The local church struggles with the same conclusion.

The church has always had a difficult relationship with the arts, from the dispute over icons at the Council of Nicaea to the construction of large cathedrals, to the Puritan belief that art impeded true worship. Yet, art needs to have a place in the local church, and can be of great value in terms of corporate worship and outreach. The local church needs to continually invest in having an excelling presence of aesthetic beauty that is fitting for their local congregation.

Art is Important

The idea that art has no pragmatic value is not a new one. Whereas it is easy to see the concrete value in allocating funds to feed the homeless, or purchasing a new Sunday School curriculum or installing an elevator so the elderly can participate in the weekly service, art has a sort of nebulous value to the church. It can be difficult to see what value there really is in creating good design, commissioning a mural or even the layout of the church building. Even so, there is biblical evidence to support the need for art in the church.

The design of the Tabernacle shows that the dwelling place of the Lord was to be a beautiful place. It was to be adorned specifically and precisely to the plans that Yahweh gave His people. Yet, in the middle of instructions given for a priest’s garments, God gives one of the most liberating statements for the artist, “on its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarns” (Exodus 28:33-34). Pomegranates are most certainly red, and can be shades of purple, however they are never found to be blue. The requirement for a blue pomegranate on the cloth opens up a world for the artist that is prevalent throughout Scripture: that art can be produced and used to the glory of God (For more, read Blue Pomegranates).

Art was commissioned by God Himself to be prevalent in His dwelling place. It is not something that man has created out of thin air, it is a practice that God has created: that we should create for His glory.

This art was not for the individual. It was for the community, it was for corporate worship. God commanded that skilled artisans created something breath-takingly beautiful in order that the nation of Israel would be able to see a glimpse of God’s glory in the design. Art today should be the same way. It has the power to bring the body of Christ to worship their Creator and Savior. It is not for the individual’s glory-it is for God’s.

In one article, Andy Crouch makes the point that worship in itself is “unuseful”. It does not give God anything He does not already have (The Gospel, For the Beauty of the Church). It does not accomplish anything practical, yet God desires and commands that we worship Him, thus, it must hold some value in His eyes. The same is true about art. Though art does not accomplish a pragmatic purpose, nor does it hold inherent value, it has the power to bring a congregation together. Worshipful art has the ability to place the audience in a position of awe towards God. The ornate nature of a cathedral, or even a fresco has the power to turn a group of rowdy students into awe-struck worshippers, and all art in the church should strive to be the same way.

The end product is art that drives the congregation to better worship of God their creator. The work of a thriving church should be inspiring to congregation and to the artist. An artist functioning well in the church will be both beneficial to the craft, and the community. The arts have a way of making the intangible into something tangible that can help the church understand complex concepts, such as Immanuel “breaking through” at advent. Covenant Life Church themed their advent celebration around the idea that Immanuel broke through to be with His people. They created visual reminders such as broken shards of glass, projections and even advent candle decorations that enforced the theme of the service that any other medium would not have been able to communicate. They used their context and season to inform and shape the use of the art in their services, choosing to include a dramatic reading and dancers with props that looked like broken glass. This deepened the congregation’s understanding of the purpose of advent, and turn in worship.

Art does have a home in the local church-both as a means of corporate worship and outward ministry. In the western society, however, it tends to have an individualistic outworking: the artist creates alone, produces alone, and the individual consumes it alone. Yet, the church is a place for true community. A community of believers all saved by a gracious God should produce a community of mutual growth, and perpetual spurring on to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24). Thus, any art program or institution of art in the church needs to be about the community, not the individual. The focus needs to be on helping the community to point their praise heavenward, not towards the artist.

It Needs to Fit

The position that art takes in the local church should neither be arbitrary, nor be merely showmanship. The kind, medium, placement, position and timing need to fit its congregation. One of the first rules in public speaking is to know your audience, and to know them well. If any piece of art should have an impact on its audience, it absolutely needs to fit the context. As much as possible, design, sculpture, architecture, drama, and all forms of art should be created and formed from within the congregation so as to assure that the product is appropriate for the audience. Large mega-churches have the ability to create in-house productions that are grand in scale, because they have the talent and resources present in their congregations (Willow Creek’s Imagine Christmas), but that does not mean that a congregation of 200 should put on that production. That church should work on a program that shows their unique reflection on Christmas to their people and community. The ultimate goal is to have a piece of work that is an honest expression that above all glorifies God in its very nature.

Inspiring Body of Christ, a church in Texas, realized the power of the aesthetic. Somewhere along the way, however, it all went horribly wrong. They installed a $4.7M salt-water fish tank to remind their congregation to be “fishers of men”.  The aquarium is the nation’s largest privately owned tank, two full-time marine biologists along with six dietrists work on the tank. The church saw the impact of a well-designed church, however they went very overboard! $4.7M is far out of proportion for what the church can afford, and how they should be stewarding their resources.

Another church in Texas, however, did know their demographics very well came to the conclusion that many in their congregation had tattoos. The resident artist that works with Ecclesia Church, Scott Erikson, saw an opportunity to use this medium that would resonate with his audience. For his yearly reimagination of the stations of the cross, Scott designed tattoo art representing each of the ten stations. Over 126 people from the congregation got at least one of the stations tattooed on their bodies. The entire event resonated with a congregation that felt like they had been unwillingly marked by the world, but chose to be marked by their Savior. Scott says “that’s the contextualizing we are striving for…. that there is a place for all who desire to know Christ and His resurrecting grace…. no matter how they are marked” (Cruciformity).

For a small church that is not tattoo-nor-aquatic-animally-inclined, however, the application of this principle could be just starting with the design of the space they are working in. Uptown Baptist church is a small church of around 150 people, very ethnically diverse in an economically challenged neighborhood of Chicago. They have many different micro-churches that operate out of their building every week, representing the many different languages in the congregation. One expression of art that fit their congregation was an installment of banners simply saying “Jesus Christ” in each of the different languages present in their congregation. This expression fit their congregation’s language demographics, economic ability and their space perfectly.

Always Excelling

As Christians, we are to “work with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:23-24). In every endeavor, we are to strive for excellence because we are not just creating for the sake of creating, or for our own benefit-no! We are serving the Lord Christ. Thus, the use of the arts should be program that promotes excellence.

The local church needs to start in a fitting place, but grow with the demographic as it grows. As time progresses, the programs should as well — in both proficiency and excellence. No program or structure will ever be perfect, however it should be striving to be perpetually improving, and growing stronger.

This comes into play in both the administrative level, and the pastoral level. For example, if a church decides to host a gallery, and they see the church benefiting from the installations, they should consider taking the next step by possibly having an open studio night at the church. Thus, the program supporting the arts can excel in its course. The church should be progressing as the demographics of the church progress, and as they see God working through the ministry taking place.

From the pastoral point, it is important to note that the intent is not for anyone who has a sketch on a piece of notebook paper to be published in the bulletin. The leader’s responsibility in the church is to push the artist to excel in the craft. Create an editorial process for publishing in the church. Let the artists go through a few drafts or a peer review to help nudge the individual to his or her best. Set standards of excellence for publishing, and regularly revisit them in order to revise and improve upon them.

A good example of a church that has excelled in their relationship with the arts is MissioDei. Just four years ago, the church went through a major “rebirth”, as they hired a new pastor to the 100 year old traditionally Baptist Church of Wrigleyville.  Major differences can be seen just in the branding alone, but there is much more to their change than that. The community of believers at MissioDei is very largely a young, hipster, yuppie group. Every age demographic is represented, however the church is largely populated by college students, and has a very distinctly artistic bent. Thus, when the church rebranded, they chose a logo that is much more representational of its congregation in its feel, and followed suit with its website. In the following years, they implemented a “Beautiful Advent” art gallery at Christmastime, featuring artists in their congregation. They commissioned t-shirts and works from congregants. The church leadership found ways to recognize and encourage corporate worship through the artists in their community in a way that was fitting to the context, and continually excelling.

The Need to Invest

Like anything else, excellent art, architecture, design and theatre in the church require time and money. Because of the intangible nature of the work, it can be difficult to decide how much money and time should be devoted to the arts, especially in lieu of a homeless ministry, a new curriculum, et cetera. The truth is, however that it is worth the investment for the local church to spend time and money on making beautiful things.

Cathedrals in medieval times took hundreds of years to build, and plenty of revenue from parishioners to complete. They are beautiful and breathtaking, but at the same time, the extreme amount of extravagance surely took a toll on the ministry of the church. Rather than building the church (the body of Christ), they were building a church (a building). The intent is not to advocate for $48 million to build a cathedral, rather the intend it to build something that it fitting and excelling in the unique context of each individual local church. We need to do better as whole, especially in the context of architecture. Examples of modern protestant churches look more like office buildings and schools than the sanctuary described in the Tabernacle or the Temple. The aesthetic is important, for both believers and the non-believers.

Take for example, the use of a website. For many, a website is the first glimpse of any organization. It explains the details of what the company believes, who the main players are, important directions for a visit, and gives a representational standard of what that company values. The same mindset is used when a visitor looks up a church. So many vibrant, thriving churches give a poor first impression when it comes to their online presence (Google any number of the churches in your hometown, the likelihood of stumbling upon an outdated website is fairly high). Churches like Antioch and The Painted Door, however, have not only invested start up money, but also time and resources to keep the site current throughout the year. Their sites are an honest representation of the place they hold for the aesthetic, as well as giving a good first impression.

The investment, just as before, needs to be fitting and excelling. There is a lot to consider- the possible need for a permanent leadership role, volunteers, supplies, time invested. Nevertheless, be creative. Implement a donation policy for supplies, and research how other churches are doing the same thing. As leaders, take time to pray and consider what would be right for your congregation.

Application

There is not a certain percent that every church needs to apply in their yearly budget meeting as a quota for art, nor is there a set of bare-bones essentials that every church must have, because every church is different. Every congregation is unique in their demographics, leadership and service. Yet, the importance of art in the church is clear. The key is to start. Start something that fits where the congregation is at right now, and invest in the power that art can have for the church.

Here is an example of a fictitious church that could use some help updating its church’s relationship with art. In the scenario, they had a few past experiences with using art in their church, however they have not continued with anything of the like for some time. With their context and demographics in consideration, the plan suggests some ideas to get their program off the ground. There are other churches putting into effect very similar programs, but geared toward their unique congregation, and this plan tries to do just that-offer Northbend Evangelical Free Church somewhere to start. Their congregation has many young families, as well as middle aged and older couples. The plan attempts to take their specific congregation, and implement an appropriate fitting and excelling program in their church that they can invest in.

The same idea is needed in many churches. Not a blind adoption of what the church next door, or the church in the nearest big city has done, rather a program that drives the congregation to better worship because it fits, is excelling and can be invested in.

The first basis I want to lay out is that we are created in the Image of God. This is a weighty statement and I do not take it lightly. This means first of all that we share in the character of God as reflections; we do not share fully in His power but we do show a lesser version. We cannot make from nothing as God did (Ex Nihilo), yet, we have the ability to make from what is already created.

There should be a distinction made between the two forms in which man is an Image of God, the first is the fallen, non-regenerate man. He is able to exemplify godly attributes like reason, creativity, and language, yet all of these things out of place. It is as if one were to use the pipes that move water to a water fountain and instead use them to deliver mud. The systems are there but they are not doing any useful, and are probably receiving undo wear and tear. In this analogy if man is the apparatus, we can understand the water and the mud as the messages, water being the Gospel. The regenerated man will be able to correctly use these abilities the way God intended. The water will flow muddy at first, but with time live giving water will be delivered.

Knowing these things and that “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9), we can surmise that we cannot truly be original in our finite, human creativity. Yes, we can stand out for temporal uniqueness, but we are always only rearranging preexisting elements. This is why we end up with movies like “Cowboys vs. Aliens”, and “Twilight” for that matter. Remix is the way it all works for mankind.

This also means that no matter how unique our creations we are still ripping off someone, who also ripped of someone, etc. till you get back to God’s original creation. At first this seems wrong, keeping plagiarism and similar ethics in mind, but God did not copyright creation.

We also see in scripture that not only is imitation of His creation acceptable, God commands it in certain situations. In Exodus 28:33 He commands that sculpted pomegranates be hung in the tabernacle. He also commands Moses to make a snake on a pole (Numbers 21:8). Throughout his book “the Two Paths” of essays and lectures John Ruskin, the premier art critic and historian of the Victorian era, affirms that not only should we imitate creation, but the source of all of our creativity is found in nature. He stresses the need for designers to find time to walk among and ponder on creation.

We have free reign to create and make with some exceptions. Those being that we do not blaspheme, make a false God, or misuse our creativity. A misuse would be similar to any misuse of God’s gifts such as using our fists for violence; if we use our creativity to slander or lie we are in the wrong.

Another dangerous misuse is overinvestment of identity in that single aspect of our godliness. I know very well of the damaging affect this can have on a person’s self image. It leaves one riding the waves of their own creativity. With its valleys and swells, one loses sight their true position in Christ as a child of God. A Christian who is an artist is not primarily an artist the same way a pastor who is a Christian, is not primarily a pastor. Our root is in Christ and who we are stems from Him. First we are Children of God, which means we are not just twisted shadows of God’s attributes the way that the non-regenerate man is. We are ambassadors and Image bearers.

I am not saying that creativity increases with sanctification; I would say that it is refined with better understanding of our relation to the creator. In justification creativity along with all the other godly faculties regain their true purpose, and are renewed in their true meaning.

The second role of a designer is that he is a communicator.

When I wrote my application letter to Moody I stated that when I had chosen to pursue the communications field because I want to follow in the footsteps of Onesimus, Paul’s freedman companion. Onesimus was not the author of the message rather he was the message carrier.  I saw my as one who would not be the producer of a message but the packager. I no longer see this as the case. Paul was a communicator; he didn’t only grasp the truths of the Gospel, he knew how to present those truths to the early Church. He uses rhetoric, sarcasm, and simile, as does Christ.

But there is more to being a communicator than just conveying a message, at the core good communicators are creatives. We can go back to the source on this: God is the epitome of creative; also God is the greatest of communicators. He has created all of creation to communicate His glory and power. If one pays attention to the meta-narratives of scripture we can see clearly that God has been authoring human and pre-human history to convey His messages. We see one message from the beginning: that God is sovereign, and He proclaims this throughout scripture. He also uses nature to communicate His truth (Ps.19, Rom.1)

We see from scripture that God is an artist conveying a message. This too is what the Christian as an artist must understand himself as. So if we share in this identity as designers with God, not just share but our identity is founded in Him, there are some observations to be made. God’s creation is God-centered. Our creations should have this attribute also. God’s creation has purpose, as should ours. In relation to man God’s message always points to the Gospel. Once again our messages should be founded in the Good News.

This does not mean that we should only convey Biblical truth in our creative endeavors. I don’t mean to say that one cannot be frivolous with one’s craft, but one should be a good steward. Practice when it is needed. If one’s church needs a poster for a pot luck don’t think it not part of the Gospel work. The Gospel is more than just an idea and a story. We are to support the message in whatever way necessary. That might just be a church potluck poster.

We are designers because of God. We are artist, and communicators for Him. We should also strive to emulate Him, and follow his examples as a designer.

This image is my CREATE portion on a recent article I published here at OJCCC.  To visually represent the emphasis music has on religious experience, I used Derek Webb’s “Spirit Vs. the Kick Drum” song to create a new icon for the American Church. Icons are prevelant in Eastern Orthodox culture and the circle around Jesus’ head is a reference to His diety. I used an image of a kick drum to visually convey the confusion of what happens when emotional manipulation through music confuse religious experience.

My hope is that this image is jarring.  I hope it causes people to think.  I think images can be one of the most powerful ways to cause action.  Rather than use any specific artist to make my point, I figured that if I just used a drum to alter the perspective of Christ that it would make people think less about the individuals producing the music and more about the music itself.  I hope this image gives visual representation to the dangers that manipulation can bring.

Let me know what you think.

II Corinthians 4:7-10

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay,

to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”

The Medium is the Message

Marshall McLuhan theorized that “the medium is the message.”  What he meant is that the medium through which one choose to communicate alters, and to an extent even determines, what is ultimately said.  In other words, “It is the character of the medium that is its potency or effect” (Federman).  According to McLuhan, no medium is essentially message-less on its own; it is impossible to communicate in a way that is so unbiased that the means used will not affect or even control the message being transmitted.  This concept is obviously one that should be taken into account when Christians consider our stewardship of the world’s most important message—the Gospel.  The Gospel is about redemption of broken human beings, of reconciled relationship and restored rightness with God.  Thus, according to McLuhan’s train of thought, the medium capable of most clearly conveying this message is once broken and now redeemed human beings in reconciled relationship and restored rightness with God, themselves.  A message of love must be expressed through loving; a message of forgiveness must be expressed through forgiving.  It is God’s intention that the Gospel be perpetuated through the lives of Christians, through disciples of Christ, in relationship with each other and with unbelievers.

Extensions

To fully understand this argument, we first need a definition of a medium.  In his book Understanding Media McLuhan describes a medium as “any extension of ourselves” (Federman).  “Classically, he suggests that a hammer extends our arm and that the wheel extends our legs and feet.  Each enables us to do more than our bodies could do on their own” (Federman).  Obviously, a medium is not an improvement on the complete original (neither a hammer nor a bicycle can hardly take the place of a human being in all capacities) but each medium is specifically suited to accomplish a certain task effectively.  Humans have created all kinds of mediums, some of which build on each other; language is one that “extends our thoughts from within our mind out to others” (Federman), a pen or microphone enables us to project our words to more listeners than to just a few, the radio and internet extend our reach across the country or around the globe.  Adding music incorporates emotion into our messages, adding pictures or colors or drama all affect not only how we communicate, but also what is being said.

“Little gods”

Humans were given our capacity to create—to remix the materials at hand and make new things from what already existed—by our Creator, God.  Not only are our abilities a gift from Him, but we are inclined to use them for creating because we are like Him.  To understand our identity, our capabilities, and our purpose, we need to know from where we have come.  In Genesis 1:26 God said “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”  So God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—self-sustaining, self-satisfying, selfless, pure, and intimate love, extended Himself and made mankind.  Adam and Eve were the first extensions of God, the first bearers of God’s image on earth; in a sense, they were “little gods”.  Like a gardener makes a shovel suited for work in his garden, God made mankind to tend the paradise He had made.  Adam and Eve were given dominion over the environment God placed them in.  They were to multiply on the earth and to work and keep the habitat that was their home.  They were made to worship and obey their Creator.  Because Adam and Eve were formed in God’s image, they knew no sin, no pain, no fear; they were in perfect relationship with Him, and they were immortal like Him.  “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

Broken Images

But what God had made, including His image-bearers, did not stay the way He originally intended it to be.  Satan (once the highest and most beautiful angel) fell in sin and became the greatest enemy of God and of His good creation.  He deceived man to turn against God as well.  Through the once perfect man, sin, pain, fear, and death entered the garden and affected everything.  Adam and Eve were cut off from life-giving relationship with their Creator.  The environment that was once so responsive and submissive to their stewardship began to rebel against them.  Where they once loved each other purely and selflessly, they began to be self-centered and they became disposed to manipulate and take advantage of each other, and to misuse the rest of creation as well.  Where they once were free to worship and obey their Creator, they were now enslaved by sin and inclined to make gods of themselves, and to answer to their own authority rather than to that of their rightful Ruler.  The capacity they once possessed to create more good things out of God’s original creation was corrupted as well; the extensions they could make could now be harmful, grotesque, and depraved like they themselves could be.  They could now create with selfish motives rather than for the glory and praise of God.  To this day, man still bears God’s image as an extension of him, but it is twisted, tainted, and shattered.

“Little Christ-s”

God extended Himself again to reclaim everything that belonged to Him and to put it back the way it was supposed to be.  To do this, He sent Jesus who was not only an extension of God as a human being but who, as part of the Trinity, was God Himself.  He was “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible… For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:15-20).  By being united with Jesus in his death and resurrection, all God’s image-bearers can be straightened out, purified, and put back together.  By being identified with him we can be “born again” and have a second chance to live as we were intended to; following in Jesus’ footsteps we are like “little Christ-s”.  Believers are indwell-ed with the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who convicts and guides us, empowering us to live the lives God calls us to, comforting and strengthening us along the way (John 14:26).  We are extensions of God the Father, our Maker; we are extensions of God the Son, our Savior, and we have God the Holy Spirit living inside each of us.  We are at once weak, vulnerable, and mortal, but also immortal, pure, and complete.

Redeemed Identity

And in that paradoxical identity—broken extensions of God and redeemed extensions of Christ, bearers of the Holy Spirit at once saved and being saved— we find our purpose and our power to accomplish it.  Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19&20).  We are to “be [his] witnesses…to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  He called us the “salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13&14).  The Apostle Paul says Christians are “a letter from Christ…written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (II Corinthians 3:3).  He also says “We are [God’s] workmanship (or “masterpiece” or “poem”), created in Christ Jesus for good works…” (Ephesians 2:10).  We are not only recipients of God’s redemption, we are representatives of it.  We are “ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us” (II Corinthians 5:20).  “It is no longer [we] who live, but Christ who lives in [us]…” (Galations 2:20).  We not only carry the message of the Gospel, we are manifestations of it.

The prototype of a person bearing the message of the Gospel in his/her own being was Jesus Christ in his life on the earth.  When God wanted to bring mankind, His beloved image-bearers, back into fellowship with Himself, He sent His only begotten Son to the earth so they could know Him (John 3:16).  Jesus wasn’t just the first “light of the world” and “salt of the earth,” but he was “the Word”.  John says that, in the beginning, Jesus “was with God, and…was God,” and that he “became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 2, & 14).  Jesus was God’s Word to man; he was the incarnation of everything God wished to communicate to human beings, and to be that he needed to become a human being.

Complete Revelation

Many people, when they think of the message of God, think of the Bible.  When Christians want our unsaved friends to learn who Jesus is and to believe in what he did, we want them to read the Bible so they can get the whole story.  There is nothing wrong with that.  The Bible is God’s Word, the story of God’s redemption of mankind through the sacrifice of His Son and of the growth of Jesus’ bride, the Church, in the power of the Holy Spirit.  But Jesus was the incarnation of this story.  He lived out the message of the Bible.  Christianity isn’t a religion—a list of written down rules to follow; it is a relationship.  God didn’t just want to explain His plan of redemption to mankind; He wanted to fully introduce Himself to mankind so that He could be in relationship with us.  The best way to introduce Himself was to step down and “shake our hand.”  That’s what Jesus did.  The writer of Hebrews explains this, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son…He [Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature…” (Hebrews 1:1-3).  Up until Jesus arrived on the earth, the Scriptures were God’s partial revelation of Himself, but Jesus was the whole picture.

Today, the Bible is preserved with incredible accuracy; it is still “breathed out by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (II Timothy 3:16), but in many cases it needs interpreters, people whose eyes have been opened to the truth of God by the Holy Spirit, to explain it to those who are still blinded by sin.  This system was no different in Jesus’ day.  Jesus came to a people who had had God’s laws since they had become a nation, but many who knew the Scriptures the best (the Scribes and Pharisees) rejected the Messiah who those Scriptures predicted.  After Pentecost, when Jesus’ disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they became Christ’s witnesses, not only to the outside world who knew nothing of God, but to the Jews who had been reading His word for generations and who still did not really know Him (Acts 1:8).  Our omnipotent God can reach out to a person through the Biblical text alone, but that doesn’t decrease any of the seriousness of His call to Christians to live out its message before others and to point them to the Truth.

Tainted Medium—Tainted Message

As “little gods” and “little Christ-s,” we must be careful to preserve the priceless message we embody.  Since the Gospel is a message of relationship, it must be communicated through relationship, as God, Himself showed us, by sending us His Son.  If the Gospel is represented by people and it is intended for people, it must be communicated person-to-person.  The truth will come across jumbled and/or with less power if we modify its medium, that is, if we are unfaithful to our identity as extensions of God and of Christ in the context of relationships.

This idea brings us back to McLuhan’s theories.  When Neil Postman got hold of the “medium is the message” concept, he wrote the book Amusing Ourselves to Death in which he explains what happens when a message’s medium is changed.  His uses language translation as an especially illustrative example, saying, “Much prose translates fairly well from one language to another, but we know that poetry does not; we may get a rough idea of the sense of a translated poem but usually everything else is lost, especially that which makes it an object of beauty.  The translation makes it into something it was not” (Postman 117).  Postman’s point is that changing the medium alters the message; “If the delivery is not the same, then the message, quite likely, is not the same” (Postman 118).  If the Gospel is intended to go from point A (God) to point B (man) through the medium of human beings, then tampering with that equation is the equivalent of introducing “noise” that doesn’t need to be there.  The result of altering the medium is that the message comes through as either unclear or different altogether.

Incomplete Evangelism

This is precisely what happens when Christians’ attempts at evangelism are actually self-extensions—the medium is contaminated and the Gospel is distorted or concealed.  It isn’t inherently wrong for us to create; creativity is a mark of being made in the image of God.  It isn’t bad for Christians to sing songs, paint pictures, take photographs, etc.  The works we create are indeed pieces of our very selves, offerings to our Creator in praise and adoration of who He is.  The art Christians produce, whether it is original and unique or kitsch and cliché, can (and probably most often does) spring from regenerated hearts, overflowing with gratitude and affection for our heavenly Father, and it is the heart of His worshipers that He accepts, not what they can do or make (I Samuel 16:7).

Art can and should be used in evangelism, but by itself it is incomplete.  As extensions of ourselves, what we create points to us, not to God.  Consequently, our art usually ends up in the hands of other Christians whose thoughts and feelings echo our own.  “Little Christ-s” are the intended medium for the Gospel; we are the extensions of God.  Our commission is to go to all the nations and baptize and make disciples and our art cannot do that for us.  We need to go and reach out to people, get to know them and let them know us.  In the context of real relationship, others will see Christ in us.

Image Management

Making ourselves vulnerable enough to engage in authentic relationships is difficult and dangerous.  Some Christians prefer to hide behind their art, but by removing themselves from the context and trying to let their extensions speak for themselves, they compromise the clarity and potency of the message they mean to communicate.  When Jesus called us the “light of the world” he stressed that a light is not lit and hid under a bowl, but put on a stand where it benefits those in the darkness.  Other Christians might gladly accept recognition and commendation for their art, but in extending their own personality and image they often attract their audiences’ attention away from the God they mean to proclaim.  When Jesus called us the “salt of the earth” he emphasized that if the salt has lost its saltiness it is good for nothing and no one.

We must guard ourselves against forgetting or forgoing our submission to God and our reliance on Christ; we are extensions, not Gods ourselves.  It is hard to live a selfless and moral life of true devotion to Christ without sticking out in a world of selfishness, lust, and greed.  It is difficult to maintain an honest and humble life of real dependence on God in a world obsessed with self-promotion, and air-brushing.  We all tend toward some form of image-management.  But Paul said it is through boasting (not hiding) in our faults, failures, and weaknesses (not our strengths) that we display God’s power (II Corinthians 12:9&10).  It takes a genuine, redeemed, and vulnerable human beings to communicate the Gospel (II Corinthians 4:7-10).

“Unintended Consequences”

When Christians aren’t true to our identity as extensions—when we extend ourselves and expect the creations or the persona-s we’ve invented to perpetuate God’s message for us, we undermine the effectiveness of our evangelism.  McLuhan called this phenomenon “unintended consequences.”  Mark Federman says “McLuhan was concerned with the observation that we tend to focus on the obvious.  In doing so, we largely miss the structural changes in our affairs that are introduced subtly, or over long periods of time… we look backward and realize that there were some effects of which we were entirely unaware at the outset.”  We can become so satisfied in the fact that the content of our extensions is Biblical, that we fail to realize that the way we are communicating completely confuses what we are saying.

For an article published in GQ Magazine, Walter Kirn spent “seven strange days” absorbed in Christian sub-culture; his observations revealed numerous “unintended consequences” of de-contextualized extensions.  Kirn described American Christian sub-culture as a “self-contained parallel universe,” to that of secular American pop culture, detailing his perceptions that the Family Christian Store in his area sells “sanctified equivalents” of mainstream bands; he calls them “systematic rip-off[s]” not “genuine surge[s] of inspired energy.”  Kirn says, similarly, the Christian film industry “neuters” actors and actresses by censoring and rebranding them.  His conclusion is that Christian sub-culture is “a bad Xerox of the mainstream, not a truly distinctive or separate achievement.  Without the courage to lead, it numbly follows, picking up the major media’s scraps and gluing them back together with a cross on top.” Maybe Kirn would have had a different opinion of our faith if he had actually met a true Christian.  Many Christians would reject his assessment of our culture; others would agree with his indictment and lament that things aren’t as they should be.  Regardless, his interpretation proves that our extensions are not enough to communicate the Gospel on their own.  The message we are commissioned to communicate to the world is not one of knock-offs and fearful naivety, but when our extensions are left to speak for themselves into a world craving forgiveness, grace, and love (which only we ourselves can offer), our audiences are disillusioned.  The Gospel doesn’t make it through those mediums intact.

Even if a Christian author, actor, or musician is a truly talented and humble individual seeking to point people to God through his/her work, by the time the final product comes out in stores, however, it quite possibly looks just like the merchandise that comes out of the “celebrity system” the world worships.  It may even sound the same too.  God isn’t in the picture because somewhere along the line, one or more extensions (either on the producing or the consuming end) have interfered and blurred or buried His message.  Though the Gospel we intend to convey is pure and good and true, it falls flat when we force it through a medium in which it was never meant to be contained—“the personal and social consequences of any medium…result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves” (Federman).

Foundation

If, by extending ourselves, we are diluting God’s message of redemption or drowning it out entirely, we must pull back and examine ourselves.  The extensions aren’t the problem—they can be excellent resources in evangelism, encouragement, and in relationship-building in general.  Our creations are often beautiful acts of true worship.  Creating something that is a “part of oneself” and then sharing it with others can be an act of love; it is an artist’s becoming vulnerable and sacrificing a part of him/herself for those who may receive or reject it.  It is when we remove ourselves from our extensions that the Gospel isn’t coming through clearly.

At its most basic level, the Gospel is the message of God’s Love which must be mediated through love, that is, through relationship.  It takes beings who are both bearers of a broken image (“little gods”) and of a restored image (“little Christ-s”), who know God personally and intimately, in order adequately present that message in the power of the Holy Spirit, to truly love as God has loved us.  It takes those image-bearers being intentional about submitting ourselves to Christ to accomplish God’s agenda, rather than our own, in order to consistently represent Him and not ourselves.  The ideal example of living the Gospel was God’s Son.  Jesus lived his entire life in submission to God’s will, exemplifying meekness and humility, although he was God, himself (Matthew 26:39).  Jesus became vulnerable to reach out to broken humanity; he got close enough to be spit on, mocked, beaten, and crucified (Philippians 2:6-8).  Jesus was authentic and open with those he knew, even his opposition, and he reached out in compassion to those who were not as pure or as holy as him (John 18:20, John 13:3-5).  He was patient with those who were slow to learn and with those whose faith was weak (Matthew 8:26).  He lamented for those who did not know the truth that would set them free (Matthew 23:37), and even as he died he pleaded with His Father to forgive those who had unjustly condemned him to death (Luke 23:34).

Mediated Communication

Of course, Jesus set the ideal example for us to follow, but because we live in a broken world and are broken ourselves, we will never be able to communicate the Gospel as clearly as he did.  We aren’t perfect, our creations aren’t perfect, and the system we have to work with isn’t perfect.  None of us is completely selfless in our closest relationships, and besides that, our extensions are still often beyond our control.  For example, a public speaker can’t maintain an authentic relationship with every single audience member he speaks to.  Similarly, an artist can’t stand next to her painting in a museum and explain the introspective journey from which it was produced to every single person who walks by.  And even if a musician performs a concert explaining the meaning being certain lyrics in his songs or the process through which he wrote each track, he can’t expect everyone who has ever heard his music to be there to hear it.  Every time we create something, we inevitably lose some level of control over it.  So what do we do?

Andy Crouch addresses this scenario in his book Culture Making.  He says, “So can we change the world?  Yes and no.  On a small enough scale, yes, of course we can.  But the world is sufficiently complex, not to mention sufficiently broken, that the small scale of our own cultural capacity is never sufficient.” (Crouch 197).  In other words, we might be able to interpret our extensions and effectively convey the Gospel through them to a few people, but certainly not to all of them.  Crouch says this arrangement isn’t a bad thing; we were actually designed to operate in this way.  He continues, “Anthropologists speculate, in fact, that we are hardwired for small groups—that human beings are simply designed to operate in a village, even if that village exists somewhere in the midst of a vast metropolis or on computer servers that host a million other villages simultaneously” (Crouch 242).  Appropriately, the key to harnessing the power of our extensions is relationships.

Concentric Circles in Community

So in order to introduce the Gospel through mediated communication (the use of our extensions) we must do so in the context of community.  This concept reintroduces relationships into the equation.  Crouch proposes a “concentric circles” idea of community; he says that, “to create a new cultural good, a small group is essential.  And yet the almost uncanny thing…is that a small group is enough” (Crouch 243).  Jesus couldn’t meet every single human being who lived on the earth while he was here; he, himself, worked within this system of community while he was on earth: “The synoptic Gospels stress the pivotal role of the three disciples closest to Jesus—Peter, James, and John—whom Jesus invites most deeply into the disclosure of his extraordinary mission…Jesus chooses twelve men to be close to him at the key moments of his teaching and demonstration of the kingdom…[and] just after the resurrection, in the days leading up to Pentecost, there are 120 believers gathered in Jerusalem (Acts 1:15)…God’s own culture making…flows through absolutely and relatively small groups of people—perhaps because the original creative initiative that is the pre-requisite for any human creativity came from an eternal society of there divine persons, united in their loving purpose [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit]” (Crouch 245).  Maybe the necessity of small-scale community is, like our tendency to create, a reflection of the image of God in us.

If we cannot interpret our extensions for absolutely everyone, we can in-part rely on others to spread the word, and we can certainly rely on the Holy Spirit as well.  Each person in an artist’s concentric circle of 120 is also in his/her own circle of three; each person who is a member of an artist’s “three” shares a circle of 120 with 199 other people who are also arranged in “three’s”…Circles overlap and a message multiplies as it moves from person-to-person, circle-to-circle.  Beyond even that, every member of the Body of Christ, is united with all other believers through affection for Jesus and the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.  Even if a believer doesn’t know a certain Christian artist personally, she may share the experience of the love of God that artist expresses in his painting, and even if a Christ-follower has never actually met a particular Christian musician, he still may discern the grace of God that musician expresses in her song.  It is then the responsibility of those listeners to interpret the messages they understand for other people in their circles who don’t get the chance to hear them explained by the work’s originator and who don’t have the Spirit to enlighten them.  In perpetuating the message of the Gospel, especially in a world where brokenness invades every sphere, where sin and deception abound, and where the enemy of everything good rules (I Peter 5:8), no Christian (creator or consumer) is ever “off the hook” when it comes to imaging Christ in relationships.  Even when mediating the Gospel message through extensions, our own or those created by others, we are to be consistent in our devotion to God and our commitment to love those around us by pointing them to Him in the context of relationship.

Conclusion

As “little gods,” Christ is our Gospel, our message of hope.  As broken “little gods” who have become resurrected “little Christ-s” who live and walk by the power of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:25), our lives are the Gospel for those who don’t know it yet.  We are meant to live the Gospel the same way Jesus modeled it so that others can see through us to him.  The message gets lost in our extensions because we can’t love through our songs; we can only sing about compassion.  We can’t forgive through our books; we can only write about grace.  We can’t sacrifice through our films; we can only script redemptive storylines.  There must be interpreters, even for the best human extensions.  When God wanted us to know Him, he sent His Son, who fulfilled the Scriptures, to live with us so we could experience Him.  Now we are charged to live and love like he did so the world can touch, smell, feel, hear, and see Him too.  Our lives, our stories, our relationships, our love are the medium—we are the message.

“We are not saved to be ‘channels only,’ but to be sons and daughters of God…the message must be part of ourselves.  The Son of God was His own message, His words were spirit and life; and as His disciples our lives must be the sacrament of our message.  The natural heart will do any amount of serving, but it takes the heart broken by conviction of sin, and baptized by the Holy Ghost, and crumpled into the purpose of God before the life becomes the sacrament of its message.  There is a difference between giving a testimony and preaching.  A preacher is one who has realized the call of God and is determined to use his every power to proclaim God’s truth.  God takes us out of our own ideas for our lives and we are ‘batter’d to shape and use,’ as the disciples were after Pentecost.  Pentecost did not teach the disciples anything; it made them the incarnation of what they preached—

‘Ye shall be witnesses unto me.’”

–Oswald Chambers

Works Cited

The Bible.  English Standard Version.

http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm.  Federman, Mark.  What is the Meaning of the Medium is the Message? July 23, 2004, April 27, 2011.

Postman, Neil.  Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Showbusiness.  Penguin Books, 2006.

“What Would Jesus Do?” Taken from GQ Magazine—September, 2002.  Walter Kirn.

Crouch, Andy.  Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling.  InterVarsity Press, 2008.

Chambers, Oswald.  My Utmost For His Highest, March 10^th entry.  Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd.  1963.

Take an hour and a half and watch this whether you’re and artist or not.

NOVA

In a democratic society, the most powerful tool is the media. The media shapes our beliefs, changes our perspectives, and informs us on which choices to make at the ballot box. It can shape public opinion, create heroes, villains, and change elections. The media decides which voices are heard – or silenced, which issues get covered – or ignored, which songs you get to hear and which wars the public will support. Without a free media, a democratic society could not function. This is the reason that the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution focuses on this very issue.

It is a little known fact that in the United States, the media – print media, broadcast media, and film media – are increasingly controlled by fewer and fewer people. And these people have their own views and ideas that they’d like to succeed, like anyone else.

To keep this in check, we have the benefit of having different sources of media to choose from. It’s considered good practice to get your information from as many different sources as possible, to eliminate any bias you may receive from using a single source. However, this is becoming increasingly difficult as time progresses. In the last 30 years, the number of media companies has went from more than 50 independent outlets, down to just six media conglomerates.

What this means for the average citizen is that they are exposed to fewer viewpoints. For example, Clear Channel Communications is the largest radio station group owner in the United States, with over 900 stations operating under their banner. Most of the songs you hear on the radio has been selected and approved by Clear Channel for airplay. In 2001, Clear Channel entered public discourse when they published a list of songs that would be removed from airplay following the 9/11 attacks. 166 songs in total, the list consisted of “all songs” by Rage Against the Machine, and a number of other songs, such as War Pigs by Black Sabbath and Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door by Bob Dylan. Alien Ant Farm’s Smooth Criminal was listed, however, the version by Michael Jackson with the same lyrics, was not. For many, Clear Channel’s list was indicative of the dangers of one media company having too much control over the industry.

“The Big Six” is a term often used when describing the state of media consolidation in the United States. Virtually everything you see and hear, read and watch, is the product of one of six media companies – General Electric, Walt Disney, News Corp., Time Warner, Viacom, and CBS. They each own a multitude of news stations, film studios, newspapers, internet companies, and more.

For example, if you watch NBC News, A&E and the History channel, you are watching exclusively General Electric content. General Electric also owns Universal Pictures, Crime & Investigation Network, and GE Aviation. GE Aviation produces critical parts for the F-14, F-15, F-16, F/A-18, F-22 and F-35 fighters. General Electric also owns over 3.3 million shares of Corrections Corp of America stock, valued at $84,158,446 as of 2010.

Walt Disney owns ABC (along with all networks operating under the ABC banner), ESPN, Lifetime, part of The History Channel, and over 20 other channels. Touchstone Pictures, Miramax, Pixar, Marvel Studios, and 277 radio stations across the United States are also owned by the Walt Disney corporation.

News Corp owns over 120 channels across the world, including Fox News Channel, FX, National Geographic, Sky News, and ESPN Star Sports. More than 150 newspapers worldwide are owned by News Corp, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, Market Watch and Dow Jones Newswire. 20th Century Fox Pictures, Fox Searchlight, and more than 15 other movie studios are also owned by News Corp.

Time Warner owns CNN, HBO, truTV, TNT, TBS, and over 20 more channels broadcast throughout the world. Time Warner also dominates Hollywood with their ownership of Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock, and others.

MTV, Comedy Central, Spike TV, BET and VH1 are subsidiaries of Viacom. Viacom also owns Paramount Pictures, MTV Films, and has a stake in Rhapsody. iFilm.com, XFire, GT.tv, GameTrailers.com, and Neopets are owned by Viacom as well.

CBS operates over 30 television stations and 130 radio stations across the United States. Book publisher Simon & Schuster, CNet.com, GameSpot, Last.fm, NCAAsports.com and NFL.com are also owned by CBS.

References

• Free Press: The Big Six
• Wikipedia: Concentration of media ownership
• Wikipedia: 2001 Clear Channel memorandum
• Viacom: Our Brands
• News Corp: Cable Network Programming
• Time Warner: Our Brands
• Wikipedia: General Electric
• CBS Interactive: Our Brands
• The Walt Disney Company and Affiliated Companies
• Yahoo Finance: Major holders of Corrections Corporation of America (CXW)

Download your free copy here: creativecollective.is/e-books/creative-matters

“Graphic design is a lot like languages. It’s an identity; beautiful and enigmatic. Graphic design varies from culture to culture, influenced by a country’s culture, history and way of life. Just like art and music, graphic design aesthetics differ from culture to culture. There may be common elements found in a culture’s graphic design, not found in other cultures and vice versa.”

Do we only create based off of what we are exposed to nationally? Are we simply just duplicating knock offs and compilations of other things we have seen before? Maybe we should take notes from other countries and start saturating our images and adding more vibrancy like they do in Latin America, or use much more muted neon tones like they do in Japan. Maybe then our work would be more diversified.

The question that I’ve been asking myself lately sprung up while going through this compilation of works. Are we creating out of ourselves and what we see around us, or is our art a genuine depiction of what the Spirit is powerfully working within us? Are we really listening to what the Spirit wants to say through us, or is our desire to control our art taking over?

WHY USE VISUAL MEDIA

1 Corinthians 9:19 says, “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone to win as many as possible,” and verse 22-23, “I have become all things to all men so that by all means I might save some. I do this all for the sake of the gospel.” In this passage to the Corinthian church, Paul describes his actions as an apostle and ministry worker. He denies himself, and in the process, accommodates to culture. The way he lives and the way he spreads his message is affected by each different place Paul ministers—to the Jews, to the Pharisees, to the Gentiles, changing it to any extent so long as it does not violate his Christian conscience.

In a technological society like urban and suburban America, communication through technology is no longer an “extra” measure to which a church can go to get their message out. Rather, Americans expect visual media from any legitimate organization. Often, illegitimacy is based solely on an organization’s lack of professional visual media—like a cheesy commercial, or a poorly designed magazine ad. Visual media is becoming a primary source of how people are introduced to church. For example, someone may see a CTA advertisement (legitimacy of such media will be discussed in greater detail later) for a church and then examine their website for credibility, before ever meeting a single member. A well organized website can establish sanity and say of a particular community, “No, we have not drunk of the purple kool-aid;” that a community is made up of real people who live and work in normal and relatable contexts.

Common Objections

The extent to which a church utilizes technology should be carefully monitored based on the church culture—sometimes extensive visual media are out of place. A small community of believers is not in need of a mass produced flier to get the word out about the Christmas potluck that is occurring next week. However, for a church of 1,000 people, more universal means of communication are necessary to get the message across. It is unrealistic to trust that a small committee of potluck planners could make sure the message was swept across the entire congregation. Visual media, like print material, in-service video announcements, and online content are highly practical and the most accepted and accessible means of communication in 21^st century America. American culture has become too literate in visual messages for the church to disregard; more importantly, American culture has become to well-versed in discerning quality of visual messages for the church to be bad at it.

Another apprehension some Christians have with graphic design and visual media is the fear of turning church into a show, where Christians are passive and ministers perform. A common misconception is that the medium itself is the entertainment because sophisticated graphics are the norm in entertainment culture today. However, this view confuses the medium with the message. Visual media can be a contributing factor to making church a spectacle, but this would be confusing graphic design and video technologies with the entertainment. Paul explains the importance of the message, not the means by which it is delivered, in 1 Cor. 2:4-5, “My message and preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on man’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” Paul emphasizes the Spirit’s mighty power in this verse, which overshadows his admittedly bad preaching and weak arguments. God’s mighty power can work through any means to spread the gospel, and often the least expected way is the way God is most glorified. Thus, CTA ads, billboards, commercials, and even bad movies—nothing is off limits to God’s Spirit.

Ignoring graphic design and other technological aesthetics is an unnecessary hurdle that the church sets up for itself for legalistic or other unfounded reasons.

HOW SHOULD VISUAL ARTS BE USED

Having established the validity of visual arts for ministry purposes, they should be created and used by biblical standards as well. Common objections are easily overcome by carefully treading a balance of humility and excellence.

With Humility

“Media People,” those who create and work on church media, unfortunately often have a stereotype arrogance to them that is all to often true. With the ability to create comes a sense of pride and superiority—mostly because no one else in the church could do this job. On the contrary, “media people” should be the most humble people in the ministry for several reasons. First, 1 Cor. 3:5-7 summarizes how artists should view their ministry, just as all other varieties of ministers should. Verses 6-7 say, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” God is the true reason visual media will ever make any difference in advancing the gospel. Though God’s servant has the hand that is moving the computer mouse, it is God that makes it mean anything. Additionally, even the most sophisticated visual arts are much less effective than personal ministry, and are merely a supplement to personal ministry. Humility is required in graphic design because a designer may spend hours on a flier or promotional video, knowing that it is 20 times less effective than a personal invitation—though nonetheless, still necessary.

With Excellence

Considering the humility with which visual media must be executed, motivation for excellence is often difficult to muster. However, God’s servants must go to every extent to have the gospel go forth in every culture, and this requires excellence in visual media. God’s standard,  is higher than man’s standard, rising above a level that simply satisfies a congregation. In Galatians 1:10, Paul says, “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” While visual ministries are obviously to serve people, they are not to please people, as a primary purpose. Designers do not work to delight the eyes of a paying congregation, but for the delight of God. Graphics and videos are informed by sound doctrine and made to accomplish the purposes of God. This means rising above what Frank Burch Brown, Professor of Religion and Arts at Christian Theological Seminary, terms “kitsch.” Kitsch is “the aesthetic counterpart to what theologians have termed ‘cheap grace’” (Brown 146). Christians should not propagate such sentimental drivel because it is a lie, falsifying the gospel, and not pleasing God.

Visual media in a church setting are profitable and good when used in a biblical manner. Culture is communicated with in their language of fluency—media, but Christians stay founded in spreading the gospel they have been in since the dawn of the church, reaching through different cultures, languages, and media.

Bibliography

Brown, Frank Burch. Good Taste, Bad Taste, and Christian Taste: Aesthetics in Religious Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.

God intended for the Gospel to be communicated directly from person to person, that is, through relationship.  The thread which is woven throughout the story of God’s redemption of His once perfect creation is relationship—is love.  God originally made man as the pinnacle of His creation, but His work wasn’t truly finished until He had made the man a corresponding helper, a woman, so that he would not be alone (Genesis 2:18).  From God’s insistence that the first man have a companion, it is clear that human beings are wired for relationship, not only with Him, but with each other.  It was fitting for a three-in-one God, existing in perfect, self-sufficient intimacy, to make creatures in His own Image (Genesis 1:27) who would worship Him and reflect His character not as individuals only, but together.

As a result of the fall, the relationship between the man and the woman, as well as the relationship between mankind and God, was severed.  But to restore the intimacy among humanity as well as to reconcile them to Himself, God sent His Son—a person, another man—to earth.  Jesus was called “Emmanuel” which literally means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).  The analogies used in Scripture to explain the beautiful healing of God’s relationship with His image-bearers are relational.  Through our adoption and acceptance into God’s family we call Him “Father” and are considered “brothers” of His only begotten Son (Romans 8:14-17).  The Bible refers to those who have believed in Jesus as having been reborn as Spiritual kin and as the “Bride of Christ” for whom he is returning to complete his redemptive work in the future (Revelation 21:9).

The New Testament writers recognized the utmost importance of deep community and pure interpersonal relationships as a means of representing the character of a God who is Love.  The apostle Paul exhorted believers constantly to put away jealousy, sexual immorality, covetousness, malice, slander, anger, wrath, etc.— sins which are so grave because they divide the essential unity of the “Body of Christ.” He urged them, instead, above all things, to love (Colossians 3:1-14).  And John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, wrote “anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love (I John 4:8).”

As Christians we are not encouraged to squish ourselves into some kind of universal mold, but to pursue a unity in diversity for our community that represents our multi-faceted, creative, and sovereign God.  David affirms that each person is uniquely designed and purposed by our Creator in Psalm 139—“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb…Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them (vs. 13, 15, and 16).”  Furthermore, Christians are given Spiritual gifts that combine with our natural abilities to equip us to fulfill the special call of God on each of our lives.  The apostle Paul in Romans 12 says of the church, “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.  Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us… (Vs. 4-6).”

All Christians are united in one “body” (Ephesians 4:4-6) and by Christ’s command to proclaim the Gospel into the whole world (Matthew 28:19); but each believer’s testimony while following a general pattern of redemption, will have specific details and forms of expression, making it an individual and powerful resource in proclaiming the Good News of our Savior.  Musicians might compose songs proclaiming Christ’s beauty, authors might write books narrating his grace, artists might illustrate his joy on canvas, film-makers might script his mercy into an epic climax scene, engineers might display his sovereignty in blueprints for a massive skyscraper, public speakers might communicate his truth in powerful messages…the bottom line, however, is that it is the people behind each of these creations that give the arts their meaning.

God, Himself, is the original and perfect model of this pattern.  The epitome of God’s revelation of Himself to mankind was the sending of His Son to earth (Hebrews 1:1, 2).  Jesus told stories, preached, gave object lessons, performed miracles, and did carpentry, but it was through himself, his relationships, and ultimately his sacrifice for mankind, that his message of hope was conveyed.  His stories or miracles or sermons, on their own, could have saved no one.  A problem comes in when Christians make our art an end in itself—when we expect our songs, books, paintings, movies, etc. to carry the Gospel to the world for us.  True, there is “good art” and “bad art,” just as there is Truth and non-truth, and it is the Christian’s responsibility as an ambassador for Christ to pursue excellence in his/her particular craft, and to communicate a true message as clearly as possible through the medium he/she chooses.  The right usage of our talents has more to do with our hearts– are our motives for creating purely for God’s glory or rooted in arrogance?  Are the intentions in our expression for the glory of God and the good of others or for selfish gain?  We are called to “steward” the abilities and resources God has given us in fear of and obedience to Him (Ecclesiastes 12:13), not to make gods of any of it, and certainly not to make gods of ourselves through what we do.

No believer, then, is solely a “writer” a “carpenter” or an “athlete,” but rather “a follower of Christ who writes,” “a son of God who works with his hands,” or “a daughter of the King who plays a sport.”  We make gods of ourselves and of our gifts when we attempt to define ourselves by what we do rather than who we are in Christ.  We make gods of each other and of others’ artistic works when we begin to worship our brothers and sisters as celebrities and to hoard their art as riches, rather than celebrating God’s work in their hearts and treasuring the Gospel their art contains.

Everything we do or create should be but a means of expressing our love for God—our devotion to Him should completely control us (II Corinthians 5:13-15).  Jesus didn’t say people would know his disciples by the paintings they collected or produced, the songs they knew by heart or amassed in their itunes libraries, the plays they directed or who their favorite authors were but ultimately, by the fact that they had love for one another (John 13:35).  Reiterating the definitive purpose of man established by God in the Garden of Eden, Jesus stated that the greatest commandments, the ones on which the entire law and all the prophets depended, were to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:37-40).

Relationships are messy and hard.  Other people can bring out sides of ourselves we would rather not acknowledge; our interactions with others can reveal bitterness and hurt in our hearts that we would rather suppress than deal with.  Intimacy requires vulnerability and, in a fallen world, being open and honest with someone else often leads to hurt, shame, and fear.  Jesus said that love, in its most actualized form, is the laying down of one’s life for a friend (John 15:13)—the essence of love is selfless sacrifice.  Maybe Christians so often try to produce or consume media as a means to carry the Gospel, removing ourselves from the equation and allowing the technology or the art to speak for itself, because it is safer and more comfortable.  There is, however, no way around Jesus’ command that we must die to ourselves in order to follow him (Luke 9:23).

We can affirm the power of all kinds of art to inform, influence, and even bring people together, but we must maintain the perspective that it is in the context of relationship that these works possess power.  An ipod or a song never loved anyone; neither did a movie or a television set.  Love is the power that can change an individual, or the whole world, and it is people—image-bearers of a loving God— who alone have the capacity and the responsibility to love like He does.

The Bible clearly tells us that people are made in the image of God and this includes his role as a creator (see Genesis 1:26). We should allow our uniqueness as humans show aspects of who God is by creating and communicating in a manner that only we can do. Humans were created with distinctive abilities that animals do not have and each person has been given a specific role in God’s plan and a particular perspective that no other human being can share precisely. This gives me the special opportunity to showcase God’s glory in the way that I live my life and proclaim truth, whether this be through spending one-on-one time with people, writing encouraging or challenging letters, singing songs where the lyrics matter, or intentionally organizing written and visual material so the purpose and message are clear.

“The Christian faith presents us with a vision of created existence possessing its own latent orderliness and meaning, and that a crucial part of human creativity is to be attentive to that inherent order, to discover it and bring it to light.” (Begbie 209)

Creativity is in the very nature of God; it’s not just what He does (see John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:15-17, 1 Corinthians 8:6). God delights in creation and calls it good because it reflects who He is (see Revelation 4:11, Psalm 19:1-4, Genesis 1:31). And since this is so, and that we are made in the image of God, creating is a part of our very nature as human beings. However, this gift is not to be used solely for one’s own individual purposes or satisfaction, but rather for the good of the body of Christ (as all spiritual gifts are – see 1 Corinthians 12). Although having positive or “Christian” messages in our art and design is good, it is not always necessary, for the act of creating itself glorifies God in that it reflects who He is, the Creator.

Most of the explicit references to “design” in the Bible revolve around the design of the temple/tabernacle and the craftsmen that were chosen to embellish it as God had planned (He even inspired some of them by the Holy Spirit). (See Exodus 31-35 and 2 Chronicles) But if you think back to the beginning after God’s marvelous acts of creation, He commanded Adam to name the animals (see Genesis 2:19-20). This is one use of human creativity clearly shown in the Bible. There are plenty of evil uses of creativity and design in the Bible as well. Just think of how many idols and other pagan symbols of worship are recorded in Scripture (see Acts 17:29).

God is a God of order and He is sovereign, there is no uncontrolled chaos in His universe. It honors Him when people create order out of disorder, and meaning out of confusion; for this is what He Himself does. God is also a Beautiful God; He loves to make glorious things. He is the master engineer of the most intricate things in nature. And we are imitators of Him. We take pleasure in seeing beauty and creating it. This is part of my passion.

One can also find biblical principles for advertising and promotion throughout the pages of Scripture. “From Moses to Paul, persuasion has always been at the heart of God’s plan, and persuasion is also at the heart of advertising. … To move people toward shalom, God-followers practice persuasion, a gift that enables faithful human beings by grace to bring ultimate love and hope to those who need it.” (Schultze and Woods 219) The goal of evangelization is to persuade people to understand and accept the truth, to draw them to Jesus. Ultimately, the apostle Paul’s guidelines give us clear direction in the use of persuasion and media: “morality (refrain from gratuitous sex, violence, profanity; protect innocent children; combat materialism), truthfulness (state truthful messages and be true to your audience as your neighbor), and beauty (delight audiences with well-crafted, pleasant, fun, and attractive messages). Above all, believers are to worship the Creator, not the creation.” (Schultze and Woods 223)

In so many areas of art and communications there are biblical precedents and helpful rules of thumb for not allowing them to corrupt your beliefs or integrity. In graphic design one must always keep these principles in mind in order to use such God-given gifts for His glory and not another’s or one’s own.

Works Cited

Begbie, Jeremy. Voicing Creation’s Praise: Towards a Theology of the Arts. New York, New York: T&T Clark, 1991.

Schultze, Quentin J. and Robert H. Woods Jr. Understanding Evangelical Media: The Changing Face of Christian Communication. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2008.

The Holy Bible.