Creative evangelists, navigating threats, and regulating your feelings
5 things worth sharing this week
TWO IDEAS FROM RICH & CASS
CASS WRITES:
“As creatives, we are evangelists. We tell stories of God's faithfulness using all kinds of mediums to help open people's hearts to the Gospel.”
Stop for a second and ask yourself:
Is that my approach?
Could it be?
What would it look like to make a shift toward this point of view?
RICH WRITES:
Advice for leaders and pastors of worship & creative teams;
“Always, always, always lead from a place of personal devotion, humble gratitude, and confident authority… not personal ambition, prideful entitlement, or hidden insecurity. Proactively choose accountability for these things, because without it, you’ll fool yourself before you fool anyone else.”
TWO SNIPPETS FROM OTHERS
Imagine we embraced a broader understanding of creativity!
“Creativity is about responding to God’s image and call, and through that response exerting a creative influence and leadership that the world desperately needs. I believe that creativity is for all of us, and I think it’s one of the tools God has given us to carry out his purposes for the world. God made us creative so that we could navigate threats and challenges, laying hold of the possibilities around us.”
Source: Why the Gospel Needs Generous Creativity
Our aim is to help people experience the God of the Bible, not just hear about the God of the Bible…
“There is a difference between being part of the exodus from Egypt and hearing a
preacher read a sermon(Worship team sing a song) about it… People experienced the original exodus firsthand, then passed on the story orally for over two hundred years before it was written down. Whenpreachers(creatives) approach an exodus text, they need to help congregations revive or rediscover the experience of exodus.”
Source: Arts and Preaching
This was originally a quote for preachers, but the same is true of worship and creative teams. The question is; Are people just hearing and seeing what we do, or are we helping them to truly experience the realities of the Bible?
ONE SPARK OF INSPIRATION
A friend introduced us to the HOW WE FEEL APP last week and it seemed too good not to share. It’s free!!
“It was designed to help you gain greater insight around the causes and consequences of your feelings and learn research-based strategies to help you regulate your feelings to achieve greater well-being.”
Tools for self-awareness are really helpful. Just one way we can grow more Christ-like and develop the fruit of the Spirit as Creative Christians. Why not share this with a friend you know could use it?
Source: How We Feel
CHOOSE YOUR FAV…
Please hit the ❤️ to let us know you read this weeks R5 👍… or share your response to the R5 in the comments…
Grace and Peace,
Rich & Cass
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Regarding Paul, we must not think that Paul was by himself writing his letters. He lived in a collectivist society, unlike our hyper-individualistic culture, and all his letter were likely written by a team (he often mention's another team members who also sends their greetings). Rather than imagining that Paul was working as a solitary and lonely missionary who occassionally welcomed a friend and coworker to join in the fight, we might more realistically see Paul as working collaboratively within a community, heading up a team of coworkers. This picture actually supports the thesis of this post, that we are better in ministry when we work from the strength of a community rather than as lone individuals fighting the good fight all by ourselves.
This is very powerful - “As long as we remain enslaved to a culture of speed, superficiality, and distraction, we will not be the people God longs for us to be.”
The world we live in it is so easy to do this. How do we find the balance. Living in Sydney, working full time, 3 children, part of a church. Interested in what others think and feel.