Are You A Creative?

 First, let me say that perhaps the most shocking thing about 2020 is not the pandemic, not the riots nor the tumultuous election (now evangelicals have at least TWO kinds of election about which to argue!). It is that I have not blogged since January. Better, it is that I am finally blogging again now. I suppose the latter is more shocking, since it is usually easier to not blog than to blog. (In defense of my neglect, I will put forth that God did enable me to publish 2 books this year!)

Now, sometimes we creatives can hardly hold it in, whatever the IT is - some idea we feel we must express or burst. The prophet Jeremiah wrote about this, though, I'm not sure he'd consider himself a creative. He DID write poetry. Some of it was rehearsed over and over in Israel's national Lamentations. In Jer 20:9 he wrote:

I say, “I won’t mention him 

or speak any longer in his name.” 

But his message becomes a fire burning in my heart, 

shut up in my bones. 

I become tired of holding it in, 

and I cannot prevail.

It is telling (and convicting) that Jeremiah would even express a desire to HOLD IN God's message, but my point here is that he couldn't. He was compelled. Christians are compelled in a similar way to share the message of God, a message the NT calls the gospel. We are more than compelled to herald this good news (of access to eternal life by faith in Jesus Christ). We are commanded to share it. (Passages like Mk 16:15 are understood to be TO Jesus' original disciples but FOR all of us disciples.)

That command gets too lightly and easily brushed off in cultures like our modern American Christianity. Preaching is for professionals in the pulpit or the classroom. Gospel proclamation is for the Christian pop creatives in bands like Hillsong and Elevation Worship. I might listen or sing along but I'm not a creative like them.

The premise (it's the professional's job) is faulty or the command is nullified. Scripture militates against the latter, so the former must be the problem. Proclaiming the gospel is for every Christ-follower. The title of this blog belies the fact that I believe the follow-up (I'm not a creative) is also faulty. A strong argument can be made that ALL of us are creatives rather than they are only some subset of people who happen to be gifted in particular art forms. In this I largely agree with Andrew Peterson who makes this argument here, and fleshes it out more in his book, Adorning the Dark.

Now let me put these two thoughts - 1) the command to proclaim the gospel and 2) the reality that the creative God patterned you as a creative in his image - let me put these together in a challenge for us all. God has created you and me as unique messengers to proclaim his amazing creative goodness to the entire cosmos (Eph 3:10-11). This is our purpose first by nature of being humans God made in his own image. It our mandate second by nature of our recreation in the image of God's Son as followers of Christ.

So, the question is not whether but how you are to proclaim the gospel. You don't have to write a song or drama or paint a masterpiece on a chapel ceiling to be a creative. You will proclaim a true or false gospel as you spin the lug nuts on with your pneumatic wrench at the shop. Or you will do it as you crunch the numbers and make your recommendations to your client. Perhaps you have about an hour to do it after the trim while your customer waits for her color to set. Or you will proclaim a pure or corrupt gospel as you try to help your kids - or someone else's kids - with their online or hybrid schooling, praying and waiting for the day they are back on campus! The gospel is your charge even as you wait for the shut-down to end so you can go back to work full-time. It will also be yours when you are back to working more hours than you wish and trying to hang on until the next holiday or vacation.

Are you a creative? I'd say yes, at least to the point that God has created you with your unique personality, background, situation and opportunities, all for one thing. You are to proclaim his goodness by proclaiming his gospel. That means using words, yes, that is true. But it is not true enough. It means proclaiming in every way you live: in your vocation, in your home, in your recreation and in your communities. Our whole lives are living sacrifices, not only of worship but of proclamation (Rm 12:1-2). To proclaim the gospel in either words OR actions is confused and insufficient. We must do both. We speak the words as heralds, AND we live accordingly as servants of Jesus.

Understand that the Apostle Peter was about as down-to-earth as a guy gets. (I doubt he would have called himself a creative!) Remember that he was rough, stumbling and inclined to regrettable screw-ups like you and me. Then hear him call us to both the speaking and the living out of the gospel:

1 Peter 3:14–15 (CSB)

... Do not fear them or be intimidated, 15 but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

2 Peter 3:11–12 (CSB)

11 Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness 12 as you wait for the day of God and hasten its coming.