Creativity in Preaching and Ministry

I was in a conversation on creativity in ministry and it brought up an area I struggle with, while we do need to make sure we are communicating God's word I am not sure the word creative is applicable to this endeavor. All too often the church tries to be cute in delivering a message that stands on its own and leads to sermon series titles like “Desperate Households” and other such plays on popular culture. Why do we feel we need to mirror the culture to deliver God’s word as it seems to me in many ways the message of Christ was counter cultural. We spend way too much time trying to be “creative” and far too little time digging into God’s word. I would much rather be a man who communicates truth and is short on creativity than be a really creative person that communicates pabulum. Now we might want to say we want to be both creative and truthful however I think that when we become too creative we may hold an audiences attention but in the end all they remember is the creativity and they totally miss God. This is not an excuse to be lazy in how we deliver truth as we need to show the passion for the truth that we have for God so if we show no passion we convey a small view of God. So as to quit rambling I think we need to seek after passion much more than creativity.

There was a good article at Banner of Truth that echoes a lot of what I feel called: Variety And Creativity In Preaching?

I realize this is not popular and I am probably in the minority. But this is not a call for the “good old days”, what ever they are, but this is a call to relying on God and scripture rather than our so called creativity and human smarts.