Random thoughts on a ministry to artists...

When I used to hear people talking about  their"ministry," I got spooked:  too often creating space and support for a ministry to the arts in those days was just a pretext for doing evangelism - and usually the most base and shallow type of evangelism at that. For about a year in 1970, for example, I played a coffee house ministry every Friday and Saturday night in Saginaw, MI for an off-shoot of Campus Crusade for Christ. I didn't dig their theology - in fact it mostly repelled me - but they were the only folk creating a safe space for street kids as well as other indie musicians.  So, I did it because I  believed that inspite of the theology, something beautiful was happening around the edges. 

I still believe this is true... only now I don't have to put up with theology that wounds. Or makes Jesus embarassed. And the beauty isn't just happening around the edges, but I think it is at the very core of what takes place.  You see, over the last 15 years, I have discovered that I am still doing a ministry to artists, only now this ministry isn't manipulative or oppressive or incidental. It is all about encouraging artists - and creating places for beauty in service to a love that is greater than ourselves - and I think there are at least four reasons that make this ministry different from the old way.

+ First, this is a ministry of presence.  When we do music - or host art displays or share poetry - we are conciously creating a space beyond the "business" so that artists can simply be creative.  It is a place to make connections and experience encouragment beyond the egos, too.  I think that is one of the reasons why people want to keep doing it with us:  it feeds our souls.

+ Second, this is a ministry grounded in beauty, truth and goodness - all theologies and religious differences are secondary - so this has become an encounter with joy and depth.  The artists who hang out - or play our various concerts - can share what they love the most in ways that make them happy at a deep level.  In doing this, bull shit and hustling are at a minimum for we are seeking common ground.  In this, I have experienced beauty truly bringing salvation - deep healing - to those who are in the house.

+ Third, this is a minisry where people move beyond isolation.  It blows my mind to see hard bop jazz players groove and support old-time folkies.  It makes my heart sing when those from the church world find ways to share gospel with secular artists who make the whole song cook so that everyone is lifted up.  And it sets my soul free when children and adults - Jews, Christians and Sufis - become a unified choir of love and respect in pursuit of beauty. Too often the grind of selling art isolates and wears us down, so this ministry is all about building everyone up.

+ And fourth this ministry recognizes that artists and musicians need to support themselves, too so we make certain to help folk sell their creations - and we go to their shows, too.  One of my mentors used to say that white clergy have to always earn their credibility in communties of color and I think the same thing is true when church people mix with artists.  If we're not buying their art - and supporting their musical shows - we're all talk and no action.

So these days I feel good about doing a ministry with our artists because it is mutual - it is respectful - and it is a way for us all to feed one another on the journey of life. Tomorrow 7 of the artists in my church head out for Nashville to be a part of a national conference re: Jazz and Liturgy.  Can you dig that?!?  Seven artists from this congrgation!  And we'll bring back insights and sounds for the other artists who can't go but have supported us with resources, love and prayers. And we'll study hard, too - and party hearty!

To my heart - and my totally upside down theology - this is what the prophets were talking about when they prayed:  there will come a day when your old men will dream dreams and your young shall see visions.  It is also what my hearts claims in this reworking of Isaiah 65:

Pay close attention now:
I'm creating new heavens and a new earth.
All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain
are things of the past, to be forgotten.
Look ahead with joy.
Anticipate what I'm creating:
I'll create Jerusalem as sheer joy,
create my people as pure delight.
I'll take joy in Jerusalem,
take delight in my people:
No more sounds of weeping in the city,
no cries of anguish;
No more babies dying in the cradle,
or old people who don't enjoy a full lifetime;
One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal—
anything less will seem like a cheat.
They'll build houses
and move in.
They'll plant fields
and eat what they grow.
No more building a house
that some outsider takes over,
No more planting fields
that some enemy confiscates,
For my people will be as long-lived as trees,
my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.
They won't work and have nothing come of it,
they won't have children snatched out from under them.
For they themselves are plantings blessed by God,
with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed.
Before they call out, I'll answer.
Before they've finished speaking, I'll have heard.
Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow,
lion and ox eat straw from the same trough,
but snakes—they'll get a diet of dirt!
Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill
anywhere on my Holy Mountain," says God.

When I was 16, in high school, I had a calling into this ministry - and I am so grateful that those words have been becoming flesh over the past 15 years. On the eve of our trip to Nashville, I am a very grateful man...