Why pastors should be artists and artists should be pastors
Below is an excerpt from the Transforming Culture Website”
“Pastors and artists are both in the business of shepherding. Both are called to live their lives artfully. The work of pastoring is both a science and an art. The work of art-making is both a provocation and a care-taking. How can a pastor see himself as an artist? How can he learn to think artistically, or live artfully, or grow in the art of shepherding of words and people which is also the art of love? On the other hand, how can the artist see themselves as uniquely anointed shepherds of the imagination, of emotions, of ideas, of physical matter, of beauty.”
The Pastor as Artist
Rob Bell is a current example of someone who lives out this artistic side as a pastor. Whether you agree with all his theology or not, Bell is a phenomenal communicator that takes his role as an artist very seriously. Bell is often able to bring the emotional/imaginative side of the brain to a place where most pastors have to rely on dramas or videos. I attended the Gods aren’t Angry tour a couple years ago and Bell spoke for nearly an hour and a half without any notes and without any pauses. The entire tour Bell held the audiences attention captive as he artistically crafted a message of the Gospel. I left the theatre going wow….something I rarely do in church. Bell was able to pull at the emotions and create an imaginary world through the spoken word and a couple of props.
I’m not suggesting that every pastor should look to Bell for how to be artistic or that every message should be this artistic masterpiece. Nonetheless I do believe that pastors need to see the importance of not just shepherding words and people, but imaginations, emotions, ideas and beauty. Now if a pastor struggles with the latter, perhaps he should depend more on the artists in the church to help him communicate to this side of the brain. This is where we can come together as the body of Christ and lean on each other for our strengths and weaknesses. Recently our creative team had a planning meeting with our pastor for an upcoming series we are doing in the fall. We had come up with some ideas to creatively communicate the message and the pastor was able to explain what direction he was planning to take. During the meeting we were able to throw some creative ideas on the table and see if this would match his direction. This collaboration allowed for us to not just to communicate to one side of the brain but both.
The Artist as Pastor
Just as pastors should strive to be artistic, artists should strive to be pastoral. I’m not suggesting that artists take up preaching or leading groups of people although this may be the case from time to time. More this is a call for artists to be engaged in the body of the church and remain in the business of making disciples. When artists withdraw from the body and leave disciple-making to others, their creative well lacks any meaningful personal experience and they are thus forced to rely on a limited foreknowledge when creating art on such topics.
The degree that an artists can make a video about evangelism may greatly be increased by his/her experience doing or not doing it. I’m not arguing that artists attend seminary or be versed in the details of greek/hebrew text, however I find that the more I go about making disciples and the more I go about studying God’s word in depth, the more ideas I have about how to communicate discipleship in a creative manner. There is freedom and creativity in taking someone who has never heard Christ to the place that they become a fully devoted follower. And here is the key….if artists who are some of the most creative people in the church are engaged in discipleship (one of the most creative processes in the Christian life) than they can lead other disciple-makers along a creative path that may not come quite so easy for those lacking that creative bent. In essence “creatives” can help the “not so creative” do something that is extremely “creative.”
As artists in a church we are called to say something unique about living the Christian life. When we create graphics, songs and videos we are not just practicing a skill, we are shepherding the imaginations, emotions, ideas and beauty in the church. This is a unique call we can’t avoid and one that we ought to see as intensely rewarding and gratifying.
About the Author
Brandon Riley Has Written 43 Articles For Us!
Currently I work at Sugar Creek Baptist Church as a Creative Media Producer. There I am apart of the Creative Communications team as well as the LYF Student Ministry assisting with creating and strategizing video projects and interactive media needs for both departments. When I am not at work or volunteering with middle school students, you may find me blogging at Part of the glue or creating media projects for organizations and other churches/youth groups Radiant First Productions. In addition to these side projects, I am also the Director of User Experience for Tuggle a ministry management platform. You can follow me on Twitter
