Are you dying to use your creative talents for Jesus but struggle with the where and the how?
Do you feel like your creative gifts don't fit into the traditional church roles? (Maybe you're more watercolors for Jesus than making sermon slides, for example.)
Do you feel like God is calling you to create or serve in a way that's seen as "outside of the box"?
Sister, I totally get it! 'Cause that's me too! And guess what? God has imbued His creative daughters with a wide variety of gifts - and callings - so we can impact the Kingdom and the world in specific ways.
And today, I'm going to arm you with ideas, inspiration, and direction to help you find the path God has created just for you!
Show Notes:
Intro
So in the previous episode, we talked about some practical ways to help rediscover our God-given calling or dream. Which typically includes rediscovering what brings us joy and lights us up.
If you’re like me - and if you’re listening to this podcast, there’s a good chance that you are - you are a creative individual. As I’ve shared previously, God recently helped me to reclaim my own calling which is to inspire, encourage, and motivate using my creative gifts. So writing, design of products (like my RedBubble store), website design … all of those things.
And today, I want to zero in on creativity for Jesus and the Kingdom. Because unfortunately, at least traditionally in the US, there hasn’t been a lot of room for creativity in Church - which is one of the places you’d think creativity would heavily exist.
Back in Episode 2, we looked at how God is the Creator. In fact, that’s how the Bible opens - it literally starts with a sentence about God creating. It’s such an integral part of who God is - yet the opportunities to create for Jesus or within the Church are very few and far between, right?
Sure, there’s the website, social media graphics, sermon slides, table centerpieces, food, maybe some play backdrops...but that’s about it.
So if you’re highly creative like myself, and you’re into things beyond the norm, like original designs that can go on products - again, like my RedBubble store … If you’re part creative and part entrepreneur … If your dream is to create custom painted skateboards for Jesus … or if you want to just create for Jesus but you’re not sure how yet … What do you do?
That’s where I want to focus in this episode.
First and foremost -
Before I dive into the practical solutions, I want to start with these two fundamental pieces of wisdom. Because everything needs to come back to God and His plans for you.
First, take some time to bring this in prayer and seek out the Lord’s calling on you - whether you already have a sense of His direction for you or you have zero idea right now.
This is important because you obviously want to walk in alignment with what God is calling you to do - as well as His timing.
Second, do this with an open mind. Meaning, His answer may not be what you expect. But also, don’t assume that your use of creativity for God has to include making something with the actual focus on God. In other words, your calling may not include creating products that actually include the words “God” or “Jesus” or would even be categorized as Christian.
Don’t get me wrong - there are definitely needs for these types of things in the Kingdom. I mean, my calling is specially to serve my Christian sisters - which means my creativity is going to lean that direction.
What I am saying is that, for some of you, God may be calling you to serve non-Christians in a way that doesn’t involve putting Scriptures or Bible Verses or artwork - or writing a book about your Christian walk.
Maybe He’s calling you to use your art to bridge that first hurdle of conversation; to make connections and build relationships; through which people can get to know you and you can then organically share your testimony and walk with the Lord.
Sometimes, there’s this belief out there that anything a Chrsitian creates has to only be for other Christians. But Jesus was a carpenter. I highly doubt that every piece of furniture that He made had a verse or Scripture carved into it somewhere. That wouldn’t have made sense, right?
Also, God surrounds everyone with His beautiful creation whether they’re in relationship with Him or not.
All that to say, just open yourself up to what God is truly calling you to do - even if it goes against tradition or common thought. God doesn’t think inside boxes, so we can’t either.
Things you can do -
Okay! So onto the practical implementation part. If you’re highly creative, and want to do some creativity for Jesus, what are some ideas?
(1) If you happen to be into digital design, consider a platform like RedBubble - which is where my online store is hosted. There are others out there, too, so if this general idea appeals, feel free to check out all of the options.
RedBubble is a platform that allows creatives to upload designs and sell them on physical products. So if you go to my store, for example, you’ll see that every design is available on anywhere between 50 - 80 items. Everything from apparel, to stationary (like journals and notebooks), to home decor, to mugs and water bottles … I mean, you name it, it’s probably available on RedBubble.
This allows me to create designs that are out-of-the-box and speak directly to those I’m called to serve. Which is why my designs are little love notes from Jesus and God and there’s bright, bold styles.
The thing to keep in mind with something like this, though, is that you need to market your store somehow. Your social media, a website, something. There are tons of sellers on RedBubble, so the chances of you being discovered organically through the site are very small. But - if you have an audience or a large network of peeps, or a group God is calling you to serve, this is a great way to be creative for Jesus. You can simply do it your way.
(2) Join forces with others.
You can either join forces with someone who has similar creative interests and go for an entrepreneurial approach. Maybe you open a small store or sell your products online.
Or, maybe you partner with a charity or organization that you feel strongly about, and there’s a way to create something for them.
Even if you feel as if your specific creative niche is, well, very niche … like our creating custom skateboards example from earlier … chances are, someone else out there also loves what you do. Maybe not the same exact way, but enough that you could work well together.
Overall, in regards to all things creative, there’s a lot of opportunity for those of us who are creative for Jesus. Especially for those of us who don’t fit inside boxes.
And the more we come together, and help each other, and work alongside each other, the more that we can accomplish.
(3) Consider turning a traditional creative outlet on its head.
Out-of-the box doesn’t necessarily mean we have to forge into completely new territory - it can also mean we change the scope of something that already exists.
We can:
Write books on topics that haven’t been previously written on.
Create new fictional worlds that speak to Jesus and our Heavenly Father and Biblical truth … and that are just as grand, and sprawling, and magnificent as Lord of the Rings or even something like Star Wars.
Create new Christian fictional genres.
Look at ways to incorporate more artwork in our churches.
Look at new ways to represent Jesus visually. Yes, He was born into our world during a specific time period. But would it be so crazy to have images of Him wearing jeans or a manly flannel shirt - to make Him more relatable for us in this age? We can still honor the truth and history while relating to Jesus today - He’s still alive, after all.
Examine new ways to share the Bible and the Gospel using the arts. Again, because creativity seems to be a lesser priority of the church overall, it always seems like the Christian body is playing catch-up in all things creative.
Think about whatever form of creativity that you love - movies, TV shows, graphic novels, books, digital design, podcasting … whatever it is … and ask yourself, “What could this look like for Jesus?”
Remember -
This goes back to one of our introductory points. Be open to what God is calling you to do - and be open to being called outside of the traditional boxes.
Because if God designed you to be creative, in a specific way, and to love a specific creative niche … there’s probably a good reason for it, right?
It may seem downright crazy. Or impossible. Or totally nuts. It may totally turn things on its ear.
But then again, every so often, God needs to shake things up. And He’s a creator - so why not have His kids create something new to do that?