My 7 Rules on Being Creative

My 7 Rules on Being Creative

1.  Create out of need not out of want….   I remember just starting out in children’s ministry I would try to find an awesome game or experiment or visual then would try to fit a bible story to it.  That is so backwards- create something after your biblical work is done!

2.  You don’t have to try to keep out doing yourself. I still struggle with this; just because you did some mind-blowing creation doesn’t mean that you have to outdo that creation next time. Just do what you do and it will be awesome.

3.  Sometimes we have to except things are just good enough!  I have a problem with perfection.  I want to be in control of everything and not allow others to help me.  I worry that they may screw it up or that it won’t look as good as if I did it.  Let go and let others help.  Let a youth paint something for you; teach them how to be creative.  In the end even if it isn’t as good as perhaps you would have done, they got more out of helping then anybody probably got out of the project.

4.  Be Risky….   Great things come with great Risk.  Don’t hold back!  If you fail you fail.  You will live to create another day!

5.   Befriend someone scary.  Put yourselves around people that aren’t like you.  They will make you think in ways you never knew you could.  Creativity comes from many different avenues and other creative people are one of those avenues.

6.  Take a walk and just dream.  I get all kinds of looks at me, this big guy, spending an hour walking around crafts 2000.  Go to a store and just dream.  Go to Lowes and look at pvc piping and then paint colors get your creative juices flowing.

  

7.  You have to have a lot of TIME-ENERGY-MONEY!  But you have to have 2 of these to be creative.  Especially if you are  being creative on a budget, you can still be creative.  You can do things cheap but it will still cost you time and energy.  You will get out what you put in, it costs something somewhere.

Where are all the men at?

Has anyone else noticed the huge absence of men in church today?  I sat back a few weeks ago in a church service and realized how many ladies were sitting by themselves.  Was it because they were widows?  Yes, in fact some of them are.  But what about the middle aged women that had rings on their fingers? Where are their husbands? As a staff member of the church, have I even met their husbands before?  As I walked over to the children’s ministry building to go have fun with some kids (because as a kids pastor it’s not just my job it’s my life, it’s what I do) I realized looking around, how many of my kids that I see on a weekly basis don’t even have fathers at home.  Wow maybe half!   I mean we have our normal families that I can count on each week to come in with smiling faces and wearing their Sunday best, the kids toting bibles in hand and their memory verses memorized.  But what about the kid that has no dad, his mom is a stripper, and he is just surviving by getting passed around through friends and family not knowing where he will sleep next.  Does he have a shot at life?  Am I really one of the only positive Christian role models he has?  

So here is the answers I came to after so many questions.   I need help!   As a male children’s pastor I need Godly men to be more involved in ministry! For every man that’s involved in their own child’s life, there are 2 fathers that are absent.  It seems to me that men suck at church we take no ownership in it.  We think we can just come in and sit through a service and never dedicate any of ourselves to it.  But I believe it is time for men to step up and step out in ministry! Adopt some kids under you so you can train them up in the eyes of the Lord.  So on this fathers day I challenge you men.  For most of us the reason that we have stayed in church is because sometime in your past you  had a man that was instrumental in our Christian walk.  He challenged you to grow in your walk with God.  Men have you returned that favor? Have you taken a child under you and poured your life into them.  God has called us to step up and lead!