It seems that many local church gatekeepers readily applaud ministry that looks like the successes of other churches rather than champion the indigenous creation from their own people. My friends in the business world do this all the time. One company sells computers successfully, so reverse engineering takes place by competitors.  The idea is to emulate the success and hopefully exceed the level of your competition. In church work, our thinking may actually be similar. 

The thought is this: “If a song is popular on the Christian radio station, then surely it will resonate with people in our worship services.” Instead, creative leadership says this: “We need to worship and lead culturally from who we are and from who spiritually we desire to be.” In the first case, no question is asked and answered about the assets and opportunities existing around you. The second idea starts at home then outside content is validated or dismissed. When you are blind to self-awareness the only option left is to copy another’s identity. However, when you know who you are, you set the stage for creativity. 

Why copy? Cut-and-paste creativity is about efficiency. We can download from the Internet complete sermons, including outlines, small group handouts, and polished graphics. We do this, because it is efficient and looks and feels like the successful church we admire. Learning the process and finding inspiration from these incredible ministries and their leaders is a must. Best practices are mined by competent leaders. But, we should never simply copy without full disclosure. If we champion the need for authenticity, should not that value steer us to create rather than emulate?

Inspiration and mastery calls us to create. Ambition or fear drives us to cut and paste. Most have the best intentions. To reach a community is the heart of most pastors I know, but fear of letting go of the process to reach those people narrows the bandwidth of the local church. What if people not like us actually become leaders and start steering things? That fact is inevitable. Time offers us a shelf-life. Legacy is ours to own or abdicate. Would we want to lose our legacy to the creative energy of leaders who have no personal relationship with us?

Failure has value. When we copy another’s success, we lose our ability to fail with our own creativity. This one fact alone stalls us! Innovation allows mistakes that we choose to make, not that others prescribe for us. The trendy church culture is gullible, fickle and ever-changing. Songs, sermons and personalities are fluid. A church needs to birth from their identity to be a force that lasts. If we pass on anything, it should be who we are. If we do not know how to answer that question, then perhaps passing on is not an issue to us. We live in the now, and worship the god of efficiency.

Having traveled a bit and visited many churches this past year, I see a pattern in the modern worship world. In fact, for the past decade I have been in that category as a worship leader. There are twitter feeds sharing set lists of the songs worship leaders choose. People in the pews or theater seats across America experience more of the same on their Sunday morning worship music menu than ever before. This one-size-fits-all thinking might be the death of true creativity. And, as a result it may flatten our ability to connect deeply to our community. 

There are guitar sites, Youtube channels, and businesses built on showing how to paint-by-numbers. This includes the tone, sound and look of the most famous worship bands out there. Even the hipster dress code, as I observe when speaking or attending at worship conferences, conforms to plaid shirts, Tom’s Shoes, and v-necks. The worst offender is the skinny jeans. Seriously, fashion sense is really not a problem and creative people lead in this. But, why so monolithic?

Today’s recipe for success is the “me-too” cover band. Churches echo sermon series and graphics from the popular houses of worship. Everything is downloadable with a click. A local artist recently said this: “Cover bands are where dreams go to die.” After dying in laughter for a few minutes, sadness overcame me when reflecting on our Sunday experiences. The idea of being an “artist” and the calling that God has given artists dies in a cut-and-paste mentality that pervades our Sunday programming. Creativity is really “copy-tivity” in this world. And, it goes beyond music, shaping the sermons preached in our pulpits, graphics on our website banners, and fog machines.

Some will balk at this perspective. They will ask, “if it works, why not use things that are efficient and popular?” “Why reinvent the wheel?” The idea is to measure the ends, not the means. “If a pastor in another town preaches better, why not use his sermon instead of your own?” This is faulty thinking. We create not because creating is our goal, but to create indigenously means the people I serve, the people I am called to reach and the city I live in matter. If we know the people as we should, we should actually be able to connect far better to them than someone else who does not know them.

We should employ good tools. Yes! And, the innovation of some churches challenges us all. Being influenced and inspired is one thing. Copying as a habit is another. We can take the best practices and become better. If we ban innovation, creativity and the skills and work this requires we may lose our voice to the very people we want to reach.

Do we lose our connection with people or increase it by Cut-and-Paste Creativity?

I thought of writing a book review but ended up with a song inspired by a book. “Grace found me” is a phrase quoted from the book All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir which is the memoir of beloved author and speaker Brennan Manning. We think we can earn God’s love, God’s favor. We can’t. Even at our best, most religious selves we fall short. We all do. And, at our worst, God’s hand reaches out for us. All we have to do is reach for it. His hand will find our hand. 

As some of you know, I am working on a worship recording called Drink The Divine. This worship project is about grace–the cross section of our belief in it and our experience of it. This is why I believe in giving away the proceeds to help a very worthy cause, Doma International. There are many who need an arm reached out to them. As we in our well-equipped and tuned church facilities cry out in song and prayer, our hand should be held out to the least of these. We are all ragamuffins, anyway.

Fundamentally, I believe that drinking the divine of Jesus includes how we in our human, earthy and real selves live out love to others. It is not an “either or”…it is a “both and” way of loving. Love God, and love people. Follow Jesus. Express your worship to Jesus. These we should not separate.

If you believe in this as I do and desire to support, please do so. There are only a few days left and your contribution will get you a small perk, sure. But, it will give a lot more. However, only you can help make that happen.

God bless and peace in the New Year to you and yours!

Here are the song lyrics to “Grace Found Me”.

Verse 1:
In the dark of doubt
I’m closer to good news
For it takes a broken heart
To finally hear the truth
A prodigal I am
Reaching for the Father’s hand

Chorus:
Grace, grace, you found me
From my shame I am set free
Grace, grace, you saved me
From blindness now my eyes see
Grace

Verse 2:
God’s favor is not earned
My efforts fall in vain
Yes, I have a broken heart
And I’m the one to blame
A prodigal I am
Reaching for the Father’s hand

Grace…

© 2011 Rich Kirkpatrick/Tehilla Music

Yes, I am recording a 4-song worship EP titled “Drink the Divine” and you can go to DrinktheDivine.com to learn more! This project has been long in the works and includes four original songs.

This 18-minute video was recommended to me today. I have seen it before, but today it actually hit home. The creative tribe thinks backwards and always is asking “why” and conventional wisdom in leadership circles says this is “backwards” in my personal experience. The speaker, Simon Sinek, clearly lays out the “golden circle” which says why, then how, then what exists. When you live in a world that focuses on the what or how, the creative is against the grain. This video from TedxPuget Sound (Sept 2009) gives some logic to the power of the “why” and contrasts how most focus on what they do, keeping why fuzzy.

For conversation, do you think its normal or backwards to start with “why”?

Today I am releasing all over the world a new single called “Wonder of Worship” which is a techno-influenced commentary on how we express and approach worship in the Christian church today. I sat on this song for a while, then I found inspiration with the help of some talented young musicians who soon will be helping me produce a new EP.

This week you will be able to iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and so forth. But, today you can name your own price, including FREE on the link below!

The idea is we have sense of entitlement and then wonder why our expression of worship is lacking at times. We enter church like a restaurant and look to order our preference, rather than accept the challenge of giving of ourselves. We consume an experience, rather than make the praise of God something glorious.

I think you are gonna be challenged and have fun at the same time. Check it out.

I am finally going through my office, which has been boxed for over a year since departing my last church ministry. Besides finding my Spock bobblehead piece, I found an old sketch book. This sketch is from 1993 and is a study of a halogen torch lamp and an old-school push button phone.

As my wife and I started out our new life together, Target had plenty of these lamps. They were all the rage back in the day. But, the phone from say 1979? That was old for even back then. Wireless handhelds were popular, but I am sure there was a spare room that included this phone which forever is captured in my sketchbook.

If you have ever used an old AT&T phone you can imagine with me the weight of that thing. The handset was identical to the feel of every pay phone of the day which could be used as a weapon if it were not attached with a cord stronger than a titanium chain. Dropping the phone was not a problem, since engineers back then made sure it would not shatter like the cheap ones made after the breaking up of MaBell.

Two items from yesteryear remind me of how time flies and of how ordinary objects become museum pieces or end up in a sketch book. So, the future person who reads this soon-to-be-ancient blog post might be wondering  what it was like to even have a blog, let alone read one.

Creatives of all types seem to naturally be good at the hangout or what some of us call “the hang”. This is where a two or more creatives sit and chat with some fine experience they are sharing together. It could be some amazing ribs, or fine wine or some other creation that the senses are enhanced in a communal way. The conversation, debates and thinking out loud flow from these moments which can turn into hours but feel timeless.

On my porch I have had so many wonderful “hangs” with friends over the fire pit. My thinking has been stretched and my soul fed by the invigorating friendships formed. Even though these times are seemingly leisure more than work, some of my best work has come from the result of these “hangs” I have had with people.

The key to a good hangout is to realize that the agenda is people, and not anything else. The easiest way to kill a “hang” is to mention your sales pitch or desire to get something from others there. The reality is we all have an angle, but when that angle is about hearing someone’s story and bouncing your wrestling thoughts with others about the time together can be sacramental.

All people need to reflect and sometimes that reflection is better in a safe community than what solitude can afford.

This life-giving, organically-driven gathering can be for more than just the creatives. My family dinner table–when that rare occurrence is happening–is one place I hope to keep trying to live out this idea of the hangout. If I merely ask my kids about their grades, then my angle is killing the moment. If on the other hand I ask about their story and passions, perhaps we all can be safe in sharing the important part of what is going on in our souls together. Imagine how God can speak in times like these? He does, too.

The drawbacks for some is thinking that perhaps you have no purpose or direction in these hangouts and are not getting anything done. Work, after all, is productivity is it not? I would say that work is also about chewing the cud, so you can make the milk. It is about aging the wine, timing the harvest and enjoying the celebration of the milestones from your efforts.

To till a field to death is to create a dust storm in your life and deplete the chance for your best work. Sabbath, one of God’s seriously offered commands was stated as being for man’s benefit. Even God, who needs no rest, took a day off from creation to sit back and enjoy and reflect on it. Could we be missing out by not hanging out?

Here some tips to a good hangout:

• Choose a safe place and find a natural time people are available, be available and invite. My front porch with the fire pit is one of my hangout spots.
• Have a shared sensory item that allows everyone to celebrate like a fine food item or favorite beverage. As an example, I like cigars with some folks and espresso with others as a centerpiece.
• Be sure to moderate so the angle stays about people and their stories and passions and not their multi-level marketing pitch. I am sure to keep boundaries, but sometimes rules should be broken.
• Simply enjoy the time and the people and how God made them. There is so much to learn from people no matter where they are at and what they believe.

Are you a hangout person? Share your ideas and experiences and let’s hangout here on this blog a bit.

This video Emilie made explains it all. If she does not get the full $4,500 funding she loses all that is pledged. However, she is only about $500 dollars away. The deadline is Sunday at noon PDT! So, with all the football on this weekend, please get a jump on this and get your CD! Every bit helps.

The Writers’ Retreat at Laity Lodge in the Hill Country of central Texas affords an amazing setting for this unique opportunity to discover further the craft of writing. Expert writers will be presenting workshops. All of this with the relationships gained from being with editors, creatives and writers creates a rare chance to fan the flame of writing. The Laity Lodge Writers’ Retreat is giving away one free admission and travel based on entries like this blog post. Why should I go?

I am an accidental writer. Several years ago I started this blog thinking no one would ever read it. After all, I thought musicians surely had their niche so why should I write? Years later I have found a growing audience of fellow creatives and leaders who share in the conversation on this blog and my podcast Worship Mythbusters. Currently, I am working on a book that may be presented to publishers in the near future. The recent major changes in my vocational life make this the perfect season to forge a new path. It seems we all have a story to tell. And, I would love to sharpen the saw and learn to tell mine better.

I encourage my writer friends to check out this amazing opportunity. Have any of my readers been to a writers’ retreat? If so, please share your experiences.