The Powerful Voice of Art: Saying What Nothing Else Can to Those Who Hear No Other Way

As I've read through the Bible, I'm struck by the vast array of art that is present in it. But, as is often the case, some of the most interesting stuff lies beneath surface. There are the obvious, books like Psalms which are clearly poetic or even literally lyrical in nature, but that's just the beginning. Beyond the other books and passages that contain poetry, references to instrumental, vocal music, and dance are throughout the old and new testaments. Then there are the far less obvious. Read Ezekiel 4. The stuff God directed the prophet Ezekiel to do there was nothing short of a cross between performance art and civil disobedience (not an unfamiliar combination.) In chapter 8 of the Gospel of John, Jesus Himself certainly shows an awareness of the power of visual elements to redirect a conversation when instead of answering a direct question, he kneels down to write in the dirt. The combination of whatever He scratched-out on the ground, the posture that action created, and the words He said clearly silenced the accusers and saved a woman's life!

Both the scriptures and the archeological record make it clear that since man's earliest days, art has been a major voice in our midst. It's also a voice that tends to last and comes to symbolize the people and the time that gave it birth. And it's a voice that's uniquely human.

What is it that gives rise to art wherever human being are present? It's my belief that it is the image our Creator shining through. Creativity is a reflection of how we're made in His image. It allows us to express things that can't be said any other way, or at least offers another voice that reaches people who might not hear.

Here are a few ways I believe art in all forms communicates to those who will listen or observe.

Art offers brings a unique voice to the conversation.
What is it that the poet, the songwriter, the painter, or any other artist has that others don't? Skills in a particular artistic discipline? Perhaps, but it's not the whole story. Almost anyone can learn to paint, play an instrument, or write given the right set of experiences and proper instruction. But even with the right skills, only a portion of these people would become "artists." That's because an artist isn't just someone who has certain skills, they are a person who sees the world differently, and who is able to document that in their chosen medium in such a way that others get a glimpse of it. This is why art can at times be powerfully divisive. It can lead people to see things they otherwise would't, and sometimes that's uncomfortable.

Art gives a voice to what we already know in our hearts.
What we believe, feel, know, and experience is far richer than words can convey. We all know this. Who can't remember a time when they found it impossible to fully express what they were feeling inside? This is so because our inner voice, that which God truly hears, doesn't need words to express what it feels. Nonetheless, to communicate feelings to other people, words are our default medium, despite their limitations. Artistic mediums aren't perfect either, but they give voice to our feelings in a very different way. Physiologically, they address different parts of the brain. In bypassing (or supplementing) language, art moves us in a wholly different ways. In this, it can give voice to to that which others already think or know, but are unable to put into words. As the same art is taken-in by more people, it becomes a collective voice.

Art can be a voice to and from the Holy Spirit.
As asserted earlier, it's our inner voice that the Holy Spirit hears. The Apostle Paul in chapter 8 of his letter to the Roman church discusses how the Holy Spirit comes to our aid by going beyond what we can express in words and interceding on our behalf without words. This is amazing, and it underscores the limitation of human language. But it highlights the ability of our spirits to connect with the Holy Spirit and bypass words to communicate truly heart-to-heart. Did you catch that? That's our hearts, directly communicating with God. Wow! I believe it is from this holy place that truly inspired art comes. In conversation with artists over the years I've often heard the creative process described as feeling more like "dictation" than "creation." That is, that it felt as if the ideas flowed through them, not from them. Having experienced this personally, I agree that it's noticeably different from what we normally experience as creativity. This is inspiration, and I believe it's a different thing all together.

How does this match-up with your experience?

Expanding the Scope of Worship Arts Ministry

As anyone who's subscribed to this blog for long will known, I believe we need to actively and attentively seek to make room for the Holy Spirit to shape the way we plan and conduct worship gatherings. Here's a refresher of some convictions I hold close to my heart:

• Worship should be both a personal and communal expression TO God. (See Framing Our Worship Expression)
• Worship expressions can and should be expected to transcend words alone (See Hearing the Spirit in Worship: Transcending Language and, Beyond Words: The Power of Art to Communicate)
• Communal worship should seek to include as many kinds of artistic expressions as are well represented in the community because each offers a unique voice that Spirit can use (see Where's Michelangelo?)
• That the worship art of a church should largely originate from the local body itself, not simply be licensed from other sources. There is a place for use of art, particularly music, from contemporary and historic Christian culture (e.g., CCLI Top-100 or traditional hymns). But a substantial portion of the worship art of a community should ideally come from the Spirit speaking TO them THROUGH them. (http://blog.realfaitharts.com/2010/09/sing-new-song-lord.html)

To make these kinds of things real means we need to make room for them in our planning. I find it a disturbing reality that this rarely happens. Part of the reason for this is that we need to become comfortable with experimentation, trying things out that may be unfamiliar. Part of it is that it's simply harder work. It also requires that we trust the Spirit and each other more. Pastors and leaders need to trust the artists in their community to be earnest and honest in the pursuit of their work and how it's expressed in public. Artists and congregations need to trust their pastors and leaders to try things that are different, that might not be familiar, and that sometimes might fail. But this is one key way we can allow the Spirit to truly lead us as we mature in our worship expressions. Rather than seeking relevance by using the same "new" material that's being used somewhere else, dare to allow your own community to find it's unique voice. This isn't the easiest road, but it will yield results like no other. But it is a test of your trust the Spirit as you have to embrace the reality that it doesn't all hinges on you. You can't control it completely.

Of course all these things assume a certain level of practical proficiency too. In order to speak, you must develop a vocabulary and know how to structure sentences. In order to write, you must learn alphabets and how to spell, and penmanship (or at least how to type ;). In order to be an artist who can readily respond to the Holy Spirit and faithfully follow the lead, a reasonable command of their discipline is needed. Knowledge of the fundamentals of your craft, be it painting, dance, filmmaking, music, etc. Is an essential element to enabling your work to be useful to others in worship. The better you are, the more useful you can be. Expanding your artistic vocabulary will enable the Spirit to speak through your work with the minimum of friction.

Being a leader in this kind of ministry environment requires that you take ministry to the artists in your community far more seriously than perhaps we often do in practice. If we are to rely on the artistic voices among us to truly help be the Holy Spirit's voice in our communities, we must start to treat them more like ministry partners than simply craftsmen or commodities. Leading, mentoring, and modeling spiritual disciplines that result in spiritual transformation needs to be a top priority — at least equal to things like scheduling rehearsals and work sessions. You'll actually need to know these people and be mindful of their spiritual growth. This is where the rubber meets the road... but I fear it rarely does.

If you're in arts ministry today, in any capacity (pastor, leader, participant, etc.), how does this line-up with your experience today? Does this reflect the way you work today? How do you engage with the artists in your ministries spiritually?

Beyond Words: The Power of Art to Communicate

Words are amazing. Together, they form thoughts and ideas that are made portable, in letters, emails, books, blogs, even text messages. As I write this, my intent is to take these thoughts from my brain and implant them into yours. You get to judge them, try them on, adopt them, or discard them.

Words move ideas from one person's mind to another's, over and over again.

This, of course, assumes that the reader understands words in the same way as the writer. In practice, that's not always the case. So words and sentences are limited in their ability to convey ideas uniformly. Writers don't always perfectly encapsulate their thoughts. Readers may differ from the writer in ways that dramatically effect the meaning they draw from the words. Experience, education, culture, time, place, and countless other variables color what we glean from what we read. Add to this the fact we don't all speak the same languages in the first place, and the idea that the human race can communicate at all becomes all the more amazing.

But words don't tell the whole story.

Those who study these things claim that the majority of human communication is non-verbal. How often have we heard, "it's not what you said, but the way you said it..." And of course we know it's often true. Right? So words are only one tool in our communication arsenal.

These are issues we have communicating with people. But what about how we interact with and relate to God? What modes of communication do we rely on to express our spirituality and connect with our Creator? Even Jesus' closest friends, the disciples, asked him how to pray, and He gave them an example in the Lord's Prayer. In the apostle Paul's letter to the church in Rome he also acknowledges that we don't always have the right words to pour out our heart to God, so the Holy Spirit himself speaks on our behalf in a way that transcends words.

So words are not the whole story in how we communicate with God either.

In a recent Facebook pole posted by YouVersion, most respondents reported that they find worship music to be the easiest spiritual practice to enter into, closely followed by prayer.

While a Facebook pole is certainly of limited statistical value, these results are certainly consistent with the proposition that there are modes of expression other than words alone that can be useful in connecting with God. And why not? Music is mentioned throughout the scripture. Many of the Psalms are actually lyrics for which specific melodies are called for (though those are largely unknown.) Musical expressions are present in virtually every culture known to man, as are many other forms of art.

I'm not afraid to admit it — I cry at movies. But it wasn't until the last few years that I realized it's usually not the story that moves me. It's the soundtrack. Sure, the story plays a role, but I can listen to certain compositions alone that have the same effect. Music moves us in very deep places. It connects meaningfully, and it does so apart from words alone and in unique ways that are all its own. This is surely what drives the movie industry to pay millions of dollars for original scores written to precisely match the narrative of the film. The script and the images may tell a story, but they don't tell it completely. It takes the right soundtrack too. The right music.

I'm a big fan of instrumental music. Composers like Maurice Ravel, John Williams, and Pat Metheny have an uncanny ability to tell stories, spark images, and convey feelings without words, on a canvas of music alone. Many times I hear a certain song, passage, or maybe even just a single chord and I immediately have the sense that what I just heard was "true", and true in precisely the same way as if I'd read an idea that resonated as true. I've had exactly opposite experience as well. I've heard music that is deeply troubling, disconcerting, false. So for me, music can convey meaning. And I know I'm not alone in this, though I recognize that just as we don't all speak the same verbal languages, our ability to understand and speak in "artistic languages" varies as well. Music may not "speak" to you, but a you may see something profound in an impressionistic painting that I might miss entirely. I do believe this sensitivity can grow with exposure and experience. It can be exercised, practiced and developed.

Art is often judged simply simply for is esthetic value, how pleasing it is to see or hear. Perhaps instead we should look for what art speaks, implies, or for what questions it stirs in you. Humans are the only species with a written language and the only one that produces art. These aspects of creativity are surely among the many ways we reflect the image of our Creator. The rich and varied modes of expression we have at our disposal empower us to endless ways of connecting with God and with each other.

What experiences do you have with these concepts? What moves you? If you're an artist, does this resonate with your experience of the creative process?

Using Advent To Kick-off a Better Year

This week marks the fourth week before Christmas, the beginning of the Advent season. "Advent" comes from the Latin word for "coming" as translated from the Greek word "parousia." For many, it traditionally marks the beginning of the church calendar. So it's a new year... just over a month before everyone else celebrates "New Years."

This got me thinking about how many people are going to start thinking about things they'd like to change in 2012, things they aspire to, and the inevitable "New Year's Resolutions."

Frankly, I'll admit I'm not a big fan of resolutions, and I'll bet many of you aren't either. People always ask about them, especially family. But the fact is, most people don't follow-through with them for more than a few weeks anyway, so why make them at all? Gyms... they're full in January, I know because it's the month I've most often been there. But attendance really starts to thin-out in February, and by March or April there's plenty of room.

But one resolution I've followed-through with so far has been to read the Bible cover-to-cover in 2011. I used the M'Cheyne plan offered by YouVersion.com. I credit my success this year to two major factors beyond my genuine desire to succeed: the right tool, and social pressure.

The right tool. For better or worse, I live a life that's pretty mobile and busy. That's true of a lot of people these days, but it certainly is for me. But the convenience of an online Bible with free companion mobile apps was perfect for me. It pretty much ruled out the excuse that carrying a study Bible around on a public transit commute is is unwieldy. Whether I have a laptop, iPad, or just my iPhone, my Bible is always there, my bookmarks are right where I left them, and it even pulls-up the passages I need to read each day. It's not for everyone perhaps, but I know I wouldn't have succeeded without it.

Social pressure. I am a person that loves having shared goals with other people. I gain a lot of energy from the team spirit. I like having people to share experiences, ideas, and questions with. What's more, sometimes I really need others to spur me on. So when I decided to take this on in 2011, I started a Facebook group and invited my friends to participate. We commitment to each to read our passages each day, then share our thoughts and questions with the group online. Knowing this group of people was out there made me feel committed not only to the task, but to them. This kept me going for many weeks, long enough for me to find a rhythm that integrated the practice into my life and become habitual. This didn't work as well for others, and the group dwindled as the year progressed. But my habit was established before it faltered, so I still give credit to the presence of this group for my success. I'll probably give this idea another try in 2011, so let me know if you'd like to join us.

Regardless of what you choose to take-on, this is a great time of year to assess your life. The things you fill your time with. The habits you want to foster. What do you have to show for this year? How would you like things to be different in 2012? You don't have to make it a resolution, unless you'd like to. But regardless of what you call it, it may be time to do it. If not now, when? The perfect time will likely never come. You'll probably never have enough money, enough will, enough education, enough time, enough... whatever. So stop waiting for the perfect time, and just get started!

And if you'd like some social pressure to help you, tell us... what would you like to accomplish in 2012? What do you think you'll need to make it happen? What steps are you going to take?

Love, respect, unity... and other pipe-dreams

Earlier this fall I studied through the Apostle Paul's letter to the Ephesians with a group of friends. A great experience reading, paraphrasing, questioning and reflecting on what it meant to that particular group of Christ followers and what it means to us today. We covered a lot of ground, but our conversation on the topic of church unity as discussed in chapter 4 kept churning in my mind. It peaked recently while attended Soularize in San Diego a few weeks later.

Soularize was an event that pulled together an impressive list of speakers and facilitators from diverse backgrounds and perspectives including Jay Bakker, Rachel Held Evans, Mark Scandrette, Peter Rollins and others. We also had the chance to take in a pre-screening of Blue Like Jazz, a film based on Donald Miller's best selling book of the same name, directed by Steve Taylor. Soularize was a great opportunity to hear challenging theological perspectives, join the conversation in workshops, and make new connections. But one thing was strikingly obvious — this was a set of people, both the speakers and the audience, that by and large came from pews decidedly on "the left side" of Christianity. In the relatively conservative evangelical circles I spend most time in, these people represent the "liberal theology" many fear or at least criticize. Of course this was not a surprise. In fact, it was partially why I was there in the first place.

But why do I purposefully seek to participate in a forum where I'm pretty sure to find perspectives so different from my own? Most people do just the opposite. Why do I put myself through this?

Not because I necessarily agree with everything I heard. In fact some things I profoundly disagree with.

Not because I'm totally dissatisfied with my own faith communities. I love the churches I'm a part of.

Not because I wanted to be there to confront things I disagree with. I did little of that.

So once again, why do I put myself through this?

This is not a rhetorical question. I've literally been asking myself this. I think the answer is at least two-fold.

First, I came to faith as a young adult and I've had many questions along the way. At every turn I've found God and the scriptures up to the task of answering every one. In fact, I think I hear God saying, "Bring it on... What else you got?" So I've learned not to approach questions in a spirit of doubt, but rather with curiosity and an expectation that enlightenment will come. I've found great peace in this approach.

Finally, I have deep convictions about the need for Christian unity. I see great stresses to this unity in churches today, and for my small part I want to be an agent of change in the body of Christ that seeks to work with the Holy Spirit toward greater unity. But to find this unity, we need to know each other! If we are to know each other, we need to spend time together. I amazed at how often leaders in churches criticize, post blogs, and write books against each other, yet never actually engage in live conversation either privately or publicly. Unfortunately, this serves to polarize followers and increase divisions in an already fractured church rather than open dialog, promote understanding, and build unity.

I'm sure this is at least partially driven by the belief that disagreement is inevitable, and in fact that may sometimes be true. And as much as my bias favors unity, I don't think we should expect to find it in complete agreement on issues. Rather, I believe it's found in mutual respect and understanding of our diverse views.

"From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." — Ephesians 4:16

The very nature of this verse suggests diversity. Physical bodies are made-up of many parts which are radically different from each other. Health does not come from making them all the same. Rather, health comes when they work together.

Liberals and conservatives need to talk. (While I direct this here at people of faith, it's equally true of political factions as well.) Rather than seeking to correct each other, both sides of a debate need to seek to understand each other. I'm not suggesting that there's never a time for correction. I'm also not suggesting that there's no such thing as a "single truth" to be sought. But I am suggesting that understanding should precede correction. And even in situation where agreement cannot be found, as we all make-up God's people, the church, we need to be able to love each other despite our differences and be united under the God we love and seek to serve to the best of our understanding. This requires a deep and honest humility and the willingness to admit to ourselves and each other that we could be wrong — that God might still have truth yet to reveal to us. That our own understandings might not yet be complete.

We seem to be living in times of increasingly polarized thinking. It's obvious in the politics of public policy. I don't like it there, but I have far less tolerance for it in the church. We all seek to align our lives, our wills, and our faith under the same God, though the working of the same Holy Spirit. While I might not give unity much of a chance from a human perspective, I believe as we acknowledge God's work in and through us, anything's possible.

But I could be wrong. What do you think?

Conquering the Foes Facing Every Artist

A book review of, "The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle" by Steven Pressfield

Whether your art is writing, painting, woodworking, or a medium known only to you, there's one thing all of us who count ourselves as artists hold in common. Call it procrastination or its seemingly more admirable cousin, prioritization, but at one point or another we all face it. The tendency to put our art on the back burner in order to do something else that seems more important or at least more urgent. There are a million justifications for what this makes sense, and you all know them. But however valid the case may seem, let's be honest that we know in our hearts we've given something-up. We've put something off that we know was important, perhaps the most important thing we'd ever do. What we've given in to here is called-out and named by Steven Pressfield in his book "The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle."
This book is not new, it was first published in 2003, but it's made enough of an impression on those who have read it that they're still talking about it, recommending it, and re-reading it from time-to-time. My introduction came through a Tweet by John Acuff of Stuff Christians Like, who calls it one of his favorite books ever. After reading it, I'd have to agree with Robert McKee's opening line in the forward saying that, "Steven Pressfield wrote this book for me."
I'm not going to attempt to summarize the book, because I'd actually recommend you read it for yourself. But here are some highlights I made as I was reading. I'll start with one of the last ones, late in the book. Speaking of the fact we artists often put other things before focusing on our work, Pressfield writes:

"If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don't do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You hurt your children, you hurt me, you hurt the planet. You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite God Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter further along its path back to God."

He makes a strong point of the idea that we can't, or we shouldn't, do think of life as an opportunity to do anything we want to. Rather, we were put here to a job, a calling, something we were intended to do from the cradle. It's what we're wired for. Why we manage to find this or not he claims is a matter of how we see the world, and unfortunately we often see it improperly until thoroughly educated in the school of hard knocks!
A key concept introduced early in the book is that of, "resistance." Resistance is an invincible, internal, and universal force that works against us at every stage of creativity and is fueled by our fears. Defeat of resistance is found in the mindset shift that happens for those who manage to turn from being an "amateur" to a "professional." In this case, he's talking about changes in attitude, orientation and habits rather than simply whether an artist makes money at their craft or not.
I recommend this book from the standpoint of an artist who found Pressfield's observations and conclusions extremely insightful. My copy is riddled with highlights that hit home personally, and I suspect I'm not alone. Have any of you experienced resistance in pursuit of your work? What form has it taken? How have you overcome it?