CDPC has launched a creative drama ministry named "LABU" (2 Corinthians 4:7 "we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure"). So Alicia and Ian Brubaker are looking for scriptwriters, actors, props & costumes, multimedia, lighting, stage crews etc. Do contact us Alicia at inquiry@cdpc.org.my for more information.In conjunction with this ministry, it would be appropriate to consider what are some Important Values For Christian Artists as they consider how to express their art in a God-glorifying way. Do check out this excellent article from New Attitude with the following points:
1. Christian artists should see that their fundamental identity and purpose in life is derived from something entirely outside themselves – the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to God that has come through the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross
2. Christian artists should view their talents as a gift from God and see its use ultimately as worship to God.
3. A Christian artist should have a sober assessment of his gift and neither over-estimate the opportunities it should given him or undervalue the contribution he can make with it.
4. The most authentic Christian art results from our joy in Christ overflowing into Christian art, not our strategies to do art that is Christian.
5. Creating art is an expression of faith and obedience, not of compulsion or identity.
6. The Christian artist should see his art as a way to love God, his people, and the world.
7. The Christian Artist sees the sovereign hand of God in both his opportunities and his obstacles.
8. The Christian artist is committed to biblical truth in the way he lives and what he creates
9. While the Christian artist is under no burden to make all of his art explicitly Christian, it would be an unbiblical use of his gift to intentionally create a body of work without reference to Christ and his atoning work on the cross.
10. The Christian artist rejects the worldly concept of artist as an outsider and embraces his place among God’s people in the local church as essential to his life and gifting
11. The Christian artist should not ignore his personal responsibility to evaluate the theological soundness of his work.
12. Because the Christian artist trusts God, he will battle selfish ambition, competition, and any pretense of entitlement in regard to his art.
13. The Christian artist will see the evaluation of others as an essential help in both growing in their art and assessing its fruitfulness.
14. The Christian artist will resist elitism and care about the accessibility of his art to the average Christian in the congregation
15. The Christian artist must never confuse the joy of creativity with the joy of knowing and pleasing God.
Comments
These thinkers sought to return the world to either a nostalgia where Man lived in a bliss of myth and free-flow instinctual play or to re-imagine a world Man would go 'beyond good and evil'.
Perhaps Christian art, whilst obviously not taking the same paths as N & H, can nonetheless take the same cue? More than 'theology in paint', Christian art may act like 'parables on canvas'.
Notice the parables didn't often make any explicit atonement/doctrinal reference; they were stories to incite rethinking of the narrative the listeners considered themselves to be part of, they were subtle provocations (using everyday imagery) of an alternative reality.
congrats to CDPC for launching the new ministry. all blessings for that.