Creating Creativity

I was drinking a coffee at a local McDonald's this afternoon when I read this interesting statement about the Big Mac. In a Ukrainian Big Mac the beef patties come from Hungary, the lettuce from Ukraine, the bun from Russia, the pickles and sauce from Germany, the sesame seeds from Mexico, and the cheese from Holland.1 The world is so diverse today that eating a Big Mac has become a multicultural experience!

Reading about the diversity in the world made me think about a meeting I had last Wednesday. I along with one of my friends met with the pastor of a local church. His church had a thriving youth ministry and we hoped to use some of his ideas for our Wednesday night ministry. A young woman who coordinated the activities and youth services attended the meeting as well.

It took about ten minutes to figure out what this pastor and the coordinator were passionate about. They focused on the importance of having strong leadership, and creativity. As they answered my questions I learned that being creative was truly one of the core values for their ministry. The pastor was quick to point out that they didn't just want to, “be different for the sake of being different.” But they were very serious about giving people freedom to try things that were different.

The entire ministry was built around this idea of what I would call “creative liberty”. Even the leadership style which they spent a large amount of time talking about was centred on it. The pastor explained that there is not one youth pastor for that church. Instead there is a core group of leaders who all get together and make decisions regarding the youth group.

This team philosophy of leadership is becoming very popular in churches today.
While I think it is a great way to foster creativity (everyone gets to voice their opinions) it is flawed because there is no real leader. Without a true leader who makes final decisions the group of leaders would just go in circles. The church met this need by making the coordinator authority to make final decisions.

When I came to that meeting I expected the pastor to talk about the program that they used. Instead he went out of his way to say that they didn't follow a curriculum or program. When we met for a coffee that night my friend pointed out that was the last thing he expected to hear. Actually I would have felt a lot better if they had told me about a program that they used. I love being creative in things that I do (I am always looking for ways to “recreate” myself). But basing a ministry on it is very scary.

Creativity leads to a roller coaster ministry. Some nights what you use will really connect with the teens. Some nights it will bomb miserably. It is much easier to use methods that you know the teenagers will like. But where there is little creativity there is little reward. It is one of those big risk big reward things. So even as I write this post I am thinking about how to become more creative in my speaking and leadership.

I am not quite ready to make creative liberty a pillar upon which my ministry is built. But the diverse multi cultural world around us demands that we show creativity in how we do things. Yes there will be moments when creativy turns into organised chaos, but that is the price that must be paid for growth. Toward the end of the meeting I asked Mel (the coordinator) whether or not all of their ideas worked out. She told me that there were some good nights and some bad nights. Then she said, “but that's what makes it fun” with a big smile. Maybe it's just me, but it seems as if she has a warped sense of humour.

1Leonard Sweet, Soul Tsunami, pg.369, par.3, ln.10