Monday, July 31
Balancing the Big Idea...
Tomorrow I will spend the day participating in the collaboration process known as the Big Idea.The morning is spent with the artists at CCC while they plan a celebration service...
The afternoon is spent with the teaching team while they plan the talk for that particular service...(by the way, the service they are planning doesn't happen for 13 weeks)
Both times, the almost 4 hours, are incredibly enjoyable...
John Fischer wrote a great piece years ago that I've posted below about that balance between the artist and the teacher...maybe you see yourself as one or the other...For me, I think I cross back and forth between the two...
After much frustration
That there are two sides of
My calling
That have been,
And will always be
In conflict.
One side is the teacher in me that wants to make things clear;
The other is the probing artist side that doesn’t like everything cut and dried.
The teacher loves to see that expression on a face when the light goes on;
The artist hopes to challenge ‘Reality’ and see brows furrow in consternation.
The teacher tries to simplify;
The artist complicates.
The teacher shines the light;
The artist screams out from the dark corners.
The teacher lays out principle;
The artist wants to know what those principles
have to do with everybody’s real life,
And if it suspects the answer will be ‘Nothing,’ then it will throw that unresolved bit of life back in the face of everyone’s principle.
The teacher loves truth;
The artist loves beauty.
The teacher talks about the way things should be;
The artist reveals the way things are.
The teacher coaxes reality into principles and lives as if it all fits.
The artist holds reality up to the principle and knows it won’t
The teacher deals more with the mind;
The artist deals with the heart.
Mark Nelson at 10:23 PM 8comments
8 Comments
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at 8:24 AM
truevyne said... It seems the artist and the teacher dwell together in peace within me for today. They both want the same thing- the beauty in truth, and the truth in beauty.
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at 3:14 PM
Mark Nelson said...
I wish the artist and teacher dwelled well together in peace in the churches of today...all too often they are at conflict with one another, when, if they were able to see how they complete the other, God could do even more...
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at 6:49 AM
cory said...
Mark,
I'm so excited to have stumbled on your blog! i can wait to actually read what you've written here. Internet time is pretty limited in Morocco, so it may take a while. i just wanted to say hello.
cd-
at 10:47 AM
said... I don't think they can co-exist in peace in the church, but as long as artists and teachers have an appreciation for each other we can learn from each other.
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at 2:05 PM
said...
they can and they must co-exist. in the beginning God created. then He sent His Son, to whom they cried out, "Rabboni." some touch the senses, others teach the word, but aren't both needed to reach a lost world?
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at 4:57 PM
Clinton said...
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at 4:59 PM
Clinton said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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at 5:03 PM
Clinton said...
-oops i kept deleting my comment-
I believe they can and do co-exist within the Church. After all, the Bride of Christ is a much broader group of people than we dare to imagine. As it was pointed out our Heavenly Father is both a creator and a teacher. I like to quote the French theologian Jacques Ellul who said, “Christians should be trouble makers, creators of uncertainty, agents of a dimension incompatible with society.” Sounds a lot like some artists I know, shaken up some uncertainty and not seeking the American way of life; as well as some teachers I know teaching a life contrary to the American way but “strangely” more inline with Kingdom Values.
Although, Ellul was talking more in the context of Christians living by different values and goals than the society around them, the idea that the Christian way of life cannot fit in with a society who seeks other things than the Church makes for a rather noticeable group of people. For example our western-society seeks economic prosperity and the first century Roman-society sought, among other things, the worship of Caesar. The Roman society took such notice of the Church they labeled our family members “followers of the Way.” By their love they were known and I can only imagine the levels of uncertainty their love caused within those who watched them and the questions they began to ask that lead many of them to Life.
How great is the Way we are followers of…One that helps people ask the questions that will lead them to Life? So you beautiful artists get out there and create some uncertainty, cause some people to begin to ask questions. You teachers out there help us learn to articulate some answers, so when people ask about the Hope that is within us we can share it with words. And the rest of us with you will live a life known by love and together help create some uncertainty...