The Church, the Artist, and the Handshake

“The door handle is the handshake of the building.”  Juhani Pallasmaa

Like a door knob, what does it signal when a church fosters an arts ministry? Lately, I’ve been reflecting on the shape and form of the arts ministry at Redeemer mainly because I’ve been fortunate to work in such a ministry, but also because I will move on to serve both the Church and the arts through formal studies at Fuller Seminary. I also recently had to articulate some of my musings for an article on urban arts ministry for Transposition, St. Andrew’s blog on Theology, Imagination and the Arts. Here, I write how the Church must encourage and theologically equip a growing urban movement. For “the city and its culture contributes to Gospel transformation as we continually die to self and become renewed, not just in our thinking, but also the way we go about life.” (read more)

If the door knob becomes the tell-tale sign of a building then how do we use this image with respect to the Church? Church, meaning not just the building, but also the gathered people of God. Furthermore, what does it mean for artists to be both welcomed and welcoming in regards to community life and the space it inhabits? As much as I hear that the local church is not a building, people need to inhabit a real space and this space should offer the signs and symbols of its community. The Word needs to become enfleshed by our acts and our art.

For the last couple of weeks Transposition has chosen to tackle this hefty subject of art and Church. It has gathered artists, pastors, scholars and asked them to reflect on or present examples of where and how art and Church intersect.  Transposition hopes you’ll visit the posted articles, videos, and essays in order to stimulate dialogue and inspire new works for and from the Church. Please visit the Art in the Church Workshop schedule of postings. 

The architect and architectural theorist, Juhani Pallasmaa, understand how shape and touch are interconnected. Artists are deeply aware of how we shape through our touch. The implications of this knowledge are staggering and should be shared with the Church. I bookend with a continuation of Pallasmaa’s thought from the line cited above: 

“The tactile sense connects us with time and tradition: through impressions of touch we shake the hands of countless generations.”

It is the call of the artist and the Christian to shake the hands of countless generations.

--Maria

A Dialogical Journey

Recently, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting with lots of pastors who are seeking ways to better serve the artists in their cities and congregations. It’s been exciting to see that God’s Spirit is moving in cities around the world to build bridges between artists and communities of faith. These meetings have also given us the opportunity to step back and really clarify the concepts that we have found to be most vital in this dialogue concerning artists and the gospel.

This year, Redeemer Arts Ministries will be embarking on a ministry-wide dialogical journey, exploring what it means for us as artists to allow the Gospel to change our hearts, our communities and our world.

How can we learn to articulate our spiritual callings as artists? What descriptors, what roles and words can we assign to one who is called to the work of renewing culture through art-making? We came up with six descriptive roles or themes in which we'll root our discussions:

The Artist as Disciple

The Artists as Theologian

The Artist as Creator

The Artist as Servant

The Artist as Cultivator

The Artist and Beauty: The Glory of the Lord

Over the course of the ministry year, we will be using these roles as a framework for our discussions at IAF and in the various vocation groups. We invite you to join the dialogue through attending arts ministry events and by posting your responses to our weekly blogs as we unpack these concepts in the coming months.

See you soon at InterArts Fellowship!




Kenyon

Welcome - be known!

Hi, everyone. Welcome to our new blog, where we (Maria, Kenyon, and I, plus others) will be sharing each week about what we're reading, thinking about and working on at the intersection of art and faith.

In 2010 we're launching a new campaign (of which this blog is part) to help communicate the philosophy behind our ministry: Create/Be Known/Engage. These are the three things we want everyone to do - create to the glory of God, know and be known by Him and His people, and engage with the culture around us to be part of His renewing work. Pick up "Create" and "Be Known" postcards on the information tables at worship services, and you'll find an "Engage" flyer for Arts Month (February!) in your January 17 worship service bulletins and on info tables then. You can check out all of the upcoming Arts Month activities now here.

But in January, we're really focusing on "being known" - growing in knowledge of God and in our relationship with him and one another in the Body of Christ. InterArts Fellowship this month will be on the topic, and all of the vocation group gatherings will also be focusing on it.

Since we're thinking about community this month, I want to suggest an article published by our denomination's (Presbyterian Church in America) online magazine, byFaith. "Created for Community" is a great article by Paul Tripp, author of many respected books on counseling from a Christian perspective. (He is also a painter, and his wife, Luella Tripp, is an art gallery operator and has spoken on her work in the arts at Redeemer's Entrepreneurship Forum.)

Tripp talks about the importance of community, about how we are created for it and need it, but that our sin nature fights against it, particularly through two "seductive lies": first, that we are autonomous, and second, that we are self-sufficient. These lies "push us toward individualistic and and private lifestyles." He writes:

"We do tend to live with big barriers between our public personas and our private lives. We do tend to live in networks of terminally casual relationships. Most of the people we think we know we don’t actually know. Yes, we know things about them, but would probably be shocked if we knew the struggles that regularly take place in the interior of their lives. Most of what we call fellowship is not fellowship at all. It is surface talk about things that don’t matter that allows us to maintain our privacy. So the couple who has been fighting on the way to church hits the front door with a smile, the mother who is frazzled takes a few minutes to get herself together. And when we arrive for public worship, nobody tells, nobody knows, and nobody helps."

Ouch. Can we commit together to trying to do better?

Check out the article, it's really good.

We'll be thinking more about "being known" this month, check back.

With hopes for His blessings on your life and your work in 2010...
--Luann