CLAT Step 4D - Explore how a Christian community relates artistically to its broader church and cultural context

Question 1

CLAT Step 4D – 9 Activities

Answer 1

Activity 1: Discover a Christian community’s arts & artists (3 steps)

Activity 2: Compare a Christian community’s use of arts with that of surrounding communities (Overlapping Circles)

Activity 3: Evaluate how a Christian community’s arts currently fulfill their purposes

Activity 4: Apply Heart Arts Questionnaire to a Christian community

Activity 5: Evaluate [community] worship [forms] for church use according to biblical principles

Activity 6: Evaluate Christian community using the Worship Wheel

Activity 7: Assess a multicultural Christian community’s arts

Activity 8: Interpret Scripture Well

Activity 9: Address Theological Objections

Question 2

Activity 1: Discover a Christian community’s arts & artists (3 steps)

Answer 2

1. List all contexts in which people act as part of this community (e.g., Bible studies, worship, prayer, weddings, visits to sick people, outreach, holidays, family devotions, etc.)
2. List any arts used in these contexts.
3. List everyone who has significant artistic gifts, whether being used in church or not.

Question 3

Activity 2: Compare a Christian community’s use of arts with that of surrounding communities (Overlapping Circles) – 5 steps

Answer 3

Compare with Step 1, greater community genres—explore the potential for using those genres currently not in church use (via PMEC Overlapping Circles tool).

Actual steps:

1. Consult the list you made above of all the kinds of arts that the Christian community uses in everything it does.
2. Consult the list of artistic genres used in the church’s surrounding community you created in Step 1.
3. Mark each genre of artistic communication that exists in both in the church and in its surrounding community.
4. For each genre that exists in both, discuss and write down ways in which their performance and purpose differ in each context.
5. Make a list of all the genres in the surrounding community that are not used in the church. Discuss reasons why these are not being used, and explore their potential for use.

Question 4

Activity 3: Evaluate how a Christian community’s arts currently fulfill its purposes – 4 steps

Answer 4

1. Consult the list of all the contexts from “Activity 1: Discover a Christian community’s arts,” in which people act as part of their Christian community.
2. Choose at least one context in which a form of artistic communication exists, and list the form’s purposes.
3. List ways in which the form(s) of artistic communication used in each context supports or detracts from the form’s purposes. You may need to go deeper into the features of these arts, beginning with Step 4, Part A’s “Look at an Event’s Forms.”
4. Use what you’ve discovered for sparking activities in Step 5.

Question 5

Activity 4: Apply Heart Arts Questionnaire to a Christian community – purpose and what three areas of church life to consider using them in (+ 10 steps)

Answer 5

The Heart Arts questionnaire seeks to find out which artistic genres touch people’s hearts most in the wider society and in existing churches. Responses help assess each genre in terms of:

• Corporate Worship: Which community genres express joy & reverence? How can church planters/congregations evaluate the forms and meanings of these community genres? If the congregation is multicultural, how do they celebrate this?
• Communicating Truth: How does this society communicate truth with each other (genres)?
• Outreach: How could these genres & ideas be used in outreach to other communities?

Heart Arts Questionnaire: Prep a list of common art genres in the community. Then:

1. Collect demographic info from interviewees, including if they’re a Christian
2. Ask interviewees which genres generate instant and powerful positive emotions
3. Ask interviewees to rank their top four or five genres
4. Compare results & identify differences with genres currently used in worship
5. Assess each top-scoring genre not already used in the church for potential church use
6. Make plans to further investigate these high-scoring genres for kingdom purposes

Question 6

Activity 5: Evaluate [community] worship [forms] for church use according to biblical principles – purpose and 3 steps

Answer 6

The purpose is to assess** the **appropriateness of each worship activity in the light of both Scripture and culture and ask: which community forms are best for expressing praise, prayer, learning, devotion, postures?

Tasks:

1. Define the ethnic and language groups under consideration. Then list the ways society normally expresses itself in communal life outside of the church. Focus especially on values and practices common to biblical worship.
2. Over several sessions, conduct a joint biblical study on the forms used in the Bible for corporate and personal worship of God. Consider these passages together…
3. Compare each characteristic of biblical worship with patterns of community life you have identified outside the church. Then ask: which community practices would help worshipers most easily find the freedom to praise, listen, and draw near to the living God?

Question 7

Activity 6: Evaluate Christian community using the Worship Wheel (source)

Answer 7

Saurmans (2013) in Schrag, Krabill

Question 8

Worship Wheel: purpose

Answer 8

Saurmans’ diagram helps churches see a broad range of worshipful activities in their lives that can be animated by integrating their local arts: 1) for the Lord, 2) self, 3) others, 4) celebrations/ ceremonies.

Question 9

Activity 7: Assess a Multicultural Christian Community’s Arts – purpose and 4 steps

Answer 9

If church leaders want their members to interact better between cultural groups and to worship as true equals, this activity is designed to chart a way forward.

Participants: Church leaders, artistically gifted believers, an ethnoarts facilitator.

Tasks:

1. Conduct a Bible study on the cultural diversity of the church of God. Explore these passages together…
2. Assess your current multicultural strategies in these 4 areas: Leadership, Fellowship, Pastoral care, and Outreach.
3. Assess the current arts strategy for all worship services and meetings…
4. Conduct the heart arts questionnaire for your congregation (if you have not already), including one or two preliminary questions about heart language, place of birth, education, age group (0–10, 11–20, etc.), and gender. Then ask a few deeper questions…

Question 10

Activity 8: Interpret Scripture well (2 sources, not CC)

Answer 10

Duvall & Hays (2005): Grasping God’s Word Bible study method, steps, and authorial intent

Hill (2003): among the Adioukrou people of Côte d’Ivoire, contextual Bible background info improved comprehension by an average of 39.2 percent.

Question 11

Interpret Scripture Well – Duvall & Hays (2005)

Answer 11

“The Interpretive Journey”:

1) Understand the biblical text as the original audience did. What was the authorial intent, not receptor intent?
2) What are the differences of culture, language, time, and situation between the biblical audience and us?
3) What is the timeless theological principle(s) in this text? (Step 3.5 for OT: Does NT teaching modify or qualify this principle, and if so, how?)
4) How should we apply the timeless theological principle(s) to our lives and contexts now?

• What are the key similarities between the biblical audience/context and us?
• Identify a real or fictional parallel situation in our contemporary context that contains all of the similarities.
• Discuss how to apply the timeless biblical principle(s) to our chosen contemporary situation in specific ways.

Question 12

Interpret Scripture Well – Hill (2003)

Answer 12

Written/oral contextual helps improve comprehension by nearly 40%

Question 13

Activity 9: Address Theological Objections – 3 tools + 4 sources

Answer 13

Schrag (2013): three tools that can help you address common problems and misunderstandings:

1. Comparative Chart of Musical Instruments Mentioned in the Old Testament, p.187
2. Eleven Facts About and Biblical References to Artistic Communication
   
   • Harbinson (1993)
3. How to Avoid Both Syncretism and Irrelevance
   
   1. Harris (2007)
   2. West and Shetler (forthcoming): Fig. 8–Christians’ Approach to Artistic Forms (see below)
   3. Hiebert (1985)

Question 14

Activity 9: Address theological objections – 4 sources + 9 more

Answer 14

In this part of the CLAT manual: Harbinson (1993); Hiebert (1985); Harris (2007); West & Shetler (forthcoming)

The following are cited by Harris (2007) but are NOT in CLAT manual:

Kraft (1996); Best (2003); Liesch (2004)

The following are NOT in this part of the CLAT manual but are related:

Priest (1994); Turino (1999); Duvall & Hays (2005); Hill & Hill (2010, ch. 9, “identifying relevant issues”); King (2013); Collard (2013)

Question 15

Activity 9: Address theological objections – Hill & Hill (2010)

Answer 15

• Includes lessons on exploring the arts from a biblical perspective
• Chp. 9, “Identifying Relevant Issues”— 4 steps that parallel Hiebert’s: 1) identify relevant issue; 2) Cause and Effect Tree: keep asking “Why?” to discover root causes; 3) Compare root causes to Biblical truths; 4) Respond biblically: accept, reject, or modify practice(s)

Question 16

Activity 9: Address theological objections – Harbinson’s (1993) 11 Statements about artistic communication in the Bible

Answer 16

Statements about artistic communication in the Bible

• God created man in His image (to be creators)
• Aesthetic pleasure comes from God (who created the fruit to be pleasing to the sight)
• Humans are culture shapers
• God calls people to artistic communication (Bezalel-visual art, Ezekiel-visual art and drama, Jesus-storytelling, Temple priests-music, etc.)
• God uses diverse art forms for diverse purposes:
  
  • Visual art: Num. 21:1-8
  • Drama: Ezekial 4
  • Others: laments, worship, battles, teaching, etc.
• Diverse expressions please God (Psalm 150)
• Most of Scripture consists of artistic forms of communication
• Heart and allegiance are more important than form (Amos 5:23, 24)
• No one should be forced to change the biblical parts of their culture to worship God (Acts 15)
• God has opened up worship from a single earthly place to an unlimited number of places (Jn. 4:19-24)
• One culture’s music and arts do not communicate universally to someone from a different culture.

Question 17

Activity 9: Address theological objections – Hill & Hill (2010)

Answer 17

• Includes lessons on exploring the arts from a biblical perspective
• Chp. 9, “Identifying Relevant Issues”— 4 steps that parallel Hiebert’s: 1) identify a relevant issue/practice; 2) Cause and Effect Tree: keep asking “Why?” to discover root causes; 3) Compare root causes to Biblical truths; 4) Respond biblically: accept, reject, or modify practice(s)

Question 18

Activity 9: Address theological objections – Harris (2007) - her (4) sources

Answer 18

Hiebert (1985); Kraft (1996); Liesch (2004); Best (2003)

Question 19

Activity 9: Address theological objections – Priest (1994)

Answer 19

Eclentics: concerned with the conviction of sin (conscience)

Question 20

Activity 9: Address theological objections – Chart from Hiebert (1985) and West & Shelter (forthcoming)

Answer 20

• TOTAL REJECTION = art forms go underground, Christianity viewed as foreign = DUALISM, community rejection of Christianity
• TOTAL ACCEPTANCE = don’t take thoughts captive (2 Cor 10:5) = SYNCRETISM
• TRANSFORMATION = transform art forms = INTEGRATION

Question 21

Address Theological Objections – King (2013, in Krabill)

Answer 21

Develop a theology of music-in-context (OT precedent); be sure new songs represent Scripture accurately