Wow! Great insights, great balance! I'm challenged to pursue the routines and the creativity which make for effective preaching. Thanks for the challenge.

Great article. I get caught up in that as well. There are times when church should catch us off guard.

Everything was good till the point of the article was revealed.

"But when those routines become routine, we become pharisaical."

So I guess Jesus was a "Pharisee"? Jesus followed the routines of the religious establishment of the day. Daily in the synagouge, followed all the customs, the feasts, even dressed like a Rabai. Routine becomes routine when there is no relationship with God. That's a "pharisee". Spiritual routines serve a good purpose. They protect us from our own evil creativity. Creativity without a relationship with God is just as harmful as routines without it. Maybe even more dangerous. I'll pass on the imagination stuff and pursue the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through service, studying the word and prayer. It's worked for 2000 years, it still works today.

"I'll pass on the imagination stuff..."

That's the exact problem the article was addressing. The point of the article was that we need to use our whole brain as God designed it--both the creative side and the logice (routine) side.

Mark said (rightfully) that routines are the key to spiritual growth. We need a place in our preaching and ministry for both routine (discipline) and also creativity.

Jesus certainly exemplifies this creativity (both in the creation of the world and in his earthly ministry) yet he showed us that routine is important (without allowing his routines to become routine). The Pharisees however were doing routine for routine's sake.

Imagination and creativity never should (and the don't need to) come at the expense of the the Holy Spirit's inspiration through the spiritual disciplines. In fact they should (and will) complement each other.

It's part of how God made us. I am guilty of loving God with only half my mind at times (and sometimes with none of my mind!) and I want to make it a point to use my whole mind as God created it and intended it to be used. ..both the left side and the right side.

I think I am going to go re-read Warren Wiersbe's book "Preaching and Teaching with Imagination." I don't want to pass on imagination but I want to embrace it.

You might also have added this thought - that while much modern preaching had become very left-brain, propositional, planned and logical, much post-modern worship is almost exclusively right-brain, emotional, unplanned and chaotic.

And just as far from what God designed. So to worship Him with all my mind is to be both emotional and thoughtful, both reflective and proactive.

Thanks for the helpful insights!

Wow!! Pursuing the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through service, studying the word and prayer just isn't good enough anymore, I guess. YOU NEED TO ADD IMAGINATION!!! We're in the "post-modern" age. Whatever that is. How come the "imagination" in preaching almost always leads to a hit TV show or blockbuster movie, piggy-baking off someones elses (usually ungodly) imagination? How come this "imagination" is producing clones of seeker sensitive churches, not original ones, meeting in theatres all accross the country? Some imagination.

It is unfortunate that pop culture illustrations or some novelty of some sort or trendy way to "do church" is passed off as imagination.

But because some abuse it, doesn't make it bad and doesn't mean we should run from imagination.

We don't need to add imagination to anything. It's already there! That's the way God created our brains. We don't need to add it, we need to use it and develop it!

Imagination is Rob Bell's sermon "The Goat Has Left the Building."

Imagination was Haddon Robinson at Moody Bible Institute's Founder's Week 2007 weaving three different stories (2 personal and 1 Biblical) together in a message on Psalm 131.

Imagination is Don Sunukjian's first-person narrative sermon on Esther "My Name Is Harbona."

Imagination is carefully crafted words and word pictures that capture and draw your audience into the Biblical text.

And imagination is Jesus using a coin, a mustard seed, or a treasure to communicate the Kingdom truths to his audience.

May the inspiration of the Spirit through my work in the text and through prayer lead me to use my imagination as it has done for others.

Kevin,

Batterson says something different.

"May your imagination overtake your memory"

Batterson lists this book as recommended reading on his website.

How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci by Michael Gelb

Michael Gelb is a new-age spiritualist eastern meditation disciple and teacher.

Tell me I don't have reason to be concerned about this article.

Ok, you don't have a reason to be concerned about this article. . . at least not based on the fact that Batterson lists Gelb's book as recommended reading under the History & Biography section of his website (I might give more credence to your concern if it was listed under the spirituality section).

In fact Batterson lists several other book that are writing by distinctly non-Christian authors and it doesn't bother me.

I believe we as Christians should be secure enough in our faith to cast our nets widely and engage and read books outside of a Christian worldview. I can learn from the lives and writings of those who don't believe exactly as I do. (See Phillip Yancy's book Soul Survivor for some examples)

Certainly, I don't believe a steady diet of this type of reading is acceptable but I do believe that reading with a discerning mind is safe.

Now I must say I have not read Gelb's book so I honestly can't say what if any influence Batterson has drawn from it in this article. If it has I would approach the article more cautiously but would still find it thought provoking and challenge. Until I establish that fact, I'm not going to throw out Batterson's article because of guilt by association.

There is nothing in the article itself that bother's me though. The whole idea of "imagination overtaking memory" is not wrong. He explained it earlier in the article where as we get older our cognitive ability shifts from right to left. I think all that Batterson is saying is let's bring back some of that right brained stuff back into our thinking and preaching. Let's use the creativity that God instilled in us and not let it get crowded out by the routine for routine sake that is too easy a trap to fall into.

JB, I am not seeing the new age connections that you are seeing. So I believe that we can agree to disagree on how we view Batterson's article and I hope we both learn from interacting with it and with each other.

I pray God's blessing upon you as you continue to seek to serve him in your ministry.

Kevin,

Final thoughts:

Batterson has the Gelb book in the wrong category on his recommended reading list, in my opinion. It's not a history or a biography book. The first review of the book from Amazon.com says the following:

"Will reading this book make you a genius? Probably not. What it will do, however, is open up avenues in your mind that you probably never thought existed. It has some great techniques on how to "think outside the box" and will be helpful to anyone who needs to address a group of others on learning issues. (I am a training instructor and have discussed some of this book's techniques with my students)

I walked away from this book with a whole new outlook on learning and whole brain thinking, and have found myself reflecting on it when trying to compose creative writing and solve problems. The price of this book was well worth it...it has given me many, many returns on my investment."

Sounds very similar to what Batterson says,

"But the future belongs to whole-brain leaders who combine right-brain creativity with their left-brain training."

Are you interested in some other connections to what I'm talking about? Let me know and will provide them. Otherwise I will fade away into the blogosphere.

God Bless

Brothers - thank you for a great conversation, and one that was held with graciousness. That's so rare today.