Epigraph:
"Christians ought to be
the most Creative people on the face of the earth... Because our
default position ought to be the joyous mimicking of the pattern of heavenly
life we have found in the Scriptures, in our encounters with Christ, and the
indwelling of the Divine Spirit in our human spirits. Creativity is a
central part of Spiritual Discipleship that is right, authentic, and credible."
- “Creativity and Spirituality: A
Multidisciplinary Perspective” by Maureen Miner & Martin Dowson.
Article:
When you think of “Creativity”, what
comes to mind? Do you think of art that are beyond conventions? Music that
according to commentators, blew minds? Projects that are so simple,
you’ve probably not thought of yet?
So for the past couple of months, 王端国牧师 challenged 居銮荣美小组 to do just that -
define, identify, and apply “creativity” in our lives. Each member of 居銮荣美小组 then came up with
how they perceive “creativity” based on their personal experiences and how they
can use them. I, on the other hand, have the honour to compile what they have
shared into 3 main points, along with 3 applications for us as a people.
The Main Point: Creativity is Central
to Christian Living
Upon contemplating on a huge resource
of Christian materials, the teachings of Fredrik Härén from Global Leadership
Summit 2017, the multitude of sharing from each member of 居銮荣美小组, as well as the
Holy Bible, I think that the key focus of Creativity revolves around our
relationship with the Creator, and our daily Worship.
In order to help you taste the
richness of Christian Creativity inside the Oneness of Godly Fellowship, we
need to first define what this “creativity” is. We will then link these
definitions with the Bible’s perspective as well as real life experiences from 居銮荣美小组.
1 Creativity is,
but not limited to, the Arts.
Here’s a quick definition of
“Creativity” in the words of Fredrik Härén (n.d.), “Idea = Person (Knowledge +
Information)”. In other words, an idea is developed when a person takes his/her
knowledge and combine it with information. Creativity is then, the endless
possibility of such ideas springing up from different people, utilising their
own personal knowledge with the information they are able to receive to
generate alternate ways of solving problems.
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary
(n.d.), “creativity” refers to the ability to create. And “create” is in
itself, a transiting verb that refers to the “brining into existence” (like how
God created the Universe), “to produce a course of action”, “to invest with a
new form”, or to “produce through imaginative skill”.
These definitions do not tell us that
“creativity” is limited to the arts. On other hand, “creativity” encapsulates
almost every aspect of life that may cause something else to happen.
This may include the way we treat one another, the way we do our work, the
reasons why we make certain decisions, and even how we choose to worship the
Lord!
Before we go on, we must first
understand that all creativity comes from the Lord our God. It is He who
will fill us with wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and the skills we require
to do what He has called us to do (Exodus 31:1-5). The Bible is very
clear on this. From the construction of the Tabernacle, to the application of
parables to teach the very Will of God, creativity can be seen in almost
every corner of the Scriptures. And all of these expressions of creativity
are given by God.
Of
course, as fellow believers of Christ, “creativity” should only be
utilised in God-pleasing activities. “Creativity” when taken out of the
context of love towards God will only lead to sin. We can see this in the story
of Bezelal and Oholiab in Exodus 31 - 32. God spoke to Moses regarding His
plans in giving Bezelal and Oholiab the skills, and knowledge, and creativity
to construct the tabernacle. However just a chapter later, we have seen that
the Golden Calf was constructed under the leadership of Aaron. It wasn’t sure
who was the key architect of the Golden Calf, but it can be easily deduced to
be constructed by people whom God has promised to grant the necessary skills,
information, knowledge, and wisdom to.
Bottom line here is simple.
Creativity is God-given, and should be used in God-pleasing activities.
Creativity is not limited to the arts but can be applied in the very way we
lead our lives. Creativity should be exhibited through the decisions we make
and the actions that we do.
For 居銮荣美小组, some of the ways
Creativity is identified and used are as follows:
Creativity in Communication
“Creativity can be used to convey the
needs to the needy to people from different social classes,” said Bao Yee who,
under the leadership of 王端国牧师, founded the 居銮荣美小组 ministries with a
couple of other members, ministering to different groups of needy people within
their community in Central Johor. “I will invite others to join the small
group’s life. Through it, they will be able to experience God’s amazing work.
With these experiences, they can better contemplate on the Will of God in their
lives and if God stirs them to assist us in our ministries, we will definitely
welcome them!”
Creativity in Decision Making
“In life, independent thinking can
help us make creative decisions,” said Wan Juan, referencing from what was
shared by Mr Härén in the Global Leaders’ Summit (GLS) 2017. “For example, if
the decisions we have made does not interfere with others, we do not need to be
afraid of their opinions! Swimming is a good example. We do not need to swim
according to the lines just because the lines are there.”
2 Creativity
Derives from the Closeness with the Creator
The Fear of the Lord is the beginning
of Wisdom. This is a verse that should be ingrained within the hearts of most
Christians. But do we truly know what it is? To fear the Lord can simply meant,
to see Him the way He is - to know His Glory, His Righteousness,
and His sovereignty. Should we really know who He is, the very thought
of God should make us shudder, expose our sins, and stir our hearts to obey His
commands.
Now, these commands include the call
to meditate on His Words day and night (Psalms 1:2). Shouldn’t all Christians
be extremely creative when we meditate constantly on the creativeness of the
Creator Himself? Shouldn’t our life be focused on His will and His awesome
purpose only, given that the Fear of Him would not cause us to do otherwise?
The Bible teaches us to imitate Paul,
just as how he imitates Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). The Bible also teaches us
to follow God and walks in the ways of love (Ephesians 5:1-2). Now then that we
are called to imitate God, and God has sent His very own Son as a living,
breathing, example for us. How much more should we devote ourselves to daily
fellowship with God, delighting in fellowship and learning the ways of the
Creator Himself.
居銮荣美小组’s ministry to the
needy is unlike many others. They were able to see the vast collection of
resources that God has provided before them in order to serve the needy.
Resources do not necessarily come from Churches. In fact, most of 居銮荣美小组’s ministry
resources come from the community, government aids, and individual donors.
Donations that they have received varies from monetary donations, to food; from
plants, to real estate assistance. These blessings not only blessed the
children and elders whom 居銮荣美小组 is ministering to, but the impact
seen in these peoples’ lives also touched the givers to want to know more. It
is this interest that stirs them to find out more about Christ and
subsequently, accept Him as their Lord and Saviour.
Such live changing acts are not done
solely through human planning, but through the earnest seeking of God and a
heart devoted to service. Through ministry, 居銮荣美小组 aims to point
people to God, and letting them pursue the Truth within the Gospels. To be able
to touch more lives, most of 居銮荣美小组 have devoted their entire lives to
ministry. 居銮荣美小组 gathers daily to
meditate on the Word of God, to pray, and to serve together. God blesses such
attempts to fellowship with Him, granting them the Wisdom and Creativity to do
all they need to in their ministry, maximising their impact within their local
community, and letting them shine very brightly for His name.
3 Creativity is, in
essence, the Core of Christian Worship
After all of these discussion, I
believe, the crux of the matter is this - “Creativity”, if founded on the
foundations of the Love of God, is the very essence of Christian Life. It is, Our
Daily Worship to the Creator.
According to 居銮荣美小组, our lives has the
power to impact another. And as Christians, we are obligated to impact others
positively in the Light of the Love of Christ (生命影响生命). We do so by
doing our best to display Christ to the World through every aspect of life.
This includes the way we speak, the choices we make, the things we do, the
things we care about, and the things we teach. These impacts are not only
edifying, but life-changing. People who are in contact with 居銮荣美小组 will notice
miracles taking place on an almost daily basis - the clinically depressed being
healed, couples in crisis reconciling, broken families finding love, etc.
I believe, the foundation of
Christian Creativity is the love we have for the Lord and for each other. In
the words of Bearden (2016), “love” is, the “most important aspect of
creativity”. He went on to explain that creativity is not solely to impress,
but rather, it should be extended as a charity to others. In context, Bearden
was speaking of how a pastor made used of modern movies as analogies in his
sermons. Such creativity in the effort to preach, captivated children, helping
them to be absorbed into the sermon and the Word of God. We can too, living
creative lives and making creative decisions as a “charity to others”; coming
out with “always-new ways to affirm an old and timeless love” (Bearden, 2016).
Where Can We Start?
Having concluded Creativity is not
only limited to the arts, but can be expressed in almost every aspect of life,
and that true Creativity is a gift from God that you get when you’re close to
Him, what now, you may ask, can we do that we can attain this creativity?
Here are three practical pointers to
consider for you to attain such God-glorifying, life-changing, “creativity”.
1 Creativity Isn’t
Conformity
Let’s recap. According to Härén
(n.d.), creativity is a compilation of ideas, and ideas are a compilation of a
person’s knowledge and information combined. And according to the Merriam
Webster Dictionary (n.d.), “creativity” is the ability to “create”. “Create”,
refers to the ability to bring something into existence, “to produce a
course of action”, “to invest with a new form”, or to “produce (something)
through imaginative skill”. In simpler terms, “creativity” focuses on the
“creation” or “forming” of something that is different from convention.
Having said this, we can conclude
that “creativity” isn’t about mimicking the outside World in the things they
do. The World we are living on is a fallen World; everything on it is
Worldly. Worldly life “leaves Christ out and approves of what He disapproves”
(Piper, 2015). We are called to be different; to be set apart as Holy
for Christ. Let’s see what the Bible says.
- “For you are a people Holy to
the Lord your God. The Lord your God has
chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His
people, His treasured possession.” (Deuteronomy 7:6, New International
Version)
- “And the Lord has declared this day that
you are his people, His treasured possession as He promised, and that
you are to keep all His commands. He has declared that he will
set you in praise, fame and honour high above all the nations He has
made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your
God, as He promised.” (Deuteronomy 26:18-19, New International Version)
- “You are to be Holy to Me because I,
the Lord, am Holy, and I have set you apart from the
nations to be My Own.” (Leviticus 20:26, New International Version)
- “For He chose us in Him before the
creation of the world to be Holy and blameless in His sight.”
(Ephesians 1:4, New International Version)
- But just as He who called you is Holy, so be
Holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be Holy, because I am
Holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16, New International Version)
- “But you are a chosen people, a royal
priesthood, a Holy nation, God’s special possession, that
you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his
wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9, New International Version)
So, fellow brothers and sisters in
Christ. Having identified that we should be set apart as Holy, we must
understand that we are a people who are different from the World.
- “Do not love the world or anything in the
world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in
them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but
from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but
whoever does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:15-17, New
International Version)
So, what must we do, you may ask.
“Therefore, be imitators of God, as
beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us
and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to
God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2, English Standard Version).
Having understood that Christ is in
God, and is God, to imitate Christ is, in essence, to imitate the
very nature of God Himself.
This very thought of imitating the
God of the Heaven and Earth, the God who created the Universe, should make us
shudder. Oh, what responsibility is this that is laid on our shoulders.
It is, in essence, our calling to imitate Him. Learning the ways of the
World now, can be seen as an abomination.
We can imitate God through the minute
things that we do on a daily basis. Doing what is right, and insisting on what
is good. Blessing people with the work of our hands, and living a good
testimony for the Creator Himself.
There are a couple of references that
I believe, are good examples of doing what is right, and living out a good
testimony for the Creator.
Going the extra mile to ensure that
the things we sell benefit our customers.
居銮荣美小组 was placed in
charge of the sale of Siew Pao as part of an effort to finance their ministry.
As common practice, pastries of such sort can be kept for up to 3-4 days.
This is not advisable as they are best to be kept only for a couple of days
before the food turn bad. However, according to conventions, business owners
would usually keep their pastries on the shelves for up to a week
to drive sales and reduce loss. Leechin and Baoyee from 居銮荣美小组 on another hand,
chose to go against the grain, by insisting that food are only kept on the
shelves for the days they are meant to. This is to ensure that their customers
will always get the best quality food when they patronise their stall. This
incurred additional costs in the stall’s operation. However, knowing that what
they do is the right thing to do, they kept with it.
Forsaking a Good Paying Pastoral
Career to Provide What Evangelicals Need in the Mission Field
In my previous writing in “Bona
Com 养鸡分享”, I discussed how
Rev Jiang forsook his position ministering in a mega church in Seoul to start a
Chicken Farm, all in the effort to find a feasible income source for
missionaries all over the World to sustain themselves. He saw the needs of the
Kingdom of God, and dived into the pit to solve the situation. He went against
the grain of convention (high pay, comfortable living environment, fixed job,
time with family, etc), and sacrificed it all to do what God had called Him to
do.
Being creative is not simply doing
something that society approves. But rather, being creative entails going
against the grain to do what is right before the Lord, imitating
His very nature and do His Will.
2 Creative
Christians Rest in the Lord
2.1 Creative Christians are Theologically
Oriented
“And whatever you do, whether in
word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to
God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:17, New International Version).
Now, to do everything “in the name of
the Lord Jesus” meant to do everything with Christ in mind; to be God-focused
on all that we do. This calls for wisdom when we go about in our daily living.
In order to be theologically oriented in every choice we make, we need to have
close communion with the Father, as well as a good grasp of His teachings
through His Word.
One thing that 居銮荣美小组 do that truly
inspire me is their conviction to “look after orphans and widows in their
distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27, New
International Version). They are passionate for children without proper
guidance and without direction. Their hearts go out to elderlies who do not
have their children to care for them. They cry at the aimlessness of the youths
and their sloppy understanding of success. Day and night, they are in communion
with one another, praying for their community, and planning what needs to be
done to care for the souls that come their way.
居銮荣美小组 is a model of
fellowship that I believe, we can model after. The relational nature of their
ministry models after the compassion of the Lord. Their close communion with
each another model closely what the Church Fathers had in the beginning of
Christendom. In almost everything they do, they’re oriented towards the Heart
of God in thoughts, prayers, and communion.
2.2 Creative Christians Recognises
the True Builder
“Unless
the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain. Unless
the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.”
(Psalms 127:1, New International Version).
This is serious. If the Lord does not
build the “house”, we who labour labours in vain. All that we do are useless
if God do not want that house built. A creative Christian who knows the
Heart of the Father, will recognise that He indeed is the True “Builder”. A
creative Christian will search the richness of God, identifies God’s Will, and
work on it using the strength that God provides.
2.3 Creative Christians know that God
will Finish the Good Works He Has Started.
“In all my prayers for all of you, I
always pray with joy because of your partnership in the
gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that
He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the
day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1: 4-6, New International Version).
Now, fellow Creative Christians, I
believe that all of you should have picked up the very essence of Creativity.
We are to seek Him, and in every way, honour Him. And as we rest in the
knowledge of the Will of God on Earth, may all that we do aligns with His
heart. He is the True “Builder”, He is our Provider, He is our Strength, and He
will complete the work that He has started.
3 God-Honouring
Creativity has an Everlasting Impact
“Whoever sows to please their
flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please
the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not
become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest
if we do not give up.” (Galatians 7:8-9, New International Version).
Dear fellow brothers and sisters in
Christ, and doers of Creative Works that honours God, let us rest in the
assurance that our work are not in vain, but rather, will reap for us a harvest
“if we do not give up”. This harvest, in the words of Donald Campbell, “will
last forever” (as cited in Wilkin, Schreiner, Dunn, & Barber, 2013).
Jon Bloom (2015), author and
co-founder of Desiring God had it phrased nicely saying that we should all see
our lives “as a form of full-time Christian ministry, no matter what our
profession is. For the Christian, there is no abiding sacred-secular
distinction. All things are God’s (Romans 11:36), and we do all things for
God’s glory (1 Corinthians 10:31).”
Most people have wasted their lives
on things of the world; things that are neither God-centred, or is beneficial.
Many venture to established cities in search for the Capitalist-dream. Many
slogged their entire lives just to earn that extra bit of cash for the slightly
bigger house, or that slightly luxurious car. Then there will be a time when we
will meet our Creator face-to-face, giving account to Him for all that we have
done. Can you imagine what these people will say?
“I’ve earned a million.”
“I’ve bought a luxurious car.”
Or,
“I have travelled the world.”
This is a disaster.
“What good will it be for someone to
gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in
exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in
His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will reward each person
according to what they have done.” (Matthew 16:26-27, New International
Version).
We are fellow children of God, and it
is our call to make our lives count. Yes, we need to make it “count for
something great and for eternity” (Piper, 2000). And to make it count for
something great and for eternity, we need to live our lives for Christ,
imitating His very character, and living out a living testimony. We recognise
that He is Lord of everything, and He is also Lord of our lives. He puts His
desires in our Hearts for us to fulfil and finishes what He begins. And in all
these, we can rest in the assurance that all the efforts that we have placed in
His works will have an everlasting impact lasting till eternity.
Let me just conclude this with a
verse from Acts.
“However, I consider my life worth
nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the
task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news
of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:24, New International Version).
References:
Bearden,
W. (2016). My Search for a Truly ‘Creative’ Church. Retrieved from http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/september-web-only/my-search-for-truly-creative-church.html
Bloom,
J. (2015). What Will You Leave Behind? Retrieved from https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-will-you-leave-behind
Create.
(n.d.). Retrieved March 1, 2018, from
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/create
Härén,
F. (n.d.) Fredrik Haren on Creativity. Retrieved from http://www.fredrikharen.com/
Miner,
M., Dowson, M. (2017). Creativity and Spirituality. [Google books
version]. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=HggoDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&dq=creativity%20and%20spirituality&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=creativity%20and%20spirituality&f=false
Piper,
J. (1995). The Marks of a Spiritual Leader. Retrieved from https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-marks-of-a-spiritual-leader
Piper,
J. (2000). Boasting Only in the Cross. Retrieved from https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/boasting-only-in-the-cross
Piper,
J. (2015). What Qualifies as Worldly Music? Retrieved from https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-qualifies-as-worldly-music
Wilkin,
R. N., Schreiner, T. R., Dunn, J. D. G., & Barber, M. P. (2013). Four
Views on the Role of Works at the Final Judgment. Michigan, MI: Zondervan.
