If you believe it, let THEM see it!
How do we tend to God's harvest in our kind of art life?
During our New Year’s Eve service, my Bishop admonished us to recommit ourselves to God’s harvest. Immediately, this prompted a series of questions about what that would look like in my life and in the assignment God has given me with His artists.
These questions emerged because 1) of how He’s led me to work as an artist and to minister to artists, and 2) I didn’t feel led to change the first thing to recommit to His harvest.
The Artist I Am and Serve
My art life started in the church. I was all about dance ministry. I thought it was going to be my life’s work. But over time, the Lord led me to continue my art practice outside the church and serve other artists like me who love God and want to honor Him in their creativity, but
- who don’t make art about faith or the Christian walk (even though faith is woven into their art and artmaking),
- whose art is not created to be used for evangelism, doctrine, or leading people in worship,
- who work closely with non-Christians,
- whose art explores subjects that would most likely be deemed unacceptable (or at the least inappropriate) in the local church,
- and who may even use bad language—and their work isn’t always positive.
When I heard my Bishop say we needed to recommit ourselves to God’s harvest, I wondered how we do that with the above kind of art life. How does this recommitment affect how we work and engage with others in our work when He isn’t asking us to change the ways we work, where we work, who we work with, or what we make art about? How do we help people learn about and reconnect with the Lord when the Holy Spirit isn’t asking us to suddenly start making evangelistic art or inject Jesus into all our conversations?
The Holy Spirit is still answering this question for me but there are three ways He’s shown me so far. They can all be summed up in the sentiment, Let your life preach.
First, some foundation
Psalm 34:8 (NKJV) says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good…” In John 15, Jesus speaks of our connection to Him through a tree metaphor, in which He is the vine and we are the branches (verse 5). And as branches, we are to be bearing fruit. Years ago, the Lord brought these two verses up in my spirit and showed me that my fruit is what people will taste to experience the reality that He is good.
When reasoning with Philip in John 14:9, Jesus says, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” We are the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27) and we have been predestined to be conformed to His image. He was only intended to be the first like Himself (Romans 8:29). So if we are part of His body and share His image, then when people see us, they should also see the Father.
In 2 Corinthians, Paul is writing to the Corinthian church. Part of his writing is to address the attacks on his validity as an apostle. In 2 Cor. 3:2, he basically tells them you are the evidence I am who I say I am. I like the NIV and NLT translations. The NIV says, “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.” The NLT says, “The only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. Your lives are a letter written in our hearts; everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you.”
While Paul was talking to the Corinthian church, this is the same sentiment expressed about God in Psalm 19:4 and Romans 1:20, which asserts that all that God has created are His letters of recommendation, which everyone can clearly read and recognize His divine attributes, nature, and good works. We are members of God’s creation and He can be clearly seen in our lives when we allow Him to be.
What does all this look like practically, in our everyday art life?
In Chapter 3 of Defying Discord, I explain it as Person (which is who you are), Process (which is how you do things), and Product (which is the art you create). However, for this post, I want to use the words character, choices, and creation.
Character and Conduct
I confess I watch entirely too much YouTube. And a YouTube session is not a complete experience without reading the comments. Over the past several years, Christianity—and the conduct and character of those who call themselves Christians—has been a very present topic in social and political discourse. As I’ve watched various videos, I’ve noticed a phrase popping up more and more frequently in their comment sections: There’s no hate like Christian love.
What!?
As God is still working His miracles throughout the world, we are also in a time where our word as Christians has been compromised (read Romans 2—especially verse 24). For the moment, people are not going to simply take what the church says at face value because they’ve too long seen individuals claiming to represent Christ operate in direct opposition to what they profess to stand for and believe. They’ve seen how we treat people and have observed how infrequently we’ve engaged with one another in God's nature and character. I am watching non-Christians quote Scripture to Christians, taking them to task saying, You are not lining up with the things you say you believe. You’re not doing what these words say.
I’ve also witnessed conversations where people explain that they cannot believe in a God who would condone or encourage His followers to act like (insert description) and/or treat people “this way” (whatever particular way that is).
One way we exemplify and point people to Christ is through our character and the conduct that flows out of that character.
We are His ambassadors, His representatives, and His reflections in the earth. We are the first image and experience many people will have with God. How is that reflection compromised if we don’t have His nature and character? Christ’s charge for us to bear fruit speaks to the developments in our character “that are shaped and matured by God’s influencing presence within us, that give evidence of His work in us.”1
“If we [claim to] live by the [Holy] Spirit, we must also walk by the Spirit [with personal integrity, godly character, and moral courage—our conduct empowered by the Holy Spirit].
Galatians 5:25 (AMP)
Choices
Another way we reflect Christ is in our choices.
How can the choices you make in the creative, business, and social parts of your art life glorify and testify of God and His goodness?
We testify of God when we choose to take Him at His word, to believe Him, to trust Him, and further our endeavors His way. People see that.
I was telling two friends about God’s miraculous way of getting me into graduate school. They are both atheists but have known I’m Christian our entire relationship—almost 30 years. While telling the story to the wife, her husband asked what we were laughing about. I started to fill him in and he joked, “Oh, Marlita and another one of her Jesus stories.” And when he said that, his wife giddily replied, “But it works!”
People watch the way you choose to act, the actions you choose to take, the ways you choose to move. Your choices to trust and follow God are a witness. And He, will be seen in your life when He responds to your faith and trust in Him.
For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.
2 Chronicles 16:9 (NKJV)
Creation
And lastly, people will experience God in the things you create. I got my Bachelor’s degree in dance from Towson University in Baltimore, MD. I used to take the Chinatown bus up to New York to volunteer at the Winter Tap Festival. One year, I signed up to perform a tap piece I choreographed to John Boswell’s “Leaf Dream.” After I performed, a woman came up to me. She hugged me tightly and just kept saying, “Thank you.” When she let go, there were tears in her eyes. That was the first time I had ever experienced someone being impacted by art I made outside an explicit ministry context. Over the years, I’ve had other people come to me and share how they were affected by the work. I wasn’t performing “Christian” pieces but they were imbued with God's presence—because of how I prepared, how I brought Him into my process, how I laid my art before Him before I released it to people, how I invited Him to take this gift He's given me and use it however He would like to reach his people.
People have an opportunity to observe and experience God in our character, conduct, choices, and creations. When we align our art life with the Lord, He is clearly seen throughout our life in art—regardless of what we make art about, who we make it with, or where we create it. This is how we recommit to His harvest until the Holy Spirit lets us know it’s time to speak.
From The Kingdom Art Life: The Fruit-Producing Art Life