The Circle Church Arts Module
The history of the artist within the church has been characterized by alienation. The psychiatrist Rollo May, in his book Love and Will states that the artist and the neurotic are the prophets in society—being years ahead of it in their interpretation of its direction. The difference between them is that the artist has an outlet for his prophetic vision while the neurotic has none.
The historic disenchantment on the part of the church toward the artist in its midst, the tendency to view with disdain what it interprets as “bohemian,” have rendered the church impotent to be in the forefront of societal change. Consequently it is continually in a state of reaction to problems which are twenty years old and stale. May asserts that in order for the church to perform the desired pacesetter role, it must become a shelter for the artist and encourage his or her creative functioning.
It is an intriguing theory, and probably greatly factual. I know of very few churches that have a committee on the arts. In fact, the somewhat traditional, and even stereotypical, attitude of conservatives toward theater, literature, painting, cinematography, etc., has been to classify all or parts of them as “evil.” Consequently, because we have anesthetized ourselves against the corruption of these forms, we have also tragically refused to be a part of the prophetic inspiration that they afford.
The evangelical still largely seems eons behind in his or her approach in these areas. Because of lack of exposure, the Christian writer, dramatist, filmmaker, is pathetically, laughably an “also-ran.” Our communicative efforts at evangelism through the arts are club-footed, limping, and deformed. We have cloistered, confined, encased, and sealed ourselves from cries of despair. We have created huge vacuums for the impressions that have been filled by secularism, sexism, rationalism, and humanism. All too often, the Christian has abdicated his or her role and driven the artist from the church, with the result that we are pitifully inadequate to present our message of hope and love and faith to a dying world.
At any rate, the Arts Module within Circle Church soared. Possibly because so many of its members could readily identify their potentials, and because their artistic fervor demanded some form of expression, they were instantly ready to function. So often we have said, “Let’s do work with dramatics,” but were limited by the lack of well-written Christian scripts.
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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?
Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?
David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.
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For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.
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