A Kingdom Imagination

Believe it or not, there was a time when the church set the standard for art and culture. During the age of the Renaissance, there were no movie theatres, concert venues, or art galleries. Instead there were cathedrals, beautiful depictions of God’s glory bursting at the corners with original music, visual art, and the latest technology.  People actually looked to the church for culture. Now, many seem to avoid it.

Take a step closer in history to the age of rhythm and blues. It’s likely you’d discover an uproar of unhappy Christians frustrated with “secular” artists who stole sounds and themes originally conceived by gospel churches and transported them into the worldly bars and night clubs of the 40’s and 50’s.

What once was a birthing place for culture now often settles to copy it. There are marketing firms, organizations, and consultants all over the country trying to make church look more appealing by dressing it up with what’s “mainstream.”

It’s our deep desire, however, to see the church become a place that once again fosters creativity, ingenuity, and originality, a space that invites people boldly into the knowledge that we serve a creative God, the world’s greatest storyteller.  We want to see a new generation of artisans, pioneers, and communicators develop a “kingdom imagination,” a longing to both tell and be God’s story to a world in desperate need of it.

Where do you see kingdom imaginations forming? How are God’s people telling his story uniquely and creatively?

What is your part to play?