5 minute read
CREATIVITY, CULTURE AND THE CHURCH
Image credit: Andrew Hughes
How SAINT are on a mission to equip churches to renew and reimagine culture.
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CREATIVITY, CULTURE
Throughout history, the Church has been the incubator of and catalyst for some of the greatest works of art and music, as well as a breeding ground for leaders of significant and profound social and cultural change. But what about now, where is the Church in this cultural moment? What can the Church do to help nurture and grow and inspire a new wave of creativity and shape and commission future leaders in all spheres of society? When the world is shrinking back under the weight of a so-called ‘Perma crisis’, Mark Nelson, Associate Rector of SAINT, believes the Church can do what only the Church can do; to use and apply our God-given creativity to do something new, something unexpected. ‘We need the renewal of all things’ he says, ‘Whether that’s the next big renewal of education or healthcare’ or the ‘New art, the new social enterprises, the new songs, the new stories, the new ways of preaching, communicating and talking about the Gospel, that will make a difference’. Talking about creativity, Mark believes ‘It shouldn’t be a conversation that’s on the edge of society within the Church’, but ‘right at the heart of it’, because he says, ‘The first person to be filled with the Holy Spirit was Bezalel, which bears it out for creativity’. We see it too in Jesus, who, Mark says, ‘Took a religious table and turned it into a relational table. He took mealtimes and reinvented their meaning’. One of the challenges facing the Church, Mark says, ‘Is its potency. The world is asking the Church to be a little bit more like the Church, to have a different offering to the world. To teach a little bolder and stronger and attune itself in a sensitive and difficult cultural moment.
‘It should be that the Church has the best ideas’, he continues, ‘I’m worried that we’ll wonder whether the Church has been as creative as it could have been in recent years? So I guess we’re trying to bury a small footnote’ he says, ‘In this season’. SAINT’s response, he explains, is to host Renaissance, a two-day conference full of inspiration, worship, ideas, creativity, imagination, encounter, and fun; led by Rector Al Gordon.
Renaissance gives space and freedom to ‘Encounter the Creator and equip, inspire, and empower the Church’ according to Mark. It doesn’t matter if you’re not a self-described creative, Mark insists, this conference is for everyone, ‘Because we want everyone to encounter God, we want everyone to be empowered within the Church’.
Giving his key-note address on the first night of Renaissance, Erwin McManus, lead pastor of Mosaic in Los Angeles, unpacks the challenge facing the Church, ‘Well-meaning people who believe in Jesus, keep waiting for God to create a future that humanity desperately needs, they keep crying out to God “God do something” but God is saying, “I did do something, I created you, now you do something”’. Speaking on day two, Al Gordon urges us to move into action. Because, he says, ‘The stories we tell and the work we create, the buildings we design, the films we make, the music, the tech, the businesses and the art we create, have the power to move people and to change the dynamic of someone’s life in a way that theology and doctrine doesn’t’. In closing the conference, Mike Pilavachi MBE, of Soul Survivor, sums up the overriding message of Renaissance, saying, ‘We the Church exist to bring blessing to the world’. Looking to the future, Mark shares that it’s their prayer that the Church does what it’s been made to do, and in doing so ‘Culture is totally transformed and renewed, art and beauty and life explode, and all in the name of Jesus. That people will look back and say, “What was it about the Church in that time?” Off the back of a global pandemic, at the time of a potential world war and a climate crisis. It’s a prayer for all of us, isn’t it?’.
THE CHURCH
Reviving Communities SEVEN TOP TAKEAWAYS FROM RENAISSANCE
Image credit: Nicole Gomes
Opening the conference, Farida Matthews, an Ordinand at Saint, tells us that in scripture ‘God created us to be creative’, but, she says, he also ‘Continues to pour out his Spirit upon us divinely inspiring us to create beautiful things that lift people’s eyes off themselves and onto HE who is greater’.
On discovering God’s vision for our lives
As he makes bread on stage, Tom Herbert of the Long Table, a Community Interest Company that’s changing the world through food, talks about a simple way to work out God’s vision for our lives. Saying, as he kneads the dough…to ‘Do what we have in our hands’, what’s straight in front of us.
On the power of your story to bring change
Former Superintendent in the Met Police, Leroy Logan MBE, describes how he suffered abuse both from his own community and at work, when joining the Met as a black police officer. But he says, ‘Your worst nightmare could be your biggest breakthrough’ and never to underestimate the power of ‘Your story’ to bring and shape change.
On creating a culture of encounter
Upper Room Dallas share that ‘Something happens when you partner with the Lord, when you put your needs to the side’ and how in ministering to the Lord we fulfil his ‘Greatest desire’ for us and receive ‘All of heaven’s backing’. Whilst cutting Al Gordon’s hair on stage, renowned barber and business owner, Mark Maciver of Slider Cuts, talks about how his, ‘Faith is the reason’ for the way he does business. It’s at the heart of everything he does and influences the why behind the sharing of his expertise and knowledge for free on social media. The motivation for this, he says, is to ‘Shape culture’ and to give away the ‘Knowledge and information’ he never got to hear growing up.
On the importance of discipline to aid the creative process
Singer, songwriter Amanda Cook, shares about the beauty and power of ‘Cocreating with the divine muse of God’ and how important daily disciplines are to unpack and encourage our creativity, by ‘Opening ourselves up at 9am every day for a new idea, a new approach.’
Ruth Yimika Afolabi, founder of Magnify Magazine, believes in the power, of what she describes as, ‘Kingdom excellence’ to change the narrative of faith through the media, and how we can, she says, ‘Be the light in every industry, wherever you are now, wherever God has called you’ and because the ‘Creator of the Universe has given us the greatest gift of creativity’. For more information follow @renaissance.movement or visit renaissancemovement.org to register your interest.
