Articles for tag: Arts

September 5, 2018

Christian Standard

Louisville Bible College Rebounds after Rough Patch

By Jim Nieman Contrary to what you might have heard, Louisville Bible College continues to train preachers and ministers for church ministry. “Some people think we closed,” said Jason Anderson, registrar and assistant professor of Bible at LBC. “We never closed, but for one school year we didn’t offer classes.” The college went through a rough patch in 2015-16, and decided to forgo classroom instruction after “we let our debt get out of hand,” Anderson said. The next school year, LBC resumed offering classes under the guidance of Tom Mobley—who returned as president in 2016, after previously serving LBC in

June 18, 2017

Christian Standard

WHERE’S THE STEEPLE? “” New City Church, Phoenix, AZ

By Justin Horey Downtown Phoenix, Arizona, is home to a burgeoning art scene. In the center of it all””on Central Avenue, in fact””is New City Church. Lead pastor Brian Kruckenberg describes New City as “a church in the middle of the city, for the city.” In Phoenix, being “for the city” means reaching the local artists” community. New City”s first building was a house that doubled as an art gallery. New City Church worshipped in the house on Sundays, but it was also used by local artists who stored supplies on site and even taught classes in the building. Kruckenberg

December 28, 2015

Christian Standard

Rapper God?

By Jeff Walling Someone asked me why I like using hip-hop poetry, sometimes called “spoken word,” as sermon illustrations. I answered, simply, “Because God is a hip-hop artist.” Before you brand me a heretic, consider this: God is the original spoken word artist. From the first introduction of God in the Scriptures, the creator of all things seems to love using words to create art. He could have made the universe with a snap of his fingers or a nod of his head, but instead he spoke it into existence. And it”s not just any words he prefers, but poetic

December 13, 2015

Christian Standard

Working Together

By Jennifer Johnson We all need a community of some kind””a place to be accepted and loved for who we are and challenged to grow into who we might be. Churches at their best have always been a place for people to find these connections by serving, worshipping, and studying together. Forefront Church in New York City encourages all of these expressions of community life, but the church is also developing new opportunities to support, nurture, and encourage artists and entrepreneurs through a program called “Creative Guilds.” The concept of a guild developed hundreds of years ago to encourage artisans

December 12, 2015

Christian Standard

The Art Effect

By Jennifer Johnson Many churches look at summer as a time to coast; attendance is down, staff members are vacationing, and everyone is tempted to take it easy. Not The Crossing Church in Las Vegas, Nevada. This year the creative arts team developed Art Effect, a seven-week emphasis on the arts tied into senior pastor Shane Philip”s sermon series on the book of Proverbs. From hip-hop music to paintings by children, The Crossing used summer 2015 to stretch its people””and themselves””with new expressions of worship. A Variety of Approaches The Crossing”s creative arts team includes several staff members, including Lee

December 11, 2015

Christian Standard

Beyond Information

By Tom Lawson We”re still living with the aftermath of the Protestant Reformers who cleansed worship spaces of every piece of art. But doesn”t the Bible give us examples and a mandate to use all the arts in worship? In 1524, the great Grossmünster cathedral in Zürich was just a shell of its former glory. The statues had been smashed and all the artwork had been removed. Initially, even congregational singing had been discarded, along with the statues and frescoes. What was left was a nearly empty room, except for a towering pulpit, for plain and unadorned Christian worship. In

December 11, 2015

Christian Standard

A Book for Those Who Make Art

By Tim Neuenschwander For the Beauty of the Church: Casting a Vision for the Arts Edited by W. David O. Taylor Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2010 For the Beauty of the Church brings together a collection of noted voices of art making (the craft of making art) and art makers (the people who create art) from religious settings, churches, and forums. There is something in this collection for everyone who is looking for ways to manifest arts in his or her religious venue. While some chapters held little interest for me, others were spot on and I gleaned much from the encouraging and

December 10, 2015

Christian Standard

Art in the Worship of the Church

By Paul M. Blowers Worship in the church”s context has never been artless, any more than it was artless in Israel”s ancient temple. Worship is already, in one sense, a ritual “performance.” The biblical revelation is our ultimate “script,” and Christian believers are both the “actors” and “spectators” who, through various formal actions””such as singing, proclaiming, praying, confessing, offering, blessing, and eating””remember and replay the mighty deeds of God. Indeed, we join ourselves to a “cast of thousands,” the “cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) who have come before us as players in the living drama that is the Christian faith.

October 13, 2014

Christian Standard

Can We Let Artists Be Artists?

By Dan Drage The Christian church doesn”t inspire me. Unless one counts reaction against something to be inspiration. No, overall I find the Christian church quite dull and unimaginative.  If you”re reading this far, I trust you”ll respect me enough to hear me out. I”m an artist. Perhaps that says it all right there. And this is precisely what I”d like to talk about. Being an artist may account for my distaste with the Christian church. I am a part of the Restoration Movement. I have been for 33 years, since I was 3 years old. One could argue that

October 12, 2014

Christian Standard

The Power of the Arts

By C. Robert Wetzel “While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16). How are we to understand Paul”s distress in seeing the city of Athens full of idols? Surely he had been in many cities whose streets and marketplaces were adorned with numerous idols. Perhaps his anguished reaction was because Athens was regarded as the intellectual capital of the Western world, and Athenians should have known better. Certainly some of the city”s philosophers had known better . . . and found themselves in trouble for

October 11, 2014

Christian Standard

Integrating Faith with Art

Joe D”Alessandro has been in the film industry since 1981. He has worked on such films as The Natural, Maximum Overdrive, Crimes of the Heart, The Prince of Tides, The Blind Side, The Hunger Games, Nell, The Hudsucker Proxy, and The Secret Life of Bees. Joe, his wife, Barbara, and their son, Giancarlo, live in Wilmington, North Carolina, where we caught up with him in the middle of filming Under the Dome, the Stephen King inspired CBS television series. In 1953, Joe”s parents moved to the United States from Italy. Joe says they were “the last vestiges of the traditional

October 10, 2014

Christian Standard

Interview with an Actor

By Jonathan Williams “Most people grind it out for years as servers, bartenders, and baristas before they book their first acting gig. I was lucky.” Ben Jeffery is lucky. After moving to New York from Kansas City, Missouri, almost five years ago, he found work in commercials and in TV shows, including Louie. “I mean, I did spend some time working as a barista at Starbucks,” Ben tells me with an affable nod, “but I basically got the chance to live out my dream as an actor right away.” For the past three years, Ben has entertained capacity crowds as

October 9, 2014

Christian Standard

Christian Arts?

By Tim Hartman Even though I was a Bible major at Milligan College during the early 1980s, I was convinced my future would include some unforeseeable role in what I liked to call the Christian arts. Whatever that is. I thought it was imperative to find some way to integrate my faith with my artistic skill set.  Milligan College didn”t really have a theater program when I was a student there, but the kids who loved performing had plenty of opportunities. The problem we had in college, though, is the same problem I have had to deal with for the

October 3, 2014

Christian Standard

What Have We Done and Where Are We Going?

By Joe Boyd I am asked often to speak or write about church and culture. So much now that those two words seem to go together in a very natural way when I say them. I wonder what we really mean, though, when we talk about the church relating to culture.  Many of us who have worked to figure this out over the last two or three decades have moved beyond those early discussions about worship style and seeker sensitivity. I am blessed to be able to speak at a variety of churches in America and there is, without a

October 1, 2014

Christian Standard

At the Movies

By Jim Tune I”ve never been a television junkie. Five years ago a lightning strike took out our dish. We never replaced it. I don”t have a Netflix subscription either. I tend to be very selective about what I watch. Every summer my wife and I spend most of August at a secluded cabin on Cape Breton Island. We have a small television set there and a $30 DVD player. Most of our “media” consists of a steady diet of summer reading. However, we have allowed ourselves the indulgence of catching up on popular television series and movies. Based on

April 5, 2013

Christian Standard

2|42 Brightens Region by Offering Arts, Sports, and Children”s Programming

By Jennifer Johnson On February 17, 2|42 Community Church (Brighton, MI) opened its new community building, a renovated athletic club which includes space for children”s programming, new soccer fields and basketball courts, a café, and more. On February 18, the church launched its School for the Arts. “We added one large studio and three smaller spaces for music, drama, and art classes,” says Rachel Dummitt, director of the school. “We started with private guitar, piano, drum, flute, cello, violin, and voice lessons, drama classes for kids, and visual art classes in portrait drawing and pastels.” Dummitt says about half of the

January 17, 2010

Christian Standard

The Lost Art of Encouragement

By Terrie Todd As I left my employment with the church””after 25 years as administrative assistant, drama director, communications director, and finally director of creative arts””I was cleaning out my office. Among the items I packed up and took home with me was a basket filled with various encouragement cards and notes I”d received over the years. Some of them are more than 10 years old, some are e-mails I”d printed, some are hilarious, and some move me to tears. They came from people I led, people I followed, people close to me, and people I barely know. But each

December 2, 2007

Christian Standard

How Johnson Bible College Is Training Second-Career Ministers

By Gary Weedman Johnson Bible College, Knoxville, Tennessee (www.jbc.edu) Johnson Bible College offers a Master of Arts in New Testament by distance learning that targets both first-career and second-career ministry staff. The program focuses primarily on preachers who want to deepen their study of the New Testament and refine their preaching skills, but it also offers tracks for individuals who may want to change careers and who have earned degrees from accredited colleges without undergraduate Bible majors. The programs provide students with several options. First, the Master of Arts in New Testament and Preaching allows first-career ministers to pursue graduate-level

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