Thursday, May 08, 2008

Important Values for Christian Artists

In his downloadable PDF, Andy Farmer (pastor of discipleship and counseling at Covenant Fellowship Church), expresses important values to be affirmed by Christian artists. Read the whole document, which contains supporting quotes from people like Francis Schaeffer, Leland Ryken, Charlie Peacock, Harold Best, and others.

  1. Christian artists should view their talent as a gift from God and see its use ultimately as worship to God.
  2. 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.
  3. The most authentic Christian art results from our joy in Christ overflowing into Christian art, not our strategies to do art that is Christian.
  4. Creating art is an expression of faith and obedience, not of compulsion or identity.
  5. The Christian artist should see his art as a way to love God, his people, and the world.
  6. The Christian Artist sees the sovereign hand of God in both his opportunities and his obstacles.
  7. The Christian artist is committed to truth in the way he lives and what he creates.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. The Christian artist should not ignore his personal responsibility to evaluate the theological soundness of his work.
  11. Because the Christian artist trusts God, he will battle selfish ambition, competition, and any pretense of entitlement in regard to his art.
  12. The Christian artist will see the evaluation of others as an essential help in both growing in their art and assessing its fruitfulness.
  13. The Christian artist will resist elitism and care about the accessibility of his art to the average Christian in the congregation
  14. The Christian artist must never confuse the joy of creativity with the joy of knowing and pleasing God.
Posted by at