Imagine Church

I used to think about starting a church. Or "planting" a church, depending on if I could convince someone to give me money. It's never went beyond the conceptual phase; my friend Geoff and I would discuss the things that made us most excited but never the challenges or steps we would need to take to get there.

In all of my/our conceptualizing, there was one idea that always stuck with me, something that I reflected on after Monday's post linking immaturity and creativity. It was simple - the idea of imagination.

It's even a cool tagline - Imagine Church. It's a name, but it's also a statement. It's a verb.

Imagine church... where we replace barriers with open arms.

Imagine church... where we swap exclusivity for diversity.

Imagine church... where people are more important than tradition.

Imagine church... where creativity is our worship of God.

It's that idea of emphasizing creativity and imagination over stodgy traditionalism and sentimentality that appeals to me. The idea first started percolating in my head when I read a book by Rick Bundschuh - Don't Rock the Boat, Capsize it. It's mostly a discussion of how Rick does church (in Kauai Hawaii).

The key thing I remember from the book is Rick's quest to make change a tradition of the church. After all, change is inevitable. Resistance is futile, so to speak. And if we can't resist something, shouldn't we embrace it and use it for the glory of God? Routinely, Rick's church reorganizes everything from the structure of the church service, the time of the church service, even the way the church sanctuary is designed, decorated, or oriented.

I don't want to work for or in or with a church that's is rigid and inflexible. The church I imagine is one that is willing and able to move and change - to become all things to all people. What do you imagine in a church?

(There appears to be two Imagine Church's already - one in San Bernardino CA and one in Westfield IN)

Creativity and Immaturity

I wonder if there is a link between creativity and immaturity. I started pondering this idea over the weekend, as my wife and I watched The Social Network. I was listening to some of the commentaries, and one thing that stuck with me was when Jesse Eisenberg, who plays Mark Zuckerberg in the movie, commented that Mark was only 19 when he made some of these poor decisions. This is a good time to point out that the movie is certainly a dramatized version of events, but the point still holds.

Maturity is sometimes thought of as when you "put your childish dreams aside" or when you start living in reality - I am a full grown man, I need to stop playing video games and get a real job. It's that realization that you need to live in the real world that sometimes is used to define maturity.

But creativity happens outside of the real world. When we imagine something, we are by definition not looking at what is. And that, by our definition, is no longer a mature view.

It makes sense to me. When I look at places that are stark and unimaginative, they seemed to be filled with so called "mature" or grounded people. Look at a church that is lifeless and still; it seems to be full of good people, but they are grounded in what is. Same thing happens in the business world - the people without imagination run things, but they can never create anything better than what is.

Certainly sometimes the issue is that creativity comes with too much immaturity - as we see in The Social Network. You have to balance the immaturity with responsibility. But we also may need to embrace our immaturity to find our imagination.

Hey Neat-O - 9

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is an index card worth?


A creative way to show relationships:

Indexed

Random Thoughts - 8

Article on CNN.com today: Expert's Ponder Link Between Creativity, Mood Disorders

Interesting.

Doesn't it certainly fall into a category of news that you could title - "Not so surprising?"

After all, think of the most boring and sane people you know. They're the accountants, the lawyers, the managers. They aren't creative, and you on any given day know how they will act. They don't have a flair for the dramatic.

Now think of those around you that are authors, actors, singers.

They're the weirdest people you'll ever meet.

Certainly, this is playing into stereotypes a bit. I'm a writer, but I don't think of myself as overtly dramatic. And I know a few worship leaders who are very low key people.

But what does this mean? How could you interpret this information? Is there a way, based on this knowledge, to unleash creativity?

I think so, and it's based partially on my own experience. You see, what the article suggests is that mood disorders and creativity are not causally related - one doesn't cause the other. But they both have a common link - reflection.

The article does a better job of explaining this than I could, but I think that's a key to being creative. What is it that is eating your mind? Taking your time? Where are all of your trains of thought being rerouted to?

Once you've figured it out, write it. Or sing it. Or paint it. That's what I've done - Ashram arose because of a single story that I could absolutely not get out of my head. Different poems I've written have been because of things that were stealing my mind. My current projects fall in line with things that I find myself thinking about when I'm daydreaming.

So use those reflections. And if you don't reflect, well, you've got other problems.