Creatively sharing the gospel
From a video by Wycliffe
In a recent video, Dan Blythe from Hillsong Church, London talked to Wycliffe about creative ways of sharing the good news of Jesus.
How do we use our creative gifts to point people to the original designer?
"God is the ultimate creator - he created the heavens and the earth. When we create, we should actually give all glory to him. I don't believe that creativity is limited to a people type. I think it's every single type of person - rich or poor, educated or uneducated, single parent, accountant or artist. Whoever you are, we can all be creative to give God the glory and just display his greatness."
Jesus didn't let culture shape him, Jesus shaped culture. How can we do the same?
"I believe the church is the wellspring of imagination, innovation and creativity. I don't believe it's our job as a church just to follow every trend to try and be relevant. I believe it's for us to know the people that we're reaching and create something of high excellence that gives God the glory."
Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?
"In John 4, Jesus is talking to the woman at the well. What does he say he is? Living water. Why? Because he's next to the well. In John 6, he says he's the bread of life. Why? Because they know what it's like to be hungry. Our job is to really look at the things which shape culture and society and use those things to explain who Jesus is."
How can we share the gospel in a creative way?
"We' were at a youth night, and I explained the gospel using the smartphone because every single young person there had a smartphone. I explained that right back in the beginning in Genesis, we could communicate to God 24/7 but then humanity sinned and this disconnected us from God. It's like turning on flight mode.
"But God never wanted to be separated from us so he made a way. He sent Jesus - John 3:16 says, 'For God so loved the world.. '. #Love is the most used hashtag on social media with over a billion users. Why? Because the whole world is searching for love.
"But for Jesus to really make a way for us to be reconnected to the Father, a price had to be paid. If you have not paid your bill, you know you will be cut off. In the same way, there was a debt that had to be paid but God didn't make us pay. No - Jesus paid it for us. Jesus took our sin, our shame, our pain, - past, present and future and upon the cross there he died. If you know the story, it never ended with a funeral - it started with a resurrection. Three days later he rose again. He conquered the grave.
"So, I said to these young people, 'So how do you want to respond?'. I said, 'You can press 'dismiss' and forget everything I said today. You can press 'remind me later' and have a little think about it or if you want to, you can press 'install now''.
"That day forty young people made a decision to follow Christ. But the funny thing is in 5 years or 10 years' time, that way of explaining the message of Christ will be irrelevant because there will be a new technology. Our job as creators and innovators is to think about the communication and articulation so that it is relevant to the next generation so they can access this gospel of grace"
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From a video by Wycliffe, 10/03/2020