Created To Be Creative

Title: Created To Be Creative
Text: Genesis 1:27

OPEN:
You may not know it to look at me now, but I was a boyhood superhero. I mean it—secret identity, super powers, snazzy costume—the whole nine yards. You see, I spent all of my early years on this mortal planet inventing and drawing superheroes. My line-up of supercharged mutants made the Justice League of America blush, the Fantastic Four faint, and the X-men look like superhero wannabees. But I didn’t stop there—I became a superhero.
· Secret identity, costume in the closet (underwear over pajamas with towel held together by diaper pin).
· Superhero career ended on top of my roof. Was about to go “up, up and away” (more likely—down, down, way down) when my father found me and said, “Son, come down from there before you kill yourself. You can’t fly. You’re no superhero.”—death of imagination!
· Past 35 years have been on a quest to regain my lost imagination.

I’m not the only one who struggles with lost imagination/crippled creativity. No group is this more true of than the Christian Church of today:
“If one were to ask an unbiased observer to name that institution in our society which clearly espouses creativity, we can be sure that he would not name our 21st Century church. This is an indictment of how we Christians feel about the mandate God has given us for being creative… We do not embrace creativity as a way of life… We do not see it as having much to do with Biblical living.” (Calvin M. Johannson)

What about that? If it’s true, why is it? Is creativity incompatible with Christ following? Is imagination a gift or a curse/ good or evil?

One need not travel very far in Scripture to encounter the creative. Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created…”
Genesis 1:27
I do not intend to exegete this text but instead take a brief panoramic view of the creative in the Bible to see if we may indeed apply that action to human beings, then suggest 5 traits of those who are actively creative.
Other than offering unconditional love, Creativity is the most divine act of humanity

I. May We Ascribe Creativity to Human Beings?
Creativity—So much more than artistic expression, though the artist composer, actor, author have powerful tools at their disposal for presenting fresh perspectives. These are, quite simply, tools of human imagination.
· Everyone is born with imagination—your creative spirit—though few pursue and develop it beyond early childhood.
“The few who keep their imaginations active become theme-park designers, write multi-volume end-times bestsellers, or—if they can’t make a living that way—become youth ministers.”
(Disney Imagineer, C. McNair Wilson)

So, just what is creativity?

1. Creativity (verb)
a. to make the new, or rearrange the old to appear new.
b. action taken as a result of imagination.

· In the Bible “create” is reserved for extraordinarily exalted activity. The Hebrew and Greek words respectively bara and kitzo, are very similar in meaning and are employed sparingly to denote the pinnacles of God’s achievements—creating the heavens and the earth, man, righteousness/justice, the nation Israel, the Church, reconciling Israel and the Church, creating the New Jerusalem, and to regeneration and worship.
· The Biblical concept embraces a much broader canvas than merely the physical creation in Genesis One.
2. Two main dimensions characteristic of Biblical creativity:
a. The constructing dimension (as in the making of the universe).
b. The performing dimension (as in the doing of miracles).
· By way of human analogy, to make something in the construction dimension is to take material and shape or reshape it (into a book, essay, sculpture, etc.)
· To do something in the performance dimension is to perform on the piano, dance, deliver a speech. An action results, not a new form.
Both are expressions of biblical creativity
Exodus 35:30-36:2

Not every Christian leader has looked favorably on human creativity:
“the more the artist attains to the ideal of free, untrammeled creativity, the more likely he is to be disobedient to God… Human creation thus is seen not as Stewardship, but as a competition with divine Creation.” (Refomer)
· Reformed theologians viewed the idea of man as a creator as dangerous (Kuyper, Seerveld, Wolterstorff).

c. Gen 1:28 can be seen as a command, a charge to subdue not only all living creatures, but to discover and use the potential in all materials, including their macro and micro structural dimensions.
· To subdue means to tame, master, humanize, impose order, develop technique—to place our imprint on creation in a positive way.
· In other words, man is charged with working to extend God’s creation. In that sense, “creation” is uncompleted, unfinished.
J. R. R. Tolkien—man is “sub-creator”
Dorothy L. Sayer—mankind is viewed as small “c” creator.
“We are all aware that man cannot create in the absolute sense. We use the word “create to convey an extension and amplification of something we do know.”

II. Five Traits of Those Who are Actively Creative.
C. McNair Wilson: “As children, not a one of us had to be encouraged to paint, sing, draw, dance, make-up stories. Playfulness is a naturally occurring human activity. Good news: we can reignite these early flames of creativity any time we want by calling on the long-dormant curiosities of youth. They’re in there, way in the back, behind the mimeograph.”

We can all recapture our God-given creative spirit by practicing five traits we have in common with the most actively creative people in history. Enthusiastically and relentlessly applied, our creativity can change lives and reinvigorate the Church.

1. Take Risks—proceeding without control over outcome.
· Creativity only happens in the context of risk.
· Beware the ‘nay-sayers.’ Nothing destroys creativity faster than negativity.
Illus: Robert Fulton and his negative wife.
· Negativity destroys creativity!

2. Challenge Assumptions—ignore unwritten rules.
· Pay no attention to those who protest by saying, “We’ve never done it that way before.”
· See things differently. Jesus did this—he was radical. But he was different with a purpose; not different simply to be different.
· Creativity needs a purpose.
3. Learn to Play Again—don’t be afraid of imagination.
· It is a sad thing how the Church has become afraid of imagination to the point of condemning it.
Illus: My own sermon when returning to the US in 2000: “What’s wrong with Harry Potter?” Now I wonder: “What’s been wrong with Dane Fowlkes?”
· We actually learn more by playing than we do from listening to a lecture.
4. Pursue Curiosity—Ask ‘What if?”
· Questions are more important than their answers & problems are what matter most in life, not their solutions.
5. View Life as Art.
Malcolm Muggeridge: “All happenings, great and small, are parables whereby God speaks. The art of life is to get the message.”
· I am convinced that what happens in death is that we get a different body, but that what makes you “you” in this life continues to be “you” after death. That concept totally changes the way we view life here and now. Sickness and problems take on a whole new significance when you see them as opportunities to grow and that our response to them affects the person that we will be forever.
· The highest art form is the art of living creatively.

CLOSE:
Creativity is the most divine act of humanity. Creativity is at the very heart of being human. It’s not too late to regain imagination and release creativity in your life.