[The following letter is an opportunity to talk to the many Christian young people who feel disapproval from family and church in their pursuit of an artistic vocation. In my experience, many of these young people abandon their Christian faith as they go through rejection and misunderstanding. This letter is an encouragement and some advice regarding staying on the path of following Christ into an artistic vocation.]
Dear Andrew,
So very good to hear from you. I can’t believe that your third year of college is approaching. Time passes so quickly. It only seems a few weeks ago that you were in senior English, writing essays about the elements of literature. Now you are on your way to Chicago for a year studying photography with professionals. All of us are very proud of you, and I am personally honored that you’ve kept in touch.
On to your questions. Your alienation from your religious upbringing troubles you far more than it does me. I share most of your objections to the criticisms of your choices you’ve heard from many Christians, and I suspect they are rooted in many shared experiences. It doesn’t take long to discover that, at least among the Baptist churches we are both familiar with, there are severe problems in conceiving of anything in a Christian vocation outside of a few well-worn and familiar options. This means two things are almost certainly going to happen as you grow up and talk about the calling that interests you.
First, there will probably be no one in your church who is a model or example of, in your case, an artist who is consciously creating art as a Christian. In all my years in various churches, I’ve known one graphic artist, and he was held in high suspicion if he did anything beyond designing Christian t-shirts or logos for churches. In your case, you’ve discovered other artists, but they are far from your Baptist background or spiritual commitments and have facilitated much of your current ability to view your own roots with a critical, even cynical, eye. I worry this will lead you away from not just your church- which is probably a good and necessary thing- but away from a meaningful faith.
Second, it’s quite likely you’ll never hear pastoral teaching or preaching that give specific endorsements of an artistic vocation or very much encouragement in your creativity. Frankly, if an artist isn’t willing to become an illustrator for Sunday School materials or some similar ministry, no one really knows what to say to him or her. Unless you find yourself in a very unusual church or fellowship, expect to be left alone at best, and most likely misunderstood in ways that will, intentionally or unintentionally, prove hurtful.
Once you arrive at some self-confidence that God has, indeed, made you an artist and that your joy in life will come from using artistic and creative gifts, it is entirely understandable that, given these experiences, you will see the church as your enemy. Your particular experiences in the rural Baptist fundamentalism here in Kentucky are almost certainly going to leave you feeling like others believe you’ve gone over to “the world.” Your parent’s church will take one look at your appearance and feel threatened. You’ll be in the category of a “backslider,” or one who has abandoned the good ways he once followed as a member of the youth group.
When I meet young artists or musicians such as yourself, I feel a lot of compassion, because it seems like you are seeking to glorify God and honor him, but your family and childhood church cannot see this because it is so far outside of the box of what they consider acceptable. I hope and pray that you will remember that however they treat you, they are operating out of assumptions they believe are right and true. Your angry response will do much to convince them that they are right in seeing you as deserting the faith, or your Christ-like response will prompt them to see Christ in you, and to consider that God may be calling and gifting you in ways they haven’t considered.
Your brother’s comment that you are in rebellion against God is interesting. I’ve noticed that many in our particular branch of fundamentalism believe there are two ways to show that you love God: 1) Say that you love God in preaching, music or testimony and 2) Convert others to Christianity. (I should acknowledge that there are other acceptable ways, such as being a good husband and father, but I am thinking of your situation now.)
Oddly, what this tends to produce is a lot of “loud” announcements of how much we love God. Praise songs that say “I love God!” over and over. Lots of young people entering the ministry, going on mission trips, taking up “Praise and Worship” music careers. All of this is aimed at getting the “amen” of the church or at converting the lost.
What about someone who wants to show their love for God by designing a building, writing a song about life or, in your case, photographing the landscapes of the city? Our fundamentalist friends cannot see God in it. It’s very much suspect. How are you loving God if you aren’t SAYING SO in ways “they” understand?
I know. It’s quite frustrating. It seems easy to conceive that life has a center- in our case the Lordship of Christ- and that from that center all kinds of vocations spring forth, honoring God in manifold ways. Instead, the church has often put itself and a narrow agenda at the center of life, and condemned whatever did not serve that narrow agenda. In the end, we’re left with a sense that “worldly” callings are evil, and only a preacher, worship leader or missionary are serving God.
Andrew, it is our duty to resist this with all our might. We must, as persons who have an ultimate loyalty to Jesus Christ, show what it means to follow him. We cannot let this challenge to discipleship- and that is what it is- go unanswered. It is a distortion, and it is very harmful to the demonstration of God’s glory through the gifts he has given to people. It condemns many of God’s children, and impoverishes the church.
How can we answer this distortion? Before I say anything else, I must say that gentleness and kindness, not raucous argument, defensiveness or intentional martyrdom, are the answers. Show the joy of Jesus Christ to those who insist you cannot possibly be in fellowship with Christ. I say this knowing that arguments with your family have already occurred and will probably happen again. Do your best to show that the heart of your calling is the love Jesus showed when rejected and misunderstood. Be willing to suffer, but be willing to love.
Three specifics come to mind as encouragements to you.
1. While pursuing art without labels, be able and willing to define yourself as a Christian artist, and do it in an uncompromising way. I have grown so weary of hearing young people abandon any true relation of their art to Jesus Christ, and instead saying rather meaningless things about “believing in God” or “being thankful to God for my talent.” A true Christian artist can give a reason for his or her art- a specific, intelligible, definite Christian understanding that can stand alongside other explanations of art. This isn’t smacking a fish on the bottom of a painting or writing praise choruses. It is being able to relate anything in the creative arts to the God who unique reveals himself in Jesus Christ.
I’m sure you remember when we studied the short stories of Flannery O’Connor, and how my announcement that she was my favorite Southern Christian writer illicited quite an argument from one of our staff students. She couldn’t understand how someone who didn’t write overtly about Jesus or Christians could be called a Christian writer. My answer to her holds true for all kinds of art: O’Connor writes in the Christian universe, with all her characters and all her stories describing good and evil in the world the Bible describes to us after sin has ruined paradise. She chooses to show us evil as it occurs in the lives and experiences of memorable Southern characters. She’s true to a Christian vision, in fact, much truer than the vast majority of writer’s at the “Christian fiction” section of your local Lifeway. Christ figures abound in her stories, if you are open to see them.
It is simply very difficult for many Christians to relate God to art if the art does not depict God in ways they recognize: Bible stories, familiar images, moralisms. To show God’s universe, and our moral landscape, in images that are honest or even disturbing will be a difficult vocation, but a Christian must do the work of not only creating, but of conceiving the presence of God, truth and revelation within that vocation. You are such a person. You have the tenacity, but you must begin at the beginning. Know how your calling and your faith coincide in your artistic vision.
Look at your art and find a way to articulate how it relates to what we learn about God and ourselves in Jesus. I am not recommending you overtly associate with “Christian” forms of art, but that you be able, when the opportunity arrives, to show the fruits of your creative labors and the roots tht produce that fruit. When the opportunity comes, surprise your fundamentalist friends who believe you’ve left Jesus far behind. Show them that he is in every picture, if they know where to look. Be able, when the time is right, to tell anyone how Christ is part of your work.
2. Find a church that will support your artistic vocation. The sad fact is that our rural Southern Baptist church background isn’t often supportive of your vocation, and your family and church have, sadly, been particularly condemning. But it concerns me that you have generalized this to all churches, and that you now speak of not needing to “go to church” as if “church going” is something we do to prove we our Christians. In fact, we associate with other believers in order to follow Jesus. God’s word commands it for our good and our joy, not as a test to prove we are real Christians. We simply can’t follow Jesus without the church. We need what it gives us, and we need the community if offers us. You need the church, but the church needs you, too. Don’t abandon the bride of Christ, Andrew.
The problem is to find a church where you will be accepted, and now that you are in Chicago, and not in Kentucky, you have many options. Let me suggest a few.
I think many Reformation Churches are very interested in the arts. In the Reformation community, I would put everything from Presbyterians to Lutherans to Episcopalians. Of course, there are theological issues in the various denominations of these churches, and that is another letter. You need a church that holds to the Christian faith and to the teachings of scripture. But in terms of openness to the arts, and even encouragement of the arts, these are churches that will give you a much different experience. Please, look and experiment. Keep in touch and I’ll try to be helpful. Today, many churches are courting artistic members, and you may find yourself a wanted person. Wouldn’t that be nice for a change! Tattoos and all!
[I could say that, in general, the more “Catholic” side of Christianity has a much healthier view of art, but you can see that walking into any cathedral or going to any Catholic university.]
Another option is what is commonly called “the emerging church.” Here, I’m talking about small, often less formal congregations that are intentionally formed with the goal of ministering to the current postmodern culture and those who relate to it. These church are usually savvy to the world of art and media, and appreciate the arts. I am not suggesting that you simply look for something “trendy” or “cool,” but that you may find, in coffeeshops and art gallery basements and movie theaters, fellowships of Christians that are moving beyond the way of doing church you and I grew up with, and looking to include people just like you. I think this is an important and exciting possibility, and I hope you will keep your eyes and ears open to these emerging fellowships.
There are also multi-cultural, open and affirming Baptist (and other evangelical) churches in Chicago. I’ve sent along information about two. God has his people everywhere, and believe it or not, there are those who won’t judge you because of a few tattoos. The important thing is to not neglect the good gifts that come in the fellowship of other believers. Seek a church that will feed and support you. Go to a Christian college like Wheaton or North Park and ask the art professors and students about good churches. Surf the net. Watch for Christian artists giving concerts and showings of their work. There are likely fellowships of Christian artists who have gathered in networks and churches who will be looking to encourage young artists like yourself.
3. Create. I don’t really need to say this, but sometimes the most obvious thing is neglected. If you are a Christian with a vocation in art, then above all, worship God by creating. I am far more impressed with writers than I am those who plan to write. I am more attracted to creators than those who say they one day hope to create. Now is the time to hone your gift and calling, and the best way to do so is to work diligently.
I think of how Jesus, for at least twenty years, found his joy- and his vocation- in his work as a carpenter (or stone worker, depending on how you translate a greek word). He made tables and yokes and shelves and plows and who knows what else. Do we believe Jesus was glorifying God less in those years than in the ministry years? That’s ridiculous. So I can confidently tell you to rejoice in God by creating the photography you love. Do so in a way that makes each picture, consciously, an act of worship to God.
Of course, there are pragmatic reasons to create: you need to build up material for a portfolio, and to seek ways to be compensated for your art. (Waiting tables is a good calling, too, but I don’t think it’s what God has in store for you.) But what I have in mind is coming to the point that you know who you are, and what you have been created to do. That will come as you devote more and more time to your craft, see it as an art that co-creates with God, and brings to a place that looking through the lens is a prayerful, God-centered experience.
Andrew, don’t be bitter at the hurtful things your family and church have said in the past. Don’t become selfish and defensive. Artists are often misunderstood, but it also doesn’t prove you are a true artist simply because you are misunderstood. Artists create. You have the opportunity to glorify Christ in your slight abuse and rejection, and in your continued, disciplined creations. Forgive your critics, and move forward to where God has called you to be, and into what God has called you to do. Don’t abandon the faith or dilute it into some personal religion that makes Jesus small. The God of holiness and sovereignty is worthy of devotion, service and love. Return to your family with joy, and respond to their criticisms with evidence that God is with your work, in your heart, and alive in your vocation. I am sure the point will come, as you create, that God will give a better heart to your family.
Peace,
Michael
The Internet Monk Archives 
Mike, I read this a bit late but you know, I’m a photographer. I take pictures for a living and I’m proud of that. God gave me the talent, and the insite and it took me YEARS to be able to call myself an artist and to really grasp what that meant. I’m still walking out in it. I refuse to be put into some preconcieved idea of what a good Christian is. I was created by God the way I am and if they have issue with that, take it up with Him.
I used to live in Chicago. Tell him to visit JPUSA- Jesus People USA. They are an incredible bunch of artistic Christian folks LIVING the life and reaching out to help others. Incredible people (I had the honor of spending a summer there). Just network with these guys and you will be blessed!
As a fellow photographer, welcome to the fold brother. Just keep your spiritual apeture wide open k?
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WOW! Somebody understands what being an artist who is a christain is is like. I went to an IPCH collge for 2 yaers before trAnsfering to an art college. When I shared my desire to study art alot of my classmates did not get it. I wish someone had sent me this letter.
I did find a great book by Madeline L’engle called “Walking on Water.” Its about being a Christain artist. Its wonderful. Everyone should read it.
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Well, if you create to please God you can still please yourself. Unless you’re making to please only yourself it doesn’t have to be either/or as Ecclesiastes 11:9 seems to suggest.
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one way or the other it comes down to whether the artist is creating for Gods glory or his/her own glory and then accepting whatever happens when that choice is made…
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ArtistXero, I think in many ways the reason 3 is so difficult is because the playing field has been levelled. Many of the masterpieces of the past that came from Christian art also came from social, historical, and culture settings in which there were relatively few options. It’s easy for we Christians who are composers to use Bach as the benchmark (or Schutz, if we’re more obscure) but the reality was that J. S. came from about ten generations of professional musicians. While that had the enormous upside of family legacy and continuity with an essentially dynastic set of skills the downside was that in some sense that level of artistry could only exist in a cultural setting that assumed a Christian worldview so that each generation of Bach could simply refine the family trade.
For better and worse we don’t live in that kind of world. A person with an artistic inclination can move in that direction in our society (which would have been all but impossible in the time of Bach and possible in Haydn’s time if you were, well, Haydn (whose genius is severely underrated thanks to Mozart and Beethoven worshippers). But only in our time can a person realistically come out of NO artistic background and develop as an artist. The downside, of course, is that there’s virtually no chance your work will get recognized.
So in a somewhat cynical, historical perspective, #3 has never quite happened. Handel’s Messiah went over well with the unwashed, if you will, but the Puritans didn’t like it, for instance.
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to Adrew,
I mean watered down so it appeals to Corporate Christianity..which cares very little about the 4 spiritual laws or much of anything about real christianity. It only cares about “christian” product that is highly marketable and profitable and that usually equals watered down. The same thing happens in the “real” world where artists who stick to their vision rarely have as much success as those who who sell their vision out for money and become nothing more than corporate product.
The way I see it the chrisitan artist has three choices for his/her work…
1.Produce a work that is uncompromisingly, truly and unquestionably CHRISTian…and get ignored/rejected by the secular world and the majority of todays pseudo-christianity..
2. Produce a work that appeals directly to mainstream Corporate Christianity that doesn’t have a true biblical message but has the feel goodism of much of todays christian product…and expect to have a surge of popularity and make a chunk of money before being pushed aside for the next big thing..
or 3. Produce a work that appeals to the secular world and hide the chrisitian message underneath layers and subtleties and hope for the best…
since I lack subtly I chose number one..
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ArtistXero wrote:
“i think the christian artist is almost guaranteed to work in obscurity unless they create something mainstream (watered down).”
In saying ‘watered down’ are you suggesting that any piece of Christian art must have the ‘4 spiritual laws’ or similar embedded in it?
Like Francis Schaeffer, I don’t think any one piece of art needs to show an entire worldview.. rather, the artist’s worldview becomes aparent when viewing a lifetime or body of work.
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The thing about Orson Scott Card is that he manages to produce good stories with seriously Mormon themes and the mainstream sucks it up without even realizing that they are getting a particular worldview. The Ender books present and promote the Mormon doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul (he calls it the aiua), the Earth books are a retelling of the Book of Mormon (only more interesting and better written). Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus will resonate as a very good piece of Christian fiction in spite of Card’s Mormonism. So the question is: why aren’t more Christian artists doing what Card does? Why is it all Kincaide and Left Behind? C.S. Lewis noted that the measuring stick for so-called “Christian” literature should be the same as for any good literature (“The Seeing Eye”).
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>Okay, Matt, iMonk, what’s the difference between being a Christian artist in today’s churches and being an artist under Stalin?
Stalin would kill your boday. The church kills your spirit. 🙂
I don’t know what it is about Mormons, but they’ve produced some writer’s I’ve greatly enjoyed – Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), Tracy Hickman (co-creator of Dragonlance), and Howard Taylor (creator of the webcomic Schlock Mercenary). I wouldn’t be surprised to find out more of my favorite writers are Mormon. I guess in a roundabout way I’m asking what is different about them that they don’t feel the need to include Moroni in their work.
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iMonk:
That’s why I ended up back at the Catholic Church (since the mid-Eighties); at least they have a history of patronage and tolerance of the arts. Unfortunately, all you hear these days is a steady drumbeat of priest-slash-altarboy sex scandals, to the point that even I wonder whether to stay associated.
Also, in my experience most CHRISTIAN! fiction, music, and art ARE Fundamental Baptist with the labels painted over. (I’ve read your essays on “Wretched Urgency”, “Christian Fatalism and Islamic Fundamentalism”, Astronomy, and CCM in general — you’ve been there, done that, got the scars to prove it.) Someone described trying to do serious classic fiction in that environment as “I really enjoy beating my head against a wall while getting two-by-foured from both sides”.
“Remember when we were young and we had no future? Well, this is it.”
— Blank Reg from Max Headroom
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>Is there anything left of Christian fiction (or Christ for that matter) than (1) We Hate Evolution, (2) Setup for the Altar Call, and (3) Left Behind?
The vast majority of the Christian world- Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Reformational Protestants (Lutheran/Calvinistic) reject all of these things and embrace the arts seriously.
The artistic problems in Baptist fundamentalism are hardly a majority report.
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Okay, Matt, iMonk, what’s the difference between being a Christian artist in today’s churches and being an artist under Stalin (where “Socialist Realism” was the only approved art) or Hitler (ditto but they called it “National Socialist Realism”), where your only choice is to crank out propaganda for the regime (“Witnessing For The LORD”) or be labeled dissident and thought-criminal (“SAY-TANN-IC!”)?
I belong to a Yahoo Christian writer’s group, and a similar-subject thread has just popped up there. Is there anything left of Christian fiction (or Christ for that matter) than (1) We Hate Evolution, (2) Setup for the Altar Call, and (3) Left Behind?
I am also an old-time SF litfan, and have seen all hope of the future die before my eyes. The “great big beautiful tomorrows” written in the Nifty Fifties and Sixties degenerated into Cyberpunk Dystopias in the Eighties and Nineties before abandoning the future entirely into alternate histories and “forward into the past” time-travel. On the way, hope was lost; all that remains of the future (when its even there)is nihilism and dread. (I am reduced to reading 40-year-old Ace paperbacks by Poul Anderson and Andre Norton…)
And Christians jumped on the same bandwagon with a Bible-verse paint job. Left Behind et al abandon the future to an Antichrist Dystopia before ending it completely. Dystopia and destruction, then total denial of a future, just like mainstream SF except prettied up with Bible quotes and altar calls.
I’ve heard it said a dying culture rejects the future, tolerates the present, and clings to past glories and myths. Western mainstream, Christian, Islamic — all show signs of dying this way.
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Me: Foosball rules! I’m going to write a song about foosball!
Youth Groupie: Why don’t you write a song about Jesus?
True story. It was in the heat of a game, and I was excited. Not even serious.
However, this is the kind of attitude I am met with often in my creative endeavors. I facilitate a writer’s group, and one of the semi-regulars only shares writings if they are prayers or devotional observations. A friend of mine sent me a story once, and it seemed like he put more effort into making it “Christian” than into making it flow. I gave him a solid critique — complete with things that were good and things that needed work — and he never sent me a revision.
Great letter, imonk.
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A woman at the church I attend recently wrote an article on Kinkade for the church newspaper that just came out. As I consider Thomas Kinkade’s work and how Christians have reacted to his work my complaint about him isn’t his technique or color pallete or even necessarily his sentimentality.
My complaint is more about the audience than the painter. There’s nothing Kinkade has done as an artist beyond updating the idiom of the symbolic landscape fraught with Christian symbolism that Casper David Friedrich did more than a century ago.
See, if people KNOW that’s all Kinkade is up to, idiomatically speaking, and they still like his paintings then bully for them. I’m cool with that. What I’m NOT cool with is people who dig Kinkade like he’s a fantastic painter and think more highly of him than he probably does of himself because they don’t know enough art history to understand his real place in the art world, which is a respectable but still quite minor position. To be fair to Kinkade, speaking in terms of historical importance, even if he becomes nothing more than a footnote in an art history book he’ll be more famous as a by-word among art critics than any of us is likely to be. Even though I don’t go in for the symbolic landscape much myself I think it’s also too pat to dismiss the idiom Kinkade is working in as some art fans tend to. I think a fairer assessment of Kinkade is that he is an accomplished if probably minor figure in the idiom of symbolic landscapes.
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>Oddly, what this tends to produce is a lot
>of “loud” announcements of how much we love
>God. Praise songs that say “I love God!” over
>and over.
I don’t know about you, iMonk, but every time I hear that sort of thing, I think of North Korea, with the populace endlessly dancing with Joyful Enthusiasm before Dear Leader.
Or the Roman Senate constantly flattering Emperor Caligula/Nero/Commodus to avoid ending up in the arena.
It makes Christ sound like a cosmic Comrade Stalin or Baba Saddam, surrounded by Propaganda/Information Ministers and other yes-men, each screaming his praises louder than the others, staying alive by out-flattering each other.
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hey K.E.
..i think the christian artist is almost guaranteed to work in obscurity unless they create something mainstream (watered down). If your truly doing your work for the glory of God it hardly matters if your living off of it or not. Although I’m sure all artists, myself included, would wish otherwise..
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Dear everyone,
history has shown without doubt that many brilliant artists that are adulated now were hardly known during their lifetimes. This is a problem that I think concerns writers more than painters or more visually-orientated artists. There are some novelists / short story writers / poets that seldom or have never published at all. For example: other than having “The Metamorphosis” and several other stories published in literary journals during his lifetime, Franz Kafka mostly worked as an employee in an insurance company and wrote at night.
My question to you all is this:
What advice would you give to a Christian artist who may face such a dilemma?
This dilemma being the fact that he/she may never go public with his/her work. What would you say to a Christian who pursues art seriously during spare hours while not being in an artistically-related job per se (like Kafka)?
Thanks guys.
K.E.
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absolutely beautiful! thanks again i-monk
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M. Rew.
Your observation reminded me of reading Amos recently. When Amos is told in Amos 7 by Amaziah “go, you seer, flee away … and there do your prophesying!” Amaziah mistook Amos for a seer because he did what seers were thought to do.
Amos himself didn’t make that mistake and says: “I’m neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet.” He wasn’t a professional prophet, just a shepherd who God appointed for the time. He didn’t mistake his being called by God for a specific time and place with being a full-time prophet like Samuel.
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Not just artists, but all Christians can confuse a talent or a tool with a spiritual gift. I am a poet. I am talented with words, and writing is my tool. But prophecy, word of knowledge, word of wisdom, and teaching (from among those listed in the Bible) are spiritual gifts which often utilize writing as the tool to convey what God wants to say. “And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it” (Habakkuk 2:2). Neither the writer nor the writing implement nor the writing tablets were the vision.
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I’d love to invite this fellow to my church in Chicago. Bethany Baptist Church. He won’t find critiscm for his vocation there. 3532 S Hoyne Ave. It’s right off the orange line too.
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Elizabeth, I unfortunately don’t recall the record as I heard it sixteen years ago! I remember the sound, though, and it’s still a fascinating sound. I would think with the ethnomusicology boon and the global music market you could find a CD that has the psalms being sung in Aramaic. At least I hope you can find something like that.
ArtistXero, great points, and something I totally forgot to consider. I think it was Schultz (Sparky) who said that a simple cartooning style is actually quite hard to develop and sustain. A person can look at Peanuts every day of their lives and not really appreciate how much skill is required to draw in that style, simple as it appears.
While at a Christian college I remember coming across quite a few ex-Christians who were artists or writers who thought it sufficient they offended ultra-conservative Christian sensibility operating under the delusion that this was somehow actually work. Conversely, other Christians felt that because they were Christians and wanted to be poets that anything they sent to a student-run literary magazine was more than fit to print.
Ex Umbris, I think I get what you’re saying, maybe. Some churches have such strict ideas about music I think some church musicians had to deal with an ecclesial form of “socialist realism” (the bane of the Soviet masters Prokofiev and Shostakovich). It’s not that great art can’t be made in those stringent ecclesial political scenarios–I think Palestrina managed to do it. But that’s the point, only artists on the level of Palestrina can find ways to tolerate that sort of church politics stuff and we can’t vouch that they’re happy with that. Only the fantastically talented (and blessed) can survive and the rest, who certainly aren’t untalented, get crushed in the political battles.
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I am a christian. I am an artist. I am a painter of, as the imonk calls them, “bible stories”. All over the place I’m hearing about arts and the church and all of it seems to an endless amount of babble that states how important the arts are and that we should embrace them..and little more than that. Thats all fine and dandy but, as an artist, I tell you a line needs to be drawn somewhere because someone saying they’re an artist doesn’t exactly make them so and the church opening wide the doors to undefined, nebulous “christian” “art” becomes potentially disastrous.
As both a graphic artist and a painter of “bible stories” i’ve have faced little to no opposistion from my very pentacostal church and the abuse i’ve suffered has been based on taken advantage of, inconsiderate over use for my rare skills but artists who cry about the church not embracing or abusing them becuase of their art are both weak as artists and selfish as christians. A true christian artist should be willing and capable of creating the art he wants to create for God, create the art God wants him to create and create the art the Church needs him to create not blubber over the fact that he can’t have his way and his way alone…
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A highly gifted artist couple are preparing to be received into the Catholic faith at our parish. They came out of an evangelical background for reasons Michael describes in his letter (though they are not as young as his recipient), and originally went to Episcopalianism, in the belief that it would be more welcoming of their gifts.
But they discovered that their talents were welcome only insofar as they were subordinated to a progressive ‘Christian’ vision. It was at last made clear to them that their musical and visual art contributions were no longer welcome until they could overcome their resistance to the new directions the Holy Spirit was blowing in the Episcopal Church.
While the well-meant philistinism Michael describes is depressing, it is preferable to an aesthetic that prostitutes art to ecclesial politics.
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You’re right. You don’t need the church to believe the Gospel message.
You do have to explain why Jesus started an intentional movement with leaders, ordinances, boundaries and discipline. You do have to explain what Paul was putting that fellow out of I Cor and letting him back into in II Cor. You do have to explain what it was that laid hands on Timothy and who it was Paul kept checking in with in Acts. You do have to explain what the elders Paul appointed in every city were working with. You have to explain what group Timothy was told to preach to, discipline and pastor. You do have explain what the rules for public worship in I Cor 14 are applying to. You do have to explain who it is Jesus is talking to in Revelation 2 and 3. You do have to explain who wrote and canonized the New Testament and determined the boundaries of Christian doctrine. You have to explain where it is we exercise the gifts and offices listed in I Cor, Eph, Rom and I Peter. You do have to explain what it is Paul is criticizing so much in I Cor and is so pleased with in I Thess.
And then you have to explain why all of this is merely optional for a person following the source of all of it, Jesus.
But no, Andrew doesn’t need the church to believe in Jesus.
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>Quite honestly I found the tone of Michael’s letter to be a bit patronizing
I freaking give up.
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As one who usually argues against institutional church, I actually would differ with Boltono’s note here. Even though iMonk talked about “going to church” as the way of fulfilling the command for us to fellowship together, the point is still that we are supposed to be fellowshiping together and not be “lone rangers” in our faith. That may not be a formal “church” as iMonk described it, but Scripture does seem to be very clear that the Christian life is not intended to be lived as an island.
Can it be done? Yes. Is it advisable? No.
I may not go quite as far as iMonk in how I define it, but I would never advise someone to just completely leave fellowship with other believers in a church without emphasizing the importance of finding fellowship with believers outside that structure.
steve 🙂
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What a hugely long letter.
At one part (and I read it all) I read “…you now speak of not needing to “go to church” as if “church going” is something we do to prove we our Christians. In fact, we associate with other believers in order to follow Jesus. God’s word commands it for our good and our joy, not as a test to prove we are real Christians. We simply can’t follow Jesus without the church.”
Well, you CAN follow Christ without “going to a church”…of course you can! And if there is more reality of Christ within and growth in Him without “going to a church” (and MANY experience this) then why re-direct back into the thing?!
Perhaps this young man actually needs to get right out and let the love of Christ for him keep hold of him instead of any system of reliigion?
And he, and all you other artists who seek and follow Christ (as I also do) will know inside the WAY to go with your skills. and it’s liberating to do that.
Quite honestly I found the tone of Michael’s letter to be a bit patronizing and somewhat fearful of the world rather than from a person secure in Christ’s love for them.
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Jeremiah-
do you happen to remember what the name of the Aramaic chanting was or if there was a specific group that did it? It sounds intriguing 🙂
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Both the Baptist and Pentecostal are likely to think you’re hijacked by a demon if you bring an Ornette Coleman album home. 😀
My brother and I used to listen to a lot of unusual stuff and one day we were listening to the psalms being chanted in Aramaic. My mother heard us listening to Balinese trance music a month or so earlier and when she heard the Aramaic chant she said, “Turn off that Satanic chanting right now! I don’t want that playing in the house.” I turned to Mom and said, “Mom! This is Psalm 116! It’s just being sung in Aramaic!” My mother laughed and said, “Well, it may be the Bible but it sounds bad to me. Can you at least turn it down.” As you can see, my mom was fairly broad minded in her musical tastes for having a Pentecostal background. 🙂
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Yeah, they THINK that makes all the difference in the world but that’s about it. As a friend of mine once put it the Pentecostals might say you have to not do X, Y, or Z to ensure your salvation while the Baptist would say you have to not do X, Y, or Z to prove you already are saved. Either way you better not be caught listening to the wrong kind of music. 🙂
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Jeremiah: In my personal experience, about the ONLY difference between Pentecostals and Baptists is the belief in (or against) sign gifts. 😉 hehe
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Michael:
Solid, wise, godly advice. I think Francis Schaeffer wrote a little pamphlet on Art and the Christian once upon a time: he, too, understood the value of the arts.
I gave you “youth pastor” post to our YP; I’ll be giving this post to clients, friends, and family who are pursuing a vocation outside of Christendom – but not ourside of Christianity.
Thanks for the post.
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I once knew a Pentecostal music pastor who was afraid to say he liked Dave Brubeck (hardly a proponent of the loudest or heaviest metal on the planet) just because he was afraid old-school Assemblies of God types would give him a rough time about it. Of course when you’re at college the hipsters say Brubeck is lame because he doesn’t swing or isn’t Miles Davis. 🙂
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I’m not Pentecostal anymore, technically, but I was Pentecostal during my high school years. It’s interesting that Baptists and Pentecostals can have such similar views about the arts.
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See, THAT is the stuff I ran into in high school being friends with artists, writers, etc. My family fully supported my artistic bent. My dad bought me a guitar for my sixteenth birthday at the suggestion of my maternal grandmother no less! And my mom went so far as to coach me in color theory when my poor eyesight made it hard for me to finish a painting assignment for one of my high school painting classes. It was in encouraging my brother, myself, and my sister my mom discovered she had a gift for drawing herself!
The problem I found in high school and even in college was this sort of new-age reinvention of Jesus as divine muse who serves the artist, whose real god was usually his or her own creative process. Not only is this bad theology from a biblical perspective and un-Christian it also leads to decadent and stupid art. The only thing worse than a Christian stymied by fundamentalism or Pentecostal aesthetic straitjacketing (and I’m Pentecostal so I know the weird looks people give you if you say you like Blind Willie Johnson) is the pablum produced by ex-fundamentalists who have decided they’re better than all that.
I don’t have Andrew’s experience with family rejection but I’ve seen the other side, the idolatry of the creative process. I pray that Andrew can avoid both extremes and serve Christ where he’s at.
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Oprah version of Jesus. Jesus as example, Life Coach, Spiritual Guru, Good man who died, etc.
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A bit tangential, but I’m curious what you mean when you talk about a “new age Jesus” in your comment above. Do you mean New Age philosophy but with Christian labels put on it? (Like referring to the New Age concept of “the power within” as “Jesus”?)
Just curious!
steve 🙂
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Michael,
You give an important message. As an artist myself, I find it a challenge to create paintings that glorify God without mirroring the common imagery usually found. You are correct when you say that our primary goal as Christian artists is to create art that exemplifies a life of worship. When we are willing to lay ourselves in the open, to show how Christ lives in us in every aspect, a powerful testimony can be created. In many ways, art can speak where words may not; softening hearts to the gospel message.
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I am writing to a young man who is real danger of disposing of his relationship to Christians and the visible church. He is redefining his relationship with God much more along the lines of a “new age Jesus” than the Jesus of scripture. Therefore, I consider it exceptionally important that he define himself as a Christian who is an artist. It isn’t a matter or labels (as I say) but a matter of self understanding, and the ability to articulate TO FELLOW CHRISTIANS how a Christian understands an artistic vocation.
I am certainly not asking Andrew to stick “Christian Photographs” on his sign and card. But I am asking him to clarify his loyalty to God as revealed in Jesus in those situtaions where his self understanding is an opportunity to glorify Christ.
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Interesting post – I would also highly recommend a book to read on this – Roaring Lambs by Bob Briner. A very encouraging, challenging read for everyone, including churches that have had difficulty supporting those going into the arts.
My only question is about the first guideline – you say that without using labels, artists should be willing to define themselves as Christian artists. Huh? I’m going to assume that you mean they should be able to point to the honesty, compassion, truthfulness, creativity of their art and explain its inspiration. Otherwise, I’m not sure that “Christian” makes such a great adjective.
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Thank you Michael for caring enough to encourage Andrew and everyone else who’s not taking an “accepted career”.
Since I live in Chicago, I can recommend you Moody Church … pastor: Erwin Lutzer(http://www.moodychurch.org/).
Also, not to far from Chicago is Harvest Bible Church pastors: James McDonald & Joe Stowell (ex-president of Moody Bible Institute)(http://www.harvestbible.org/)
For a church a little more post-mo you can try Willow Creek pastor Bill Hybells and Mike Breaux (http://www.willowcreek.org/)
Andrew might know Mike Breaux since he came from Kentucky.
As you said imonk, it is very important to find a church that supports you.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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Monk, you’re channeling Seerveld 🙂 It is so important that gifted workers like Andrew understand their creating as kingdom work. I think Seerveld’s “Letter to a young artist” makes a nice supplement to what you’ve got here.
http://www.redeemer.on.ca/academics/art/ccuthill/classic103_000008.htm
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Yes…L’engle is excellent
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Thanks for the letter, Michael! Though I’m only 15, I’ve encountered a bit of resistance from certain people to the idea of my becoming a writer-and-a-teacher-who-is-a-Christian. Happily, my family is very supportive and its never really come up in sunday school 😛
Have you, by chance, read the book “Walking on Water” by Madeiline L’Engle (sp?)? She also wrote “A Wrinkle in Time” and the accompanying series.
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These are great thoughts on following Christ in the context our vocation. I truly appreciate the emphasis on not forsaking the local church, too.
I might also point Andrew (and others) to some of the writings of Dallas Willard, a Philosophy professor at USC. Willard is fairly popular these days and really has the mindset that (I think) Michael is communicating here. That is, that Christ can be glorified in any good, honest work that is being done.
A lot of his articles are available for free and his books are described at:
http://www.dwillard.org/
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of course
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Great letter. Can I post a snippet of it in my blog?
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Excellent letter, Michael. It’s another push in the direction of writing for me. Thanks.
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Oh to have had you in my life to write me a letter like this when I was 20…
Each exhibit of my photography, each photograph I sell reminds me that I’m communicating a visual gospel through the images I create of nature. Photography is my testimony.
So many people have commented: “I’ve never slowed down enough to look at the small things that I see in your work.”
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Very well said. As a teacher at a Christian college I recognize that we are often too narrow in the vocational options we present to students. What a great reminder that people should follow their calling and gifts, not a narrow definition of “ministry” with only a few options.
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This isn’t just for artists — it’s also for software developers and OR analysts such as myself. I’m doing my best to follow God with my vocation, yet I am continually being pushed by churches to “discover my spiritual gifts” — i.e., if I’m not in one of the “approved” ministries (pastoring, teaching, mission work, leading a Bible study) then I must be in rebellion or something.
Same with my wife. My wife is a very different person and does not fit into easy categories. But that hasn’t stopped people from trying to push her into the nursery, something for which she has no aptitude and utterly detests.
Wasn’t this part of the original reformation? That there are no “sacred” callings, and that God has callings on farmers and fishermen and lawyers just as much as he does on preachers? Wasn’t that one of the precious gifts Martin Luther left us? Have we done away with the office of priest merely to set up the office of “full-time minister” in its place?
Respectfully,
Brian P.
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Well said Michael. Couldn’t agree more! Reminds me of when C.S. Lewis was asked if we need more “Christian writers.” He responded: “No, we need more writers who are Christian.” Seems to me that we Baptist kind of miss this distinction a little, thus the limited range of our artistic endeavors. Somewhere along the way we must get it into people’s minds that there is more to art than Thomas Kinkade (sp?) and more to literature than Tim LaHaye…but I digress.
Anyway, until I see Dostoevsky in the fiction section at LifeWay, I shall conclude that art is dead among us Baptists. I am not holding my breath.
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Monk…while we disagree from time to time when I stop by here (disagree is merely a mental position on my part), yet I find in you in so many ways the Spirit of Christ alive and well. I mean that not to sound so surprising to me, but as a joy to find one who continues to show me he is not “bound” by dogmatic, doctrinal wrappings that the Church, as a whole, has grown in her own garden and utilized to suffocate her members. What good counsel you give this young man. I do not “do” a whole lot of fiction, but am a great fan of Chaim Potok who writes of life within Judaism. I came to him via “The Chosen”, but your words here remind me of “My Name Is Asher Lev”. It deals with the same scenario of which you speak and I’d recommend these books to anyone. Peace, my friend…….
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(Oops…just noticed that the previous comment was from a “Michael” as well. I was referring to iMonk, but Michael Lee’s thoughts are good, too!)
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Great thoughts, Michael. Very great thoughts!
steve 🙂
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This is a fantastic letter. I’m moving into a different stage of life, one where I will have the joy of fostering artists within a church commmunity, and I’m going to post this on the wall of my office as a reminder of what that vocation means.
.
Let me add one thing: seek a wider audience. You may never be geographically close to those who understand and appreciate what you do (although in Chicago you’ve got pretty good odds) but the internet has opened up the possibility of wider audiences, especially for art that is conducive to digital distribution. Works like this (http://addisonrd.com/WordPress/?p=150) wouldn’t find an audience in our local church, but once it enters the blogosphere, people who are geographically distant can appreciate and interact with your work.
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