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.