[This post is part of a new series on “The Christian Musician“. Check out the rest of the posts here.]
I love creativity.
There’s something special about encountering someone’s raw, passionate art. It can change your life. It has the potential to influence the way you see your day, the world, and eternity.
At least that was the case for me.
No young boy likes to play the piano when they are 8 years old. No, not one.
In the simple world of baseball games, school, dating girls for a day, and choco tacos at lunch time, there’s really no room for the “Sorry, I have piano lessons” excuse. You just don’t go there.
That was me. And other than my family, no one knew about my relationship to the piano.
That was, until I started to love it.
It wasn’t a healthy dose of grade school willpower or Bastien piano books that lit my fire. It was when I encountered another’s creativity.
I attended a concert and saw a jazz pianist light up the ivories like fireworks on the fourth of July. It was breathtaking. I was mesmerized.
From that moment, I worked, and worked, and even worked a little more – practicing up to three hours a day and eventually majoring in music in college. To this day, piano is a big part of what I do.
All because of one person’s pure, passionate creativity.
Why Should You Be Creative?
As a Christian musician, or one who does Christian art, creativity is essential. But it’s not an end in itself. We want our creativity to reflect the Gospel. We want to draw attention to the glories of God through our art.
Some may disagree with this, saying art should just be art for art’s sake. But as a Christian musician, your art should seek to serve the grace of God to others. Even if you’re music doesn’t explicitly shout, “THIS IS ALL ABOUT JESUS!”, it should be the goal of your art.
So what are some tips for expanding creativity as a Christian musician?
1. Don’t outshine the Gospel
It’s possible for creativity to hinder and distract from the Gospel. As a Christian musician, find a way to draw attention to it. I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t always know what this looks like.
Maybe it’s explicit lyrics about God. Maybe it’s giving an altar call or sharing a testimony. Maybe it’s your lifestyle. Brainstorm how this works for your unique context. How can you draw attention to the Good News of Jesus Christ?
2. Schedule It
The stereotype of creatives is that we waste time until we feel inspiration. In reality, the most creative people are ultra disciplined with their creativity. They write every day. They wake up early. They prioritize their craft and work it into their schedule.
If you wait for feelings, your work will be extremely sporadic and frustrating.
3. Seek unique influences
If you’re a worship leader and all you listen to is worship music, you’ll never expand in your creativity. I recommend you explore different genres of music, books, and art. Don’t just pick up what you agree with or what is comfortable. Expand. Eat the meat and spit out the bones.
Read a dense book on theology. Listen to some weird music. Adapt other ideas to what you do without losing your uniqueness. It’s quite often that I need to escape my world of worship, church, and leadership in order to be inspired.
4. Try something new
I don’t know about you, but I tend to lose my creative edge when I do the same thing, in the same way, all the time. While routines can be helpful for creativity, they can also kill it. The key is knowing when to break the routine and try something new.
Pick up a new instrument. Find a new place. If you create in the mornings, try the evenings. Try a new genre. Get comfortable with risk and hang out with her often.
5. Guard your passion
The minute you lose passion for your art is the minute you stop being effective. Art and boredom just don’t mix together. Guard that raging fire in your heart for what you do. Every day.
6. Give yourself margin
Constant creativity without space to breathe is deadening. The best art is art that is lived, not forced. Reflect on your story.
Are you seeking to live a meaningful life for God’s glory or seeking to force great art? Great art will come out of your life as you take risks for the glory of God and seek to make your life count.
7. Keep worshiping
I’ve noticed in my creative endeavors that I can lose sight of Christ – where spiritual disciplines take a backseat to creating. Many blogs are telling you to create…create…create! Yea, me too.
But let me balance it out. Make sure you worship. What sets you apart as a Christian musician is your relationship with the Author of all creativity. Matter of fact, stop creating at times and just look at Him. Just stare at His wonders. Your most productive work may just arise from that experience.
Go…And Influence A Life
In all honesty, changing the world with your creativity starts with changing one life. Just like my life was influenced by a jazz pianist putting on a show. Don’t shrink back. Keep creating. When you feel like calling it quits, press in all the more.
The world is waiting.
Question: What are some other ways we can expand our creativity as Christian musicians? What makes creativity for a Christian unique? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
What makes my creativity unique? Well, I think the fact that there’s only one of me out there. If I’m not trying to copy anyone whatever I do will be uniquely made. I believe in the body of Christ we all have a different call because we are different people. There’s an expression of God that only I can bring forth because I was made for that.
How do you foster that uniqueness? Since there’s also “nothing new under the sun” and we’re all influenced by someone, how do you pursue originality in your art? Just thinking out loud 🙂
I foster that by first knowing who I am in Christ. My identity in Him. After I hear from God about who I am suppose to be, He gives me confidence to walk it out. Then, He gives us leaders and people who we look up to that are already walking in their calls to push us forward and equip us so we can walk into our calls and so on. Being influenced by someone doesn’t necessarly means you copy everything they do right. Well, that’s what I thought at first but if I become a Kim Walker #2(which I wouldn’t mind, bc she’s awesome) her platform is already taken by her. They don’t need another Kim Walker, the world needs people with her qualities(HUNGRY-ALL ABOUT JESUS)but not a copy of her. What I do is, the people who influence me, I see all their qualities and all the right stuff they do and I take that in like a Ruby Tuesday mini hamburger with ketchup and mayo. I hope that helps…I don’t know if you noticed or not, but I can’t really explain myself very well. I’m working on it though.
Beautiful! I think you express yourself wonderfully Khamille. I tracked all the way through. 🙂
“Eat the meat and spit out the bones.” Brilliant.
Scheduling is a fight I always have to deal with, because I’m one of those “It should *feel* creative!” types. Wasted too much time not putting in the work and practice I should have.
This post also rings a bit of Seth Goden’s idea of the dip. Good call!
I respect anyone who’s a Seth Godin fan 😉 His stuff is so thought provoking.
What have you been creating, Josh? Are you a songwriter?
Awesome post! Thanks for sharing!
David this is awesome! God must be wanting more creativity out of his people because I just wrote a post about creativity as well. Mine was more about some of the things that block creativity – comparison and competition. Blech.
Can I share it with you?
http://www.worshipministry.com/ministry-talk/when-competition-creeps-in/
Be blessed!
Really a great post, Sarah. Thanks for sharing!
I have been fighting #2, scheduling. Very helpful post David. Thank you. For a Christian, I think what is unique is that we are not a much writers as we are paraphrasing his beauty, hopefully His Word and Commands, expressing His impact on us, and working out our desire to know and engage Him more throughout seasons in life.
Well said, Rhonda. I love that phrase, “paraphrasing his beauty”.
Thanks David! Great thoughts. The cool thing is that God has gifted us with creativity. Creativity isn’t just for secular art and music. As Christians we should be just as creative if not more creative than the world, but it should point glory to God.
Your tips for expanding creativity I think go beyond just art and music. I have found that my creativity in my speaking and teaching can also be expanded in much of the same ways. Good stuff Bro! Keep it coming.
Thanks bro. It seems that Christian struggle with creativity, doesn’t it? I agree, we should be even more creative. What holds us back?
Hey David…great post. My problem on your blog is that I follow all the great links and it takes me a while to get back to the blog at hand;) For me, as a worship leader and songwriter, I think the struggle comes from feeling like we are competing with christian radio. Though there are great musicians out there, our music can seem like it’s not ‘professional’, because we aren’t on the radio. People around you know you. You aren’t that band or guy on the radio performing their favorite ‘worship hits’. I think sometimes we can lose creativity due to not feeling adequate. Even when we create, we hide it away because we feel like it’s not good enough. I know that I am most critical of my own music. I sometimes wonder if it in some way relates to how we view ourselves and our understanding of God’s view of us. When my 6 year-old creates something for me I am so proud. No matter what it looks like, I proudly display it for everyone to see. As he grows, he’ll get better at those creative projects, but I am always proud of him. I expect that God sees us the same way. When we can loose ourselves of expectations and fear of inadequacy, I think we can create like never before.
There are a few young boys that enjoy playing the piano out there from a very young age. Practicing by rote, or perfecting the piece for the recital, not so much, but playing the song they heard Dad play or the Star Wars theme or the other music they hear on anything they can find to make a sound on, some kids start this at about age two. they like to make their own songs up at times as well once they have enough chord and key and fingering foundation to do that with.
I could not find a piano teacher who would take a pre reading kid for lessons, until one from my neighborhood devised a color and shape system for reading and playing simple songs. We used this for the preschool years in the daycare and it worked great. My husband plays only by ear and tabs and watching others play on his 12 string, but the boys were able to add enough note and staff reading abilities to their playing, thanks to the creativity of the neighborhood piano teacher.