…which I’m not, but my responsibilities with The Rock and Stonebrook border closely on that title.
Travis Swan’s (worship leader at The Rock, Ft. Collins) dad sent him an E-mail which he then forwarded to me. I was moved by it in the “someone finally understands me” sense. I’m posting it here, with his permission, as a glimpse into my soul, and for me, perhaps a glimpse into the future.
Worship Art by Monte Swan
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Here is something at the heart of Worship Art that I believe is overlooked or it just as easily could just be another worthless anecdotal extrapolation.
The reigning stereotype of the odd—melancholic, depressed, tortured artist is to a large extent a myth created by Romantic ideology and supported only by evidence from isolated atypical historical periods. And in these cases it is not the artist’s creativity that created this stereotype, but an artistic scene that promised much, gave few rewards, and left nine out of ten artists neglected if not ignored. The Christian community is an accomplice in this crime and theologically skilled at mercilessly perpetrating this image.
But research indicates that creative people are not typically odd—melancholic, depressed, tortured but integrative whole people who love to make connections with adjacent areas of knowledge. While the bulk of humanity occupies islands of near conformity creative people sail the interdisciplinary oceans of ignorance between the islands. They tend to be in principle caring and sensitive, and remarkable in their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals. Complexity characterizes their personalities, causing people to misunderstand them. They work hard (long hours with intense concentration) late into the night but need long periods of idleness, rest, and reflection. They are smart yet naïve and characterized by contrasting poles of wisdom and childishness, playfulness and discipline, you could say “detached attachment.” Creative people are original without being bizarre. The novelty they see is rooted in reality. While psychological research considers extroversion and introversion the most stable personality traits, creative individuals seem to express both traits at the same time. Community is essential to creative individuals. If they don’t kick things around with people, they feel out of it. The truth is that nobody can be anybody without somebody being around. Truly creative individuals are remarkably humble and proud at the same time. They possess the ability to enjoy the creative process for it own sake. How creative a person eventually becomes bears little relationship to how talented they were as children.
My experience in ministry in the arts began in 1967. In the beginning it was a rocky road because I used people to create ministry art—I was part of the problem creative people face when desiring to enter the creative process in their local place of worship. My eyes were on the product, much like a commercial producer would operate—finding the best artists, putting them together, and creating. I also had little patience for people who didn’t share my vision—especially the ones who didn’t show up on time for whatever reason, or didn’t volunteer just because I announced the start of a new project. I had no time to baby sit amateurs or uncommitted lay people. I had great success artistically and even spiritually because the product was excellent and borne out of ministry passion, but the path to the product was cluttered with bodies of artists and their still born art.
Eventually I realized that an art minister’s primary responsibility is simply to facilitate the process of creativity in other people so they can express their worship through their art not my art. Creating an environment for this to happen is particularly difficult in a large church because of the relatively large number of quality semi-professional artists and because the worship minister does not need to “baby sit”–actually more accurate words would be disciple, coach, or mentor. An adequate number of artists will come to the minister on the minister’s terms and like studio musicians plug in. Small churches are naturally set up to more easily minister to creative and artistic individuals than large churches, because the worship minister is required to exercise a gentle bedside manner, and be flexible in light of the uniqueness and maturity of the artists–there is a much smaller pool to tap into. The rules of ministry end up being more about how a minister can adjust to and work with lay artists than these artists working on the minister’s terms and on his projects.
Ministry literally means “to help”, “to bring aid”. Thus a worship minister’s main role is not to worship God but to help people worship God. In the case of artists within the congregation, the minister’s primary role is to facilitate the worship through creation of art by the artists.
Large churches often cause a sense of loss and emptiness in artists who don’t fit into the system. When a Christian artist cannot work they feel isolated and misunderstood. I have known many people like this. .
A couple weeks ago at the Swan reunion in Wisconsin I learned that my grandfather came from Sweden with three guitars his father had made and a strong beautiful voice. He was an artist and owned two photography studios and ended up exhibiting his water-colored photographs at the World’s Fair. Eventually he homesteading in northern Wisconsin because of his sensitivity to the photographic chemicals. My eleven aunts and uncles have told me that he sang and sang as they grew up but one day when he was in his fifties he stopped—it had something to do with church. I never really knew him or the details of his ministry art story because he died when I was young, but sometime I wonder if I’m relieving parts of his story.
Mike just did a couple concerts with his family—39 songs in one concert—hard to imagine. Anyway, he told about a band he was part of. He called it an “Irish guitar band” There were four parts and 25 guitars. He said hit was amazing and that he had never heard anything like it.
August 17, 2006
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