Creativity – It’s Not All About What You Do

I've being thinking about this a lot lately - creativity. That one word alone would take centuries to unlock because our lives are a mirror of the Creator. When we think and speak about being creative, we generally think about what we should do.

However, this week I was thinking that many times the key to unlock true creativity is not what we do but what we deliberately choose not to do. Some of the things that we often do just out of habit, routine, or ritual is actually an inhibitor to our creativity. Let me give you an example.

This week I was in a planning meeting with one of our staff members about an upcoming event. We were talking through the components of the evening, and this was one of the first comments: "Of course, we'll start with worship." My immediate thought was, "Why?" (Remember, as I'm writing this I am the worship pastor. I always want to lead worship.) Often times we just keep doing the same things we've been doing in the same ways we've been doing them without any thought of change. This philosophy, in itself, inhibits creativity.

When I asked that question, "why?," we didn't have any other other good answers other than "we always do worship." I'm sure there are those that will want to take me to task on this. Here is why I don't have a problem removing worship from the event. It's in the belief that everything we do that evening will be God-centered and therefore results in worship of our God. With that in mind, it's easy to eliminate singing from the program for this specific event.

After we threw that thought on the table, it seemed to unlock our thinking and our creativity. We came up with some really great ideas. Some of them we'll do. Some we won't. Some will be tweaked once our creative team meets to talk through the details. Furthermore, we may put worship (singing) back on the agenda.

In summary, here's what I learned through this experience. Sometimes the most creative thing you can do is to not create something new but to stop doing something you have been doing. (By the way, the evening of Sunday, June 12 is going to be an amazing night to celebrate Pastor Brock and Alissa Meyer.)