Welcome to the online extras and resources for Chapter 3: Envisioning the Arts and Creativity in Your Church of The Creative Church Handbook. What you’ll find here is material that is helpful and important, but couldn’t be included in the book because of space constraints. Some thoughts include a reference to the specific page they would have appeared on.
For information and discussion on similar topics see The New Renaissance Arts Movement site at TheNewR.org. For questions, comments, or use permissions you may contact the author directly at Scott (at) TheNewR.org.
Visit our CreativeChurchArtsIdeas.org website for more ideas for creativity and arts ministry in the local church!
Chapter 3: Envisioning the Arts and Creativity in Your Church
So, you’d like to see more art and creativity in your church? What might it look like for the arts and creativity to be more integrated into today’s local churches? This chapter will help you design and cast a vision for how creativity could thrive in and enhance your church.
“Nobody does Christmas like Disneyland. There are beautiful fireworks, amazing shows, and snow falling on Main Street, while you hear white Christmas hum through all the speakers. People stand there and just cry because of the beauty of it. It’s a high standard of excellence. But I can’t help walking away from that and going, ‘Yeah, that was really fun but it doesn’t mean as much as what I get to do’. I think the church has to stop selling itself short because what we do (with the arts) has so much more power to change people’s lives forever, rather than just give them a really good experience. That’s a much bigger calling.” Nick Benoit, Creative Director, Willow Creek Church
From Jessie Nilo: A few years ago our senior pastor at the time, Tri Robinson, wrote Revolutionary Leadership, a book about natural leadership. In it Tri explains the synergy that results when you focus on your vision first, before thinking about details like when you’ll meet or who will participate. Imagine your ministry two years from now. Don’t be scared, just imagine. What could our arts ministry look like? What are we known for? Why does our church or city care about what we do? How do people feel about volunteering? How do our church leaders feel about our ministry? Who are our guests, and are they engaged in a certain activity? Where are they from? What are they doing, and what does their environment look like? How often do they meet? Be as specific as you can as you imagine. This will not box God in or set anything into motion; but simply allows you to clarify your vision statement. Pg 46
Here is a look at some thriving arts ministries and their vision/mission statements:
Name: Visual Voice
Church: Lincoln BereanChurch
Church size: approx. 4000
Leader: Ann Williams visualvoicelbc@gmail.com
Location: Lincoln, NE
Vision/Mission: Created to create in Christ. To (1) help foster growth in faith, and (2) help artists find their visual voice, (3) encourage artists at all skill levels, (4) Connect artists with each other, and (5) share creative gifts in the church community and beyond. Under each of those 5 on their mission statement they have a list of how they felt that God wanted them to do that.
Activities: 5 Galleries, Weekly Workshops, Affinity groups
Website: http://lincolnberean.org
Name: Saddleback Visual Arts (Formerly Ex Creatis)
Church: Saddleback
Church Church size: 3
0,000
Location: Lake Forest, CA
Vision/Mission: Our vision is to be the heart of creative culture in Orange County. Our mission is to transform community through creativity.
Activities: Gallery, Weekly Open Studio, Art Collective, Art exhibitions and installations, Social justice & community engagement through art, Art workshops & art-related events, contributing to services, outreach to LA art community
Website: http://saddlebackvisualarts.com
Name: Express Your Faith
Church: Lutheran Church of Hope
Church size: 10,000
Location: West Des Moines, IA
Vision/Mission: Express your faith creative arts ministry offers Christ-centered experiences that engage hearts and minds through the arts.Activities for all ages and ability levels encourage creative expression as a means to glorify God, strengthen faith in Christ Jesus, and be led by the Holy Spirit.
Activities: Gallery, Workshops, working with church ministries
Website:https://www.lutheranchurchofhope.org/west-des-moines/grow/by-interest/creative-arts/
Name: VineArts Boise
Church: Vineyard Christian Fellowship
Church size: 3,000
Location: Boise, ID
Vision/Mission: The vision of VineArts is to empower and equip artists and non-artists to explore and develop their God-given creativity while challenging them to grow artistically and spiritually. Our 4-fold mission has always been to worship God, serve the Church, bless the community, and equip artists
Activities: VineArt Gallery, VineHearts arts outreach, Weekly Open Studio, Envision monthly gatherings, Affinity groups, Creative Church Conference, local exhibitions and art auctions, graphic design services, artist’s workshops, artist community gatherings, arts tables during services, murals for sermon series, etc.
Website: VineArtsBoise.org
Name: Awakening Artists
Church: (Partnership) Woodman Valley Chapel
Church size: 3-5,000
Location: Colorado Spring, CO
Vision/Mission: making a difference through Call…Community…Compassion. Call– Awakening Artists believes that God the Creator extends an invitation to every human being to join Him in making a difference through the gifts, skills and talents He has given us. Community– While the artists of old created in isolation, Awakening Artists believes the message for the artist of today is to learn from and live in community. Compassion– Awakening Artists believes that the closest thing to the heart of God is the souls of people.
Activities: Fireside Gallery, Inspire Art Journal, Workshops/Classes, ARTalks, Artist Retreats, more
Website: AwakeningArtists.com
Name: IVAC (Indy Vineyard Arts Community)
Church: Vineyard Christian Fellowship Indianapolis (North)
Church size: 250 Location: Indianapolis, IN Vision/Mission:
Activities: Gallery, Monthly gatherings, platform painting, Personal Prayer Art, Creative Church Conference
Website: https://indyvineyard.org/ministries/arts
Name: Infused Arts
Church: Living Word Community Church
Church size: 1,500
Location: York, PA Vision/Mission: Connecting the arts and creativity with spiritual formation.
Activities: The Well (a sacred space experience), The Sacred Path and Prayer Gardens (1/2 mile walking path with 5 prayer gardens), The Studio (where artists and creatives gather for creating in the community in the presence of the Lord), The Gallery @ Common Grounds (featuring 6 exhibits a year), Writers Retreats, and instructional classes to hone your artistic abilities.
Website: No longer operating
Bryn Gillette from the Haiti—Beyond the
Ruins series. Bryn’s goal is to affect
culture with this series by calling
attention to Haiti’s ongoing needs as
well as its bright future. 32” x 80” oil on
wood. Used with permission of the artist. ( From page 45.)
Additions to the Theology of the Arts section
- While theology is vigorously taught in the seminaries that our pastors and church leaders attend and graduate from, their study typically does not include a theology of the arts. In fact, there may be an unspoken distrust of the arts imbedded in some of our faith traditions, born from the reformation, that has been unknowingly and unintentionally passed down to us. pg 46
- Pastors and church leaders may be more open to the arts in the church if they only understood the theology behind what it is that artists do. Pg 46
- “Theology” is simply “the study of the nature of God and religious belief.” In other words, The following is a concise theology of the arts that might help your church leaders understand the role of the arts in a more informed way. Note that some very smart theologians and philosophers have written thick and expansive books about this stuff for many years, so this will be quite incomplete. Still, knowing what you believe about the arts as it relates to God is an essential and foundational part of what it is to be an artist of faith. Pg 47
- Note that the act of creation was not a chore for God. He takes great pleasure and receives glory in the creation of all things (Revelation 4:11, Psalm 19:1-4, Genesis 1:31). You can almost picture Him smiling as He forms the stars and paints the cosmos from the canvas of nothingness. He is, in a very real sense, the Artist God. Pg 52
- In a sense, God showed us what true Beauty was, as beauty is defined by God’s original intention for His universe. Pg 49
- In other words, we cannot help but be artists; it is who God made us to be.. pg 50
- As artists of faith are called to serve the body, it is the role of leaders of churches to give artists a place to express their art for the good of the body pg 51
- Finally, since the arts impact our culture (in both incidental and profound ways), artists of faith are called to express their faith through their art to the world (Matthew 28:18-20). In the same way that the Great Commission applies to each of us, so does it apply to artists and their art. The role of the church includes sending the artist of faith into the world to create and affect culture. Pg 51
- So God makes us creative, and He gives us the ability to be creative, and then He endows us with an inborn aesthetic that allows us to derive pleasure from the creative act as well. And this is fitting, for we are children of our Abba God (1 John 3:1-3). Like a parent who displays her child’s art on the refrigerator door, our God takes joy in—and is glorified through—our acts of creation, our art. Now that we understand the nature of God and the nature of us pg 53-54 The arts—music, dance, drama, visual arts, poetry, filmmaking, and craftsmanship in all it’s forms—are an essential aspect of the culture-making process. Pg 54