Spiritual Formation through Creativity

Doug Pagitt's chapter "Spiritual Formation Through Creativity" in Reimagining Spiritual Formation (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2004) is outstanding and worth the price of the book. I'm tempted to quote the whole chapter. He writes:

Our efforts at living lives of creativity make our community a more beautiful and interesting place to be. Our space is filled with art--paintings, sculpture, photography. When we moved, the artists took over the painting of the worship space so that we now gather in a room painted a mellow shade of purple with accents of green and orange and gold. Nearly every Sunday something changes--a swag of fabric is added to frame the screens we use to display lyrics and Bible passages, a more interesting table is set near the center of the room, a candle has been moved into the prayer room, a candle has been moved into the prayer room to create a more serene vibe. Aesthetics--and all that it stirs in us--matters to our community. (p. 132)

But this desire to be people who live creatively and for whom creativity is a kind of spiritual formation goes far beyond hanging lovely drawings on the walls or filling our couches with lots of people in funky shoes. Instead our creativity comes from a desire to live life as people who are created in the image of a creative God, who are invited to be co-creators with God. (p. 132)

In recent decades, the story of God has been understood in terms of creation, fall, redemption, and exit from this world. This view implies that God's relationship with the world sort of cooled off after the fall and didn't really jump back in until Jesus came along. Apart from the problems created by basically discounting everything between Genesis 3 and the New Testament, this idea marginalizes our human activity in the world. It puts humanity in a passive role in which things simply happen to us--we are created, we are afflicted by sin, we are redeemed, we are brought to another place--and all that's left to humans is to find creative ways to sin. (p. 132)

A different way to understand the story goes more like this: God, the creator of all things, has been re-creating all things through the redeeming work of Jesus the Messiah. In this view we are not left with a memory of a God who made this world and now simply waits for it to expire. God is constantly creating anew. And God also invites us to be re-created and to join the work of God as co-(re)creators. We are not bystanders, nor we are to be inactive. (p. 132)

The gospel is packed with the implication that we have something to give because of our redemption. We are told to go, to make, to build, to speak, to touch to feed, to create. Those who lived in the same time following the death and resurrection of Jesus went out and created something. They formed faith communities that changed the way they lived and ate and used their money. Though they believed that Jesus was coming back for them soon, they lived in such a way as to make their world more like God's kingdom. Our calling is no different. We aid the Spirit in the work of the kingdom by making all things better in our own time and place. (pp. 132-33)

This understanding of the story entails that creavitiy is a central activity in the Kingdom of God. Imagine the Kingdom of God reengaging in all that we know and experience. Imagine what it means to wonder if Jesus used so many metaphors for the Kingdom of God not because he couldn't find the right words, but because the Kingdom is like so many things, and so many things are like the Kingdom. When we employ creativity to make this world better, we participate with God in the re-creaton of the world. And the habits and practiceswe acquire in the process of being co-(re)creators form us in the way of the life of God. (p. 133)

Our invitation to be involeved in the work of God allows--maybe even commands--that we speak life, hope, beauty, and truth into all things. The gospel invites us into a future life--not only a future life after this one but also a future life during this one--in which we are to bless the world and make it better by creating in it. In the story of creation, Adam and Eve are called to make new people and to have dominion over all that is, to make to good and right. Similarly, our call to (re)creation is to make things the way they ought to be. (p. 133)

Imagine praying the Lord's Prayer this way>

Our Loving, Great Creator,
Make the world different, the way you want it.
Make this your place.
Give to us in ways that we have not received for.
Forgive us--make us new
Lead us into new good things and not into destruction. (p. 133)