Modern Christian Art in Churches
Seems like the days when the greatest of contemporary art resided in churches are long gone. I for one think we need a revival. And from what I hear, there are pastors who feel the same way.
I am hearing rumblings that it’s not easy to source relevant, modern christian art to decorate church buildings. This is a disaster, actually.
What we tend to forget, and what Christians traditionally knew, is that a picture is worth a thousand words. You can talk yourself black and blue in the pulpit, but for many people the best route to the memory and understanding is through the eyes. The wonderful, soaring, majestic architecure of the old cathedrals was designed that way for a purpose – to uplift the worshipper and impress upon him or her the wonder and majesty of God. Not to mention the impact on secular passers-by. Likewise the wonderful mosaics, icons, stained-glass windows and altar trappings commissioned to decorate the inteiors of these impressive churches.
Worship these days often takes place in modern buildings – many of a bland, contemporary design, lacking any impact in their interior and exterior decoration. Some small churches do not even have their own buildings and meet in local halls.
My local church meets in a school hall. For some weeks we enjoyed a children’s art project that mounted beautifully designed and colored paper images on all the windows. When these designs were removed recently, we missed the ambience of this lovely stained-glass effect.
Don’t get me wrong – the presence of the Holy Spirit is the number one ingredient in any service. But let’s not overlook the surroundings altogether.
We’re losing out, people! Christians of all levels of maturity would benefit from having some contemporary, relevant art around them as they worship. I believe it would also help with christian outreach if churches looked less plain, reserved and stuffy on the outside. How about some murals or sculpture??
Relevant comments on this post most welcome!
Peace,
Patricia
I have to agree here with this article. I noticed this in my own church a few years ago. A couple of years ago I decided to start doing wedding photography as a side business. Most of the weddings were in contemporary Christian churches similar to my church. What I was beginning to notice is that these churches look like bland boxes to crowd people into with no decor, not even paintings in some cases and art replaced with huge TV monitors. As a child in the mid 60’s I remember attending Episcopal and some Catholic services and even recently at an AME church in Virginia how the decor appeared like you were in a place of worship instead of a convention hall. During the services I certainly did not spend my time staring at the decor, I was there to worship God. But visually it was something beautiful to remember instead of this current spartan contemporary look I really don’t much care for. Great article, I was wondering if I was the only one that noticed this trend. God bless!
I dont really know what youre talking about here. This cant be the only way to think about this can it? It seems like you know a lot, so why not explore it more? Make it more accessible to everyone else who may not agree with you? Youd get a lot more people behind this if you just stopped making general statements.
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I am a fine artist. A christian. There are few of us out there placing work. As a side note, current Christian art really isn’t that impressive. I pray we are able to reclaim art for the church
I agree, though i have seen some good abstract, christain art, at least its done by a christian. My work is different, check it out. Trying to steer away from our grandma’s art.
This is precisely what I have been talking about. Ron DiCianni created an amazing set of paintings for churches to basically say what the Gospel is all about with pictures.
So beautiful.
http://www.tapestryproductions.com/products/webelieve/
This posting was ‘answered’ the very next day by an article in The Herald – Malaysia Online that I’ve created another post for, entitled “Art and Worsip, where you can access the Herald article – well worth a read.