The buzz commandments continue.

If you haven’t registered for the Buzz Conference yet visit www.buzzconference.com.

FYI. We just secured the movie theaters @ Union Station as our conference location. The Buzz Film Festival will still be held at our coffeehouse on Capitol Hill, a half block from Union Station.

Here is Buzz Commandment VII:

Thou Shalt Withdraw to the Wilderness [1]

I came up with a little formula a few years ago:

Habituation is one of our greatest spiritual enemies. We learn how and forget why. We start doing ministry from memory instead of ministry from imagination. We keep doing what we’ve always done and our ministries become monotonous. Spiritual disciplines become empty rituals. We get stuck in a creative rut.

New environments stimulate new ideas.

That is why retreats are so powerful. That is why I take our team to conferences and we do offsite meetings. That is why I need to study in coffeehouses and bookstores. That is why we need to go on vacation.

So how do we stay on the creative edge?

Jesus set the example in Mark 1:35: “The next morning, Jesus awoke long before daybreak and went alone into the wilderness to pray.”

That passage reveals the pace Jesus set. It also reveals the place where Jesus prayed. Jesus loved climbing mountains and walking beaches. And he frequently withdrew to the wildnerness to catch is spiritual breath. And he always seemed to return to the fray with fresh vision.

A few years ago I heard Bill Hybels say something that was so convicting and so challenging. He said the pace at which he was doing the work of God was destroying the work of God in Him. I think most of us have been there. We feel like the Red Queen in Through The Looking Glass. We have to go faster and faster just to keep up!

One key to creativity is finding a rhythm that works for you. For example, I have meeting days and focus days. I’m guessing that 90% of my creativity happens on focus days. And 90% of that 90% happens before Noon. I hit a point of diminishing return in the afternoon.

One of my greatest fears is that NCC would become a closed-system. It’s so easy to do what you do and lose perspective.

I think there are two antidotes. The first antidote is prayer. That is how you continue to get God ideas. The second is exposing yourself to other models of ministry. If you think you have it all figured out it is the beginning of the end. Humility is one key to creativity.

Here are ten ways to stimulate creativity:

1) Read offbeat magazines.
2) Take a fieldtrip to a successful retail store and take notes.
3) Do something you’ve never done before
4) Skim the entire New Testament in one sitting.
5) Attend a new conference.
6) Schedule creative meetings–we call them Big Idea meetings
7) Do a short personal retreat
Read like crazy–physics, business, self-help, biography, etc.
9) Subscribe to some podcasts.
10) If all else fails, take a vacation.

[1] Mark 1:35