Meet Stephen Brewster. Stephen’s writing our cover story for the first issue of Sunday| magazine. He’s the Creative Arts Pastor at Cross Point Community Church and invented the art of flow (I’m not sure about that last point). Check out some of his heart and look for his story, “Simplifying the Sunday Morning Story” in the first issue of Sunday| magazine.
What’s your creative background?
I have always loved creativity. As a kid, music and art were a big part of my life. As a senior in college (with 1 semester to go) I dropped out of Radio/TV Broadcasting and moved to Nashville to get into the music business. (I did go back and get my degree in pastoral ministry/leadership). I was blessed to get to break into the music business where I was exposed to doing A&R, Marketing, and artist management.
I left the music business after about 8 years and started to do creative direction for a church. A few years later I was invited to lead a marketing team at Integrity Music. I missed working in the church and when Jenni Catron (another Sunday| contributor) and Pete Wilson presented the opportunity for me to be part of the team at Cross Point, I couldn’t turn that down.
What’s the biggest breakdown in creativity in our services?
That can actually be diagnosed in 3 totally separate areas:
- We lack creativity in story telling. We need to make sure we are doing a really good job identifying story and translating that through our elements.
- Time constraints. Figuring out how to accomplish all the necessary elements in a service that is 60-90 minutes is difficult. It takes a lot of editing to get really great creative elements to support and tell story in a short time. Most people tend to wonder what we should add to a service when often the questions should be what can we simplify to tell the story better, support the pastor more, and create a better experience.
- Creative excellence. The most obvious of the 3. Taking the time to create great pieces and not allowing good or less than good pieces to exist in our spaces.
What are you passionate about seeing happen in the Church?
I am passionate about the Church using creativity to help create and support life change. I believe the day will come when the church returns to its rightful position as creative epicenter of the arts.
wow, I’ve sat here thinking of what I want to see in may. well I have been a part of may church for about 2 years and I’ve been blessed to be the maintenaance guy of the church but I also have been biulding some props and even some game props for a winter fest we have once a year. we’re a new church and a great building. stage is small but I still think we can create some good thing. I was introduced to this site by a friend and I see a lot of ideas but a really need to scale them down to fit the stage. Your 2 breakdown points are interesting, my bro jimmy is our media and he is good we need some more eqiupment but it will come in time. I want to spread the word in the best way i know how and be good at it.