This is an article I wrote for Anabaptist Perspectives, an organization I helped start. I host a regular podcast there; you can find all our content at anabaptistperspectives.org.

When I read the New Testament, I am struck by the great lengths the early church went to in order to reach the world with the Gospel. Not only were they committed and bold, they were also quite creative in finding ways to interact with people in meaningful ways. When I think of our Anabaptist churches today, I wonder if there is a principle here that we could learn from. Over the last few years, I have been involved in various ministries and the one thing that keeps coming back to the forefront of my mind is the action of cultivating what I call spiritual creativity. Our generation needs people they can look up to, people that have walked the path and can show us what they have learned. There are so many people in our history that have done this, and we have an enormous amount to learn from them. We need to stay humble, ask God what he wants of us, and learn to be spiritually creative about ways we can build his Kingdom.

What is spiritual creativity? Creativity, by definition, is the process of creating or inventing something new. As followers of Jesus, we learn to stay alert and oriented towards God, the ultimate Creative who formed us and brought into existence all we know. We are called to reflect him and his ways, which means tuning the creativity each of us has into bringing about what he wants in this world. We are, in many ways, the outpouring of God’s creativity, and the means by which his creativity is channeled to the rest of the world.

With a little intentionality, we can develop creative ways of expanding the Kingdom of God to those who need it the most. There are so many ways we can invest in cultivating what matters. Perhaps God wants you to follow in the footsteps of those who have gone to serve him in the hard places around the world. Maybe he wants you to learn from those who have walked with Jesus by serving refugees, or have helped traumatized victims of war torn places like Syria.

Or perhaps God will show you something more "normal" (but no less important). Perhaps he wants you to start a Bible study with your neighbors. Maybe he wants to you make friends with the local Pakistani family who run the gas station down the road. Maybe he wants you to invite the Japanese student studying at the nearby university into your home to share a meal.

Get creative. Don't be scared to dream big for God's Kingdom. But while you dream about serving him, don't forget to impact those right around you.

Don't be afraid to follow the ideas you have for God's work. And whatever you do, your life and time are a gift; do not waste it. Steward your time wisely. Pray and think about creative ways you can point someone to Jesus. Perhaps he is calling you to go serve among an unreached people group in a far-off region. But he might be calling you to walk across the street and meet your neighbor who needs a friend and someone who cares.

Many people are held back from their dreams of doing something for God because of fear. Jesus doesn't leave room for this kind of fear in our lives. Or some people are held back because they don't feel worthy or qualified. But don't worry: Jesus works through those who are willing, not those who are perfect. None of us are perfect, and he will give us what we need. Stay humble, rely on him, and serve your King.

This is something I have wrestled with many times. October 2016 is when Jaran Miller and I first hit on the idea of doing Anabaptist Perspectives, the idea of sharing Anabaptist ideas freely around the world through the internet (primarily in video and audio form). I felt we were the least qualified people to discuss the topics we wanted to cover. So we found people we could interview, not because we were the best at producing podcasts and videos (we certainly are not), nor because I am so great at interviewing (as I well know, I'm far short of this even on my best days). But instead of letting this stop the vision, we felt there were important messages about the Anabaptist worldview that needed to be shared, and so with a lot of trust in Jesus we began releasing the first set of episodes. We were willing to following this unusual (at the time) dream of putting Anabaptist material all over the internet. We weren't particularly qualified for this task (and are still short of that mark), but we were willing to see if God would move through this humble effort.

We were not prepared with how incredible the response would be. Now, four years later, over 140 episodes have been released and hundreds of thousands of people have seen the content all over the world. When I look at how far this ministry has come, it is incredibly clear that it is not because Jaran and I are anyone special. On the contrary, if I have the privilege of meeting you, the reader, I'm afraid you will be underwhelmed with how ordinary I am.

Here's the point. I believe God gave Jaran and I a special dream back in 2016. Neither of us felt particularly qualified to do this work, but thought this would be a way of serving and building Jesus' Kingdom, so we gave it a try. And I believe God blesses ideas like this when we step out in faith, knowing we cannot do it without him, and humbly work to inspire people to live lives that honor our King.

This week, try trusting God to use you to show Jesus to someone. I promise you that if you cultivate spiritual creativity as a habit, to find ways to reach out to the world around you, your life will never be the same.