As part of a very creative team at The Orchard, artistic expression is a key element. Photography, film, artistic painting, music, and poetry (to name a few) all play a key role in influencing the creative pieces we use during our weekend gatherings.
One of the things I’ve learned (and continue to learn) is that exposure to a variety in these expressions of art changes your perspective and the tools you use as a part of your team’s articulation of art during your worship gatherings.
Music, for example, is an easy one for us to get stuck in. We all have a tendency toward a particular style or genre of music. Music has the ability to influence and move us – to change our mood or attitude, to motivate or inspire us – and the people we relate to as well. I like a lot of different types of music and listen to, what I would consider to be, a pretty broad range of tunes. It’s still just a drop in the bucket of all that is out there.
If music has the ability to move me and affect me, and if I know that it has the same capacity to motivate and inspire others, wouldn’t it make sense that I would want to be exposed to as many different styles and types of musical expression as possible in order to better relate to those around me? Not everyone is motivated by 80’s music or indie (more than a genre itself) or rap or hip hop or rock or… dare I say… country.
So, are you under exposed?
What music are you listening to?
What architecture are you examining?
What sculpted works or paintings are you really trying to see differently?
What magazines or films or literature or poetry are you exposing yourself to?
What types of theater or film are you allowing to broaden your creative palette?
Our Creator is a creative God and is not limited to His expression of art.
Are you?
One of several books I’m reading right now is Relational Intelligence by Steve Saccone. This book is designed to help leaders expand their influence through a new way of being smart.
Something Steve writes early in the book really hit home for me in how we view and love others. “Relationships are the proof of God.” So how and why do we love others?
Jesus commands us to love others.
When Jesus was telling his disciples in John 13 that he was going to be with them “only a little longer,” he said this in verses 34 and 35: “A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” Our love for others is the proof of God. God could have chosen a different way to prove himself but Jesus showed and continues to show sacrificial love to humanity through relationships and love.
Jesus loved others
Jesus didn’t just ask us to love others, but he lived it. He loved those who were rejected by society. He didn’t love them to ‘win’ them to himself. It seemed to be a natural byproduct. He didn’t love with an agenda, but instead loved to the extent that others could not deny they had experienced God. People wanted to be around him because that kind of love was so contrary to the culture. He had influence and was such an effective leader because of this rare, radical, extraordinary love that he showed.
Love is the greatest, wisest investment
“He didn’t command us to force our opinion of truth on others but to live out His truth with love in our lives.” We are relational beings… we’ve been created that way. We need relationships (even if we say we don’t). It’s in our DNA. Through loving others, his love changes our world by revealing the God, who is love, to those around us. I’ve wondered how this could happen without telling people about God, but I think love that steps out of the norm, loves those who do not know love, loves those who have been unloved or discounted in our world… something inside us connects with that because we have always longed for it.
The challenge to us – can we love like Christ? Can we love without the agenda of reaching someone for Christ, but instead allow God’s love to be revealed through our love for others?