Willow Creek 04
- At June 22, 2007
- By ken
- In art / Christ
Notes from Nancy Beach’s talk:
Looking at what’s right in the world. Then what’s not right. She focused on the duality of art… showing both sides, not just a glossy, inauthentic look at the Christian life. Most great art has this tension. Think of the secular, brooding artist who’s fully aware of his humanness and taps all emotions in his arsenal.
As she spoke, she had a person standing behind her, off to the side of the stage, reading scripture and passages from a book. It was creative and effective. It was also very artistic, and I wonder how our people would respond to something like that.
There was an interview with U2′s Bono, where he was defining worship: “all music is worship. It could be worship of self, of women, of God, but it’s all worship.” (technical note: the sound of the recording is incredible, very Barbara Walters in style, no background music)
Nancy spoke of duality and how that’s the mark of a lot of great art… it’s often missing from Christian art (we don’t show the struggle, we shy from the controversy). Some people see Christianity as people pretending that everything is great… it doesn’t ring true (look at Gospel music, everything is happy and perfect). Bono relates to the blues, or something more authentic. The world sees the religious life as a life that’s not honest, because it doesn’t recognize the other side of life.
“Living in the contradiction,” showing joy even when life doesn’t appear as rosy. Where are our songs of despair? David knew how to sing of hope AND lament in the same song.
“It is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength”
“You hold the newspaper in one hand, and the Bible in the other (choose to look for what’s right, and admit what is not right). A broken hallelujah”
“Most Christians are better at condemning the world rather than being a ‘friend of sinners’”
“Who are you intentionally building a friendship with that doesn’t go to church, or isn’t a Christ-follower?”
“We’re to be creating houses of hope”
My thoughts: how are we doing with this? Do we create enough tension? I know Perry does this very well in his speaking, showing the emotion, the need, before relieving it. He doesn’t shy from it. But how about in the other areas of art? Do we recognize and identify enough with people’s pain and struggles? Some things to think about.
Kyle
This was my favorite session. I was really convicted by the phrase “Cynicism Lacks Courage”. I tend to be so cynical, and not being a person of hope in the midst of it.
Everett Bowes
I was at the same conference and this posting has made it all “click” for me! I understood it, but the depth of that section didn’t hit me until reading this.
thanks for posting your thoughts! it really helped me grasp the depth of her discussion!
Jon Smock
I really appreciate this post. The duality that you’re talking about (that she talked about) nails down something that’s always been urking me. It’s that we’re not displaying an honest life, and you’re exactly right when you say non-believers can see it. People aren’t stupid. The rest of the world is con-ing them; we should be the ones who are the most honest.
Along the lines of tension in art, my friend and I were talking about modern worship (we’re in a band). My interest peeked when he suggested that worship of our generation could talk about hard issues like sexual sin. What would worship like that look like? It’s not something I’d recommend plunging into – it probably has it’s dangers – but it’s certainly food for thought.
ken
Our band covered “Dirty Little Secret” during the Lord of the Rings (marriage, sex, dating series).