“Creativity” has become such a bloated word that it has almost lost its meaning. Particularly in the church.
We hire “Creative Directors” and assemble “Creative Teams.” These almost always pertain to the “arts”—design, video, music, etc. The obvious side effect is that we subtly signal to everyone else—the kids ministry, the administrators, the ushers, the small business owners, the SAHM’s—that they are not creative. Is it any wonder that we have both a weird glamorization of worship leaders and a crisis of meaninglessness among churchgoers?
Not to mention the fact that it’s very possible to be, say, a graphic designer, even a very good one, who is not actually creative.
Why is that? Because creativity has much more to do with our relationship with Creator, creation, and kingdom than it does with our competency with Adobe Illustrator or our knowledge of today’s design trends.
A few years ago I began a deep dive into the theology of rest. I was frustrated with the superficiality of how rest and Sabbath were taught (or disregarded) in the church, and wanted to provide a deeper root system for this crucial part of our story with God.
Side note: I published a series of video teachings and a short ebook on the Spirit of the Sabbath. You can see that here:
I soon found out that you can’t build a theology of rest without simultaneously building a theology of work (or, better said, creativity). The two are bound up together, going all the way back to Genesis.
When our relationship with rest is broken, it’s usually because our relationship with work, purpose, and creativity is too. And vice versa.
