Creativity is far less subjective and ethereal than some make it sound.
—Gary Gonzales
Someone once asked William Barclay how he had become such a prolific writer. The key, he said, is learning to apply the seat of your pants to the seat of your chair.
Creativity is far less subjective and ethereal than some make it sound. As much a function of our habits as our “genius” or inspiration, creativity takes discipline.
Here are four ways to enhance your creativity.
Know your moods
Perhaps you’ve heard the old saying about diet: “Mornings are gold, lunch is bronze, and dinner is lead.” Well, the same applies to personal energy levels.
A few months ago, a lay leader handed me a newspaper article outlining the body’s daily rhythms. It underscored how, for most people, mornings provide peak energy and concentration. Quick recall and analytical reasoning are strongest in the a.m.
Conversely, the infamous “afternoon grogs,” the inability to focus, hits from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., with a short reprieve from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m., especially in recall.
By evening most people are downshifting, except for the late-night geniuses who hit their creative stride from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.
Knowing this, I safeguard morning hours for the challenges of praying, studying, writing, and creative thinking. I no longer feel guilty when my engines are revving low. I pace myself, husbanding my energy for creative times.
I’ve also learned how to improve my energy and lessen the negative rhythms.
Soon after moving to the Twin Cities from southern California, I thought about joining a fitness club. But I wondered, With my mornings scheduled full with message preparation and my evenings already overflowing with meetings and programs, how can I realistically expect to add an exercise regimen?
But I had heard others describe how a workout increased their energy level, so I decided to experiment. I discovered that a sixty-minute workout during my lunch hour or after 3:00 p.m. worked wonders. Regular exercise dramatically increased my endurance, making my low periods less low—and I feel better about myself. As an added bonus, I find thinking and praying easier while on the NordicTrack or between weight-lifting sets.
While getting into shape, I learned another valuable lesson: If I work out on Friday, resting or going easy on Saturday, by Sunday morning I’m primed to preach. A one-day layoff between workouts enables my body to bounce back with renewed vigor. I can’t recall a time in my previous fifteen years of ministry when I’ve been so clearheaded—able to think creatively and spontaneously—in the pulpit.
Write it down
Someone has said, “Opportunity is like a horse that gallops up and then pauses for a moment. If you don’t get on, before long you hear the clatter of hoofbeats dying away in the distance.”
Great ideas are just such opportunities.
Whenever you hear, see, or think a worthwhile thought, write it down before another moment passes. Experience has taught me to keep a pen and paper handy on my nightstand. I never know when a brainstorm will strike—and quickly vanish!
That’s also true of the ideas we learn from others. For several years I’ve kept a journal handy at my office. Whenever I come across a good quote, I immediately jot it down and document the source. Often, when I’m stymied while preparing sermons, I thumb through this journal to stimulate ideas.
Others’ ideas provoke my ideas. While paging through my journal recently, I ran across the statement, “Leaders are to be imitated, not gold-plated.” It triggered a thought: I’ve wanted to do a series on leadership for some time. Why not develop a series of seven messages on leadership principles using one-liners as memory hooks?
I’m now reading and gathering ideas, illustrations, and resources on that theme.
Let it simmer
Most creative ideas mature over time. So, whether I’m planning a sermon series, a special holiday service, or a seminar, I arrange my time to give it as much advance thought as possible. My mind works best when I’m not clawing for ideas at the last minute.
I don’t get overstructured too early. A good idea has a ripple effect, soon suggesting other ideas or applications. At first, all I want to do is grasp the big picture—even if only a piece of it.
Useful ideas sometimes come to me after months of simmering.
Several years ago, I heard the story of Larry Walters, a thirty-three-year-old man who decided he wanted to see his neighborhood from a new perspective. He went down to the local army surplus store one morning and bought forty-five used weather balloons. That afternoon he strapped himself into a lawn chair, to which several of his friends tied the now helium-filled balloons. He took along a six-pack of beer, a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, and a gun, figuring he could shoot the balloons one at a time when he was ready to land.
Walters, who assumed the balloons would lift him about 100 feet in the air, was caught off guard when the chair soared more than 11,000 feet into the sky—smack into the middle of the air traffic pattern at Los Angeles International Airport. Too frightened to shoot any of the balloons, he stayed airborne for more than two hours, forcing the airport to shut down its runways for much of the afternoon, causing long delays in flights from across the country.
Soon after he was safely grounded and cited by the police, reporters asked him three questions:
“Were you scared?”
“Yes.”
“Would you do it again?”
“No.”
“Why did you do it?”
“Because,” he said, “you can’t just sit there.”
His answer caught my interest. I pondered that story and its implications for several months. Then, as I was preparing a sermon, “The Crisis Called Christmas,” my thoughts came together. I used the Walters story in the introduction to set the stage for the idea that each of the birth narratives called for a response—or a reaction—from its participants. When it comes to God’s intervention in our lives, we can’t just sit there.
Talk about it
Creativity is often synergistic, so I cultivate people in formal and informal settings who cultivate my ideas.
When I write an article, for instance, I’ll often send it to a writer-friend in San Diego who gives me an honest, professional critique. After he returns the manuscript, I usually get on the phone with him for a late-night, long-distance dialogue about it.
When I’m planning my six-month preaching calendar, I’ll frequently gather select groups of thoughtful people for brainstorming sessions. Such conversations help to both generate ideas and refine the ones I already have.
Creativity isn’t reserved for the Einsteins, Shakespeares, and Spurgeons of the world. It isn’t something we either possess or don’t possess. Creativity is encouraged by developing the habits that create an environment where new ideas can germinate and grow.
Copyright © 1995 by Christianity Today
