The NewThing Network

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Take a Risk On Artists

Written by Dave Ferguson

"The experience of feeling Jesus' pain is what brought realness to my spiritual journey." That was the clinching line in Rick's testimony just before he was baptized.  Rick is a successful businessman who had not been to church since he was a kid. His story included being abandoned by his parents and growing up in a Catholic orphanage. He was in his 30s when he decided to give God another try and accepted an invitation from a friend to check out Community Christian Church. 

But it was "the experience of feeling Jesus' pain" that brought about real change.

The experience Rick was referring to was a crucifixion rave created by artists at the church to help people experience what Jesus went through on the cross. The series was "The Last Words of Jesus," and the topic was "Father, Forgive Them." The video was a collage of moving images and stills of the cross, torture, and Jesus hanging on Calvary. The soundtrack was a consistent bass beat accompanied by a hammer crashing down against nails and excruciating screams. Everyone was instructed to hold a thorn, a piece of wood, and a nail. As images barraged the senses and the music pounded the beat, people were asked to squeeze their hand around the thorn—like the one on Jesus brow; then hold tight to the wood — like the cross Jesus was nailed upon; and grip the nail — like the one that pierced Jesus. This experience helped Rick decide to become a Christ follower and be baptized.

The church must understand that art is the language of experience. Artists were created by God to speak to the hearts of people. In the early days of the Modern era, we took risks on scientists, as they spoke to our heads and gave us apologetics with a clear rationale for truth. But in the Postmodern era we must take risks on artists because they can speak to our hearts and help us satisfy our longing to experience truth.

U.S. News & World Report recently asked people, "What is most important when it comes to choosing a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple to attend?" The response was fascinating. By a margin of almost 3 to 1, respondents chose "an individual's spiritual experience" (69 percent) over "doctrines and beliefs" (24 percent) as the most important part of religion. "Spiritual experiences" were chosen over "doctrines and beliefs" by both non-Christians (73 percent to 15 percent) and Christians (69 percent to 26 percent). I don't believe this survey is telling us that doctrines and beliefs aren't important to people, but that people are coming to those beliefs in a different way than they have in the past. People are looking for transcendent and transforming experiences to confirm what they believe.

The church needs artists — people who are gifted by God to create and facilitate these spiritual experiences. Musicians, vocalists, actors, painters, dancers, graphic designers, videographers, producers, directors, and filmmakers. The church needs artists! But how can we attract them?

ARTISTS NEED A RISK-TAKING ENVIRONMENT
Artists are risk-takers. Artists express in song, dance, or on canvas what they feel in their hearts or hear in their heads. And much of the church is afraid of the risk that comes with the arts. So we relegate the arts to Easter and Christmas. We curtail the artists' creativity by making sure they deal with only certain stories. We tolerate art from our children and teens, but seldom from adults. Why? Because arts and artists are too risky! What if they make a mistake? What if they cross a line?

For several years Community Christian Church has been shifting to what we call "experiential worship." Experiential worship is not letting emotions determine truth, but allowing people to come to an understanding and an experience of truth through their head and heart. Experiential worship is created and facilitated by artists.

Experiential Worship Example No. 1:
One weekend our topic was "Thou Shall Not Kill." Our artists made the entire service a murder mystery. Participants on stage became suspects for a staged murder. The audience was provided clues during the service and then guessed the killer at the end. Each suspect had different motives, like speaking cruelly to the victim, or telling someone else they wished the victim were dead. That production was an excellent lead-in for the teaching time on how we can kill with our words and attitudes.

 Experiential Worship Example No. 2:
Our artists created a Celtic worship time, complete with giant drums, violin, Irish flute, and Irish dancers. We celebrated through this inspiring sequence of music, singing, hand-clapping, and dancing. After a long period of applause, we returned to finish with the song "We Will Dance," emphasizing "from every tongue, and tribe and nation, we will join in the song of the Lamb." The whole sequence was based upon what worship will be like in Heaven. It was a risk . . . but the result was awesome!

Not all of our worship experiences go that well. There was the time we had a fire on stage that got beyond our control. The smoke filled the room. We have had people leave early and wonder "what in the world was that?" We have made mistakes and, yes, we have crossed over the line. But following Jesus is more about taking risks to reach the lost than it is about never making a mistake. These spiritual experiences would never have occurred without artists using their gifts working in an environment where risk-taking is encouraged.

ARTIST DEVELOPMENT MUST BE INTENTIONAL
I believe there are two areas of focused development crucial to the future of the church. The first is leadership development and the second is artist development. Why leaders and artists? It is the leaders who will lead your groups and teams of four to 16 people. It is the artists who will lead and facilitate our large group worship and celebration services that will include hundreds and sometimes thousands. So our church has been very intentional about the development of artists.

Formal Artist Development
The idea for a School for the Arts came to me several years ago when I heard about a Rock School sponsored by a local music store. Rock School was designed for the adult who once played in the school band or garage band, but now didn't have a way to connect with other artists.

After signing up, the musician would be placed with other musicians to form a band. After naming their group, instructors worked with the band to develop a music set. At the end of a semester of rehearsals they had a rock concert instead of a recital.

The store rented a small auditorium complete with sound, lights, and smoke machines. Everyone invited their family and friends; and with about seven or eight bands they ended up with a crowd of a couple hundred people! Local cable TV broadcast the concert and everyone got to be a rock star for a night!

I loved it! I wondered, What if a church sponsored a program like this? I shared this dream with Rachel Carroll at Community Christian, and she loved the idea. Under her leadership we started the CCC School for the Arts a little over three years ago. The School for the Arts now offers lessons for the bassoon, clarinet, flute, guitar, oboe, percussion, drums, piano, saxophone, trumpet and more. Participants can take voice, acting, painting, playwriting, stage presence, intro to Photoshop, Web design, and more! The School for the Arts currently has more than 300 students and is self-supporting. We believe so much in this idea that we are building a $2 million facility that will be our Children & Arts Center.

Informal Artist Development
Part of our philosophy at CCC is that we never hire people who are just artists. You may be thinking, hold it, I've just read 1,000 words telling me that our church needs to value artists. What do you mean? We only hire people who are both leaders and artists, or perhaps a leader with a love for artists. It is these leaders who make sure we are constantly apprenticing or shadowing. Apprenticing and shadowing make up our informal artist development process.

At a recent celebration service, our worship leader said, "For the next chorus I'm going to have my apprentice Ryan come forward and lead this song." A guitar-playing backup singer stepped forward to lead just one song while the more experienced worship leader backed him up. That kind of experience is invaluable for the developing artist. This kind of shadowing happens with musicians, producers, actors, tech people, and others. This highly relational and informal development is crucial for raising up artists.

In the last six years Community Christian Church has gone from meeting in one location with two services and 800 attenders to a multi-site church with six locations, 15 services, and about 4,000 attenders. Why are all these people coming to CCC? One reason is that we are willing to take risks on artists who facilitate spiritual experiences where people find their way back to God. And the only way we could provide that many worship experiences every week is our willingness to take risks on artists and intentionally develop them.

C'mon church, take a risk on artists!