Why Catalyst loves the Arts
Arts do people good.
The arts play a far more important role in our lives than we often realise. The arts are one of the main ways that a culture comes alive. A thriving arts scene sets the tone. It can be the difference between colour and black and white, with the potential to bring significant joy and hope. Whether it’s through your Spotify playlist or your Kindle library or the pictures you choose to decorate your living room with, for almost all of us, the arts add significant value to our lives.
Therefore, it’s vital that the artists in our churches serve our society through the arts. As we do this, as Christians, we trust that Jesus’ reputation will be enhanced and his church will be seen as a more attractive community to those who are presently outside of it.
The arts don’t just bring colour to life though; they also play a vital role in fashioning and shaping the values and ideas that are cherished in a culture. Artists take the big ideas of the ‘thinkers’; they make them accessible to the masses, not just by communicating information to our minds but resonating with us emotionally.
For a worldview or philosophy to take root in a culture, it needs the arts to prepare the way; otherwise, for all its good ideas, it may well find itself shouting loud, but going completely unheard. Perhaps this sounds a bit close to home, as Christianity is a case in point here. While many have engaged with the arts effectively to shape world views in recent times, the church has almost completely withdrawn from this field. We’d like to help change this situation.
Therefore, whether you would consider yourself creative or not, whether you are an arts lover or an arts sceptic, come and check out our exhibitions and workshops and experience some of our performers and musicians. We are looking to encourage a whole new generation of Christian artists to make art of excellence that has the power to speak subtly and authentically into our culture.