Outreach and the Artist

photo by

Emma Stojancic

"My point is not that it's possible to make a connection between the arts and Jesus. My point is that there already is a connection. This is a theological reality."

Con Campbell

     Con Campbell plays jazz, lectures in theology, and likes coffee. Thus begins the bio blurb on the cover of Con Campbell's latest book, Outreach And The Artist, Sharing the Gospel With the Arts. After reading the book, I thought- 'so this is what happens when a professional jazz musician (four CDs to date)/New Testament Greek scholar (numerous books and journal articles in print) talks about art and faith...wow.'

     The dialogue between artists and the Christian church has been awkward, at best, far too long. Outreach and the Artist is a book that can help the conversation move forward. Con Campbell offers practical counsel to 'both sides', artists and clergy, with the grace of a jazz artist and the intelligence of a University Professor. The book also features interviews with visual and performing artists, asking questions like, "What struggles have you had as a Christian engaged with the arts?" and "Concerning other artists you know, what is the single biggest barrier stopping them from coming to Christ?"

"... the most effective people for outreach into artistic communities are fellow artists. And the more artistic credibility they have the better."

Con Campbell

      

     Con Campbell has credibility- among artists and Bible scholars. Whether you are an artist, a pastor, or someone in between, I recommend reading Outreach and the Artist.

And may the conversation continue. 

     

You can hear Con Campbell play in this video:

Love Never Ends

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends."

I Corinthians 13: 4-8a 

English Standard Version  

     My first 'official' teaching post was with Memphis City Schools, Memphis, Tennessee. One day I gave a simple assignment... or, at least I thought so- illustrate your concept of LOVE. The setting was a High School art class. I expected to see hearts, the color red, graffiti, and unfortunately, a few disturbing images. Many of my students saw things that teenagers should not have to see. What happened surprised me. No one moved. Stillness. Finally, in the back of the class, a hand raised; it was one of my 'lonely hearts', a small girl with multiple piercings and hair color that changed weekly.
   
     "Yes?"
     
     "Mr. Carter, what if you don't know what love is?"

     Time stopped... I walked to my desk, picked up a Bible, and said, "Here is what one person said." I read the 13th Chapter of I Corinthians. I felt the atmosphere change as the quantum field in the room shifted. It was, for many of the students in that room, the first time they heard Truth in regard to love.

     Love is one of the many words our culture has devalued. I just finished reading Reclaiming Love by Ajith Fernando, a wonderful exposition on I Corinthians 13; it is a book that reminds me why definitions are important. Ajith Fernando worked with the poor, serving as the National Director of Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka for thirty-five years. It is one thing to hear the truth about love and it is an all-together different thing to live a life of love. Reclaiming Love offers the reader with steps, examples, and testimonies from the author's life and other heroes of the faith by devoting a chapter to each principle articulated by the Apostle Paul. 

     "Love is typically presented as the defining feature of a Christian's lifestyle. Joy is presented as a basic result of being a Christian. Those who live in love experience joy- it immediately follows love in the list of the fruit of the Spirit in a person's life (Gal. 5:22)."

Reclaiming Love, Ch. 19

     The title of the book's final chapter sums up Reclaiming Love- 

It's Worth It! 

     And I can say, "Amen!"

The Wild of God- A Global Journey

"God does not just tell us He loves us. He paints it for us."

Since childhood, books have provided me with transportation, and when the voice is true I have traveled far. The Wild of God by Eric Hanson is such a book; you could read it in one sitting... but you won't want to. Like any good journey, there are moments you want to savor and The Wild of God is a good journey. Eric Hanson joined a group of fellow adventurers who shared a common goal- traveling to eleven countries in eleven months, gently sharing life and faith with the people they encountered.

"I had seldom been in a position where I needed God on a very basic level of sustenance, shelter, and survival. But being vulnerable through traveling to places where life is scaled back to the minimum was something I needed to experience. Travel itself has a way of keeping us on our toes and putting us into a position where trusting in God becomes a real, felt need."

     From Peru to Mozambique to Tibet, The Wild of God will take you places not usually described in travel brochures. 

     Marcel Proust said, "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."

     The Wild of God is the story of a man receiving new eyes and sharing what he nows sees with all who are interested. 

"I realized that God cares more about my heart than anything else and that the Kingdom of God is a story- a story that I am a part of and not just a spectator of."

the story of The Voice

"Our goal has been and continues to be to attract a new audience to the Bible, namely, people who have never read, are reluctant to read, or find the Bible a hard book to understand."
David B. Capes, The Story of The Voice







     It is fitting that The Story of The Voice is a book about a book, much like the 'extras' that accompany motion picture DVDs, because the book it explains, The Voice, is a new translation of the Bible with dialogue written in screenplay format. Here is a selection from John, Chapter 3:

Nicodemus: Teacher, some of us have been talking. You are obviously a teacher who has come from God. The signs You are doing are proof that God is with You. 

Jesus:  I tell you the truth: only someone who experiences birth for a second time* can hope to see the kingdom of God. 

     Translating a book, moving from language-to-language, is somewhat of a mental wrestling match. As author David P. Capes puts it, "As scholars know, whenever you translate one language into another, something is lost; more often than not it is the form that is sacrificed. When possible The Voice team attempted to reproduce the literary form that shaped these ancient texts." Another translator from the Twentieth Century, Dr. E.V. Rieu, had this to say about translation:

"No great translation has ever been produced from a poor original."

From the Introduction to

"The Four Gospels-A New Translation"

     The Story of the Voice provides insight into a process usually reserved for scholars and theology students, but in a manner comfortable for the layperson; this is a book I recommend to not merely those interested in The Voice but to all who are curious about Bible translation and the issues translators must deal with.

     You can download The New Testament portion of The Voice by clicking here.
  

Perhaps if...

From the Translator's Preface to

"Letters To Young Churches"

(The New Testament Epistles)

by J.B. Phillips

Without going into wearisome details, we need to remember that these letters were written, and the lives they indicate were led, against a background of paganism. There were no churches, no Sundays, no books about the faith. Slavery, sexual immorality, cruelty, callousness to human suffering, and a low standard of public opinion, were universal; traveling and communications were chancy and perilous; most people were illiterate. Many Christians today talk about the "difficulties of our times" as though we should have to wait for better ones before the Christian religion can take root. It is heartening to remember that this faith took root and flourished amazingly in conditions that would have killed anything less vital in a matter of weeks. These early Christians were on fire with the conviction that they had become, through Christ, literally sons of God; they were pioneers of a new humanity, founders of a new Kingdom. They still speak to us across the centuries. Perhaps if we believed what they believed, we might achieve what they achieved.

London, 1941-Redhill, 1946

It should be noted that J.B. Philips wrote these words in

Great Britain during World War II.

Life after Art

"What do I want my students to remember as they enter life after art? I want them to remember all the things I forgot."

Matt Appling

Life after Art, Introduction

     A good teacher understands the value of the right question and Matt Appling is a good teacher. He works with students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, but in his new book Life after Art, Matt poses questions we adults should be asking each other-

...what does the world (creation) say about God (the Creator)?

What does your work say about you?

What would I like my life to mean when it is over?

And the question that drives Matt as a teacher-

What can I do to make my work better?

     Beginning with the premise that all children are artists, Matt posits that the challenge is staying an artist. Filled with quotable nuggets like- "We are compelled to create" and "A little bit of beauty can change everything," Life after Art is a timely reminder that 'growing up' doesn't have to mean 'growing old,' a reminder that Jesus' words to a group of confused adults- "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven" are still being spoken today. I've been chewing on those words for years.

     Life after Art is for the CEO, the homemaker, and it is for me, a fellow teacher who sometimes forgets to become like a child.

A few of the people Matt describes in Life after Art  

art is...

"Imagination implies that you are into territory

no one has ever been to before."

Sister Corita Kent

What happens when you ask a group of people to define art?

Here is what happened when I asked the group I work with-

Art Is... from Good Day on Vimeo.