Kingdom Creativity in a Secular Market
As Believers in Christ, it can be difficult to find our calling and pursue writing or business if it is not a ministry or called something related to Christ. We have a passion to do something pleasing to God, but it’s easy to feel like we should start an online Bible study or write Christian nonfiction. I get it, I feel this same pressure and the book that I published is Christian nonfiction. However, I’ve been noticing something. It seems that Christians have backed off culture so much that we don’t seem to be having any positive affect on it.
Kingdom Writer’s Association is trying to tap into the secular and Christian markets of the world by bringing our creativity that was given to us by God to make a connection to the world. We aren’t doing the same thing that’s been done before. We see the world being impacted by Hollywood stories that are full of anti-God rhetoric, so we desire to build an army to make an impact right in the enemy’s territory. The enemy has held its ground in the entertainment industry for such a long time that we have a huge battle to fight, but God has given us power, and strength and a sound mind to fight those battles to win!
We can’t cower any more. We shouldn’t stay in our perfect Christian bubbles. You can do something like Brae Wyckoff, our cofounder, did. He wrote a gory, horror-filled novel, which is intended to attract unbelievers, but it has a redemptive story reflecting God’s power and grace to share truth in a way that hasn’t been done before.
Maybe these novels aren’t for Christians who have been walking with Christ for years… That’s okay! It’s okay that not every kingdom-inspired creative endeavor is for you… but it’s for the 1. The 99 others are fine, they are protected and covered, but the 1 who hasn’t found God yet is important enough to write the book for them.
Kingdom creatives don’t have to write and create only Christian genres. We establish ourselves as professionals by being Christ-followers wherever we are.
We have spiritual wisdom.
When I first began my business, I asked the Lord for wisdom. To me at that time, it was a scary prayer because I know with this prayer comes a lot more responsibility that I had at the time. I asked for it with fear but confidence that God would direct me in ways that I couldn’t imagine, and He did. That year I survived... I had a few consistent endeavors but mostly I was just surviving off of what I made in my business the first year I started it. Money was tight and I sometimes wonder how I made it but I did, and I learned very quickly.
We earn respect by continually refining our craft.
We are kingdom-minded in that we know we have work to do. We want our work to be God honoring but also well done. If we have a “good enough” attitude about our work, it will probably not be successful because it’s not good and people will see our lack of experience and talent.
We should seek out education, critique groups, and pay for help like editors, publishers, marketers, web designers, etc. We honor God by understanding that we can’t do everything perfectly immediately, but we trust him to give us wisdom and understanding along the journey.
We give God the glory.
Ultimately, we are redeemed and enough in Christ, whether we publish or make a successful business or not. We want only what He wants in our lives. Our desire for success should not be compelled by outside pressure or compulsion, but God can ignite a fire to connect to and change the culture. Honoring Him and being filled with His wisdom and grace is what fuels us forward.
Ultimately, we might serve a secular or Christian market, but we are doing it through Him and for Him. We want to bring Him glory and give Him credit.
Originally published in KWA magazine.
