Truth
is truth. But the delivery, the creative packaging, differs from church to church
and speaker to speaker. So study what others do and use what you can, what works
with your own skill set. Never stop finding new ways to communicate; because
when we never stop learning, we stop being innovative. Creativity counters complacency.
It is a fluid exercise that should continue to grow and change over time.
Utilize
Team Creativity
This
next suggestion may seem like a foreign concept to you — it is to most pastors
today. For too many years, pastors have bought into a lone ranger mentality
of sermon preparation. But I have found that creativity is not a ten letter
word — it's a four letter word. It is spelled T-E-A-M. For a long time, I didn't
get that. I spent hours and hours by myself creating and developing messages
week in and week out. And if I did elicit someone else's input, I had one go-to
guy on my staff who helped me with creative visuals, videos and illustrations.
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But
I put too much stock in myself and that one staff member, and it caused me to
miss out on a lot of other supersonic, creative people on our church staff.
I ultimately learned, through trial and error, that creativity must be a team
exercise for the simple reason that everyone is creative. One of the
most powerful and popular ministry tools we have is a highlight video of our
creative team planning the weekend message. It's so popular, I believe, because
the concept is so revolutionary and freeing for senior pastors who have labored
alone on their messages week after week.
To
be able to effectively and creatively communicate, you have to be able to recognize
the creative genius of the people surrounding you and be willing to use their
ideas. Leave your ego at the door and stop trying to do it all alone. Pull other
staff members into on your message development and preparation and watch your
creativity soar to new heights.
Serve
a Balanced Diet
Today,
I use a creative team to develop and prepare every message I give. And every
year, when our creative team maps out a menu of messages, we try to serve up
a balanced diet. We will have some series, for example, that will be heavy on
videos and illustrations. Then we might do a series that relies more on music.
Or maybe we will do a series that utilizes more drama or story-telling. We may
also do an entire series of real-life interviews with people in our church highlighting
their dramatic stories of life change.
To
communicate creatively, you need to have a variety of techniques to reach a
variety of people. If you're not changing things up — using the same creative
elements every week — you will end up in a creative rut. What you thought was
creative at one time will become stale and boring.