If you’ve read very many of my posts, you know that I closely follow arts policy – the area of arts practice that looks at how communities, institutions, and governments engage with and support the arts through funding, educational initiatives, community development projects, and other programs. So I was particularly excited to see that one of the sessions at the Forum would have guest speakers from the arts policy world, addressing the question “Why do the arts matter?”

You’d think we would have answered that question, many times over, right? So why ask it again at the Forum? Why would policy people, in particular, be asked to tackle it? And why do I keep asking it on the pages of this website?

Here’s why:

Too few people really do believe that the arts really do matter. If they did believe, we’d be seeing more action. Action follows belief.

Isn’t this what James’ letter is talking about throughout chapter 2 when he writes that “faith without works is dead”? Or, as The Message paraphrases, “Isn’t it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works?”

What I believe is expressed in my actions – and in my inaction. If the actions I want to see in myself aren’t there, I have to ask myself if the belief needed behind it is really there, if it is “alive” and even growing in power. If I mentally assent to an idea, but don’t then behave as if it’s true, then it isn’t really a belief at all – or, at best, is so weak (and even dying or dead, according to James) that it has no ability to act.

If I claim to believe that everything I have is God’s, and that he will provide for all my needs, yet I hoard money and fail to ever financially give to God’s work in the church, do I really believe?

If I claim to believe in compassion, yet I refuse the homeless man the dignity of eye contact and a smile, or pretend not to notice the pregnant woman on the bus so I don’t feel obliged to give up my seat to her, do I really believe?

If I claim to believe that the arts are important, yet I never attend arts events, or volunteer with an arts organization, or pray with and for a discouraged artist friend, do I really believe?

The arts policy world has recognized, during a time of financial anxiety and resulting cuts to funding for arts organizations and educational programs, that the real problem is not a lack of money, but a lack of belief in the importance of the arts to society. Money doesn’t equal action; belief equals action. Lots can be done in the arts without money, but not without belief.

That lack of belief – asking “Why do the arts matter?” or even “Do the arts matter?” – is what the arts policy world is tackling now, through commissioning research, through refocusing organizational missions, and through developing new programs. Through taking action.

What does this have to do with the faith-and-arts realm?

The closing session of the Forum was entitled “What about the role of the church in the arts?” In it, theologian Nicholas Wolterstorff said, “No one is hostile towards the arts in general.” He took that thought in a very interesting direction, which I’ll talk more about in the next post.

But his idea hearkens back to our “belief = action” premise. And he’s right. The research and statistics show that almost everyone mentally assents that the arts are important. But is an absence of hostility the same thing as belief? Does an absence of hostility lead to action? Nope, sorry. If it did, we’d have an abundance of vibrant, interesting arts activity going on all over our communities, churches, and schools. An absence of hostility might lead to “tolerance,” that most inert of modern buzzwords, but it doesn’t lead to action. Only living, growing belief leads to the sacrificial commitments – of attention, energy, time, resources, and more – needed to make something happen. To act.

I’m not suggesting that every church, Christian school, and faith-based organization needs to make the arts a top priority. But if our faith communities are not active in the arts, at all or enough, is it because they don’t really believe that the arts are important to God, to his Kingdom, and to his children?

And if they don’t believe, is it because we haven’t told them?

[You can find other things I’ve written about arts policy at Cardus online.]

The premise I’m working with, in the paper and in all of our advocacy work, is that unless we know what we’re doing – i.e. how the arts work – we can’t talk about why we’re doing it. And unless we can talk about why we’re doing it, we can’t engage support for it. And we need to engage support for it, in order to be able to do it better.

So far, the paper has focused on the “instrumental” benefits of the arts. You can read more about what these are in my summary of the terrific book, The Social Impact of the Arts. But, in a nutshell, the instrumental benefits of the arts are those that result in a change of some kind in an area that doesn’t necessarily relate specifically to the artwork. An example of this would be how watching a historical movie might make you more knowledgeable about a period in time; or how playing the violin can make you better at math (proven by many research studies); or how a well-designed campaign poster might impact how you vote. Knowing something about history, being better at math, and political activism are all effects of the “instrument,” or tool, of the work of art.

The alternative to “instrumental” benefits of the arts are “intrinsic” benefits of the arts, the belief that the arts are valuable in and of themselves, vs. as tools with which to achieve some other goal. It is the “art for art’s sake” perspective that has dominated views on the impact of the arts since the mid-1800s, and which many of us adhere to most strongly today. Even though, after my research, I have developed a new appreciation for instrumental benefits, I still cringe a little when I think about art being “used” to achieve some other agenda, unrelated to the work of art.

The church seems to be most comfortable with instrumental benefits. If a work is evangelistic, devotional, or leading in worship, it’s okay. But, for some Christians, invoking intrinsic worth to a work of human hands smacks a bit of idolatry – and, in fact, may have been what the Lord was warning against in the second commandment, and what the Protestant iconoclasts rejected.

The world, however, is torn between the two paradigms. In the realm I follow most closely, arts policy and education, it’s a battle that’s waging fiercely – mostly because it impacts how funding is apportioned and used. It’s a whole lot easier to justify spending money on proven outcomes; and it’s a whole lot easier to come up with statistics on outcomes for instrumental benefits. “X” number of arts students graduated from high school, vs. “Y” number who didn’t take arts classes. Local restaurants in an arts district made “Z” more dollars than those not in an arts district.

But how do you quantify “art for art’s sake”?

I have had a gut feeling for years that there was a way for Christians to speak into, and help to justify, the intrinsic argument, perhaps even helping the world view (and fund) it without crossing “church and state” lines. But I don’t quite have the language for it yet….

The book I’m reading now, Art in Action by Nicholas Wolterstorff, may help, since it took on the instrumental vs. intrinsic argument more than thirty years ago. I decided to pick up the book, after having it on my shelf unread for years, for three reasons:

• Wolterstorff is a well-known theologian and arts philosopher,
• I anticipated, based on the title, that he would have a disposition towards instrumentality, which I’m still trying to get comfortable with, and
• He is speaking at a conference that I’m attending this weekend.

Sidebar: I am SO excited about attending New City Arts’ Forum on “Art, City, and Society.” The New City Arts Initiative (Charlottesville, VA) is doing incredible work, and I’m so eager to learn more about them, and to benefit from everything they’ve accomplished. They have an A-list docket of speakers lined up, including Nicholas Wolterstorff and Dan Siedel, author of God in the Gallery, speaking on Sunday morning about the role of the church and the arts. If you can work it out to attend, I highly recommend it. They are taking walk-up registrations. And, if you ‘re going to be there, please let me know at luann@churchandart.org. I’d love to connect with you there.

Anyway….

I am not even ¼ of the way through Art in Action, and Dr. Wolterstorff is already helping me to better understand the “intrinsic,” or “art for art’s sake,” argument. In its purest form, it is not about idolizing works of art – although that has, unfortunately, been how it has sometimes played out in human life. It is about the role of contemplation in how we experience a work of art.

I’m a big fan of etymology, the study of how words evolved. And – Dr. Wolterstorff might get to this in the book – guess where “contemplate” comes from?

con (with) + templum (building for worship)

So it would seem that contemplation has a fundamentally spiritual context. Which is probably also the part of “art for art’s sake” that makes it scary for the church. And is probably also the part that makes it unquantifiable, and a little bit icky to talk about, for the world. How do you put a number on spirit? And how do you advocate for something you don’t even believe in?

Doesn’t that explain a lot?

More to come, as I continue my research….

• Case Studies: Fire Exit Theatre; Harrison Center for the Arts
• Interview: Art collector John Kohan
• Books: The Social Impact of the Arts; new books by C&A members
• Gatherings: Member Gatherings
• Blogs: Recent C&A posts
• C&A News: Spring is a Growing Season

Case Studies

Conversations about Faith, On Stage and Off

Fire Exit Theatre in Calgary, Alberta, creates stories and relationship based in faith. Read online or download PDF.

Loving a Neighborhood Through the Arts

Harrison Center for the Arts (Indianapolis) was started by a church, and now serves its community in innovative ways. Read online or download PDF.

Interview

Sacred Art Pilgrim

John Kohan is one of the quiet heroes of the arts, as his collection of sacred art grows. Read online or download PDF.

Books

The Social Impact of the Arts: An Intellectual History

By Eleonora Belfiore and Oliver Bennett. In the first piece from our new “book summary” feature, we take a look at this fascinating academic overview of over 2,000 years of thought about how the arts impact individuals and culture. Read online or download PDF.

New books by C&A Members

Heartbreak and faith are twin strands threading through Caduceus by Sørina Higgins. In this book, Sørina ”takes the stuff of myth, legend, history and mystery and pours it into her visceral poems” (Luci Shaw). This “remarkable young poet” (Jeanne Murray Walker) embraces “the lyric and the narrative, the sexy and the sacred” (Dana Gioia). Available at amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Geoff Hall has been an arts mentor for 12 years. He’s a published author with Upptacka Press with Spiritual Direction in a Postmodern Landscape, a series written for the spiritually intelligent artist at work in mainstream culture. He’s also a filmmaker with his company Handy Cloud Productions – his latest production is the human trafficking film, My Name Is Sorrow.

Gatherings

New City Arts Forum: Art, City, and Society

April 20-22, Charlottesville, VA. Featuring Nicholas Wolterstorff, Dan Siedell, and more. More info.

C&A Director, Luann Jennings, will be attending and would love to meet up with you there! Contact her at luann@churchandart.org.

Living Victoriously in Hollywood

Saturday April 29, Chatsworth CA. Michele Wood of Good NewZ Media will lead this one-day seminar to help you flourish in a most influential arena. Email for more info, info@goodnewZmedia.com.

The Creative Church Conference

Indianapolis June 15-17, Boise July 13-15. Forums for ideas and practices that can take churches and artists to new levels of glorifying God by ministering in the arts. More info.

Have a gathering you want announced? Contact info@churchandart.org.

Blogs

The Value of the Arts

While writing a new white paper for C&A, Director Luann Jennings blogged about her research (and diversions) in “Art as a Tool for Communities,” and “Another Way of Arts Leadership.” See a preview of the white paper, “A Model for Moving Forward.”

Pastor James Kearny, author of C&A article “The Gift of Leadership,” also blogged about the question he often gets about arts programs in his church: “Now, why are we doing this?“

Spring is a Growing Season

I’m glad it’s spring. Between loving flowers and hating cold weather, I’m always relieved to welcome it. Usually it comes after a few weeks of thinking “it’s never going to get here,” but this year it came quickly.

I also still have the “school” rhythm in my blood, and, like the buds on the trees that will be fully in leaf in a few weeks, spring is the beginning of the end of the school year and the long, luxurious break afterward – another welcomed event.

For the same “rhythm” reason, my other favorite time of year is, strangely, fall, and going back to school. After a summer of working part-time jobs and lounging around, I was always ready for the structure of school and the anticipation of new knowledge and experiences just around the corner.

This year, I’ll see that rhythm at play again. My academic-year part-time job will scale back for the summer, but instead of lounging I’ll be ramping up on C&A project development, particularly a new workshop series and curriculum on arts leadership for churches and Christian colleges. I plan to have that ready to offer for the 2012-13 academic year. Let me know if it’s something your church or school might be interested in; I’d love to get your input.

I’m also starting work on a book proposal, including several chapters. One chapter will be based on the white paper I’ve been working on, previewed on the blog, “A Model for Moving Forward.” I need to do some more research in order to finish it, which I won’t have time for until school ends for the summer, but I’ll aim to include the nearly-done version in the next eJournal to start getting your feedback.

Just like C&A, the book will be a collaborative project between me and you, and I really want to hear about your information and resource needs as I develop the content.

I hope your spring has also been filled with beauty, joy, and the promise of rest and “new growth”!

As always, email us at info@churchandart.org if you have any questions or need anything.

Blessings on your work,

Luann Jennings
C&A Director

I get to talk to a lot of people – from all over the world, working in all kinds of leadership, ministry, and art-making activities – about what they see going on in the faith-and-arts movement. Over the last couple of years, I’ve heard several people say the same thing: we’re at a turning point. They – and I – believe that turning point is about moving from a journey of analysis and understanding into a more practical arena of making things happen. What I’ve heard, and said, sounds something like this: “We’ve pretty much got this whole faith-and-art thing figured out, theologically and historically. Now let’s do something with it, and about it. “

We stand on the shoulders of amazing theologians, scholars, and artist-practitioners.

I place the starting point of the movement nearly sixty-five years back in time, when art historian Hans Rookmaaker and theologian Francis Schaeffer met. Their relationship and writings ignited a new way of thinking about the arts within the church, particularly the evangelical Protestant church. They, and many others around and after them, began hacking their way through a theological jungle of suspicion, judgment, and misinformation within the church about the whole messy operation of the arts and the people who do them. These thinkers have left us a clearing in which we can – and must – now build a village.

Artistic village-building, step 1

I have two obsessions when it comes to faith and the arts:

1. Understanding how the arts work;
2. Building God’s kingdom by capitalizing on that knowledge.

These desires are based on several assumptions:

• The arts are worth thinking about.
• The arts work in particular, knowable ways.
• The arts are important to God.
• The arts can be useful in building God’s kingdom.
• Knowing how the arts work makes us more effective in building God’s kingdom.

The first assumption in that chain is the one I am focusing on most these days, and one we must get right if we are to make it to the last step in the chain: The arts are worth thinking about. This assumes that the arts have value, that they make an impact, and that they are (or can be) beneficial to humanity.

If we don’t believe that, and can’t convince others of it, we won’t get much further.

The value of the arts for the church

Because I am a Christian, I am looking at these issues of value and impact through a specifically Christian lens. All true value comes from God, and his purposes will be reflected in any beneficial impact.

Many people outside of the church are also talking about these issues of value and benefit, for many reasons, mostly having to do with public policy and funding. On a certain level, we’re also thinking about policy within the faith-and-arts movement, in that we’re trying to determine the best ways to support and advocate for the arts in and for the church.

One of the most cogent and comprehensive overviews of the value and benefits of the arts can be found in The Social Impact of the Arts: An Intellectual History by Eleonora Belfiore and Oliver Bennett. The book, written from a secular viewpoint, provides an excellent overview of the main theories about the impact of the arts – both positive and negative – over 2,500 years of Western history.

Belfiore and Bennett create seven categories of “positive” impacts of the arts and one “negative” category; and they sort dozens of specific arguments about the benefits and dangers of the arts into those eight helpful categories.

My purpose is to align Belfiore and Bennett’s categories with the types and purposes of “arts ministry” that I’ve seen Christians create during my eighteen years of listening to and working in the faith-and-arts movement. I hope this grid and analysis will provide a useful model for thinking about and discussing how we can move forward in our artistic village-building, and Kingdom-building.

Keep watching for more! Once the article is complete, I’ll add a link to this page. Or check our Articles section within Resources.

For a couple of centuries now, the arts have have been more open to women leaders than many other sectors. As a 20+ year veteran of arts leadership, both in creative areas (as a theatre director and acting teacher) and on the organizational level (as an artistic director, program director, and arts entrepreneur), I don’t recall ever feeling discriminated against because I was a woman. Of course, I may not have been aware of it, or may have attributed it differently in my naivete. But the arts are a remarkably egalitarian arena in which women’s unique ways of leadership are generally embraced rather than condemned.

The Guardian blog post, “Hierarchy to network: how women are choosing to change the world,” is a response to a study published as part of their “Women in the Arts” week which showed a significant and persistent gap in pay and organizational rank for women in the arts.

The post’s author, Lizzie Crump, writes:

To me, leaders are people who have innovative and exciting ideas and make them happen. They are people who can see things they want to change in the world and then make plans to instigate the changes. They bring others with them, sometimes by doing and making stuff, sometimes by inspiring, listening, by asking difficult questions, and mostly by helping people articulate and get motoring on their own plans.

It seems to me that there are lots and lots of different ways to lead, and from where I stand I can see thousands of women in the arts getting on with it and doing brilliant things. Some of them are looking at the ladder that leads to the directorship of big cultural institutions and are climbing up it (and I salute them), but other women I know are looking at that ladder, dismantling it and making it into other things: bridges, bicycles, rafts and communication devices.

I was particularly moved (and smugly encouraged) to read later in the blog:

Old notions of hierarchy seem to be dissolving and the strength of our relationships with each other are becoming more and more important. Those women setting up networks, writing blogs, pulling together collectives and testing out new ways of working seem to me to be ahead of the curve – creating a new arts ecology and not just responding to it.

As Christian women – people whose leadership ability was recognized by Jesus and the church long before it was by the broader cultures in which they lived – we can be invigorated and excited to see that the “new arts ecology” is more grassroots than hierarchical; and that traditionally “feminine” ways of leading like nurturing others and investing in relationships are not only precious to God and community life, but are working in the arts in an economic environment that is demanding new approaches.

I encourage all arts leaders to keep up with the discussions happening in the broader arts community. Many of the issues are the same ones we’re dealing with in the church, and it will give us new ways of thinking and talking, as well as knowing how to pray for and engage with the arts in the world. The Guardian’s Culture Professionals Network is a great tool. Although it’s UK-specific, most of what is published is general and applicable to the US and elsewhere.  Arts Journal is probably the best that we have covering the US, although it’s so comprehensive it can be overwhelming, and it isn’t specifically leadership-oriented.

I’ll include a list of arts leadership blogs I follow in a future post. If anyone has other suggestions, please add them to “Comments” below!

This advocacy question is a huge area for many working in the arts today, and although there are slightly different angles/issues within the church than in the larger arts community, the conversations tend to sound remarkably alike.

More on that soon.

But as part of my research I found two recent articles I wanted to suggest. They discuss one arena in which the arts’ value is being recognized. Arts leaders, as well as government officials and other community leaders, are mobilizing around the arts as powerful tools for community renewal.

The first article, “Cities are Banking on the Arts,” gives a very good overview of the history and current thinking in this area, and provides some great examples of how well these initiatives have worked.

The second article, “Arts economy rises on the southwest prairie,” is a smaller-scale example but really shows what one person can do even in the smallest town. This is not a movement limited to the city! Part of the story involves the “redemption” of a church building from the wrecking ball to creative use – something I absolutely love hearing about!

I’ll go ahead and preview what I’m working on: “Art as community renewal” is an example of an instrumental impact of the arts – i.e. that the arts are valuable because they are tools (or instruments) to achieve other goals. These city planners and arts leaders have learned that cultivating the arts in their community is one route toward accomplishing something that’s inherently important – safe and clean streets, economic vitality, social justice, and more.

But beyond the many proven instrumental benefits of the arts are questions about the intrinsic value of the arts, art for art’s sake, as a simple but powerful expression of humanity’s creative nature and dignity. That art is valuable because it – is.

This is obviously a much fuzzier rationale, the benefits of which are difficult if not impossible to describe and quantify in a grant application or program proposal. But, as children of a Creator who made the cedars of Lebanon for reasons beyond shade and wood*,  perhaps it is upon the intrinsic value of the arts that we Christians should be directing more of our gaze and our efforts.

More on that soon.

*I can’t take credit for the tree analogy – it’s from Hans Rookmaaker, Art Needs No Justification.

Are you working in the arts for community renewal? If so, we’d love to hear more about your project and possibly include it as a case study. Contact info@churchandart.org. 

Our church puts on a play each year to raise money for the youth mission trip. My wife and I were professional theatre people before our call to pastor churches, so we have fun putting on these small productions—especially surprising the audience members who come, understandably, with extremely low expectations.

This year was different. We were unsure of whether or not the youth were going on a mission trip and only a few youth were in the play. Early on, an adult leader asked the question, “Now, why are we doing this?” Without the practical motivation of raising money for a worthy cause, what’s left to support all the expense and bother of putting on a show?

That night, we had a rehearsal. Scene 2 featured Bilbo Baggins encountering three trolls, who speak, for some reason, in a Cockney dialect. It’s a silly scene, including a fight which is basic slapstick: ear biting, leg gnawing, crotch kicking, foot stomping. The whole rehearsal turned silly. One troll decided he was a southern redneck, another stuck with Cockney, we strayed far from the script. In the midst of it all, one troll actor—a young man with a new job, two small children, and plenty of life pressure—started saying “I’m back!” “It’s great to be back!” Etc. I looked at my wife—the director—and said, “That’s why we’re doing this. It’s fun.” No more justification needed.

How often in your Christian walk are you compelled to be serious, to face hard stuff? While this is necessary, we can end up missing the joy in life. We can become a dour lot, like the good Scotsman of old, eating his daily mess of oatmeal without sugar or cream in the name of thriftiness. God created this world good, and despite the Fall there is much good left to be savored and enjoyed.

Where’s the life abundant Jesus promised? Sometimes theatre, or art, done simply for the joy of it, can hit your reset button, can open a space for the Spirit to restore the joy of your salvation, so you can say, “I’m back!”

After 15 years as a carpenter, and professional training as an actor, James Kearny was called to serve as a pastor. James is passionate about exploring the intersection of ministry and the arts while striving to lead God’s people to be mature followers of Christ. A graduate of Yale University, James met his future wife Cristie while pursuing acting at Cornish College on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. A call to ministry led them to seminary, then to a large Presbyterian church in Knoxville, then back home to Seattle where he is senior pastor of Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church. James and family are grateful to be ministering to a neighborhood near and dear to their hearts and their history.

In this edition:

• Gatherings: Upcoming NYC Gathering March 10; Member Gatherings
• Case Studies: Master’s Academy of Fine Arts; the Limner Society
• Articles: The Art of Submission; The Gift of Leadership
• Books: Member Recommendations
• Blogs: The Moment Hits You; Member Blogs
• C&A News: New Year, New Look

Gatherings

C&A Gathering: Saturday, March 10, NYC
Join C&A network members and friends in New York City to get to know each other and grow as leaders! First we’ll gather to discuss “Talking So Donors Will Listen” with fundraising consultant Sarah Chung (3pm). After dinner together, we’ll attend a talk by C&A member, author and theologian Jeremy Begbie: “A World Made New: The Art of Resurrection and the Resurrection of Art” at Redeemer Presbyterian Church (7pm). Both events are free of charge. More info and RSVP.

Member Gatherings
New City Arts Forum, “Art, City, and Society,” featuring Nicholas Wolterstorff, Dan Siedell, and more. April 20-22, Charlottesville, VA. More info.

the Limner Society Gathering, May 25-28, NYC. Become part of a visual arts renaissance! Apply by March 1. More info or see Limner Case Study.

Have a gathering you want announced? Contact info@churchandart.org.

Case Studies

Triumph and Transition: Master’s Academy of Fine Arts
Master’s Academy is a pioneer in arts education for the homeschool market. Read online or download PDF.

The Painters Who Travel from Town to Town: the Limner Society
Four art school graduates used their connection of faith, art, and friendship to serve communities around the world. Read online or download PDF.

Articles

The Art of Submission
Worship director and ministry leader Rick Jensen says submission in the lives of artists is an “ongoing public display of joyful death and life in Christ.” Read online or download PDF.

The Gift of Leadership
Pastor and actor, James D. Kearny, Jr., discusses the spiritual gifts of leadership and administration for artists. Read online or download PDF.

Blogs

The Moment Hits You
This three-part series on the C&A blog looks at the how the arts impact us, and how content and context matter for Christian arts leaders.

Member Blogs
Two blogs on worship arts: Bruce Benedict reports on the 2012 Calvin Symposium on Worship on the Cardiphonia blog; and David Taylor writes a two-part series on “Conditions for the ‘Successful’ Formation of Worship Art” on “Diary of An Arts Pastor.”

Books

Member Recommendations
What are your favorite books on faith and the arts? Four C&A members share theirs.

C&A News

New Year, New Look

So, this is different, huh? For those who have been with C&A for awhile, what you see this month is the result of a lot of prayer, soul-searching, research, and good counsel from great colleagues.

In order to best utilize C&A resources while serving the needs of our members and readers, C&A is shifting focus toward resource development. So what was primarily an announcement eNewsletter is now an information eJournal.

Networking is still a vital component of what C&A is about, but it will look a little different. We’ll learn more about and hear from C&A members in the eJournal each month, and we’ll connect to each other through the C&A office and at gatherings. In time, we plan to fully automate our network online, using technology for what it does best!

More information will be sent to C&A members about the new direction, and how you can submit ideas, write stories, and get more involved. If you’re not a member yet, find out more and join here!

As always, email us at info@churchandart.org if you have any questions or need anything.

Blessings on your work,

Luann Jennings
C&A Director

What makes the center squares look different from each other when they’re actually exactly the same color? Context.

In my “The Moment Hits You” blog series, I’ve been looking at the factors that give a work of art impact, and why that’s something we need to understand as Christian leaders in the arts.

And, just like the center squares above, things look different ways in different contexts. Sometimes the moment hits you in the wrong way.

Here’s an embarrassing personal story of my biggest “oops” (to date) in arts ministry:

About a dozen years ago, I became the poster child for why some people don’t support increased arts presence in the church.

While on a church staff, I brought in a theatre piece I had seen performed at a conference. It was an amazing, moving piece that I thought would be perfect for a special worship service. People brought their children, thinking it would be interesting and entertaining for them.

What slipped past me is that the piece contained a moment in which one character “damned” another character – using the term in its correct religious meaning and not at all frivolously or gratuitously. It didn’t hit me when I saw the piece at the conference. It didn’t hit the worship director when she viewed a videotape of the piece. But it sure hit us – along with everyone in the audience and their six-year-olds – in the context of a worship service. A minor uproar ensued; thankfully, handled individually and privately but no less embarrassingly for me.

(In the performance’s defense, the promoter anticipated this and actually tried to talk me into dropping that segment from the show as they usually did in worship services; but I insisted that it was the “best part” of the piece. Of course, he knew much better than I did, from having been around that track before. And, certainly, the whole audience didn’t respond negatively. In fact, some came to me and told me how profoundly moved they were by that moment.)

Was there something inherently “wrong” with the performance, simply because it contained a word that was shocking in that context? No, absolutely not. And, in fact, in the original context in which I saw it, the moment probably added to the impact of the piece on me. But, when moved to a worship service with a hundred children sitting in it, rather than supporting the piece – drawing the audience in and intensifying its impact – the moment did the opposite, breaking the audience’s connection with the piece and reminding them where they were and who was around them.

Other times in arts ministry we deliberately take a risk, in order to leverage the potential shock value of context.

In a Good Friday service that included projections of art images of Christ on the cross, I added one in which Christ was naked. I caught some flak for that, too, but I had carefully considered the context and made a deliberate decision to push the edges a bit. The congregation was going to be small in a three-hour, come-and-go daytime service; the very purpose of the service was to meditate on Christ’s humiliation and suffering; it was one of many artistic interpretations of the crucifixion to be shown; and children wouldn’t be present. (I had also covered my back by having the image approved in advance by my immediate supervisor – always a good idea when there are any doubts.) The image was very effective, in context, and had a great impact.

I walked by that painting in an art museum years later and almost didn’t notice it. It was actually more powerful in the Good Friday context than on the wall of a museum. Go figure.

Anybody who’s worked in the arts within churches or other Christian environments has these kinds of stories, of both intentional risks taken and of controversies that took us by surprise. Fortunately our God is a God who both deliberately shocks, and generously forgives.

Context can be a useful, objective way to communicate with people who come to you with ideas and suggestions that would be problematic to your program:

• If Little Johnny’s mother wants him to play his trumpet solo from middle school orchestra in a worship service: “I’d love to support Johnny, but a worship service isn’t the best context in which to do that.”
• If the singles ministry wants to show an R-rated romantic comedy at their Valentine’s Day event: “I don’t have any problem with people seeing R-rated movies if they choose, but some of our members do, so we really can’t show one within an official ministry context.”
• If a writer submits an essay for the literary magazine that is politically inflammatory: “This is a very interesting piece, but because readers will assume that something published by the church is endorsed by it, we really can’t print it in this context.”

Of course, in your particular context, the answers to these requests might be different.

But “context” allows you to deal lovingly with some of the peskiest issues we get: quality (if someone’s work just isn’t up to the level needed), content (as in my examples), potential for divisiveness, alignment with the mission of the church, etc.

You’re not saying that Johnny’s trumpet solo, R-rated movies, or a political diatribe are inherently bad things (even if, perhaps, you believe they are) – you’re just saying, “not right here, not right now.”

If you want to be able to include Johnny’s solo, R-rated movies, and political writing in your programming in some way, but the right context doesn’t currently exist, create it! Most of the innovative projects I’ve seen developed have grown out of a great idea and the need for a context in which to incorporate it (and that sounds like a great idea for a future blog!).

Reread part 1 and part 2 of the series.

Note: Luann’s opinions are not the official stance of Church and Art Network, nor does she speak for all of its members. The “content issue” is an area in which there are many differing perspectives. In an area this important to our work, it is important that we have thoughtful and respectful conversations, and love those who differ from us.

Impact. Stop. Turn. Force. Listen. Look.

Going back to that blog: stunned, aroma, sneaking up, revisits, move me, put ourselves in its way, take risks, create, worship, open up a space, turned the page, drawn in, opened, stood before, said “thank you, Lord.”

Get where I’m going here?

Here’s my philosophy about how art* works – which you’ll be hearing a lot about from me in the next weeks and months – and why art is uniquely needed in the Church, and art created by the Church is desperately needed in the world:

Art is sensory. It is physical. When it’s working well we should have a physical, visceral, vocal experience with and response to it. Although an art “moment” may cause you also to think, learn, and discuss, that is not where its strongest impact lies. It’s in how the moment “hits” you.

Art doesn’t carry information well.

I’ve heard Tim Keller say: “You can use a high-heeled shoe to pound a nail into the wall, but it’s neither what the shoe was designed for nor the most effective hammer.” I don’t think he was talking about art at the time (I don’t really remember, the image just stuck with me), but it certainly applies to art. (And don’t take this metaphor too far – I’m not saying that art is like a high-heeled shoe or that the Gospel like a hammer….)

What does this mean for Christians, then, in making art? At the end of the Part 1 post, I asked (and I’m paraphrasing): When we create an arts moment for an audience, do we have an obligation to point, directly, through the “content” of the piece, to God?

My definitive answer on that: it depends.

Artists have to have the freedom to point directly to God if that is what the work of art needs, if it is integral and organic to the work of art, and if it directly contributes to the impact of the piece. We underestimate the world when we think that they will disregard our art if it contains sincere and necessary (to the work) Christian substance. Just look at all of the plays that have appeared on- and off-Broadway in the past few years (Godspell is playing now, Jesus Christ Superstar opens soon) that deal directly with faith. Our audiences are not afraid of this content. No one is complaining that the Sistine Chapel is “too Christian.”

But they’re smart enough to recognize a sermon dressed in aesthetic wrappings, or realize when they’re being manipulated for evangelistic purposes.

I’ve heard the story of a Muslim in the Middle East who became curious about Christianity when watching dubbed reruns of “Little House on the Prairie,” and sought out a New Testament. Was he being evangelized by the Ingalls or the show’s producers? Would he have watched if he thought he was? Yet he was moved by the show to seek out the Word, which saved him.

Artists also have to have the freedom to let their work say what it needs to say, without having to tie it up with a Gospel ribbon in every artistic situation. We hamstring our artists when we limit what they can say and how they can say it in their creative work to only what we’d accept from their lives as faithful Christians.

Then the question becomes one of “context.” The topic of part 3.

*Remember that when I say “art” and “artist,” I am talking about all of the arts, not just visual art.

Note: Luann’s opinions are not the official stance of Church and Art Network, nor does she speak for all of its members. The “content issue” is an area in which there are many differing perspectives. In an area this important to our work, it is important that we have thoughtful and respectful conversations, and love those who differ from us.