Beauty, Art, and the Church

This subject is one that I greatly enjoy discussing. Mainly because it has so many varied opinions, and I love hearing and learning from other people’s opinions in order to grow and expand my own. I enjoy using ‘group think,’ so to speak. Them more intelligent opinions there are the better your own opinion will be. My opinion on this topic has been greatly expanded through this method.

You see, I use to think beautiful creative, artistic things have no place in the church. That it should bare and basic and minimum. Music should be basic, service should be basic, make it quick, make it clean. My how things change.

First, some background. I just finished a study of Exodus at church, where we looked at the Tabernacle and everything that went into it. If you haven’t read about the Tabernacle in Exodus, or the Temple in 2 Kings, I recommend you do. These were beautiful, creative, artistic buildings. Artists and craftsmen put lots of time into these structures.

Then we go to the New Testament. Specifically, Acts. Here we see simplicity. House churches, sharing things, having all things in common. The Spirit dwelling within us instead of a building. No mention of buildings, really.

This, I believe, is where we find the imbalance. People tend to see the New Testament and say ‘that’s the way. Look at those old, gaudy church buildings. This isn’t the way.’ There seems to be no balance. It’s all or nothing.

What gets lost in the shuffle is Heaven itself. It’s a beautiful place. Creative, made by God Himself. Artistic. I’m not saying we can match it, but there’s a lesson to be learned there. God is creative. He is artistic. He is beautiful. And he made all these things.

I think, like in most things here in this world, there is a balance. Simplicity is good. Simplicity and the minimum allow us to spend money on good things, on advancing the mission, making inroads for the Gospel at home and abroad.

But there is room for beauty. Beauty and creativity turn our minds towards God. They cause us to think and wonder. A well made building can help turn people’s minds and hearts towards the creator God. This is a very good thing.

Now, both of these things are good, but can also be bad. It all depends on the heart of man and their attitude towards God. Is your view of God small and view of self big? Not good. You can take pride in your creative, artistic, beautiful building. But you can also take pride in your simple, minimal building. Our hearts our sick. We can take pride in both our excess and our poverty.  We must be careful. Our hearts are wicked above all things.

This is where balance comes in. When we, by God’s grace, get our hearts right and our view of God right, we can be simple or creative and be alright.

We are called to be salt. Salt preserves. We preserve by being simple and giving our time, talent, and possessions to advance the kingdom. We also preserve by getting involved in the arts on more then just the surface level, using our God given talents to fight the decay cause by sin in music, architecture, painting, etcetera.

Don’t squash creativity. If a guy in church can make a good light show and wants to use his gifts to glorify God during the service, let him. Watch his heart, not his craft. His motives, not his style. That is where it matters, the heart and motives.

Should we, the ones who have been set free from sin and opened to the reality of existence not be the most creative people on earth? There was a time when we were. When Christians advanced music, art, literature and science. We still can be. We can make great music. It doesn’t have to just be acoustic guitar and piano and simple structures and lots of spots with only vocals. Make good music. Be creative. Use electric guitars and synthesizers and xylophones and anything you can think. God made it all. So use it.

I’ll talk about my opinions on the church and worship in greater detail in a later post.

In short, find the balance. Be creative and generous. Be artistic and simple. Watch your heart and your motives. Do all things to the glory of God.