by Nate Click
MONROE, MI – Recently, one of my kids began driving his mother crazy in a new way. He will innocently start by asking her, “Mommy, what are you doing?”
After she answers he always responds with the classic “Why?”
Pray for her patience as this happens every five minutes (or less). While I hope that he eases up on my wife’s sanity, I can’t help but love his curiosity. Right about here I’m hoping you learn a lesson from my two-year-old and ask “why?” Because curiosity breeds creativity.
Through the Bible, there are more than 2,500 questions with many of them being asked by God Himself. From the very first “Where are you?” in Eden to Jesus’ famous “Who do you say that I am?” God uses questions to help men to examine themselves and to cause them to turn their attention to the areas that need to be addressed. He channels their curiosity.
As we develop curious minds, we should be curious in a few directions. Foundationally, we should be curious about the Word. Any of us who have engaged in basic hermeneutics were taught to ask questions of the text. This is the beginning of the process for creative teaching and preaching as well as continued spiritual growth.
The questions that we ask of the Word of God shouldn’t stop with our reading of Scripture. Rather, that curiosity should be brought into our churches. Like me, you may have heard that the first words of a dying church are “but that's how we’ve always done it.” That’s not to say that we are not doing many good things.
By asking questions about our programs, ministries, and methods, we can strengthen the good things that are being done while also identifying (and possibly eliminating) the things that are taking energy away from the mission of the church. And these questions open the door to creativity.
A couple of years ago, I began to ask questions about how our church could do a better job at getting our message out digitally. This led to a few very successful social media campaigns and even discovering Google ad grants for non-profit organizations. (For those who are unfamiliar, Google offers ad grants for non-profit organizations including churches that can be used for up to $10,000 worth of advertising each month. Search “Google ad grants” if you’d like more information.) This came about from asking the question “what tools are out there?” Creativity came through curiosity.
And this can bleed out into our communities and culture. We have some churches in our state that are doing incredible jobs in their neighborhoods. Most of their creative efforts started with a simple question like “what do our neighbors need?”
The beautiful thing about this question is that each community will likely have a different answer and God has placed you where you are to help meet these needs.
As you begin the journey of asking questions, some of them may be answered easily. But often, questions will breed more questions. And that’s okay, because questions breed creativity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nate Click is the Lead Pastor at Heritage Baptist Church in Monroe, MI. Before moving to Monroe, the Clicks have served in churches in Ohio, Tennessee, and California focusing on church technology and next generational ministries. He and his wife, Cindi, have four beautiful, young children.
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