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In Luke 13:18 we see Jesus searching for fresh ways to express his message. ‘What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to?’, he wonders aloud. Or in The Message paraphrase: ‘How can I picture God’s kingdom for you? What kind of story can I use?’ Or the New Living Version suggests: ‘How can I illustrate it?’
Jesus was a master communicator. He could use all kinds of creative ways - images, stories, visual aids, recent events and physical actions - to bring his points to life. In this example, he up with the picture of a mustard seed: an ordinary, everyday object which people in his day would have known and understood completely. It is as basic as us saying that the kingdom of God is like a pencil, a mobile phone or a cup of tea.
And yet he takes this very ordinary object and manages to put a fresh spin on it, so that it reveals deep truths about God’s grace, kingdom and mission. He says ‘It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches.’ Now, that possibly doesn’t mean very much to us today, but his hearers would have heard echoes of Daniel 4:12,21, and Ezekiel 17:23 and 31:6. They knew that the birds of the air were a picture of all the peoples of the world (yes, even the despised Gentiles), coming to be part of God’s kingdom. It may seem small and insignificant at the start, but eventually everyone is going to be able to come and take their place in this adventure of following Christ. An everyday image is given global, eternal significance, and when we grasp it, we are moved to worship.
INSPIRING IMAGINATION
Jesus understood that creativity is a gift from God to us, stirring our imaginations and helping us engage with him and his world on a deeper level. When we turn up to worship, distracted by the week and bored by the old routine, artistic and creative aspects of worship point us beyond the mundane and the prosaic. Music brings the words of songs to life. Visual art can speak more than a thousand words. Poetry can reach beyond the plain meaning of words to express deep emotions and spiritual resonances. If we and our young people are struggling to be inspired in worship, perhaps we need to follow Jesus’ example and include some fresh creative communication?
Now, we can of course benefit from using creativity we find on the internet or from a book or CD. But the value increases exponentially when you encourage young people to actually make their own creative resources for worship. What kind of gifts does your church or youth ministry value for worship? We often look for the musically gifted young people, because singing along with a band is the primary way that worship is modelled for us at conferences and on CDs. But aren’t there other creative gifts in your worship team? What about the poets and painters? People who make videos or computer art? The rappers and the beat programmers? The cellists and the ballet dancers?
A helpful reminder here is that worship is not just about ‘praise and adoration’. These things are done very well in corporate singing (although many young people may struggle to connect with them if they are unfamiliar with Church culture). Once we move beyond ‘praise and adoration’ into other areas of worship - confessing sin, reflecting on God’s word and his deeds, praying for the world, lamenting injustice - we find that some of these are hard to do in corporate song, and could be much better served by other creative art forms. Below are some ideas of how to get your group exploring creativity.
WORSHIP IDEA
COLLAGE
Get a stack of old magazines, some A3 paper and glue sticks. Encourage the young people to tear out images of how they feel before God at the moment. This simple exercise is something we’ve used with all kinds of groups, including those who don’t consider themselves ‘creative’, and it always inspires people to start thinking visually. Often people have shared very deeply what the images mean to them, in ways they probably wouldn’t have if we’d just asked them. You can go on to do something with the collages as an act of worship, such as lay them before a cross, hang them up as a gallery, or exchange them so people can take them home and pray for each other.
ALTERNATIVE IMAGES
Find some biblical images for God, e.g. strong tower, shepherd, warrior king, mother hen gathering chicks. Encourage the group to look them up in the Bible, talk about what they think they mean, and then try to express them in modern day language or images. For example - if a shepherd is about protection, could we describe God as a bodyguard, or bulletproof glass? Encourage them to debate the strengths and weaknesses of the modern imagery. They could then turn these images into poems, raps, visual art, a video or slide show (depending on the gifts and passions in the group), expressing in their own language who God is to them. This could be used as part of gathered worship.
REVELATION 21 RE-WRITE
Doug Gay has re-written Revelation 21:1-4 as a poem called ‘The New Glasgow’ (it can be found in the book Alternative Worship, or poke around online). This has since been adapted for other towns. As an exercise in prayer and prophetic imagination, get your group to imagine your town / village / city in the manner of Revelation 21 - what would it look like if God’s kingdom broke in, if God made everything new, if Heaven came to Earth? You can discuss as a group, and then this could lead into creative responses - once again based on the interests of the group. It could be a poem like Doug’s, or you could take it in a visual or musical direction.
It may take time for your group to get used to the idea that worship doesn’t need to necessarily be about singing, so guide them gently into these ways of engaging with God. The long term effect should be that they begin to worship him throughout the week as they pursue their gifts and passions, in and out of church meetings.
