Page 18 - Empowering Missional Artists - Jim Mills.pdf

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Another reason we, as church leaders, do not possess a vision for artists is that our

vision of the Lordship of Christ is too small. In the early 1970s, renowned author and speaker,

the late Francis Schaefer, in an interview, laid the foundation for the needed renaissance in our

thinking. Schaefer was asked, “What do you think it will take to get the church to begin to accept

and embrace the significance of the arts?” His answer was simply, “when we begin to take the

Bible seriously . . . and when we realize that Jesus is the Lord of Life.” This simple yet profound

answer is the foundation for developing a worldview for participation in society for Christ sake.

Schaefer wrote…

As evangelical Christians we have tended to relegate art to the very fringe of life. The
rest of life we feel is more important. Despite our constant talk about the Lordship of
Christ, we have narrowed its scope to a very small area of reality. We have
misunderstood the concept of the Lordship of Christ over the whole of man . . . and
have not taken to us the riches the Bible gives us for our lives and for our cultures.
(Schaefer 1970, 7)

We have marginalized the arts as a result of our narrow thinking and consequently pulled

away from our culture as a catalyst for change. We have made the arts “out of bounds” for our
Writing on the Wall, James Kessel

lives and for our children. It is a paradox really! We are willing to send our children to potentially

lay down their lives as missionaries to the darkest jungles of Africa and Central America, but we

“stand in the way of their becoming broadcast journalist, film and television actors,

photographers, and painters. It is almost as if we believe God is strong enough to take care of

his own only as long as they stay within the safety of the Christian ghetto.” (Briner 1993, 31) The

basic problem here again is a faulty theology and view of life. John Wilson again addresses the

issue head on:

Many Christians, particularly in the pietistic or evangelical tradition, have tended to be
suspicious of the arts and to treat them as weapons of the devil. So the theatre and
cinema are considered ‘worldly’; novels read for pleasure are suspect; paintings are
acceptable if they are of religious subjects . . . poetry would be permissible if it could
be sung as a hymn or chorus . . . the mainstream of the arts, and the vast body of
artistic work have been ignored . . . but . . . Christians are called to work towards
bringing all things under the Lordship of Christ . . . they are called to serve Him with
their gifts He has given – these gifts include imagination . . . and all the tools of artistic