The #1 Reason Christian Creators Stay Stuck (And Don’t Even Know It)

Are you doing ALL the things the gurus tell you to do...yet you're not making ANY progress as a Christian creator? 

You've stayed faithful, you've posted, you've planned, you've been praying. 

But your goals feel even more out of reach. 

The reason isn't talent, or even your faith. It's your community - or your lack of it. 

In this episode, we point out why having a strong, aligned creator community is the number one thing holding most Christian Creators back - and how you can fix this issue so you can achieve the goals God placed in your heart. 

Transcript

0:00

Do you feel like you're doing everything that you're supposed to do as a Christian creator? You're posting, you're planning, you're praying, but you're still not feeling like you're moving forward? Well, today we're going to talk about the real reason that so many Christian creators stay stuck. And honestly, it's not because of lack of talent or opportunity or even resources. It's something that most of us don't even realize we're missing until we're already burning out. We're going to help you to avoid this And to solve this one issue that keeps so many Christian creators stuck here on this episode of the God and Geek Show. Give me just a moment to welcome those of you who are new to our show, and then we'll get right into the super important conversation. Hello and welcome to our show. Thank you so much for making this podcast a part of your creative day. And if you are new to our show, let me tell you why you're in the right place at the right time. As a musician, artist, creative, freelancer, entrepreneur, anyone at the intersection of the arts, ministry, and content creation, well, you most likely want to live a fulfilled, unique creator lifestyle without sacrificing your values. That's what we help you do here at GodinGigs. So I hope you'll subscribe, follow, stay connected to this community because we want to help you become the creator that God created you to be. Now, as I mentioned in the beginning of this episode, so many Christian creators get stuck feeling like they're just not made or cut out to be creators. Whether you're pursuing this as a part-time hobby, a part-time creative career, or even a full-time creator lifestyle. Here's the thing that's keeping most of us stuck. It's the myth of the independent creative. You see, so many of us have a DIY idea about how our favorite creators, the people we respect, got to the place where they are. Especially in church, we see one person or two people, even a group of people, but we see them isolated as if that's the only way that you can make it. That you have to be in the right place at the right time, Only certain people make it and you have to slave away by yourself in order to make that happen. As a matter of fact, we spiritualize solitude and we call it self-discipline. But in reality, we're often isolating ourselves from the very people that God designed us to work with. You see, we weren't designed to be independent. We were designed to be interdependent. And that requires other people around us. So if you have been fooled by the Instagram messages, the people who sound like they're doing it all by themselves, well, I want to tell you that that is actually keeping you stuck because you were never designed to create this creator lifestyle alone. So let's talk about what this is really costing you. Now there's three different ways that lack of community keeps us stuck. Here's one thing that I know for a fact. You can't see what you can't see. Another way of putting this is you can't see the label of the bottle while you're inside the bottle. You see, creators are too often too close to our own work to see our gaps, our patterns, our opportunities, the things that we're missing because they're right in front of us, but we have a limited perspective and we can't see our blind spots. You might think that your offer isn't selling because it's not good enough when in reality, it's just not clearly communicated through the way that you're speaking about it online or to your community. In a healthy, creative community, someone else can help you see what you're missing and can point out those little flaws or blind spots that you are just not able to see on your own. So you see, that's costing you time, it's costing you energy, and it's costing you money if you are not in a community that will help you stay out of that independent, do-it-yourself, slave away without any help or support. Well, here's the second thing that might be keeping you stuck because you lack this creative community. You're probably stuck in a cycle of overthinking and undervaluing. You see, when you're stuck by yourself, every decision feels heavy. You feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. You overanalyze, you delay, you talk yourself out of action. When you actually are probably right next to the right action, but you just need that encouragement to take it. You see, a lot of times we want God to speak out of every single cloud and we want him to say to us exactly what we're supposed to do next. But when we're looking for confirmation, most likely what we really need is conversation. You see, God uses other creators like us to speak through them to us. And if you don't believe me, just look at all the examples in the Bible where somebody, a prophet, a minister, someone said, hey, I'm about to go forward with this thing that God showed me, but they would check in with someone else. They would actually bring forward a minstrel at one point in the Bible and let the minstrel play. And that got the attention of the person who was trying to speak. They needed somebody else to come alongside of them. And you need the same thing because without that, you're going to continue to undervalue what you have and overanalyze what you're supposed to do. But when you have community, it gives you momentum and it gives you accountability that breaks analysis paralysis. Here's the third reason that you don't want to stick by yourself and that it is keeping you stuck to not have a vibrant and aligned creative community. The problem is you won't feel safe enough to take chances, to take risks and to grow. Growth requires risk, experimentation, even failure. But when you're isolated, failure feels like it's fatal. You feel like if you try this thing and it doesn't work, that you have given up all of these resources only to see it not come to pass. Whenever you're in a community of people who get it, who know what you want to know and want to grow the same way that you want to grow, failure is not fatal. It is actually a lesson learned. It's something that then spurs you on to try something else. It's not failure. It's actually fitness. It's you pushing one more time through that rep. And then a trusted circle can give you that emotional margin that you need because you need that margin of people saying it's okay. You can't be fully creative and fully self-protecting. You can't be fully creative and be scared to take risks. You have to have the courage to take those risks, but courage is so much easier to come by. in community. If you don't have that community around you, you're going to be risk averse. And risk averse is success averse. You're never going to reach those pinnacles that you are looking for. Even in the faith space, even with God's power that is working on the inside of you, you won't access it. You won't take the chances that he wants you to take unless you're surrounded with the right people. There's a verse in the Bible where David is running for his life and he gets 300 other men around him who are also not the best of the best. They are like him. They're running for their lives. They're struggling. They've made mistakes, but together they were strong enough to sustain each other and to keep David safe from his own struggles with the king. You see, when you get in the community that cares and knows what you're about as a Christian creator, suddenly your burdens become lighter. The Bible talks about this all the time. Confess your faults to one another that you may be healed. In the multitude of counselors, there is safety. Two are better than one, and a threefold cord is not easily broken. You see, all of these things point to community being the most important thing. So let's talk quickly about some things that community can unlock. Community can unlock real feedback from people who get your calling and your crap. Community unlocks momentum through the shared goals and accountability that you need, a sense of belonging, not just networking. And I want you to know that, yes, God and Gigs is that kind of community. If you're looking for a place where you can find that collective sense of belonging, of security, of challenge, of accountability, we want to be that place where you never fall into the trap of the independent, isolated creator who feels like they are doing all the things, but making less and less progress. As a matter of fact, if you check in our show notes, we have opportunities right now to join us so that you can become that creator who is connected and never isolated again. My friend, no matter where you find that community, you need to find it because otherwise you risk so much more. You have a cost of your dream, a cost of your anointing, a cost of your gifting, that it costs somebody else to get to you. And if you simply try to do it by yourself, you're carrying a burden and trying to make a goal and dream happen that you would never intended to make or create on your own. My friend, I hope that this has come to heart. I'm sharing it honestly from the heart because I feel that you are born and destined to do great things with your creative gift, the gift that God put inside of you. But we want to make sure you connect with the right people to help you bring it out. So check the link in the show notes if you want to join God in Gigs. Our app is always here for you. Our app contains our membership. Our membership contains our Creator Resource Center and our Gold Mastermind Program. Everything you need to succeed as a creator without sacrificing your faith. So connect with the community and go do the thing that he blessed you to do. So until next time, continue to become the creator that you were created to be. God bless. My friend, thank you for watching this episode. If that blessed you, you got to make sure that you stay connected with this community and this channel so that you can get more where that came from. We're sharing great interviews, tactics, strategies, mindsets, lifestyle choices. Everything is going to help you become a totally confident, creative And don't miss an episode of the God and Geek Show. If you are staying connected to our channel, you'll be able to find us anytime we release new episodes. And you can check out some of our archives of almost 200 episodes now that we've shared over the last few years. Make sure you check out one of the suggestions right now because it's probably perfect for you to continue to develop as a creator and continue to stay connected with us because we're here to help you become the creative that God created you to be. We'll see you in the next episode.