Stepping Up

I spent a good portion of the morning today creating some hand crafted items for door prizes for an event that will be held tomorrow. This was more craft than art though I came up with some stuff I am pretty happy with. The thing is there are some artists who would feel like they are above doing that type of work. If you’re one of them, let me challenge your thinking.

Over the years I have heard artists complain about the fact that they are not being utilized by their churches. Upon further exploration I usually find that they do have opportunities but it’s not the kind of thing they want to do. They feel like the projects being offered are somehow beneath them and where they’re at creatively. One of the things that comes up stereotypically is the mural in the nursery. Many people feel like they have advanced past that type of work and again I need to challenge your thinking. Why? Well, I have a ministry that has allowed me to minister in about 15 states and over 150 churches in the last four years. All kinds of doors have opened for me to do a wide variety of presentations and projects and it all started with painting a backdrop for Vacation Bible School.

Here’s a truth. It’s not universal but my guess is it happens more often than not. Churches and pastors don’t always know what to do with us and they’re not always sure than they can trust us. Pastors have huge responsibilities and congregations expect a great deal from them. They have to be careful with who they trust and who they put up before their congregation. Some of these simple projects are the way to open the door. No they may not be the ideal project, but they are a way to show that we are dependable, can take direction and that we will not do things that will get them fired, or lead the congregation in the wrong direction.

Make no mistake about it, serving the Lord usually involves humbling ourselves and using art in the church is certainly no exception. Proving that we will do what is asked of us is usually how we get to do the stuff that we want to do. Showing that we will deliver, deliver on-time and come under the authority that God has placed over us is vital, not just in our church based art, but in the Christian life in general.

And besides, doing this stuff is usually fun. Sometimes we have to stop taking ourselves so seriously and just create something simple. Anytime we bring our best to a project, there is an almost certain guarantee that someone will be blessed and that is a huge part of why we are here. Sometimes we get to do the ideal projects that we really want to do, and sometimes we just need to step up and do what needs to be done. Each one should use whatever gifts he has received to serve others. If it’s in your gifting and not in someone else’s, maybe it’s time to step up.

Guns ‘N Roses and the Importance of Being Nice

Okay, another confession. I really like Guns ‘N Roses, like a lot. Now in these post-salvation, preacher days, I would do without some of the imagery and content, but the music is pretty great. Axl’s unique voice and insane range with Slash’s amazing guitar work and one of the strongest rhythm sections of their day made them hard not to like. They could do it all. That moment in Paradise city where the whistle blows and the guitars charge in is a musical moment like few bands could muster.

That being said, I would never have paid money to see them live. Oh, it’s not because I don’t think they could have put on an amazing show, it’s because of Axl’s penchant for getting angry, flipping out and walking off stage sometimes only minutes into their set, combined with the mayhem and riot that would ensue when the crowd figured out they weren’t going to get to see the rest of the show. It happened one too many times for my blood, so no thank you.

Today as I thought about this, it hit me. “Who told him that kind of behavior was okay?” Oh some will excuse it to the artistic temperament, but if you’ve been reading me for any length of time, you know I think that’s a crock. Others will say, “Well he’s a star…” Yeah, that’s a crock too. So my fellow artists, here’s what I want you to know. No matter what you do, no matter how good you are, YOU ARE NOT A STAR! None of us are and we need to adopt a different mindset, especially those of us who follow Jesus.

Talent is not an excuse for bad behavior. Those of us who get to earn a living working in our talents and gifting should be the most grateful people on earth. Think about it, we are in a very real sense professional bringers of joy. I mean when you hear the first notes of a favorite song, you smile. When you see a great movie or a great piece of art, it touches something inside you and brings you joy. We get to do that for other people while doing what we love, and it is an immense privilege. Now add to that the fact that there are people out there who are willing to pay us to do what we love and you should begin to understand that we are blessed beyond measure. We should be humble and one more thing, we should be nice.

I know some of us are introverts and relating to others is tough, but we should at least be able to muster the ability to be polite and when people are depending on us or have paid or traveled or whatever to see us do what we do, we should be dependable and working really hard to over-deliver. Without them, we might still do what we do, but who cares? No one would see it. No one would appreciate it and we would have to do something else, possibly something very unpleasant to keep food on the table and grooves over our heads. We can’t afford to be “stars” instead we need to shine.

So be nice.

A Lesson in Humility

I know I’ve posted about this year, but as we move toward the summer, my thoughts turn to one of my favorite things, Creation Fest East. I don’t think I’ll make it this year, but taking a group of kids there was the first thing I ever did in ministry and a lot of wonderful things have happened in my life there. It was the first place I led someone to Christ, it was where I baptized my son and it was where I gained a mighty amount of perspective.

You see there was a time in my life where I was really sold out to becoming a famous artist. I fell into massive idolatry in the pursuit and almost lost everything. It was in laying that down that I got my call to ministry and how I eventually ended up at Creation that first time. As the years passed, the Lord led me to use the gift of art in ministry and one of the first things I did was an unusual mural. You see the one downside at Creation Fest is the toilet facilities, a combination of Porta-potties and outhouses. Well the regular wooden outhouses were showing some wear so the organizers did a contest for artists to paint murals on them. I entered and was selected so out to the outhouse I went. I painted it and had a pretty good time doing it.

Later I was struck by the irony. After all those years of laying my life on the altar of fame, the piece of art I’ve done that’s been seen more than any other is painted on a toilet. God is good and humility is lifesaving.

I’m the Woman

So here’s the confession, I’m the woman. Don’t worry, I haven’t had a crisis of identity. I didn’t say I’m a woman. I’m every bit as masculine as I ever was and this has nothing to do with sexuality or gender politics. It has to do with something I heard on the radio yesterday. The commentator was talking about the story of the woman caught in adultery from John 8.

1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

After relating the story, the commentator then asked the question, which are you, Jesus or the Pharisees? Now the truth of the matter is I have asked this question many times of myself. The answer I want to give is Jesus, forgiving, full of grace, etc. My fear though is there are times when, if I am not careful, I can be like the judgmental Pharisees. “How can I leave that attitude behind?” is a frequent battle in my heart. The commentator then gave me the answer:

“Neither… You’re the woman.”

As soon as I heard it, my hands went in the air (temporarily, I was driving) and I began to praise. It’s the answer to the cry of my heart. The reason I fear being like the pharisees is because I’m not as good as Jesus. I’ve been caught in sin, maybe not adultery (though by Jesus’ definition, that can be a fight as well) but sin, most definitely. I have been caught in sin and dragged before Jesus by the accuser of my soul. I have only one move, to kneel before my Lord, ask forgiveness and turn from my sin. In this story, I’m the woman and until I can see myself in that place, I run the very real chance of being one of the accusers.

I want to be like Jesus and so like the woman, in the face of condemnation, I receive His grace and do my best in Him to leave my sin behind. The ultimate sin of the pharisees is pride, the sin that made the devil fall. If I stand as accuser, I become like the accuser and my sin is right there to convict me. So I guess what I am saying is…

I’m the woman and I want to be like Jesus.

“I Wish I Had Your Gift!”

I am re-reading Rory Noland’s classic creative ministry book, Heart of the Artist for a class I’m taking. It’s wonderful. I’m also coming off a great weekend of ministry at a wonderful church in Virginia. Tonight those two things are sort of colliding. You see, emblazoned across the top of the back cover of the book is something I hear quite often when I minister.

“I Wish I Had Your Gift!”

Nolan then follows it with a question. “How do you handle those words as a creative artist?” When I read that, I thought answering his question would make a superb blog post, so here goes.

The first thing I say is “Thank you.” or “I appreciate that.” Some may think this is a little shallow or that I am being some sort of glory hog, but nothing could be further from the truth. This person has gone out of their way to show me appreciation, and encouragement, and I thank them for it. I will then follow that with acknowledgement of the Lord. They’ve usually just heard me spend the better part of an hour tying my gifts and theirs to God’s glory, they don’t need another sermon, just a little gratitude.

The next thing, and to me the most important thing is to ask this question: “What do YOU do?” Envying my gift is not what this is ultimately about. I am glad they appreciate what I do, but I want them to see that they too are gifted and that their gift is of immense value. I want them to realize that what they do is special and they can bring great glory to God by doing what they were created to do. Quite often they do something immensely interesting, (Maybe even something I wish I could do) often something I could never do and I let them know that. What I do is cool, but what they do can be cool too and more than cool it could be a great blessing to someone else.

Lastly, if it turns out the person is a visual artist and they actually want to do what I do. I encourage them to practice and develop their gift. One of the thing I say is I can paint a painting is six minutes because I’ve been painting for 40 years or more. This is not to say that it will take them 40 years to reach where I am, many will catch or surpass me in far less time, but what I want them to remember is there is work and sacrifice involved in serving the Lord in most fields, especially art.

One other thing. I try really hard to no longer downplay my gift. I used to think that in order to practice proper humility, I had to minimize what I do. Here’s the thing, my gift comes from God. It’s the way He has chosen to bless me. It doesn’t honor Him to me to belittle His gift to me. Instead, I praise Him for blessing me and encourage them to live in His blessing.

Why Do You Do What You Do?

Why do you do what you do?
Is it for God
or is it for you?

As you paint the pic as you written story,
is it for you
or for His glory?

Is it for you a fame to call your own
or is it to know Him
and make Him known?

A weekend of soul searching has brought me to write this poem. I love to write and draw and create, but more than anything I want to know God deeply. Asking these questions has helped me to keep perspective.

I know this is for me, is it for you?

Why are you doing what you’re doing?

Why do you do what you do?

The Underdog

“Underdog, I wince every time I say the word, especially in connection with Jesus. Yet as I read the birth stories about Jesus, I cannot help but recognize that although the world may be tilted toward the rich and powerful, God, hallelujah, is tilted toward the underdog.” Audio Adrenaline -Underdog (based on a quote by Philip Yancey.)

It’s true you know. Jesus with all the power of the universe came here looking like an underdog. He came humbly. He came poor. He came as a baby, just like the rest of us. Why is it then, that so often we believe the best way to serve Him is to gain riches and worldly wealth? I’m not saying there is anything wrong with wealth and if you (or I) are blessed by God wealth and power, my prayer is that we would use it responsibly, to His glory. Wealth and power are not prerequisites or Godly world change, as a matter of fact Jesus seems to say they can be detrimental. The best way to serve God well is not wealth, it’s faithfulness. Use what you have today to serve Him. He will provide what you need. Please remember, Jesus only looked like an underdog. In Him, the same is true of you.

The Problem of Compliments

I love doing art in the church and I hope it doesn’t sound braggadocious to say this, but a lot of other people love what I do. That makes me very happy but there is something that is a little awkward and I could actually use your help with it. You see, the natural reaction to people loving what I do is to pay me a compliment and to be really honest, I like and appreciate that. Affirmation is always nice, but how should I respond?

I mean I really want to give glory to God for everything I do. Without Him nothing I do would work and He deserves all the credit. At the same time, I want to acknowledge the acknowledgment. I sometimes say, “Praise God” but I don’t want to come off sounding like I am correcting the person or trying to fake some sort of religious piety. Then sometimes I simply say “Thank you” but I wonder does that claim credit and glory for myself? I don’t want to appear in any way aloof because I’m not. I’d love to hang out and chat with these people all night because I appreciate them immensely. At the same time, I usually have an hour of cleaning and packing before me so I have to keep it short. I don’t ever want to appear prideful and I certainly don’t want to throw around some sort of false humility because God allows me to do some great things.

Basically here’s what I want to do, I want to be gracious and let the person know I genuinely appreciate the fact that they stepped out to affirm the work that I did, because I do. I want to encourage each one to use what God has given them, I want to encourage them to enter into a deeper relationship with me through various channels so I can continue to encourage them. Even more I want them to enter into a deeper relationship with Jesus, using their gifts to serve Him. Most of all, I want to make sure they know I credit God for every good thing in my life. That’s a lot of thought around a simple compliment.

Am I overthinking it?
How do you respond when someone compliments your work?

A Friendly Reminder

I wanted to share this graphic (a series of three slides) I did a couple of days ago for my art ministry workshop. I was trying to express the fact that we need to be humble as we bring our gifts to the church. It is so vital. In much of the world, bad, prideful behavior is accepted, tolerated and, in some circles, even expected from artists as part of the “artistic temperament.” The truth is, that’s just bull. That behavior should never, ever come from those of us who claim the name of Christ. We need to be humble, because remember God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. I’d much rather receive God’s grace than His opposition, how about you?

I was looking for a quick and easy way to show this without words and it brought to mind an old play on words I used to say. I converted it into these three slides. It got groans all around, but it made its point…

Before there was Madonna, there was pre-madonna, don’t be one! (Yes, I know it’s actually spelled prima donna but that’s not as funny.)

If you want to use your gift to serve the Lord, humility and flexibility are your friends. Don’t take yourself so seriously, just make art and, in the process, glorify God!

A Story of Shocking Failure (And How We Can Avoid It) from Andy Andrews

Andy Andrews is one of my all-time favorite writers. Few people can tell a story as well. He relayed this story on his blog and I pass it along here as a reminder to us all to keep our egos in check and make the most of every opportunity.

I want to tell you a story from early in my career, a story that is famous within my family, but that I haven’t told very much outside of them and close friends. I won’t mention any names because you would know them.

Years ago, we had three friends—one was a huge international superstar singer, one was a talent promoter, and one was an up-and-coming singer. We still have recordings of the singers. Both were immensely talented.

Exercising a common move beneficial to all parties, the talent promoter placed the up-and-comer on a tour with the superstar. The promoter’s hope, of course, was that the up-and-comer would be in a position to learn from the superstar and, in so doing, would develop lasting success.

Unfortunately, that is not what happened.

You see, the up-and-comer had five number one hits in a row. This was largely a result of him being in front of the superstar’s audience night after night on the tour. But the up-and-comer didn’t see it that way. He decided that, because of the success he was experiencing, he didn’t really need to learn anything else from the superstar. He didn’t need to be anyone’s opening act anymore. He was too big for that kind of thing. So he went out on his own and, on the way out the door, fired the talent promoter who had been his manager.

In a surprise to no one but himself, I suppose, the young, immensely talented singer immediately vanished from the national scene. Lasting to this day, it remains a professional disappearing act worthy of a great magician.

In some ways, this is a shocking story, because this up-and-comer was truly gifted. His songs were and are awesome. To this day, they still hold up. But, in many other ways, this is not a shocking story. It’s something you and I see all the time with people in our lives, whether it’s the child who didn’t think he needed to listen to mom and dad anymore or the athlete who chose to rely on talent instead of coaching.

We all know what usually happens when people choose to abandon the teaching that allowed them to find success—they experience failure. You know it, I know it, and usually the person to whom this happens knows it on some level. The odd thing is that they never expect that it will happen to them. And that is why I like to continually remind myself of this story. So I’ll not forget that I’m never done learning. There is always more wisdom out there, and we need to do everything we can to seek it.

I’m more than 50 years old and just now starting to feel like I’ve figured out a thing or two. But I’m also more and more determined than ever to surround myself with people from whom I can learn—great parents, writers, speakers, husbands, business people—anyone who has experienced success in an area in which I want to be successful.

Let us all remember this story as we endeavor to create the lives we want for our families and ourselves. We’re not done learning. We never will be. There is more to discover, more knowledge to absorb and apply to our lives. The fruit is on the tree. Are you ready to reach out and grab it?

© 2009-2012, Andy Andrews. Used by Permission. Originally posted on AndyAndrews.com.