On Artistic Endeavors in the Church

A friend recently asked me for my thoughts on the role of art within the church. Here they are. Hopefully you will not find them an utter waste.

In my particular strand of the Christian faith (basically “evangelical/non-denominational”) we have historically kept the arts at a distance except for music used in worship services. As a result, we’ve been art-poor for most of our history.

The self-imposed artistic poverty has shown in our architecture (boring), services, clothing, music (I won’t even mention our attempts at movie-making — wow it’s been bad), etc.

Now, many of our churches are exploring the other side of the coin.

While we sat in our boring buildings on Sundays, the culture became much more centered around sophisticated visual design. At the same time, the ability to capture the attention of a group of people has become more elusive with seemingly ever present high-quality spectacles of sports, movies, concerts, and politics.

Some leaders of various churches realized the growing separation between their art-devoid communities of faith and the larger society around them. They further realized that this gap led to fewer and fewer people outside the church finding what was going on inside the church of interest or having meaning in their lives.

As a result, many churches have tried to close the artistic gap between themselves and the broader culture. Unfortunately, I believe that for the most part, we have simply co-opted the techniques of others without serious thought about the nature of art and its purposes beyond a rather simplistic and purely utilitarian approach to remain “relevant”.

Let’s attempt to journey beyond simplistic thinking together in the next few paragraphs.

What is art?

Even in asking such a broad questions, I know that my answer will come up short. But I offer my answer as a starting point for others to build upon and repair.

Art: The creative expression of human beings that arises in response to their experiences of God, each other, and the created universe. Generally, thought of in terms of music, literature, and visual media.

The image of God is reflected in the very existence of the artist. They, like God, bring forth from within what has not existed before.

Unlike God, of course, human artists are not truly creating from nothing. Rather, we create in response to what has already been created — by God or by others.

One note which may seem quite self-evident to those outside the church but not necessarily to those within it. Art is not only about God. It is also about our experiences of each other and the rest of the created order. It does not have to be directly about God to be good.

This statement of course begs the next question…

What is good Art?

It is fashionable in recent times to say that there no such thing as good or bad art. While more reasons for such thinking are surely offered, let us consider two.

The first, we which shall dispense with quickly, is simply that this statement provides pseudo-intellectual cover for those who simply do not wish to put in the great effort necessary to achieve a high level of skill.

If there is no such thing as objectively good art, then why can’t I pass off my 1st semester project as legitimate art simply because I feel it expresses me. We will not waste time here.

The second reason is founded in moral relativism. It logically follows that if there is no good or bad universally speaking, there would be no reasonable grounds to assert that there could be good or bad art either.

Unlike the first argument, which deals with the skill level employed by the artist producing the work, this argument concerns the content of the creation itself.

It is the pervasiveness of this world view that has allowed so many of the recent artistic products of our culture to promote all manner of wickedness. And at this point the Christian artist must stand in opposition to the prevailing thinking.

For despite what the current politically correct mantra is, there is good and there is bad. All goodness finds it’s origin in God. That which reflects his character, will, and attributes is good. The opposite is also true. That which is in conflict these things is evil and destructive.

It is interesting (and I think worthy of further thought) that the artist seems rather more advanced in his moral relativism than other professions in American/Western society. We still hold onto the vestiges of what it is to be a bad doctor, company, policeman, or (of course) politician. But we have wholly lost the ability to differentiate between good and bad artists.

The Responsibility of the Christian Artist

All Christians are called to follow the example of Christ, the only perfect representation of human goodness ever known. Just as he is obligated in his personal life to be conformed evermore to the image of Christ, so is the Christian artist also obligated to create that which is keeping with the character and will of God.

There is a danger here in getting overly prescriptive. One must be thoughtful and avoid snap judgements whenever creating and evaluating art. But one must not also refrain from judgement when it is necessary.

Let us lay out a few areas where what is right is fairly plain.

Truthfulness

In God there are no lies. Only the truth. Good art must not spread falsehood. By this I do not mean that good art cannot take place in a fantastical setting (i.e. Harry Potter / Narnia), but that is must not present that which is false as the truth.

The Christian artist does not deal in propaganda.

Another aspect of truthfulness is the willingness to respond to the world as it actually is: terribly broken and full of suffering. Too often have Christians insisted on a insipid pollyannaish presentation of the world in their art.

We cannot be avenues of God’s grace to a world that we refuse to see. Only by looking at the brokenness of the world straight on can we hope to change it. Good art sees the truth, and speaks truth into it.

Wholehearted & Mighty

I’ve struggled to come up with the right word for this category. I was tempted to use excellent but I’m afraid that is easily misunderstood.

Good art cannot be made by the artist who will not give himself fully to his work. It cannot be created by half-measures and partial committments. Good art requires the engagement of the whole heart and all the artist’s might.

If you want to deeply move your audience, you must first deeply commit to the art you are creating.

Open to God

Everything in the universe is held together by Christ’s will. He is literally everywhere, upholding and directing all things.

Yet, in his wisdom, he choses to to reveal himself to us in varying degrees throughout our lives. So it should be with Christian art.

For the most part, it seems that Christian artists make their messages very explicit in their work. We seem to believe that if it isn’t something you hear in a typical church service, it isn’t good art.

While there is a place for explicitness, too much of it becomes monotonous, heavy-handed and pushes people away.

Since God is often very subtle, we ought to take note of this an employ some subtlety ourselves at times. Let us be open to the possibility of creating art that, like nature itself, points to God — but doesn’t necessarily spell it out for our audiences all the time.

To put it in another way, it does all have to be Chris Tomlin (though I think he’s great). It can also be U2.

The Role of the Arts in the Church

Let us return to where we started, with a local congregation that has realized it needs to engage in the arts to reach the community it exists within.

Those in leadership in such congregations can start by taking seriously their obligation to equip the artists of their congregations to develop their talents and to use them to fulfill God’s calling on their lives, both inside and outside the congregation.

Artists who happen to work or volunteer for churches must be helped to see that the goal of their work is not a fancy t-shirt or a concert like “experience”. Those may or may not be tactics employed by the artists, but they need to see the bigger picture — that their work can be a bridge between heaven and earth.

We must keep in mind that we do not create to improve the standing of our church. It is not about the church’s relevance, or success, or whatever. Rather, we create to bring into being new avenues through which Christ may pour forth his healing and draw men & women to reconciliation with God.

Let that be our goal no matter the assignment we are given.