Creativity V. Repetition by Pastor Shannon Lewis 10/04/06
2Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come”.
Just as good can be the enemy of great, repetition can be the enemy of creativity. Creativity is a producer of life and longevity. Repetition will stifle life and will shorten effectiveness.
The next two weeks, we’re going to examine the differences in Creativity and Flexibility V. Repetition and Rigidity. I believe God has called us to a new life. A life that will constantly change and evolve into greater life as Christ is creating in us His life. Danger for Christ followers exists when the life that Christ wants for us is reduced to casual repetitions and lifeless rigidity.
This week, we’re focusing on Creativity V. Repetition.
I want to begin by saying, “There is nothing wrong with repetition in and of itself. Where repetition becomes negative is when it begins to replace creativity. If creativity takes a second place position to repetition, then life begins to become boring, mundane and predictable. I’ve said it before but it’s worth repeating. Life that is predictable is no fun. To live life that is scripted and pre-planned is a huge waste of the creative abilities that God has pre-built in us all.
2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come”.
Paul is stating here that we are new creations in Christ Jesus. New as in the old is no longer viable. The old life is no longer needed, it’s not necessary to live life the way we used to. Christ has given us new ideas, new passions, new purposes, new realities, new options, new goals.
God is creating in us the person he wants us to be….patterned after the person of Jesus Christ! Paul instructs the Colossians to, “…put on the new man, which is renewed in the image of him that created him.”
Can I make an observation here? “If it’s repetitious, it’s boring”. Those things may be captivating for a time but given enough time, they’ll prove themselves boring. The life that is repetitive and repetitious is boring and uneventful. Our lives were never meant to be lived that way.
You are called to live life as a “new creation”. Not to be captive to the same life you lived before surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ!
As I was in my office writing tonight’s sermon, I looked out of my office window and looking across the parking lot, I noticed thousands of little moths. When I say thousands, I’m not exaggerating. I literally mean thousands.
So as I’m sitting there, observing these moths, I begin thinking. What are they doing? Where are they going? Do they have any direction or are they just flying around? Then I noticed something else that got my attention. On the highway, where the state has yet to cut grass, there’s some pretty tall grass on the edge of the roadway. I was able to determine the direction of the wind by looking at which way the grass was being driven. It was blowing west to east. As I began to watch the moths again, I noticed they were also traveling west to east, just as the wind was. Now, I don’t now if there is a scientific reason for this (and there may be) but it appeared to me they were simply taking the easy way. I didn’t see one moth fly against the wind. It’s too hard. It takes too much effort.
This is why all rivers are crooked. They all take the path of least resistance. Our lives aren’t meant to be lived in that manner, always looking for the easy way out. The path of least resistance is many times a great temptation to follow but it will never produce in us what the challenges of creativity will.
When the adverse winds of repetition blow we tend to not allow creative ability to have a voice. We stifle cry for creativity for the convenience of what’s known, recognizable, measurable, and calculable. All of these things are playmates of repetition.
If everything you do has to be in some way known to you, recognizable to you, measurable to you or calculable to you, then you will likely be lost in the open see of repetition for the rest of your life!
Security Trap
Often when challenged to be creative rather than stick with the status quo, we find ourselves searching for the security blanket of repetition. Because it’s known, recognizable, measurable and calculable! But when creativeness is stifled for the presumed security of what’s known or any of the other playmates of repetition, its false security.
In his book, The Importance of Being Foolish, Brennan Manning says, “What the insecure Christian has not learned is that the tangible reassurances, however valuable they may be, cannot create trust, sustain it, or provide any certainty of its presence. Jesus Christ calls us to hand over our autonomous selves in complete confidence.”
Those things we trust in, outside of Jesus are void of any assurances and prove to be security traps. We must trust the new creation that God is making in us.
We must ourselves become creative in how we live that life out in this world. To simply live a Christian life based on repetitious patterns of yesteryear will never result in a life that is reaching its full potential.
Let’s consider an example of the creative thinking Jesus displays in the gospels.
In John Chapter 6 there is a wonderful story of Creativity.
Jesus and his disciples are sitting on the mountain side and because of miracles Jesus had done the word began to spread. Jesus opens his eyes and sees a vast multitude of people gathering on the hillside. Can you image this seen? Thousands of people searching for something, looking for something, hungry for something! Kind of like those mouths outside of my office window. They’re just there. So Jesus looks to Philip who was probably sitting right next to him and says, “Where are we going to by bread to feed all of these people?”
Now, this question is the question of Creativity V. Repetition. Jesus poses a measurable question. Will we be creative or repetitious? Do something new or stick to what we know?
It’s clear that Jesus knew what he would do, but Jesus asked this question to teach his disciples a valuable life lesson.
Philip responds with a calculable answer in verse 7, “Two hundred pieces of silver wouldn’t be enough to buy bread for each person to get a piece.”
Andrew then chimes in with another measurable answer in verse 8, “There’s a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that’s a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this.”
Now I want you to notice the call for creativity is in each response offered.
1. 200 pieces of silver isn’t enough for everyone to get a piece.
2. 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish are nothing for a crowd this size.
Just like here, many times the call for creativity is in the statement of “it can’t be done”, “it’s not enough”, “it’s never going to work that way”. You see, when your back is against the wall, you have got to find ways of being creative. When your life in Christ has become stagnant, boring, and predictable, you must become creative.
Now if ever there was creativity at work, it’s here in John chapter 6! I mean it’s pretty creative to take 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, feed thousands and have more left over than you started with!
Can I make an observation here?
Creativity will always yield more than the original investment made!
The best moments in life and ministry are those moments that call for Creativity. The rehearsed life, the scripted life, the planned life and the predictable life will bring about events with no awe value that will soon be forgotten. Conversely, the life that is un-rehearsed, unscripted, unplanned and unpredictable will bring about events that are awe inspiring and unforgettable!
I’m not suggesting that one live life without planning…I’m aware that failing to plan is planning to fail. But I also realize that God is predictably unpredictable! God cannot be scripted or what he does in your life cannot be scripted, it has to simply be creatively accepted!
Brennan Manning says, “The new, the creative, the fresh is looked on with suspicion, not with fascination.”
John Henry Newman wrote, “To live is to change and to have lived well is to have changed often.”
Don’t get stuck!
Have you ever heard that phrase? “He’s stuck” or “They’re stuck”. It means they aren’t moving forward. Their creativity well has gone dry. They’re out of creative gas. They’re barely running on fumes. Before long they’ll be totally obsolete because they’ve failed to nurture the creative ability that God has placed in them.
We’ll be doing a 3 part Sunday morning series in coming weeks on
Vision + Creativity = Productivity
Let me hint at something tonight. Everything you do for God starts with a Vision. To accomplish that vision, you will have to be creative and this will result in productivity. The problem I believe that exists in many Christians today is that they don’t know how to nurture their creativity or productivity. They know what they want to do for God but they don’t know how to be creative or productive to accomplish that vision. I’ll have many things to say about this in the series so I’m not going give it up tonight….you’ll just have to make sure you’re here for the series!
New ideas, fresh ideas, creative ideas are what keep ministry relevant to our world. While I believe there are timeless foundations on which the Church should not move from, I also believe there are time stealing traditions that need to be cut loose. They need to make way for a new and better way.
God is always attempting to create in our lives. He doesn’t save us and then forget us. He doesn’t bring us out and the leave us out. God is actively engaged in bringing about His plan for our lives, for our families, for our church and our community. He calls on us to be creative in how that will be done. I love the fact that God thinks I can be creative enough to reach people for him.
As I near an end, I want to make a couple of observations.
Creativity will give clear direction and change our course.
Repetition will never direct and never change our course.
Sometimes in ministry we need a change of direction. We need to do it another way. We need to get creative in how we do what we do and understand why we do what we do.
Repetition will never ask the question, why am I doing it this way? What am I doing? Repetitious ministry is satisfied with the status quo. It doesn’t seek to change the rules or re-invent the process. If this was good enough 20 years ago, it’s good enough now. If it was good enough for Grandma and Grandpa, it’s good enough for me. It never leads you to a newer, deeper, more satisfying realization of who God is. It’s satisfied with yesteryear. Just keep repeating.
While I was working at the computer at home this week, my daughter Grace came up to me and said, “Hey Daddy, Pete and Repeat were in a boat and Pete fell in. Who was left?” We’ve all heard this before but Gracie is 7 so it’s pretty new to here so I played along.
I said, “Repeat”, knowing full well what I was getting myself into.
So she starts the entire process over, “Pete and Repeat were in boat and Pete fell in. Who was left?” I began to “act” a bit frustrated and said, “Repeat”….she was laughing pretty hard at this point…..”Pete and Repeat….
You know where I’m going with that.
It’s repetitious, right? After a while it gets real old. So does a life absent of creativity.
I think a bit of creativity would fit in well with that little joke….I mean add an “R” at the end of Pete or something after the first time….or change the name all together. Like, Cletus or something! Anything…just be creative.
I want to close with one last quote from Brennan Manning’s book titled: The Importance of Being Foolish.
He writes, “The church of Jesus Christ is a place of promise and possibility, of adventure and discovery, a community of love on the move, strangers and exiles in a foreign land en route to the heavenly Jerusalem. But the security seekers are the enemies of openness. Their insistence on preserving the status quo thwarts innovation and spontaneity and discourages the exploration of new roads in the mind of Christ Jesus; wanting to keep things the way they are automatically introduces a new insecurity with more cautions, threats, and nervous tension.”
Jesus brought creativity to the hopeless and ignored the pharisaical repetitions of religiosity….As a church in 2006 that stands in representation of Jesus Christ, we must communicate his truth through every creative means we discover!
