Failure of Creativity

Here are more wise words from Doug Pagitt's chapter on "spiritual formation through creativity" in Reimagining Spiritual Formation (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2003).

Our efforts at creativity almost always have an element of risk to them: there is an experimental feel. Our artists have led in creating this as an acceptably way to be. When art that comes from the deepest places of a person is hung on the wall for everyone to see, or something is performed with wide-eyed abandon, or a song is sung for the first time a message is being sent that it is permissible to step out, to generate something new, and to risk failing. There is seemingly no end to the things we have attempted that have not worked. (p. 137)

There are times when I become concerned that we make so many attempts that do not work that it becomes distracting to people. (p. 137)

But the beauty of creativity as a means of spiritual formation is that even our "failures" breed hope. In most cases when a creative effort doesn't pan out, it's because the execution is flawed, not the dream. What matters isn't that we have the most beautiful flowers or the most atmospheric space or the most well-attended events. What matters is that all of these expressions are authentic outpourings from our community. We've learned that no matter how much confidence we have in a creative notion, there is always the chance that it might not work. That realization and our confidence that things will still be okay motivates us to risk putting our creative efforts on the table. Our confidence does not come from being successful at creativity; it comes from being certain that when we fail, things will be okay and we will continue to make things new. (p. 138)

There is, for some, an even great risk involved in becoming co-(re)creators in the world. In the three years since Solomon's Porch became a reality, I've had more conversations than I can count about the emerging church and why it's seen as a threat to the evangelical way of life. More often, the concern I hear is that the "postmodern" church has no sense of the Christian tradition, that it wants to scrap everything that's come before it and make something new. Maybe that's true in some churches that call themselves "postmodern." But what I've seen in the emerging, post-industrial church is a desire not to ignore what's come before us, but to be informed and inspired by it as we create ways of living in harmony with God in our time. The great risk of the church is not in losing our traditions; it is losing our ability to reimagine. I really don't know what to do with the approach to faith that tels us all the answers have been discovered and we are simply to apply those answers in our lives. I don't know how we are supposed to worship with songs, prayers, and confessions created for other times and places. And I really don't know how to live out an understanding of the gospel that says I don't have a part to play in what God is doing in the world. Creativity is at the center of God's image. It is how we see God and talk to God and find our hope in God. I can't figure out any other way to respond to God's co-(re)creation of the world, to God's invitation that we join in as co-(re)creators, than to live as creative people. (p. 139, bold mine)