Why Creativity?

Yesterday I shared a bit about some of the creative elements that our Creative Ideas Group here at the Gaylord E-Free Church use in our services. But why? I mean, it takes a lot of thought, work and energy. Is it worth it? Here are the reasons I think it is.

First, creativity comes from God. He is a creative God. It is one of the first things we learn about God. The very first verse in the Bible says, "In the beginning God CREATED the heavens and the earth!"

Second, creativity helps people to learn and remember. In today's culture most people have become "visual learners." They retain some things just by listening. But when you can use the other senses (sight, smell, touch and taste), they will remember even more.

Third, creativity creates excitement and anticipation. People come to church anticipating what is going to happen and they leave excited about what they just saw, heard and experienced. As a result, people openly talk throughout the week about what happened at church.

In other words, we don't use creativity just to be cute or cool. We have a purpose. As the Creative Ideas Group plans each element we do so using a 3-fold filter:

First, does the creative idea fit the theme? No matter how good the idea is, if it does not help people connect with the Biblical theme of the morning, it is not effective.

Second, can we pull off the element with excellence? If it can't be done with excellent, it loses effectiveness.

Third, is it too far out of the box? We want to be "cutting edge" but only to a point. If an idea is too far out of the box it becomes more of a distraction than it does an effective element.

I am thankful for the creative people God has put together here at Gaylord E-Free. I love how God is using this creativity. Is it Sunday yet?