In addition to advocating on behalf of others, churches may need to deal with public policy or laws that directly affect the way they fulfill their mission as churches, such as happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. This post applies in this scenario as well.

Four Options for Advocacy 

The four options are:

1. Comply either because you agree with the law/policy or want to show goodwill if you don’t.
2. Consult with the appropriate authorities when they are agreeable to discussion.
3. Challenge the authorities when they are not agreeable to discussion with either a protest or a legal challenge.
4. Disobey the authorities when circumstances are so egregious and the authorities are so resistant that this is the only option.  

Indicators for Compliance

The starting point should always be to comply with government laws and regulations, as the New Testament is clear that Christians are to obey their governments, unless a particular government directive is deemed to be unjust. In that case, Christians can move directly to a more active step to change the law.

Christian ministries could choose to comply while at the same time either consulting with or challenging the authorities. The principle is to start with Comply, then move to Consult, Challenge, and Disobey in that order.

Indicators for Consultation

Consulting with people who have the power or the influence to bring about the change you want means that you are constructively working with them to problem-solve a solution that everyone can live with. This option is viable if:

• You have goodwill because you are complying.
• You have expertise and a fact-based proposal that will carry weight in the secular world.
• You can reach people who can make a difference. This may be a politician, a policy analyst, or other person of influence who in turn has the ear of the person who can make the decision you want.

Indicators for Challenge

A challenge is more adversarial than consulting is. A legal challenge or peaceful protest creates a confrontation and is a little riskier because the outcome could reinforce the way things are, the very thing you are trying to change. But this is a good option if:

• You have obtained legal advice that your challenge has reasonable grounds.
• You can make a strong case for how the public will benefit from a win. 

Indicators for Disobedience

Virtually all defenders of civil disobedience (who see it as a basic right, even a duty) stress that a citizen should take this step only after all conventional channels for redress have been exhausted, because civil disobedience has potentially serious consequences. The indicators favouring civil disobedience are:

• Just like the indicators favouring a challenge:
  • You have obtained legal advice that your defense has reasonable grounds.
  • You can make a strong case for how the public will benefit from a win (especially if the proposed change would benefit Christian churches or ministries).
• You can disobey without using violence.
• You are willing to accept the consequences.

There is a high likelihood of fines and possibly even jail time if you disobey the law, so know in advance what you are getting yourself and your team into.

If you choose to disobey, there is a “must read” guide published by The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada: an excellent primer on civil disobedience that includes a discussion on when civil disobedience is justified. Study this and make good use of it if civil disobedience is your choice.

Final Questions to Ask

Three questions to ask before selecting a response option may help confirm that it is the right choice for your ministry: 

1. What is the lasting legacy we want to leave with the secular public when this is all over? 
2. Will this response damage Jesus Christ’s reputation and that of the church? 
3. Will this decision help us fulfill the church’s mission?

Concluding Thought

Deciding between the response options can be a weighty and difficult choice, but the Lord has promised to give us wisdom when we ask it of him (James 1:5).

The post  Advocating for Legal/Public Policy Changes appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

In an already divisive election campaign, what is so problematic about a proposal to remove charitable status from pro-life groups? Where did this platform come from, and how should we respond?

When the election was called this summer, few imagined that the registered charitable status of pro-life groups would be on a party’s platform. Now it is a troubling reality. The statement is:

“[Our] … government will no longer provide charity status to anti-abortion organizations (for example, Crisis Pregnancy Centres) that provide dishonest counseling to women about their rights and about the options available to them at all stages of the pregnancy.”

It’s not unusual for some charities to face political pressure or public scrutiny, but, to my knowledge, this is the first time that an election campaign in Canada has pledged to take away registered charitable status from certain groups. Given the recent treatment of pro-life organizations by the government, as evident in the Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) controversy, this announcement should concern any group – not just pregnancy care centres – that might disagree with the government. Historically, charitable status has been based on a recognition of public benefit. This election platform would, instead, make charitable status dependent on political favour. In other words, politics has now moved into charity regulation in a big way.

Unfortunately, I am not surprised by this development. In fact, I am surprised it has taken so long to get to this point. Throughout my career as a lawyer, I have noticed a change in attitude within the legal and political communities towards traditional religious organizations. There is little patience for anyone outside of the mainstream – particularly religious groups with conservative views on fundamental human life issues such as marriage, birth, and end-of-life. Of course, anti-religious sentiment has been around for a very long time, but in the last two decades we have such disdain pick up momentum.

The Background: Incremental Steps

Those of us involved in law and religion have witnessed a steady beat of incremental change in how the government treats the religious expression of the Christian community. Generally, these changes have not caused much of a stir. For example, when the Supreme Court of Canada refused the Hutterites accommodation from having their photographs taken for Alberta driver’s licenses in 2009, the broader Christian community did not seem worried about how the decision might affect them. It could be that some were simply unaware of what was happening – or, if they were aware, they felt powerless to react; many might not have understood the long-term implications of the SCC’s decision. Hindsight, as they say, is always 20/20.

The Hutterite Brethren case marked the beginning of a new, more intense trend against religious practice. The pivotal moment came in 2018 with the Trinity Western University (TWU) decision. TWU was denied approval for its law school because its admissions policy required students to not violate its teachings on marriage. The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) called TWU’s policy “degrading and disrespectful.” However, what was truly disrespectful was the SCC’s mistreatment of TWU’s religious freedom.

The TWU case, more than any other, laid the groundwork for the politicization of charitable status. The Canadian Bar Association, in its representation to the SCC during the TWU case, made it clear that registered charitable status ought to be reviewed in light of “Charter values.” (“Charter values” is a catchphrase that legal academics and judges use as a guide to determine whether a law or policy is acceptable. The problem is that “Charter values” – unlike Charter rights – are undefined; they tend to be determined by the “idiosyncrasies” or subjective preferences of the judge.) Thus, TWU’s admissions policy was said to be in violation of “Charter values” even though TWU was not subject to the Charter and had a claim to religious freedom. But, in the mind of the SCC’s majority, this private Christian university could not have a law school because its policies were deemed discriminatory.

Recognizing that registration of religious charities would be targeted as a result of the TWU decision by the SCC, I began editing a book, The Status of Religion and the Public Benefit in Charity Law (Anthem Press, 2020). I warned that, given the political and legal climate, pro-life charities could soon face deregistration. It was my view then (and, unfortunately, it is now coming to fruition) that the government’s handling of the Canada Summer Jobs program was but a harbinger of what was to come. In the CSJ situation, the government required applicants for funding to “check the box” stating that they were in favour of the government’s position on abortion and marriage. I noted in the book that “The CSJ controversy provides an example of how a politically charged public policy issue can quickly and readily transform into a call for removing charitable status of non-conforming religious organizations” (186).

The Canada Summer Jobs Program

The CSJ controversy arose because the government responded to criticism from the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC). ARCC was dismayed that the government had given money to groups who were opposed to abortion. ARCC’s Executive Director called upon the government not to allow CSJ funding to go to “groups that try to remove human rights with bullying and harassment campaigns” (1). “Funding anti-human rights groups does not support communities or teach skills that lead to full-time paid employment with ethical employers,” said ARCC (1). The government responded by putting the attestation requirement on the CSJ application form.[1]

Across the country and across the political spectrum, the attestation was met with severe criticism. Although the government refused to compromise or modify the application form in 2018, in subsequent years they removed the attestation. Unfortunately, the government then proceeded with a systematic “review” of all applications from religious organizations – including online materials – to see if there was any evidence of discrimination that would disqualify them from receiving CSJ funding.

In June 2021, the government lost two cases at the Federal Court of Canada[2] for their mishandling of CSJ applicants. The Court was so displeased that it ordered the government to pay the legal fees of the charities who challenged the government’s rejection of CSJ funding. The Federal Court was not pleased with how the government handled the CSJ application. In the Redeemer case, the Court observed that the government found the university’s teachings on marriage “discriminatory” and a letter was sent to Redeemer to provide further information. However, nothing in the letter addressed Redeemer’s teaching on marriage as the cause of concern. The Federal Court said the letter was not “a genuine attempt to seek clarification” but “was simply going through the motions to appear to be fair, not an exercise in fairness itself” (at para 40).  

The Federal Court did not deal with the Charter issue since it ruled against the government on the procedural issue. However, it made it clear that “Should it be established in another case that officials discriminated in administering funding programs against faith-based institutions because of the sincerely held religious beliefs of their community, a finding of a Charter violation may well result. Such institutions must be treated not just with procedural fairness but also with respect for their Charter-protected rights” (at para 47).

The government’s most recent proposal to exclude pro-life groups from having charitable status is, in my view, a continuation of the Canada Summer Jobs debacle. Pro-life groups are facing political pressure, including calls from ARCC to remove registered charitable status from ‘anti-abortion agencies.’ However, such groups do have Charter rights. If it can be shown that the government discriminated against pro-life groups because of a political or partisan ideology, a strong argument will be made that such discrimination is unconstitutional.

What the Proposal Could Mean for CCCC members

In the meantime, members of CCCC should be concerned. Stripping pregnancy care centres of registered charitable status would make it much more difficult for those centres to continue providing much-needed support to vulnerable women. But the implications reach even further. The political platform is ambiguous; it mentions “crisis pregnancy centres” as an example, but it refers more broadly to “anti-abortion organizations” who provide “dishonest counselling.”

There are no clear definitions. Would this capture churches? Is a pro-life sermon or Sunday school lesson “dishonest”? What are the “rights” and “options” mentioned in the proposal? Contrary to the government’s assertions, there is no “right” to abortion in the Constitution. What about organizations that hold religious views about the beginnings of life – are they now subject to being deregistered? It would appear that many charities could be affected by this platform if it becomes reality.

What You Can Do

Given this dramatic proposal for change in policy to politicize the charitable registration process, it is appropriate that Christian charities become more engaged in finding out where all the political parties and candidates stand on these issues. The CRA guidance on public policy activities allows charities to engage in matters of public policy so long as it furthers your charitable purpose and you do not engage in partisan politics. This means that you cannot promote one party or candidate over another, but you can reach out to your donors, volunteers, and clients to encourage them to become informed on the issues and to share their stories of the positive impact your ministry has had on their lives. CCCC has published guidance on Public Policy Dialogue and Development Activities (PPDDAS) for its members in the Knowledge Base found here.

All political parties, candidates, and indeed the entire Canadian population, should be aware of the great work our charities do for the common good of Canada. We need to let them know. We need to encourage them to see through the political fog to keep our charities registered.

You may want to order your copy of The Status of Religion and the Public Benefit in Charity Law and get in-depth knowledge of why your charity remains a public benefit.

Further, you may find my chapter from this book helpful, as I offer an in-depth analysis predicting that this day would come sooner or later. Download a copy here.

Finally, we need to join together in praying for our country and our leadership during this difficult time.

[1] For a full review see Barry W. Bussey, “The Canada Summer Jobs Debate and the Democratic Decline” (2019) 91 Supreme Court Law Review (2d), pp. 245-296. Available at SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3401591.

[2] Redeemer University College v. Canada (Employment, Workforce Development and Labour), 2021 FC 686 (CanLII), <https://canlii.ca/t/jgpzv>, BCM International Canada Inc. v. Canada (Employment, Workforce Development and Labour), 2021 FC 687 (CanLII), <https://canlii.ca/t/jgpzw>

The post Charitable Status at Issue In The 2021 Federal Election appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

CCCC members who would like to discuss this post can do so in The Green.

God has an exciting trajectory for humanity that leads from a world populated by two people with nothing of human design in it to a highly populated society designed and built by humans. Jews and Christians know this trajectory as the Creation Mandate, which was given to all humanity in Genesis 1:26-28. Everyone else is on the same trajectory but thinks of it as simply human progress. Either way, all well-intentioned people have the same objective: to build a good world that will sustain and support a thriving humanity. This shared goal gives Christians a great way to build bridges into all other communities.

However, it may be that some Christians are not making the most of this opportunity to reach out to our neighbours because the Creation Mandate is often sidelined in favour of the Great Commission. We could all benefit from a fresh review of the Creation Mandate and our response to it because the mandate is vitally important to God and his plan for both creation and humanity.

The Creation Mandate

I find it remarkable, but in line with God’s generous character, that he gave humanity the responsibility of co-creating the world that will support our growing population. In giving the Creation Mandate, God charged Adam and Eve (and through them, all humanity) to subdue the earth and to rule over all living creatures.

Subdue

Since Genesis 1 is all about how God created order out of chaos, the best of the different meanings of subdue in this context is “to control for the purpose of establishing order.” Today, we call this creation care.

Genesis 2:15 helps us understand how to care for creation as God’s stewards in a way that pleases him: “Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” The crucial words are cultivate and keep. Here’s a good explanation of what God wanted Adam to do:

[Cultivate] can be translated as work, nurture, sustain, and husband; [keep] means to safeguard, preserve, care for, and protect. These are active verbs that convey God’s intention that human beings both develop and cherish the world in ways that meet human needs and bring glory and honor to him. . . . Human beings are, by divine intent and their very nature, world-makers.

James Davison Hunter. To Change the World, p 3.

God expects us to bring order to the natural world and then cultivate and care for it so that it continues to provide sustenance and enjoyment to humanity. Without idolizing creation, we are to cherish it as the treasure it is.

Rule

The best of the available meanings of rule in the context of Genesis 1 is “to have charge of.”  We have charge over all living things, and the way we rule must align with the way God rules. That means we must rule with the goal of ‘justice‘ because God created humanity in a condition of justice (shalom), where each person had his or her due share of God’s creation. And it means our rule must be characterized the same way as Psalm 145 characterizes God’s rule. He rules by wisdom, power, goodness, grace, compassion, faithfulness, generosity, provision, protection, justice, and love.

Our Responsibility

Since the Creation Mandate was given before the fall and has never been rescinded, it continues to apply to everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike. Theologian N. T. Wright is careful to distinguish between the Creation Mandate to build our world and God’s work of building his kingdom, and he makes it clear that fulfilling the Creation Mandate is not optional:  

God builds God’s kingdom. But God ordered his world in such a way that his own work within that world takes place not least through the human beings who reflect his image. . . . He has enlisted us to act as his stewards in the project of creation. . . . Through the work of Jesus and the power of the Spirit, he equips humans to help. . . . The objection about us trying to build God’s kingdom by our own efforts, though it seems humble and pious, can actually be a way of hiding from responsibility, of keeping one’s head well down when the boss is looking for volunteers.

N. T. Wright. Surprised By Hope. P 207.

Another theologian makes the same point about the obligation of fulfilling the Creation Mandate. Doing so as God’s representative “is the basic purpose for which God created humanity. We are responsible to God to manage and develop and care for creation.”¹

The Necessity of the Creation Mandate

Continuing to build our world helps it provide for our growing needs. As the population increased beyond Adam and Eve, there was a need to construct social institutions to help us relate to one another and coordinate our activities. We needed economic systems for trade and investment so we could diversify and specialize our work so some people produce what we need for survival and others work in science, medicine, or the arts. We could also pool resources to do projects that no single individual could do. As populations became denser, we developed technology to provide more bountiful food supplies and to distribute food and goods across longer distances. We built an educational system to support discovery of new knowledge and to pass it on to others. Today we still need to learn how to use the world’s resources wisely, particularly for energy, and create ways to sustain life on an increasingly densely populated planet.

These are all issues that Christians ought to care about and be involved in, so we should not withdraw from politics, banking, the arts, or any of the other things that evangelicals have tended to shy away from. Christians need to be active in all aspects of world-making to fight against the effects of sin (including our own) and keep all human-designed systems working for the good of all humanity.

What Creation Care Looks Like

Not properly stewarding God’s physical creation has dire consequences, according to the authors of Caring for Creation (Mitch Hescox and Paul Douglas). They say that disregarding God’s instructions to tend and care for the earth results in the earth’s failure to provide the necessities for sustaining life. While I haven’t done my own research, they cite research showing, for example, that there is a strong link between petrochemicals and fossil fuel energy and conditions such as asthma, autism, ADHD, and allergies. Breast cancer has risen from a lifetime risk of 5% to 12.5% since the 1960s, and research is increasingly showing that plastics and chemicals that act like hormones in our bodies are the likely culprits.² Environmental stewardship is crucial to our future! As Christians, we should be at the forefront of environmental activism.

Caring for Creation is an excellent book for anyone wondering about how real the environmental issues are or anyone wanting to start caring more for God’s creation. The authors provide plenty of research, some theological reflection, and ideas for what individuals and churches can do.

N. T. Wright describes a different aspect of creation care: adding beauty to our world:

Part of the role of the church in the past was – and could and should be again – to foster and sustain lives of beauty and aesthetic meaning at every level, from music making in the village pub to drama in the local primary school, from artists’ and photographers’ workshops to still-life painting classes, from symphony concerts . . . to driftwood sculptures. The church, because it is the family that believes in hope for new creation, should be the place in every town and village where new creativity bursts forth for the whole community, pointing to the hope that, like all beauty, always comes as a surprise.

N. T. Wright. Surprised By Hope. P 231-32.

Beauty is not superfluous. It was important enough to God that he did not make a utilitarian world. He wasn’t concerned only with functionality. Because beauty is important to him, he demonstrated great creativity and artistry in creating a world that delights, amazes, and stimulates wonder. He gave us our senses to enjoy beauty. He gave us minds that can appreciate beauty. If beauty is important to God, it should be important to us too.

Creation care is about much more than environmental stewardship; it is about caring for the complete environment in which humans exist — social, intellectual, emotional, and so on.

What Justice Looks Like

Here’s one vision for what ruling with justice looks like:

Part of the task of the church must be to take up that sense of injustice, to bring it to speech, to help people articulate it and, when they are ready to do so, to turn it into prayer. And the task then continues with the church’s work with the whole local community, to foster programs for better housing, schools, and community facilities, to encourage new job opportunities, to campaign and cajole and work with local government and councils, and, in short, to foster hope at any and every level.

N. T. Wright. Surprised by Hope. P 231.

Greg Paul’s book Resurrecting Religion: Finding Our Way Back to the Good News puts a human face to the suffering caused by injustices right here in Canada. The book is challenging because readers will come to realize that we can’t ignore our role, whether active or passive, in sustaining these injustices that are part of our own society. Paul writes:

Imagine if the church in this world, and the individuals who make it up, actually looked and acted like Jesus. Instead of spending most of our time and resources on a razzle-dazzle Sunday morning service, together we’d heal the sick, feed the hungry, embrace the unwelcome, set prisoners free, restore the dignity of people who have been humiliated, flip the tables of oppressive economics, offer forgiveness instead of seeking vengeance, sacrifice rather than protect ourselves, and much, much more. We’d vote for governments that promised to do those things . . . we’d be content with having enough, we’d share our excess with those who don’t have enough. We’d do all this as well as announcing the Good News of salvation for the individual soul — in fact, we’d do all this as a means of announcing it. Because that is what Jesus did.

Greg Paul. Resurrecting Religion. P 76-77.

Ensuring all humanity experiences God’s justice (shalom) is the basic rationale for all compassion ministry.

We Can’t Go Back

Because some people have romantic ideas about returning the world to what they consider is some earlier idyllic time when everything seemed to be just right, it must be noted that God’s trajectory does not include a return to the past. The trajectory is not a circle, but a line that takes human history in only one direction: from God’s creative work in the past to God’s ideal future for humanity.

And we should also watch out for another error: dualism. That happens when we think that a pure, pristine, 100% natural world is the goal. In that thinking, nature is good and human development (such as cities) is bad. But God’s ideal future for us includes nation states, economies, and political governance (see Revelation 21:24), and those structures will be the continuation of what we have built by fulfilling our responsibilities under the Creation Mandate.

This last point needs to be emphasized. The work we do today to create a better world has eternal consequences. Our work isn’t going to be undone by God at the end of time. Instead, God will perfect it! N. T. Wright has a great explanation of how what we do today will carry over into God’s ideal future:

The final coming together of heaven and earth is, of course, God’s supreme act of new creation. . . . He alone will make the “new heavens and new earth.”. . . But what we can and must do in the present, if we are obedient to the gospel, if we are following Jesus, and if we are indwelt, energized, and directed by the Spirit, is to build for the kingdom. . . . You are accomplishing something that will become in due course part of God’s new world. Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one’s fellow human beings and for that matter one’s fellow nonhuman creatures; and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honored in the world – all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make. That is the logic of the mission of God.

N. T. Wright. Surprised By Hope. P 208.

Our goal is not to stay put at some comfortable place we find along the way, or to return to an earlier point, but to keep pressing on toward God’s ideal future.

Engaging with the Creation Mandate

As Christians, our knowledge of God and his ways will help us decide at each step along the trajectory what is good and what is not. These are matters that the church can and should address. Christians should be at the forefront of caring for and ruling over creation. While we certainly shouldn’t browbeat people with biblical verses to support this or that Christian view, we can use Scripture and theology to form a godly position and then because creation follows natural laws laid down by God, find good research to support our position and convince non-Christians of the goodness of it.

There are two reasons why Christians must engage in the Creation Mandate:

1. It is our responsibility: If we leave the responsibility for God’s creation to only those who do not know God, we would be irresponsible stewards. We have perspectives that might not otherwise be heard. Although non-Christians can manage reasonably well using human wisdom founded on natural revelation and their God-given capacity for reasoning, they won’t have the benefit of the knowledge of God and his ways as Christians do. And we should be working beside them anyway. It would be to our shame if the non-Christian world took better care of God’s world than we did.
2. It builds a bridge: Working on the Creation Mandate builds a bridge from the Christian community to all other communities because we both want the natural world to be in the very best condition for humanity to thrive. Doors may open for the Gospel message to be conveyed and accepted when we work together in common cause.

How Churches Can Fulfill the Creation Mandate

The discussion guide attached to this post will help your church get started on identifying the role it could play in helping Christians fulfill the Creation Mandate. Here are some high-level ideas to prepare for that discussion:

• Deliver a sermon series on the theme of justice throughout the Bible. A great resource for preaching about justice is Let Justice Roll Down by Bruce Birch. Alternatively, find a Bible study or write one for small group or personal study.
• Teach the biblical principles that should guide how Christians should think about any of the issues in our society so they can do their own analysis and develop a position. How does God want us to think? What should our priorities and values be? What are the parameters of a good position?
• Prepare your congregational members to be great stewards of the Creation Mandate by ensuring they have been transformed by Christ to rule with the characteristics of God’s rule as listed above. As N. T. Wright says, “If the gospel isn’t transforming you, how do you know that it will transform anyone else?”³

Key Thought: Christians must engage with the Creation Mandate as part of God’s plan for humanity.

“The books, Caring for Creation: The Evangelical Guide to Climate Change and a Healthy Environment and Resurrecting Religion have been provided courtesy of Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available now at your favourite bookseller.”

The post The Creation Mandate: Our Responsibility and Our Bridge appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

Make a lampstand of pure gold. Hammer out its base and shaft, and make its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms of one piece with them. Exodus 25:31

It’s fascinating that God was so particular in giving instructions about how to build the Tabernacle. He could have said, “Build a lampstand” but he didn’t. He said “Build a lampstand using a hammer and be sure to put exactly this ornamentation on it.” God could have finished working on creation when it was made up of things that were only utilitarian. He could have stopped designing when he had the functions he wanted. But he didn’t. He went beyond what was strictly necessary to add beauty to utility and form to function.

Was the artistic detail of the lampstand for his benefit or ours? I think it was for both. Bearing his image, I’m sure we find beautiful what God finds beautiful, so we can both enjoy good art. And since God gives us artistic skills, the church should support the arts. In fact, I think it is more important that we do so now than it has been for many decades.

Why the Church Needs More Art Now

Why now? Because the last fifty years has seen the public frame their perception of the socially conservative wing of the church by what it opposes, not for what it promotes. As you’ll find in upcoming posts, I believe the church must be much more intentional about telling our story – who we are and what we do.

But telling stories is just one way to communicate. The arts, by which I mean everything from architecture to music to literature to dance to visual arts of all sorts, are a great way to convey impressions and messages on a more subtle, emotional level. We can use various forms of art to put a warm and engaging face to our faith in addition to all the other good things we do in God’s name and to make him look good.

Historical Examples

We’ve done this before quite well. Throughout history, the church was the pre-eminent patron of the arts in the Western world. It used the arts to build magnificent buildings which speak of God’s glory. Chancel, nave, and transcepts made the church building itself a cross and meant our worship and prayers were made from inside a representation of the cross. Architects learned how to build higher and thinner walls to give the sacred place a hint of the majesty of God and to allow the stained glass windows to be as large as possible. The many tri-fold arches and windows speak of the Trinity.

Music also speaks of God. The musical scales we use, four-part harmony, and the musical notation system were all developed to facilitate church singing. The pipe organ was developed from a rudimentary set of flutes to an engineering marvel because (until the synthesizer was invented) it was the only musical instrument which could play a note forever with no diminishment of sound. That’s important because the lack of any decay in sound was likened to the eternal nature of God!

When literacy was low and Bibles were scarce, churches portrayed the biblical stories in art, particularly in stained glass windows. Parishioners could ‘read’ the Bible through their church’s art.

Now that we read the Bible itself, art serves to remind us of those stories and help us reflect on who God is and our relationship with him.

Why the Arts Are Important

Tom Wright makes a great case for why the church should support the arts:

“Part of the role of the church in the past was – and could and should be again – to foster and sustain lives of beauty and aesthetic meaning at every level, from music making in the village pub to drama in the local primary school, from artists’ and photographers’ workshops to still-life painting classes, from symphony concerts to driftwood sculptures. The church, because it is the family that believes in hope for new creation, should be the place in every town and village where new creation bursts forth for the whole community, pointing to the hope that, like all beauty, always comes as a surprise.” Tom Wright¹.

Innovative Approaches to the Arts

The Pentecostal Assemblies of Newfoundland & Labrador (PAONL) made a serious commitment to the arts in 2012 when they purchased a commercial theatre. The venerable Majestic Theatre had been a cultural fixture in Saint John’s, NL for 190 years at that point. When it went out of business, the PAONL purchased the building and today they are close to finishing its refurbishment so it can be used again for live theatre. As I heard from PAONL about their plans for the theatre, I got excited about the possibilities. It will be used for church outreach events and for regular theatre productions. This is about the church showing support for its community and accomplishing its mission at the same time.

I recently visited Westside Church in Vancouver which is located in a former live theatre. A group of Christian business leaders bought the building and then dedicated it to the church for its own use and to rent it out for live, secular theatre productions. In fact, the venue is of such high quality that the Vancouver International Film Festival is held in the building. Hollywood producers and stars attending the festival are treated to a beautiful church facility complete with billboards for Children’s ministry and Small Group Bible studies, and of course, a large cross on the stage. Nothing is taken down when Hollywood comes to town!

Christianity and the Arts

If you are interested in the historical details of the relationship between the church and the arts, How Christianity Changed the World is a good overview of how Christian faith shaped art, architecture, music, and literature, as well as science, medicine, education and so on.

And if you would like to explore more about Christian arts through history, there is an excellent coffee table book which surveys great works of Christian art, literature, music, and film through the millennia entitled 75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know. The stories behind each of the artistic selections are quite interesting, and you may (as I did) decide to delve deeper into the world of Christian art. This book is a great survey of a wide selection of art in its many forms. You’ll know what to look for and will appreciate its significance when you find it. The book covers everything from Michelangelo to Makoto Fujimura, from Mendelssohn to Bob Dylan, from the windows of Sainte-Chapelle to the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. It’s a very engaging read!

How Art Can Be Used

Christian art doesn’t have to have explicit Christian imagery to be considered Christian and useful. It just needs to be created by a good artist who sees the world through Christian eyes.

Art Talks about God

In Art for God’s Sake: A Call to Recover the Arts, Philip Ryken says that art is capable of appealing to our longing for beauty. It communicates to Christians and others a portion of God’s beautiful creation. It draws our attention to parts of God’s creation that we may never personally see, or notice even if we do see it. Art can therefore be a subtle outreach to our culture. A lot of today’s art is created from a pessimistic view of the world and represents values at odds with Christian values. Christian art could have a more positive view based on different values, celebrating the positive world that God created and is re-creating through Jesus Christ.

As I look at the picture of the peacock below, I marvel that God created such a magnificent display of feathers. Why are there so many varieties of birds, as opposed to just one kind? Why are there such dramatic differences between a peacock, a cardinal, and a pigeon? The variety tells us something about God. He obviously likes variety and there are so many beautiful possibilities he imagined for designing a bird that he couldn’t design them all into just one species! So he gave us many. At least, that’s my guess.

Art Talks about Us

But in addition to the beauty of God’s creation, great Christian art can also portray the darkness and ugliness of a world caught in sin and separated from God. We can use art to to enhance our evangelism programs and to advocate on behalf of those who need our help. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a good example of Christian advocacy literature. Images, plays, novels – all can help us understand who we are and our need for God’s love and forgiveness. I think the greatest single piece of Christian literature has got to be Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. I love this book! From cover to cover, God’s grace flows liberally through the story! Many people wouldn’t think of picking up the Bible, but they will pick up a novel.

Building Design

Here are two great examples of adding aesthetic value into the design of our churches. The first one is historical and the second is present day. For the best modern-day example that I know of, of incorporating art into church design and decoration, check out Southview Church in Calgary.

The central tower of Wells Cathedral was built in the early 1200s, and in 1313 was heightened by about thirty feet. Unfortunately, the pressure of the extra weight began to buckle the walls of the church and they had to be braced. Additional pillars would have served the purpose and been a utilitarian solution. But between 1338-1348, master mason William Joy designed and built the incredibly beautiful and unique “scissor-arches” that support the tower and add beauty. His solution to an engineering problem became the “trademark” of the Cathedral.

Brandon Malo, pastor of Elevation in Waterloo, ON told me the story of how his church came to meet in a beautiful sanctuary. When he needed a larger space for his church of young families, he visited St. John’s Lutheran church, a gorgeous stone church near downtown Waterloo. He by-passed the sanctuary and looked at the gym, which was what the congregation was used to, and thought it would be great for his church. When he brought his steering committee to see the gym, they never got past the sanctuary. Looking at its beauty, they said to him, “Why would you worship in a gym when you could be worshipping here?” He coordinated service times with the Lutherans and they now share the same delightful sanctuary!

Centre Street Church in Calgary needed a humidifier system for their building. They could have purchased equipment and done a standard job, but instead they chose to design a waterfall for their foyer. Not only do they have a beautiful attraction that doubles as a humidifier, but they also have a pool in which to do baptisms! A great job of bringing ‘living water’ indoors!

Now I’m not saying that we should be building cathedrals today. But could we pay more attention to the arts in the buildings we do have? The examples I’ve given so far come from large churches, but most churches today are small, between 50 to 200 people. However, even a small church can add beauty to its building. Maybe you won’t have a dramatic waterfall, but you could spruce it up with greenery or some artwork. Even just the way you paint your walls might add beauty.

I recently visited Journey Canada in Vancouver and this small office created an immediately favourable impression of their ministry through brightly coloured walls, a bold painting and a decorative brass vase. What a surprisingly beautiful sanctuary of sensory delight inside an old brick manufacturing building that used to house a coffin manufacturer!

Barrhead Church of God in Barrhead, AB has a stained glass picture mounted on a light box, which adds to the visual interest of their foyer.

Art Distinguishes ‘Place’

Art lets people know they are somewhere distinctive. It denotes that “this place is different from other places.” James Davison Hunter writes that “when the physical places we inhabit look alike, place seems to matter even less. What was distinctive about a place [pales] into [an anonymous] space and we end up with what James Kunstler has called ‘a geography of nowhere’ – where every place looks like no place in particular.”² Art can create places of wonder, awe, and mystery.

Art and the Poor

Ray Bakke has said that “The poor need beauty as well as bread.” According to Charlie Self, “It is not too expensive to invite artists and artisans, builders and craftsmen, to adorn the worship locale with color, light, and images that convey the mission, vision, and values of the community. Simplicity does not mean plainness, and good stewardship includes aesthetic leadership.”³

So what can we do?

First, here are three other articles with great ideas for how to support or use the arts:

• Comment magazine: The Church’s Role in Art
• RELEVANT magazine: 5 Ways the Church Can Make Art Great Again
• Faith Today magazine: Artful Discipleship: How the arts can help in spiritual formation

Display Their Visual Art

CCCC invited six young aspiring Christian artists to exhibit their work at The Pursuit ’16 conference. All of them made sales and took away leads for further work. This is an easy way to promote their careers and delight your members.

Yorkminster Park Baptist Church in Toronto actually has an art gallery in their church. It’s beautiful and tells visitors they care about the local arts community.

Buy Their Products/Services

Of course, you can directly promote their careers by purchasing their books, music, or visual art. Or hire them for an event. CCCC hired a Christian acting troupe to perform at the conference banquet this year. I personally purchased a painting from one of the young artists exhibiting at the conference. Click on the picture for “Dusk” and you will be taken to the artist’s gallery. And CCCC commissioned another of the artists to do an original piece of art for us: a starling murmuration, a very meaningful image for us. It speaks of community leadership, as I described (with a video) in my community leadership post.

Key Thought: Part of our witness to the world is showing how the beauty of our world reflects the beauty of God. 

“The book, 75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know has been provided courtesy of Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available now at your favourite bookseller.”

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