night church service. Your goal is to foster a loving community where people connect well and care for one another. This is a great, Biblical goal! Your current programs to achieve these goals are: a) having a welcoming team who say “hi” when you walk into church and who help newcomers find a seat, b) ensuring feedback cards are followed up in a timely, loving manner, and c) holding a dinner after church once a term where people bring their own dinner.<\/p>\n


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So far, so good. Now, time for some hypotheticals.<\/p>\n


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What if<\/b> you had an extra ten highly-motivated people volunteering to help? How would you deploy them?<\/i><\/p>\n


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What if <\/b>you were given $20,000 to invest in your ministry area? How would you spend it?<\/i><\/p>\n


<\/i><\/p>\n

What if<\/b> you had an extra thirty hours in your week to work on your ministry area? How would you use it?<\/i><\/p>\n


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What if<\/b> you had to stop your current ministry programs and start new ones? What is the first thing you would you try?<\/i><\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

All of a sudden you are forced to imagine other ways of doing things. And from time to time, you’ll think of an idea that makes you want to turn that hypothetical into a reality.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

What other “what if?” <\/i>questions could you ask?<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n


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The power of “what if?” By Pip Witheridge February 2026 All leaders are different. For some, thinking outside the box comes naturally. Others find it difficult to imagine anything besides the status-quo. Whatever your tendencies, if you are a leader in ministry it will be incredibly helpful to develop the habit of thinking outside the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"parent":36643,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-37603","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsanglican.org.au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsanglican.org.au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsanglican.org.au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsanglican.org.au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsanglican.org.au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37603"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsanglican.org.au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37622,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsanglican.org.au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37603\/revisions\/37622"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsanglican.org.au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsanglican.org.au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}