Worship is central because God is supreme. Most believers acknowledge this. But if worship is central to all of life because God is supreme, then it clearly follows that discipling the worship leaders themselves should be strategic and high priority. Correct?
Tragically though, things are just not that way, Few pastors and other church leaders give any intentional and specialized effort to discipling worship leaders. Yet something good seems to be bubbling up.
This article assumes the LORD is doing something new in the hearts of Church leaders: giving some a new desire to gather artistic Kingdom servants into their congregations, and disciple them for His service; especially for the service of facilitating innovative gathered worship. So, this paper looks to offer church leaders six principles that, if followed, will GATHER artistic worship leaders into their congregations, and accelerate releasing them into His service of worship.
Here is a simple way to remember these six principles: pastor or mission leader must G A T H E R artists; intentionally, regularly, and repeatedly. Let us unpack what we mean by G A T H E R.
First ministry leaders need to intentionally GROW their own GROUP of artistic worship leaders. To start, put out the word that you intend to focus on artists and creatives in your network, congregation, or ministry. Gather them, specifically and often. For example, plan a dinner party or dessert meeting: artists like parties just like everyone else.
But you might ask, “So if I call a meeting for creatives, what do we do once they come?” The answer is simple: affirm them. Do three things. One, Ask them to bring an example of their art-making with them; and let them know they may be a few minutes for each person to let the others at the gathering see their work.
Two, give each one of them fifteen minutes to tell their story. Listen to them. Ask them questions like, “How has God wired you artistically?” “What artistic dreams has God put in your heart?” “What artistic things has God put in your heart to do?” Any questions like that.
And three: After you have let them share their story a bit, gather around them, and pray for them. Activities like these have a very special impact on artists—regardless of the denominational background the person has if any. They will feel appreciated and very thankful. Gathering musicians, artists, and creatives in your sphere of relationship will jumpstart the growth of your own group of these God-designed specialists.
Second, ADVOCATE for the creatives in your ministry context. Unfortunately, within the Body of Christ, there exist several typical but incorrect attitudes toward artists. Often leadership simply does not think to involve them. Or some leaders presume artists are counter-culture critics, standing outside the general flow of the community and their church.[1]Or, some hold a secular humanist notion that “the arts” are abstract activities and objects of creative expression; and that those artistic objects and activities are only for contemplation or entertainment. All these notions cut against the biblical understanding of artistic creativity and the biblical role of the craftsmen specialists who specialize in creating the environments wherein God actually comes and meets with his believing community.
Therefore artistic Christians need non-artistic advocates who both admire what they do, and affirm the importance of their contributions to Christ’s Body. These Arts Advocates are strategically helpful, especially if well received in the artist’s congregation, especially helping congregational leaders discover their strategic, powerful, and beautiful contribution. Also, Arts Advocates can help the artistic Christian understand themselves, their important role in leading the congregation into touching transcendent connection with GOD Himself; and their specialty of dealing with the mysterious realities of the Human Community’s God-designed transcendence.
Many a church leader is more a Modernist than a Biblicist. That is, the wonderful Reformation-press to get the Word of God into the hands of everyday people, and it’s press for them to understand the objective truth about God it reveals, has a dark side. The dark side was, and still is, the drift towards Modernism and Rationalism: Church leaders putting an emphasis on information rather than encounter; an emphasis on biblical reasoning about God over the biblical priority of relating to God.[2]
So, one key challenge for Protestants is to regain an appreciation of the ways God reveals His reality and His Truth within the contexts of beauty and through our participation in the transcendence-toughing beautiful activities (metaphors, symbols, and human activities of worship) we call liturgies. And non-artistic Arts Advocates play a strategic role for both the artist and general church leadership in all of this.[3]
Directive three? Church leaders must TOUCH the artist OVER extended periods of TIME. Worship practitioners are at heart, artists; those God’s designed as human-emotion-and-imagination specialists. Church leaders must not only understand this reality; they have to see the value of emotional and imaginal intelligence, and how those dynamics sync with intellectual intelligence. Then they must appreciate the specialists (artists) who God has provided to lead the Church-gathered (in line with Scripture) into those contexts.[4]
Artists and creatives need stable, virtuous, caring, and safe relationships; a community of believers wherein they are appreciated, but also can have normal healthy and regular involvement.[5]
Therefore, especially these days when mainstream culture has left the Age of the Orator and entered the Age of the Artist[6] it is strategically important for Christian leaders to develop relationships with the artists in their network of relationships; intentionally and consistently. This sort of regular, appreciative and encouraging touch by Christian leaders will result in many artists growing in Christ, and moving more directly into ministry—simply because you have been one of the few Christian leaders who gave them real relationship.
Directive four is HONOR the artist. Honoring the art-maker is much different than flattering or pandering to them (catering to them in order to simply exploit their talents for the sake of your ministry). Honoring them must be done in truth. Insincerity will be picked up immediately. They will feel used, and ultimately will be put off, and most often leave. To legitimately honor the artistic dimension of your congregation or ministry you must go public. The honoring dynamic submitted here is very similar to the biblical definition of praise—to publicly acknowledge the value and virtues of the person and their work. Anything else will encourage some sort of vain conceit or selfish ambition in the artist or the discipler (see Philippians 2:3; or James 3:14, 16). Rather we encourage true and honest appreciation of the person’s creative capacities and honed skills. If a potential discipler holds an honest appreciation for an artist’s capacities and skills, they will find public places and times where honoring them is natural, balanced, and appropriate.[7]
ENCOURAGE the artists around you is the fifth directive. The tragic truth, most artists are not encouraged by the churches they attend![8] However, when one realizes the biblical purpose for artistic expression specialists (like Bezalel and Oholiab; Ex 35:30-36:3)—to create the environments of worship wherein believers actually touch the transcendent mysterious reality of interaction with God—they will encourage artists.
Artistic Christians must be encouraged to carry out their artistic stewardships in their congregations. They must be loved into applying their artistic skills creatively to the life of their local parish. But that will not happen unless leadership invites them. Therefore church and mission leaders must become proactive at encouraging artist-believers to get involved.[9] Prayerfully ask the LORD to give you meaningful, legitimate ways to encourage these creatives; and you will gather artists to you and ministry context.
Finally, the sixth directive to Christian leaders concerning artists is to RESOURCE them. In order to see artistic Christians become more productive as general believers, and as specialized Kingdom servants in our churches and missions work, Christian leadership must resource them in at least five ways: Ministry Vision, Pastoral Permission, Direct Discipleship, Ministry Structures, and in many cases Finances. These resource areas are key to envisioning and they enabling artistic-ministry-initiators to actually venture out in ministry—especially into the community at large.
Conclusion
Regretfully very few artistic Christians become the recipients of such a GATHERing embrace. But if you do repeatedly and prayerfully practice efforts to GROW your our group of artists, ADVOCATE for artistic Christians, TOUCH artists regularly and legitimately, HONOR artists for the beauty of their role in leading others into touching the transcendent things of God and life, ENCOURAGE them to move forward in their biblical assignment to work out their God-designed artistic assignments (Phil 2:12-13), and RESOURCE them with Ministry Vision, Pastoral Permission, Direct Discipleship, Ministry Structures, and Finances; then you will disciple scores of worship leaders, who will in turn dynamically release God’s truth, beauty, goodness, and forgiveness in ways most congregations and ministries dream about, but only a few seem to accomplish.
[1] In fact, that notion is not historically the case. Most often throughout history, the creatives have been the voice, the heart-expressions OF the community or culture. God made artistic people—who the Bible labels craftsmen: people unusually wise at imaginative design and expression—for the purpose of leading people and human communities into touching the transcendent realities of life and God (my own definition of an artist and the biblical role of artists). Throughout the history of human communities, the artistic specialists have expressed and reflected the core values, perspectives, rituals, celebrations, and liturgies of those communities. I actually hold the conviction that is still actually true these days but would take much more space to discuss.
[2][2] This dark side of the Reformation/Protestant movement also includes a pressing against interacting with the mysteries of our relationship with God (in awe, reverence, humility, silence, and such) “experienced” in a context that relies on the imaginal and emotional dynamics of intelligence as much at the dynamic of our intellectual intelligence, while pressing for biblical reasoning about God. Many problems within the Protestant movement have developed out of these emphases—which this article is far too short to address.
[3] Advocates see the importance of the artistic dimension of life and of the artistic specialists who lead the rest of the church and general community into touching and entering into these transcendent environments where the mysterious transactions occur. In fact, in today’s mainstream culture, if Christian leaders do not make it clear the Church is concerned about things beautiful, mysterious and transcendent—and demonstrate how the Christian Scriptures speak to these realities, and to our that daily walk with God, the Gospel will have great difficulty in seeming relevant to daily life and living.
[4] So when church leaders grasp the interplay of the intellect, the emotions, and the imagination; perhaps they will recognize how much they need these human-emotion-and imagination specialists. Perhaps then too they will see the value—for themselves as well as for their congregations—of spending time touching these creative-types. If “ creatives” feel” and the appreciation that goes with time and touch from these leaders, then they will respond with an over-and-above investment of their God-designed strengths into congregational ministry.
[5] Unfortunately, often in our churches, artists have not felt safe; nor have they felt encouraged to be who God made them be—artistic and innovative. Actually Protestant church leaders over the last 150 or 200 years have actually considered involvement in the arts ‘worldly’ and have spent a good deal of effort discouraging artistically-gifted Christians from developing their gifts, let alone applying those skills and aptitudes to the life and ministries of our churches. Actually, some would say that the artistic specialist has been faced with much suspicion and mistrust in the Protestant Church for its entire 500-year history. There are some good historical reasons why Protestant leadership has inadvertently developed these “feelings” towards the artists in its midst—maybe with the exception of musicians. But again this article is too short to try to deal with those realities. For some overview of these issues reference texts like Protestant Worship by James F. White, or Protestant Church Music: A History by Friedrich Blume, (1974). Also for help on a biblical role of the arts see Art in Action: Toward a Christian Aesthetic by Nicholas Wolterstorff, (1980).
[6] This ‘observation’ that mainstream culture has left the Age of the Orator and entered the Age of the Artist, could not possibly be original to me. But I do know I have been seeing this reality for some time, and do not recall reading that particular phrase in the writings of others. It has simply been an observation I have made for some years now., What I’m trying to say here is this: as far as I know that phrase, ‘left the Age of the Orator and entered the Age of the Artist,’ seems to be a phrase that has bubbled up out of me over the years; I’m not quoting someone else as far as I know. Though I’m certain that many writers, thinkers, and teachers have helped me see that reality.
[7] In my own congregation, frequently the pastor brings up to the platform a writer, a painter, an actor, a songwriter, or some other creative person and praises them for some project; often the pastor does this spontaneously and with no motive to get something from that artist; except to praise and honor them for what God has done in and through them. How do you think that sort of action does, not just to honor that artist, but to honor the entire artistic dimension in humanity, and more specifically in the Body of Christ.
[8] Collard, Dianne B. “The Role of Visual Art in the (Free) Evangelical Churches in Germany and Spain.” DMissiology diss., Biola University, 2004. This thesis specifically on the role of the visual artists in the churches of Germany and Spain.
In Dr. Collard’s study, she discovered that most often church and mission leaders rarely think that there is any way artistic Christians can make a strategic contribution to ministry strategy or programming. In fact, the study in question pointed out that after some time, the artists in one region of Europe actually left the church; whereas the artists in another region simply resigned themselves to applying none of their artistic capacities to the contexts of their local congregations.
[9] In fact, those leaders must actually encourage the artistic specialists to imagine how the congregation could worship better, learn God’s Word better, disciple better and engage the non-believing community better—and then actually follow their lead.
Encouragement of artists is absolutely critical to effective living, not to mention effective ministry. But how can you encourage artists and creatives? Four suggestions. Request to experience some of their art-making. See it, read it, receive it; experience some of their art-making.
Whether you actually like it or not, receive what they want you to receive, see, or experience. Listen to them. Listen to their story, their situation, their history—and in the process don’t try to immediately fix them. Just listen. Invite them to keep you posted on their situation. Directly and publically affirm them.
I live in the Nashville TN region. We have many artists involved in our church community. At my own church, my pastor often brings up onto the platform any artist who has achieved some sort of milestone—an article published, a CD released, a book published, a commercial done—honored them publically, prayed for them, and asks the congregation to affirm them; whether or not their particular milestone is religious or mainstream in nature. The pastor’s practice seems to be tremendously affirming, both for the particular artist and for other artists in general.
