For as long as I remember I love to be creative!  I love building things.  I think it started with popsicle sticks.  One time while visiting my aunt in Holland she showed me a jewellery box I had made for her from these craft sticks more than 20 years earlier.  I eventually used larger pieces of wood to craft furniture.  I have dabbled in pottery and painting.  In highschool I had aspirations to become an architect.  I love creativity.   

Years later I came to realise that the bent toward creativity is not unique to me.  Creativity is part of what it means to be a human being.   Abraham Kuyper put it well when he wrote:  "As image-bearer of God, man possesses the possibility both to create something beautiful and to delight in it."  (Calvinism, p. 142)  Genesis 1 begins with the story of creation, of how the Triune God created the universe and everything in it.  His creativity is seen everywhere, in every flower, every animal or bird or fish, every hillside, every snow flake, every person, every cell in the human body!   Every part of creation displays God's creativity.  As people we are made in God's image (Genesis 1:27).  And one of the ways we image God is the potential to create things.  Creativity!

In the Bible we read about Bezalel, a man to whom God gave knowledge, skill and ability “to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship.” (Exodus 31:4-5)  Creativity is a gift from God.  Every person is a creative person. God gives creative gifts for a purpose.  Part of that purpose is simply for us to fulfill our role as human beings made in the image of God.

Long after I put away my popsicle sticks I found myself called into Christian ministry and eventually was led to plant a church.  Since there was no church building and no people, there was lots of opportunity to be creative!   One of the things we did was make 20,000 phone calls over 4 weeks with about 20 volunteers from other churches to identify over 2600 people in our community who were either non-Christian or un-churched.  Over the next month we sent these people invitations to come to our first public worship service.   Over 200 came!  Many of them kept coming in the weeks that followed.  The church was birthed and many came to faith in Christ Jesus!  We tried something new.  No other Reformed church was using telemarketing as a tool to plant a church.  But we gave it a go, and the end result was to the glory of God!  

As churches we are committed to GROW healthy churches that grow in number and give birth to new churches.   Healthy churches also penetrate society with the gospel so that justice rolls on like a river and righteousness like a never-failing stream! (Amos 5:24).  As congregations we have to admit that we fall far short of these missional targets.  Why?  Why are our churches not growing exponentially?  Could it be that we need to recover our creative calling?  We need to do something new!   Something different!   Something perhaps never thought about before.   Too many churches simply do the same thing over and over again, and the results speak for themselves.  We might be commited on paper to be salt and light in this world, but if we are not reaching the lost for Christ, we need to change what we are doing.  This will require creativity.  As Andy Crouch put it:  "Creativity is the only viable source for change." (Culture Making, p. 73)

Forty years ago Pastor Rick Warren planted Saddleback church, and had a target to grow this church to over 20,000 members by the year 2020.   They have far exceeded this target with over 200 ministries in 11 different locations.  And Rick will tell you that one of the reasons they have made such a gospel impact is creativity.  They kept trying new things.  Hundreds of things they tried did not work.  But some things they tried worked, and as a result thousands of people have come to Christ and communities all over the world are being transformed.

So get the creativity flowing in your church!  Invite people to submit ideas to impact your community with the gospel.  Have as a rule that no idea is a bad idea!  Just give it a go!   Who knows, that one creative idea, that one change, will reach hundreds, if not thousands with the gospel!   Thank Creator God for the gift of creativity, and in humility and wonder, put those creative ideas into action.   Be a church that is willing to try new things to reach the lost for Christ!