by Kirsten Rodgers
One of my favorite things about living in Asia, was the comedic relief found in copyright infringements everywhere you went. A prime example of this was “Gina’s Gelato”- a small local shop that sold something similar to ice-cream. The sign had the mascot from Wendy’s superimposed on a Ben and Jerry’s logo, and the inside of the store was decorated in the exact design of Ben and Jerry’s. They must have thought that there was even more power if you combine two good logos into one! I loved to wander the street markets at night and admire the fake Gucci bags and Beats headphones, however, even though the copies were impressive, no one was fooled into thinking that they were the real thing. I was in a taxi one day, and when I told the driver that I was from America, he said, “Oh, America! America is a creative country, and we are a copy country.”
As a Christian involved in the arts, the topic of "Christian Art" comes up often. While there is a lot of beautiful, high quality art out there made by Christians, it seems like there is also a large amount of seemingly low-quality art that does not hold it's ground in the secular market. I have heard many people try to figure out why Christians seem to have such little influence in mainstream culture, and I believe that the root of this problem lies in the fact that we have fallen into the same trap as this country in Asia- we have become a copy culture rather than a creative culture.
We were created in the image of God- the original Creator, the most powerful, most awesome and innovative being in existence. As Christians who carry His spirit, we should be the most creative people on earth. Yet somewhere along the line we seem to have lost our ground in this area. For thousands of years, God’s people were the forerunners in creativity and invention. By comparison, the past few decades of Christian media and art seem to be characterized by the terms "old-school", "boring" and "cheesy"- as if the anointing of creativity has been laid aside. Many Christians have noticed this issue, and are frantically trying to regain influence in society. Sadly, our approach to creative influence is often still falling short.
New Christian albums and movies often look like fake, “clean” versions of the coolest and most popular trends in the mainstream culture. When attending a hip church, it often looks like a modern club or bar... just without all the ‘bad stuff’. Yet rather than causing us to gain the upper hand of influence in culture, we are still playing catch up, because everyone knows that a copy will never be as good as the real thing.
If we want to re-gain influence in society, we have to offer something they have never seen before. We will never win over the world by looking like them. We have to come up with the iPhone when the rest of the world is walking around with pagers. So how do we do this? The key, I believe, lies in our ability and willingness to hear the voice of God.
The freshest, most radical ideas have always been birthed in the heart of God and communicated though His Spirit. He is the only one that can create something brand new! We cannot hope to reach the same level of inspiration in our own wisdom or strength. We need the voice, the power, and the creativity of the Holy Spirit to rush into us- showing the world that we are creating in a power and wisdom that is beyond us. We have to begin to create things so radically different, that the world is desperately trying to copy us rather than the other way around.
If you look throughout history, you will see that this idea is not unusual. George Washington Carver, the inventor of peanut butter and over 300 other uses for the peanut, said that he was walking through his garden, praying, and asked God to reveal to him His secrets of the universe. In return, he felt God respond by saying, “Little man, you’re not big enough to know the secrets of My universe, but I’ll show you the secret of the peanut.” Tolkien, the writer of Lord of the Rings, and the inventor of a new genre of literature wrote, “I was doing the dull work of correcting exam papers when I came upon a blank page someone had turned in—a boon to all exam makers. I turned it over and wrote on the back, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit". I'd never even heard of a hobbit or used the word before." Michelangelo, one of the most creative and pioneering artists of all time, modeled a life of listening to God’s voice. In his poem, To The Supreme Beauty, he wrote, “Unless Thou show to us Thine own true way, no man can find it: Father! Thou must lead. Do Thou, then, breathe those thoughts into my mind” Handle, the composer of the world-renowned symphony, the Messiah, composed the whole 216-page document in just three weeks, and said that it was so clearly inspired by the Spirit of God that, "Whether I was in the body or out of my body when I wrote it I know not."
In the creation of the Tabernacle described in Exodus 31:3, the Spirit of God is crucial to the creative process. The artisans were "filled...with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze.” Zechariah 4:6 assures us that it is "'not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord”. Galatians 3:3 says, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” In 1 Thessalonians 1:5, Paul says that his message did not come in word only, but in the power of the Spirit. Part of God’s redeeming plan for the world is to take broken people, with imperfect creative gifts and fill them with His Spirit. Only then will the world know that it was God doing the work, not them.
Church- it is time for us to wake up and rise up to the destiny that God has placed on His people! We must stop trying to figure out how to do things through our own wisdom and understanding, and instead invite the all-powerful and creative presence of the living God to invade our senses. This is our only advantage over the rest of the world! Instead of reading articles about the newest and best ways to create, let us invade our prayer spaces on our knees, rest in His presence and beg Him to speak. He alone knows the best message, mediums and strategies to communicate His heart to the world. We must open our ears to heaven, and begin to create under an open heaven rather than under the realm of our own understanding. It is time that we regain our rightful position as the forerunners of creativity, innovation and beauty on the earth. It is time for sons and daughters to reveal the glory of their Father while the world watches and marvels.
Let’s stop building Gina’s Gelato and instead create a brand new dessert that leaves the rest of the world echoing the cry of St. Augustine: “I tasted you and now I hunger and thirst for more of you- you touched my heart and now I burn with desire.”