Breathing Life into the Traditional Church
James Rose
I see a strong relationship between creativity and renewal.
—James Rose I once preached a first-person sermon on Jonah. I came out barefoot, soaking wet, with seaweed all over me. Ninety percent of the congregation thought it was wonderful. But 10 percent were irate that their pastor had no shoes on. The seaweed wasn't a problem. The wetness wasn't a problem. No shoes was the issue. For that group, what I had done was undignified for a pastor. Depending on whom you're talking to, the word creativity can evoke a positive or negative response. In the church setting, creativity is the ability to develop forms different from the ones that presently exist—forms that freshly touch the generational and cultural groups around you. Naturally the younger members and artsy group love creativity because it means breaking with traditional forms. An emphasis on creativity invites them to the banquet table. But as the Jonah episode illustrates, some people will never warm up to innovation. I helped found a church in Clearwater, Florida, in the 1970s with creativity as one of our watchwords. I also pastored Calvary Baptist, a historic, tradition-rich church. Take it from me: Creativity is much easier in a new ministry than in an old one. But creativity may be even more crucial in a historic church; it's the only way to breathe new life into old. The need
For several reasons, creativity is more important today than it was a hundred years ago. First, the culture is changing so quickly. The Bible gives us our functions, which don't change—evangelism and discipleship, for example. We express these functions in our forms—the type of musical instruments used, for example—which must change if we're to touch the cultural groups around us. If we're not ...
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