Sometimes it’s easy to overlook one of the most profound gifts we have from God: the gift of creativity. Creativity is a spiritual gift that God intends to permeate every facet of our ministries and daily lives. Congregational leaders should seek out opportunities to nurture creativity on the personal and institutional level for many reasons.
Let’s start with the idea that we are created in the imago Dei and that God is our Creator. God’s creative work continues through us as we preach, teach, paint, play, write, build and plan to bring order, goodness and beauty to life. As we struggle to understand what it means for Christian leaders to embrace the use of artificial intelligence for ministry, for example, we don’t want to neglect the opportunity to lean into creativity. It reflects the mind of God and thus makes us truly human.
Creativity is also at play when we consider the adaptive challenges we all want to resolve. Whether we’re talking about affordable housing or reaching young adults, creativity is essential. The way we have always done things in church was already proving to be less effective before the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, it’s hard to escape the fact that many of the ministry strategies we once relied upon are no longer impacting the people we need to reach. Solutions will involve more than tweaking a few practices or resurrecting old programs that used to work. We need the Holy Spirit to inspire open minds to discover creative solutions that meet the needs of the present day.
Ultimately, creativity leads to growth. The more we encourage people to explore and use their gifts, the more we will see people participate in the good and redemptive work God is doing in the world.
Resources
Writing our stories and finding ourselves
A matriarch of Asian American theology discusses storytelling, representation and capacity building.
Q&A with Kwok Pui Lan
A Sanctified Art creates worship materials that affirm diversity and expand imagination
A woman-led ministry of theologically trained creatives is offering faith communities around the world a new vision for telling ancient stories.
By Edie Gross
Increasing creative confidence one Lego brick at a time
A nonprofit founder and her godson invited their neighbors to take 50 Lego pieces and make something. The results demonstrated how small, simple experiments in creativity can be communal and fun.
By Shannon Hopkins
Christian school embraces design thinking to help form creative, empathetic citizens
Mount Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta wasn’t satisfied with only changing its physical space and teaching methods. School leaders also created a nonprofit institute to encourage other educators to adopt the model.
By Lindsay M. Moss
Before you go…
On a recent personal retreat, I encountered a group of people who were participating in a multiday workshop on visual journaling. Instead of using only words, a trained facilitator guided them in a process of drawing, painting, sketching, doodling and using cut-outs to express their thoughts and feelings. Visual journaling is not new, but after talking to a few of the participants, it was clear to me that there’s a real need for this kind of creativity in our spiritual practices. What might emerge if we challenged ourselves to reflect on the gift of creativity and how we nurture that gift in congregational life? What problems could we solve? What barriers could we overcome?
We love to hear from readers. You can always reach me and the Alban Weekly team at alban@duke.edu. Until next week, keep leading!
Prince Rivers
Editor, Alban at Duke Divinity