THE HEART OF THE ARTIST

I've started reading the book The Heart of the Artist: A Character-Building Guide for You and Your Ministry Team (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 1999). It is by Rory Noland, the music ministry director at WillowCreek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois. Jim Beise of la Fonderie highly recommended this book.

As I prepare for deeper involvement with la Fonderie (a ministry to artists in Paris) this year, I want to learn all that I can about arts and artists. I expect this book to be one of my teachers. Here is some of what Noland writes:

"Selfishness, pride, perfectionism, defensiveness, jealousy, envy, emotional imbalance, and lack of discipline--many people struggle with these character flaws, but Christians with artistic temperaments will face all these issues at various points of their lives if not throughout, simply by the virtue of being artists. We don't stumble on these character issues by chance; they're part of our nature. It's what comes with being artists." (p. 9)

"I've been working with artists in the church for over twenty-five years now, and I've seen churches handle artists in one of two ways. We either coddle artists and put up with their shortcomings or we use and abuse artists. Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ectasy, a biographical novel about the life of Michelangelo, has one long chapter devoted to Michaelangelo's relationships with the various popes he worked for. Most of those relationships were stormy ones, and Michelangelo's experience as a church artist was extremely frustrating. As I read about all the abuse heaped upon one of my favorite artists, the thought occurred to me that this tension between the church and artists has been going on for hundreds of years. I dream of the day when the church will stop alientating artists and start nurturing artists and give them a safe place to grow and become the people God wants us to be. I wish we were more sensitive to the needs of artists. And I wish all artists loved the church and were growing in godly character and integrity." [bold print mine] (pp. 9-10)