Finding the Balance
There is a massive trend taking place in the Sunday morning church service. Many, if not most, churches are stepping up their efforts to be creative in the way they communicate, and in large part, this is a good thing. But it comes with a price tag and raises some questions that deserve serious consideration.The price tag comes in three forms:
1. Capital Expenditures. There is no end to the list of equipment that we can purchase and implement to help us "do better" on Sundays. Intelligent lights, audio recording equipment, in-ear monitors, fog machines, projectors for environmental projection, faster computers - they all represent significant investments.
2. Manpower. Creativity takes time. Time to brainstorm, write, rehearse, build and install sets, coordinate lighting and projection, create videos, and more.
3. Opportunity Costs. This may be the biggest expense of all. What things are being left undone that could have been accomplished with the money and manpower we are pouring into our creativity?
As we consider these costs, and weigh them against the need to be more creative in our communication, how do we find the place of balance? Where is the line between what is needed and what is unnecessary extravagance? Unfortunately, there is not one right answer, but here are a couple guideposts they may help us as we seek God for His leading:
1. Who are we (as a local church body) called to reach? And are we the type of congregation that depends heavily on the Sunday service to see people won to Christ, or are we more missions-oriented and evangelistic? The answer to the question of how much to invest in creativity is significantly tied to those two questions.
2. Is the payoff there? If it cost us 40 man hours to get a skit together, does the skit move the hearts of our people and make the message memorable enough to justify it? If we are using 20 man hours per week to prepare video announcements for the service, does the impact of those videos justify the time spent?
3. What is our motivation? If our motivation is that we want to help people grasp what God is wanting to say, or we want to help people enter into true worship, then we have to at least give serious consideration to the idea. If our motivation is to be the coolest looking church in town, or we want to be able to play with the latest tech toy, we probably need to back up and reconsider.
We need to be effective - effective in the way we use our time, and effective in the way we allocate our resources. And creativity is a tool that we should use only when it causes us to be more effective. Being creative for any other reason is a waste.
