Creativity and the Arts #1

Tonight was the first night of my Replenish course "Creativity and the Arts" at church.

Week One: God - the Creative Genius.

God is creative, ingenious and awe-inspiring. He is the only one who can create out of nothing, no external resource is required. He needs no materials to create from, he needs no tools or materials to create with. He creates out of the invisible (Hebrews 11:3) His powerful word (Hebrews 11:3, Gen 1) and his will (Rev 4:11) are abundantly sufficient to create the heavens, the earth and humanity.

His creation tells me his is a God of goodness and perfection. Each day testifies that his purposeful creation is good (1:10; 12; 18; 21; 25; 31). God himself is perfect and he has fashioned everything accordingly. He didn't make a mistake and he didn't produce any waste or byproduct. He designed and made all things from the intricate root systems in rain-forests to the stars in the sky, to the hair, skin and eye colour of humans to the "plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit..."(1:11)

We have so many colours to enjoy on this earth and one of the good questions my dear friend Lizzie and I wonder about is whether there will be any new colours in heaven? Or do we get to enjoy all the colours of God's spectrum now?

This all tells me that God has no limit on his creativity. No one can match his imagination. Unlike us, God's ability to create is unstoppable and infinite - there are no limits for him. He creates species, types, varieties of trees, plants (strelizia, roses, agapanthus) and animals (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians...). And now think of the different kinds of roses and the different fragrance each one has. He is profuse. There is no one like our God.

God is truely worthy of our praise! Can you deny his magnificance, oppulence and existence? His eternal power and divine nature has been reveled to us in the abundance, beauty and handiwork of his creation. (Romans 1, Psalm 19). Please don't ignore him, for the world around us makes us without an excuse to acknowlege him as Creator, Sustainer and Ruler of all.

So what do you think it means for humanity, if God is this creative genius?
If we are made in his likeness what might this infer about us?
What is man that God is so mindful of him (Psalm 8)?

Links to resources...

Check out the whole lot of links I've added to the side bar...

Please use your discernment as some of the resources vary greatly in quality. Some things are great as is, some things need tweaking, and some just provide a spring board for ideas!

I hope you find some of the resources useful in your context of proclaiming Christ!!

Fleeing the Sin of Boring people with Christ...

I was just reading my brothers blog and he has just posted up five new websites he has stumbled upon that offer great creative resources. Now my brother's blog was set up with a few of his mates who are in ministry to fight the sin of boring people with Christ. So their blog aims to share ideas and resources. I have found it particularly helpful in getting me to think creatively for the gospel, finding new resources that help do that and then appropriating them to my ministry context.

Such a great thing is it to share ideas I thought I should pass on some of these creative resources ...


http://www.simplyouthministry.com - DOUG FIELDS
This website has heaps of FREEBIES... click on this and it will take you to a whole heap of free downloads. I mainly use this website for growing my collection powerpoint background designs. and also they have flash countdowns, games, leaders resources, and much more!

http://www.vineresources.com
This is a church that has really great free powerpoint design packages based on sermon series themes or books.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/cfcc/pool/
Flickr Church Marketing - sharing ideas - good inspiration!

http://www.seacoast.org/allaccess/message.html
Similar to VINE - powerpoint sermon packages for download

http://www.sermonspice.com/
Sermon spice - sign up and they give you a free video each month - plus more ideas...

http://churchtechtalk.com/
On the right side of the page there are graphic downloads and movie downloads.... great stuff... if you wonder where KYCK get countdowns from look no further than here!

Also if you are wondering about what images you can use that are copyright free... here are some good websites to check out...
http://www.sxc.hu
http://www.yotophoto.com

For games - big database of some good, not so good and average games.
http://www.youthpastor.com

And what would this world be like if we had Times New Roman as our only font:
http://www.1001fonts.com
http://www.dafont.com

NOW you know all my creative secrets... but as my good ol' Uncle John (Piper) would say, Imagination may be the hardest work of the human mind. And perhaps the most God-like. It is the closest we get to creation something beautiful out of nothing. "Oh sing to the LORD a new song" - or art work, or poem, or figure of speech, or song, or flash animation, or short movie.

Let us press on to tell of the greatness and glory of Christ.

GOD IS NOT BORING... John Piper
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TopicIndex/108/1228_God_Is_Not_Boring/