Guest Article: The Arts and the Church
Rebecca MacIntyre is a novelist and member of the congregation at Lakewood United Methodist Church. She sent me her thoughts on the intersection of the arts and the life of the church and I could not help myself but share it with all of you. —Ben
A few hundred years ago, maybe even a hundred years ago, church was the center of community life. (If you don’t think so, go back east and discover a church on every central square in every small town.) The church was the place for baptisms, weddings, funerals, baby showers, holiday potlucks – you name it. People went to church because that is what one did on Sunday or any day of the week. It was a social gathering place.
Now? Not so much.
(This is totally my unscientific opinion) Church for most of the unchurched is a group of older, judgmental, gossips who preach one thing, and live another. The opinions appear to be based on what they see of tele-evangelists and politicians who claim to be “Christian.” I have a group of friends who are forty and under. None of them attend church. They are “spiritual” but church? Thanks, but no thanks. As one friend commented, “My journey to atheism began at Notre Dame Catholic School.”
There are other reasons. When I was a kid, there were no sports leagues for children that had games on Sundays. That time was for church! People used to join clubs, and organizations who had common interests. No more. This is not a church only phenomenon. Scouts, Masonic organizations, car clubs, you name it, all have the same problem, declining membership.
As some say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result, we must stop the insanity.
We need to redefine ourselves. We should no longer define ourselves as a building with people inside who meet once a week to worship. If we are to reinvent “church” we must harken to the past while looking to the future, (sounds easy and trite, right?) We need to reform ourselves into a community center once again, even though I’m no longer certain who our community is.
Our homeless neighbors? The needy in our immediate neighborhood? The gardeners who grow food in what used to be a completely vacant parking lot? The folks who live around the church? The drug addicts who walk along the path a few feet from our parking lot? Non-profits who need a place to operate at a reasonable cost? Artists who struggle to find studio space at an affordable price? Groups who reach out to their communities and others, to help bridge cultural gaps?
What does that have to do with worship? With our faith? There are several Bible verses about the arts. This is one of my favorites:
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8 ESV
And, though not Biblical, Cecil Francis Alexander hit it directly on the mark:
“All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful 'Twas God that made them all…”
The arts, all of them, are a window into God’s creation, into our beings. And they lift the spirit. They often touch us in ways only words cannot.
If we open ourselves, and our building, to all the wonders of God’s creation, are we not opening those around us to the same things? By inviting our neighbors to come in to our building, have a cup of coffee, go to a book launch, see the art, watch a dance rehearsal, see the hungry being fed, the houseless being helped, the cold being warmed, the child being educated, what does that say about our community of faith?
The changes we are making to our physical building* almost seem superfluous. But they are not. As my mom would have said, “They are an outward sign of an inward change.” We are inviting our neighbors into our building to witness the wonder of God’s creation, and inviting them to interact with us, and be a part of our work.
Interacting with our community is part of our mission. And it is working.
*Lakewood UMC has been engaged for the past few years in revitalizing the use of our building as a hub for our community. Most notably has been the recently established (as of the posting of this article) Genesis Gallery!
