Church and The Arts

An article by Brent Chavez    3 Comments

We had a discussion recently amongst our team about the place of the Arts in worship and the church. As we were discussing this idea, Brian suggested that creativity and the arts were instilled in us by God in the first place, so why had we let them leave our doors and find a home in the world? Our God is a God of creation, it is who He is. He created beauty, and his creation shows His glory. If we are made in His image, shouldn’t we also create for His Glory? We are part of the movement that has modernized ‘worship’ and we sing and play instruments in a contemporary fashion in our corporate worship settings, but why do we think this is a new concept?

2 Chronicles 5:13 - The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: “He is good; his love endures forever.”

2 Chronicles 7:6 – The Levites had instruments of music, which David had made to praise the lord. David offered praise by their ministry.

Even in the earliest days, people were creating instruments with the sole purpose of bringing Him praise. Music is only a small portion of artistic creation, and is the probably the most common on found in our churches today. Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like when our churches bring in other arts (Dance, acting and dramas, etc.) they seem almost shoe-horned in? Why is that? I don’t mean at all that they are done poorly, it is just something that we do so little of, it feels foreign. So what do you think about this topic? Are we the only ones?