Closing the gap between art and the church
I ran across this quotation a few days ago from Sandra Bowden, via Culture-Making:
What if you had to go to a church that had had no music since the early 1500s? It’s unimaginable. Yet the void you can’t imagine is there—[the] 500-year lack of visual arts in Protestant churches.
Hyperbolic, yes, but the spirit of the quote is spot-on. For the most part, Christianity over the past few hundred years has done little to involve visual artists. Thankfully, this is steadily changing.
Recently, Mission Network News reported on a ministry coming out of The Mission Society called The Fonderie. The Fonderie is a collective of Christian artists that reach out to their professional artist colleagues. Here’s an excerpt from the MNN post:
The Fonderie offers discipleship classes, weekend retreats, coaching and prayer. In addition, they are engaged in art shows, small concerts, coffee house events, and creative project development. Their gallery is open for all artists–believers or not.
An artist’s schedule may make going to church on a regular basis difficult. The rhythms of the two lifestyles are very different; for example, a jazz musician who plays at clubs every night until 2 AM or a painter who is on tour for six weeks at a time. It leaves them disconnected from the body of Christ.
The Beise’s ministry is a pastoral response to these challenges. They encourage artists in their talents. In some cases, artists have felt like a tool in the hands of the church, so there are lots of discussions that must take place in the process of integrating them back into a community.
Read the rest here.
Does your church involve visual art in their sanctuaries or in worship?
