God the Creator gives good gifts
"God, the Creator, gives good gifts to His children, and these include creativity, inspiration, and talent."I have just read the chapter titled "The Visual Arts: A Cloudy Lens, a Drab Palette" in Bob Briner's Roaring Lambs.
One of Briner's main points is that, like many of the other areas he has addressed, the fine arts are lacking in Christain content; that we have "forgotten the power and the promise of the arts" (p.144) and as a result sin is a much more popular theme for artists rather than using the mediums to produce "powerful images that depict God's grace". I read these words and am encouraged to produce such work myself with my drawing and photography. In fact, one of my aims with photographs such as those of the sunrise is to do just that - capture the beauty of God's creation so that people may see and be encouraged by the fact that our Lord is so amazingly powerful and creative.
How to practically represent Christain perspective and messages in some art is a challenge - but perhaps one we should no longer be afraid of but rather embrace.
Anyway, those are just some initial thoughts from the chapter, and ones I hope to keep contemplating as i consider what I can personally do with my art. The point though is to use our God given gifts to bring glory to God and encourage others; to create a positive Christain initiative in this area.
Meanwhile, one paragraph i just read that i thought would allow for some interesting discussion reads as follows:
"the church building itself ought to reflect the beauty and creativity of our Lord. Perhaps in a misunderstanding of stewardship and piety, most evangelical churches have slected a rather bland and uninteresting style of architecture. If your church is planning to build, at least consider designs that may be a little bit out of the ordinary. In addition to your necessary emphases on function and efficiency, place some emphasis on worship, onm the image you will leaven on your community. Even simple, cost-effective designs can be a work of art." (p.149)
Briner argues that the community at large views Christianity as opposed to art. Now whether or not you agree with him isnt really the point right now - this is kinda a seperate issue, i could write a whole other post on that - the point here is that by creating a church building that is creative and beautiful we would be showing that this isnt the case, that such a gift from God as creativity or artistic talent is celebrated within the church, and it would hopefully be a building that would uplift "even the casual passerby". Aside from all that, perhaps it would also encourage Christain designers/artists/architects to use their gifts for more things like this.
On the other hand, is this putting too much focus onto the building itself? Many non-believers do not understand the concept that for Christains the church is much more than just a building. Would taking the above approach give the wrong impression in this regard?
I'm not going to give my opinion right now, I want to hear your thoughts...What do you think about what Briner is saying?
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home