Welcoming the Artists
Our discussion from a couple days ago reminded me of this wonderful passage in Darryl Tippens’s Pilgrim Heart: The Way of Jesus in Everyday Life
“The church has not always been kind to its artists. Maturing in communities that ignore or even reject their gifts, some artists, musicians, writers, and actors become discouraged and drift away. Sad to say, sometimes they find a kinder welcome in the world than they do in the church, and the church is the poorer for it. Yet in many ways artists model what it means to have a pilgrim hearat. They explore the truth through the medium in which they work. They revere the mystery of creation; they work humbly with their materials, embodying the ‘restless ache for something beyond,’ as Lewis called it. Along with the poet Czeslaw Milosz, they say: ‘In this world there is too much ugliness and horror. So there must be, somewhere, goodness and truth. And that means somewhere God must be.’ These artists not only inform our minds, they nurture our hearts, for art is more than cognition. It is divine truth recollected in color, shape, and sound. Their art, potentially, at least, becomes a path to a better world. . . .
“Emil Brunner’s reminder is important: ‘From time immemorial the relation between art and religion has been friendly rather than hostile. . . .’ The church and the arts are so deeply connected that ‘we simply cannot imagine Western Art apart from Christianity.’ ‘The sense of beauty . . . remains rooted in the heart of man as a powerful incentive,’ observed Weil. Indeed, pilgrim hearts have always understood that creation and creativity are earthly signs ever gesturing towards the Creator. Thankfully, the necessary relationship between artists and the church is undergoing a revival in our day. Artists are being invited to portray the faith of the believers, to paint the scenes, compose the songs, write the plays, and tell the stories that will shape the imaginations and the lives of the next generation.
“All who love Scripture should note the obvious: The Bible itself is a majestic work of art. Otherwise, why are the book of Job, the Psalms, and the parables of Jesus rendered in such artful form? God seems forever committed to beauty. Otherwise, the glories of heaven make no sense at all. . . . Indeed, as John’s Revelation makes clear, our eternal dwelling place is characterized by extraordinary beauty: fabulous architecture, poetry, music, song, and liturgy. Despisers of the arts will find heaven a rather odd place to spend eternity. The God who created the world in all its splendor, who placed the sensuous Song of Solomon within the canon of Scripture, and who promises a glorious new heaven and a dazzling new earth, must love beauty. Could it be that life on this earth is but a reflection of, and a preparation for, the superior, lasting beauty of the world to come?”
Maybe this is so important to me because I’ve been blessed to minister to so many artists. Perhaps it’s because most of the art students have me for Bible in the fall of their freshman year. Or could it also be that my own faith has been encouraged again and again by faith-building, thought-provoking, courage-inspiring works of theater, writing, music, painting, sculpture, etc.?
I believe that when given the chance, all of us have a need to reflect the limitless imagination and love of our creator.
Thanks Mike. I don’t think the church embraces creativity really. The North American church embraces hard work, success and large contributions. Our cofC universities honor successful businessmen, and their trustees are almost exclusively white, successful businessmen. Hence, the church also mostly wants a pretty cut and dry Gospel – and results – results are needed to quantify the effect of the Gospel.
On this subject, check out C. McNair Wilson’s blog: teawithmcnair.typepad.com
The church has traditionally used the arts as the path by which we embrace (with our entire selves: mind, emotions, body, spirit, etc.) Him who we cannot understand with only our minds.
Thankfully even at the climax of the churches allegiance to rationalism, we continued to utilize a few of the arts in at least a limited, narrow way. It is exciting to live in an age where more of the disciplines of the arts are being accepted in church practice/formation.
Why do we need art, we’ve got the 5 step “plan of salvation”? Why mess with all that touchy, feely, mamby, pamby, stuff when all we are really interested in is a forumla………or mimimum requirements.
After all, didn’t God make everything in black and white?
DU
Yeah, but if we let the artists use their talents, then we’d be condoning instrumental music (and mixed swimming)…
I married a woman who has a natural eye for beauty. Always wanting to make things beautiful in the home, in the yard , etc. For years, I stupidly belittled or criticized her “need” to beautify our home, coordinate colors, making sure things looked pleasing to the eye, etc. After many years, and a lot of patience on her part, I realize that though she doesn’t necesarily wax eloquent in biblical hermeneutics, nor engage in deep philosophical discussions, she reflects the heart of God in the beauty and art she creates in her daily life. I have been touched by God’s presence through her eye for beauty. God has a heart for all, and we as a fellowship have been poorer because we have not recognized, much less utilized the artists and their gifts among us. I’m glad that is changing. Thanks Mike, for these posts.
Why when you are troubled do you find peace by a stream, looking at the mountains, reflecting in the ocean, savoring a new culture in a different country? The Master was a true artist.
Being a person who holds a degree in Theatre, this post meant a lot to me – thanks!
If you want to see God’s artistry, check out some of the amazing nature photography at http://www.mangelsen.com (My new favorite photographer!)
I agree, Mike, and we are trying to change the way we interact with artists at Rochester. Four times a year we have an Emerging Artists night where instead of our Wednesday service we encourage painters and sculptors to bring their best, musicians to sing and play their best, etc. It has been a huge success. We have used artists — some of whom we found in AA meetings in our building — to illustrate points during a lesson: they painted a baptism scene in Uganda while our friend John Barton delivered a lesson, for example.
We also put on two to four musicals a year for the community and the house is always packed. While I am not an artist, God is, and those who are blessed by Him with that ability need to be able to shine in our communities. Thanks for the reminder.
Mike, one of your most important posts! Thanks for calling us to beauty. One of the most wonderful things about my work in Dallas has been my own awakening to the power, importance and necessity of beauty and expressions of beauty in the city and among “the poor.”
For most of us, our religious tradition has been arrid, barren and stark. That is a shame. It has prevented us from seeing God’s largeness, complexity and mystery; and from touching compassion and hope more completely.
My dad’s contemporaries in the cofC preached that a stained glass window, a cross [with or without the Christ depicted], all religious themes in art was idolatry, pure and simple. They preached that any man-made depiction of God, be it painting, sculpture et al was bowing down to a man-made object, rather than to the Almighty. We haven’t had much preaching to the contrary that I’ve heard, so it doesn’t surprise me that the fellowship as a whole continues in an almost totally anti-religious-themed-art mode.
How is it, for instance that we can appreciate an early Salvador Dali but must overlook and not even mention his magnificent depiction of the crucifixion? We seem bent on starving ourselves artistically. What a shame.
Yes, Mike, this is so important. Creativity not only comes from God, the very expression of creative talent is, in my view, a means by which we reflect the glory of God to others.
God bless,
-bill
Steve – Good point but I must dissent on one point. It’s not “mixed swimming” we’re worried about but “mixed bathing.” Clearly a much more significant offense
Touché, Chris. Touché.
Seriously, though — great post today. We can see God in just about anything, and it is usually our own imaginations that hold us back. God’s is working just fine.
I love this post.
I sometimes find myself wishing that worship could be occasionally be sprinkled with time for meditation and reflection on art that embodies the message and implications of gospel: poetry, sculpture, painting, drawing, fiction. I treasure quiet time to hear and be drawn into the work that is done by skilled artists/disciples.
When we moved to Denton, the congregation where we eventurallly placed our membership had a large stained glass panel above the baptistry. This panel provided mixed emotional responses from me and others as well. Although we applauded the “growth” of artistic awareness within the congregation and the thoughtfulness of those who had commissioned the work, the visual impact of the panel was, at best, cacaphonous. The design was amateurish and the color combinations were as dissonant as a badly tuned piano.
Years later, the auditorium ( God forbid we should call it a sanctuary) was remodelled. The stained glass was removed and discretely stored for some undetermined future use. Its removal was a blessing.
The rub for me is that I am an archtectural glass artist with an emphasis on stained glass. In a discussion with one of the elders, I mentioned a certain remorse that the decision had been made not to commission something appropriate to replace the old panel. The elder’s response was that ” We don’t need things like that. After all, I’m the only decoration God could require in the auditorium.”
I wanted to curse at what I considered to be pompous, self-righteous arrogance. I bit my tongue with much consternation at the shallowness of his response. To me, the ultimate disgrace is that the auditorium ( remember, we can’t call it a sanctuary) us just about as ugly and unwelcoming as it was before the expensive remodel. The muted shades of gray and the disconcerting shadows that are splayed on the walls surrounding the baptistry because of the badly placed speakers for the sound system are just as cacaphonous as the old stained glass panel was. The sad thing is that no one seems to care.
Sometime after the remodel, I was asked to build a cross to be installed above the baptistry. The result was a simple brown wooden configuration with contrasting shades of cream trim around the two crossed beams. It was put in place with no advance notice. For the most part, it was well recieved, but there were the usual grumblings.
The cross remains, but the effort to further enhance the worship space with additional artwork remains. Yes, there are banners on the walls at Christmas and Easter, but the muted grays remain to give a very somber, sad, uninvigorating atmosphere in which to worship. Realistically, the worship is just about as entheusiastic as the environment. I wonder often, how different it might be if there were elements of yellow, blue, red and purple on the walls to brighten the atmosphere and the entheusiam of the congregation.
Yes, I am an artist. I am proud of it. Even so, one of our elders used the fact that,”Well, your are just an artist,” as a pejorative. ” So what, you are an academic.” “Those who can do, those who can’t, teach,” was my unstated response.
Perhaps one of the points that I make in reference to general ugliness of our CofC worship spaces is that we are no longer funcitoning in a rather poor, rural society that, in retrospect, simply did not have the money for artwork. We did well, in some cases, to be able to worship in the rented I.O.O.F. lodge hall (specifically, Crockett, Texas, before and during WWII) We live in a consumately visual society. Today, even Crockett has broadcast TV and cable for its visual input. Today, we are surrounded by visual stimulation. We are used to it; even demanding it in many ways.
In a society where visual stimulation is the norm, the absence of artwork as a means of inspiration, is, to me, a lack of understanding of the people to whom our message of salvation should be directed. Our lack of art work is the compounded history of our rural background, lack of money with which to fund it, and a long period of “It’s not part of our tradition.”
We have used tradition as an excuse even though we are told not to depend on the traditions of men. The sad thing is that the CofC has only about a hundred and twenty five years of tradition within which to mess things up. What might we be like when we have two thousand years as has the Roman church. We throw rocks at them and others without examining our own traditions. And those of us who do challenge tradition, even examining both history and scripture in the process, are held as heretics.
I consider my work with stained glass to be a missional effort. I am aware of the inspiring and wonderful effects that my art form has and can have on our places of worship. No, we don’t have to have the kinds of figural artwork as was prevalent in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. But be aware of the fact the effect of a well designed stained glass window/s can have a transforming effect on the environment of worship. As the light which God provides us passes through the elements of the colored glass, the light is transformed into a beauty which is comparable to the transforming power of the
Good News for the souls of the lost sinners for whom it is intended. It is a powerful metaphor for God’s saving grace.
I will be at the Fall lectureship at Abiline as a vendor. There will be photographic examples of work I have done for Presbyterian, Catholic, Baptist, and even a Church of Christ ( Glenwood in Tyler, Texas) as well as several power point presentations of works completed and or as in their progress. I will look forward to visiting with anyone both pro and con about the visual elements of our worship spaces. Perhaps whe we stand up when we sing the song”We’re standing on Holy Ground,” we will realize that if God is in our presence, the place where we are assembled is graced by God’s own presence, the place is holy and therefore, “sanctified.” By extension, a Sanctuary.
Agreed, Steve. We talked to the kids this summer at camp about how incredible God’s imagination was/is to create all the things that he did.
Colors, animals, flowers, plants, human beings, and on and on. When worded like that, the kids really thought that was pretty cool. I agree.
I think we tend to equate artistic creativity with carnal entertainment. We often forget that even art comes under the dominion of God and can be used for his glory. Organizations like Christians In Visual Arts (CIVA) is working hard to bring the arts back into the protestant church. Check out their work at CIVA.org.
Art that is provoked from a sense of awe for the Master Creator is the most personal kind of art in my opinion. Art by nature is meant to be shared. What is most difficult for an artist is when their art is rejected by our fellow believers or even made fun of. It’s an indescribable hurt. But like I said on the posting about “Jacob’s Ladder”, people reject what they do not understand.
Inspirational art pieces are meant to lead one to stop and gaze, go away and ponder and come back for more later. Kind of like scripture. Every time you look at it you see something new, something inspiring.
I am a photographic artist who specializes in portraits and also photojournalistic photography. Because I see with a photographer’s eye, I see images everywhere, everyday. In photojournalistic photography, the photographer is a fly on the wall that is capturing moments as they happen. The photographer is quiet and blends in without being noticed.
Dumb ole me suggested that I capture these images I see throughout church services for sharing within our church family. I was told no by our elders, who I love very much. I was disappointed mainly because I realize they don’t understand what I was wanting to do. They didn’t understand the purpose and perhaps that was my fault for not being able to explain it better. I was told that I would be disruptive to services and there was no need for something like this.
So as I worship in corporate worship, I occassionally look around and see those photographic moments that long to be captured and enjoyed. And in my mind’s eye, I take them and offer them up to God, even though I can’t take them with my camera.
That’s the odd thing about an artists, we can’t cut off our artistic yearnings.
One of my questions about eternity is “Will I get an eternal camera? Cause I know there will be some awesome Kodak moments up there!”
I like what G.E. Moore said, “The appreciation of beauty and the need for personal relationships are man’s supreme endeavors.” A church where you find those two things is a church to call home.
Mike, Thank you, thank you for this post! And, thank you to all of you out there with all your wonderful comments—it’s done my heart good to read them too. God WANTS us to use the gifts He has given us—–and HE is the Master Artist in EVERY Medium.
It has been called to my attention that my reference to comments made by a couple of the elders of my congregation was not the best of choices. They ” sound a bit derogatory of our church and our elders.” Further, “are the comments helpful” or “do they build up the body.”
If these coments seem offensive to anyone, please accept my apologies. The intent was to illustrate attitudes that seem prevalent throughout our brotherhood. I spoke from within the environment with which I am familiar. However, it seems to me that there are several big elephants in the room and no one wants to admit they are there. Unless someone points out these things, they just don’t get discussed.
It’s like a congregation where I once worshipped that had an elder who, even though he was married and had children, was a practicing homosexual and nothing was done about it until he got caught publicly. Everyone just joked about it internally and pretended, otherwise, that the problem did not exist.
If anything, my comments were intended to generate discussion and not to denigrate any person or congregation. There is a missionary group within our brootherhood called “Let’s Start Talking.” okay, Lets start talking, but within our brotherhood. We are not all going to come to the same conclusions, but that does not preclude our continued loving one another in the spirit of Christ.
I realize this has gotten out of the realm of discussion about art and our use of it to enhance the effectiveness of our worship or personal ralationship with Christ. Again, please accept my apologies.
In Him
Carl Trimble
The great thing about artists is that they seem to view the Kingdom of God from perspectives that the the rest of us do not see. Then, through their art, they take us there. This morning I went to see Jacob’s Ladder at ACU. It is truly a gift from God and is very moving.
The challenge is that what is moving for me, may not be moving for someone else. Some are taken to the throne of God through Jacob’s Ladder, some are not. Some are taken to the throne of God through someone’s worship with a guitar, some are not. Some are taken through a painting or a dance, some are not. Some, I suppose, are taken through that statue in Memphis (proclaiming that true liberty, justice, and equality are only found in the Kingdom of God, not the kingdom of man) while some obviously are not. Our challenge is to grant grace to diverse works of art from a very different people in the vastly diverse Kingdom of God.
I am not an artist – but I love beautiful images and I love God. Combine the two together and you have a gift fron God. I appreciate the artistic talents of painters, musicians, sculptors. If I can speak for Christian artists, I think they draw inspiration from nature, the ones they love and the love of God. Growing up and being an altar boy in my Anglican church, when the Sermon was being delivered by our Minister, I listened to the words as I sat beside a beautiful stained glass window. It’s this warm, beautiful memory that inspired me to commission a reproduction of that window, called The Spence Window.
Please see for yourself at http://www.goodfridayart.com God bless!
As an architect / artist I would like to point out that art does not have to be obvious or seductive. Anyone can look at the Rockies and see the obvious awe inspiring beauty. A pine tree can be just as awe inspiring but we have to slow down enough to “see” it. Our tradition though has not valued art in part due to our modern / scientific roots. As long as our buildings function there is not any need for more. And in part I think many I have met with reject anything more for fear of the seductive.
Some of the most beautiful spaces I have experienced are in fact both simple and pure. Several years ago I had the privaledge to know and work with an architect that became a McArthur foundation “genius” before his death. He designed a building for a rural CofC here in Mississippi. The leadership he told me didn’t want any windows for fear of people looking out and being distracted. I was not surprised. His solution was (he couldn’t imagine a building without natural light) was to place custom screens over the windows that blocked the view but allowed indirect light.
A couple of years ago our Media guy was told not to show any more moving outdoor scenes on the church’s screen. Entertainment, I think. I find it strange that God’s creation would ever be seen as a distraction.
Thanks, Mike, for this reminder that our first glimpse of God is as Creator. As a person with almost no artistic ability, but one who is touched by all kinds of artistic expressions, I treasure the words I heard from you several years ago: that God made even the depths of the ocean beautiful, a place that most of us will never see. That makes me think that God created this beautiful earth, not only for us, but for His own pleasure.
As an artist (a word artist) and one who loves art in all its form, I appreciated this post and the comments. Thanks, Mike, for calling us to support beauty. Blessings.
One last comment. Posted on the wall of my studio is the statement that:
“The act of creating is the greatest proof of being alive.”
To me, this statement underlies the very act of our own creation. Our own creative acts are a metaphor for God’s creative act. Since we are created in God’s own image, what more powerful remembrance of that creation than our own attempts, no matter how successful or unsuccessful, at creating beauty.
To be alive in creating beauty for our worship spaces is my gift for honoring the First Creation of our being.