Yesterday I went to a workshop called, "Creativity and the Body of Christ." Essentially, the seminar looked at the importance of creating the worship space as a place that generates creation. The speaker, Matthew Schultz, asked the question, "Are our kids absorbing or engaging?"
He pointed out that from an early age, we (kids and adults included) are trained to absorb information. We teach them how to fill in bubbles on a scantron, but there's little proof that scantrons help prepare people for problem solving. Even in church, there comes a point where if the worship space is not fostering creativity, the worship platform is just another platform to have people absorb information. I remember reading at one point (and I can't remember where for the life of me) that worship ought not to be about how we change worship but how worship changes us. What are the ways in your own worship life that you feel inspired to be creative?
As a pastor, I hear people say, "Oh I'm not that creative" or "I'm not creative at all." The speaker yesterday pointed out that as Christians, we have a long history of creative people in scripture going before us from God creating the world to charging the human race with being creative and naming the animals to Job and David who were poets and song-writers, to Jesus who spoke in parables and encouraged his disciples to go out into the world as story tellers, and so there is a long history of creativity being an intergal part of the human experience. I think everyone has the capacity to be creative in some way if they give themselves permission to be.
Mr. Schultz used a great line yesterday. He said, speaking about creativity in the church, "It's not a wall to smash but a garden to water." We shouldn't be looking at how we can create our worship spaces to foster creativity as a wall we have to knock down between the ones who say "need" traditional liturgy every Sunday and those who want a more "contemporary" worship style. Is there a way within our congregations to marry the two without going to a second service?
In the church where I'm working, we're looking at the possibility of moving to a second service that will most likely take place Saturday nights. The hope is that an evening service will draw open the pathways for more young families with kids to feel welcomed into the church. I've been around long enough to know that for most people, because of sports and other commitments, church has lost its place as high priority in many people's lives. In the race between kid's sports, golf, and family events, church will almost always come second. I don't say that to sound negative, I say that because I know it from experience to be true. It is especially true in the spring and summer months when the weather is finally juuuust right. The comment I get about moving to having a second service is that people want us all to be worshipping in one space at one time because that's how we get to know each other. People want one service because it means the church will not grow beyond what they consider to be a "comfortable capacity."
We're not looking to become a megachurch. We're not looking to have so many members that we're unable to minister to them all and we're not looking to break any records. My session has ideally, they would just like numbers to be up where they were several years ago. I think we can do it, but we need to think outside the box about getting the younger families -- especially families with kids and youth -- involved. How can we create that spirit of creativity to encourage others to cultivate their own spirit of creativity?
It's about conversation. What are people hungry for at church and how can we invite them to make the presence known? Not "how can we count them when they sign the friendship pads" and not "how can we get them all to pay their per capita" but how can we invite them to make their presence known so they know they have a voice in the life of the church? We do this through conversation. I'm really big on communication and I believe that the majority of negative drama happens in the church as a direct result of a lack of communication. I want to know in what ways the people of my congregation are being fed and in what ways they are left with a bit of hunger.
What are the ways that our worship spaces already invites the spirit of creativity? What things can we try to increase the ways we invite a spirit of creativity? We are called to proclaim the Word in an ever-changing world. We should create an atmosphere of creativity because we are called to be creators in ways we might not even expect. As beings created in the image of God, we are created in the image with the capacity for creativty. How can we break the spell over those who do not believe they are creative? I think this would be a great conversation in whatever church we attend.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
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