“I am a artist, can I paint in church?” While this is not your average question concerning Sunday morning worship, the inquiry of, “how do I fit in” is often on the minds of everyone. The desire to serve God is not only a good thing, but it is also a sign of a healthy church. Pastors and other leaders constantly try to find ways to use the gifts of their congregation, and for the most part, do a good job at it. I myself have asked, “How do I reconcile my faith and musical talent? How can I be a professional musician and Christian at the same time?” It is easier for me, a musician, to feel like I fit into a Christian worldview since every church desires good music. But as someone who has formed many relationships with other kinds of creative people, such as dancers, painters and photographers, I have become frustrated with many of the different attitudes the church has developed towards art. However, there is a growing passion and concern for the arts within western churches, which on the outside, is a step in the right direction. Where Christians formerly took the arts for granted, or even ignored them, the church is starting to see the value of including artists and their work into the community. Contemporary and past scholars like Tim Keller and Abraham Kuyper have started to influence more churches to embrace the arts. However, I have become worried about some of the ways the church at large does or does not incorporate their new passion for artists.

Before I go further, I realize that there are many different kinds of churches and Christians. When I talk about the “Church”, I am largely referring to the general evengelical church in the United States, with which I am most familiar. I also want to clarify that I do not intend to talk about the differences, or importance of, the “Cultural Mandate” or the “Great Commission”. I hope to draw your attention to issues that I see festering underneath these two large theologies.

As I have observed the church’s interest in the arts, I realized that most people skip right to conclusions of what we should, or should not, be doing. It is well established that God cares about beauty, and you would be hard-pressed to find a church that devalues art. However, the different postures churches take on how to interact or respond to beauty often skip the first step of making sure our hearts are in the right place. In an attempt to discover how or what artistic involvement is permissible for a Christian, we have skipped the first step of preparing our hearts to ask how it fits into the definition of who we are and how art shapes us as individuals. I want to make it clear, I am not going to talk about specific “do’s and don’ts” for churches regarding art. I am not going to talk about whether churches should have liturgical dancing or performance art. Because before we make or eliminate rules on artistic expression, we need to make sure our hearts desire God's glory first. Without understanding where our self-worth comes from, jumping to conclusions about how we should include art in the life of the church is a recipe for disaster. We need to challenge our intentions for asking what we can do, and make sure our priorities are straight on why we want to do them. I hope that once we deal with what I consider the root problems, tackling bigger conversations like the “Cultural Mandate” will be more beneficial.  

The Insecure Complex

So what's the problem? Just let the artists do their thing; why do they have such a complex? The problem comes when the artist starts to ask questions about purpose and meaning. As Christians, our purpose and calling are directly related to Christ, and the church is Christ's body. It is no wonder then, that Christian artists want to make the most of their talent in context of the church. The question of “calling” for a Christian should, and does include how they fit into the body of Christ. As a Christian artist matures, questions like, “Is beauty worth my trouble? Could I be doing something more meaningful with my life? Is all this sacrifice worth it?” Turn into, “Does God care about beauty? How does worship relate to what I'm doing? Couldn't I be serving God more if I just became a missionary?” As Christians mature to a point where they want to serve and honor God, the seemingly few options the church gives us do not have much, if anything, to do with art. Instead, what is modeled to us as serving God is either pastoral evangelism or to somehow figure out how to “create for God”. Artists, just like everyone else, do not want to only honor God, but also serve Him.

It is easy, at this point, to answer these questions by saying that beauty is an excellent thing and is blessed by God. I have heard many excellent arguments making a good Biblical case for the importance of beauty and doing every job well. However, it seems as if the questions of, “Who are we and where do we find our personal value?” are usually left out of the conversation. We skip laying a firm foundation before we try to build upon it.

As someone who went through music school, I began to question why I was spending a lot of my time in a small, cold room tucked away in the music building practicing my guitar. Between hours of ear training, music theory homework and guitar lessons, most of my life was wrapped around my art. Anyone in a professional field can relate to the long hours required for excellence. At the same time, my faith in Christ was growing and I had become more involved with my church. My two worlds of faith and school were very polarized. At church I heard about ways to grow in Christ. While “redeeming the arts” was a popular beer and pipe conversation, my small church spent most of its resources on things like mentorship, apologetics, theology and counseling. Because these activities were by far the most talked about and acted upon, they seemed to hold more value to me.

When I started asking questions about how my art fit into the church, what I really desired was affirmation that I had value as an artist. I saw the value my church community placed on things like outreach and I wanted to acquire the same confirmation in my work as a musician. I wanted my art to be seen as valuable. My mentors and leaders gave me great and true answers about Biblical beauty and doing all things well for God, but these arguments left me empty and completely unsatisfied. While I whole-heartedly agree that beauty is a gift from God and a worthy goal to strive for, the problem is that the church misinterprets artists’ desires for value simply as a need for more theology on art. They tend to raise the importance of pursuit of beauty up high enough in order to make it just as “valuable” as evangelism and other acts of the church. Instead of more theology on creation and art, what I needed most was a deeper understanding of where my self-worth came from. Instead of worrying about the value of evangelism versus art, I needed to first understand that Christ is Lord of my life.

At the core, every person, every artist, are really asking if they personally have value. We are asking a question of self worth, not beauty. Trying to answer artists' questions of “why do I create art as a Christian” with “God loves beautiful things” is like answering a young man's question of “why should I find a godly woman to marry” with “God loves marriage”. We do not do every good thing only because the thing itself is good. We need a deeper sense of lasting value to satisfy our longing for personal value. Talking about the importance, or unimportance, of art completely misses the question of where our personal worth is. “Just do your best, and do it for God” does not answer why we should want to do something or if it has value.

While theoretically most Christians recognize that God wants all things, including art, redeemed, practically most everything we talk about is either focused on personal redemption or bringing the kingdom to those outside the faith. It is no wonder then that artists have a complex when we sense these priorities. If, as many churches claim, art really is just as glorifying to God as saving souls, then why do we not act that way? If art is not as “important” as evangelism, then why do we waste our time? As someone who desires to make the most of my life, the question is always running through my head, “is art a worthy calling to devote my life to?” To be clear, I strongly agree that the pursuit of beauty and the expansion of the Kingdom are both very important things, but simply talking about the importance of one or the other does not satisfy the real question of where our personal value is found.

What I propose is a new way of thinking about art.  Instead of trying to reconcile two seemingly opposed ideas, what if we tried to view them in light of a holistic renewal that would transform both worldviews? There are underlying assumptions both strains of thought assume that I would like to challenge. A Christian artist needs to redefine the assumptions the world uses to describe what an “artist” is, and in so doing, we also need to identify harmful ways in which we all approach work and self-worth. By answering the underlying question of self-worth, the seemingly impossible questions about art, calling, value and the church, will make more sense. In order to understand why beauty does, in fact have value and how we can engage it as Christians, we first need to challenge our idols.

Hidden Idols: The Destructive Community  

So what is an “artist”? Or better yet, what should we define as an artist? A simple answer would be “someone who creates art”. However, that is not what most people, especially the professional art world, defines it as. Those who are modeled to us as great artists are those who completely immerse themselves in their work: experimenting with their emotions, not “selling out” for comfort and forsaking real relationships in order to stay focused. If you ask anyone who has studied the arts at a collegiate level, they will tell you about the intense pressure to utterly forsake everything in their lives besides their work. Those who hold on to parts of their former life are considered sub-par. From someone who studied music, the musicians who sacrifice everything for a few more minutes of practice are widely considered to be better artists. Anything less than obsession is assumed to be less than ideal. A certain amount of dedication to your calling is worthy of honor for sure, but a false persona of complete consummation has been created as the only way to be a “real” artist. Other areas of life have these pulls as well (science or business), but the church has widely accepted these lies in the area of art. It is no wonder then that an artist with this understanding of their work would be conflicted when they want to start serving the church. It is like asking, “How can I continue to be consumed with myself and still serve God?” The answer is, you can't! We need to stop looking for ways for artists to be “used by God” until we first help them understand a healthy view of themselves and work.

As mentioned before, the church tends toward two reactions to artists. They either see the self-consumed nature many artists have and dismiss art as a worldly activity not worth a lot of attention, or the Church works really hard to be “accepting” and ends up bending over backwards, never addressing the destructive behaviors beneath. If, instead, churches addressed the real problem, a selfish way of looking at self worth, they could reach a place where artists felt at home without bending over backwards. If the church both welcomed artists, but also showed them where real personal value is found, we could abandon the “all or nothing” polarization that has become normal in churches.

The church's goal with artists (and everyone else, I might add) should be to help shape their understanding of what matters to God. At the core of the desire to be good at art is the basic longing to do something that matters. Many people show what they think has value by how they act; some save money, some just have fun, some create art and the list goes on. Our view of what has worth drives what we care about. We all long to matter, and no one wants to think that their life is meaningless. When Christians buy into the world's all-consuming definition of “artist”, it is no wonder then they start to fear that their dedication to art might not carry the worth they want it to. As Christians, they understand that “godly” things have value, and so they try to offer their talents in the context of the church. When they get there, however, they see the disconnect within themselves.

After I graduated from music school, I thought that I had to decide between music and ministry. My understanding of what it meant to be an artist had been so shaped by the secular world, that I did not see a way do make room for other things in my life if I was going to pursue music. I thought that if I were to be a musician, it would have to consume my life and therefore define me and my value. It was not until after I started to understand where my idols were that I was able to find a  clear vision.

You see, art was not created to hold the worth and meaning that so many artists want it to hold, even if they do “create for God”. Only one thing was meant to hold such a heavy desire, and that is Christ. Art can so easily be an idol that we forget to combat it. Many artists, including myself, battle the idolatry of their art by simply trying to avoid pride. We hope that if we do not think highly of ourselves, then we are not making our work an idol. Not only does this lead to really aggravating work, but it also never allows us to rejoice in a job well done. We completely miss the mark and the real sickness of misplaced self worth goes virtually undetected. Let us take a closer look at what idols are.

With a quick look at the book of Ecclesiastes you will notice the word “vanity” (or meaningless, depending on the translation) is used quite often. There is a very strong connection between “vanity” and “idols” throughout the Bible. In fact, the Hebrew word that is used in Ecclesiastes for “vanity” is translated as “idol” in other parts of the scriptures (Strong’s Concordance. H1892 “hebel”. Translated as “idol” in Deu 32:21, 1 Kin 16:13, Ps 31:6 and more). With this understanding, the book begins with, “Vanity of vanity, says the Preacher, vanity of vanity! All is vanity.” The exhaustive lists of idols that Ecclesiastes goes through shows how the good works of our hands, including art, can be idolatry. In other words, anything other than God will not be able to carry our desire for importance. If we try to put our worth or eternal value on anything besides God, it is an idol. At the end of Ecclesiastes, the Preacher finally tells us what is not vain and says, “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

Christ, like the Preacher in Ecclesiastes, uses God’s law to define the value of our lives completely around our relationship with the Father. Later on in the Biblical story, the Sadducees began to try and catch Jesus in a blasphemous trap. In the gospel of Matthew chapter 22, they ask him what the greatest commandment from God was, and in essence, asked “what does God care about most in our lives?” They asked the ultimate question and Jesus did not answer, “make disciples” or “do beautiful work”. Instead, he says in verse 37, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” Only our relationship with Christ gives us personal and eternal value. Neither saving souls nor making the world beautiful can give us the personal value we want. To be clear, this is not to discount the Great Commission or the quality of life in art, but the desire that causes us to ask the question, “which is more important”, is very often a reaction from a poor understanding of where our value is found. Only our relationship with Christ gives us eternal value, not art or even evangelism. While they are both very good things, only God can take the weight of our desire for importance.

So does this mean that nothing is beneficial to do besides study God's law or think good thoughts? By no means! The Preacher in Ecclesiastics goes on to say, “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (2:24-25) And, “I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time.” (Ecc 3:10-11) We should rejoice that we can find our fulfillment in Christ but also enjoy the beautiful things he has given us to do. The book of Ecclesiastics and the words of Christ help us understand where our worth is found, but they also free us to pursue our work to its fullness.

The temptation for the church is to polarize issues one of two ways; evangelism or redeeming society. If you asked someone on the street to describe a church, they would probably give you one of two answers. Either they would talk about a church with a huge missions budget, bad music and an ugly warehouse to meet in, or they would tell you about a beautiful small church with stain glass windows, a great homeless shelter but only five members. The church has been split down the middle when it comes to priorities. When this happens, both sides easily become idols. The church has widely accepted the assumption the world has that artists must be completely devoted to their work. The church has also widely accepted the false assumption, if only in its actions, that saving souls is what gives us value. Both of these lies combined make a community that is destructive to creative people. While both evangelism and culture-making are good things, if we promote one as the source of value, we lose focus on our calling to glorify, love and find fulfilment in Christ. We are not required to choose either evangelism or art. Once we see that our relationship with Christ comes first, we can transition away from thinking “either or” and move towards a “both and” understanding of calling.

The Cultural Lie: I am what I produce

Like everyone else, artists have bought into the lie our modern society has created that we define ourselves by what we produce instead of why or how we produce. Why is it that we introduce ourselves by name and what we do? “Hi, I'm George and I'm a farmer”, or “I'm Daniel and I'm a musician”, or “I'm Susan and I'm a teacher”? Why is it that our identity is in what we do? If artists started to define themselves outside of the song they wrote, or the picture they made, or the dance they did, there would be far less pressure for those things to give them fulfillment. They would not feel like the only way for them to be useful to God or the church is for their product to be a part of it.

When you combine this cultural disposition of product driven identity with the world’s all-consuming definition of artist, you get a lot of very shallow artists. This way of thought destroys any incentive to become a well-rounded individual and produces only homogeneous personalities. We were not made to be so limited, and it is no wonder that we have started to define ourselves by what we create when we are told that one thing should consume every part of our life.

It was easy for me, a music student in college, to side-step this problem. Even though I defined myself as an artist because I wrote and performed music, I was able to fit myself into the church because music is widely used in worship. Who I was defining myself as just happened to fit, at least in part, into a useful role in the church. It is not the same for other kinds of creative people. Take dance, for example. Dance is hardly used or even desired in western churches, so there is no convenient cross-over for dancers to fit in. And so, when the church does not desire dance in their worship or community, it is easy for dancers to feel under appreciated if they have defined who they are completely around dance. Instead of seeing themselves as more than “people who dance”, a narrow idea of self worth would keep them from being used in other ways. I got lucky as a musician. There was no institutional norm that challenged my narrow-mindedness. Only by grace did I start to realize how shallow I was being.

When dancers, or other creative minds, do start to ask questions about how to use their talents in the church community, the focus usually turns to, “how can we get everyone to dance during church”, or “how can we get dancers to perform for us on Sunday?” While these may be good questions, I believe they are the wrong questions, or at least not the first ones that should be asked. The first question is the one that artists should ask of themselves, “Why do I want to perform? Am I doing  it so I feel like I fit in and have value?” If we have selfish motivations, we will end up trying to force the church to conform to our needs. If, instead, our motivations are to build up the body of Christ, then we will do what is needed most, performing or not.

We need to start to see ourselves as more than production houses. Creative minds do not just produce things, they also see the world in a completely different light than other kinds of people. If the church reached out to artists and taught them how to be leaders, not just producers, and gave them the tools they need to serve, I think we would all learn and see God’s truth in beautiful ways. Art is more than a thing to hold and a sight to see, it is a way of thinking and processing information. It is a way of seeing the world and understanding reality. If both the church and artists started to realize this, amazing things I cannot even imagine would take place. There is a whole demographic of creative minds that are a resource just waiting to be tapped by the church.

Part of the problem is that we have lost a lot of the understanding of what it means to be a part of a church. Being a member has been reduced to attending church on Sundays and picking an area to help out on occasion. We have lost the gift of being involved in each others lives, teaching and learning from other believers, and pursuing spiritual gifts. When Paul made his list of the Fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, he did not say, “just pick one and make it your specialty.” He was describing what happens when you live your life full of the Spirit. It is the same with other parts of our life. God wants us to grow in all areas, not just our art.

What being part of a church requires and the prevalent idea of what an “artist” should be are completely incompatible. When your painting, song or dance defines you, how can you grow into the community of God? It is no wonder then, that we find a disconnect between artists and the church. If this dualist understanding of art and the church is what is being presented, then I do not blame artists for their unrest or churches for chasing them away.

I am seeing more and more people getting excited about reaching out to artists, starting programs and welcoming them into the church. This is amazing, but I hope it does not simply become the next new fad that does not work and then dies out. If the church remembers to challenge the unique idols artists bring with them, just like everyone else, and develop their life outside of what they produce, this embrace of creative minds will be a lasting step forward. I am excited to not only see the church start to welcome creative minds, but also to see artists lay down their idols, grow as leaders and refine the church from the inside out. Let the church show artists how to do this, and let us be humble enough to learn how to grow in all areas of life. Let us be more than artists, let us live full lives.