The Telling of the World

It’s a Catalyst conference!!! Way up in the nose bleed seats I watch the display below. John Eldridge emerges from the shadows at the rear of the stage while five or six large video screens pulse with his name, his topic, and some non representational images that seem to be there for sensate reasons alone. The band pumps out a popular tune by Switchfoot and the word Epic jumps out on the screen. It is a special moment for sure.

I love story tellers and Eldridge does not disappoint me. With poetic grace and a natural delivery he precedes to offer up a collage of movie clips that tell a narrative. In many ways his presentation of clips are specifically put together such that they tell of a world, a way of knowing, seeing, hearing and feeling. He speaks to us as an indigenous people who are hungry for symbols and artifacts that represent a distinctly Christian picture of the world. He feeds our famished imaginations.

Eldridge may get the attention in the Christian press and publishing world, but it was many “behind the scenes” technicians and artists that enabled that event to take place and it is to those individuals I offer my thanks, prayers, and exhortation.

As the worship renewal movement grows in its scope and depth, we have begun to understand that true worship is a life lived under His Lordship and that no action, thought or deed are outside that purview. This understanding has now challenged us to take back the imagination from pagan cultures and tell our story our way. There in lies the challenge. What is our story? What are our symbols? What artifacts do we create and honor such that anthropologists years from now would be able to acknowledge what we held dear, what we saw as true, beautiful and good?

As technology becomes demystified and properly critiqued, we begin to see how it can be used to empower our local story and hold fast to what has been handed down. How so?

Disciple the Technicians and Artists

Teams that have programmatic function in the Church often improperly elevate those who have technical skills but possibly little theological insight. Train your team to tell the story with doctrinal integrity. Each team may have a resident theologian or biblical aesthetic. Each experience must engender real character change and that comes from doctrinal clarity and compellingly God honoring art. It is not enough to just have an “experience.”

Archive and House the History

Plumb the depths of Christian symbols online as well as through books and periodicals. Make these findings available for accessible research and use. Someone needs to be the “content” person for future gatherings. Their task is to serve as a librarian and historical archiver who chronicles and stores the symbols, artifacts, and sacred writings for future and repeated use.

Test the Art

What kind of people is the display and experience forming? Sound doctrine and experience can be set forth and still have people be pagan in their behavior. Is our display creating Christlike followers? One test is simple. You will know this by the character of the team you create to form the theological aesthetic. If teams are creating powerful art, their lives will reflect back that reality in their presentation and in the way they act towards one another. Humility is visibly tangible as well as love, kindness and unity.

Support the Creative Act

Whether it is the artists themselves or the entrepreneurial support team around them (business people in your community), benifact that activity and process such that new art, new images and symbols, are being created in the local Church community. Many who receive such great artistic renderings each week (i.e. the local Church) have no idea the time and effort and money it takes to make such things come about. This is a challenge for the Church when pagan cultures have such compellingly powerful artifacts that are forming the flock as well. This is not about competition with other culture(s), however, as simple is better, small is beautiful, and home grown will improve as it is empowered and encouraged.

We are in unique times as it appears that the way people see the world is changing right before our eyes. Technology is also going from being a highly massified delivery system to one that can create niche and localized art and experience. It is this understanding that brings us to our final exhortation.

Redeem the Imagination

Many in the modern world just do not understand why fundamentalist Muslims are so outraged at the influx of American film and literature into their cultures. The Muslims see this telling of the world as false, pagan, and profane. What do we allow our imaginations to experience? Do we see and understand how distinctly different our imaginations our compared to other world views and cultures. In our attempt to redeem and sanctify cultural artifacts from other cultures, we must cautiously submit our own imaginations to what is true, beautiful and good. Guard your imagination and the doorway to your heart and re-present His Word and world with outlandish abandon.