Creativity and Effectiveness

I recently read something that Rick Warren said at a church growth conference called "Q". You can read it here. (Thanks to Jon Cannon for pointing this out)

Mr. Warren had a quote that has really stuck with me.
"The problem with a lot of churches today is they would rather be creative than effective."

Is this true? I think that often times creativity works WITH effectiveness. This may just be semantics. It really depends on how you define the terms. I have a great appreciation for creativity, and I admire creative people. I also desire to be effective, practical, and solution oriented. I'm not sure there has to be a disconnect between the too.

I can understand that sometimes we may get so wrapped up in making the song beautiful, or the building beautiful, or coming up with the "great" illustration that we can forget to spend time on what works. So what works? What is effective?

My next question is this: Is there any difference regarding this idea by size or philosophy of churches? Are small churches more creative and less effective? Are large churches less creative and more effective? Some would say that small churches are both uncreative and ineffective. Are "emerging" churches - I hate to even use the term because it means so many different things to so many - are they more creative and therefore less effective?

Take a look at this article from Out of Ur and see if it weighs in on this discussion. Let me say up front - I'm thankful for large growing churches - I wish that our local church was growing by leaps and bounds. But I also enjoyed this article because it reminded me that reaching people with gospel isn't easy.

So is it...
Creative = Effective
Creative OR Effective
Creative AND Effective

What do you think?

Comments

Jason Taylor said…
Creative and Effective is my vote

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