I had lunch recently with a couple twentysomething ministers. They were asking questions about creativity and preaching. So here’s what I told them:
Sometimes I can’t find a creative thought. I study, pray, work, study, and pray. My text has been translated; I’ve read it again and again in its context; I’ve prayed through it. But not one creative thought comes. At this point a sermon would be like a running commentary. I try to GET CREATIVE, but it’s like trying to hit a 98 mph fastball with a baseball that’s been shrunk down to the size of a golf ball.
But there are moments.
Sometimes it’s a creative day or a creative couple days. Times when the baseball has slowed down and has gotten back to normal size. Instead of the raw data of exegesis, I’m able to move from science to art. Connections are made. A journey for the message begins to form. I love days like this.
And then there are times — rare, really — when it’s more like hitting a beach ball coming at 20 mph. I occasionally have moments when all the fog lifts and everything falls into place. I can’t write quickly enough. I’ve had a spurt as short as fifteen minutes when a month’s worth of sermons came spilling out.
Here’s the problem: I don’t know how to control the muse. I can’t beg her to appear and I can’t cajol her through sleep, study, or exercise. She just shows up.
In the meantime, I told these guys, it’s important to be disciplined about your work: your study of the word, your praying of the word, and your living of the word.
Sometimes the creative burst comes early with plenty of lead time. Sometimes it shows up rather late. But when it comes, and thank God it usually does, you smile, soak it in, and write down every thought that comes.
I can relate. My job requires me to be very creative, and I am also trying to write on the side. Creativity is not one of those things that you can schedule from 8 to 5. But I find that often have to go through a “dry spell” before I receive a cloudburst of creativity. Sometimes we have to keep plugging away at the seemingly mundane before the creativity shows up. Like you said, when it does, soak it in.
I’ve heard you for MANY years, and I NEVER ONCE heard you when it sounded like you were swinging at a golf ball. Most of the time, it has sounded like you were taking a swing at the Hindenburg.
Thanks for sharing with us, and with the two ministers!
DU
“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.”
You forgot to tell everyone else that you said going to freesermons.com is another way to get creative.
Thanks again for the insight. But I must admit having a week off helps creativity also.
Thanks for that look “behind the scenes” Mike. I spend about 30 hours a week writing - it’s largely technical nonsense that nobody really cares much about - but you do have your moments of writer’s block even there.
Thank Mike for your post today.
I know as a young minister in my early thirties I find it hard sometimes to find relevance and application. I try to find humor and stories just like the master Teacher. I read, study, exegete, pray, and let the Holy Spirit move and lead. I believe many church of Christ ministers ignore the function and importance that he Holy Spirit plays in sermon development and delivery. I know when I let the Holy Spirit take over and move, he leads in my sermon development in powerful ways and especailly delevery. The Holy Spirit is the muse, maybe. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives us the strength and help that we need to proclaim the message powerful, unashamed, and in a dynamic way. I know that as a minister, when I don’t focus on the notes, what others are thinking, and let the spirit take over are my best sermons. I am trying to understand that when I partner with him and allow him to take part in what I do, my ministry is blessed.
So I sing and pray the words:
“Spirit I love you
I worship and adore you
Glorify thy name in all the earth
Glorify thy name…Glorify thy name…Glorify thy name in all the earth.”
I can’t possibly relate to this in any shape, form, or fashion. I am a CPA, finance type guy which means absolutely no creativity in my bones at all. This really helps when the kids need help with a crafty school project……I just shrug my shoulders and give them that look that says, “GO SEE YOUR MOTHER!!”
I don’t know how preachers do what they do. I go months at a time with no muse as you can tell by my lame postings the last few months. But, I did a find a fascinating book on this subject by Brenda Ueland written earlier this century entitled “If You Want to Write”. It’s more than about writing, it’s about any creative endeavor. A great, short, easy read that provides motivation. I probably need to go back and read the highlights again…maybe that muse will return.
As someone who sits out in the pews week after week, I would also add this:
Don’t get too worked up if a particular sermon doesn’t “feel” creative enough. There will be times where your message feels dry to you, but it will be speaking volumes into someone else’s life. All of us are coming to hear the Word with very different experiences and we are often in very different places from you. What may seem bland or uninteresting to you may be unveiling new worlds for one (or many) of your listeners.
Also, even one sentence in a sermon that is otherwise very unfocused and uninspiring can be the thing that will make a huge difference in someone’s spiritual perspective. The whole sermon may be a colossal dud, but hidden within it may be a 20 second bombshell that changes someone’s life.
In short, don’t feel pressure to hit a home run every week. Patient, faithful exegesis and quiet reflection are almost always going to bear fruit. God has ways of turning the seemingly ordinary into the extraordinary.
So that’s where the muse goes when she leaves Colorado Springs… hmmm… Abilene of all places.
Mike, thanks for the encouragement to keep the discipline going in the middle of a “drought” as I call it. I like your metaphor better.
In fact, I was in one of those “droughts” when I read your blog this morning (I am supposed to be working on the next series), and now I feel renewed (let’s hope the muse isn’t scared away by all the snow we got this week!). Come back!
I know preachers think that a lot of us just sit and soak. But it is just like in the Bible when the tongues of fire came and everyone heard in their own language. You may not know on one of your dried out days, you say the one thing that I have been searching for a long time. I am able to run with it. It opens up whole new or deeper thoughts in my notes, studies, and prayers. I feel on those days the Spirit smiles.
Watch your back on campus the next few days. You just gave away more than I remember paying to learn in my 3 hour Preaching course.
Thanks.
Creativity? What is that? God gave that gift to my wife not me,
Thankfully she shares it with me.
Shalom,
Bobby Valentine
thanks mike
Mike, I know sometimes I am trying to say the right things and make connections with people that will help them. Sometimes I try to think too much. So lately, I have been praying Mercy Me’s song, Word of God Speak, instead.
MercyMe - Word Of God Speak
From the album Spoken For
I’m finding myself at a loss for words
And the funny thing is it’s OK
The last thing I need is to be heard
But to hear what You would say
Chorus:
Word of God speak
Would You pour down like rain
Washing my eyes to see
Your majesty
To be still and know
That You’re in this place
Please let me stay and rest
In Your holiness
Word of God speak
I’m finding myself in the midst of You
Beyond the music, beyond the noise
All that I need is to be with You
And in the quiet hear Your voice
I’m finding myself at a loss for words
And the funny thing is it’s OK
I’ve given up. Often I just put my hands on the notes I have and ask God to speak. When I finish my lesson, my first prayer is that God use what I said and pierce the hearts that need to be pierced. But above all, keep me out of the equation, because it’s Jesus that I want to be seen. Occasionally, the ego raises his ugly head and I want acceptance and confirmation. But then I realize that it’s not about me. Thanks, Mike, for admitting that it’s not always easy.
It would probably not be a good thing to be able to call up your muse at will - you might begin to take her (?) for granted.
Mike,
Great thoughts. I always pray He won’t leave me in the pulpit by myself. I am so dull. He is so sharp. When He begins to flow we both enjoy the process.
I pray for more beach balls!
Terry
I still remember what you told me when I was interning with you at Highland. “Think base hits, not home runs. Home run hitters strike out too much.”
I’ve also found that the further ahead I can get in my planning and prep the more room the muse has to show up and do her thing. She’s been reluctant to show up for me on Friday afternoons. She won’t even send me an encouragement card on Saturday afternoons!
To all my deceived brothers and sisters who’ve commented above:
WRONG!
The firstverb in the Bible? “Created”
Our God is a Creator.
and…
We are created in His image!
So guess what? Gone are the days that you get to claim, model, and pray for other parts of God’s DNA such as, mercy, patience, peace, etc… and simply dismiss the whole creative quality.
We’ve been lied to by the great deceiver and consequently have a warped definition of creativity. It’s time we stop listening to a weasel and start listening to Webster. Here is the dictionary’s definition of creative:
having the power to bring into being.
Let me assure the most anal, analytical accoutants and attornies out there: you have the power to bring into being.
Yes, you might not be the most innovative (you are probably much more than you give yourself credit for) but you are creative.
Creative is less about dressing like Rob Bell and preaching like Ed Young and more about helping to build peace like President Carter and heal hurts like Mother Teresa. If creative is only new and different then the writer of Ecclesiastes lied because according to him there is a limited color of paints on our pallets. If creative is more about heart than art - more about true than new.
So, if any of you feel that God is not creative or that you were not made in His image - go ahead and say you’re not creative. All others - figure out what God wants to create (to bring into being) in your life, your family’s life, your church, your friends, your communities, and the world - AND JOIN HIM IN IT!
Creative is not how you were made.
It’s why you were made.
I think you had the muse by the tail in your blog today. Try making banking creative day in and day out! But I will be thankful. Swing for the fences.
About being disciplined: Flannery O’Connor said that she had to write every single day because if she didn’t, then on the day that it would have gone well, she might not be writing. When I came across that I realized that if SHE had to work at it every day, so did I.
I have some of the same memories as Wade from interning with you. I remember you telling me that we aim for singles. Occasionally we’ll hit some doubles, triples, and home runs, but we aim for singles.
(I love how baseball metaphors are close to your heart, Mike.)
You have taught me so much about the power of creativity, vision, and imagination in preaching. Those are 3 principles that I pray for on a regular basis.
For me, as one of those twentysomething preachers, I think of preaching as a puzzle. By Thursday night or Friday morning I usually have all of the pieces. Therefore, Friday and Saturday morning is all about putting the puzzle together with the help of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes that puzzle feels like a little 10 piece puzzle. Other days it feels like a 1,500 piece puzzle of a forest or something. And, there are Saturdays when the puzzle is undone Saturday afternoon and put back together with new pieces.
Okay, I think you get where I’m going.
All this to say, I love it. I love doing what I do.
Yet, as many of you have already alluded to, I know that I can stand up every Sunday and read a text, tell a story, exegete a passage, say a prayer, and point people somewhere. But, if the power of the Holy Spirit isn’t breathing life through my words, it is meaningless.
Good words Mike. As a fellow preacher, I’ve gotten the “This dog won’t hunt” feeling as I’ve prepared my sermons. Part of the beauty and challenge of preaching each week is that facing the congregation every Sunday provides tremendous motivation to continue studying, reading, listening, thinking, praying, worshipping, relating, learning, growing, traveling, and experiencing new things in life.
Pursuing that balance between seeking continual growth (doing) and experiencing God’s peace (being) helps me stay in my creative zone most of the time. For the times I don’t feel terribly creative (the drought), I’m sustained by Paul’s words from 2 Corinthians:
“But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.”
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
I usually find it easy to write songs, but when I go back after giving it a rest and listen to them, most are pretty lame. However, there is the occasional song that I go back and revisit and think “whoa, did I write that?”. And those usually turn out to be written by Neil Young.
Congrats, Mike!
A STL-DET World Series should be a good one!
What a stunning defeat!
Now on to the WS!!
Congratulations!!
reminds me of something Randy (I think) said once while teaching an undergrad class, about “the Spirit comes to those who prepare.” I think he meant something like, “I don’t care how spiritual you think you are - there’s no excuse for not doing your homework on a passage.”
I’ve tried to maintain a respect for the huge cultural/historical divide between us and the world of the biblical text. Living in another very different culture and working to understand the people is making me appreciate the importance of those differences even more.
When I preached, it was amazing how many creative ideas came to me when I was in the shower at 5:00 on Sunday morning.
I’m with that other David….it’s amazing how often I will try in vain to write something original for weeks on end, and then on the evening when the project is due, I become a veritable fount of interesting and uncontainable ideas. Necessity is the mother of invention, yo.
How much of this hand-wringing about the weekly appearance of the Muse is a result of the rather contrived expectation that there be 30 minutes (+/-) of preaching every single Sunday? I have wondered that ever since reading Eugene Peterson’s and Marva Dawn’s _The_Unnecessary_Pastor_. The expectations we put on our “pastors” seem like cultural artifacts to me. The pressure to deliver every Sunday would be discouraging at least, and immobilizing at best, were it not for those divine moments…
I have wondered, therefore, if we would be well advised to recall that sometimes more is less, and less is more.
qb
Totally, QB…..
Totally agree.
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