When I was five and in kindergarten, I brought home the Scholastic book order form and began to pester my mom to let me get something, anything, from the so-thin-it-was-translucent, brilliantly-colored double sheet of literary delight. What we settled on, after some persistent persuasion on my part (some would say “hounding”) was a paperback of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, with an accompanying vinyl record that could read it to me even when my parents were exhausted from having already read it countless times any given day.

I loved the book, not only because (despite my lack of a wolf-suit) I could still make “mischief of one kind and another,” but also because, like many children, I dreamed of a place where I was in charge, where the things I was scared of were scared of me and where what I said would go – a place like the one that grows in Max’s room in Sendak’s book. I wanted a place like the one Carol, one of the Wild Things in the movie, described as being, “where only the things you want to happen would happen.”

Looking back on the book and my experience with it as a child, I am struck by how powerful a ten-sentence story can be to show the interplay between anger, fear and power and how these three things affect both self-awareness and relationships. Sendak was able to achieve such a complex task with so few words by carefully crafting his language and by showing much of the story through surreal, narrative pictures; the images in the book are so good that a reader could understand the story without any narration at all.

Which is why, when I heard that Spike Jonze was creating a movie adaptation of my favorite childhood picture book, I was both excited and nervous. The visual nature of the original story makes it a great candidate to be transformed into a great movie, but the excellence of the source material combined with the paucity thereof would make crafting a compelling film remarkably difficult; one misstep, one misinterpretation, one hastily constructed moralizing soliloquy could torpedo the film and put it up in the massive failure category with Mike Myers’ The Cat in the Hat.

While the film has gotten good but not great reviews (scoring a 69% on Rotten Tomatoes), it is an incredibly successful adaptation of the book. Not because it is line-for-line identical to it (in order to make a feature-length movie, a lot of story, and an indie-rock soundtrack, had to be created to supplement the original ten sentences) but because Jonze and Eggers (Jonze’s co-writer) managed to invite us into the story without patronizing us, to allow us to identify with the points-of-view of the characters and with their flaws.

Like the book, the movie does more showing than telling, more questioning than moralizing. The characters and settings are surreal, yet they remind us again and again of ourselves and of our lives as they float back and forth between caricatures of childhood and stark pictures of brokenness. As I sat and watched the movie, I saw that the things I struggled with as a boy — powerlessness, fear, anger, unrealistic expectations, resentment, disillusionment — are still the things that haunt me today. And the thrilling experience of having my fears exposed, which brought me back again and again to my worn-out paperback of Where the Wild Things Are (the line in the book, “We’ll eat you up we love you so,” which was treated much more softly in the movie, still scares me today when I think about the picture that went with it), will no doubt bring me back to this film, time and again.

At the end of the day, each of us is “just a boy (or girl)
pretending to be a wolf pretending to be king.”

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The thing that I appreciated most about Jonze and Egger’s treatment of Where the Wild Things Are is that, while the film doesn’t answer any of the questions it raises about family and power and the existence of a true and reliable source of good in the world, it does provide a cathartic acknowledgement that things are not as they should be – that there is no place where only the things you want to have happen will happen. Our families and relationships are broken (even if they’re good), we are subject to authority that doesn’t always have our best interest at heart, and, despite our best intentions, when we exercise authority, we don’t do so great either. At the end of the day, each of us is “just a boy (or girl) pretending to be a wolf pretending to be king” (Douglass, the Bird Wild Thing). And that’s not very much, is it?

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Justin is a marauding barbarian in the spiritual lineage of Genghis Khan, a conceptual natural disaster, a lover of casseroles and British tea. He is usually clean-cut and clean-shaven yet is quite snobby about having been a mac user since the PowerPC days.

These are his thoughts, what are yours?

Rethink Mission is about the intersection of the gospel, the church and culture. Weekly we feature reviews and other interactions with artistic expressions of the culture around us.

Jon Guerra is the front man for Chicago based band, Milano. He and his compadres also lead worship for a new church plant on the North Side called The Line. Here, interviewed by The Free Road Scholars, he talks about how understanding God helps us understand the nature of beauty.

Rethink Mission: What would you say to a local church that had a desire to engage artists in their city or cultivate the arts in their church? Where should they start?

Michael Winters, The 930
If a church wants to engage artists in their city, put 2% of the annual budget into visual arts commissions. This might turn into artwork for your sanctuary or the kid’s area, or it might turn into a photography class that focuses on trying to see things as Christ sees them, or it might turn into creating a classroom space with lots of art supplies for the public to come and use one night a week to explore creativity.

Or without spending a penny, just start an informal group that goes around to all of the major art events in your town and meets the artists and learns why they do what they do. Contemporary artists create great case studies that challenge our understanding of the world. Then, go grab lunch together afterward and try to figure out what God thinks of the exhibit you just saw. Pray for the individuals you meet.

By no means do I think every church needs to run an art gallery, but I do think every church needs to acknowledge the creativity that is in all of us and equip the church to encourage creativity toward Christlikeness in their friends, family, and neighbors.

James McAnally, The Luminary
Before you attempt to start a ministry for artists, spend time at other (non-church) artist groups and get to know artists on a personal level. You have to know the artistic culture of your city before you try to engage with it. Learn the language. Find out the galleries that affect your city’s culture. Understand the art world before attempting to transform it.

Also, plan for the long-term. By this I mean to go about things with the sense that you will be working with these artists, galleries and communities for decades, so you need to lay the groundwork for long-lasting relationships. It is difficult for a church to gain the trust of the art community-they see through falsity very quickly (as do most groups of people churches minister to). Maybe the best thing you can do is financially support another institution or to engage in areas already in place and working. Think outside the (newly created) box. If your church is called to serve artists, it will arise out of love and understanding and a desire to see people succeed and grow, which can lead to all kinds of unexpected opportunities and partnerships you could have never created on your own. If you can serve someone/something with no strings attached and no expectations placed, how much more powerful a statement of concern and sacrifice could you make than you would if you simply open a gallery in your church or host monthly networking meetings? Working from that paradigm, then perhaps you can take the next steps and actually create a stand-alone organization.

Grace Hwang, SALT
I would first express my enthusiasm for their desire to foster within their communities what makes us fully human!  Then I’d encourage them to look at precedents that already exist in their communities and articulate a vision that enlarges the capacities of each of their missions.  And I’d strongly advise committing to a budget and staffed positions to oversee it.

Back in the 1950s, the Judson Memorial Church allowed artists free reign of their basement space to put up exhibitions in their gallery space – and championed uncensorship.  Because of the risks they were willing to take they have built a reputation as an authentic place for modern art.

A local church with this desire should pursue a ministry because it rises from within the local church body, like The Light Church in Baltimore that serves the MICA neighborhood and puts on great shows or the Church of the Messiah in Brooklyn which hosts an alternative arts funding event called FEAST in Brooklyn.

I also think that engaging artists in the city and cultivating arts in the church are two separate things – both equally large tasks that require taking risks, giving freedom and setting aside money and means to accomplish.

Engaging artists in the city means listening to their needs and giving them space and a platform to pursue their visions and dreams.

Whereas cultivating arts in the church is providing a safe space for artists to work out their beliefs and doubts in ways that are beyond a well-designed brochure or singing a song.  The community of The Haven, hosted by Calvary St. George’s is a parachurch ministry of Priority Associates that curates evenings of community, fellowship and artistic interpretations of worship that might not fit within the confines of a church service.

Joanna Taft, The Harrison Center
The HCA uses a community based approach. We ask what our community needs and respond to those needs by leveraging our resources with those of our partners. Here are 3 examples of how we have met artists needs: First, emerging artists told us that they couldn’t afford market rate studio rents, so we created very low cost studio options (our average artist pays $125 a month). Second, when we first opened, both gallery owners and artists across the city didn’t seem to be working together or even know each other. We helped found and now house the office of the Indianapolis Downtown Artists and Dealer’s Association to bring better communication and collaboration between the gallery owners and artist cooperatives in Indianapolis. This bringing together of the arts community resulted in the creation of city wide First Friday events and many other successful initiatives. Third, our artists told us they felt like they needed to move to a major city to make a living as an artist. They needed art patrons. To begin growing patrons for our artists, we developed a successful monthly exhibit series that averages 800 in opening night attendance and attracts many first time buyers.

Thinking longer term, we created a public charter high school to grow a new generation of art patrons. Many of the 450 students who attend are naturally artistic, but the school is designed to grow patrons–well educated, well rounded citizens that will serve our community in many ways. The school offers a classical liberal arts curriculum which follows an art history timeline. Students begin 9th grade with the study of Africa and Asia, 10th grade is ancient Greece and Rome, 11th grade is the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and 12th grade the age of exploration to modern times. The school is academically rigorous and racially/socioeconomically diverse (about 50/50 white and minority populations). These student will become art patrons for the city of Indianapolis, but will be much more—our voters, philanthropists, artists, teachers, moms, lawyers, and citizens. These are just several examples to demonstrate our approach in engaging artists and cultivating the arts, but the key point is that our model starts with identifying the community need and then creatively addressing it.

Rethink Mission: What pitfalls that you would warn a local church to avoid in creating a ministry for artists?

Michael: I’ve seen a lot of churches get into doing things with art, but not really understanding why they’re doing it.  Somebody just told them art is a good thing.  I think it’s valuable to experiment with incorporating art into the life of the church, but don’t do it for the art.  Do it for the mission of Christ.  Think about the mission of your church and then see how artists might be able to serve that mission.  You’ve got to have gospel-centered reasons for incorporating art into church.  To develop this, I’d recommend Art for God’s Sake by Philip Graham Ryken and Unceasing Worship by Harold Best.

I’d also say that you shouldn’t let an arts ministry just be something that happens in the church basement without strong leadership.  Elders (pastors) need to be on board.  Elders (pastors) need to oversee it.

We’ve got to remember that for the most part the protestant church has completely un-learned how to think about art.  We’ve never had an agreed understanding on what role visual art should play in church life, and the state of contemporary art just makes the intersection of church and art just that much muddier, so there’s some brain-power work that needs to be done.  I say all this only because I want people to know that it makes a mess when you try to bring artists into the church.  But, it’s worth it and it needs to happen.  Just don’t expect it to be easy or ‘pretty’, though by God’s grace your hard gospel-motivated work with artists will be beautiful.

James: It has become a bit of a trend to engage with artists in new church plants. I advise anyone I talk with to really search themselves and their gifts and callings as a body to discern whether or not working with artists is the right path for them. It is an area in which you have to be “all in ” so to speak and know that it is what you are passionate about giving yourself to. Not every community is called to serve artists in particular. We should all seek to develop a sound theology of art and be sensitive to it in our midst–that, I feel, is a general calling to the churches in our culture. However, the undertaking of a ministry uniquely created to engage with artists is a specific calling that should be weighed in each context according to the people and resources already present in your body.

Last word of advice–expect to forever be in the tension between serving Christ and serving the art world. No one has a simple answer on how to best manage questions of content and appropriateness, transforming the culture vs. being transformed, when to speak boldly and when to listen, and the pure antagonisms present to what you will do. Not even Harold Best, and that is saying quite a bit.

Grace: I think each organization/ministry has to answer the question, “Why arts in a church?”  Especially in a city like New York where there are hundreds of museums and galleries, it’s important to identify and reclaim church as a public space to explore qualities of art, justice and beauty.

The arts and faith have this in common that they are both approaching the same large task of expressing the unseen.

When we started as a small group last year, we started by identifying shared values and understandings about art:

1) Art making is a pleasure that is the pursuit of knowing ourselves and what makes us uniquely human.  2) Art is about pursuing questions that seek Truth, not a right answer.  3) The arts have a transformative power to move someone from a state of complacency to a spirit of compassion.  4) That an examination of one’s creative process reveals insight to what we believe and fear.

Joanna: I think there is a temptation among churches to associate with the arts for the purpose of being seen as hip and to attract a young congregation.  I think that is a dishonest use of the arts.  Instead, the best thing a church can do to engage artists in their city is to love artists.  In our community, I have two favorite examples:  one is a family who provided an attic apartment to one of our artists for $100 a month for five years, making it possible for the artist to put his resources into the pursuit of his craft.  The other is a family who stopped spending their friday nights at the shopping mall and began taking their teenage daughters to art openings.  They built relationships with the artists and began to love their artwork.  They became regular, monthly buyers until there was no more wall space left in their house.  Today they continue to buy regularly, but do so in the form of purchasing art gift certificates for weddings and birthdays.  There are many other examples of people donating cars, inviting artists into their homes for meals, visiting their studios/taking a genuine interest in their craft, and buying art.  These families are caring for the artists of our community without an agenda and with appreciation for the beauty they bring.
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See: Part 1 of the interview

In part 1, we saw that art produced by those who aren’t Christians is not necessarily “evil.” All artistic output in some way reflects both the image of God and human depravity.

If this is true – then how do we navigate the cultural & artistic forms that surround us?

Many Christians don’t realize that the way they view the world around them is more influenced by gnosticism than it is by the Bible.

Gnosticism (influenced by Plato) says that “the material world,” everything around us, is inherently flawed.  The only thing of value is an imaginary “ideal world.”

Christianity says that “everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude” (1 Tim 4:4). In fact Paul says that when men “forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth,” that they are actually teaching a doctrine inspired by demons.

A religion inspired by gnosticism says that the “secular” world around us is essentially of lesser value than things having to do with Christianity or religion which uniquely are considered “sacred.”

Christianity says that “if you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!’… in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?” (Col. 2:20-22).

In a great book on this subject called Being Human, Covenant Seminary professor Jerram Barrs & Ranald Macaulay write, “we have been created to enjoy God’s world in all its richness. Human culture is also to be enjoyed. Spirituality involves the whole of human life; nothing is nonspiritual. But wherever Platonism has affected Christian teaching there has been a separation of the sacred and secular. Thus, prayer, worship, evangelism and ‘the ministry’ are thought to be sacred. All other activities are secular. The sacred is said to be more spiritual.”

This view of creation, of culture, of art, of the creative expression of human beings is not only thoroughly Biblical, it is also thoroughly freeing.

Of course, this also complicate things. The avoidance of sin doesn’t necessarily mean avoiding the “secular” world.  Paul even says that “such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with… their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence” (Col 2:23).

This brings up a good question, though: How can we tell what is sin?  What is to be engaged, what is to be enjoyed, and what is to be avoided?

What do you think?

In a previous post on the movie Inglourious Basterds, the question was raised: how could a Christian watch a movie like that. Philippians 4:8 was quoted and for this person, the book closed – the issue settled.

I think that what this point of view wrongly assumes is that the culture around us, specifically art produced or created by non-Christians, is evil.

“Well brother, I don’t have to drink out of the toilet to know it’s full of crap.” Meaning – I know my culture and it’s all bad.

Culture is simply the collective output or corporate expression of the minds and hearts of human beings. Because of this, art and culture are not completely a-moral like calories, alcohol, or sex, which being morally neutral were designed by God to be used for his glory but can be twisted to be used in sinful and destructive ways.

Every artistic cultural product carries inherent within it two aspects. Because every human being is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27) art and culture, regardless of whether or not it is produced by a Christian, can reflect the image of God (the Imago Dei).

The Bible also tells us that every human being, and as a result human culture, has been marred by sin (Gen. 3:14-19). Because of this, culture will also always bear the mark of depravity.

As you interact with culture, which do you see more clearly: the image of God or human depravity?

As Paul comes in contact with the Athenians in Acts 17, he is acutely aware of both. He looks at a people group – he looks at their cultural output – and despite the fact that they were not aware of the Messiah that Paul was preaching, he sees and recognizes in them a deep spirituality (v. 22 – 28).

Simultaneously Paul saw the idolatry of that culture and he was “provoked” or disturbed to his core.

Depending what side of the fence you fall on – you’ll tend to only see one or the other.

If you always only see depravity when you look at the artistic output of the culture around – you will simply condemn – cutting yourself off from a world that is “charged with the grandeur of God” and cutting yourself off from the cultural creatives that produce such work.

Of course, if you always only see the Imago Dei, if you are never provoked by your culture’s idols – then you will simply consume – often being thoughtlessly shaped by the culture around you.

What about you? What do you see?

The 930 Art Center | Sept. 17, 2009

My friends and I filed into the 930 Art Center in Louisville’s Sojourn Church, chatting about how Derek Webb would pull off a concert supporting his new album, Stockholm Syndrome. Filled with electronic beats and synthesized sounds, the album is very different from much of Derek’s earlier work, which tended to be more acoustic-based. How would he handle mixing songs from the new album with old stuff? How would he replicate the sound of Stockholm Syndrome live? Like so many others there (most of whom were much younger), we were excited to have these questions answered.

First, though, we were treated to Sandra McCracken, who continues to be one of the most underappreciated voices in Christian music. To hear such a powerful and beautiful sound project from a tiny, delicately-voiced woman is nothing short of amazing. She belted out stellar songs like “Thy Mercy,” “The Tie That Binds,” and “Halfway,” among others, even utilizing some programmed beats of her own, care of Josh Moore (former Caedmon’s Call member who produced Webb’s album). McCracken was an excellent opener again, and made me wonder again why I don’t own more of her albums (with I shall have to remedy).

After a short break, it was Webb’s turn, and it was quickly apparent that we were in for a rock show. In such an enclosed space, when Josh Moore dropped the programmed baseline for “Black Eye,” we felt it. When the drummer came in halfway through the song with the live drums, we experienced it. For the next 25 minutes or so, Derek and his mates played beefed-up versions of songs from Stockholm Syndrome, displaying a little rust and uncertainty at times (this was the first date of the tour), but also showing their professionalism by quickly finding their rhythm. The inclusion of a live drummer was fantastic as it was layered over the programmed sounds and really got the place moving. Also, Josh Moore is incredible. He played seemingly every instrument throughout the show and seems to really be the engine that runs the whole show.

Halfway through, Moore and the drummer left Webb alone on-stage with his acoustic guitar. Webb proceeded to ask for requests, and did his best to accommodate amongst the yells for numerous different songs. He played “Lover,” “I Want A Broken Heart,” “Savior On Capitol Hill,” “Wedding Dress,” and “Reputation.” I loved this part, and I think it was genius to split up the show this way, appeasing fans that would not have gone home happy without hearing “Wedding Dress.”

The other members returned, and they played the rest of Stockholm Syndrome, leaving out no song. Fans of the album will no doubt enjoy hearing all of these live, but I think it’s pretty ballsy to play an entire 14-track album live. I don’t love every song off the album, but I didn’t find myself bored by their inclusion, either. My only real criticism is that Derek spoke very little between songs and didn’t explain any of them. With so much surrounding the album, I would have loved to hear where he was coming from on some of them.

Overall, I came away very satisfied with my decision to make the two-hour drive to Louisville for the show. Derek’s music is entertaining and challenging. So are his words, which are intended to spur actions, as is his inclusion of people from Blood-Water Mission on the tour, as they try to raise money to provide clean water to people in Africa. For all the controversy surrounding this man and his new album, the bottom line is this: he makes interesting music and knows how to entertain while at the same time maintaining a social conscience. I’m not a Webb fan-boy who thinks Stockholm Syndrome is the greatest album of all-time, but I enjoyed it, and I definitely enjoyed the live show to support it.

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Matthew is a follower of Christ, husband to Leah, and father to Seth as well as Baby Robbins 2 due in March. He works for a business consulting company in Cincinnati, OH, blogs at Chosen For Grace, and has an unhealthy obsession with books (mostly theology ones) and Atlanta Braves baseball.

Rethink Mission is about the intersection of the gospel, the church and culture. Weekly, we feature reviews and other interactions with artistic expressions of the culture around us.

All comments during culture week will be entered in a drawing to win a copy of Andy Crouch’s Culture Making

Rethink Mission: Tell me about the vision or philosophy behind your arts center or gallery.

Joanna Taft, The Harrison Center
I first want to clarify that I am not a church leader, although I am an active member of Redeemer Presbyterian Church.   I am the Executive Director of the Harrison Center for the Arts, which rents space from and has a synergistic relationship with Redeemer Presbyterian Church.  While the Harrison Center is not a faith-based organization, its philosophy has been shaped by the Christian concept of the cultural mandate.  The cultural mandate (Genesis 1:28) is the idea that the human race is called to continue the work of creation by building cities, creating beauty, and bringing order and healing to a broken world.  The Harrison Center considers this a very high calling and through its mission strives  ”to be a catalyst for renewal in the City of Indianapolis by fostering an awareness, appreciation, and community for art and culture.”

Michael Winters, The 930
The overall mission of Sojourn Church, which operates The 930 Art Center, is to see the gospel transform everything – individuals, the church, the world.  So, the 930 supports that mission by seeking to see the gospel transform artists, the work they make, and the local scene in which they work.

Our philosophy of ministry for the 930 gallery really leans on the idea of ‘imago dei’.  All humans are made in the image of the Creator God, so we each have creativity in our nature.  An art gallery can become a hub for that creativity and hopefully reveal something about human nature and a shadow of God’s divine nature.  Art can deal with all the issues of life, so it’s very useful for creating an intersection between the church and the world.

The 930 Art Center causes an intentional complication in the public’s understanding of what a church is and how the church relates to the surrounding neighborhood and city.  Our building is not sacred space and it is not secular space.  The ministry of the 930 shares the difficult relationship to culture that we also should have as individuals.  We are ‘in the world, but not of the world’.

James McAnally, The Luminary
The Luminary was started from the premise of working with artists directly to meet needs that were not being addressed elsewhere. By approaching the development of an arts center from the perspective of emerging artists who need resources, opportunities, and a supporting community in order to successfully fulfill the unique vocation of being a working artist, we let those needs shape our vision. At the outset, we thought we would be a community art center that focused on offering an affordable option for public studio space and basic classes and workshops. Over time, we found that the needs in our context were best expressed in the areas of professional development and dedicated one-on-one support for artists.

Likewise, in terms of our programming, our operating philosophy is one of inclusion and participation in which viewers who are not necessarily “gallery literate” are able to find new avenues in which to connect with contemporary art.

Grace Hwang, SALT
SALT is a flexible gallery, performance and gathering venue re-imagining spaces for art, work and sanctuary.  We started in June 2008 with a small group of artists in the offices of The Gallery Church and continue to grow in our vision as a contemporary community art space with their support and partnership.

The philosophy behind SALT is to re-imagine how public, private and religious communities collaborate with each other in creative, economically sustainable ways.  So practically, it houses the congregation of The Gallery Church on Sundays; while during the weekdays it’s a shared work space for coworking and in the evenings we host events, classes and meetings.

The intended impact is for individuals in the local and global community to engage with each other by creating and sharing what is worth preserving in our culture, and how we can enhance the flavor of our everyday lives.  I’m drawn to what Michael P. Farrell describes as a “magnet place” that he identifies as a precondition for collaborative circles.  My friend Kenyon Adams from Redeemer’s Center for Faith and Work introduced me to the title and I love the idea of a space that would attract people and produce art or work collaboratively that they might not otherwise have been able to accomplish individually.

The arts have an inherent need to be seen and experienced in order to be fully realized as agents of hope, healing, and unity. Artists are increasingly challenged to find studio and exhibition spaces to make their art accessible and relevant to the public.  Limited still are the venues to display projects that are socially conscious – an alternative to commercial galleries and spaces.

I also find it valuable to preserve space that honors the creative process – from ideation, to making, to problem solving and culminating in celebrating.  There is so much we learn about who we are, what’s important to us and how we were designed when we examine our own process of creating and reflecting.

Rethink Mission: How practically have you gone about fulfilling that vision on a daily basis? How do you engage artists in your city?

Joanna We work with two populations: emerging artists and emerging patrons.  We serve emerging artists by providing below market rate studio spaces in which to create art, 3 galleries in which to display art, and opportunities to grow as an artist.  28 artists have studios with us, but hundreds more throughout the city call us home for exhibit opportunities and community.

We serve emerging patrons by providing monthly art exhibits in a non-intimidating atmosphere (often multi-sensory or interactive), an annual Independent Music and Art Festival which attracts over 6000 attendees, and year-round programming with Herron High School (which we created in 2006).   In addition, we have a project based internship program which trains high school and college students to be cultural entrepreneurs.

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Next week: How to start a gallery or art center through your church.
All comments will be entered in a drawing to win a copy of Andy Crouch’s Culture Making.

The 930 Art Center in Louisville
The Luminary Center for the Arts in St. Louis
Harrison Center for the Arts in Indianapolis
Salt Art Space in New York

Each of these art centers is different and engages & cultivates the arts in their city in a unique way. If you are a local church leader that wants to start an art center or simply wants a better way to interact with artists in your area, be sure to tune in.

Why should we engage culture & the arts?
Thursday we begin a discussion on the theology behind art & culture – and why it’s so important for Christians to engage & create culture.

Win a copy of Culture Making
At the end of the week, we’ll pick a winner at random from all comments submitted this week. Culture Making is a must-read for anyone who wants to inspire or be a part of a movement of cultural creativity. Simply comment on any article posted this week, and you’ll be automatically entered.

How One Church Reads Culture
But first, we’ll start with a video that demonstrates how one local church plant, The Line a new church in Chicago, takes seriously the call to be a missionary presence in their culture.
“The church looks like the very best, redeemed facets of that culture. It’s a city on a hill. It’s a redeemed version of that people group, of that tribe. Because it is that, it has a unique voice back into the culture.”

Just the other day, I flipped my channel to the original treatment of John Steinbeck’s classic Of Mice and Men, starring the fiery Burgess Meredith.  I knew the story from having seen Gary Sinise’s 1992 remake a few dozen times but I was immediately drawn back into this version of Steinbeck’s tale.

Of Mice and Men is a simple story set in the vast farmlands of Central California in 1937. Of course, this was the time of the Great Depression, right before the start of the Second World War. Jobs were hard to come by and this became a time of wandering farmhands picking up a job here and there with very little hope of things getting better. For the most part, these travelers would be solitary men, hardened by life and suspicious of others.

George and Lennie are different than the rest. George is an undersized but strong character who cares after his much larger friend. Lennie is a physical specimen of a man but he is inwardly weak. While he is the quintessential gentle giant, he is also mentally challenged. His inadvertent actions cause chaos and leave a trail of destruction behind the pair. Throughout all the difficulties, George sticks by Lennie, defending, protecting, and caring for the larger man.

The two men endure with a hope of a coming day when all will be made right. One day they will get a place of their own. One day the work of their hands will sit on their table. One day George will take care of his friend and Lennie will take care of his own responsibilities.

As familiar as this story is, you have very little need for me to recount the details of how this tragedy unfolds. The well-meaning Lennie becomes alarmed while sitting alone with the daughter-in-law of the ranch-owner and, in his panic, kills the poor woman. When the men find out what has happened and it becomes patently obvious that Lennie is responsible, the ranch becomes a mobile lynch mob. George, who has protected Lennie for all these years, must now care for his friend one more time and runs in front of the angry mob to find him.

The story ends where it began. The two friends are together. Unlike their autonomous fellow-workers whose only unity is based upon the things they hate, these two are united by their love for one another. George reluctantly recounts their dream to his friend one last time before he must make a decision. He knows the angry mob will exhibit no mercy on Lennie. One way or another, Lennie will not live through the experience. In a mysterious and somehow beautiful way, George is finally forced to kill his only friend. Love looks so strange in Of Mice and Men and it seems so normal in our world as to be automatic.

“Unlike their autonomous fellow-workers whose only unity is based upon the things they hate, these two are united by their love for one another.”

Friendship and loyalty are not something made for the movies. The love and commitment we must have for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ is not empty sentiment nor is it a dream. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world. He does not abandon us to those rapturous experiences and lofty moods that come to us like a dream.”[1]

When was the last time you thought this seriously about Christian community? It is so difficult in our context today to pay such close attention to others. We would so much rather follow a set of rules or keep a relationship at a superficial level. God has freed us for so much more in Jesus Christ.

The truth is, that as the two characters in Steinbeck’s story, we are all bound to a new land. We are going to live together in our Father’s house. While we wait, how will we live life together?

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Casey is a displaced Northern Californian who is presently a seminary student and a restaurant server in Birmingham, Alabama. He is involved in a community of Christ-following sinners known as Tapestry of Hope and has a blog where he chronicles his adventures as a spiritual waiter.

Rethink Mission is about the intersection of the gospel, the church and culture. Weekly, we feature reviews and other interactions with artistic expressions of the culture around us.

How shall I describe Hafiz?

Wikipedia tells you he is a fourteenth century Sufi Mystic who is greatly revered for his poetry, “a poet’s poet.” In the Persian-speaking world Hafiz is still widely read and “generally regarded not only as a great poet, but also as a seer, a “tongue of the mysterious” (lesan ol qayb).

During his life, Hafiz was called a lover of God and a heretic. I understand the reason for these titles and say, “all truth is God’s truth,” and enjoy mining it from Hafiz’s ancient verses.

His playful prose shouts loudly of the deep love of God, whom he often calls The Beloved. There are too many beautiful poems to pick a favorite, but today I choose  Someone Untied Your Camel:

I cannot sit still with my countrymen in chains
I cannot act mute
Hearing the world’s loneliness
Crying near the Beloved’s heart

My love for God is such
That I could dance with Him tonight without you,
But I would rather have you there

Is your caravan lost?

It is,
If you no longer weep from gratitude or happiness,
Or weep
From being cut deep with the awareness
Of the extraordinary beauty
That emanates from the most simple act
And common object.

My dear, is your caravan lost?

It is if you can no longer be kind to yourself
And loving to those who must live
With the sometimes difficult task of loving you.

At least come to know
That someone untied your camel last night
For I hear its gentle voice
Calling for God in the desert.

At least come to know
That Hafiz will always hold a lantern
With galaxies blooming inside
And that

I will always guide your soul to
The divine warmth and exhilaration
Of our Beloved’s
Tent.

Poetry makes the world make sense to me in a way expositional treatise never can.

As a follower of Christ, this poem resonates deeply. It speaks of chains and loneliness and I see the symptoms of a broken and sinful world, crying near the Beloved’s heart. As Tim Keller writes, “Self-centeredness creates psychological alienation. Nothing makes us more miserable than self-absorption.” We know what it is to live in this place.

“My love for God is such/ That I could dance with Him tonight without you/ But I would rather have you there” speaks clearly of a complete contentment with God, yet a longing for others to join. This is an accurate description of the incarnation. Jesus was perfectly in step with the Father and His complete love, acceptance, and glory.  Yet he wanted us to join this dance, so he came for us.

This in turn is what we do as his followers. We through Christ’s atonement have the Father’s perfect love, acceptance and glory, yet long for others to join, because we know just how good this is.

When Hafiz writes about losing awareness of the divine in the common he compares it to a lost caravan. Often this is us. When obligation replaces joy, we are left trudging through the dessert of duty blind to the Beloved’s presence. As the sun beats down we grow weathered and calloused; no longer can joy cut deep enough to reach the heart. We cannot accept grace for ourselves and certainly cannot extend it to others.

We need the soft light of a lantern, a welcome relief from the heavy sun and cold darkness, to guide us to the place of warmth and joy. Even seven centuries after his death, Hafiz stands with a lantern, illuminating the love of God. He reminds us of truth we knew but forgot in the glare of duty and performance.

When our camel runs off, our caravan derails, and the sweetness of joy is lost to a mouth full of sand, we need to be reminded of reality: we are welcomed into the Father’s presence, we who once were lonely and enslaved, are invited to dance in our Beloved’s tent.
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Johanna likes listening to stories, living awkwardly between cultures, and hanging her laundry outside. Her favorite new word at the moment is méconnaissance.