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Kyle Idleman
Author of Not a Fan, teaching pastor at Southeast Christian Center.
Notes
- When there’s pressure to be creative, it almost always doesn’t go well.
- As a communicator, you want to match who you’re speaking to.
- If I speak to a bunch of youth pastors, I’ll show up late and act like I don’t care about anything.
- If I’m going to speak to a bunch of senior pastors, I’m going to use cliches, act a bit pretentious, and wear copy something I saw elsewhere.
- Creativity is the way we reach the world we live within.
- Why do we do what we do? Why do you care so much about being an artists and being creative?
- The first thing we know about God is that he created. Fifth word of the Bible. He created. That’s who he is.
- There is a divine mandate for us to create because that’s who he is.
- Jesus is a creative communicator. He steered away from the Temple and went into nature.
- There’s never been a better storyteller than Jesus.
- The arts and creativity can become a replacement for the Creator.
- Our creation can sometimes replace the Creator.
- Idolatry is the main theme of the Bible.
- Idolatry is a really big deal to God.
- Idolatry is when creation replaces the Creator.
- An idol is anything or anyone who takes God’s place in your life.
- Who or what has the most passion area in your life?
- Is my art the means or the end? The end being, the glory of God?
- Do I have an audience of one or of many? Who am I doing this for?
- Productivity ≠ connectivity to God. Connectivity = productivity.
- Is it what I do or who I am?
- All for you, my audience of One, please help me.
- Final thoughts: Ultimately, I thought Kyle had some very strong points. I would have appreciated some more “get to” (e.g., “I get to worship God with my creative, artistic gifts”) and less “got to” (e.g., “You must worship God with your gifts. Otherwise, you’re stealing his glory!”) Frankly, I’m not sure how to actually do that. I would have appreciate more contextualization in terms of how to give God glory through our gifts.
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