Very long story short, I’ve always enjoyed making things and have developed (in as much as it was in any way planned) a career that seeks to help encourage and draw-out creativity in others. I fundamentally believe we are all ‘creative’ irrespective of how you define creativity, simply because we are made in the likeness of a creative God. Creativity isn’t dependent on what we do (or not), it’s tied to who we are, and its outworking is – I believe, fundamental to becoming more Christ-like.

For considerable time now, I have wrestled with how we (as Christ-focused communities) deal with creativity. By its nature, creativity brings new things to life. This takes time, often involves significant change, can be messy and unpredictable and as such, can often be marginalised within Churches or only really championed in particular forms. We are typically hesitant of anything new. We often work with short lead times. We don’t like change. Anything messy and unpredictable is, at best, generally avoided and, at worst, crucified.

As a musician, I have been encouraged to join the worship team or help with the kids work. As a designer, I have been invited to create logos and websites and books for the church. I have seen painters find space at the side of the stage for a few hours each week. Dancers are encouraged to embrace flag-waving. I don’t see many sculptors or filmmakers or poets. Creativity within the church has often been used to underpin the institution and nearly always in a measured way – rarely stepping out to explore what creativity might tell us about the God who set everything in motion. Despite my reservations and the slightly negative tone, these opportunities are still good. Creativity and the church have moved a country mile from the days of my youth. There is genuine progress. However, in over fifty years, there have been very few who ever encouraged me to step outside these lines and explore what my creativity might look like beyond the edges of the building. The few that did watched on as the music I created was labelled as demonic, which really wasn’t the kind of review I was hoping for!

And, for a long time, my wrestling has found its voice as a deep frustration which, if I’m honest, led to a growing resentment of church and creativity. I had become quietly critical of an establishment that has been so important to me for much of my life, and the criticism had started to eat away somewhere deep inside. My creative spark felt numb, I was tired, pushing fifty and wondering where it all went wrong. Sounds like a text-book mid-life crisis in action.

Over the past few years, I’ve become increasingly aware of how God has gently been challenging me on these frustrations – quietly reminding me that there is a better way (even if I couldn’t see it). I have slowly become aware of the ‘more’ that Spirit always brings – Kingdom in action, in the day-to-day, in the moment and complexity that is life. Changes at home (the older kids edging their way to the door, getting ready to take flight), at work (not getting a promotion, which went from being the worst-thing-ever to the best-thing-ever over the longest eighteen month season), and at church (seeing friends come and go, and realising – finally, that I’m no longer bound by the physical building), have all collided at this moment in time.

Underpinning all of this has been a nagging sense of ‘something’ coming. I couldn’t tell you what it was, at least not initially – just that the season was shifting. I’ve probably been feeling it for over a decade, only knowing that some kind of change was in progress. At the beginning of September this year, it literally felt like I had permission to step into something new.

Part of this ‘new season’ is, without wanting to sound selfish, for me. I am feeling a renewed urgency to make, to write, to build, and an unusual disregard for the voices that normally cripple my sense of what might be possible. I still don’t really know what this making will look like, although I am hoping that there will be books, words on pages and prose, as well as music – shaped into songs and, if I’m really brave, soundtracks.

Alongside the personal need to honour this new season for my own work, has been a decision to turn much of my historic frustration into positive action. I’ve realised that I don’t teach Graphic Design at an Arts University (despite that being my formal job description) – rather, I champion the God-given creativity in the lives of young adults. This just happens to be on a Graphic Design degree at a University. I also try and encourage creativity through my own writing, and even in the way I play guitar – always seeking to pull the collective ‘voice’ out into the open. And so, over time, a question came into focus; What if there was a space you could step into that championed your inner creative voice? A space for you to slow down and pause from the busyness of life and say; ‘This is important to me’. What might happen if you deliberately invested in discovering, defining and developing your own God-given creativity, on earth as it is in Heaven, without any real limitation on what that might look like? And, importantly, what if there were a group of like-minded people sharing the journey and championing you on from the side-lines?

Looks like Kingdom to me.

Space to write.