[Worship] WQOTW - Creativity and Worship

[CARLSTAM@aol.com]

Today’s WORSHIP QUOTE is from an extremely gifted Christian thinker and 
songwriter, Michael Card. If you are a little short on time today, skip to the last 
two paragraphs; but if you are a Christian artist of any kind, please read 
the whole thing and then get a copy of this wonderful little book.


CREATIVITY AND WORSHIP
Creativity is not about me. It is not about you. It is not us somehow acting 
like little gods, creating on our own in the same way God creates. Although he 
asks us to imitate him, we are not imitators of God in this dimension. The 
most we can hope for is to respond appropriately and creatively to who God is 
and what he means. Creativity is a response . . . .

That is what true worship is—a response. That is what Bill Lane [his mentor] 
told me all those years ago. "True worship is a response to hearing God’s 
Word," he said with an intensity I will never forget.

It’s like romance—no, it is romance. When I first saw Susan, my wife, 
everything in me wanted to respond to her at every level: emotional, spiritual, 
relational, yes, especially physical. I saw. I responded. That is worship.

Creativity is worship insofar as it is, at its essence, a response. I hear 
the Word, and I respond with music, with silence, in adoration, in appreciation 
by picking up the basin and the towel. It is a romantic response to this 
Person whom I adore. He is beautiful! I want nothing more than to be in his 
presence. I love him! And so I sing and I write . . . .

Because it is a response, it does not originate with me. He speaks. He moves. 
He is beautiful. We respond. We create. We worship.

Perhaps we struggle to see the connection between worship and the call to be 
creative precisely because they are so intimately linked. We have forgotten 
that the call to creativity is a call to worship. 

One of the most irritating accusations the voice I mentioned before [That’s 
the voice of self-doubt for the creating artist] can whisper is, "Do you think 
you’re some kind of celebrity?"

By definition a celebrity is someone we celebrate. I looked it up. Just above 
the listing for CELEBRITY I saw another word, CELEBRANT. A celebrant is 
defined as someone who officiates at the Eucharist. A celebrant is focused on Jesus 
and his sacrifice. Interesting contrast.

Today I choose to be a celebrant. By God’s enabling grace I will hold Jesus 
up before the world and not hold myself up. I will seek to respond to his 
extravagant love by any and all means possible. I will arrive to create art that 
will communicate to the world, and most especially to him, how much I love and 
long for his presence.

—Michael Card, SCRIBBLING IN THE SAND: CHRIST AND CREATIVITY, [Downers Grove, 
Illinois: InterVarstiy Press, 2002], pp. 28-30. ISBN 0-8308-2317-4. 

[I highly recommend this book for Christian worshippers and creative artists. 
There is also a companion Video/DVD entitled SCRIBBLING IN THE SAND: THE BEST 
OF MICHAEL CARD—LIVE: AN EVENING OF CREATIVITY AND COMMUNITY WITH MICHAEL 
CARD AND FRIENDS. It is wonderful. It has seventeen songs performed in an informal
 concert setting, as well as spoken commentary on life, faith, creativity, 
family, Christian community, and radical discipleship. You can find it at 
www.michaelcard.com (click on "store" then "Video/DVD".]


Have a great week.


Chip Stam
Director, Institute for Christian Worship
School of Church Music and Worship
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Louisville, Kentucky
www.carlstam.org
www.sbts.edu/icw

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