Being Creative

Creativity may not be a word you would normally associate with church settings, aside from children's ministry or Vacation Bible School. Creativity usually doing something that you are not accustomed to doing. It brings about new things. New things bring about uncomfortable feelings. Uncomfortable feelings bring about apprehension. Apprehension decreases speed of an idea or project. Decreased or halted speed brings about nothing getting done. So, we're back around to not being creative.

Creativity is also a difficulty when we aren't clear about what we are to be creative about. Brainstorming sessions around a certain topic are generally better than when it is totally open-ended. For example, "What shall we do next?" is too broad of a spectrum, where you will probably get some "I don't know" answers. Changing it to "Wouldn't it be fun to have a fall, outdoor, get-together? What kinds of activities could we do?"

I enjoy creativity. I enjoy being creative. I enjoy variety.

When I sent texts, with audio, to the teens for Bible Class, I would do a few things that may catch them off guard or give them a riddle-like hint as to what we would be studying that night. Just something to be creative.

I would like to see what types of creative ideas we can spur up concerning our assembly. This falls back on to the shoulders of the song leaders and me, mostly. What can we do to eliminate any "ho-hum" environments? How can we create a "if I missed today, I'd really be missing something" environments? However, though we may be incorporating it, don't leave the "getting the ideas" part up to us. If you have an idea, let it be known. Part of creativity is not relying just on your own ideas...but on the ideas of others.

Another area that is always up for the creative challenge is in the area of outreach. What unconventional things can we be doing to get people to know Jesus? Conventional methods are not out of the spectrum for ideas. Also, tweaking those conventional ideas could be something to consider. Sometimes it may be a "shock" factor that causes people to say "Wow, I never thought about doing that as a church". People are attracted at different times in their life and for different reasons. Creativity is necessary to "catch fish".

Creativity brings about new life in people. New life brings about energy. Energy produces movement. Movement produces results.

If you dig your heals into creativity then you are guaranteed not to make it to results. If you get on board with things, then you have a much greater possibility of seeing results.

Whether it is in the area of the assembly, outreach, education, or some other avenue, creativity that is couched around a clear direction is bound to have some neat results!

Let's be creative!!!