One recent magical Saturday night I shared in a banquet in Charlottesville, Va. The food, table and company were gathered in celebration of creativity, imagination and art as spiritual practice. Tables were decorated with simple butcher paper painted with splashes of vibrant yellows and oranges. Fresh flowers sat in mason jars and strings of lights crisscrossed the ceiling of an old church lending an ethereal glow to crisp white plates set and ready for 200 of us to enjoy our feast of locally grown and prepared food. The banquet was the culmination of a weekend of questions, celebration and challenge.
Lisa Cole Smith
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All too rarely in my experience do Christians gather together to seriously discuss questions like “What is good art?” “What is the responsibility of the artist?” “What about the arts and social engagement?” “What is the role of art and the church?” My time at the New City Arts Initiative Forum felt like a hopeful oasis as an artist in church. It was a time where my imagination was stimulated to think of new possibilities in my own congregation and of affirmation about the value of the artist’s contribution.
Usually, when artists are included at conferences they are there to provide music for the worship time and perhaps decoration for the walls. Rarely are they invited to speak about their work as missions, evangelism or discipleship. Even when they are included in social justice projects it is often merely to help raise awareness rather than help to create methods of engagement and problem solving. This is unfortunate because artists have so much to offer in those areas. At the New City Arts Forum artists, academics, representatives from the International Arts Movement, Christians in Visual Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts among others shared ideas on how to foster community and work together in service of God’s kingdom in the world. This was a weekend alive with possibility.
Artist Kate Daughdrill shared examples of her work in Detroit speaking to the poverty and difficulty of life in the city by initiating shared community experiences to imagine new ways of living, living beyond survival. One such project is called “The Hut.” In a run-down local park, a hut with an edible roof is currently under construction. The hut will provide community gathering space as well as strawberries to be eaten and shared. Another project is called “Soup” which invites neighbors to share a simple meal and provide microgrants for local artists and entrepreneurs. Five dollars buys you soup, salad and a vote. The evening meal provides a chance for conversation and community as well as consideration of the strengths and merits of several proposals. At the end of the night the group votes to determine the recipient of the grant. Awards have gone to public art projects as well as projects like a design for a thermal coat that becomes a sleeping bag at night for people who are living on the street.
I would love to attend a pastors conference, annual meeting or worship seminar that engaged professional artists as conversation partners. We Christian leaders talk a lot about how we are desperate to reach the “lost” and connect with our culture. We admit we have a lot to learn about how. Yet, we look to pastors and worship leaders of churches in other states for answers rather than the artists and creative thinkers in our own congregations. Isn’t it possible they are better equipped to breathe indigenous creative life into the community of which they are a part?
We incorporate all forms of media in our attempts to be “relevant,” but too often we do these things thinking it is the film or guitar or skit itself (the form) that moves people and we miss the point. We can’t simply copy a popular technique, put a Christian spin on it and expect it to be meaningful. It is not simply the form or the message alone people respond to. It is also the voice of the artist, the artistry—the thought, practice, skill, talent, philosophy, training, passion and calling all coming together in a piece that makes something powerful.
A study from the NEA reveals that 96 percent of people in the United States value the arts while only 27 percent of people value the artists. They value the product, but not the person who created it. I would be very curious to see the results of a similar poll given to churches. Churches have fought “wars” over preferred types of music and images and yet these are merely the products of creative minds. What if we were as passionate about engaging those creative minds in our midst—the prophetic voices, the critics, the visionaries?
We need to realize God put them there for a reason. They have something of value to contribute. I say, it’s time to listen.
Lisa Cole Smith (lsmith@convergenceccf.net) is pastor of Convergence: a Creative Community of Faith, a Baptist congregation in Alexandria, Va.