Editor’s note: Due to global security concerns names and locations of some CBF field personnel will not be publicized.

ATLANTA – The term “Christian artist” can be somewhat ambiguous to the general population – but it’s often problematic for artists who are Christians.

If these artists do not create art with explicitly Christian themes or symbols, they often find themselves ostracized by the Christian community for the type of art they do create. At the same time, these artists are also ostracized by the art community for their faith. So they desire to belong to a community of believers with artistic skills – people who share a similar call to create.

It’s a unique situation that Jonathan and Tina, who serve as CBF field personnel, understand. They are working through Christian-based international arts associations to bring artists who are Christians together, and to encourage them to pursue their art in ways that are true and honest.

“The artists that struggle the most are those who really want to be in the marketplace, but the particular community where they worship says, ‘No, we can never hang your work here [because] there’s no cross in it.’ They’re torn. They live two different lives and these networks help these artists know they don’t have to do that,” said Tina.

The associations are also important because they help artists not feel so isolated. Organizations like the Christian Artist’s Networking Association, which Jonathan and Tina have been members of since 1999, bring artists together to network, share resources and encourage each other.

“Some [artists] are in places where they’ve been told it’s impossible to be an artist and be a Christian, and so the church around them has not supported them,” Tina said. “That probably is why most of these networks began – because we cannot be creative in a vacuum.”

Jonathan and Tina work with Crescendo, a group of classical musicians that believes artists don’t have to sacrifice the quality of their art while following Christ. Jonathan and Tina are both part of Crescendo’s summer institute of the arts, held in Sárospatak, Hungary each year. There, Tina holds dance workshops for opera singers, helping them relax. In one exercise, she asked participants to imagine the qualities of water. She instructed them not only to pretend to be water, but to move like water, whether rough or gentle.

“We had a room of probably 30 students, moving around, bumping into each other, dancing around each other, sliding, and sometimes, if they were a wave, doing a roll on the floor,” Tina said. “Afterwards one of the artists came up to me and said the exercise was very important to her, that through the process she came to peace with her fear of water. The power of art to help people with situations they’ve encountered still surprises me.”

No matter where they go or the diversity of artists they encounter, Jonathan and Tina find that art – music, dance, song, film, painting and other forms – is an international language. Art can powerfully connect people from different cultures through symbols that are familiar. Water is one example, as it is essential for life, and also universally associated with cleanliness. Tina said one conversation she had with a Muslim man was prompted by an abstract painting of water called “prayer.” Tina knew that for Christians, washing is symbolic, but Muslims have to literally wash before they can pray. 

“He said to me, ‘That looks like it could be more from my religion than yours. Why did you name it prayer?’” Tina said. ”We stood and chatted about life just because he thought he could talk to me because of that painting. You can’t anticipate it. If you try to do something that’s going to make conversations happen, it doesn’t happen. So you have to just be honest in your work.”

For international artists, this is one of the messages Jonathan and Tina teach. The other is that God values artists and their craft. “There’s still so much work to be done to let artists know that who they are and their gifts are acceptable to God,” said Tina.

To financially support the ministry of Jonathan and Tina, give to the CBF Offering for Global Missions at www.thefellowship.info/ogm.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.