When was the last time you had an artistic experience?
National Arts and Humanities Month (NAHM) helps people have artistic experiences and appreciate how art and culture positively impacts the U.S. We’ve celebrated NAHM as a country every October since 1993, when Americans for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts extended National Arts Week into a month-long celebration.
As Christians, we can appreciate how the Creator gives art and beauty importance, such as inspiring the art of the Tabernacle in Exodus 31:1-11 and ordaining beauty at the right time in Ecclesiastes 3:11a. He also makes us creative in His image (Gen 1:27 NIV), which is why art can even be useful in ministry. You’ll see an example of missions through art below with Bulgarian missionaries Hari and Penka.
Importance of the Arts
The arts are important because God inspires them and because they’re good for our physical, psychological, and emotional health. Dance and pottery strengthen our cardiovascular system and promote joint mobility, respectively. Playing an instrument helps the left and right sides of our brain communicate better. Doing theater with other people can improve social skills, such as empathy. Painting and writing can decrease stress and develop a sense of fulfillment.
Importance of Beauty
All forms of art help us appreciate beauty, which is another important part of human existence that God gave us. Understanding and appreciating beauty impacts how we interact with the world, other people, and ourselves. Natural beauty can help us bond with the environment we live in or better appreciate new locations. Appreciating beauty in groups, such as attending a
theatrical performance or going to a museum, helps bond people together. Experiencing beauty can fill us with happiness and tranquility.
Arts with a Christian Worldview
As the ultimate Creator, God designed humans intricately, which is why we respond so positively to art and beauty. Christians should also have a deeper appreciation for art and beauty because they connect to our faith. Creative practices and pleasant aesthetics remind us of our Creator, His personal role in creation, and how our creativity reflects His image.
When we participate in the arts with a Christian worldview, we can directly and indirectly glorify God. If a dance, musical piece, or painting clearly shares biblical imagery or messages, then it directly glorifies God. Pottery, theatrical productions, and written pieces that don’t have a clear biblical message may indirectly glorify God because they exhibit human creativity that only comes from Him.
Missions Through Art
Art can actually be an effective tool for missions as well. People who would never approach a missionary to ask theological questions might jump at the chance to take an art class. Connecting through art can be a great opportunity to develop relationships too, since art is so important to many local European cultures. Teaching artistic skills, especially in underprivileged areas, helps missionaries participate in local culture and prove that they care about the communities they’re serving.
All of these benefits work together to soften people’s hearts so they can hear and accept the Gospel. Missionary artists share the Gospel with individuals or small groups as they build relationships. Their creativity and artwork act as living examples of God’s intelligent design and love for beauty amongst His creation.
Native Missionary Artists in Bulgaria
ANM partners with Christ Resurrection Ministries, which is run by native missionary artists Hari and Penka. They are ministry leaders and successful professional artists who pastor a local church, plant churches, and do art outreach camps in the largely unreached mountains of southeast Bulgaria. Children, as well as their parents and community leaders, respond positively to the art and build relationships with the native missionaries. Some accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Joining Creative Missions
Recently, a team from Lifepoint Church in Fredericksburg, VA, visited Bulgaria to support Christ Resurrection Ministries. They packed gift bags and distributed them to children, performed theatrical skits, shared their testimonies, and prayed with local believers. (You can explore mission trip options for your church online.)
You can join together with creative missionaries like Hari and Penka by supporting their work among the unreached. In the spirit of National Arts and Humanities Month, you can donate and encourage missionaries around the world. Make time for your own artistic experience too!
