The Fundamental Theology of Creativity in Ministry

I wanted to write an article about how going deeper into theology enables one to go higher into ministry. This is the result.

In 1962, Italian director Federico Fellini decided to make a film about the inability of a filmmaker to make a film. The film that both Fellini and his semi-fictional filmmaker were un/able to make was the film both were working on: 8 ½. Fellini’s course in making this film was to convey the three levels on which the human minds live: the past, the present, and the conditional - the realm of the imagination. He proceeded on the theory that if we live in our conscious, the more we can go down into our unconscious, the more we can go up in our over-conscious. Thus, in the film, the deeper both Fellini and the filmmaker go into their memory, the higher they go into their imagination. It is the process of going deeper into the memory/unconscious that enables them to realize the potential to achieve high imaginative art. And part of this process is the submission of the self to that deeper reality, the coming to terms with those past events that have such a profound effect upon personal life.

I was reminded of this film when I began thinking about creativity in ministry. Because humans are created in the image of God, we’ve also been given the ability to create. It is interesting that the creation story in Genesis 1 consists of God creating structures on the earth and then filling them. Humans are then created and given the task of filling the earth and subduing it (1:28), of cultivating the earth (2:15). God gives a sense of his own creativity to humans. The problem comes, of course, when humans sin and fall from their proper position by attempting to go beyond their limits. Their ability to create is frustrated from a cursed earth producing thorns and thistles (3:17-19; also 3:16).

In his book, The Nature and Destiny of Man, theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, wrestled with the subject of anxiety and how it creates the occasion of sin, basing much of his work on Soren Kierkegaard’s Concept of Anxiety. He describes how humans are created beings and thus are limited, finite, and incapable of knowing everything and of doing everything (knowledge and creativity). Yet because humans are created in the image of God, they are capable of envisioning the possibility of knowing and doing everything, of imagining what they might be but are not. A human has a mind that can transcend itself (since he can make his own thoughts the object of contemplation) and thus he has tremendous creative and imaginative powers to create by thinking beyond the limits of his own finitude. Yet this freedom to think beyond the limits of one’s finitude can produce dread or anxiety within the human consciousness. We realize we are free but bound. We imagine life beyond the contours of our finitude and that thought produces the temptation to exercise our freedom in an attempt to go beyond that limit. Anxiety then is the state of any human standing in the situation of freedom and finitude. This anxiety is not sin itself, but it can be the occasion of sin. There is always that chance that one will freely choose not to attempt to go beyond the limit. But people attempt to relieve the anxiety either by faith or sin. (Let me be clear: I’m using anxiety in the theological/philosophical sense, not in the medical.)

When one chooses to relieve the anxiety by acting beyond his limit that is the sin of pride, and from pride flows every other sin. But this manifestation of pride in the attempt to overcome the tension between freedom and finitude takes two forms. The first is to deny one’s finitude by seeking domination, either over others or one’s environment. This is the temptation to seek power and control in order to relieve anxiety and fear. The second is the attempt to relieve the tension between freedom and finitude by denying one’s freedom. This involves losing oneself in the gratification of base self in some aspect of the world’s vitalities: food, money, sex, drugs, alcohol, etc. Here the sin is sensuality, living merely in terms of some particular impulses of one’s own nature. This is the temptation to seek pleasure and sensuality in order to relieve anxiety and fear. In both forms, pride is the governing factor: the selfish pride to dominate and the selfish pride to seek base gratification. Ironically, these methods create further anxiety and fear due to their being inauthentic measures. Thus, we have in the Bible numerous warnings about anxiety and worry (Psalm 55:22; Matthew 6:25-34; 13:18-22; Mark 4:14-20; Luke 8:11-15; 10:38-42; 12:11-26; 21:34; 2 Corinthians 11:28; 1 Peter 5:7). Thus, we have the numerous warnings and condemnations concerning pride (Lev. 26:9; Job 33:7; Psalm 10:2; 36:11; 59:12; 75:5; Proverbs 8:13; 11:2; 16:18; 21:24; 29:23; Isaiah 2:17; 23:9; Mark 7:2; 2 Corinthians 5:12; 1 John 2:16). Thus, we have this pattern in the story of Adam and Eve. They were created in the image of God but were confronted with the concept of going beyond their limits to become more like God (Genesis 3).

When one choose to relieve the anxiety by submitting to God and to the limits he has placed upon creation, that is faith, specifically faithful, trustful obedience. Thus we have the example of Jesus:

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5-11)

Jesus modeled the proper role that humans are to take within their limits: humbleness, obedience, selflessness, submission. But what is the result of such selflessness? Exaltation. This is one of the supreme ironies about life. When individuals attempt to exalt themselves, they fall. When they humble themselves, God exalts them. It is a part of God’s and Jesus’ counterintuitive approach to reality that the meek and humble, those that put God and others before self that are ultimately exalted. This is why we read the first shall be last and the last shall be first (Matthew 20:16). This is why Christian leadership is about servant leadership (Luke 22:25-26). This is why being a pastor is about equipping other believers (Ephesians 4:11-12). Ministry is about equipping others, not using others to equip ourselves.

This submission extends into the realm of learning and knowledge. Socrates once stated that wisdom and knowledge consist in knowing that you know nothing. Nicholas of Cusa wrote in his De docta ignorantia that learning itself (but specifically knowledge about God) begins when we one learns he is ultimately ignorant. It is through the humbling submission and realization that God is infinite and we are finite that real learning begins. The Bible puts it this way: The beginning of wisdom is fear (submitting reverence) to the Lord (Proverbs 9:10). Pride is the greatest impediment to acquisition of knowledge. Indeed, it brings both ignorance and a stubborn refusal to accept truth.

We must recognize, accept, and remain within our God-ordained limits as finite creatures. Whatever fear and anxiety we face in life with our ability to freely choose, we can relieve that fear and anxiety by faithful obedience to God. This will help us both avoid and remove the primary sin of pride from which comes the temptations to dominate others and/or lead lives of reckless abandon. The process of selfless submission to God involves going deeper into our finite selves (both conscious and unconscious) by recognizing sin, repenting, recognizing and removing biases, and understanding who we are both in relation to ourselves and to God and others. It also involves submitting ourselves to the recognition of our own finite knowledge. Knowing that one knows nothing allows one to really learn and then go deeper into knowledge by removing the self-imposed limitations we put on our thinking (again, both conscious and unconscious). The irony is that the attempt to go beyond our God-ordained limitations succeeds only in self-imposing limitations that bring us lower than what God has ordained. This process of submission to God, of going deeper into his knowledge, of removing the self-imposed limitations of our lives, yet staying within the faithful limitations that define us as creatures created in the image of God, enables us to unleash the God-given creativity that we were designed to produce.

THIS is when creative ministry really begins to happen. THIS is why pastors need to preach on repentance and deeper theology and not simply on fluffy bunnies that makes us feel good. THIS is why churches need small groups that delve deep into the Scripture, hold individuals morally accountable, and encourage individuals to use their talents, gifts, and creativity for God. THIS is why ministers need to acknowledge their limited knowledge and both delve deeper into Scripture and into ministry praxis in order to advance the Kingdom of God. THIS is why I’ve always attempted to go deeper into theology in order to better advance the ministries of which I have stewarded.

When we do submit ourselves to God, going deeper into repentance and knowledge, we relieve anxiety, break self-imposed limitations, and are enabled to attain our God-given creativity for greater ministry success. But if we instead attempt to go beyond our limits in the selfish pride of dominating others and of acquiring vitalities (money, favor, etc.), we create greater anxiety, bind ourselves with limitations, and severely restrict our knowledge and ability to do ministry. In this case, our ministry dries up.