Searching out a Creative Calling

For the last 10 years or so, I’ve considered myself primarily a “music guy” with some other know-how thrown in..  (I’ve done lots of A/V/L stuff over the years and some random tech stuff.) This changed a bit two years ago when I took a position at Community Church (my current church) that was much bigger than just music.  It required me to think bigger picture in to areas like programming, video, drama, dance, liturgy and more.  I was excited about this shift because I had been exploring the roles of these elements in worship but it was still a bit unnerving..

How was I supposed to create moments of worship for a congregation of 900 adults?  I’m just a “music guy” who aspires towards some other things..

Thankfully just about the time I was hired at Community Church, I also got connected with a movement called Rhythm in Twenty (RiT).  This was a group of like aged, like-minded guys in both ministry and professional vocations who were seeking a better way to live out their lives in faith, family and vocation.  I’ve got lots of great stuff to say about Rhythm itself, but that’s another post..

Anyways, at our second gathering of RiT one of the guys offered a bit of a challenge to my presumption that I’m just a “music guy.”  He told me he saw a much bigger picture of an artist within me and that it was the artists who would lead the next generation of the church.  Leading up to that encounter I had felt a bit of a call to expand my understanding of my creative bent, but I still needed that external voice to say “Go explore this thing, find out what you’re meant to be”

Since then I’ve been experimenting with what that looks like.  Me doing the things that God has called me to do..  Since I’ve been on staff at Community Church, I’ve been using video to tell great stories that share life change through Christ.  I’ve pushed for the wider use of fine arts as expressions of worship, and advocated for our community to embrace artists on a wider scale.

This is great within my job as Director of Worship Arts, but on a personal level what is my creative calling?  How do I use my gifting to serve Christ?  That has resulted in me experimenting with photography, writing, and now even dabbling a bit in to painting… Not sure that any of these are essentially my artistic gifting or my great personal contribution, but one thing I have learned for sure; to me,  the process is even more important than the result.