Karl Vaters says it’s time to put art, creativity, passion and beauty front-and-center in the church again:

I wish there were more artists in the church.

No, not painters and sculptors. Actually, yes, those too.

Mostly I wish there were more church leaders who saw the art in their ministry.

Church leaders who put the same kind of passion and creativity into their calling that artists put into their craft.

A Prophetic Imagination

Instead of learning from artists, most of our church leadership teaching in the last forty years has taken its cue from managers, CEOs and salespeople.

Not that we can’t learn a lot from them. I know I have. Good management is certainly a big part of biblical leadership and stewardship.

But we’ve been managing ourselves to death – or at least irrelevance – in much of the western church world.

We need artists to bring in some vital elements that the church hasn’t had enough of for a long time.

Passion.

Beauty.

Joy.

Anger.

Even a bit of holy fear.

The church needs to be filled and led by people with a prophetic imagination.

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