What Do You Think? - Christians and Creativity

Ok, all of you creative types. Musicians, artists, writers. A friend emailed me a link to this article from Relevant Magazine yesterday. It was an interesting read and brings up some questions that are good for discussion. I've taken the liberty of putting a few quotes from the article below to discuss if you feel so led.

The article can be found in its entirety here.
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"The true artist displays to the world a manifestation of the inner meditations of their heart and mind....In community that is caring and healthy, an artist brings not only beauty and inspiration but also powerful observational skills and spiritual awareness. We can become a source of joy, blessing and the voice of God in other peoples’ lives.”                        

- Linnea Gabriella Spransy is an award-winning painter and leader of the artist community at the Boiler Room.

What do you think about that? Should the arts play a role in pointing other people to God? In what way? How should creative individuals view their role as believers? Is there a ministry there?

"Large-scale production can create a beautiful environment for people to worship in...I make services that I would want to go to.”

- Whitney George is the creative director of Church on the Move in Tulsa, Okla.

I admit, there is much I left out of this guys response, including the fact that he admits that a large scale production environment isn't for everyone. But what do you think about that? Are churches putting too much emphasis on the "production" of worship? Does production, big or small, play a role for you personally in how you worship? Do you think the church does a good job at bringing art into worship? Is is well executed?

 "Our challenge is just, don't worry about the business component—worry first about the Kingdom."

- Chad Johnson is the founder of Come&Live!, a nonprofit mission organization that joins hands with artists and “musicianaries” to provide guidance, direction and accountability. 

How do artists who are followers of Christ measure success? Is is possible to be accepted into the art community, be commercially successful and be a believer?

"Ultimately, I wanted to create a piece of art that would be taken at face value, that would be judged because it's a piece of art, not because a Christian created it or didn't create it. I believe God has made us to create things—that's what I want to do."

- Nathan Clarke is the founder of Fourth Line Films and the director of the award-winning documentary Wrestling for Jesus.

Is it fair for art to be judged based off of whether or not it was created by a Christian? Is one more influential than another? Can spiritual, Godly things be found in art that was created by people who don't know Jesus?

"The question I have to ask is, 'Did the medium serve the content?'...It happens when we don't think of the story before we figure out how we're going to tell it...We don't start with a turntable and projection and say, 'OK, now we have these things, what are we going to tell?'... I think what ends up happening is that the medium trumps the message because we want to be relevant..." 

- Blaine Hogan is a former actor and the current creative director at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago.

Do Christians do a good job of being tasteful with technology and art? Have churches elevated the medium over the message? Is it possible to find a healthy balance, and if so, how?

All quotes were taken from the Relevant Magazine article, "Is There A Place For Creative Christians?"

I'll Never Be A Rockstar

Let's face it. I’m never gonna be a rockstar. Yes, I make music, and I do make some sort of living from it. Yes, I too had a dream once of being a rock star. I did all the things necessary to achieve this. I played in rocks bands. I wore clothes that made me look like I was a rockstar. I hung out with other people that played rock. I moved to Nashville, because I lived in the delusion that if I was closer to the industry, I had a better chance of “making it”. I had my own band, and I toured around and played gigs all over the place.

I even traveled internationally. Yes, you heard right. I am an international sensation. Show choir in Japan. In the town of Hartlepool, UK, in the 5-10 year old demographic, I’m as big as Kermit the Frog. Children sing my songs in the parks. And then there were those people that I met in Russia in the middle of nowhere who had me play, “Our God Is An Awesome God” (though I really only know the chorus and just hummed the verse), over and over and over again. I’m sure they love me too. International status, baby. In the end, however, I never became a rock star.

This wasn’t totally by circumstance. Much of it has been my choice. I played in a band right out of high school that got a record contract. I chose to leave the band the moment that labels started sniffing around. I’ve had other occasions that I’ve brushed up against that industry. But I’ve never bothered to pursue it that much. Why you ask? There are lots of reasons really. And there were some clues along the way that I wasn’t meant for stardom. Some red flags that perhaps I wasn’t destined for the limelight. I’ve taken the liberty of listing just a few below: 

1. Girl jeans. That's right. I cannot and will not wear girl jeans. I can’t in good conscience wear jeans tighter than what my wife wears. Lots of actual men who are musicians really fancy wearing a woman’s jeans, or at least something so tight that only a woman should be wearing them. I, on the other hand, like to be able to sit down in the clothes that I wear. Plus, I don’t have a great butt. It’s best hidden under normal fitting clothes. 
2. I’m big boned (my wife will be less mad at me if I say big boned as opposed to fat). Aside from Zac Brown, or John Popper (though he actually lost a ton of weight) there aren’t a whole lot of rock stars that weigh over 120 pounds. I weigh about double that. This means that any sort of mechanical or hydraulic device designed to launch me far into the air during a rock and roll show, or any device designed to raise me from underneath the stage is gonna have to work twice as hard to do so. 
3. I have a giant beard. Again, there are exceptions to this rule, but the majority of rockers are smooth as a babies butt. I’ve had a beard since I was about 20 years old. I shaved it once a couple of years ago as part of a game, and I ended up looking like chester the molester without it. Women would grab their children and hold them close by their side when I was near. Not good. Also, beards are not good for pyrotechnics. Too easy to catch my face on fire when huge explosions and fireworks are going off all around me. 
4. I lack a cool haircut. I cut my own hair. And not in that cool, “I just gave myself a hipster haircut and added red highlights”, kinda way. It’s more of a, “I’m too cheap to pay someone money to do this, but not quite talented enough to be cutting my own hair”, sorta way. So it's best kept very short, or hidden under a hat. 
5. I’ll never be known for my lifestyle more than for my talent. That’s right. I’m not enough of a ladies man to to make the cover of a celebrity tabloid for dating Jennifer Aniston and three other actresses at the same time. And my name sounds bad combined into a celebrity name. “Chrisifer”, just sounds like someone is making fun of me because I can’t climb the ropes in gym class. Nor am I so much of an idiot to repeatedly end up in jail (except for that one time) for bad driving, substance abuse, or just being a dumb human being. This also means I’ll never be in the care of Dr. Drew, which is actually kind of a bummer. 

And aside from the obvious, I realized at some point that the reason I wanted to be a rock star was purely for selfish reasons. Sure I tried to convince myself that it was what God wanted me to do. That I was doing God a favor. But the reality was, that I just wanted people to like me and tell me how great I was. What a good guitar player I was, or vocalist, or song writer, or whatever.

It’s difficult for musicians to not be self absorbed. Being able to play music and do it well really strokes the ego. Its not that there is anything wrong with being a star. Its a question of motivation really, and whether or not God created you to be that. And I truly believe that God’s plan for some of us is to be that kind of person. A star. And that He would be glorified in that. But not me. And to this day, I continually have to put that part of myself to death.

Our giftedness and talents are a gift from God to be used to bring glory to Him, and not to ourselves. So as a musician or worship leader, or anyone who is gifted creatively in any way, be honest with yourself. Is pride something that you struggle with? Are your motives something other than the desire to honor and glorify God? Is pride and selfishness something that you need to die to? 

The Pursuit of Excellence

And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Colossians 3:17

I heard an interesting story about a very well known worship leader once. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it’s a good story, nonetheless, and applicable to this blog. Because I don’t know if it’s true, I’m choosing not to include said worship leaders name. The story goes that way back in the day before he was a worship mega star, this individual was living in an apartment complex in the town where he was on staff at a church. He was practicing away at several worship songs in his living room with the windows open. After about an hour or so, a dude that lived upstairs came down and knocked on the worship leaders door. When he opened the door, the guy said in an annoyed manner something to the effect of, 

“Dude, play something different. You’ve been playing the same thing for an hour.”

The problem was that the worship leader had been practicing several songs during that time, not just one song. This served as a wake up call for him, and proved to be an instrumental moment in helping to define him as a worship leader and helping to define his unique style. He was shocked to realize that every thing he was playing sounded exactly the same. His songs lacked creativity and originality, and he was forced to consider if he was pursuing his music with excellence. 

This brings up an interesting question: Are you as a worship leader pursuing excellence? 

I think there is something to be said about doing things well. To go above and beyond in the pursuit of excellence. Not being content to live with mediocrity. I believe God is glorified when we pursue excellence in our ministry, in how we lead worship, and in our musicianship. For worship leaders, this means moving beyond four chords and a basic strum pattern. It means practicing. It means furthering your skill set as a musician, taking it to the next level. 

Excellence is a bi-product of walking in faith. This is not about setting a bar of musicianship that all worship leaders must attain. Excellence does not equal knowing X amounts of chords and being proficient at all major, minor, pentatonic and mixolydian scales. I fully realize that music comes easier to some more than others. Regardless of this, our responsibility is to take the gift we have been given and to pour ourselves into it, pushing ourselves to improve. This is about abiding in the person of Christ. Walking in faith. When you are allowing the person of Christ to work in and through you, then you will find that you are not content to remain in the same place and be stagnant.

Creatively speaking, challenge yourself to think beyond the status quo. Don’t allow yourself to be content to play a certain song the way that everyone else plays it. How can you bring a fresh perspective and creative take to a particular song? As you think through these things, you will find that your creativity will force your musicianship to improve. Your skill level will always be working to keep up with where your imagination takes it. 

If we are truly representatives of the person of Christ, then our actions are a reflection of who He is and what He has done. So if my ministry is anything less than excellent, then that reflects on people’s opinion of who Jesus is. Christ did not live half way. He did not live half heartedly. His love was full and excellent and powerful. Is your ministry and your music that full and that excellent and powerful? 

Old School Knows The Jam Rules

Saw a friend post a link to this video on Twitter last night. This video is long, but provides an excellent example of properly abiding by the rules of the jam.

Two things I would point out:

1. The guys are bluegrass players which means that, yes, they are allowed to "jam".
2. As per rule #4, these "jams" are not scheduled. Aside from everyone knowing that the "jam" happens on Saturday, there is no specific time. It happens when, "two talented players located in close vicinity to each other, both with instrument in hand begin playing and a magical mind-handshake takes place".

If you missed my blog then check out Chris Freeman's Rules of The Jam. And the video is really well done so I encourage you to watch the whole thing. 


Pickin' & Trimmin' from Matt Morris Films on Vimeo.

Rules of the Jam

The jam. It’s the word that every non-musician and quasi-musician uses to describe that moment that they have seen when musicians get together and play. It seems so magical. Musicians sitting in a circle, playing music, soloing, having a good ol’ time. A mystical land of pentatonic scales and blues chords where talent flows like milk and honey. 

The word “jam” is the word most commonly used to describe this occurrence. Far too often, well meaning musicians (a good portion of whom are worship leaders) armed with acoustic guitars and four chords, with delusions of grandeur in their sights, set off in pursuit of the jam. The bright star in space they are aiming for where those glorious moments take place. Where they can sit around and look cool playing the latest song together, impressing those around them with their new variation of the G chord.

Jamming happens when musicians leave the musical lay of the land and begin charting their own way through the landscape. Some are talented enough to do this, the rest of us just look dumb. If you’ve ever been skiing, you’ve seen the skier who chooses to leave the well used run and ski through the trees. I admire them. They’re adventurous, and they are charting a new path in their journey. And when you see an experienced skier doing it, you often get inspired to do the same, which inevitably means if you are not a talented skier, you’ll be wrapping yourself around the trunk of a tree at some point and embarrassing yourself. 

So I would like to inject a dose of reality into the situation. This magical land of jamming does not exist. At least not in the form most think that it does. The jewel in your figurative musician’s crown that you are pursuing is much further off than you might imagine. One doesn’t come by it through simply knowing a few chords and having an awkward acoustic version of the latest Coldplay song to play on the street corner.   

So I’d like to take a moment to set the record straight, and provide some much needed insight into this world. Maybe even save some naive musicians some embarrassment. I’d like to introduce you to Chris Freeman’s Rules Of The Jam.  

Chris Freeman’s Rules of The Jam

The rules are just one more tool to add to your musician’s tool belt that will give you discernment into your own musicality and into musical situations so that perhaps you might save yourself some embarrassment.

1) Have self awareness. If you as a musician have a healthy self awareness, then Chris Freeman’s Rules Of The Jam, will not apply to you. You are already well on your way to a healthy and fruitful musical experience. Self awareness allows you to know if your musical chops are up to parr or not, which helps you to make healthy, well informed decisions about who you choose to play with when you choose to do so. 

2) Never say the word, “Jam”. Seriously. No respectable, working class musician says, “jam”. The only exceptions to this are blues players, bluegrass players and Jerry Garcia, and he’s definitely not jamming anymore. Using the word “jam” is a dead give away that while you say you want to jam, you couldn’t actually jam your way out of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. As a matter of fact, don’t give it a name at all. It doesn’t need one. Let the action speak for itself. It’s called “playing together”. Properly used in a sentence it might sound something like:

 

“John Mayer came over to my house today and we ended up playing our guitars together for a little while.”

Notice that the word “jam” is never mentioned. There was no need to add a label to the obvious. That’s it. If you are using this word at all, then take it as a sign that you probably aren’t good enough to jam.

3) Jams are not requested. You never ask to jam. It’s not an invitation. If you ask someone to jam, it may imply that you’re desperate. Desperate to show off your mediocre guitar skills to someone else. It means you have something to prove and almost always means you think that you are better than you really are.

4) Jams are not planned. They are spontaneous. It’s not something you schedule on your calendar. Good musicians never say, “Hey, we should get together and jam sometime.” This is a dead giveaway that you spend most of your time memorizing the order that Chris Tomlin plays G-C-D-em on his new hugely successful worship mega hit. 

Rather, what you refer to as a “jam” occurs when two talented players located in close vicinity to each other, both with instrument in hand begin playing and a magical mind-handshake takes place, and the players go from playing separately two different things to playing the same thing. Often trading solos over a guitar riff or lick that someone started playing.

5) Never jam in public. If you insist on using the word “jam” and insist on scheduling a jamming appointment, please never plan to do so in public. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule, including: 

• Live shows. When good musicians get together and play, it may often be in front of people. This generally happens on stage when a band is doing a show. 

• Hippy sing-alongs. This is when a group of bohemians and vagabonds with dreadlocks-a-plenty choose to gather on a street corner and sing songs about the outdoors, free love, bi-annual baths, and how they choose not to rely on their parents money (unless things get really, really bad).

Other than that, any sort of public display of musicality is off limits. This includes, but is not limited to: guitar sing-alongs, spontaneous worship song sing-alongs, drums circles and percussion items that are passed out during charismatic worship services. This is where your own self awareness should kick in. Feeling the need to jam in public is the musicians version of showing-off. And nine times out of ten, the showoff is never really as good as they believe they are. This is the guy at youth camp who knows how to play Green Day’s, Time Of Your Life, or the guy who can play the opening piano riff to Coldplay’s, Clocks. These are the guys looking for full frontal hugs from the girls at the end of youth camp. They are not great musicians, and just because two or more gather they certainly aren’t jamming.

In conclusion of Chris Freeman’s Rule of the Jam, I should add that this is not meant to say people shouldn’t get together and play. Playing together is how musicians get better. It’s often how songs are written. But there is a difference between playing together and jamming. Instead, perhaps you should focus on becoming a better musician (which all of us need to do). If you find yourself with the desire to venture off of the musical beaten path, be it on a street corner or in the city square, please take my advice. DON’T DO IT.