Page 4 - Empowering Missional Artists - Jim Mills.pdf

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culture makers, cannot nor are they called to eradicate evil, our missional objective remains to

overcome evil by goodness. The active presence of God’s artists in western society, potentially

can pierce the darkness with God’s light. Bob Briner contributed this insightful observation:

I’ve always wondered why we could be so quick to sacrifice our children to become
missionaries but stand in the way of their becoming broadcast journalists, film and
television actors, photographers, and painters. It’s 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 getto. (Briner 1993, 31) . . . Why not believe that one-day the most
critically acclaimed director in Hollywood could be an active Christian layman in
his church? Why not hope that the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting could
go to a Christian journalist on staff at a major daily newspaper? Is it really too much
of a stretch to think that a major exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art could feature
the works of an artist on staff at one of our fine Christian colleges? Am I out of my
mind to suggest that your son or daughter could be the principle dancer of the Joffrey
Ballet Company, leading a weekly Bible study for other dancers in what was once
considered a profession that was morally bankrupt . . . (Ibid)

One of the first key church leaders and a marvelous example to all church leaders, namely

Pope John Paul II, a trained actor in his youth, issued an empowering affirmation to artists. Over

20 years ago, he spoke “to all who are passionately dedicated to the search for new epiphanies

of beauty so that through their creative work as artists they may offer these as gifts to the world.”

He was calling for artists to go, paint their world, fulfill their service to God and to humanity

through making culture and revealing beauty.

In the course of this paper, we will not only review and attempt to present the reasons why

the empowerment of believing Christ-centered artists for the broader culture is important, but we

will also reason that it is expedient that we the people of God realize that we as His agents must

emerge in western society and through our very presence disseminate the hope of the Gospel to

an otherwise hopeless world.

It is expedient that we understand the predominate current cultural climate and therefore it

is important to take a closer look at postmodernism. In reality, on the foundation of

postmodernism, a new cultural norm has emerged of intentional rejection of accepted and

established societal norms in western society. What was formerly generally recognized as evil,