The Church and the Art of God

God creates.

He is the ultimate artist.

We are made in God’s image.

The Church should do more to reflect God’s artistic nature.

There. That could be my entire post in four lines. So you can stop now if you want. But I will continue.

I’ve been reflecting on the role of the arts in our corporate worship and church community. Certain events have spurred my thinking on this, events such as a Gungor concert (which was an amazing event in itself), a recent letter from our church eldership addressed to the youth committee, my work in the studio for Chasing David and similar work with my quickly-growing children (now 18 and 20) as they pursue their artistic endeavors through music and video.

I was raised in a church community that was cerebral-oriented. Sure, we had pretty good singing (it was an a capella church), but for the most part the focus was on teaching. Education was king.

Don’t get me wrong. I think a thorough examination of scripture and growth in the Word of God is of utmost importance. The trouble is, our church (and I feel 90% of the rest of the churches in America) spends an overwhelming majority of their corporate worship and bible class time catering to those who need some form of spiritual mental exercise… or at least those who think they do because that was the way they were raised.

With the notable exception of a few churches like Willow Creek (Chicago) and North Point (Atlanta) and their associated churches, our church experience on the whole seems to neglect the creative arts. Yes, we may have a few good songs during our worship time and they are meaningful and moving. And often formulaic. Maybe that’s not bad. Maybe musical liturgy has a place. But I digress.

The depth and breadth of what God has created is astounding. He paints such beauty across the sky in a west Texas sunset or sunrise that it’s almost breathtaking. The mountains that stretch across our continent are sculpted with a dramatic precision which nothing can come close to matching. The movement of weather patterns across the world is an intricate dance of material that is at once impossible to hold and powerful enough to level towns. The ebb and flow of ocean currents crashing against our beaches and shoreline create movement and flow that is simply mesmerizing.

And this is only what we can see. Until relatively recently, there were a multitude of astounding works of art that were only visible to the eye of God. The Hubble telescope has opened a vista of majestic art millions of light years from our tiny world, art that boggles the mind. For whom was that created? The flow of blood within our own bodies and the way it interacts with our musculature and skeletal systems… for the most part, this is still beyond our view without massive disruption of living tissue. Who gets to see this amazing interplay? The dance of uncountable atoms bouncing off each other in everything… the essence of all existence… who gets to stir that paint? Who gets to mix that clay?

Don’t even get me started on the music of creation. It is everywhere.

Again I say, God is the ultimate artist. We are made in the image of God. We are a people made to paint, mold, draw, dance, flow, interact, sing, and play. The ultimate offering of praise is to return our painting, molding, drawing, dancing, flowing, interacting, singing and playing to One who made it all and finds it beautiful.

What does that look like in our church community? I have some ideas, but I’d like to hear you tell me…