Creativity in Ministry
You’ve heard it before, “Church is boring,” “the Bible is old and irrelevant,” and “Christians are no fun.” Many of these statements are given to express reasons that people will not or do not attend a local church. But in my world, these sentiments could not be any further from the truth. I can say this because I experience an exciting church that is anything but boring, a Bible that is life-transforming and relevant to everything I do, and a group of people that know how to have a life that is worth living.
There are people in my little sphere that are far more creative than I am and there are moments when I have wondered why I did not get the gift of music or art or something that is considered “creative.” I have felt like a fish out of water at times when I am in meetings where we’re looking for something to spark excitement or to “think outside the box.” Maybe you feel this way? Maybe you’ve attended conferences where every one of your senses were impacted and you wished that you could create a similar experience in your church for the people that attend.
When you read the gospel account of Jesus you can’t help but see the creativity of Jesus in how he addressed his audiences. He did not have a fancy light system, a fog machine, or the best sound system. He used common elements that people interacted with every day to tell a story, grab their attention, and share the truth. In Matthew 17, you find Jesus telling the people to go and catch a fish and find the coin to pay the tax. He told parables and stories that would grab the attention of everyone listening. I tend to picture Jesus as he speaks in Luke 15, is telling the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son that he is pointing at an actual sheep, holding a real coin, and gesturing towards a father and son in the crowd. He is using what people already know and understand to capture their attention and their hearts.
You may feel like me and would say, “I am not creative,” but the reality is that a creative God created you and we are made in His image. It’s easy to get busy in ministry doing “stuff” and lose our sense of wonder. One of the best ways that I have found to spark creativity is to ask questions. How does that work? Why do you do that? Who taught you that? Where can I find this? Every time I enter a church building my eyes are wide. I want to see how they do this or that, so that we may be able to implement something to help our church make disciples.
If you are struggling with ways to be creative, looking for ideas on how to move something forward, here are a few thoughts that I would suggest.
Ask questions. Pastors often appear as though they know it all. I know that this is my EMO at times, and I need to remember that I do not know everything and that there is something new that I can learn today. I need to ask the questions so that I can learn and grow. Good questions lead to better answers, and being teachable as a leader is essential. At the minimum, start asking the basic questions we learned as kids: Who? What? When? Why? Where? And, How?
Take time to dream with others. Slow down and give yourself some time to dream, plan, and cast vision. Don’t feel as though you have to do everything alone either. If you have a staff team, whether paid or volunteer, bring them into the creative process. If you don’t have a staff team, create a team of people to bounce ideas off of. Leave space in the conversation for differing viewpoints, even when they might bruise your ego. You don’t have to know everything, in fact: you can’t. God gave us each other, and having time set aside to brainstorm without fear is absolutely good for God’s people.
Be who God has called YOU to be. God did not call you to be the pastor down the street or the pastor that everyone watches on YouTube. He called you to be you, just where you are. We can attend creative conferences and read books on being creative but at the end of the day, God wants you to use your gifts and your abilities the way he has gifted you to build His church and make disciples. The church needs your voice, not an echo of someone else’s.
Philip Bassham
Lead Pastor | Discovery Church, Gahanna