I honestly believe I’ve got the best idea EVER for a sermon series in your church…one that will lead to breakthroughs, one that will be talked about until Jesus comes back and one that God will use in ways that will absolutely blow your mind.

Here it is – get alone with God, open your Bible, read it until he sets your heart on fire…and then go unleash that fire through preaching to the people He has called you to preach to!

In other words…get “a word” from “The Word!”

Don’t get me wrong…I LOVE creative sermon/series planning.  I LOVE trying to figure out how we can communicate timeless principles in the context of the society that we are in.  I LOVE doing WHATEVER it takes short of sin to get as many people outside the doors of the church to come inside!

However, the trap that I am seeing so many pastors fall into is they fall in love with the process of creativity and allow it to bypass the love they once had for their Creator!

Leadership AND preaching really is as easy as listening to God and then doing what HE says!

And…let me be straight, I really do believe that God gives us really creative ideas…and that refusing to use them is simply bad stewardship.

BUT…I also believe that trying to make sure every series that we do has a certain pop and sizzle is an insane trap that can cause us to lose focus on what HE has called us to do…PREACH HIS WORD!  If we are not careful we can get so creative in our church services that there really isn’t any need for the presence of God…and THAT is the most ungodly place we could ever lead our people to!

God’s Word WILL produce a harvest (see Isaiah 55:8-13, this is a PROMISE)…and the BEST way to see a harvest in the people we preach to is to preach out of the personal harvest that God is bringing forth in us.

And so when this means going all out and having the most creative set design, song selection and video that it can have…praise God, I am all for that…using WHATEVER we can to communicate His Word.

But then I believe there will be times that we do catch a “creative cramp,” and when we do it is probably just God trying to get our attention and bring us back to rely on HIS SPIRIT rather than our strategy.

Yes, we are called to be creative (God is NOT boring), but our call to be that way comes after our call to be obedient.

If God is setting your heart on fire…unleash that fire on Sunday!  PREACH!