At Redeemer we started a new thing for us called Creative Community Night. It’s a time where the creatives in our church can join in community and grow in relationship and in their various gifts. The format is basically small groups based around relationship and skill development, followed by a creative service where we worship and receive from the Word, lastly we work on creating a flow for the weekend service.
At our first Creative Community Night I shared the three things that all creative people struggle with.
I shared from Matthew 25:14-30
14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants[c] and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents,[d] to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more.18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and Isettled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.[e] You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
The three things creative people struggle with most:
1. The have a wrong view of our creator. – We don’t see Him as who he is. We see him as harsh and demanding. Our father is filled with wrath but that wrath was satisfied in Christ Jesus on the cross. When we understand our master it changes how we invest the talents we are given. We gladly lay down our lives in gratitude understanding that we deserve the wrath of God but have been given new life in the work of Christ.
2. Fear – It’s easier to bury your talent and to not put yourself out there. It’s easy to do what you are comfortable with because that doesn’t take faith. You never put yourself in a place where you need to trust Christ more than anything else. Fear comes from an improper view of your master.
3. Laziness – As a creative it’s easy to be lazy and to use what you have been given by God. The problem with laziness is that doesn’t bring glory to God. When we leverage the gift we have been given by God and grow and multiply that gift we draw the attention of others and deflect the glory that is God’s alone. It’s easier to rest in our God-given talent than to do the work necessary to bring the gift you have been given to maturity.