*cino: July 2004 Archives

i'm stealing ideas for this entry directly from a different (but certainly related) discussion on gideon strauss' blog because it applies to my cornerstone post from earlier in the week.

calvin seerveld, in his book rainbows for the fallen world (which, i'm somewhat ashamed to admit, i have not read fully--yet), gives five directives to christian artists.

the first is as follows:

First, for those who want to be christian artists, that is, musicians, painters, poets, novelists, graphic designers, dramatists, cinematographers, distinguished in their artistry by the holy spirit of compassionate judgment proclaiming the Rule of Jesus Christ: (1) Become filled with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Unless one's vision is full-orbed and one's discernment of what God wants done is sure, one will be weak in artistic leadership and uncertain in testing the spirit of the art facing you and your neighbour. One's roots have to be deep in Jesus Christ and one's sensitivity to creation has to be uncommonly rich, if you mean to be vitally redemptive in doing anything with christian identity in this secular age. Christian artistry cannot be done by formula - choose these topics, refrain from that, add a prayer, and give a double tithe of the proceeds - no! It will take a prayer and fasting habit to exorcise secularism from our artistic deed (cf. Matthew 17: 14-21); so, like making a vow, one has to decide whether to suffer such a level of commitment (cf. Ecclesiastes 5: 1-7, Philippians 1: 27-30), and then plead with the Lord to use oneself for establishing his Rule. Without the working presence of the Holy Spirit in the product of our hands, mouth, feet or body, the "christian art" will be a sham, in vain. Unless the river bed of our consciousness is as deep as the living Spirit of God, no matter how fast the water flows or sparkling it seems, it is christianly shallow.

i think i'll be spending some more time with seerveld's work over the next six months; he has spent more time than most working with the responsibilities of christian artists and i'm sure his insights would be helpful when critiquing an event like cornerstone. in fact, grant (of OVERHANG fame) was bringing up seerveld throughout the festival.

gideon will be working his way through seerveld's other four directives on his blog over the next several days, so stay tuned.

for once i have a legitimate reason for not having blogged in a week: a generous donor paid for us to attend the annual cornerstone festival in bushnell, illinois. we left last wednesday night to camp on a former farm with 30,000 other people and to experience what is widely considered the best christian music festival going.

unfortunately, if this is the best we've got to offer, we have a lot of work to do. don't get me wrong, i think cornerstone is a valuable experience for a lot of people; for many, this can be the first step into a christianity they have yet to experience. and i think the people behind it (Jesus People USA (JPUSA)) are doing amazing work; i can't imagine all of the work required to pull off a festival of this magnitude and, when placed alongside their other work, the accomplishment is nothing short of incredible.

but ...

while the jpusa folks are certainly conscience of living a fully integrated christian life, the preponderance of artists and festival attendees didn't seem to "get it" yet. i realize, of course, that each of us struggles with living a life fully informed by our faith and that there are areas in each of our lives that we neglect in this regard, willfully or not. many cornerstone participants, however, don't seem to have even started the journey.

exhibit a: t-shirts. it would be one thing if festival attendees were wearing stupid and thoughtless t-shirts (and many were), but it's an entirely different thing when vendors are promoting such laziness. selling shirts printed with phrases such as "boyfriends make good pets" or "stalking isn't a sin" might be funny if considered completely outside of a faith perspective (though the latter would still be questionable), but i'm certain they are nothing but absurd inside. they do nothing to encourage an integrated life.

exhibit b: trash. i still can't believe how many campsites looked like garbage dumps throughout the event. though the festival encouraged recycling, it seemed most people were having a hard enough time merely finding a garbage can at all. many campers purchased sofas and chairs for the festival and then left them afterwards for someone else to pick up. if this were a microcosm of how christians treat the earth (and i'm still praying it's not), we are shameful stewards of one of the most amazing gifts God has given us.

finally, and perhaps most importantly when discussing a music festival, exhibit c: the music. a lot of the bands at the festival were simply churning out thoughtless drivel with a Jesus veneer lacquered on top. perhaps in the often idolatrous quest to be relevant or perhaps in sheer ignorance, the christian music industry has pushed and promoted artists running the genre gamut who have little to contribute artistically. i can't believe the lack of excellence we allow in the music arena; musicians are given a responsibility to be the best possible artists in their fields and few are meeting the stringent demand. i think many artists are in the business for reasons that have little to do with faith.

i think all of this fits into a much larger problem within christianity: confusing conversion with discipleship. but i'll have to write about that another time; this post is long enough.