think: christians in the arts

I picked up a book this week, imagine. by Steve Turner, that I found thought provoking. Behold a series of quotes. Agree, disagree but read on.

Chapter 1 : THE VISION

*No one ever told me that it would be wrong for a Christian to become a an actor or a songwriter, a novelist or a dancer. It was implied. There were no role models. I can remember a well-known actress and a British pop singer getting saved, but then they gave up their careers "for the Lord." Their testimony was obviously more highly valued than their talent. Like drunkenness and promiscuity, involvement in the arts was something best spoken of in the past tense. pg 15

*When Christians did on rare occasions employ the arts it was as "outreach." The arts, we were told, could be "used." They could be "effective tools for evangelism." Thus we had movies with tissue thin characters and threadbare plots that moved inexorably toward climactic conversions. We had singer-songwriters with a beat to capture attention and a "message" to be given in the lyric. We even had Christian novels that coated the gospel in the candy of fiction.
Instinctively I felt that this was not right. I didn't yet have the theology to back it up, just a gut feeling that Christians could, and should, be involved in all areas of culture. [emphasis mine] pg 19

*I resented ever being described as a "Christian poet" because the label was too confining. I believed that Christians should be writing poetry infused with godly perception rather than poetry about religion. pg 20

* The Christian artist will often be an irritant, disturbing the anthropocentric view of the world that fallen nature naturally gravitates toward. Just as people think they have removed God from the consideration of a particular question, the Christian annoyingly puts Him back on the agenda the same way. And when God is back on the agenda, people are forced to deal with him, even if only to try to marginalize Him again. pg 22

grace and peace - weekly tidbits from Pastor Wilson

"For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control" (2 Tim. 1:6-7)

God both initiates and sustains. But the relation we have to what He does in both instances is quite different. When He first bestows on us, His action is unilateral, monergistic. But when He walks with us through the course of our Christian lives, He bestows and we respond. We work out our salvation with fear and trembling because God is at work in us to will and to do for His good pleasure. We work out what He works in. This is not what Paul cautioned the Galatians against, the error that thinks God does His part and then we do ours. Rather, God does His part unilaterally, and then God continues to work in us and that work is manifested in what we do. It is like Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. First He spoke and Lazarus came alive. God then continued to give Lazarus the gift of life, which was expressed in what Lazarus did.

In Timothy's case, Paul reminds him that God had given him a gift, and that it was Timothy's responsibility to fan that gift into flame. The gifts of God are not to be taken for granted on the assumption that He will do everything. He does do everything, but He does so through us. Timothy had been given this particular gift through the imposition of Paul's hands. The reason Paul gave for fanning the gift back into flame was that God gave us a spirit of power and love and self-control, and not a spirit of fear. This indicates that Timothy was neglecting this gift because of some measure of timidity. The gift, whatever it was, had a tendency to get Timothy into trouble -- as power, love and self-control frequently do.
Cordially in Christ,

Douglas Wilson

suddenly legal

I'm getting old, apparently.