“How do we use art in the Church, besides liturgical banners?”

How can the Church engage in art? What can be done to utilize the gifts of all believers in our worship? In this final session, Professor Hendrix encourages Churches to find ways to express “unusual beauty,” and assures us that investing in art-making is not a zero-sum game.

Key Terms

Gesamtkunstwerk: Total art; making use of multiple forms and many different aspects of art-making to achieve its goals.

Sacred-Secular Schism: Francis Schaeffer’s observation that in modern human minds have been taught to divide into two parts: the sacred upper story and the secular lower story. 

Total Worship: Including the gifts of every believer into the process of worship.

Main Points

• To engage in “total art,” the Church must confront the sacred-secular schism that keeps many from believing that the Church can and should be a vessel for beauty.
• The Church should seek to include diverse artistic voices, and artists should guard against being snobs and elites.
• Artifacts in the church can express unusual beauty that activate the visual presence of the worship space.
• Investing in the process of art-making means the Church can create a community that makes things together.
• In engaging in art as experience, the Church can create surprising and beautiful encounters. 
• The framework of artifacts, process, and experience map onto the persons of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Content Questions

• What examples have you experienced of “total art”?
• How do you see the sacred/secular schism in daily life?
• What examples of “unusual beauty” come to mind for you?
• What could a “maker community” in your church look like?

Application Questions

• What’s next? Spend some time considering how what you’ve learned about art from these sessions could apply to your Christian community. What conversations could you have about starting to invest in artifacts, process, and experience? What steps can you take to help lead your church closer to “total worship,” using the gifts of all the believers?
• Identify one small step your Christian community can take to integrate art in its “total worship” experience. Make a plan to take that step toward incorporating the gifts of all the believers.