My brother can be annoying sometimes. He’s three years younger than I am. He followed me from high school to college, from Arizona to Chicago. He now works with me at Community Christian Church, writing sketches and film scripts and directing actors for our weekend services. He lives four doors down from me on the same side of the street. We’re close. And, we’re close.

Seriously though – he can get annoying when it comes to creativity. The man never gives up on an idea.  I’m sure all of us are familiar with the brainstorm room, and we all cringe when the umbrella of mercy gets shattered like a pane of glass and someone’s brutal attempt at a spark of an idea lands with a thud on the table. We’ve all done it, and most of us move on. Not my brother Elic. He is unstoppable. If he believes in an idea, he will hold onto it no matter how crazy it sounds.

Recently, we developed a series video for a Big Idea series entitled “Eat This Book.” It was to be an ethereal, mystical, image-driven short, with pages turning, dust blowing, prophets pondering… all pointing to the Big Idea of reading the Bible, and doing as the metaphor says, to “eat this book.” Well… Elic had a different idea, and pitched the concept of a parody of the Sonic commercials with the two comedic buddies rapping about their food. He pitched the idea in our Big Idea meeting, and you could hear the crickets chirping. No one wanted to say a word, either because they didn’t want to change the idea we already had agreed on, or because they didn’t want to tell Elic how goofy his idea was.

There is a lot to be said for throwing away bad ideas, being able to call them as such, and then pick up with a new idea. I think that habit is ultimately healthy, because it treats the idea as something apart from the person, which helps prevent hurt feelings when an idea doesn’t work. But sometimes, an idea just won’t let you let it go. And those are the times that we as artists need to pay attention.

See, most people don’t associate perseverance with creativity, but I think perseverance is essential to hone creativity. In the same way that the speck of sand “irritates itself” into a pearl, I think that often these ideas that we have are waiting for us to irritate them into something beautiful. But too many times we give up on them, and leave them at the “sand speck” stage.

Time can be a huge factor in this process. When our brainstorm time occurs the “week of” a service, or even one week out, the pressure of performance and the pressure of the deadline prevents us from living with the idea long enough to be irritated by it. So we throw it away and go with the “simple solution” that we’ve “done a million times.” That is one of the reasons that Community Christian Church values planning ahead, with our brainstorm meetings coming in at “nine weeks out.” When you’ve got that kind of time, the idea that “won’t go away” is given a chance to breathe, to play itself out, and ultimately, to shine.

So, with two weeks to go, we decided to switch the idea for the “Eat This Book” series, after watching a couple of failed passes at the first concept. Elic and I hustled to put a script together, and we shot the “Sonic commercial” parodies. They might have been one of our best received series videos. They were funny, sure, but they also put the Big Idea front and center – and in my opinion, went from “speck of sand” to “pearl of awesomeness” in seconds flat.

Sure, we all hit or miss from time to time. That is the risk of creativity. But the reward for sticking it out with a great idea whose greatness is still hidden – well, over time, it can be delicious. Try it, you’ll like it!

Eric Bramlett is the Creative Arts Director for Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL, and has been since 1996. Eric's background is in the professional theatre, with degrees in acting and directing. CCC represents Eric's first ministry experience, and he hopes to be at CCC for a long, long time. He is responsible for overseeing all large-group experiences from intensive artistic vision through production, and anything else he can think of overseeing. Eric co-authored The Big Idea: Focus the Message, Multiply the Impact for Zondervan and Leadership Network with Dave and Jon Ferguson. Eric has continued to be involved in the Chicago Theatre scene, most notably as an Artistic Associate for Porchlight Music Theatre Chicago, a theatre company he has been involved with since its inception in 1995. Eric loves his wife Kristi and their three kids, Sadie, Dillon and Anna.

Community Christian Church
http://www.communitychristian.org

Eric’s blog
http://ericseddyfications.typepad.com/about.html

The Big Idea blog
http://www.thebigideaonline.org