The Art Gene

I was enjoying the new Bob Dylan CD, Together through Life, today, and I remembered being angered when another Christian mocked him. I wanted to go into a whole tirade about why Bob Dylan is challenging and edifying across generations, but I kept my mouth shut. I think it was a good move.

I've tried to explain to Christians why art is so important to the kingdom, with mixed results. Many feel that we should only engage art we agree with. Others think "secular" art only has value insofar as we can link it to our evangelistic efforts.

They like it when we talk about making ourselves hip enough to minister to hipsters, or educating ourselves on the language of a lost world. The underlying assumption is that once we are Christians, we can't learn anything from non-Christians except what those non-Christians are up to these days.

After banging my head against a wall so many times in this area, I just tend to treat art-mindedness as a fundamental personality trait. You really can't teach it. Usually, when I see I'm talking to someone who doesn't have the art gene, I make my presentation like this:

"You may not like the art world or understand it, and that's fine. I don't have much sense for (insert his/her occupation here). However, my generation is leaving the church by the millions (11 million, according to Christian Retailing magazine), and it might have something to do with the aspects of life that the mainstream Church has disregarded, which are pretty important to us. Art is a great example."

"That's why, while we don't need to be on the same page, you need to trust me that engaging the arts is important. That it matters to the church. That loving, affirming, and supporting artsy types like Ruthie and me is 1) probably the best PR move you can make and 2) a great working example of differing roles in the body of Christ."