You know things have reached a new level when you have to rail against the status quo or push against the wall of sameness in the workplace. Especially in job settings much more predisposed to creativity. (I perfectly understand you shouldn’t interrupt fast food protocol, tamper with the strategic safety designs embedded in the aircraft industry or engage in creative financing in the business sector!)

But for those of us who are blessed to have a job, which allows for self-expression – some of us tend to guard our creative freedom with fierceness. I think in some ways, this avid search for uniqueness stems directly from a postmodern worldview. Not that this is the only generation that is creative, but that more people are actually allowing themselves to embrace the spark that defines them as creative beings.

Not only is creativity something to be sought after, those who pursue it usually rebel at the thought of being told how to think. You can’t be exposed to freedom of thought, and then expect to keep your ideas submerged in front of the rest of the world. But it goes even further for those of the postmodern persuasion. It’s hard to keep a church-imposed divide between the secular and the sacred. It’s more than just a thinking process that has been tweaked in the postmodern mind. Every facet of the individual is changed. Shoving facts and logical reasoning down their throats - and expecting them to keep it down, doesn’t work as well anymore.

In the postmodern world setting, authority figures are not held in the highest esteem either. In fact, it’s pretty common for all authority figures to be challenged at some level. Right or wrong, this is a postmodern viewpoint and I doubt it will be going away anytime soon.

As the population entering our places of worship continues to shift from modern to postmodern, the church (as God’s people) needs to take some time to reflect. We need to be thinking about how and why we are doing the things we do. It is an unfortunate state to be in if we are mindlessly wandering about in evangelical programming because:

1. That’s all we know how to do.
2. That’s all we have the energy for.
3. That’s just the way we’ve always done things.

These are poor excuses for allowing the following generations to continue to move further away from God. All of us as believers have a responsibility to make sure we are living the life God has called us to. And part of this calling is to be creative, especially when it comes to revealing our Lord to those in the spheres of influence we have been placed in.

When it comes to serving our Lord – nothing but our best is acceptable. All of us truly working together as the body should be listening to every part. If one part is hurting or broken – the whole body should be joining forces to help heal the wound. We’re in this together, right?

I know that some people will say – well, to be a team, we all need to work together and make sure we are on the same page. To a point…but being a team means also accepting and working with those who think differently. We believe that every person is “fearfully and wonderfully made” and that every one of us – believer or not has intrinsic value. This value ought to go beyond lip service and actually extend to hearing and working with people.

My personal call to action is to help people see that there is a wide world of Christian thought and experience out there. I do believe that it is imperative to maintain biblically sound doctrines as a code for living. But, I also believe that to be a Christian means to actively embrace the spark that brings us even closer to God – CREATIVITY. The knowledge and examples are out there from over 2,000 years of Christian experience, which truly makes it an amazing time to be a believer!

Unless we take the initiative to lead others in thinking differently, applying ancient traditions in a new way and finally, allowing things to be a little messy – the “institution” of church will eventually find itself alone and broken. True faith will still be growing, but it will be a hard find in the relics of modern-day spiritual structures.

New believers need guidance and wisdom from past generations, but both sides need to be willing to adapt to each other’s needs. It is a tough and at times painful growing process – but it is occurring all the same. Those seasoned in the faith have a responsibility to erase the divide between secular and sacred – and let creativity have its day.

Melissa Hedden is a special education middle school teacher who is experiencing the stay-at-home-mom side of life with her son three month old son, Ryan. She lives with her husband, Shawn, in Hanford, CA. She is also an almost-confirmed Anglican!