When The Artist and Preacher Becomes One - A Call To All Artists in Our Churches

A new day has dawned on me for my life as a preacher or as a speaker.

This is the dawning of  a new era as an artist preacher.

All those times I have been wondering how the two callings or two roles of my life will merge into one. These two callings or two roles I am talking about is me:

     - being an artist;

     - and being a preacher/speaker.

As an Artist

I discovered myself being an artist even before I know how to read. Being an artist, I believe, is a gift from God. This is my essence that can never be changed nor be taken away from me. I have experienced being an accountant, a manager, an organizer, a speaker and a leader, but all of these roles may come and go, but being an artist can't. 

And the ironic thing was when I became a Christian, it was in this stage of my life that I have experienced how arts was not given emphasis, importance and support by the churches I grew up with. Speaking of misconceptions, some even thought that art is not spiritual. So, in this stage, I have allowed that this "belief" suppressed myself being an artist. But it was inevitable- an artist is always an artist. No matter how it was tried to be suppressed, it always came out and it always manifested in me in different ways. Yes, it is true indeed - you cannot deny what God made you. You must be what God has created you to be.

Lately, when I found freedom through radical grace and truths, I have embraced once again who I really am as an artist. In this point of time, all potentials that were suppressed all those years were unleashed again.

As A Preacher

As a preacher, this is the calling of God for my life. This is my passion and my heartbeat. This is my passion to preach Christ and Him alone. I have been almost stopped by criticism, judgmental people, my own failures and my wrongdoings, but indeed- once a preacher, always a preacher. The gift and calling of God do not change. 

Since I was called to preach at a young age, I have almost preached thousand of messages since then. I have preached to different kinds of people in different places. There were also times when I already preached creatively using some visuals and activities. There were some heights, and there were some depths. There were times preaching to thousand, and there were times preaching to just a handful of people. There was a continuum, but there was also a year of pause, but being a preacher will always be here in my heart.

But another thing I have learned was-  being a speaker or a preacher is not limited to the podium or to the pulpit. I can still be a preacher in the streets, in the bus lines, in the homes, in the community, in the campuses, in highways and byways- just like Jesus was. But no matter wherever I go, no matter what I do, still the passion to preach will always be here in my heart and as long God has given me a voice and the privilege to do it, I will do it. I will do it because I love God, and I love helping people.

But somehow, I was wondering, when will the role of me as an artist merge to my role as a speaker or preacher?

Artist and Preacher As One

Today is the day that this question has been answered. This is dawning of the new era of my life. I was amazed that all it takes was - 

    for me to decide.

And this was a decision to embrace what God has really made me as me.

I preached yesterday blending my gift as an artist and as a preacher. Just like Jesus who used visuals in his teaching - he used coins, mustard seed, fig tree, salt, light, birds, children, soil, and the rest- to drive his points, so I chose to mimic what He did in delivering a message. I believe Jesus is an artist, a creative one, who master in the art of carpentry and craftsmanship. He, too, was an artist and a preacher rolled into one.

I preached yesterday both as an artist and a preacher. I have been set free from the basics of delivering the message either in one-point, three-point or four-point message. [Though I still love these styles but I consider them just the basics and not my limits]. I have been set free from the homiletic style set by the West for us. I went back radically to the roots of preaching, and it is in Jesus style of preaching - telling the message in a practical, dynamic, story-based, and Christ-centered way. This is liberating, visionary and revolutionary especially if one does it in the style God has crafted for him or her. 

And this-artist preacher - is God's workmanship in me. Herein I resolved and embraced these two callings of my life. This is my style of preaching- radical, creative, artistic, visual, revolutionary, inspiring, practical and above all, Jesus-exalting.

Let me share to you about "Mashach." "Mashach" is the Hebrew word for "anointing." "Mashach" means "to be spray-painted by the Holy Spirit," and this what I feel every time I preached. I was being spray-painted by the Holy Spirit. I stand preaching Jesus and His words having this "mashach" experience - artist and preacher rolled into one.

And in moment like this, I am no longer the artist.

I am just the brush.

The colors are the Word of God.

The hand is the Hand of God.

The preaching time is the time God is making a masterpiece.

And the masterpiece is -

       ...the changed lives of people.

A CALL TO ALL ARTISTS IN OUR CHURCHES

I am calling to all who have the calling and the passion to preach the radical truths of Jesus to discover your own style and gift in delivering His message. You don't have to be totally like with those preachers you admire. I do believe that you have your own style which you can deliver, and just like David shunning the armor given to him to face Goliath, you can also choose the tools or styles that has already been proven by you. If you are not an artist, it is fine as long as you declare the message of Jesus in the strength God has endowed on you.


But if you are an artist, I am calling to you and to all artists in the churches to come out and show the potentials God has given you. Don't allow misconceptions, insecurity,criticisms, legalism, and fear suppress your gift as an artist. Even Jesus was questioned related to his craftsmanship when people asked, "Is not this the carpenter's son?" Though Jesus totally embraced his ministry as a preacher for the rest of his life, but his creativity and artistic wit were incorporated in all of his messages through his visuals. He even died by being "nailed" on the Cross- the very last expression of him being human as a carpenter. Your gift as an artist is a gift from God and you can use it for the glory of God.


If you are a singer, a dancer, a rapper, a poet, a photographer, a filmmaker, a graphic artist, or whatever line of art you are in- incorporate and merge it into being a messenger of the love of God. Don't separate your arts from your calling, nor your calling from your arts. Merge them into one because both were given to you by God. God has given them to you with a purpose. 


Your gift has been given to be ultimately aligned with the mission of God for your life. Your art has been commissioned by the Great Commission.


If God, one time, has literally wrote on the wall to show His warning to the Israelites, why not we as artists use our medium to declare the message of God?


Mashach,
A r t  R o y  R e m y