FORT LAUDERDALE (FBW)–Speaking at the first regional C3 Creative Church Conference May 9 at Flamingo Road Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale, Ed Young Jr. told 650 church leaders that churches should not ask how they can be creative, but instead ask what it is that is keeping them from unleashing their God-given creativity.

Young, founding and senior pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, brought his popular C3 conference to Florida as one of two regional conferences conducted off-site this year. The other 2005 C3 conference is set Oct. 3 at Green Valley Baptist Church in Henderson, Nev. The church’s annual C3 conference is Jan. 18-20, 2005 at its Grapevine location.

During the one-day conference in Fort Lauderdale, Young and his leadership staff shared strategies for growth with leaders from 100 Florida churches as an extension of their networking resources FellowshipConnection.com and CreativePastors.com.

Fellowship Church has four locations, including satellite services via live broadcast.

“There’s no doubt that churches should be creative, should be modeling creativity,” said Young, son of Ed Young Sr., pastor of Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. “Creativity was created by God, modeled by Jesus and inspired by the Holy Spirit. Pray for God to help you unleash the creativity that He has in store for you.”

Creativity does not come in a one-size-fits-all mold or without any rhyme or reason, Young said. “Be creative with a focus. Create from within a structure and that will help you meet your goals.”

Focused creativity was one of Young’s “10.5 commandments of creativity,” which also included placing the majority of emphasis and resources on weekend church activities to reach the maximum number of people effectively, and focusing on three main groups—core members, new members, and unbelievers.

Young showed a video-taped sermon planning session he had with his staff to illustrate focused creativity. Each week, he previews his sermon with a small group of leaders to hone the message and infuse creativity and perspective into his presentation. Pre-planning sermons with a team is more effective than a post-critique, Young said, because it lessens pressure and serves as a training ground for other leaders.

Be “consistently inconsistent” in sermon delivery, he told conference participants. Create tension and provoke thought. “The higher the predictability, the lower the connectivity,” he said.

Sometimes, churches act like they have nothing to say to the modern world because they don’t know how to speak its language, Young said.

“The church has everything to say but doesn’t always know how to say it. The message is the same—it’s the same recipe—but contemporary churches are just serving it up in a different way,” Young added.

Keith LeCompte, worship leader for Parkridge Baptist Church in Coral Springs, told Florida Baptist Witness at the conference that the challenge for churches is to filter through the noise of messages pervading the culture.

“People are bombarded with images from television and media,” LeCompte said. “They expect creative ways to get messages across. If we want to get our message across in this day and age, we have to be more creative. The days of simply getting up behind a podium and reading a sermon are gone. People are increasingly more sophisticated in what they hear and respond to.”

Parkridge began in 1992 as a mission of Sheridan Hills Baptist Church in Hollywood, utilizing a contemporary methodology.

In contrast, pastor Bruce Cadle’s 40-year-old congregation, New Hope Church in Melbourne, has experienced a name change, bylaws change, and a style change over the years. Once totaling about 20 in attendance, the church now attracts that number of youth to Bible study on Sunday.

“I love the Kingdom mentality of this conference,” he told the Witness. “[C]hurches who’ve found things that work for them are passing it on and sharing their ideas.”

Young said that part of creativity is “asking the right people the right questions at the right time.” Churches should be asking for and sharing ideas, he said, and then individualizing and improving them to fit different situations and needs.

A question churches seldom ask, Young said, is what programs should be canceled because they have run their course. He encouraged the leaders to “cut the creative fat” and be willing to change their approach.

“As leaders, we should never stop asking questions,” Young said. “It’s the thing that’s gotten us where we are. Leaders should create a climate that invites questions, a conversational cadence.

“Leaders can create either a positive or negative inertia,” he said. “The church is always moving. You want it to move forward, but sometimes it’s moving backward or moving inward and missing its mission.”

Young highlighted some questions he said leaders often are afraid to ask: “Is the church structured for growth?” “Who is it really reaching?” and “Where is it putting its money?”

Young encouraged churches to examine their bylaws to make sure leaders are given both the freedom and accountability to lead.

Listing five indicators of whom a church is reaching, Young said they are attendance, baptisms, small groups, volunteers and new members.

Young emphasized the importance of providing amply for church staff financially in order to promote loyalty, appreciation, tranquility, consistency and generosity.

Though there’s a stigma attached to it, Young said, “You either pay now or pay later. If you’re going to pay peanuts, you’re going to get monkeys.” On the other hand, he said: “If you invest in your staff, they will invest in you.”

For more information about Fellowship Connection, go online to www.Fellowshipconnection.com.