Photo Props:

Often our creativity is confined and limited by fear. Fear is one of the largest motivating factors in why or how we respond to things in our lives. Fear prevents us from achieving all God has created us for.

Everyone faces fear, a few people confront fear, but the best creative people use fear to be their fuel.

WE FEAR:
failing
succeeding
what others think about us
we’re not good enough
we’re not talented enough
our ideas will not be embraced
our ideas are not good enough
rejection
whether or not we have what it takes
if people will know we don’t have it all together
letting people down

and the list goes on and on…

I am so thankful that God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of a sound mind. We have the ability to turn to Him, to give it all to Him, and to let Him guide our steps and – thus – free ourselves to be creative. Fear forces us towards faith which can be inspiration for some of our best creative concepts.

If we are not experiencing fear, we are not taking chances. When that is the case we move away from being creators.

What do you fear? How do you beat it? How do you keep fear from limiting your creatively?

Looking back over this year, I’m very proud of our team. They have worked hard and have done things that no one thought we could accomplish. However, if I am honest, we are just getting started. The creative community at Cross Point has potential that is out of this world. Between staff and volunteers, I really think that God is going to do some amazing things with our crew of creative people. It’s so humbling to get the opportunity to work with these people. As I was reading and dreaming about some of the things that I think we need to accomplish in 2012, I realized that the same traits required to be a Samurai are the same traits we are going to need to make creative strides over the next 12 months:

I never knew this, but there is a Samurai code:

1. Rectitude
2. Courage
3. Benevolence
4. Respect
5. Honesty
6. Honor
7. Loyalty

So, going into 2012, I’m encouraging our team – and your team – to attempt the following:

1. Rectitude – Follow your moral virtue. Create with integrity, purpose and principle.

2. Courage – Avoid the trap of being safe. Take chances. Stretch ourselves, our departments, and our organizations. We should be told NO often. If we are not, we are not pushing hard enough. Take some chances and be willing to fail. Without the courage to fall on our face, we will never fly.

3. Benevolence – This one can be hard sometimes because, when the work piles up, it’s not easy to do good to others. It is, however, essential. If we are not serving and giving ourselves away, we will never create room to be refilled with new, better, and more creativity.

4. Respect – For other departments, for art, and for the opportunity to do something that will impact others lives. We have to model respect or no one will ever respect us. We are creative, but with just the word, people will think we are weird, arrogant, and not interested. Respect changes all of that. You will never get respect if you don’t give it first.

5. Honesty – Avoid the temptation to hide or cover. When we win, be honest about it and when we lose, be even more honest about it. Honesty builds trust and trust creates opportunity. Be honest with ourselves, with others, and most importantly be honest in setting expectations.

6. Honor – Honor the work and the art that has gone before us. Honor those doing ministry that helps us share the art. Honor the fact we get to do creative ministry and never take that for granted. Also, honor the systems. They may feel like constraints but they are really opportunities waiting to be uncovered. Finally, honor our pastors and leaders. They are doing their absolute best to lead us and honoring them is a commandment.

7. Loyalty – Be loyal to each other and to the vision. We are a family. Protect each other and protect the vision of our organization.

What are some things you feel you and your team need to do to be ready to dominate in 2012?

Photo Props:

We should never take our ideas for granted. Every idea comes with the responsibility to steward the process of bringing that idea to life. That responsibility is met with much resistance from all the forces intending to kill our creative muscle. Here’s a list of 19 things that can help keep us more effective as creative professionals.

There are more, but this is just a “list starter”:

• Trust the analytical teams and their systems – even when it hurts.
• Develop ideas in community, not on an island.
• Understand your ideas are not the only ideas that can work.
• Seek outside sources for creativity.
• Delegate early and often.
• Listen more than you talk.
• Never ignore your budget.
• Celebrate success, but also discuss and analyze failure.
• Understand quitting is sometimes a good option.
• Embrace stories and ignore gimmicks or fads.
• Never settle for status quo.
• Avoid the word “can’t”.
• Impart creativity to the next generation (reproduce yourself).
• Don’t be territorial.
• Lead based on creative wins, not insecurities.
• Fight a culture of negativity.
• Never allow excuses (budget, time, resources).
• Prioritize user experience.
• Don’t allow fear to control your decisions and creativity.

Based on your experiences, what would you add?

Photo Props

This weekend is a trap weekend.

The trap that is tempting us right now is to look past this Sunday. We have much to accomplish to be ready for the big Christmas responsibilities we’re all facing this coming week. This trap is dangerous. We can lose a lot of momentum if we fall prey to it and it can cost us more than just this one weekend!

For instance, this weekend someone is going to be at our church for the first time. This is the first time that we get to make an impression and show them what we’re all about. This might be the only time they ever enter a church. This could be the weekend that their life changes forever. If we fall into the trap, we lose that opportunity.

So this weekend, avoid the trap. Create the intensity to keep things happening. Cast vision. Be intentional. Fight for focus.

Who knows, this might be the most important weekend we ever have.

How do you avoid the trap?

Photo Props

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them…
It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” – Albert Einstein

We have a choice every day: to manage problems or seek opportunities. We have been taught to be afraid of problems. We hide them, get embarrassed by them, choose to be intimidated by them, or hope someone else will solve them for us. It makes sense, as leaders are faced with problems every single day. But, what if we changed the way we approached our problems?

A recent survey of employers said that growing organizations are desperate to hire people who seek out problems. Problem sourcing helps us be more creative and more prepared for growth, opportunity, and adjustments. It takes an innovative and creative person to see problems before they arise. When we actively pursue problems, we take the power away from the problem and engage imagination and possibility. Imagining future problems allows us to imagine future solutions. Finding problems opens the door for being our creative best.

Do you fear problems or are you ready to go hunting for them?

Photo Props:

We all desire to do great work. Our work has our name and our DNA attached to it, so we’re always wanting to create our absolute best. Those of us who are competitive often feel the pressure to outdo ourselves or anyone else in our field. With each new creation, we have the opportunity to create the greatest art of our history.

So, how do we do this and what prevents us from doing this every single day?

First, we have to embrace the concept that status quo, just enough, and okay are not sufficient. Greatness is like a mile marker that is a mile further down the road – a mile further than most people are willing to travel. We want greatness and to create something beyond average. We want to create things that people talk about, not the stuff people ignore. In order to do that, we have to be willing to do what others are not. We have to be willing to work, pursue, challenge, and fight to uncover the last 2% that requires love, passion, commitment and the refusal to be satisfied. When we live with the gift and the curse of this passion, we uncover some of the great obstacles to achieving great work. Here are three of those obstacles:

1. Distraction and lack of direction. Focus is so important. We have to be willing to clear this hurdle. We have to fight and claw to create the space necessary to be our best creatively. This is hard work. It’s difficult. We have responsibilities and deadlines that are at war with the clarity necessary to make our best stuff. Traditional brainstorming and our routines feed the distraction. We have to battle to find new ways to tell the same stories. Not having clear direction often leaves too many possibilities on the table. Without crystal clear direction, we spend hours of valuable time chasing good ideas rather than great ideas. We have to have the clearest direction of what we’re attempting to create and the willingness to rid ourselves from any distractions that keep us from executing that direction. Laser focusing always produces better work than cannon ball creating.

2. Be as strategic as you are creative. Our greatest art is only as powerful as it is accessible. The relationship between what we create and the information it provides is more important than the details of any one particular feature alone. We have to fight to tell the STORY and the BACK STORY. The days of a good idea succeeding without sweat, strategy, and intentionality are over. If our greatest work can be broken into pieces, it probably isn’t sustainable. We have to understand the entire scope of our art and experiences or we won’t be able to communicate them effectively.

3. Avoiding the capture. We have to always be capturing ideas. At any point in the creative process, we may have another idea that could be the next great one. That is not permission to chase the rabbit down the trail, but it is mandatory we document it so we can come back to it NEXT. We have to stay focused on the current project. Greatness is compromised when we choose to sacrifice an idea for another idea before we have given it enough time to live. Documenting our ideas gives us options for our next endeavor and the opportunity to spring board rather than start at zero every time. Further, documenting our ideas makes them better. Writing them out allows us to start flushing and planning. It forces us to confront if our idea has solid content as well as the context to make a difference.

What is something that you have learned prevents you from doing your greatest work? If you can identify it, why are you still allowing it to get in your way?

We all could use a good kick in the pants on Monday morning. Here is some stuff that kicked our pants.

What have you found that will rock someones world?

Photo Props

Creative people create – nothing novel there. Organizations desire creativity and seek out the best creative talent they can get their hands on to come in and innovate.

Then comes the tension.

People claim to want creative ideas to help innovate and move their organizations forward. However, studies show that it may just be a front. We’ve all been in that space where we are tasked to come up with new and creative ideas, only to have them shot down and the status quo process gets reinforced. This gets frustrating for people who live to create and seek to destroy the status quo. A recent study done by the University of Pennsylvania states that creative ideas are actually dismissed in favor of more tried and true, practical ideas. This study defined creative ideas as “novel”. Unfortunately, novel ideas trigger feelings of uncertainty that make most people uncomfortable. Researchers used the same techniques that are
commissioned to measure unconscious bias. The results showed that even though people clearly and explicitly pledge allegiances to the desire to have creative ideas, they actually associate these same ideas with negative feelings and words like “poison”, “agony”, and “vomit”.

So, what do we do?

According to Jennifer Mueller of the University of Pennsylvania, “The field of creativity may need to shift its current focus from identifying how to generate more creative ideas to identify how to help innovative institutions recognize and accept creativity.”

We are creative. We have never really fit in and been accepted, so why would we think that would change now? The curse of being different is actually the gift of being creative. We process different, see things
through different lenses, and have the ability to be novel. We challenge and create. We live to make new things, make old things new, and do the impossible. We’ve been hired because this is how we work.
It may not be what an organization wants, but it’s what it needs…and that is why you are here. To be different. To stretch and grow the organization. To destroy the status quo and develop the NEXT.

So, keep creating. Keep dreaming. Keep wondering if there is a better way. Then when you find that way, find new and more accessible ways to communicate these ideas to the people who are scared of what might be
- even though you can’t imagine living without that wonder.

How can you create the best space for your ideas to live?

Magic.
Wonder.
Story.
Nostalgia.
Gratitude.
Possibility.
Imagination.

These are elements that I believe create the true spirit of Christmas – and also, the true spirit of creativity.

Right now, in this season, most of us are consumed with the frantic pace and hectic schedules in preparation for Christmas. We know what must be done and we’re desperate to capture these same elements and translate them for everyone who will come and experience Christmas services this holiday season.

So, what happens when those elements can’t be fabricated?

This holiday season, children all over the world won’t get to experience the creativity of Christmas without you and I intervening. World Vision wants to make that easy.

During my 4th grade year, I learned about the true spirit of Christmas. My brother and a friend of mine all decided we had to do more for Christmas that year than just consume. So, during the summer when we came home to the states, we traveled with my dad. With each service he would speak at, we would tag on at the end to cast the vision for M.K.H.H.K. (Missionary Kids Helping Haitian Kids). While this may not have been my best creative moment, that summer we raised enough money to adopt a local orphanage. We gave each kid a coloring book, crayons, a toy, and a “traditional Haitian Christmas dinner.” I can’t tell you one single gift I received that year, but I can remember the look on those kids faces, the joy in the air, and the spread that those kids experienced that day. All because a few people around the U.S. decided to donate to a 4th grader with some poster board and a desire to help kids.

This holiday season, would you consider investing in the magic, the wonder, the story, the future nostalgia, the gratitude, the possibility, and the imagination necessary for a child to start to comprehend the true spirit of Christmas? If so, click HERE.

If you are still on the fence, check out this video.

How do you identify the true spirit of Christmas?