Created to Create by the Creator

We relaunched BOC yesterday, and while the vision has yet to be refined and made clearer, we set sail and I'm STOKED.

Here's something that we explained briefly and I thought I'd drop here. This will be a short email.

In order to lead a group of creatives, mostly young professionals, and support them in their creative pursuits while equipping them with resources to be leaders in this day and age, it's important to start with WHO we are as humans, which leads to our WHY.

We are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).

That's the premise we start with (and it expands). It's a reality, and not everyone agrees with it, but we still like to make it clear what we build on.

So to make this super short (all you theologians cut me some slack haha), being made in the image of God literally means being the one living creature in this universe that was made to fully reflect and represent God to all that is around us. We aren't God, mind you. But we are created to display who He is.

Two of the very first ways that God chose to display who He is to all of creation were through CREATIVITY and through COMMUNICATION. (Gen. 1:1; Gen. 1:3)

(I realize the Spirit was moving over the surface of the waters [v.2], that's why we say 'two of...' This premise does not suggest the Spirit is any less God ;)

So to summarize why we put so much effort behind BOC (which is all volunteer work by anyone who has helped in the facilitation of it) could be; because ...

We are created to create by the Creator.

How do we arrive at that? Because we're created in His image and He is a creative God (literally, the Creator).

If you haven't read it, I HIGHLY suggest a short and incredibly powerful book called Art and the Bible by Francis Schaeffer. It unpacks these ideas way better than I ever could, especially in an email.

So just as a quick encouragement; whether or not you think or feel like you're that creative, you are.

You might be like me, who can't draw a stick figure to save my life, but who creatively thinks in terms of problem solving and solutions and team building.

Or, you might be like Grace or Dana, who are incredibly gifted at watercolor and calligraphy.

Or, maybe you're more like Charles, who writes music and lyrics with such elegance and depth.

Or, maybe it's one of the endless other possibilities.

Whatever it is, it's beautiful to God and you can take joy in knowing that creating in whatever way is special to you can display Christ to those around you. It all starts with surrendering it to Him, and doing all to the Glory of God.

I know it wasn't a lot today, but I'm on the run, so I'll leave it there and hopefully it's encouraging to at least one of you 🙃 Next week I might go into a short piece on the communication... again, our premise is much deeper, this was just the intro haha.