Poets of the Past: Through the Eyes of Readers

Throughout the ages, poetry—both the writing and the reading of it—has helped us make sense of the human experience. Poems written by Christians that have stood the test of time often ask difficult questions, exploring the depths of our relationship to a holy but loving God. With beautiful words and images, these poets’ work can still give glory to God and edify and encourage their readers. Here are a few of them through the eyes of readers who admire their work.

John Donne (1572-1631): English poet and preacher who wrote sonnets, love poems, religious poems, songs, sermons, and more.

Crystal Miller, writer and book reviewer: I have a special place in my heart for John Donne who wrote Death Be Not Proud and For Whom the Bell Tolls, Go and Catch a Falling Star, Holy Sonnet XIV and A Hymn to God the Father.

He understood spiritual struggles, and he wrote about them. [When I first studied his work], I didn’t think they were allowed to do that back then—to question and show that they struggled with the battle raging in a man’s heart.

Donne could do puns, could be humorous. So much of his work was picked up into our modern language (like “no man is an island”).


John Milton (1608-1674): English poet best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost.

Bryon Harris, bookstore owner and former English teacher: Paradise Lost is justly celebrated, though falling into the dustbin of literary criticism. But his 23 sonnets live on and boy, are they all great. In #23, blind Milton dreams of his beloved second wife, now passed.

Methought I saw my late espoused Saint
Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave,
Whom Joves great son to her glad Husband gave,
Rescu’d from death by force though pale and faint.
Mine as whom washt from spot of child-bed taint, [ 5 ]
Purification in the old Law did save,
And such, as yet once more I trust to have
Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint,
Came vested all in white, pure as her mind:
Her face was vail’d, yet to my fancied sight, [ 10 ]
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shin’d
So clear, as in no face with more delight.
But O as to embrace me she enclin’d,
I wak’d, she fled, and day brought back my night.


William Cowper (pron. Cooper) (1731-1800): popular English poet and hymn writer.

David Bruce Linn, pastor-teacher, radio Bible teacher, and writer: I am moved by William Cowper’s The Task, which is too long to be enjoyed but contains the stunning portion below. Cowper fell cyclically into deep depression which included fears of damnation so he relived the joy of his first salvation experience repeatedly.

I was a stricken deer, that left the herd
Long since: with many an arrow deep infix’d
My panting side was charged, when I withdrew,
To seek a tranquil death in distant shades.
There was I found by One who had himself
Been hurt by the archers. In his side he bore,
And in his hands and feet, the cruel scars.
With gentle force soliciting the darts,
He drew them forth, and heal’d, and bade me live.

Excerpt of an article I wrote that first appeared in The Lookout, December 17, 2006.

Next week, I'll be featuring sculptor Ted Prescott.

Edwina Findley, Part 2: Behind the Scenes, Too

I’m posting a little early this time. Here is the conclusion of my interview with Edwina Findley. Edwina began her theatre, dance, and music training at an early age. She went on to graduate with honors from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. In addition, she was a soloist in the Gospel Choir, an active member of the Tisch Scholars Program, and president and founder of the NYU Chrisitan Artists Coalition.

Since completing her training at NYU, she has appeared on HBO’s hit The Wire, Law and Order: Trial by Jury, NY-70, Conviction, and One Life to Live. Theatrically, she has performed Off-Broadway and at some of the nation’s finest regional theatres. She enjoys singing and has toured musically throughout the US, Europe, and the Caribbean.

LeAnne: In addition to being an actor, you are also an inspirational speaker. Tell me about Abundant Life Creative Services.

Edwina: Abundant Life Creative Services LLC is an organization of entertainment professionals passionate about helping urban youth and adults maximize their God-given potential. Upon noticing the detrimental impact negative forms of entertainment were having upon the lives of inner-city youth, we knew God had given us a piece of the solution. We’ve presented over one hundred arts-trainings, inspirational workshops, keynotes, and performances all over the country and we’re just getting started! We’re definitely excited about keeping up the momentum and using our voices to make a lasting difference in the lives of others.

LM: How has your faith impacted your work and vice versa?

EF: I’ve noticed that many people feel if you’re a Christian who sings, dances, or acts, your ministry should essentially be your art. For me that’s not really the case. While acting is one of my talents, my primary spiritual gifts are encouragement and discernment. Most of my ministry goes on in the culture and behind the scenes- in greenrooms, dressing rooms, on set, online. I have seen some tremendous things take place behind the scenes that no audience will ever know about. That’s what being a Christian in the Arts means to me.

Edwina Findley: “The Arts Remind Me I’m Alive!”

Edwina Findley began her theatre, dance, and music training at an early age. She went on to graduate with honors from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. In addition, she was a soloist in the Gospel Choir, an active member of the Tisch Scholars Program, and president and founder of the NYU Chrisitan Artists Coalition.

Since completing her training at NYU, she has appeared on HBO’s hit The Wire, Law and Order: Trial by Jury, NY-70, Conviction, and One Life to Live. In addition, she has performed Off-Broadway and at some of the nation’s finest regional theatres. She enjoys singing and has toured musically throughout the US, Europe, and the Caribbean.

Edwina also developed Abundant Life Creative Services, which seeks to inspire, equip, and empower people of all ages to maximize their God-given potential through motivational and artists workshops, inspirational materials, dynamic performances, and individual consultations.

LeAnne: What is your background in acting? What draws you to acting?

Edwina: I’ve been acting since age three. I started by reciting chapters from the Psalms at church, then by age five did my first musical- Psalty’s Christmas Calamity. What fun! My mom kept me in performing arts programs, ministries, and schools, until finally attending NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts for Acting.

I’ve always loved the arts because they give people the ability to express themselves viscerally and creatively. There’s something so compelling about a moving aria or heartfelt dance or hilarious monologue. It’s like unbridled feeling and emotion. The arts remind me that I’m alive!

LM: Which character have you portrayed that has been most challenging?

EF: My most challenging role to date was in an Off-Broadway play called UGLy. I played Alice Marie, a 22-year-old woman with an eight-year-old son and a baby on the way. She had suffered domestic abuse for nine years and was ultimately killed by her boyfriend and father of her children. It was actually the true story of the playwright’s sister who had been murdered only one year prior to the play’s opening. You can imagine how challenging an experience this was for me.

LM: You have acted in TV shows and pilots. What have your characters been like? What have you learned from them?

EF: Believe it or not, since playing a female gangster on HBO’s drama The Wire, most of my subsequent television roles have been from the wrong side of the tracks—on parole, substance abusers, criminals, etc. It’s become a running joke with me and my friends, because my real personality and lifestyle couldn’t be anything further! Surprisingly, stepping into the lives of these characters has allowed me to see their experiences through a different lens. I’ve become a lot less judgmental and much more compassionate. Now when I have the privilege of ministering to people in similar situations, I feel like I can relate to what they’re dealing with and going through.

Barry Morrow, Part 2: Excellence in Our Work

Today I'm concluding my interview with Barry Morrow. Barry brings over twenty years of experience in working in the marketplace with businessmen through teaching, consulting, and counseling. He has served on the staff of Reflection’s Ministries for the past eight years, and spent the previous fifteen years in pastoral ministry in a nondenominational church in suburban Atlanta. Reflections Ministries is a non-profit organization that focuses on men in the workplace, encouraging and equipping them to lead productive and fulfilling lives.

Barry’s first book, Heaven Observed: Glimpses of Transcendence in Everyday Life, was published by NavPress in 2001. The book examines our desire and quest for meaning and happiness in this life, and examines the various avenues through which we attempt to find such fulfillment, such as our work and leisure. Occasionally Barry can be found exploring the haunts of C.S. Lewis and his Inklings companions when he can make his way to England.

LeAnne: How would Lewis encourage artists who are Christians?

Barry: Several things come to mind. First, the artist should be serious about becoming the very best he or she can be in that arena of artistic expression, whether it be painting, photography, writing, film-making, etc. The excellence of our work should be foremost in our thinking.

In one of my favorite essays of Lewis, “Good Work and Good Works,” he distinguishes between “Good works” that are generally considered and called as much in religious contexts, versus “good work,” which is generally referred to as one’s vocational “work.”

On this issue, Lewis writes: “And good works need not be good work, as anyone can see by inspecting some of the objects made to be sold at bazaars for charitable purposes. This is not according to our example. When our Lord provided a poor wedding party with an extra glass of wine all round, he was doing good works. But also good work; it was a wine really worth drinking….” The way he closes this essay is quite appropriate to a lot of “good works” done in the name of Christianity: “’Great Works’ (of art) and ‘good works’ (of charity) had better also be Good Work. Let choirs sing well or not at all.”

Wasn’t it Dorothy Sayers who said, “The only Christian work is a work well done”? A lot of churches and ministries ought to give Sayers’ and Lewis’ words some serious thought.

Second, I think Lewis would warn the artist about the subtlety of pride. As he cautions us in Mere Christianity, pride is the Great Sin, the supreme vice, and while the “sins of the flesh” are bad, they are the “least bad,” he says, of all sins: “That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither.” That’s vintage Lewis, and pride can become a stumbling block for the artist who comes to think more highly of himself, and his work, than he should.

I love that scene in The Great Divorce, Lewis’ theological fantasy about a busload of people who are taken to Heaven, and who can stay as long as they wish (ironically, but not to be missed, only one person decides to stay, as they all wish to get back to their dismal life in Hell…). One of the many vignettes of people who arrive in Heaven is the man who had been the “famous artist” on earth. As he is anxious to start painting upon his arrival in the Bright City, one of the bright spirits warns him:

“Ink and catgut and paint were necessary down there, but they are also dangerous stimulants. Every poet and musician and artist, but for Grace, is drawn away from love of the thing he tells, to love of the telling till, down in Deep Hell, they cannot be interested in God at all but only in what they say about Him. For it doesn’t stop at being interested in paint, you know. They sink lower—become interested in their own personalities and then in nothing but their own reputations.”

When the ghost who had been the famous artist inquired about “interesting people he might meet, distinguished people,” he is met with an interesting response: “”But they aren’t distinguished—no more than anyone else. Don’t you understand?...They are all famous. They are all known, remembered, recognized by the only Mind that can give a perfect judgment…”

LM: Do you think Christians who are not artists should support those who are? Why?

BM: If you mean by support, “financially,” I would say perhaps so, but not necessarily so. I go back to my earlier comment in question one, that, to borrow from Lewis, “Christian” is a noun, and not an adjective. So if the question is whether I as a “Christian” should support those artists “who are Christians,” a number of questions arise.

If I like the work and believe it to be a “Good Work” (see my discussion about this from Monday’s interview), I may consider purchasing an artist’s work (painting, photograph, novel, etc.), but I don’t believe there is a biblical warrant for me to “support” those who are Christians simply because they are Christians. Malcolm Muggeridge once observed, “Either all of life of sacred, or none of it is sacred.” If all of life is sacred, then I need not compartmentalize between the secular and sacred, because it in fact doesn’t exist.

In an interview conducted by Sherwood Wirt in 1963, Lewis was asked if he believed that the Holy Spirit can speak to the world through Christian writers today. His response, in part, relates I think to this question:

“I prefer to make no judgment concerning a writer’s direct ‘illumination’ by the Holy Spirit…God is not interested only in Christian writers as such. He is concerned with all kinds of writing. In the same way a sacred calling is not limited to ecclesiastical functions. The man who is weeding a field of turnips is also serving God.”

Barry Morrow: Art & the Extraordinary Goodness of God

Barry Morrow brings over twenty years of experience in working in the marketplace with businessmen through teaching, consulting, and counseling. He has served on the staff of Reflection’s Ministries for the past eight years, and spent the previous fifteen years in pastoral ministry in a nondenominational church in suburban Atlanta. Reflections Ministries is a non-profit organization that focuses on men in the workplace, encouraging and equipping them to lead productive and fulfilling lives.

Barry’s first book, Heaven Observed: Glimpses of Transcendence in Everyday Life, was published by NavPress in 2001. The book examines our desire and quest for meaning and happiness in this life, and examines the various avenues through which we attempt to find such fulfillment, such as our work and leisure. Occasionally Barry can be found exploring the haunts of C.S. Lewis and his Inklings companions when he can make his way to England.


LeAnne: You're a C. S. Lewis expert. What would Lewis say about the tendency of today's Christians to pull away from the culture into the safety of our own subculture?

Barry: I’m not so sure about being a “Lewis expert,” as you say, but unquestionably, he has greatly impacted my worldview and thinking on many subjects, including the Christian faith. I’m not sure what Lewis would make about this tendency of Christians to pull away from culture at large, other than that it is dreadful state of affairs.

In many ways, it is a form of Gnosticism, a philosophy the early church faced, a system of thought which gave preeminence to the “spiritual” over the “physical,” creating a dualism that is entirely unbiblical, and also denies the Incarnation—God becoming flesh (John 1). But there seems to have always been this tendency for Christians to either become assimilated into the prevailing culture or for them to develop their own subculture.

Lewis’ early comments in the Preface to Mere Christianity, where he defines what the term “Christian” means, is instructive as to the disastrous effects of withdrawing from the world. While the word “Christian” means “one who accepts the common doctrines of Christianity,” more often than not it has become reduced to an adjective, instead of a noun. He points out that while the word “gentleman” has faced a similar fate, as it originally meant one who had a coat of arms and some landed property (stating a fact about him), now it has been reduced to paying someone a compliment if we call him a “gentleman.” In an earlier time, there was no contradiction in saying John was a liar and a gentleman, Lewis says. His point is that “gentleman” has now become a useless word, and the same could be said of the way people use the term “Christian” in an adjectival sense rather than using it as it should be used, as a noun. Walker Percy once mused that the word “love” no longer has meaning in our culture, and I think the same is true of the word “Christian.” It has become nonsensical, void of any true meaning. Today, we have “Christian” yellow pages, ”Christian” bookstores, “Christian” conferences, “Christian” music, etc. And sad to say, the Christian label is often synonymous with mediocrity. It is symptomatic of our retreat from the world.

LM: How can Christians be in the culture but not of it?

BM: There is no easy answer to this question. The apostle Paul clearly had issues with Christians in the first century, particularly Corinth, in this regard. They thought they were to avoid all “immoral people” and misunderstood his comments to be about all people (1 Corinthians 5).Yet he reminds them that to avoid all immoral people, they would literally have to leave the world, and that he was actually referring to people leading immoral lives who called themselves Christians.

I’ve often used the phrase that we are to be “socially linked” or engaged, but “spiritually distinct” from this temporal age, which, as Paul reminds us, is passing away (1 Corinthians 7). And I think our Lord gives us the supreme example, as we see in the Gospels, of how He lived out His life in this fashion. The passage in Matthew 5 of Levi’s call to discipleship comes to mind. Immediately after his decision to follow Jesus, he throws a banquet at his home for all his friends (great sinners, them all, for who else would befriend a tax-collector?), and guess who’s there? Jesus and His disciples. How many pastors today, or for that matter Christians, would show up at that kind of party? Most Christians are too busy with their “religious” affairs to cultivate relationships with those who are not Christians.

But there is also the need for fellowship, sound teaching from the Scriptures, and support from other Christians, the body of Christ, lest we become assimilated into the culture. If we are truly seeking to live the Christian life, it is always going to be lived in tension, isn’t it? To live between that which is temporal (chronos), and that which is eternal (kairos)? To remember, as Tony Campolo says in his great sermon, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming!!”

LM: Why do we need art and artists?

BM: “Need” art and artists? If this were a purely utilitarian world, a mechanized universe where matter is all that has ever existed (the atheistic position), then we as humans would not need, not expect, art or artists. Art shows us, I think, the variegated Goodness of our Heavenly Father, who as James describes the situation, “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of all lights” (James 1:17). So I see art as part of the extraordinary goodness of God in our lives.

But on the human level, I would suggest that art, if it is well done and true to Reality, shows us what it means to truly be human. The great writers of the world, such as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Dickens, and others, portray the human condition as it truly is, as humanity in need of redemption. This was one of the primary reasons that led Malcolm Muggeridge to belief late in life, as he came to see the Christian faith for what it truly is, a “sacred drama” in which we are each playing out our parts before an audience of One.

I remember the playwright Arthur Miller was once asked how he recognized a great script when he saw it. He said that after he read it, he would always come away saying, “My God, that’s me!”

More from Barry Morrow on Thursday.

“Your Own Astonishment”: Quotations for Artists in Any Field

"There is something you find interesting, for a reason hard to explain. It is hard to explain because you have never read it on any page; there you begin. You were made and set here to give voice to this, your own astonishment." Annie Dillard

Art does not reproduce the visible; rather it makes it visible.” Paul Klee

If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, I will tell you: ‘I am here to live out loud.’” Emile Zola

“Art is a human activity, consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of external signs, hands on to others feelings he has worked through, and other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them.” Leo Tolstoy

Coming soon: more great interviews with artists and experts!

Dana Gioia’s Speech at Stanford University

You may have already seen it, but it’s worth revisiting: last year’s commencement speech at Stanford University given by Dana Gioia , chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and an internationally acclaimed and award-winning poet. The Wall Street Journal ran a condensed version of the speech in an article called “The Impoverishment of American Culture And the need for better art education.” Read it and let me know what you think.

Speaking of American culture, I’ll soon be featuring a culture expert, sculptors, actors, and more.

Luann Jennings, Part 2: The Arts Ministry at Redeemer Presbyterian Church

Luann Purcell Jennings is an arts administrator, theater director, and acting teacher. Originally from Atlanta, GA, she worked with several theater companies there, and founded a theater company for children and families, before moving to New York City in 2002 to pursue additional studies in theater and to work at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. She now heads Redeemer's Arts Ministry and has recently resumed directing and teaching.

LM: What are some ways Redeemer’s Arts Ministry serves artists?

LJ: Of course our primary concern is for the artists' spiritual lives, so discipleship and community are significant values for us. Our two main programs in these areas are our monthly InterArts Fellowship (IAF) and our Vocation Groups. IAF meets on the second Friday of every month and is for anyone involved in the fine or performing arts, design, entertainment, or media. Each gathering consists of a speaker or artist presentation and plenty of time for fellowship and networking with other artists. We also have Vocation Groups for Actors, Dancers, and Filmmakers. Each of these groups holds several events per year of special interest to people in their industry. These have included panel discussions, prayer and worship events, speaker events, social nights, etc.

We collaborate with other ministries in Redeemer on several projects. Four Fellowship Groups for artists and three Fellowship Groups for musicians meet weekly. Through our adult education programs, we offered a class on “Christianity and the Arts” last spring, which will be offered again soon along with a new class on film. In January, we launched arts classes for children in conjunction with our Family and Children's Ministries.

Our newest program is called the Greenhouse, and its mission is to cultivate the creation of new works of art from a Christian worldview and to build an audience for them. The name came from a talk Tim gave awhile back, in which he described the work of cultural renewal as a "re-Edening" of God's creation --that our goal in cultural renewal should be to make the world around us look more like the garden God intended it to be. Revelation talks about the New Jerusalem as a Garden City -- what a great thing for NYC to aspire to! And where does a garden start? In a greenhouse.

There are huge implications (and opportunities) for cultural renewal in the arts, design, media, and entertainment. At this point we're still working through how "cultivating new works of art" will work best -- there are lots of possible ways to do that. We have hosted several art exhibitions, just launched a literary magazine and will soon see the debut performance of a new dance project. And we’re thinking through additional ways to support artists and their creative processes.

But we're concentrating most of our Greenhouse efforts right now on building awareness and appreciation for the arts within our congregation -- the "building an audience" part. We're planning a month-long arts emphasis -- "April is Arts Month" -- in which we'll have a number of educational programs, field trips, performances, etc., to get our congregation thinking more deeply about the arts and God's kingdom.

LM: You offer artists so many opportunities for growth and encouragement. How are your efforts being received?

LJ: One of our artists recently gave a testimony in a worship service, and she talked about how much she had benefited from getting involved in several of our programs. Being in community with other artists who were having similar questions and struggles was very encouraging to her at a time in which she was questioning her calling to her creative field. And being involved in conversations about how faith intersects with creative work gave her a fresh way of looking at what she does. We hear these kinds of stories pretty regularly, so God is definitely working through the ministry. The community is the key -- we artists are people who like to tell our stories and hear each others' stories, and, as Jesus knew, we learn and heal a lot through stories.

Coming soon: interviews with more artists along with a culture expert

Luann Jennings: The Arts Ministry at Redeemer Presbyterian Church

Last week, I quoted from the Rev. Tim Keller’s essay in It Was Good. This week, I’m talking to the director of the Arts Ministry at the church he founded, Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York.

Luann Purcell Jennings is an arts administrator, theater director, and acting teacher. Originally from Atlanta, GA, she worked with several theater companies there, and founded a theater company for children and families, before moving to New York City in 2002 to pursue additional studies in theater and to work at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. She now heads Redeemer's Arts Ministry and has recently resumed directing and teaching. For more information on the Arts Ministry, check out the website.

LeAnne: Why does Redeemer Presbyterian Church feel it's important to reach out to artists?

Luann: Largely it grew up practically. Of our weekly attendance of 5,000, some have estimated that up to 1/4 of those folks are involved in the arts, entertainment, media, fashion, etc., full-time or in addition to other paying work. NYC can be a tough place to live -- it's very competitive in these fields, and most of them don't pay well (except at the top tier, which everyone is scrambling to get to, and that’s why they came to NYC in the first place). Add in questions and confusion about how our Christian faith should intersect with our creative work within this context and you have a ministry area that's ripe to be developed.

Also, Redeemer has a strong commitment to cultural renewal through the arts. Our greatest asset and resource is our senior pastor, Tim Keller, who really gets how much influence the arts and artists have on the thinking and choices of the culture around us. Tim stays very current on the arts and talks (from the pulpit and otherwise) about artists as important members of our community and the culture at large. This makes the artists in our congregation feel valued and understood, an experience they may not have had before in church. Besides just the nature of being located in NYC, that's the biggest reason we have so many artists at Redeemer.

LM: How did the Arts Ministry come to be? How did you get involved in it?

LJ: The seeds have been there since the beginning of Redeemer nearly 20 years ago, through Tim and the philosophy and ministry of the Worship & Music department. But it was in 2004 that the Arts Ministry was officially created as a unit within Redeemer's Center for Faith & Work(CFW), a department that was started in 2003 to help people in all industries to integrate their faith with their work and their work with their faith

I was working in the Worship & Music department at the time. My background is in theater, and I had begun a project through the department with other theater professionals, which has since developed into an independent non-profit theater company, Threads Productions. Worship & Music was also hosting a worship dance project, and CFW was interested in hosting programs for artists, too, and had started a Writer's Group. So between Worship & Music and CFW there were several programs available for artists, but we (the directors of Worship & Music and CFW, and I) felt that there was still a great need that was going unmet. So the Arts Ministry was created in the CFW and I stepped into the leadership role in September 2004. Worship & Music still hosts programs for musicians, and the Arts Ministry houses programs for artists working in visual arts & design, theater/film/TV/media, dance, and writing. We also host several inter-disciplinary programs.

LM: How many artists does the ministry serve? Are most of them professional artists?

LJ: Between Redeemer’s artists and artists from other churches (who we welcome) I'd guess that we have around 500 folks who are actively involved on some level with our ministry.

The term "professional" is a bit fuzzy in NYC. Most of the folks who come to our programs came to NYC to pursue creative careers. However, fewer than half are making 100% of their income through those careers. It's a necessity for most artists here to have a part- or full-time "survival job" that pays the bills, while they pursue their creative work as well. But these artists are still very serious, talented people who have the same education and passion as those who are making a living at it. The reality is that the pie is just not big enough here for everyone to get a large piece, but that’s not a reflection on them. I consider them all "professionals." I haven't met anyone through the Arts Ministry that is an "amateur" in the sense that they view their creative work primarily as a hobby for personal enjoyment. There’s always more to it than that, or they wouldn’t be here.

More from Luann Jennings on Thursday.

Coming soon: interviews with more artists along with a culture expert

Stealing Art

Did you hear about the art theft on Monday at a small museum in Zurich? Three masked thieves with guns snatched four oil paintings by Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh and Monet. Read about it here. It’s easier to steal—or, for that matter, to destroy—than to create. I’m praying they don’t get away with it.

On Monday, I gave you a few sentences from Tim Keller’s essay in It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God (Square Halo Books). I promised to give the next sentence to complete Keller’s thought. Here it is:

“We need Christian artists because we are never going to reach the world without great Christian art to go with great Christian talk.”

Whether you consider yourself a Christian artist or an artist who happens to be a Christian, use your gift to the best of your ability. Do whatever you do with excellence, and don’t let anyone steal your desire to create.

Coming soon: a culture expert and more artists

What I’m Reading

Alice Bass, an actor and creativity expert I featured last spring, tagged me with a book meme a couple of weeks ago. (Sorry, Alice, that I’m just now getting to it.) Here are the rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

The nearest book on my desk is one I’m slowly savoring called It was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God (Square Halo Books). It’s a collection of essays edited by Ned Bustard, who I featured in December. Page 123 falls in the middle of a piece titled “Why We Need Artists” by Tim Keller, founding pastor of Manhattan’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church, known for its arts program.

So, here we go. Page 123, 5th sentence and then the next three:

“There is a sort of schizophrenia that occurs if you are listening to Bach and you hear the glory of God and yet your mind says there is no God and there is no meaning. You are committed to believing nothing means anything and yet the music comes in and takes you over with your imagination. When you listen to great music, you can’t believe life is meaningless. Your heart knows what your mind is denying.”

Keller’s next sentence explains why we need artists. You’ll have to wait until Thursday’s post for that one.

Now, for step #5, I’m tagging these people:

Crystal writes fiction and nonfiction with humor and warmth. I love her voice. She used to write book reviews, too, because she is a voracious reader. She will have a fun and interesting read, no doubt.

Byron from Hearts and Minds Books always has something wonderful on his desk. I hope he has time to do this.

With his book, Chandler Branch, Executive Director of Soli Deo Gloria, may continue the music theme of Keller’s quotation above, but maybe not.

Plus, two other gifted writers I know, both of whom have major projects on their desks right now: Towles and Colin.

So, what are you reading?

John Silvis, Part 2: NYCAMS

Photographer John Silvis is director of NYCAMS (www.nycams.bethel.edu), the New York Center for Art and Media Studies, an arts residency of Bethel University in St. Paul, MN (www.bethel.edu). John has an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and a BA in Studio Art from Bethel University. To see some of John’s work, go to http://nycams.bethel.edu/silvis.html.

LM: Tell me about the NYCAMS program. What is it? How does it work?

JS: NYCAMS (New York Center for Art and Media Studies) is a semester art residency program for Junior and Senior undergraduate students pursuing a terminal degree in art. Students in the program receive 16 credits, which include a Contemporary Art course, a critique based Studio course and an Internship in the Arts. We receive students from 20 different Universities in the CCCU. Bethel University Art Department in St. Paul, MN owns and operates the program. Our studio is located in Chelsea, New York City.

LM: Are the students in the program trying to engage the culture with their faith and creativity? How do you encourage them in this?

JS: Yes, we provide the students with a background in Contemporary Art, as well as how Christians have engaged culture past and present. We have an exciting guest lecture program that allows them to hear from artists in the community and artists that are very deliberate about their Faith.

John Silvis: Capturing Moments

Photographer John Silvis is director of NYCAMS (http://www.nycams.bethel.edu/), the New York Center for Art and Media Studies, an arts residency of Bethel University in St. Paul, MN (www.bethel.edu). John has an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and a BA in Studio Art from Bethel University. To see some of John’s work, go to http://nycams.bethel.edu/silvis.html.

LeAnne: Tell me about your photography. Have you always been drawn to it? Why?

John: Photography has been second nature for me since my twelvth birthday when I received my first camera from my father. During high school, I learnt how to develop and print black and white film, and then continued developing my technical skills and conceptual work in my undergraduate studies. Capturing a certain moment and the possibility of creating a composition with light and form continue to fascinate me.

LM: What are you working on right now?

JS: Since 2004, I have turned my focus from traditional portraiture to the automobile and our relationship to it. I have been making collages, combining Polaroids and magazine images of cars, setting up environments with car models and photographing cars in motion. What interests me is what they represent as cultural signifiers and how they shape our identity. For most people they hold memories and ideas that are unique to our post-industrial era.

LM: You've got a long list of awards and grants, exhibitions and collections. What has been the most exciting highlight of your career so far?

JS: The most challenging and exciting exhibition of my career was the family series I exhibited at the Essl Collection Vienna in 2001, as a part of their emerging artists series. That exhibit was exciting because I was able to work on a large project and have it seen by a lot of people in the art world. The opening was a great opportunity to meet people and talk about the work. At the opening, I also did a performance piece with a Swiss artist, Daniel Ashwanden. It included video, pre-recorded sound, objects, but was mostly improvised.

More from John on Thursday.

Kerry Jackson, Part 2: Inspiring Artists to Reconnect

Kerry Jackson, a visual artist, ministers to the arts community in Atlanta as a Mission Service Corps missionary and church planter (www.drawingtotherock.com/msc). He’s also president of Drawing to the Rock Ministries, Inc. (www.drawingtotherock.com) and presents live worship art around the world.

LeAnne: Tell me about the gallery you are planning to open.

Kerry: God has given us the vision for a studio/gallery where thought-provoking art can be seen so that spiritual conversations can be generated. The gallery will also be a place for other Christian artists to share their acts of worship. It will be a gathering place for artists as well as art lovers. It will be a great place to build relationships and community. We will have shows and receptions. We will have art classes, creativity seminars, and Bible studies. This will lead to a new church start.

LM: What are you doing right now to reach out to artists?

KJ: Right now we're just trying meet them and find out where they are. Our desire is to volunteer and serve them, to help them be successful. We are immersing ourselves in the arts community by participating in guilds, associations, and clubs. We are volunteers at many of the art venues in Atlanta. We are reaching out to all creative people—not only visual artists, but actors, set designers, dancers, photographers, poets, musicians, etc, as well as those who profess not to have artistic talent but simply love art. We're praying that they will not only see us as colleagues, but as friends. We have to gain their trust before they will listen to us regarding spiritual matters. As we are blessed to help people find the Lord, we will help these new believers begin their discipleship by involving them in a local church.

LM: How are you being received by them?

KJ: So far so good. Our volunteer efforts seem to be very much appreciated. Once they begin to trust us, they are interested in hearing about our church planting efforts. When they learn I'm a visual artist, they want to see my work. Once they see it, spiritual conversations soon begin.

LM: Is there anything else you'd like to say about Christians in the arts?

KJ: Everywhere I go I'm introduced to many "artists" who tell me that they never really thought about using their talent for God. There has been such a disconnect with the Church and the arts that they don't see themselves worthy of being a "minister." My prayer is that through our small efforts, we can inspire a few people to reconnect with God and the Church.

On Monday: a photographer

Kerry Jackson: Ministering to Creative People

Kerry Jackson, a visual artist, ministers to the arts community in Atlanta as a Mission Service Corps missionary and church planter (www.drawingtotherock.com/msc). He’s also president of Drawing to the Rock Ministries, Inc. (www.drawingtotherock.com) and presents live worship art around the world.

LeAnne: What is your background in art?

Kerry: I've been involved in art all my life. I always knew that I'd be an artist when I grew up. I received a BA in Painting from Mississippi State University. I also have a Masters in Communication Arts from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. My art is primarily spiritual in nature, however I also paint traditional landscapes. I work mostly in mixed media. I also travel around the world presenting live worship art in churches and Christian schools.

LM: In October 2006, you were commissioned to be a missionary to the arts community. How did this come about?

KJ: After a mission trip to Europe where I had the opportunity to meet and talk to street artists outside the tourist venues, I came back home wondering: who is trying to reach creative people for God? That became my prayer. I felt God say in my heart, "No one. Will you?" So, the idea for a ministry to creative people was birthed.

LM: Tell me about your ministry in Atlanta. What is your vision?

KJ: We see a day when a church will be started that will be so creative in its worship that creative people will feel inspired to worship God in the way that He has gifted them. It is our desire and charge to see this model replicated all over North America.

Thursday: more from Kerry Jackson. Next week: a photographer.

Luci Shaw on Madeleine L'Engle

Today, I want to direct your attention to poet Luci Shaw’s excellent tribute to Madeleine L’Engle. If you have not read L’Engle’s Walking on Water, pick up a copy as soon as you can. It’s a must-read for artists, and I have quoted from it on the blog before. Check out Shaw’s tribute at http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2008/001/10.8.html.

Enjoy your weekend.

Timothy Michael Powell, Part 3: An Expression of the Human Experience

This is the conclusion of my interview with Dr. Timothy Michael Powell, an accomplished conductor and composer. He is the Director of Choral and Vocal Studies at Lee College and directs the Lee College Chorale and the Baytown Community Chorus. Dr. Powell holds a DMA in Conducting from the University of South Carolina and was the 1999 National Choristers Guild Scholar, a 2002-2003 Fulbright Scholar to Bulgaria, and a 2002 Fellow with the prestigious South Carolina Conductors Institute. He received both his Bachelors (cum laude) and his Masters degrees in Church Music from Belmont University.

He was the Rhodes College Conductor-in-Residence for the 2004-2005 Season and the Director of the Honors College Choir at the University of South Carolina from 2001-2002. His compositions include numerous major works, including his "Wedding Mass" which will be premiered in Carnegie Hall in June of 2008, and his opera "His Terrible Swift Sword" which was premiered in April of 2007. Go to www.DCINY.org for more information about the concert.

Dr. Powell is an active clinician and scholar and holds memberships in the Pi Kappa Lambda Music Society, The Texas Music Educator's Association, and the American Choral Director's Association. He serves as the Director of Music at St. Matthews United Methodist Church in Houston, TX. Samples of his music can be heard at www.myspace.com/timothymichaelpowell.

LM: Your MySpace site lists about two dozen musicians who have influenced you. Pick two or three and tell why and how they influenced you.

TP: I think that Giovanni de Palestrina is my model for small-scale motet construction. His music is so beautiful and loses none of its emotional impact, even after 400+ years. Yet at the same time, there is a certain succinctness and crystalline sparseness of form, almost a conservatism, that allows the climatic moments to develop and emerge and then hit you over the head like a hammer. I'm thinking particularly of his piece In Monte Oliveti, which is a setting of this biblical text: "On the Mount of Olives, he said to his Father: ‘Father, if it be possible, take from me this cup: Let it be your will.’" There's a moment in the last line which gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

As for living American musicians, I would say that I have an affinity for composers like Eric Whitacre and Morten Lauridsen, who are part of a neo-tonal movement in classical music. I think the text painting of Whitacre has been influential for me, and the large-scale motivic construction of Lauridsen's music has influenced my larger works, particularly the Wedding Mass. As for pop stuff, I'm definitely influenced by country and bluegrass. I spent some time in grad school playing in a rockgrass band, which was a great outlet for writing songs. The band, Salt Creek, produced a studio album which included a number of my songs. However, I feel like there is an approach to musical climax in my pop music that actually comes from groups like U2 and Coldplay. They have a rhythmic drive and energy that explodes on you that I just love.

LM: Does your faith impact your music? If so, how?

TP: In the sense that I am a Christian and a composer, then yes, but I do not consider myself a "Christian musician" in the sense of the Nashvegas CCM world. I hope that my faith impacts all that I do, and I don't think it would be possible for there not to be some bleeding of my faith into my art. Art is quite personal. You can't create something artistic in a vacuum and also cannot expect that you can create art without exposing vulnerability. My classical music is almost exclusively Christian, because I set sacred texts for choir. That, however, is also driven as much by the practicalities of being a church choir director and an administrator of a collegiate choral and sacred music program.

I don't shy away from secular subjects, however. Music, and its composition, to me is an expression of the total human experience. I think that Christ is incarnate in the every day, as well as in the highest worship. He's present at the conversion of new believers, but also in the midst of the relationships between people, the suffering in the world, politics, war, hunger, etc. As such, I don't see much disconnect between being a composer who writes music for the church, and who also can write a pop song that doesn't refer to God at all, or in fact references taboo subjects like sex. My opera His Terrible Swift Sword, as an example, is based on characters from Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath as well as the Biblical story of Job. It tells the story of a preacher who loses his faith after having an extra-marital affair under the temptation of a devil-like figure. It is certainly PG-13, and deals with very difficult questions about morality, faith, and providence. But so does the Bible, I think, and you have to ignore a great deal of messy stuff to believe that God doesn't have something to say about all of it (which He does), or that everything is black and white and cut and dried (which it is not).

Happy Martin Luther King Day. Enjoy the holiday.

Timothy Michael Powell, Part 2: “New Places”

Dr. Timothy Michael Powell is an accomplished conductor and composer. He is the Director of Choral and Vocal Studies at Lee College and directs the Lee College Chorale and the Baytown Community Chorus. Dr. Powell holds a DMA in Conducting from the University of South Carolina and was the 1999 National Choristers Guild Scholar, a 2002-2003 Fulbright Scholar to Bulgaria, and a 2002 Fellow with the prestigious South Carolina Conductors Institute. He received both his Bachelors (cum laude) and his Masters degrees in Church Music from Belmont University.

He was the Rhodes College Conductor-in-Residence for the 2004-2005 Season and the Director of the Honors College Choir at the University of South Carolina from 2001-2002. His compositions include numerous major works, including his "Wedding Mass" which will be premiered in Carnegie Hall in June of 2008, and his opera "His Terrible Swift Sword" which was premiered in April of 2007. Go to www.DCINY.org for more information about the concert.

Dr. Powell is an active clinician and scholar and holds memberships in the Pi Kappa Lambda Music Society, The Texas Music Educator's Association, and the American Choral Director's Association. He serves as the Director of Music at St. Matthews United Methodist Church in Houston, TX. Samples of his music can be heard at www.myspace.com/timothymichaelpowell.

LM: You were awarded a Fulbright grant to study in Bulgaria. What was that experience like? How did it change you? How did it affect your music?

TP: It was the seminal experience of my adult life. Bulgaria, though part of Europe, is such a melting pot between east and west, Christian and Muslim. Throw in the Romany or gypsy culture, and it often feels like you have entered a different world. There's a wonderful tension between the old and new there, particularly since the fall of communism. I lived in an apartment in downtown Sofia. Down the street was the most expensive hotel in the country, surrounded by modern boutiques and shops, and the national soccer stadium. Yet every day, I woke up to the sound of a donkey and wagon being driven by a gypsy passing under my balcony. It was surreal. If it changed me in any way, it was that I became much more self-sufficient. When you only speak a little of the language and you have to catch a bus, you learn quickly to adjust, to cope, to do what needs done, and to learn how to approach complete strangers with hand signals. Musically, I don't know if it had much of an artistic impact, other than I wrote a lot more pop music because I didn't have a piano. I had my guitar and more free time than I've ever had in my life, so that combination produced a lot of good music. Since the dollar went a long way in 2003, I also got to experiment in the recording studio with no time or financial limits, which I think is one of the reasons that “New Places” [a song I wrote there] is successful. If you have the freedom to discard mistakes and start over, then you can also polish and tweak until you are satisfied.

LM: Let's talk about your song, "New Places," inspired by JRR Tolkien. What is it about?

TP: Well, I was living in Bulgaria at the time and listening to a great deal of Cold Play, Nora Jones, and classic Sting. In addition, I was a bit overwhelmed by the experience of living in a different culture. I'd just seen the Fellowship of the Ring for about the 5th time (I've read the Lord of the Rings just about every year since I was in the 4th grade) and was inspired by the visual vistas of the movie. Since I had this feeling that I was entering uncharted territory (at least in my own life) by living in Eastern Europe, and that I was having the great adventure of my life, I decided to put pen to paper to talk about going "across the sea under twinkling stars to fields where no one's been." What emerged was a song that was informed by those three artists (though I think it is much lusher, more exotic, and much more symphonic than any one of the three) and which alluded to Tolkien's poem from The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, "The Road Goes Ever On and On." The song was written on my old guitar, but I got to mess around in the studio and played all but one instrument on the recording. Now that Peter Jackson has agreed to do The Hobbit movie, I'm hoping the song will get a little more attention and make it on to the soundtrack. Some of the folks in the worldwide fan community for the movies come by my Myspace page regularly to comment on the song. I'm hoping that lightning will strike and the song will get some attention.

Don’t miss the conclusion of my interview with Tim Powell on Monday.

Timothy Michael Powell: Concert at Carnegie Hall

Dr. Timothy Michael Powell is an accomplished conductor and composer. He is the Director of Choral and Vocal Studies at Lee College and directs the Lee College Chorale and the Baytown Community Chorus. Dr. Powell holds a DMA in Conducting from the University of South Carolina and was the 1999 National Choristers Guild Scholar, a 2002-2003 Fulbright Scholar to Bulgaria, and a 2002 Fellow with the prestigious South Carolina Conductors Institute. He received both his Bachelors (cum laude) and his Masters degrees in Church Music from Belmont University.

He was the Rhodes College Conductor-in-Residence for the 2004-2005 Season and the Director of the Honors College Choir at the University of South Carolina from 2001-2002. His compositions include numerous major works, including his "Wedding Mass" which will be premiered in Carnegie Hall in June of 2008, and his opera "His Terrible Swift Sword" which was premiered in April of 2007. Go to www.DCINY.org for more information about the concert.

Dr. Powell is an active clinician and scholar and holds memberships in the Pi Kappa Lambda Music Society, The Texas Music Educator's Association, and the American Choral Director's Association. He serves as the Director of Music at St. Matthews United Methodist Church in Houston, TX. Samples of his music can be heard at www.myspace.com/timothymichaelpowell.

LeAnne: On June 14, you'll be directing the world premiere of your Wedding Mass in Carnegie Hall. The concert is produced in collaboration with Distinguished Concerts International New York. How did this opportunity come about?

Tim: I've been to Carnegie a number of times as a singer and participant in similar concerts and during the course of the last couple of years developed a relationship with Iris Derke, who is the executive director of DCINY. We sat down in Miami this year to discuss the possibility of me coming to Carnegie to conduct a festival concert. During our brainstorming we talked about a number of options for the concert, and I mentioned that I had a major choral work that I thought would be a great match for Carnegie. She asked me to send along a copy of the music and a recording, and I got a call a couple of weeks later from Jonathan Griffith, who is the artistic director, inviting me to premiere the piece. We decided to expand the accompaniment for full orchestra for the premiere performance (it was performed first in the spring of 2005 in a chamber orchestra setting for a small crowd in Memphis). It was a great honor to be invited to such a wonderful and historic venue!

LM: What inspired you to write your Wedding Mass? Tell me about your composing process.

TP: The melodic basis for the piece actually comes from a song I wrote about 9 years ago about an afternoon that I spent with my sister at the beach. When she told me she was getting married, I turned the melody into a processional for piano and cello that she used when she walked down the aisle during the ceremony. When I was beginning the composition of the Wedding Mass, the melody seemed to fit the tripartite structure of the Kyrie ("Lord, Have Mercy") which is the opening prayer of the Catholic and Orthodox worship service. Once the Kyrie was in place, I began to work on the other movements. The Agnus Dei ("Lamb of God") came next, followed by the Gloria, Credo and Sanctus. The Mass was basically finished, but then I lost the manuscript for the Agnus Dei. It worked out well, however, because after September 11, 2001 I rewrote the movement from memory and made some important adjustments to the structure and melody. I think these changes more accurately reflect the inherent tension between repentance and forgiveness, darkness and light, and grief and catharsis that is present in the Agnus Dei prayer, "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us; grant us peace." I put the Mass away for some time, and then before my own wedding to my wife Jen in 2005, I wrote the middle movement "When Love is Found" using the beautiful hymn text by Brian Wren. When the Mass was sung for the first time in its chamber orchestra setting, I decided to include that movement. A choir of my closest friends also sang that movement during my wedding ceremony.

As for my compositional process, it really is different for every piece. I haven't settled on a specific process, mainly because I am not a full-time composer. In my day job, I'm a conductor and a department administrator, which means I have to squeeze out time to compose when I have free time. I'm also a bit "streaky", to use a baseball term. I compose in bursts, and then don't compose for long periods of time, sometimes months. I don't have an efficient system that allows me to crank out material on demand. My music tends to percolate, to languish on the piano, to get lost underneath huge piles of other work, and then to somehow work its way to the top in some kind of Darwinian process to emerge sometimes years later as a finished piece. In that sense, however, the editing process I have is exhaustive and always ongoing. The way that I approached my Mass was very different from the way I composed my opera, for instance, or the way I approach smaller works like motets, anthems, and songs. With the Mass, it developed over 5 years. The bulk of my opera, at least an hour's worth of music, was written in about 4 weeks. My most frequently performed motet, Mirabile Mysterium, was written in an hour but underwent at least a week's worth of revisions. If there is an over-arching inspirational process, it is certainly based on the text that I'm setting, which as far as I am concerned, should be the be-all and end-all of choral composition.

On Thursday, Tim Powell will talk about his song inspired by JRR Tolkien and his time in Bulgaria.

Learning from Those Who Came Before

A few weeks ago, we went to the High Museum in Atlanta (www.high.org) to see Inspiring Impressionism. This exhibition is “the first comprehensive survey to explore the influence of Old Master painters on Impressionist artists.” It juxtaposes works by artists like Monet, Cézanne and Degas with those of Titian, Rubens and Fragonard.

We spent a delightful two hours wandering through, taking note of similarities in composition and subject matter. Two of my favorites included Fragonard’s A Young Girl Reading (ca. 1776), a painting my husband and I both loved before we met, and Morisot’s In the Garden at Maurecourt (1884), with its vivid greens and the dark-eyed girl turned rather casually toward the viewer.

The artists in this exhibition studied and copied great works of art so they could eventually produce their own. American Impressionist Mary Cassatt said, “Museums are all the teachers one needs.” As I saw these 80+ works side by side, I kept thinking it was a good reminder that we can all learn from the past, from those who came before, whether our art form of choice is painting, composing, dancing, or writing.

I think it’s time for me to reread some of the classics…

Next week: a conductor/composer/scholar/director of choral and vocal studies

Note: I just started a new blog I’m really excited about called Beauty and the Beholder. On Wednesdays, I’ll be writing about the beauty around us. Check it out at my website or at www.beautyandthebeholder.blogspot.com.

A New Look Will Soon Be Here

I'm so excited! On Monday my fabulous web designer will be working to update the blog with a whole new look. If you try to access it and can't, please come back later. It should be up and running--and bright and shiny and new--later in the day. Thanks.

Philip Graham Ryken's Art for God's Sake

A few weeks ago, Ned Bustard of Square Halo Books recommended several books on the arts. One of those was Art for God’s Sake, a small book packed with insight by Philip Graham Ryken. Here are a couple of my favorite passages:

“God’s careful instructions for building the tabernacle [in Exodus 31] remind us that his perfection sets the standard for whatever we create in his name. Whatever we happen to make—not only in the visual arts, but in all the arts—we should make it as well as we can, offering God our very best” (p. 38).

“To be pleasing to God, art must be true as well as good. Truth has always been one important criterion for art. Art is the incarnation of the truth. It penetrates the surface of things to portray them as they really are” (p. 39).

Happy New Year, everyone! May your 2008 be filled with Goodness, Truth, and Beauty.

Coming very soon: a new look for the blog and a new website as well as more great interviews

Merry Christmas

Dear Art Lovers,

May your Christmas be especially meaningful this year as you think about the baby who became the Savior. Hold your loved ones close, and enjoy the arts of the season.

Next week another “Looking Back” interview.

Merry Christmas,
LeAnne

Looking Back: Nigel Goodwin, Part 2

Here's the conclusion of my interview with Nigel Goodwin when I started the blog in September 2006. As the end of 2007 approaches, I’ve been thinking about all the fascinating people I have interviewed. Those of you who have just joined me recently may not have time to check out the archives, so for the next couple of weeks, I’m going back to the beginning, to those first interviews with two of my favorite people in the arts. Enjoy!
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I've been talking with Nigel Goodwin, Executive Director of Genesis Arts Trust (http://www.genesisartstrust.org.uk/) about Christians in the cultural debate. Nigel is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art who worked in theatre, film, TV, and radio for over 10 years. He trained under Francis Schaeffer at L’Abri. Through Genesis Arts Trust, Nigel encourages and supports Christians in the arts, both celebrities and “unknowns”, all over the world.


LeAnne: How can the church support Christians in the arts?


Nigel: Everybody has gifts in the church. If someone writes a poem, some music, encourage it. They may not be a Mozart, but they have something to express. Encourage [the gifts] in the church, in our schools, in our homes, and ultimately those gifts will go out into the marketplace. Who are tomorrow’s filmmakers? Poets? Writers? Should we be getting programs together to find money to support these people?

When I started 30-odd years ago, there were little or no Christian voices. It was a desert. Today there are more. There aren’t enough, but there are more. I believe it’s long-term strategy, long-term planning. I don’t think it’s quick or instant. There is no one answer, but the answers are all there in the scriptures.

Looking Back: Nigel Goodwin, Part 1

As the end of the year approaches, I’ve been thinking about all the fascinating people I have interviewed since starting the blog in September 2006. Those of you who have just joined me recently may not have time to check out the archives, so for the next couple of weeks, I’m going back to the beginning, to those first interviews with two of my favorite people in the arts. Enjoy!

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In my next few posts, I'm going to be talking to two experts about using the arts to reach our culture for Christ. My first guest is Nigel Goodwin, Executive Director of Genesis Arts Trust. Nigel is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art who worked in theatre, film, TV, and radio for over 10 years. He trained under Francis Schaeffer at L’Abri. Through Genesis Arts Trust, Nigel encourages and supports Christians in the arts, both celebrities and “unknowns”, all over the world.

LeAnne: What is the church’s role in our culture today?

Nigel: Except for a few notable exceptions, sadly it’s been a role of withdrawal. That goes back to the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th, when the culture was beginning to lose its Judeo-Christian roots and become more secular. Instead of the church being salt and light and engaging, there was a huge withdrawal, a disengaging. We built our own colleges and universities—our own subcultural system, rather than counter-cultural.

I think Christ calls us to a counter-culture. If He had withdrawn at any point from the world, the world would be worse than it is. But the Holy Spirit still broods over the world. God has never given up on the world that He so loves. True, we are called to be in it and not of the world, but we are called first to be in it—in it with a different frame of reference, a different way of thinking, of understanding, of seeing. We need to take our Christianity out of the comfort zones of the church and into the marketplace. We ought to be in engagement, not disengagement.

LM: How can Christians in the arts impact in our culture?

NG: We will bring the light into our culture. Light is substance, darkness is not. You don’t need a lot of light. If you strike a match in a room, you’ll see something. God isn’t asking for a headlamp. God doesn’t ask us to bully the culture because it’s got us wrong. He asks us to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. He asks us to be gentle, creative, winsome in the culture.

The arts gifts are given by the Giver of every good gift. A gift has to be received, unwrapped—worked at—and given back. It is for the Giver’s glory, to show Him to the world, and for our good: as we give it back, it blesses us and blesses the watching world who see the Body of Christ as distinctly different.

We need to learn in the church to make people hungry for Christ. The prince of the power of the air does not have to be the prince of the power of the airwaves. If we retreat, someone else will be there. You can spend a lot of time in the cultural wars arguing about what you don’t like rather than spending time creating an alternative so people can make their choices. Give them something different. Invest in writers, in quality writing. Why is so much church-based art bad art? Why doesn’t it have the excellence and professionalism we see in the world? Does God make cheap? Is a rose ever cheap? Is an oak tree cheap? No. God made quality.


Coming soon: In early January, I will be unveiling a new look for the blog and a new website. More details later.

Ned Bustard, Part 2: Must Reads

Sorry, folks. I’m a little late posting today due to technical difficulties. Here’s the conclusion of my interview with Ned Bustard.

Ned Bustard is the owner of an illustration and graphic design firm called World’s End Images (www.worldsendimages.com). He received his B.A. in art from Millersville University of Pennsylvania. He has done work for various clients ranging from the Publication Society of the Reformed Episcopal Church, White Horse Inn, and Young Life, to ICI Americas, Macy’s West and Armstrong World Industries. He was the art director for the late, great, alternative Christian music publication, Notebored Magazine. Much of his current work is for Veritas Press, for whom he has also written a number of books including Legends & Leagues or Mr Tardy Goes From Here to There, The Sailing Saint, Ella Sings Jazz, and a historic novel Squalls Before War: His Majesty’s Schooner Sultana. In his spare time, he is the creative director for Square Halo Books (http://www.squarehalobooks.com/). He currently is living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with his wife, Leslie, and three daughters, Carey, Maggie and Ellie.

LM: Let’s talk about the arts books you've published. Would you recommend starting with a certain one or just picking one and plunging in?

NB: I'd suggest people begin by reading Art for God's Sake by P. Ryken or Schaeffer's Art and the Bible. All our books assume you have read something like one of those. After that, read It was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God and then Objects of Grace: Conversations on Faith and Creativity by James Romaine. First you read about what artists think about art and faith, and then you read about how artists have worked out their art and faith in specific bodies of work. And there is overlap between books in regards to the artists represented which is very enjoyable. Then I'd read Intruding Upon the Timeless: Meditations on Art, Faith and Mystery, followed by Light at Ground Zero. Then it would be Faith and Vision: Twenty-Five Years of Christians in the Visual Arts, MMAP and The Art of Sandra Bowden.

LM: What's next for Square Halo? Will there be a new book coming out soon?

NB: Books take a long time to make especially when you have a "day job." We have a book on baptism in development and a few in the conception stage. Then there is the running list of titles I'd like to have us do, along with a bunch of artists that I'd like to give the The Art of Sandra Bowden treatment. But that all takes time and money. In a perfect world we'd come out with one or two theological works before we did any more art books, since we started as a theological press.

LM: Speaking of, let’s talk about your day job. You also run a graphic design firm. What do you enjoy most about graphic design?

NB: My "tagline" for my graphic design company is "Committed to Making the World a More Beautiful Place—One Project at a Time." I think that is one of the big reasons I like graphic design. There is so much ugly in the world. I like to make people's lives more beautiful. I also love type. And logos thrill me. And... well, I feel like you're asking me what I like most about chocolate. "Because it is so ... umm ... chocolaty." Maybe I am too close to it so I can't give you a decent answer to this question. There is a delightful new book that deals with this topic well: Graphic Design and Religion: A Call for Renewal by Daniel Kantor. A must read. (After, of course, Art for God's Sake by Phillip Ryken and It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God.) But I guess if people are reading this blog they must have already read those two books! I am tutoring a high school senior right now in graphic design and I made her read all three of those titles. And Objects of Grace: Conversations of Creativity and Faith by the brilliant James Romaine. If we had more time I would assign her other books to read like Jeremy Begbie's Voicing Creation's Praise: Towards a Theology of the Arts, Madeleine L'Engle's Walking on Water, Flannery O'Connor's Mystery and Manners, Nicholas Wolterstorff's Art in Action, Ted Prescott's A Broken Beauty, Calvin Seerveld's Rainbows for the Fallen World, and The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers--just to name a few. But it's just art. We can't have Beauty getting in the way of Math or Science or other really important things!

Perhaps through graphic design I get to make Beauty an important thing. Or I at least make it pragmatic. Useful Beauty? It sounds crass when I say it that way. But with graphic design I am able to love my neighbor by making their world more beautiful. And I can love the Church, making her more beautiful in ways that they can accept, and with much less education than is required for them to appreciate most fine art. Graphic design also allows you to "Save As" and "Undo"—two things, the lack of which, keep me from enjoying fine art more.



Dick Staub, author of The Culturally-Savvy Christian and one of my interviews for this blog, endorsed It was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God at www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/november/29.81.html.

Coming soon: a new look and more great interviews. Thanks for your support!

Ned Bustard: On Beauty and Square Halo Books

Ned Bustard is the owner of an illustration and graphic design firm called World’s End Images (www.worldsendimages.com). He received his B.A. in art from Millersville University of Pennsylvania. He has done work for various clients ranging from the Publication Society of the Reformed Episcopal Church, White Horse Inn, and Young Life, to ICI Americas, Macy’s West and Armstrong World Industries. He was the art director for the late, great, alternative Christian music publication, Notebored Magazine. Much of his current work is for Veritas Press, for whom he has also written a number of books including Legends & Leagues or Mr Tardy Goes From Here to There, The Sailing Saint, Ella Sings Jazz, and a historic novel Squalls Before War: His Majesty’s Schooner Sultana. In his spare time, he is the creative director for Square Halo Books (www.squarehalobooks.com). He currently is living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with his wife, Leslie, and three daughters, Carey, Maggie and Ellie.


LeAnne: Let's talk about Square Halo Books. What is your mission?

Ned: Square Halo Books began nearly a decade ago in hopes of providing a platform for living saints who would handle biblical texts in their proper context—with full belief in the truthfulness of all things contained in Scripture—but who might not have the name recognition needed to attract a larger publisher or who might be speaking about orthodox ideas that fell outside of the interests of the mainstream religious book publishing companies. The End: A Readers’ Guide to Revelation (the first Square Halo book) was published in 1997 after a seminary class at Chesapeake Theological Seminary encouraged A.D. Bauer to make his class notes available to the public.

In Christian art, the square halo identified a living person presumed to be a saint. Square Halo Books is devoted to publishing works that present contextually sensitive biblical studies, and practical instruction consistent with the Doctrines of the Reformation. The goal of Square Halo Books is to provide materials useful for encouraging and equipping the saints.

LM: Why do you publish arts-related books?

NB: We want to supply the Church with practical theological/biblical instruction and useful insights/instruction in some part of life where believers are (or should be) actively involved in bearing witness to our Sovereign God and His Kingdom through their lives, words and vocations. The arts are an area that I am interested in and there seems to be a need in the Body for art books. The owners of Square Halo care deeply for Beauty and want the Church to be interested as much in Beauty as they are interested in Goodness and Truth.

LM: Why? What does Beauty offer us?

NB: I understand Truth, Beauty and Goodness to be a set. If I said that I was for Goodness and Beauty in the Church but we didn't need Truth, my church family would say that I was unbiblical. If I said that I was for Truth and Beauty in the Church but we didn't need Goodness, my church family would start looking into my "closet" for outrageous sins. But Goodness and Truth without Beauty is okay? No, I think we need all three. As a brief aside, I would like to emphasize that this critique is not a call to leave the church but instead to really invest yourself in the church to see Christ's Bride become more beautiful.

As Gregory Wolfe writes in Intruding Upon the Timeless: Meditations on Art, Faith, and Mystery: "The church, it is said, is a human institution, and a thoroughly fallible one at that. True, but as every artist ought to know, all our forms are imperfect—they are broken vessels. To acknowledge that brokenness is not to invalidate the need to create and strive perpetually to perfect those forms. The wonder of art, and of faith, is that we can still receive grace through the cracks in those vessels."

But back to the topic—why do I think Beauty is important? I have a Kingdom of God reason and a personal reason. In Square Halo's book It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God there is a great essay by Adrienne Chaplin on Beauty. She writes: "To seek and pursue redemptive beauty is therefore not merely a luxury pastime but a call to artists to become agents of restoration and reconciliation. Wise and winsome images—whether in paintings, music or sculptures—can serve as beacons of hope and signs of renewal." I would assert that we need Beauty for restoration and reconciliation--to live out our prayer "...Thy Kingdom come...". Personally, we need Beauty to know and understand what it means to be fully human and to be fully engaged--right here, right now.

Through his excellent audio journal Ken Myers (www.MarsHillAudio.org) has made me think often and deeply on the idea of "poetic knowledge," or for our discussion, let's call it "beautiful understanding." He wrote to me that ". . . Poetic expression conveys a heightened sense of reality because it relies on the connectedness that is the fabric of reality." Right here, right now Beauty helps us to see reality with more clarity and in brighter colors. Like when you get a new pair of glasses. There's nothing better than lying on a grassy hill and drinking in the whole world through clean lenses and a new prescription. You can describe a tree and clouds and flowers to me, but it isn't the same as knowing it through a fresh set of specs. Folks with 20/20 vision will just have to trust me on that. And perhaps they will have to trust me that we need Beauty. It is all very wibbly-wobbly, I know. Beauty doesn't fit into a periodic chart, but we need it like oxygen.

More from Ned Bustard on Thursday.

MOBIA: Images of the Prodigal Son

A few weeks ago, we went to New York for a few days with some dear friends. While there, we visited MOBIA, the Museum of Biblical Art, which is housed in the American Bible Society building. MOBIA’s mission (www.mobia.org) is to foster understanding and appreciation of art inspired by the Bible and its legacy through the centuries by highlighting the connection between art and religion in the Jewish and Christian traditions.

The exhibition that drew us was “The Art of Forgiveness: Images of the Prodigal Son.” Here’s the description: “The biblical story from Luke 15 of the loving father who forgives his wayward son unconditionally has inspired artists through the centuries. MOBIA is proud to organize and present an exhibition dedicated to this theme, featuring works from the Renaissance to the present day. More than 70 prints, sculptures, and paintings by artists including Rembrandt, Pietro Testa, James Tissot, and Mourice Langaskens will provide a wide-ranging overview of the impact this theme has had on the history of art.”

Indeed it is a wide-ranging overview. My favorites included contemporary artist Mary McCleary’s large mixed-media which depicted the feast as a Texas barbecue, complete with boots and hats. The work was surprising and stunning in its detail. I also liked Johannes Nilsson’s seven scenes painted on linen, dating from 1750. One that haunts me still was Thomas Hart Benton’s lithograph showing the son coming home to an empty, ramshackle house. It’s too late for a reconciliation with his father. To see a slideshow of selected works, click http://www.mobia.org/exhibitions/.

Most of the works in the Art of Forgiveness are from the collection of Jerry Evenrud, a retired church musician who has an avocational passion for visual arts. I hope to be able to feature him on the blog someday soon.

On Monday, I’m featuring a publisher of art books. You won’t want to miss it! Also, in a few weeks, I’ll be unveiling a new look for the blog as well as my new website. More details to follow.

The Song of the Brush and Other Quotations about Art

“Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting with the gift of speech.” Simonides

“One must work, nothing but work, and one must have patience.” Rodin

“It is well with me only when I have a chisel in my hand.” Michelangelo

“Still, there is a calm, pure harmony, and music inside of me.” Vincent Van Gogh

“The song of the brush.” Chinese saying about painting


Coming soon: a new look!

Jill Peláez Baumgaertner, Part 2: Poet, Professor, Scholar, Editor

Today I’m concluding my interview with Jill Peláez Baumgaertner. Dr. Baumgaertner is Professor of English and Dean of Humanities and Theological Studies at Wheaton College. She has written several books of poetry: My Father’s Bones (Finishing Line Press, 2006), Finding Cuba (Chimney Hill Press, 2001), Namings (Franciscan University Press, 1999), and Leaving Eden (White Eagle Coffee Store Press, 1995). She has also published a textbook/anthology, Poetry (HBJ, 1990); and Flannery O’Connor: A Proper Scaring (Cornerstone Press, 1998). She has been a Fulbright scholar, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and has won many awards. She is past president of the Conference on Christianity and Literature and serves as poetry editor of The Christian Century.

You can read two of Jill’s poems here:
http://www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/baumgaertnerhow.html
http://www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/baumgaertneruprooted.html

Her article on poetry here:
http://www.ctlibrary.com/bc/2000/novdec/8.32.html

And a review of her book, Finding Cuba, here:
www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/craigreviewbaumgaertner.html


LeAnne: Your Ph.D is in Renaissance and Seventeenth-Century literature, yet you wrote a book on Flannery O'Connor. Tell me about the book and about why you feel drawn to her life and work.

Jill: Flannery O’Connor has a lot in common with John Donne, the subject of my dissertation. They both understand that the cross is the center of our faith—that one cannot skip over Good Friday on the way to Easter morning (which many Christians try to do). And the cross is ugly and violent and powerful and scary, but it is also death defeated even though God himself on that cross had to experience the silence of God. Flannery O’Connor deals with all of this and she avoids sentimentality and the pretty religious experience. She understands that we would rather not confront God, that it is often more comfortable not to receive revelation, so her characters are often pushed to the brink before they finally see the blazing light that is God.

LM: What projects are you working on right now?

JB: I’m editing a collection of letters from the front in World War II. A young Army/Air Force chaplain writes home to his new bride and tells the story of combat and life in the trenches, the liberation of the camps, life in liberated France and with Patton’s army. They’re remarkable letters—love letters, adventure letters, spiritual direction letters—everything. And they were written by my father-in-law.

Jill Peláez Baumgaertner: Saying the Unsayable

Jill Peláez Baumgaerter is Professor of English at Wheaton College, where she began teaching in 1980; six years ago she was appointed Dean of Humanities and Theological Studies. She holds the B.A. degree from Emory University, the M.A. from Drake University, and the Ph.D. degree in English from Emory. She is the author of several books of poetry: My Father’s Bones (Finishing Line Press, 2006), Finding Cuba (Chimney Hill Press, 2001), Namings (Franciscan University Press, 1999), and Leaving Eden (White Eagle Coffee Store Press, 1995). She has also published a textbook/anthology, Poetry (HBJ, 1990); and Flannery O’Connor: A Proper Scaring (Cornerstone Press, 1998). She has been a Fulbright scholar, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and is the winner of the White Eagle Coffee Store Press’s poetry chapbook contest, the Goodman Award, an Illinois Arts Council Award, and the Illinois Prize of the Rock River Poetry Contest. She is past president of the Conference on Christianity and Literature and serves as poetry editor of The Christian Century.

You can read two of Jill’s poems here:
http://www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/baumgaertnerhow.html
http://www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/baumgaertneruprooted.html

Her article called "Poetry: Why Bother" here:
http://www.ctlibrary.com/bc/2000/novdec/8.32.html

And a review of her book, Finding Cuba, here:
www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/craigreviewbaumgaertner.html


LeAnne: There’s so much I want to cover with you, Jill. First of all, tell me why you write poetry and then describe your latest chapbook, My Father's Bones.

Jill: I write in order to figure out how to say the unsayable, to put into language that which goes beyond language, to make myself pay attention.

My latest chapbook deals with loss. Its center is the twelve-poem sequence, “Requiem,” which was written in the weeks and months after September 11 which coincided with the death of my godson, a very special young man. In “Requiem” I write meditations on the parts of the funeral mass, so it is highly liturgical, and what I learned in writing it was that the liturgy takes you on a journey and brings you up on the other side of the cross.

LM: As poetry editor of The Christian Century, what advice do you have for aspiring poets?

JB: Avoid cliches and abstractions, be disciplined, pay attention. Upset the ordinary and always connect with something larger than yourself. And don’t send off poems until you have revised them at least ten times.

LM: Why should Christians read good literature?

JB: Good literature is the word made flesh. It enlarges our experience. Since most of us live pretty provincial lives, it introduces the world to us and allows us to live vicariously through the lives of well-drawn characters. We learn how to live and how to love and how to die in good literature. It exercises our imaginations and that is very important for Christians because without imaginations we cannot have faith.

On Thursday more from Jill Peláez Baumgaertner.

Giving Thanks

“The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” Psalm 126:3

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.” Psalm 106:1

“Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” Psalm 107:8-9

What great things has He done for you? What good things has He filled you with? Maybe these questions will help guide you as you give thanks this week. I have a long, long list of things I’m grateful for, and on that list are the people who read my blog, write supportive emails and comments, and share their knowledge and passion for the arts with me. Thank you all. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Coming soon: a poet, a publisher, and more

Recognition and Discovery

Have you read, heard or seen a work of art lately that articulated something you knew all along or that led you to discover something new about yourself? Here are a few quotes to get us thinking about the roles of recognition and discovery in art.

“When we read the poem, or see the play or picture or hear the music, it is as though a light were turned on inside of us. We say: "Ah! I recognise that! That is something which I obscurely felt to be going on in and about me, but I didn't know what it was and couldn't express it. But now that the artist has made his image--imaged it forth--for me, I can possess and take hold of it and make it my own, and turn it into a source of knowledge and strength." Dorothy Sayers, "Towards a Christian Aesthetic"

“One of our most ordinary reactions to a good piece of literary art is expressed in the formula, ‘This is what I always felt and thought, and but have never been able to put clearly into words, even for myself.’” Aldous Huxley, "Tragedy and the Whole Truth"

“We read primarily to discover ourself--above all, perhaps, to discover what St. Augustine refers to as the dark corners of the heart.” Simon Lesser, Fiction and the Unconscious

“We read books to find out who we are...A person who has never listened to nor read a tale or myth or parable or story, would remain ignorant of his own emotional and spiritual heights and depths, would not know quite fully what it is to be human.” Ursula Le Guin, The Language of the Night

A Poem about True Love

Fifty years ago this month, my parents said their wedding vows in front of family and friends. On Saturday they renewed those vows, again in front of family—only this time their children and grandchildren were in attendance. It was a small and beautiful ceremony. Mom and Dad wrote tributes to each other that touched on a love that had grown and deepened through good and bad times. With tears and laughter intermingled, they told stories we had never heard before. The pastor, who had also been married fifty years, spoke from experience about how young love matures over a lifetime. He read well-known and well-loved passages of scripture and prayed prayers of blessing over my parents and our family.

All of us had a special part to play. One son-in-law sang a solo and played CDs of beautiful classical music selections; the other escorted our mother into the room where our father was waiting. Both men also captured special moments on film and video. The grandchildren shared favorite Bible verses. My sister read 1 Corinthians 13, and I read an excerpt from a poem by James Russell Lowell, simply titled “Love.” I like what this poem says about the humility and longevity of true love. I hope you enjoy it too. Congratulations, Mom and Dad.

LOVE
By James Russell Lowell

True Love is but a humble, low-born thing,
And hath its food served up in earthen ware;
It is a thing to walk with, hand in hand,
Through the everydayness of this workday world,
Baring its tender feet to every flint,
Yet letting not one heart-beat go astray
From Beauty's law of plainness and content;
A simple, fireside thing, whose quiet smile
Can warm earth's poorest hovel to a home;
Which, when our autumn cometh, as it must,
And life in the chill wind shivers bare and leafless,
Shall still be blest with Indian-summer youth
In bleak November, and, with thankful heart,
Smile on its ample stores of garnered fruit,
As full of sunshine to our aged eyes
As when it nursed the blossoms of our spring.
Such is true Love, which steals into the heart
With feet as silent as the lightsome dawn
That kisses smooth the rough brows of the dark,
And hath its will through blissful gentleness,
Not like a rocket, which, with passionate glare,
Whirs suddenly up, then bursts, and leaves the night
Painfully quivering on the dazed eyes;
A love that gives and takes, that seeth faults,
Not with flaw-seeking eyes like needle points,
But loving-kindly ever looks them down
With the o'ercoming faith that still forgives;
A love that shall be new and fresh each hour,
As is the sunset's golden mystery,
Or the sweet coming of the evening-star,
Alike, and yet most unlike, every day,
And seeming ever best and fairest _now_...

Bryan Coley and Barbara Nicolosi: Bringing Hope to Hollywood

Christians and Hollywood--a topic that intrigues me and, I hope, you too. This week I'm focusing on this topic by looking at two people who started organizations that offer screenwriting programs: Bryan Coley, founder and artistic director of Art Within (www.artwithin.org), and Barbara Nicolosi, co-founder and board member of Act One (www.actoneprogram.com). I wrote an article about Bryan and Barbara that appeared in the July/August issue of Today's Christian magazine. Here it is:

Materialism. Drugs. Infidelity. Narcissism. When Christians talk about Hollywood, we usually shake our heads and go on about how terrible it is. Because it seems so blatantly anti-Christian, we've written it off rather than embraced it as the true mission field it is.

At least two people, however, have caught God's vision for making a difference in Hollywood. While many in the church consider Hollywood hopeless, Bryan Coley and Barbara Nicolosi represent a growing number of Tinseltown insiders who offer the hope of Christ.

To read the rest of this article, go to http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2007/004/13.34.html

Doug Allen, Part 2: PlayRight

Today I’m concluding my interview with worship leader, singer/songwriter, musician, and actor Doug Allen.

LeAnne: You also sing and play outside of the church. Have you faced challenges because of your faith?

Doug: I’m in two bands that play primarily at corporate parties and wedding receptions. As far as facing challenges, I try to remember that we as Christians are called to be in the world, not of the world. Sometimes at a secular event, the best witness for Christ can be one who just simply shines their light. I love the quote by St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel wherever you go and when necessary, use words.”

LM: In addition to your music, you also act in community theater productions. Recently, you along with three other partners formed a theater company called PlayRight Productions. What are your goals for this company? Has your faith influenced the type of shows you have chosen to do?

DA: I do love to act. We started PlayRight as a group of Christian actors and musicians who wanted to produce wholesome, family oriented plays in the Atlanta area. We also wanted to start a theatrical company that encouraged Christians to use their gifts to glorify God in churches and in secular venues alike—to be a company where cast members are encouraged to pray and have devotions with one another before every show. We like to choose shows that share the Good News of Christ but we also include other subject matter as well. For 2008 we are performing Smoke on the Mountain, Cotton Patch Gospel and Sanders Family Christmas and possibly Narnia, all of which have a strong Christian message. You can find us at www.playrightproductions.com.