Does Anyone Know What Creative Means?
Fred Smith
Most people think once or twice in a lifetime. I've made a reputation of thinking once or twice a month.
H. G. Wells "Every time I turn around, it's Sunday!"
You know the feeling. Wasn't it just yesterday you last preached? And now another sermon stares you in the face. Time again to be wise, profound, and creative. Especially creative.
How do you do it? Telling people to be creative is about like asking them to stand on a stage and act natural. We don't simply turn on creativity. We can't buy it or borrow it.
Yet we still desire creativity, for without it the sermon barrel empties and the minds in the pews switch to pause. Without a fresh and interesting approach to each sermon, we preach not to convince; we preach to concrete.
Fred Smith has learned that creativity can be cultivated. Smith is a career businessman in Dallas, Texas, with a lifelong love affair with the church. His own creativity rests not in paintbrush or guitar but in his ability to see things with clarity and cast new light on hackneyed practices.
In this chapter, he ventures some thoughts about developing that much-desired attribute — creativity. The word creative has become a cliché. Everybody uses it whether he can define it or not. Creativity is expected of ministers no less than of advertising copywriters and fashion designers. If you're not certified "creative," your future is in big trouble. The blunt fact, of course, is that no one is creative. We live in a closed universe; there is nothing new under the sun. What we are instead is inventive; we rearrange and reposition things that have already been created. Throughout this chapter I will use the words creative and creativity even though what I am talking about is inventiveness. This will seem more natural ...
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