Artists that are Christians, not Christian Artists

I had a lovely breakfast with a friend and a brother in Christ this morning and we were of the same mind on something that is very important to me. Art. It is marvelous to realize that we are, in fact, created in God's image. One of the things that God is, in His very character and nature, is a creator. God is creative. And as creatures of His, and the only that are said to be made in His image, He made us to be creative as well. Obviously, our creation can be nothing like His, we are shadows of His hand, we can only aspire to express the level of creativity that He has created us for. But it is, nevertheless, part of what He created us to be and do.

So, what does that look like? As my dear brother and I noticed, there was much religiously based art and creativity going on prior to the 20th century, and it is all beautiful and genuine. The music of Bach is breathtaking. It doesn't feel like the stuff that you hear on the "Christian" radio station. It has texture, depth

, it has inherent value that demands response. It is Art in her full beauty of passionate expression. It was written (as all Bach's music was) Soli Deo Gloria, Only for God's Glory. Bach was a hard worker, he strove to use the gifts that God had given him to the best of His abilities. Not to produce some simple tunes that would keep him fed for a day, but real deep and powerful art that would challenge people in their relationship with God, and music, for years to come.

Now there is sacred and secular art. The Christian art is usually the type of art, or music, that couldn't make it outside of the "christian" subculture. Generally, it has the feeling of producing something cheap, slapping a Bible verse on it and then mark it up %300. This becomes a sort of vicious cycle because then people see that this is what it means to be a christian artist and then assume that it would be wrong for a christian to be a real and genuine artist who expresses things outside of the cotton candy world of Christian bookstores.

These thoughts are all rehashed, remembered, and derived from Schaeffers' book on art and L'engle's book Walking on Water and it is a real challenge for me not to say that every human should read it, but I will say that most every human would benefit from reading it. I just want to offer my humble "amen" to her exhortation to all Christians to create! Live, feel, love, fight, and add your little trickle to the stream of real art and deep, thoughtful expression to the great river that flows to God's glory. I believe deeply that it is one of the most powerful ways that the unsaved see Jesus. Simple plastic veneer art made for Christians and mass produced can only be for Christians. If you are letting the Creator create through you by resting in Christ it will be something that has the power to draw people to Him. Even if it never draws a soul, the Lord will be glorified and that would seem to be the great purpose and highest calling of our existence (Eph. 2:7).