disruptive grace

I’m not sure what an arts pastor is, but David Taylor is apparently one. I really like him, and not just for his great sideburns. This video will make it all clear. The subject is close to my heart — art — but the implications are wide ranging.

David Taylor-In His Own Words on Vimeo.

I know only one place and group of people doing what David describes in this video — a café-bar in the center of our city, run by friends of mine — local hero’s who get no fanfare or round of applause, and often misunderstood by many well intentioned believers. But, they are living ordinary lives of creative goodness for the sake of others, particularly the creative community.

I found this video encouraging, stimulating and provoking. Now, I must go now and do some drawing.

There is a great deal to lament as we look around the world, with conflicts all around: from the small places with in ourselves and the communities around us to the more tragic and dramatic unrest in the middle east and further to Sudan, the Congo and Zimbabwe. It can leave us feeling overwhelmed and unsure on how to respond.

Seeing this video [below] gave me hope today. There’s something about the beauty of the music and particularly watching the dexterity of the musician that speaks of the goodness of God, and holds out for a future where God puts the world to rights. Beauty in truth and truth in beauty. “Let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing stream” [Amos].

In my former blog Theophilus, I wrote randomly on art, culture, technology, and anything that came to mind. I recently moved and relaunched that blog — analogueboy — now an outlet for random sketches: some profound, some absurd, some beautiful, some a combination of the three. The RSS feed is here.

This Image is a visual response to the fantastic images created by Paul at Instamatic Theology

“Why is our world beautiful, and what are we as Christians to do about the fact that our world is beautiful? Why is our world ugly, and what are we as Christians to do about the fact that our world is ugly?” N.T. Wright

I mentioned a while back that I wanted to take the ‘mission and pain’ and prophetic imagination thoughts off in a few directions, and I hinted that I would explore some of N.T. Wrights thinking on the role of the imagination for a follower of Jesus, and particularly the artist walking this path. One of my favorite pieces on this who issues on this the transcript of a talk at Seattle Pacific University by Wright entitled: ‘The Bible and Christian Imagination’ (there is a corresponding MP3 online at iTunes U). I risk quoting the whole article, because I’ve personally found it so helpful, but I’ll try and avoid that and add my own comments and thoughts along the way,

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In the last post I wrote about “adding to the stock of available reality” this fits in with the idea promoted by Walter Brueggemann of “The Prophetic Imagination” [a book I cannot recommend highly enough]. Taking a route through the biblical narrative from Moses to Jesus, Brueggemann recasts the role of the prophet as more than just a ‘predictor’ but as one who engages the imagination in ways that moves beyond the dominant mentality [the 'managed data' of the prevailing culture] and gives freedom for the life of God to be revealed.

“The prophet engages in future fantasy. The prophet does not ask if the vision can be implemented… The imagination must come before the implementation. Our culture is competent to implement almost anything and to imagine almost nothing… Every totalitarian regime is frightened of the artist. It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep conjuring and proposing alternative futures.” [Brueggemann]

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