— by Faith Driven Team
How God Calls Us to Be Creative in All We Do
Human beings are called to create. Many of us naturally embrace that drive, whether we’re decorating our home, coming up with an advertising campaign, or painting with watercolors. Creativity is something many of us do for free. Because we’re called to it.
This is why the first mark of the faith driven entrepreneur is “Called to Create.” We believe that since God created us in His image, his creativity can be expressed in us. God wants to work alongside us. He wants to create with us. He wants to start, share, and complete new projects and ideas with us. He didn’t leave Adam alone to tend to the Garden of Eden, and He doesn’t ask us to work in isolation.
But creativity doesn’t just mean being an artist. To fully grasp how you can embrace your God-given creativity, we need to get creative. And depending on your background, you might consider business and entrepreneurship as the antitheses of creativity. Gray cubicles, monotonous monthly reports, consultants rambling on about economic jargon. But what if we told you that entrepreneurship is one of the purest ways a human being can express their creativity?
At Faith Driven Entrepreneur, we believe in a creative God. The first thing the Bible tells us is that God is a creator. From this premise, we can redeem what entrepreneurship looks like and unlock the creative potential of thousands of entrepreneurs. So, let’s look at what creativity looks like, starting in the Bible and moving on to creativity in business.
Revisiting Our Creative God in Genesis
If we’re not careful, we might skim through the creation story and fail to understand how God’s creativity informs our own creativity. The creation story is a popular topic for sermons, podcasts, and books. We hear the story so much that the deep meaning of Genesis becomes reduced to soundbites and PowerPoint slides, and we lose sight of what creativity can truly mean.
When it comes to humanity’s relationship with work, we need to look at Adam in the garden.
“To Work it and Take Care of It”
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Gen 2:15). Is this a command to creativity? Most likely. God did not put Adam on an assembly line. Nor did He give Adam a highly detailed instruction list that forced Adam to work inside a rigid box.
Instead, God put Adam in a garden and gave Adam a task that would require creative activity like problem-solving, organization, and stewardship. You’ve experienced this if you’ve ever tended your own garden or done landscaping at your home. Taking care of a space requires all sorts of creativity. A few verses later, Adam has to rely on his creativity as he names the animals.
From Adam up until the modern day, we see that work and creativity go hand in hand. Consider the creativity that has gone into technology, data processing, transportation, and human resources over the past millennia. Even stewardship, deciding what we are to do with the fruits of our labor, requires creative thinking. So, when it comes to work, God leaves a lot of the “how” of our work up to us. We’re free to be creative.
“Bear Fruit and Multiply and Fill the Earth”
The call to “bear fruit and multiply and fill the earth” is also a well-known phrase to faith driven entrepreneurs (Gen 1:28). It’s easy to interpret this verse as “have kids” and move on to the next passage. But consider the “how.” To multiply a population requires incredible vision, foresight, and creativity.
You need teachers to educate children. You need infrastructure to provide for basic needs. You need pastors and mentors. You need artists to create beautiful images and stories to advance culture. The list goes on and on.
God doesn’t say to have as many children as possible just to reach an arbitrary number. It’s doubtful that wants a world full of ragamuffin children living on scraps. Rather, we can look to Adam’s call to work the garden and take care of it.
We worship a creative God, and this applies to all areas of life. Creativity is necessary for sustaining work, family, and culture. The question isn’t “Should I be creative?” It’s “How can I be creative?” This brings us to the concept of vocation. What are you called to do? If you’re reading this article, entrepreneurship might be your calling. That, too, takes creativity.
Being Creative in Work and Entrepreneurship
The more we understand our creative God, the more we can understand our own creativity. This is a key piece to the puzzle. The more you understand how God made you, the better you can align yourself with projects and pursuits that fulfill you. Sometimes, we think that “creativity” in entrepreneurship means being an inventor like Steve Jobs or Thomas Edison. While there’s tremendous value in inventing, it’s not the only path forward.
To help entrepreneurs consider their roles in a business, the Faith Driven Entrepreneur team has created a one-of-a-kind video series titled “Called to Create.” This series helps entrepreneurs broaden their concepts of God, creativity, and work. It has also inspired thousands of entrepreneurs to live out their callings – we hope it inspires you, too.