Collide Magazine

Creathievery

Andrew Hill - Originally posted Tuesday, September 15, 2009 -

cre-a-thiev-er-y
- noun
1. The process by which one utilizes another’s creative ability without permission.

Using successful concepts from television, movies, and from pop culture in the packaging and promotion of everything from a sermon series to an outreach event is a popular trend in churches today. Without naming names, some churches have grown large enough to begin selling their promotional materials and series graphics online to other churches hoping to catch the popular culture wave. What these churches and other parachurch organizations fail to realize is that they are participating in a process that I will refer to as creathievery (if I may be as bold to coin a term). This is the process by which one person takes another person’s creative work and uses it without their permission, which, I will add, is not in keeping with the law.

I’ve seen it in countless forms, I’ve been an accomplice in the crime, and I’ve fought against it as a Creative Director at a church in Dallas, Texas. It usually begins with a pure motivate: How do we reach a generation that considers the church to be boring, outdated, antique? The path towards creathievery always begins with the assumption that we are in competition with what this generation sees every day in print, media, and on the Web. But is this starting point true? Is the local church in competition with popular culture for the attention of its congregants? This may surprise you, but it’s my opinion that these two entities are, in fact, not in competition.

It is true that this generation, more than any other, is assaulted by distractions. The media consumption and social networking pendulum has swung to an extreme, and the effect it has on people in the Church should not be ignored. But to think that the Church must be in competition with those things, and as a result attempt to speak louder and in more appealing visuals, is a misconception. Such a reaction would be akin to a hospital spying the popularity of a department store chain and then adapting their communications materials to mimic their perceived “competitor.” The problem is, people do not consider a hospital in the same category as a department store.

The point is, the local church is the place where Christian believers come for refreshment and where those outsiders searching for truth come to hear what the Bible has to tell them. Neither of these two groups would ever consider the Church to be in the same category as a department store or television station, and yet the truth is many of those working within the Church operate as if they do not agree. In fact, it could be dangerous to pursue this course. When a church mimics popular culture in an attempt to appear cutting edge and relevant, they may actually incur damage as a result. While insiders may applaud the use of popular culture for the sake of outreach, outsiders may look down upon such efforts as merely a cheap imitation. After all, today’s consumers are already wary of what popular culture tries to sell them.

So if the Church is not in competition with popular culture, how does it fit within society? And how does it continue to remain relevant to an ever-changing populace? The Church is, in some sense, similar to the position of a hospital in a community. It doesn’t exist to sell something, but to offer a cure to a sickness. In the case of the Church, the price of this sickness is more severe: eternal death. The message of the Church is cheapened when it is placed in the same category as a product to be marketed or a program to be promoted. That’s the unfortunate side effect of participating in creathievery.

For the Church to remain relevant within our ever-changing society, it’ll take more creativity than many church leaders think is possible. To take another person’s creative work and adapt it for your own use is, in my opinion, the most uncreative thing you can do. To be truly creative means to be original with your promotional and packaging concepts, and I think the Church is certainly capable of being original. After all, God’s creative work (the world) and His word (the Bible) are both very original and should inspire His people to communicate their church’s context in a unique way.

Being creative takes work. It’s not easy, but that’s the point. I believe all of God’s people were born with the capacity to be creative. Yes, some are born with more capacity than others, but if we were each truly created in the image of our Creator, then we were created to be creative. I challenge you to live out the image of God and abstain from committing creathievery.

Andrew Hill is an associate youth pastor and aspiring author. You can follow him at www.twitter.com/justifiedwriter.