I was wrong. I had a category in my head of people who were labelled ‘creative’ (also filed under arty/trendy/not-my-kind-of-thing). And then there was everyone else. It doesn’t take a whole lot of theology to work out that being creative is part of what it means to be human.
Creativity is a wonderful thing. Our world knows and celebrates that. It is a language our culture loves to speak. You only have to walk down the South Bank in London to see the creativity of human beings on display in a myriad of ways.
Globe Church
So when the Globe Church was planted on London’s South Bank, we knew we had to engage with this creative culture. We are a mix of all sorts of people on the ‘arty spectrum’, but we want to learn to speak the creative language of our world to communicate the gospel more effectively.
One friend in the secular art world expressed very strongly that only something that finds its origin solely in the artist is worthy of the name art. Commissioned art or responsive art are somehow less valid. I am not so sure. Back to basic theology. God is The Great Artist. This world his stunning canvas. We are not originators, and our desire to originate is part of sinful human desire to take God's place. Any art we do has to originate in our creator. But we are all blessed with creativity. What better way to use the gift of creativity than to respond to what he says in his word?
Brainstorming
Convinced of the validity of responding creatively to God's Word, as a church we began to question how. A group of us met to brainstorm. We acknowledged that, as the Bible is preached, we do not all respond in the same way. That is good. It is crucial that we do not underplay the importance of intellectual understanding. We all need that.
But how we express our response to that truth will vary hugely. Some people love to sing. Some people love to write. Or paint, or draw, or think. So we encouraged people to use the gifts they had been given to express the truths we were learning. We just wanted people to have a go. We figured that using our creativity would help the Word take deeper root in our hearts. We also hoped it might help us communicate it to our friends.
The book of Ruth
We were studying the book of Ruth in a series of sermons called ‘He noticed me’. As we listened, we delighted in the way Boaz noticed Ruth and how their story points us to a far greater Redeemer who noticed us even when we were foreigners to him.
People responded with all sorts of art — from poetry and painting, music and song, to dance and algorithmic composition (I had to look that one up).
The fascinating thing was that the art really helped us talk to one another about what we were learning. The language of Ruth and redemption fuelled our praying as a church.
Hiring an art gallery
But we wanted to take it further than that. We wanted to engage our friends with the message of the One who notices us. So we hired an art gallery for an evening. We prayed and we invited people to come along. Unsure of what to call such an evening/event/exhibi-tion, we now refer to it as our first ‘exhibition of creative response’. It seemed a bit of a leap of faith. Would we have enough art to fill it? Would anyone be moved to respond? Would anyone want to come?
The evening itself was a simple affair. A beautiful venue. Cheese and wine. Easels displaying paintings. Computers for electronic art forms. Some live performances of dance and music. And the best bit? Lots of chatting about the story of Ruth and the bigger Bible story that there is a God in heaven who noticed me. Even me.
Reactions
By God's grace people were really bold to invite their friends along. Here are a couple of examples:
‘It was so easy to invite my friend along. She’s an artist, based at the National Gallery. I could never have invited her to church. It’s not her thing, not her world’, said a church member.
Another church member said: ‘Within five minutes of arriving, my friend asked what the story of Ruth was all about. It was easy to use the artwork to tell the story to him and how it points us to Jesus.’
‘In rehearsals I was able to tell [another actor] about the art evening. It led onto this huge long conversation about the story of Ruth and the bigger Bible story. I’m so excited because I’ve never had an opportunity to share the gospel with another actor before’, reported an actor and church member.
This probably shouldn't have surprised us. After all, even people who would not fit the ‘arty’ category enjoy beauty. Art is often able to move us, or unsettle us, or provoke questions in us. Creativity is a good thing. It is a God-given thing. We want to use it for his glory.
