After seven years serving as a pastor of worship and an artist, I returned from a sabbatical last year more convinced than ever— the church needs the artist and the artist needs the church. What follows is an amalgam of my own reflections and those of many others.[1]
To be doctrinally sound through the centuries, the church has rightly rallied around and bled for the creeds and confessions that unambiguously exalt Jesus Christ. These propositions ensured the faith once received was preserved from generation to generation. Those of us in Protestant traditions underscore this with a prioritization of the preached Word. Reality is once and for all before us: God, in Christ, has revealed himself and all the world must reckon with this objective, unchanging truth, period. That is true, but it can lead to a premature conclusion. Having assented to the right beliefs and subscribed to the proper confessions, we can think we’ve arrived. There’s an illusion of mastery, and all that’s left is to proclaim and defend the truth from error as we await Jesus’ return.
Here is where the artist’s presence is so critical. What does reckoning with Christ look like across the color palette? What does it sound like along the continuum of audio frequencies? What does it feel like when the sorrows, joys, and complexities of human experience collide with divine revelation? Rather than these questions being met with a raised eyebrow, or even as a perceived threat to orthodoxy, the doors must be flung open. We stand to gain tremendously by embracing not just “the arts” in the abstract, but the individuals gifted by God to face these queries head-on in various mediums.
Being drawn to the mysterious and unknown, this is virtually a prerequisite for the artist. It is in the outworking of their craft in and for the church that “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth” is set amidst the hews and harmonies of the created world. We have the script of the gospel, but what is a film without a score? How much more compelling is a story when adorned with a song? May artists find themselves among us not as outliers but partners in telling the truth as beautifully as possible.
Lest we think it’s a one-way street, the artist’s need for the church is just as acute. As an artist, I think it’s helpful to speak in the first person here. With most creative work there is a certain isolation that’s fundamental: the painter alone in a loft, the writer escaping to a cabin, the musician hunkered in a basement. I can follow the muse without interruption, catch the lightning without someone knocking over the bottle. Yet necessity has a way of generating inertia that’s not always healthy. A kind of monophonic echo chamber develops where the creative process can go unchallenged.
Here is where the church’s formative presence in the artist’s life can’t be overstated. That insatiable desire I have to push creativity at every turn now has theological brakes to stop before the cliff. The autonomy that so often devolves into a tyranny of my self-expression now has the freeing yet authoritative word of the King. With every Christian, I confess, “I am not my own.” This means not only surrendering to Christ but giving myself to a particular people with particular beliefs. To my surprise, this actually results in greater inspiration than ever before. No longer adrift, I have clear coordinates to navigate the rocks and sail with purpose.
Out of isolation and into this ragtag redeemed community, I discover myself surrounded by many I wouldn’t normally call friends. A people I might have dismissed as bland, risk-averse types, is now a family that disrupts and obligates me in all the best ways. Their day-in, day-out presence galvanizes and shapes my creativity more than I could ever imagine. As they bear my burdens and I bear theirs, something amazing happens. The uncurated, nonfictional tears and triumphs, shames and successes transform my work. Not only does this qualitatively deepen what I do; more importantly, it matures and grows me as a disciple.
When the artist and the church embrace each other as God intends, the result is a beautiful, mutually beneficial dynamic: both are challenged, blessed, disrupted, and matured as they work together for the gospel.
