The MFA is the new MBA?

Ben Arment has sparked an interesting discussion on his blog with his statement that “seminary teaches you to answer questions from the Bible that no one is asking” and that he wishes he’d gotten a film degree instead.I’m intrigued because, although I should probably agree wholeheartedly, I’ve been having very different (but somewhat related) thoughts lately.

My Pulpit Ministry class has rekindled my desire to “preach” via other ways than delivering a sermon (granted, it has done so by making me read expositors who argue that the only way to preach is via sermons, but anyway…).  Obviously, for me this is a desire to preach by way of the arts, hence prompting me to launch this blog.

It has also made me question what I want to do once I finish my seminary degree.  I originally started the degree program so I could more effectively (and more renumeratively) engage in pastoral care and counseling.  I’d originally intended to pursue a Psychology/Counseling degree, but after reading Cloud and Townsend’s How People Grow: What the Bible Says About Spiritual Growth I became convinced that I could more effectively counsel if I was grounded in Biblical understanding rather than psychological understanding (NOT that I have anything against psychology — those who do drive me nuts.  But I know I want to counsel in a Christian setting).  Anyway….

As my degree program has progressed, however, I have realized that it’s much more about my own spiritual growth and that God could use it in a number of ways (including, say, starting a theatre company) that have nothing to do with “full-time ministry.”  As a result, I’ve been intrigued at the thought of a lot of people obtaining seminary degrees (or otherwise obtaining a more comprehensive theological understanding and greater spiritual maturity, which a seminary degree can, in fact, facilitate) and then going into completely different disciplines for full-time work.  I suspect it would lead to some interesting results.

Every story has a villain

A few days back I wrote about the power of storytelling and how I think stories often resonate to the extent that they reflect THE story.  Well, while doing sermon prep the other night I was skimming through John Eldredge’s Waking the Dead and was struck by this passage about spiritual warfare:

“Think of it– why does every story have a villain?

Little Red Riding Hood is attacked by a wolf.  Dorothy must face and bring down the Wicked Witch of the West.  Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi go hand to hand against Darth Maul.  To release the captives of the Matrix, Neo battles the powerful “agents.”  Frodo is hunted by the Black Riders… Beowulf kills the monster Grendel, and then he hs to battle Grendel’s mother.  Saint George slays the dragon.  The children who stumbled into Narnia are called upon by Aslan to battle the White Witch and her armies so that Narnia might be free.

Every story has a villain because yours does.  You were born into a world at war…

You have an Enemy.  He is trying to steal your freedom, kill your heart, destroy your life.  As Satan said through Salieri, “I will hinder and harm your creature here on earth as far as I am able.  I will ruin Your incarnation.”"

The villain is one aspect of The Story.  I’ve managed to track down the outline of The Story I referenced before (and incidentally, it too is referencing spiritual warfare).  Once I get a chance I’ll type it up.

Oh, and if you don’t get the Salieri reference, you really need to see Amadeus, preferably on stage.

Psalms as Monologues

Is it heretical to say that public reading of the Bible can sometimes be lifeless?  Far too often, we lose the drama inherent in much of Scripture.  What do you say we bring it back?

A while back I learned one of the Psalms as a monologue and I ended up using it as part of my God on Broadway musical revue (I’ll explain that at some point) this past year.  It struck me once as I read through a chronological Bible that the Psalms are spread throughout the Old Testament to a pretty considerable extent.  I’ve often wondered what span of the Old Testament story could be told simply through the Psalms.  I’d like to put together a series of Psalm monologues that would trace a picture through the Biblical story.  It could be powerful, but I have to figure out in what context to perform it.  I’m not sure people would come to a “Psalms as Monologues” non-musical revue (what’s the monologue version of a musical revue?).  It needs some further context, but I’m not sure what.  Anyone got any ideas?

Incidentally, here’s the Psalm (137) I used as a monologue.  There just so happens to be a Godspell song based on this Psalm, so we used that, too.  How can you NOT read this with passion?

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.

There on the poplars
we hung our harps,

for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill .

May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy.

Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
“Tear it down,” they cried,
“tear it down to its foundations!”

O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is he who repays you
for what you have done to us-

he who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.

Must-reads and a must-watch for regenerates

I’ve got a running list on the sidebar of what I consider “musts” for regenerates.  Thought I’d go ahead and point those out.

The two pieces of writing on the list make it simply because they are two of the best pieces of writing I have ever read.  The Grand Inquisitor episode from Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov is absolutely fantastic and very thought-provoking.  A couple years back I managed to obtain a script version of the book and hope to some day memorize the Grand Inquisitor story and use it as a monologue.

“Letter to My Children” is Whittaker Chamber’s introduction to his book Witness.  Back in the day Chambers accused the much esteemed Alger Hiss (he had two Supreme Court justices as character witnesses) of being a Communist spy.  Witness tells Chambers’ story, complete with the very sensational (at the time) story of the evidence he’d hidden in a pumpkin on his farm.  The introduction to the book is a letter Chambers addressed to his children explaining why he did it, how he turned away from communism and atheism, and of the inherent conflict between Communism and Faith.

Both of these are available online so you should read them right now.

The must-watch, on the other hand, requires you to go to a website and order it, but it’s well worth it.  “Most” is a Czech-language film (“most” means “bridge” in Czech) that’s about a half hour in length (don’t worry, it includes subtitles).  It’s an extraordinary example of regenerate art and a very powerful film.  I’d say more, but I’m not sure how to without giving the storyline away, so I’ll just leave it at that.  Go order yourself a copy (and a couple to give away).  You won’t regret it.

Giving voice to G.K. Chesterton

I intend to add a sidebar listing regenerates of yore (folks like C.S. Lewis, George McDonald, Tolkien, Handel, and, sadly, Madeleine L’Engle, who passed away in 2007) once I figure out where to link each of them.  But I thought I’d go ahead and highlight a group that does a fantastic job of giving voice to one of them.

At the Christian in Theatre Arts annual conference several years ago, I had the pleasure to see Peculiar People perform their production “The Happy Man,” which is composed almost entirely of direct quotes from G.K. Chesterton.  Through acting and a bit of puppetry, if I recall correctly, they brought his statements to life in an amazing way.  It was a fantastic production and I highly recommend bringing them to your area to have them perform.

And for free, here’s one of my favorite Chesterton quotes:

Is it possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes the daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never gotten tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore. Heaven may encore the bird who laid an egg. If the human being conceives and brings forth a human child instead of bringing forth a fish, or a bat, or a griffin, the reason may not be that we are fixed in an animal fate without life or purpose. It may be that our little tragedy has touched the gods, that they admire it from their starry galleries, and at the end of every human drama man is called again and again before the curtain.

At that conference, I also got to see Doug Berky do an incredibly moving (but completely silent) performance with his amazing masks, as well as Jeannette Clift George (who played Corrie ten Boom in the movie The Hiding Place) perform her one woman show, “Corrie, Ruth, and Me” (the Ruth in question is Ruth Bell Graham).  If you ever have an opportunity to see either of those, I highly recommend them.

regenerate Broadway: Irena’s Vow

Having submitted her small group curriculum to the publisher one day before deadline, yesterday the regenerate Mrs. blogged about the fat cows of Samaria (Biblical imagery can be such fun) and then headed up to Broadway with our favorite director to catch a matinee.  Pickings at the TKTS half-price booth were slim, but they ended up seeing Irena’s Vow and, judging by her report, I now have another show I can add to my “regenerate Theatre” sidebar when I get around to making it (she has a must-read blog post about it here).

This also gives us another show to produce at Ebenezers, our church’s coffeehouse on Capitol Hill.  It has a small stage with no backstage area, so we’re a bit limited in what we can do, but the Mrs. says this would work.  Thus far we’ve staged Godspell, Steel Magnolias, and my two God on Broadway musical revues.  We’ve got some ideas up our sleeves for this fall and next year, but Irena’s Vow will likely join Pippin and The Cocktail Party (the two I’m most eager to do) on the list of shows we’ll do once we’ve built more of an audience base.  At this point, we aren’t willing to attempt shows that don’t have much name recognition.

What does it mean to “preach the gospel”?

I’d been planning to hold off on launching regenerateCulture.com until my semester ended later this month, at which time I would have regained a firm grasp on sanity.  However, after all of the reading I’ve done for my preaching class, I just couldn’t resist any longer.

I’ve been reading homiletics (preaching) books and have grown increasingly frustrated with those who equate “preaching” with “delivering a sermon” and define the “gospel” as “the Biblical text.”

Granted, I haven’t pulled out the Greek and Hebrew, but I’m pretty certain that “to preach” is simply “to proclaim,” and I would argue that you can do that in other (and often more effective) ways than delivering a sermon.  As Francis of Assisi supposedly said, “Preach always.  If necessary, use words.”

Similarly,  “gospel” means “good news.”  Yes, the Bible is the inspired record of that good news, but putting the good news into your own words, as the apostles did, does not negate its goodness.

So what does this mean?  This means that we can “preach the gospel” (or “proclaim the good news”) through our art just as effectively as a pastor can through a sermon.

This has been especially brought home to me by the final book I’m reading for class – Experiential Storytelling: (Re)Discovering Narrative to Communicate God’s Message by Mark Miller.  Here he is on the influence of story:

Storytelling is powerful because it has the ability to touch human beings at the most personal level.  While facts are viewed from the lens of a microscope, stories are viewed from the lens of the soul.  Stories address us on every level.  They speak to the mind, the body, the emotions, the spirit, and the will.  In a story a person can identify with situations he or she has never been in.  The individual’s imagination is unlocked to dream what was previously unimaginable.

And on the Church:

While there are many reasons why the Church in America is in decline, the most striking reason is that people are no longer connecting with the redemptive story of the Bible.  We live in a culture that is craving narratives, metaphors, and images — anything that can provide some meaning to their nihilistic lives.  The Church has the greatest story ever told.  That story, Scripture tells us, is the power of God to transform lives.  Yet few are listening.  What is wrong with this picture?

Several years ago I led a men’s small group using a curriculum which contained within it a single page outline of the Biblical story.  I don’t have it on hand right now, but will type it up at some point.  Anyway, it struck me when I saw it contained in that encapsulated form that it was THE story.  I suspect that every work of art today that resonates with and speaks powerfully to the human heart does so because it in some way reflects THE story.

The world needs more works of art such as those.  Go to it.

Why “regenerate Culture”?

As you may have guessed from the banner, I’m kind of keen on the many definitions of “regenerate.”  Not to mention the whole yin/yang thing (minus the implied heresy) it has going on with “degenerate.”

For the past several decades (well, okay, probably all of recorded history, but work with me here…), many good-hearted people (and maybe some not-so-good-hearted) have spent far too much time decrying “degenerate” art and far too little time celebrating “regenerate” art. The word “regenerate” is a verb, an adjective, and a noun. As a verb, it means “to reform spiritually or morally.” As an adjective, it means “spiritually or morally revitalized,” as well as “restored; refreshed; renewed.” As a noun, it refers to “one who is spiritually reborn or reformed.”

With as much enthusiasm as I can muster (which can actually be quite a lot, when backed by copious amounts of sugar), I endorse all forms of the word “regenerate” (I endorse the liberal use of parenthetical comments, as well, but that isn’t as blogworthy).

The arts have tremendous power to shape the culture and simply criticizing “degenerate” art gets us nowhere.  Instead, we need to pay heed to two quotes of debatable origin.  “Criticize by creating” is good advice, regardless of whether or not Michelangelo was the one who first said it.  Similarly, “Give me the songs of a nation, and it matters not who writes its laws” may or may not originate with Damon of Athens, but rings true regardless here in the nation’s capital.  I firmly believe that by fostering redemptive art, regenerate artists can bring about a morally and spiritually revitalized culture.

So, whilst making my own feeble attempts to engage in artistic endeavors bringing renewal to my own little corner (“in my own little chair…”) of the world, this here website is where I more broadly engage in lofty attempts to reform the culture, celebrate signs of cultural revitalization, and praise and encourage the regenerates in our midst.

Go team.