Do you think the church is in a creative rut?
In a recent podcast, Nancy Beach challenged worship leaders to think beyond just corporate worship songs as it relates to the gathering of God’s people. “We’re in a rut,” she said.
I often wonder if creativity is the goal of our gatherings. How important are creative elements? How important is songwriting? How important are videos, drama, stage design, and creative lighting?
I know, you’re waiting for me to condemn it all and call us back to the heart of worship. But I’m not going to do that. I simply want to invite you to a conversation.
None of us set out to make creativity the goal. Of course, we want it to serve people in seeing Jesus clearer. But are we accomplishing that?
Because I see two scenarios.
Scenario #1
It’s possible to be so creative that we create a spectacle. We condition people to show up and be entertained. This creates a vicious cycle of trying to outdo what was once done.
You have to keep impressing people. At first, this excites the creatives. We love a challenge. But over time, it can create a drain on everyone because the production turnaround is too quick. Sundays keep coming. And fast.
In this scenario, are we using the church to serve creative ends, rather than using creativity to serve the church’s ends?
Scenario #2
The other scenario is to focus on the gathered singing of the people of God. But as Nancy said, singing isn’t everyone’s primary way to connect. It makes sense for the musicians and people who love music, but what about for those whom music isn’t paramount? We’re in the midst of the song cycle. And it is a rut. People stand mindlessly in church, expecting the same thing as last week and the week before. No surprise. No engagement.
I personally believe we should land somewhere in the middle.
The praise of God demands our highest efforts of creativity, careful planning, and engaged singing.
We serve a God of brilliant glory and tremendous mystery. But our gatherings so often reflect the church of black and white, boring, and dull. We need color, mystery, awe, wonder, and energy. Just read Revelation 4 to see the color and beauty surrounding the throne of God.
But we must guard against creating a spectacle on stage. We need to put the focus back on the church. We don’t need our weekly entertainment. The Church needs to take her place, not just watch the “professionals.” The people need to engage. Church isn’t only an outlet for creatives to find their expression.
- We need to write the songs that give voice to the Church.
- We need to produce the videos that engage our imagination in worship.
- We need to perform the spoken words that grip our intellect and ignite our hearts.
Here’s the reality: we need to live in the weekly tension of simple singing and crazy creativity. Is it possible? Yes. Is it easy? No.
But it’s worth it.
I’d love to hear how you walk in this tension. Do you agree or disagree we need more creativity? Or do we need to simplify?
Let’s talk it out in the comments.
I listen to podcast #199 with Nancy and was intrigued by this part of the discussion. I lead the worship team in our small local church and recently our church leadership has identified creating inspiring worship services as a key area of improvement. To me it was a wake up call to go beyond the music. The music rut is the easy option especially for resource constrained churches. However, I’m under no illusions that it is much harder to achieve.
Lastly, David I wanted to encourage you to continue to inspire and resource the global worship community with your website, podcasts and videos. It is invaluable to my (and my teams) worship journey and wanted to end this by expressing my ongoing appreciation.