A message for BridgePoint artists

The following article is submitted by Dave Kline, a musician within BridgePoint. It is a request to the artists within our fellowship to offer their gift to effectively enhance the worship of the wider body, for the glory of God. I wholeheartedly support this endeavor and trust that God has planted such talented artists among us for such a time as this. Please give it your prayerful consideration.

To BridgePoint Artists,

Recently, I have been going through the kind of life-changing experience that one experiences only a few times throughout life. Through a journey of music and theology, that was triggered by two lectures and a Roman Catholic composer, I have been truly inspired and impassioned to collaborate with the artistic community in BridgePoint. I hope that this collaboration would provide a platform and vehicle for a real, integrity filled expression of worship as individuals and a community, serving one another, and providing a more cohesive vision and expression of seeking God as a body.

I strongly believe that through art, God’s truth has the potential to be expressed in a more clear, understandable, and meaningful way that can speak to all types of people in all types of contexts. However, I am also convicted that this art must have integrity, be in line with one’s own convictions, and also be approached in a way that truly seeks to be separated from any notion of self glory. We, as Christian artists, have the serious responsibility of being “artists of the cross”, not “artists of glory”, seeking with our hearts and minds to know God through the gifts that He has given us. This responsibility, I believe, is filled with the potential of a deeper relationship with God, and also a deeper, more God centered relationship with each other. This quote from theologian N.T. Wright speaks of this truthful potential:

“If all theology, all sermons, had to be set to music, our teaching and preaching would not only be more mellifluous; it might also approximate more closely to God’s truth, the truth revealed in and as the Word made flesh, crucified and risen”.

The main section of the Gospel that I have been dwelling on (in the context of this journey that I am currently on) is the Easter story, with an intentional carefulness to give equal attention to the three parts of the story, i.e. good Friday, holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. Too often, it seems to me, we give little attention to the two days that precede the resurrection; two days that are completely essential to the gospel story, and also essential to our experience as followers of Jesus. This “skipping over” of good Friday and holy Saturday is very easy to slip into considering the culture we live in. I am specifically thinking of the dominance of a “culture of sentimentality”, that has, in my opinion, “cheapened” much of the art produced not only in the secular world, but also in the world of the church (think Hollywood, or perhaps the “love songs to Jesus” phenomenon). Just as Dietrich Bonhoeffer contrasts “cheap grace” with “costly grace”, we too must consider the idea of “cheap worship” versus “costly worship”. Here, in “costly worship”, there is no room for sentimentality; or in other words, the easy, non-sacrificial worship that only acknowledges a sense of “good feelings”, or “everything is well”, and skips over good Friday and holy Saturday. (This is a very short synopsis and has room for much discussion).

I realize that this discussion (mainly on worship) has many levels, and in reality, like the God we worship, cannot be defined, or even confined to a commentary that I have provided above. This is also in no way an accusation against anything that has been expressed or done at BridgePoint. This is just what God has put on my heart, and I feel a call to share it. I would also like to note that I do believe that the resurrection is the most important part of the Easter story, but, alas, we cannot get to the resurrection without Friday and Saturday.

I would very much like to continue a discussion of how we , as an artistic community, can better serve each other and more truthfully worship our Creator together through the gifts He has given us. I would like to invite all members of BridgePoint who feel that they are artists and have some sort of calling to express their art in the context of worship, to a meeting on Tuesday, March 13, at the Watson’s home at 7:30pm, to have a discussion on how we, as a community, can collaborate in the context of producing an artistic expression of worship and service. This meeting will specifically focus on the two days of Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and on our next corporate meeting, which will also focus on those two days, in preparation for the resurrection day. I encourage everyone to prayerfully consider being a part of this discussion, and also what you can bring to the discussion.

In Christ,

David Kline

Davidklinemail@gmail.com