This is one of my top 5 desert island albums. Taylor does some masterful lyric work layered on top of gritty guitars. Get it on iTunes and while you are at it, get Taylors earlier work The Overflow too.
Key Listens: Mumford & Sons
Mumfod & Sons An amazing piece of work from an amazing band. Fresh takes on faith and life, grace and love. Contemplations of our relationship with God. Pure, heartfelt, and real. NOTE: One song (Little Lion Man) I advise caution with kids.
Album drops February 16th, unless you happen to be in the UK ;)
Recommended Reads
No Perfect People Allowed: Creating A Come As You Are Culture in the Church
John Burke
Fabulous book for anyone trying to build the Kingdom of God in a postmodern society. Get it here!
Moses got instructions to make garments for Aaron “for glory and beauty”. Christian art has largely lost the ability to make something for glory and beauty. In fact, there is an overwhelming sense that if art is not evangelistic, it is worthless. Or worse, it serves the devils purposes not God’s. Odd then that articles for the tabernacle were designed for glory and beauty.
There is a time in Church history where the arts were banned because they were taking very literally “You shall have no idols before me.” Any representation of God, Jesus, was considered an idol. And truth be told, they can be. But so can anything. Our response to art determines if it is an idol or not. As I stated in the last few blogs, we certainly have elevated Christian artists (musicians, authors, even pastors) to idol status. I wonder how long before we see the Christian Idol talent show on TBN (if someone from TBN reads this, consider it a pitch and I want points on the back end).
So how do we keep art from being idolatrous? Why, by saying it’s evangelistic. It sounds shallow but it’s exactly what we have done. The Bible says that love covers a multitude of sins, it does not say Evangelism covers stores filled with shoddy art. I have met people in the music industry who claim that their music is an evangelistic ministry. Well, lets follow that logic a bit.
We discussed a bit about the quality or lack thereof of many Christian products. But another major reason is market economics. The main outlet for Christian products of any kind is the Christian bookstore. And these are commercial enterprises. They are consumer supported, fed by distributors who are distributing content for the publishers/labels/studios. Most Christian “art” will be supplied through this commercial enterprise.
I am sure that the owners of these knowledge boutiques feel that they are providing a great service to the body of Christ. Where else can you go to get the “oil of gladness” that anointed Jesus but HolyMart Booksellers (I kid you not, I dont need the Holy Spirit to give me gladness, I can buy it in a store). We live in a post information age. Information is everywhere and the downfall is that we know more about things than ever before but act on less knowledge than ever. I suppose this means we never really know what we know. When asked, Jesus said that the sum of all the law, all the books in the world is this “Love God, love your neighbor.” I imagine that if we just did this, we wouldnt need Christian books at all.
A while ago, perhaps a year, perhaps 6 months, there was a pretty strong move of God in our Church that was directed towards restoring creativity. I dont want to lose that. I believe that it was the heart and Word of God to a generation. God is restoring the Creative Arts to His people and we are to take a leadership position in the Creative Arts in the World.
Awesome you say. But before we go crazy, flooding the net with creativity for creativity's sake, lets refine a few things.
When God restores something, He doesn’t restore things that aren't broken. Thats the point of the restoration, right? Something is broken that He is fixing. So what’s broken in the Creative Arts in the Church? Im glad you asked. Becuase I think we need to face what is broken so that we can see the restoration and not run off and start doing more broken things just because there was a release of creativity.
Christian art, in general, is poor art and does not begin to compete with the skill and talent displayed in the world’s artists. I’m talking music, paintings, dance, theater--every area of the creative arts. We have abdicated our position as authorities and leaders in art.
Christian art is, in general, commercial. Christian art is very often created with the purpose of making money or generating fame. Both of these things come into direct competition with the Word of God. Dont get me wrong, Im not saying we cant profit from art, but the INTENT is key here.
Christian art is, in general, evangelistic. We have assigned a purpose to every art form and art for the sake of beauty is not acceptable. It has to have a mission and a purpose.
Christian art often promotes those who have not developed their talent. Singers, songwriters, musicians, dancers, writers--we qualify their calling by the fact that they are called and do not require as much skill as the world requires for the same art forms.
The arts are not revered as a valid profession. Thus, Christian artists do their art “on the side” and true talent is never developed.
I’m sure there are more, and I could probably think of a ton, but my goal is not to criticize, but to develop the artist into the kind of artist God wants us to be. Over the next few posts I will look at these in depth and offer a prescription for change that will lead us to the reform that God wants to bring about.
God is restoring creativity and the creative arts to His people. He wants those who are called by His name to lead the world in the pursuit and practice of art. As he is restoring the arts, we need to be aware of what is broken, what he is fixing so that we can move forward in His restoration. Marriages that are broken do not get better by sweeping the past under the rug, or drawing a line in the sand and moving on. Behaviors and patterns of behavior need to be recognized, addressed and repented of before true, lasting restoration can take place.
The first broken area has to do with the quality of art that is coming out of Christianity. I’m sure this is going to offend some people, but we have to recognize certain things so that we can have a clean break from them. I’m just coming out and saying it. If you are a fan of Christian bands, you might want to stop reading here.
There is no living body on earth like the Church. Not congress, the UN, Habitat for Humanity, you name it. There is nothing like the Church. You know, we often complicate church so that we dont have to be the Church.
Church (big C) vs church (little c). The Church (big C), the body of Christ is a living, breathing body--made up of many parts and bound together by the Holy Spirit. A church (little c) is a building in some cases, or in others a group of people who meet together a couple times a week. What makes the difference between a group of people who meet together weekly and the living, breathing body?
