2026: Studying the Creativity of God
When I tell people I’m an “arts minister,” most people respond with some measure of surprise. A lot of people don’t know that art and faith are connected at all, and even those who see art as spiritual often don’t know why Christianity might have a unique perspective on it. But because it’s my whole life, I find art throughout the entire Bible–beginning, of course, with God’s creativity making us and our material world.
What I’ve found is that there are some important, unique characteristics to God’s creation. So for 2026, ReNew York is dedicating the full year to learning the creativity of God that we find in the Bible. And, in typical ReNew York fashion, we’re not just learning about it, but we are practicing it in our own creative gatherings.
This year, we’re spending each month pressing into one of the Divine creative aspects:
January: God creates out of nothing
February: God creates out of love
March: God creates with deliberate restraint
April: God’s creation entails care
May: God’s creation reveals Himself
June: God creates order from chaos
July: God creates extravagantly
August: God creates with narrative meaning
September: God’s creation is filled to become more
October: God allows His creation to affect Him
November: God sustains His creation
December: God remakes into new creation
There’s a lot about the way God creates that differs from our own creation; for instance, humans can’t create from nothing, the way God can. We draw on our experiences, on things we’ve seen, and imagine a horse with a horn, or a person who can fly. But God’s creation is from sheer darkness, a true void. As it says in Romans 4:17, “He calls into being that which does not exist.”
Yet it also says that we bear the imago dei, and so if we are fashioned after the Creator, our own creativity might function best if we seek to follow the Divine design for… well, design. Not out of scarcity, not merely for self-expression, but with love and complexity and purpose.
So this year, we invite you to journey with us as we explore Biblical creativity through the work of the only true Creator. He needs no raw materials or external inspiration; He makes light where there is darkness, and it is good.
