Over the past few years I’ve come to see myself as a “co-creator” with God. No, that doesn’t make me a “little deity” of some sort (as some might suggest), but it does help me to remember that I serve a creative God in Whose likeness I am created. Since I married my wife, Daleen, thirteen years ago, I’ve grown in my creativity. I think we all have a creative side, but, unfortunately, most of our creativity remains hidden and is not allowed to surface. Not sure why this is seeing that we serve the Ultimate Creator. Seems like we should want to tap into our creativity rather than hide from it.
One thing I love about NieuCommunities is that I am constantly being challenged/encouraged to express my creativity in my communion with God, with my community of Christ-followers and in the world around me. I’m not just talking about the creation of art, writing and music, but also about getting creative in how I spend time with God, how we serve, how we usher our community into worship, how we present God’s invitation to a world that thinks it’s already “been there and done that.”
Our staff team recently had a weekend retreat where we took a pottery class from a local artisan. Pottery on the wheel is something that I’ve always wanted to learn how to do, but I probably told myself that I didn’t have the time, or money, or something else. The weekend was great and I believe our staff team will be the richer for the experience. Actually, I believe our whole apprenticeship will benefit from unleashing our creativity. Sure this was just one experience, but I think creativity breeds creativity. The dividends from such an experience can be far-reaching and go way beyond what we learned over the weekend.
Wikipedia says the following about creativity:
Colloquial definitions of creativity are typically descriptive of activity that results:
- in producing or bringing about something partly or wholly new;
- in investing an existing object with new properties or characteristics;
- in imagining new possibilities that were not conceived of before;
- and in seeing or performing something in a manner different from what was thought possible or normal previously.
When I read these definitions I tend to think of things that are not necessarily connected to my relationship with God, or with my experience of church. For most of my Christian life I’ve seemed to have put a cap on just how much creativity is “allowed.” Heaven forbid we go “over the top.” Unfortunately, art in the Christian world suffers from such a view and is consistently hailed as second-rate and not all that interesting. This has spilled over into our spiritual lives where we approach God and His Church with more of a feeling of obligation rather than a sense of awe.
I encourage you to embrace your creativity. I believe we, as the Church, will not only experience God more deeply, but also better reflect Him, and the reality of His kingdom, to a wanting world.
