But then, no artist is normal; if he were, he wouldn't be an artist. Normal men don't create works of art. They eat, sleep, hold down routine jobs, and die. You are hypersensitive to life and nature; that's why you are able to interpret for the rest of us. But if you are not careful, that very hypersensitiveness will lead you to your destruction. The strain of it breaks every artist in time.

~ Irving Stone, Lust for Life

Monday, October 15, 2012

Artistic Integrity


Up until this point, Noland has discussed the downfalls of perfectionism in great detail. Perfectionist tendencies are capable of ruining an artist and a worship environment. Yet, this doesn't mean that we now have the freedom to show up as an artist without putting any effort into our craft. Instead, we must learn to practice artistic integrity by taking the time to develop our skills in a way that honors God. This has the potential of being a really tricky line to walk because there is not very much space between artistic integrity and perfectionism. As artists, we need to be careful to become excellent at our craft without becoming a perfectionist.

First, we need to understand what artistic integrity is. Noland explains that we must not "strive to be perfect; instead [we must] try to perform or create skillfully. In other words, do the best [we] can with the talent [we've] been given. It doesn't glorify God to be mediocre."

Throughout the bible, God continually exhibits creativity and skillful artistry in his creations. He shows us that He delights in those who continually work on developing their gifts to honor Him. For example, in the Old Testament a man named Kenaniah was extremely skillful and was, thus, singled out for leadership. He achieved this leadership because he continually worked on developing his craft to its fullest potential while always remaining focused on God (1 Chron. 15:22). Clearly, he had artistic integrity.

By looking at the book of First Chronicals, we can see that the development of artistic skill is very important. These artists took numerous classes and lessons. They were highly trained. We need to become more like these artists and take the time to become excellent at our craft.

There is often a misconception that because we are practicing our craft in church we do not need to work as hard. Conversely, we should be doing the exact opposite! "For too long artistry in the church has been thrown together without much regard for quality. For too long we've muttered under our breath 'Aw, it's good enough for church,' and the result is that church art (especially music) has come to be associated with insipid mediocrity. Some of us only do enough to goet by. God deserves so much more than that. He deserves our very best" (Noland, 139). God gave each of us a specific talent and we are directly responsible for how we ust that talent. It must greatly grieve him to watch us barely putting effort into our worship when we put so much effort into other worldly passions. Schaeffer states that "Of all people, Christians should be addicted to quality and integrity in every area, not be looking for excuses for second-best."

This means that we need to become extremely intentional with our craft by working to continually better ourselves. We can do this by exposing ourselves to the great arts and learning from them. This doesn't mean that we only pay attention to Christian artists though. We can learn to become better artists through a plethora of mediums. Thus, "we should be attending exhibits, concerts, plays, movies, and musicals to broaden our artistic horizons" (Noland, 138). We need to expose ourselves to excellence in order to become excellent.

Don't be fooled though, artistic integrity means lots of hard work. "There is a price to be paid for excellence... This is no time for our artists in the church to be lazy. God is on the verge of using the arts in a mighty way. The days of us in the church producing art in a mediocre fashion are over. Being lazy with our talent is more a sign of being comfortable than being committed" (Noland, 139).

Noland states that we need to create artistic integrity by committing to becoming excellent at our craft. This means that we need to take time to practice, learn, and be open to coaching. As in anything that takes work, the best way to ensure that we are all taking the time to become better at our talents is by sharing what we are doing (or will be doing) with each other. For this post, share in the comment section what you are or will be doing to become more excellent at your craft.

4 comments:

  1. This is what I tried to get it across on the last comment, this one's just put together in a better way. I practice playing guitar on a daily basis, but I would like to expand my knowledge of other instruments and work in a more structured way on my voice and microphone technique. Occasionally I'll go to other churches and watch their worship teams play, and I truly believe ours to be better practiced. Sometimes the actual worship/practice ratio seems a little unbalanced. I've seen a barely functioning band leading honest, vigorous worship, albeit out of tempo and often key as well. I've also witnessed the polar opposite. I think our last two Sundays were absolutely amazing even though last Sunday we barely had any practice time. I think if I were to recommend a strategy it would be, practice your specific art a lot, try super hard, let the God who created it take care the rest.

    Larry

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  2. This is an interesting topic for me because I am at a different point in growth potential than most of you. I feel that I'm trying not so much to grow, but to hang on.
    But the piece that really spoke to me was the need to be committed to God in order to use my abilities in an authentic way for him. So here goes:
    In order to stay connected to who I am in God, I spend time with Him,especially in His word. After Eric's challenge to read the Bible through the summer, I've gotten sort of hooked. Because I don't have to rush off to work, it is how I start my day.
    Love it.
    In order to hang on to some singing ability, I took a couple of years of singing lessons. Being reminded of and coached through the technical aspects of singing continues to help me.
    For me being able to sing with the praise band in worship is like being the little boy who offered his lunch to the disciples when the multitude needed feeding. The gift is simply but gets used by God.
    Judy

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    1. You bring such joy and I love being able to sing with you on Sundays! I hope that you continue to join us for a long time to come!

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  3. This topic is something that I have been continually at odds with since I graduated college. In college, I was a member of my collegiate choir and, thus, spent a significant amount of my time in practice rooms and in rehearsal perfecting my craft. With all of that practice, I felt that my voice sounded the best it ever had... but I did experience burnout. So, when I graduated, I stopped practicing. As my vocal quality digressed, it didn't bother me in the least. Then, I joined the worship team.

    When I first joined our worship team, my perfectionist tendency often became self defeating because I was really disappointed by my voice and timid in sharing my knowledge. I was extremely worried that I would be judged based off of my history and found to be wanting because I no longer sounded like I used to. Some people are born with a natural talent, but my voice was something that I have always had to work very hard developing. So, I know better than anyone, how much work it will take to get my voice back. I find this hugely intimidating... and I wonder if I even have the time right now to put into my voice. Let's face it, I will never be able to put hours a day into practicing like I used to. So, I continually am praying that I can overcome my unrealistic ideas about my vocal practicing and really focus on becoming excellent for God's purpose.

    As a self proclaimed frustrated-perfectionist when it comes to my voice, I find it much more satisfying to not stress about singing solos and instead just focus on the joy of the music. Music moves me. I feel energized and uplifted while worshiping. I feel like singing is the lesser part of what I can offer God. Instead, I feel like I can offer my worship. Yet this is a very safe and comfortable spot to be in. Somehow I keep getting this nagging feeling that God gave me all the vocal opportunities He did in order to use it to glorify Him in a bigger way. This means that I need to commit to practicing in a larger way in order to be ready for Him to use me in the way he chooses.

    A while ago, when we were having our mini-study before practice, Wendi mentioned becoming more vulnerable. I feel that is exactly what I need. I need to become more vulnerable and overcome my perfectionist ideals in order to really be able to serve God well.

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