Tag: andy crouch

Q Conference

Posted on April 28, 2009

This week I have been participating in the Q Conference, a conference committed to exploring new ideas in the areas of Future, Culture, Church, and Gospel. Abraham Kuyper would be proud. This conference is stimulating, innovative and sane. Each speaker talks for 18 minutes, followed by smaller “talkbacks” to futher the conversation. Speakers have addressed issues from Nuclear Disarmament to Spirituality in the Suburbs. Here are a few noteworthy speakers/projects:

Two Futures Project – compelling case for the role of Christians in advocating nuclear disarmament. Tyler Wigg Stevenson made the case that Christian vocabulary and a theology of the impossible compel Christians to take up this cause for the sanctity of human life.

The Future of the Suburbs – presented data arguing for continued migration to the suburbs which will become new centers of cultural influence, competing with urban culture.

Culture, Power, & Privilege – Andy Crouch shared some seeds for his new book project on the role of power, privilege and sacrifice in culture.

Shannon Sedgwick Davis – advancing justice and mercy in the third world through groups like “The Elders” a collection of peace-making leaders like Desmond Tutu, President Carter, and Nelson Mandela.

*Yours truly will speak on a panel tonight on the topic of American Ecclesiology.

Culture Making

Posted on July 23, 2008

Andy Crouch’s book, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, is now available. Andy is an editor for Christianity Today and is a creative, insightful author. I had the privilege of reading an early form of this book, which was very good. Though his thesis is not without critique, his message is one that Evangelicals do well to heed–Create, not just critique, culture. Here is a 40 page excerpt, enjoy!

Tim Keller says: “Culture Making is one of the few books taking the discussion about Christianity and culture to a new level. It is a rare mix of the theoretical and the practical, its definitions are nuanced but not abstract, and it strikes all kinds of fine balances. I highly recommend it.“

Transforming Culture: Art as a Gift, Calling & Obedience

Posted on April 2, 2008

Plenary #1 – Andy Crouch, Art as Gift, Calling & Obedience

Andy is perhaps best known as a columnist for Christianity Today; however he has started other magazines, written extensively on matters of faith and culture. His message was one of the best I’ve heard on the subject—compelling, intriguing, and engaging. Buy it and listen to it at least twice.

I. God is a Culture-maker. Andy began with some reflections on Gen 2:4-17. He main point in this part was that God is both a Creator and a Culture-maker. Although this was the weakest part of his address, he offered several insightful observations.

  • When God created ex nihilo, he also created ex creatio, out of creation. As the first act of culture-making he made a garden.
  • God placed “useless” elements in the garden–gold, bdellium, onyx–that were superfluous, not elements designed primarily for their usefulness but rather for their beauty, i.e. we build out of granite, not gold. Note the biblical celebration of that gold, “And the gold of that land is good.”

Defined culture with Ken Myers’ definition, which he remarkably stated was the “best” definition: “Culture is what we make of the world.” This witty definition connotes both the material and intellectual dimensions of culture, culture that is produced and culture that thought. Andy proceeded to place Art within the framework of culture noting that Jesus took, broke, and blessed culture on night he was betrayed—bread and wine, not wheat and grapes.

II. The Uselessness of Art. “The way we make art is the truest diagnostic test of our underlying beliefs about culture.” “Art” is “those aspects of culture that can not be reduced to utility.” Why have wallpaper when wallboard will do, why craft a careful sentence when a stupid one will do, why buy a thin laptop when a think one will work just fine?” Art transcends utility and cannot be translated without losing meaning. Art is not useful; it is better than useful! So it is with Christian worship. “We stake our worship every Sunday on the belief that God does not require us to be useful to him nor does worship have to be useful to us.”

III. Art is play and pain. We play not entirely like children but like children. “It’s not fully adult to play.” We fly through the 18th century rooms at the Art Museums to quickly arrive in the Impressionist rooms, but even the Impressionists confronted pain. Only the gospel can engage in art playfully and painfully without bowing to naivety or sadism. Pop culture falls short of real play and sincere pain.

Closing remarks: “I hope for nothing less that the recognition of Christ body among us, broken and beautiful, in play and pain. We are here to discover Christ taking, blessing, breaking and giving…here to be slightly more like Christ…to rekindle our capacity to be beautifully un-useful to God.”

Transforming Culture: Dangers of Artistic Activity

Posted on April 2, 2008

Plenary #4, David Taylor

Super-ordinate Truths. Important to distinguish between “Super-ordinate Truths” and “sub-ordinate truths.” Art is bad art when we get the super-ordinate truths wrong, truths that define the gospel. David did not say what the super-ordinate truths are, which is where we have some debate over artistic expression. He asserted that too often our debate over artistic expression is over matters of culture, not super-ordinate truths. We must guard our hards from the impurity of cultural superiority.

Six Dangers

  1. Bad art is cliche. Anyone can make bad art, but good art requires excellence.
  2. Super-saturation. The rate of artistic saturation is rendering us numb.
  3. Stubbornness. Estancandose Tercamente. “Getting stuck stubbornly.” or “the stubborn ossification of tradition.” The posture of “we’ve always done it this way, often closes God off of his redirecting our faith.
  4. Utilitarian subjugation of art. Art as a strict service to ministry, requiring a bible verse to make it art. Following this line of thinking or creating, eventually your tomatoes will have to be “Christian.”
  5. Art as Escape. Worship is often an emotional escape.
  6. Immaturity. Using art to manipulate or disparage others. abusus non tilit usum” Women and wine are being misused, but what is not being misused.” – Luther

Healthy, Flourishing Artists

  1. Relationally Ordered: we can not have order without relationship or relationship with order to avoid anarchy or isolation. We need ordered relationality between pastors and artists. Ordering things requires intelligence
  2. Contextually Relative: “Artistic excellent if it accomplishes the purpose for which it was created.” – Nick Wolterstorff Sometimes we dont need aesthetic excellence—pastors—kids and untrained adults should be allowed to dance before the congregation. Why? Because the reminds us of Jesus words about children.
  3. Organically Rhythmed : fa spectrum of festal muchness and cleansing simplicity is required. In other words, mix things up in worship and in artistic expression. This ryhthm will help us fight off super-saturation.

In the church, artists are part of our family, the great family of Jesus. Learn from them. Struggle with them. Embrace them. Fail humbly in community.