I’m currently working on a research project on creative ministry. I started reading a book called Limitless: God’s Creative Mandate for His Church and I saw this message on our Lord that is pure Gold. Speaking of the first verse in the Bible, Author Charity Bowman Webb writes:
“In the very first line of the Bible, we discover the primary thing God chooses to reveal to us about His character and ability in that He is a “Creator,” in the act of creating; therefore by definition He is ‘creative.’ God is never meaninglessly random, so the initial line of His Word contains a crucial message to us beyond the obvious information. Creativity is part of the nucleus of God’s nature, the desire and ability to bring into being something that was not there before. Just a few verses later He says that we will be like HIm. We will have His DNA. Therefore a very obvious conclusion would be that we carry Godly creative ability in some way. We have become so removed from the understanding of what the creativity of God is within us and the possibilities of it through us, that this now bears little meaning to many Christians.
In the world immediate to us, familiarity often causes us to bypass the astonishing Creation of God surrounding us; the diversity of each leaf, the song of the birds, the rhythm of the waves, the multiple shades of red in a lone petal. Sometimes the breaking dawn or a remarkable foreign landscape can reawaken awe suddenly as we are reminded of the sheer creative and stunning complexity of the world around us. Investigation into the areas of science, anatomy, astronomy or the animal kingdom leave us in total wonderment of the intricacies set in place to sustain life and beauty. (Psalm 96:13 NIV)”
I was blown away by these paragraphs the first time I read them. It’s not that it’s anything I haven’t observed before, but it is true. We are surrounded by the greatest art in the world. In a way the greatest art is the world since it is the totally functionally work of the greatest work ever. We cannot afford to take His work for granted. Neither can we ignore the fact that an example of His greatest masterpiece looks back at us from the mirror. God has entrusted us with creativity. It is one of the ways we are created in His image. Living with humility is Godly and biblical, but don’t you dare downplay what God has created, or what He chooses to create through you. Instead, do your best work and offer it up to the Lord. He is good and He is faithful.
I am not very far in this book yet, but that is largely because I have to stop and keep making notes about what the author is saying. She has written a wonderful book here (at least so far). If you are interested in creative ministry, you may want to pick this one up.
AMOKArts 