Can Christian Art Move Forward? The visual arts have been in relentless pursuit of Christianity throughout the millenniums. But somewhere in the timeline of this faith, a populace of Christian visual artists found themselves unrealized within the sanctuary and religious ministry. Not to say that architects stopped designing beautiful churches or that Christian painters put down their tools. But a walk through the Christian bookstore reveals that religious and secular art are not so far apart in that when it comes to the standards that commercial enterprise can impose on creativity - it can be lovely art, but only of limited genres. Growing up, the evolving art I saw in the church consisted of tapestries that hung on the wall and crafts that we made in Sunday school. Any paintings or sculpture to be found were set up at the beginning and that was an end of it. I never saw a strong thriving body of artists being supported on an ongoing basis within the Church. Today, a collective of Christians are looking to change how art is recognized and supported within the Church. They are looking to redeem the arts. Elizabeth Hart is a talented freelance artist with a degree in graphic design. She contends that some do not see art as spiritual as they might view music. She also attended Christian day school from kindergarten through high school and recalls there being a “limited art curricula up until the collegiate level.” She says that for funding to get behind something, “It has to be perceived as useful and art is not always seen as useful and practical.” If it is the useful and practical people need, Hart offers up art therapy and the communicative force that something like animation can have. George Song, who is the worship pastor at Quest Church in Seattle, Washington, has this to say, “I think the artists, especially those who are painters and sculptors, didn’t even feel like they had a place in a lot of the church ministries ... I felt like the more I spoke with them here and there that surely their voice wasn’t heard.” For Song and Quest Church, their artistic vision evolved organically. In the early days of Quest, the members gathered at the Seattle Vineyard church coffee shop. From that place, Song says that café culture “slowly began to seep in.” It set them on a path of being relevant to the art generating community that is Seattle. Until recently, Quest Church held Sunday services within a café, art gallery-turned-sanctuary. Drawing appreciative feedback from the congregation, it has also incorporated live worship sculpture and painting. In this endeavor, an artist creates a piece of art in tandem with a sermon or musical worship. Jim Johnston, pastor of Renaissance City church in Pasadena, California, defines live worship painting as multi-media ministry. If he is preaching and someone is simultaneously painting, the congregants are receiving aural and visual impartation. A visit to Renaissance City itself is its own breath of fresh air. Located in one of the pillared banquet rooms of the vintage Castle Green Hotel and neighbor to a maker of violins, Renaissance City invites community. Johnston credits God for opening a door in the appealing Old Town Pasadena. Johnston’s own background includes music, theatre, writing, and journalism. He started this church with a vision to incorporate the arts, to evict pews, and set up tables and coffee for communal gathering. In addition to live art worship, Renaissance City has also hosted an art walk. For the artist envisioning using his or her craft within the church, Johnston encourages bringing ideas forward. If you have a talent, Johnston says to let the pastor know and to seek partnering. Tacoma artist Hans Nordlund pursues precisely that. He provides concrete and empowering support to the visual arts population that has received sometimes dubious support from the church. In cognizance of that he says, “I guess in regards to a journey over the last ten years and where we are today…I would say that one of the things that church has potentially been guilty of is using the artists potentially like ponds so that they can become an organization that is very attractive to the creative class, by first courting artists to sort of beautify what they are doing.” Nordlund aims to invest back into these artists in a tangible way. Taking encouragement of his pastors at Soma church in Tacoma, Washington, Nordlund opened the Tacoma Academy of Fine Arts. His mission is this: “[To] train and equip God’s people to glorify Him to the unbelieving world through visual arts.” Pushing past the Christian tendency to isolate itself in a believers-only society, the school is comprised of Christians and non-Christians. He is taking things further still. He infuses his conversation about the arts with the topic of community. To provide community for artists, he has opened his home as a place for them to live and create. This not only eases financial burden on the artist, but also provides opportunity for, “artists to hang out together, encourage each other, and love each other.” Nordlund adds, “Iron sharpens iron.” Of his own work, he says, “I really feel that my purpose as a painter is to communicate the death, burial, and occasionally, the resurrection of Jesus Christ through my visual images.” His paintings are evocative and visceral and crash through religious stereotypes. If the scope of art genres is broad, so are the inspirations of artists. In an ironic pursuit to use the talents God gave her, artist Linda Kim avoids religious imagery altogether. This came about after an experience abroad. While studying art in Italy, she painted a beautiful Madonna and Child on European currency. It was meant to be a statement on materialism within the church. Kim tells of the secular reaction, “I got this long rant from one of the critics. [She] went off on her bitterness towards the church. She told me, ‘People aren’t going to care if you talk about church or God, they’re just going to look away…but if you talk about…what God is to you personally as a Korean American, someone who is female, it is going to capture their interest rather than something so impersonal as going off on some moral rant on materialism in the church.’” It clicked for Kim, at this point, she sees herself as “having a voice as a woman of color.” Her work touches classic Asian art with modern technique. Whether using sumi ink on rice paper or conte crayon on mulberry paper, she will take something like Korean embroidered flowers and transport the image through her modern day sensibilities. Of ministering through her art she says, “If I can strive to be a really good artist and people start looking at my art, that is God giving me the stewardship of having a voice. That is ministry right there, just having your voice out there, as someone who really loves God. I feel very convicted in this.” Like Nordland, she is straightforward about not completely disassociating herself from the secular community. She says, “We don’t want to fortify the walls that are already there between secular culture and the church.” So I wondered how a person tares down the walls that are there. I think Scott Erickson describes it beautifully when talks about a lecture he once heard given by Bo Bartlett at the Frye Art Museum. Bartlett began to talk about his painting Leviathan – a modern day representational painting of Jonah. Without slick religious verbiage, Bartlett told the audience a straight forward tale about the life of Jonah. And when Bartlett finished, Erickson says, “I’m in this room and I’m guessing most of the people there are not of faith. And it was unbelievable because there was this big sigh of, 'huh, I’ve never heard that before.' They listened to it. That for me was amazing.” But Erickson takes it even deeper: “So here’s what I think happens: If you are a Christian and you are in a tradition and you’re wanting to make art, you already have these images in your head that you unconsciously reference and keep building upon. What I saw Bo did, he sidestepped all those images (all those flannel graphs or all those comic books we got as kids in Sunday school) and retold the story in a very modern way.” But if we are creating art that is relevant, do we need to be pushing boundaries – I’ve always considered that to be apart of art. I asked Erickson about this and I loved what he says, “I found in my journey with God, the thing that he most wants from me? It’s just honesty. What really keeps me from connecting with him is when I try to step out of the light, when I don’t show up and be honest [but] lie & hide. So, I think the honesty is areally important trait. But honesty is really messy.” Can the church handle the mess? I love paintings of sunsets and exquisite landscapes but can the body of Christ be open to what is behind all that? Whatever Christians decide to receive or not receive remains to be seen. In the end, if Christian visual artists are going to be empowered to use their gifts, Erickson echoes Nordland on the notion of community. He says they might need to, “become another church of creators who are listening to what God is saying and then creating or making a film that is great, or making songs that are fantastic that people know and love and embrace. And so, I think the movement is going to be for artists to network together. ” | 
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