I periodically search Google for evidence of growth in the relationship between the visual arts and the Church. On my most recent search of "Art in Church" I discovered an article published in Time Magazine called "Art Needs the Church". The article highlighted a decision by the National Council of Churches to establish a Department of Worship and the Arts. If I hadn't been paying attention I might of missed that the article was dated February 13, 1956. That's right, 1956. Take Google at face value and you would think not much has happened with "Art in Church" for over 50 years (other than the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and an article by Alfred J. Freddoso at University of Notre Dame).

The article "Art Needs the Church" seemed to parrallel many of the conversations I have overheard or participated in, with quotes like "The church should have a vanguard of men and women qualified to interpret the significance of contemporary art for the believer ... in terms of Christian criteria." or...

"The church must also "challenge and expose the unexamined errors of our contemporaries in all that concerns their values, loyalties, way of life and assumptions in connection with the novels they read, the plays and films they see, the music they play and hear, the buildings in which they live, work and worship, the social symbols they revere, the dreams and fables, indeed the myths they feed upon." or...

"reassume its ancient and proper responsibility and productivity with reference to all the arts," an undertaking that "it could well begin by purging its own arts [of the] insipid or precious or esoteric or sentimental."

However, this is a 50 year discussion that many visual artists are moving beyond; starting to look at how missional and emerging church ideas impact their role as artists who are Christian. Many are interested in moving INTO a more dynamic role as extensions of the Church's cultural contribution to and critique of contemporary culture. This desire for a more integrated geography of presentation doesn't mean the abandonment of exhibiting art in churches, but that a singular focus on the empty walls of a church overlooks the opportunity to fill empty walls in society.

Image by Georges Roualt, Celui Qui Croit En Moi, Fut-Il Mort Vivra, 1956