The Twelve Artists
The title from this post comes from a simple hypothetical: if Jesus sat down in a room of twelve artists, all of them gathered for the express purpose of hearing what he might tell them about life, truth, beauty, and the things that concerned them, what would he say, and would it be any different than what he might tell anyone else?
If we say no, that he would tell artists the same thing he would tell anyone, then I wonder if we really believe God cares about the details of our lives, the fully human details of what it means to be alive in the world, working in the particular bone and muscle situations we find ourselves in. Surely we pray to God about the concerns we have on this day, this moment, this project, this physical malady, and this particular spiritual problem. (That is, of course, if you believe in prayer, which is a different conversation, to some degree.)
Would Jesus be willing to answer their questions about beauty, which would probably be one of their primary concerns? What about the nature of integrity in artistic work, and the balance of commercial demands against family needs? What about the difficulty of choosing one particular idea over another when multiple paths are suggesting themselves? What about what subject matter is off limits, or are there any? What about the ongoing battle between idealism and realism, whether art is to have a pastoral or prophetic voice, and how to discern the Holy Spirit's leading in one of those two directions?
Would Jesus be willing to speak to the particulars of these questions, or would he just set them aside to address what we consider "spiritual" questions?
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My post a couple of days ago suggesting there may be a need for a support ministry for artists other than what is the norm at evangelical churches - most often ministries that ask the arts to freely give their gifts for the work of the church - caused at least a bit of conversation among friends. Largely there has been an affirmation of the idea, but at least for a couple of people, there is the question of whether or not an artist's spiritual needs are any different than anyone else's. Why shouldn't there be support ministries to work with surgeons, plumbers, bankers, or any other particular vocation? Why pay special attention to painters, musicians, or actors? Isn't that an elitist notion, one of the primary attitudes Christians working in the arts should be fighting against?
I'm not suggesting that artists are special people, at least not in a fashion that puts them in an elitist class, elevating them above those good surgeons, plumbers and bankers. Actually, I think ministries targeting the particular professional demands of various fields might not be a bad idea. Each domain of human activity has spiritual aspects it shares with all human activity, but each domain also births spiritual challenges that are particular to that field. In much the same way that recovery groups gather to address the particular spiritual battles involved with overcoming addiction, or men and women gather to address the spiritual shape of the particularities of gender, there may well be value in getting all the carpenters together, or the doctors, or the artists.
Given that none of us are more special than the others (in fact, we are to count others as better than ourselves, right?), my thinking about artists simply seeks to address some shared aspects of creative life most churches never address.
Artists are "different," which, can be a good or bad thing depending on your experiences with such people. They seem to have a certain sensitivity to sensory material (sounds, colors, textures, other aesthetic properties) that excites them, makes them want to enter into the creation of things in an impulse connected over a thousand generations (or more, who's counting) all the way back to the initial impulse of God to say, "Let there be light." It's a genetic something, an infusion of intangible personal energy, a series of urges to make seemingly useless things for "beauty and glory" only.
In terms of artist's being "different" we could go on and on.
All I'm suggesting is that churches begin to pay attention to this particular part of the body, because right now, this particular part of the body goes elsewhere for its spiritual leading and support: writer's groups, artist's groups, national and regional para-church organizations (CITA, CIVA, and many others), even non-Christian writers and programs that seem to deal more honestly and helpfully with the particular shape of the artistic life.
I used to grumble about this sort of thing...a lot. I hope that's not what you hear me doing. I do think this is a blind spot for most churches, but I'm not so much complaining as thinking...
wouldn't it be cool if...
7:49:35 PM
