Don't Go It Alone

One of the most glaring realities facing artists in the city is a sense of sheer isolation: a feeling of not being known or truly knowing others. In an increasingly post-Christian, urban, social context, the need for Christian community in the lives of artists is greater than ever. This growing reality presents a prime opportunity for reconciliation between artists in the city and the urban church.

As artists who belong to Christ, we are also meant to belong to mutually nurturing, Christ-centered community sharing fellowship, accountability and discipleship. We cannot realize God’s calling on our lives living autonomously, outside of the community of faith. Because our expression is divinely inspired, artistic growth is intrinsically tied to our spiritual growth and maturity. In reality, there is no separation between vocational life and devotional life. Reality is, however, easiest to avoid while living outside of Gospel-centered community. The Holy Spirit works wherever He wants, but He works especially through community to grow and change us as we pursue faithfulness in our vocational callings. This process is enabled as we commit ourselves to group of Christians with whom we can share the journey, knowing and being known by them, understanding that our best and worst cannot make us right with God or each other, only dependence on Christ and a deep sense of God’s love for us because of Christ.

Reborn artists in the city often find a natural camaraderie in their professional and collaborative circles (or in some cases, at their night job) which becomes their primary source of community and, consequently, their identity. As a result of this, many of these artists find themselves adapting the pluralistic ideologies of secular humanism instead of integrating a biblical worldview into their lives through a gospel-conversant community of believers. This life construct offers them little or no concept of how, or even why, they might explore deeper inflections of the gospel in their vocational lives. Though it is true that few, if any, Christian communities can claim to be experts on how to biblically and thoughtfully inflect the Christian worldview in vocational artistic practice, a helpful dialogue may be sustained in community which will lead to shared insights, practices, and ways of thinking, doing and being in the arts. Without being linked to the gospel narrative through a community of believers, even the most gifted and thoughtful Christian artist may be tempted to imagine that the gospel is somehow automatically infused into their vocational lives without exposure to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit through intentional Christian community. These may have a view of sin, that of the world and in themselves, which is unrealistically light and narrow.

The church is certainly not the only community in the city offering a brand of righteousness to its members. It’s very possible to find one’s identity and justification in other communities. This poses a serious threat to the spiritual health of Christian artists in the city in particular. In very few places in the world can one find the variety of scenarios in which to justify oneself and discover alternative brands of righteousness, than can be found in the city. To navigate this, a reborn artist must be living in mutually transparent, gospel-centered community, finding herself in the story of the narrative which begins and ends with Christ.

So we see that this problem of isolation and autonomy may perpetuate a general atrophy of spiritual growth and theological soundness, causing many artist’s lives to be increasingly dualistic and making an integrated approach to Christian life nearly impossible. As I once heard a theater agent say, “If you live a cut-off [dualistic] life, then you will be a cut-off actor!” The reborn artist cannot thrive or effectively pursue her calling in a vacuum. An artist’s life and expression are meant to be shared and upheld in community.
-Kenyon