Creativity/Opportunity

 Creativity/Opportunity

Sunday, September 26, 2021

I think creativity is over-rated. Don’t misunderstand. I am glad for people who are innovative and use their imagination. I just think “creativity” is a poor term. It claims far too much.

As we have seen in our summer series over the last two summers, God is the Creator, and thus creativity really belongs to Him. He speaks, and it happens. And what happens is something that comes from His mind alone. The concept. The raw materials. The design and function and intention. It all comes from Him. 

For mere mortals, some of whom are (wrongly) called “creatives,” they have an idea, but it is probably not entirely their own. They use materials and mediums that they borrow from others. They are re-arranging old furniture and re-framing past ideas in different combinations. It’s not wrong for them to do so. Just don’t call it creativity.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, Mark Sayers, to whom I referred last week, says that we also should re-frame not only our thinking in this time after the “pandemic pause,” but we should re-frame our creativity. But, since I don’t like his word, let’s say it this way: let’s re-frame our understanding of our opportunity. 

In our own setting, a lot of things are different than before the pandemic. Businesses are closed. Schools are in trouble. Our local church is smaller, and older. We are being tested by a saddening array of illness concerns in our congregation. Where is the opportunity? 

One of the opportunities that we’ve been compelled to discover is an increased attention to prayer. It’s not creativity on our part. God has a way of forcing us to our knees. Now I doubt that there are very many families moving to Milford who say they are searching for “a praying church.” But since we are not seeking to be market-driven, but rather, God-pleasing, is this an opportunity that God is pleased with, that we would devote ourselves to prayer? And so we try and stay connected and "on the same page” with “daily encouragement” emails that repeat and enumerate prayer requests, and now we meet on Wednesday evenings (as generations past have done) to pray for individuals and to pray for the church and for God’s mission in the world. 

Is this all? Is this the sum total of our opportunity? By no means. But it’s a good, God-pleasing start.