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#echo10 | Maiden from Gateway Church on Vimeo.

Last Sunday  Carlos Whittaker posted a simple question on his blog, Ragamuffinsoul.com.

Do you sport the ink and what tats do you have?

Very good question.  Tattoos since their beginning have been at their core just a means of storytelling. (this is why I hate reasons like, “I was drunk”, “I dunno” or “I thought I was in love with her” (although one of the funniest tattoo stories I’ve ever hear starts out that way, just ask Josh Reibock about his turtle tattoo). That said, I realized I haven’t talked about any on mine on here. So today I wanted to explain my latest tattoo that I got in February of ‘09, my Jerry Sailor-esque Swallow bearing the banner that reads “Play” on one side and opposite, “Pain” above which…wait, there’s a photo right there.

I wanted a traditional tattoo art-form

Play/Pain is a concept derived from Andy Crouch’s book, “Culture Building” (I heard him speak in ‘09). In it, he tackles the struggle of the utility of Christian Art, or Art in general. What is the societal purpose or functionality of art…? Art seems to be the exception within society, in that it can “only” be perceived as intrinsically valuable, (only valuable in of itself) useless, helping no one really.
In society doctors heal illness, engineers build bridges, and grocery-sackers prepare our food for transportation, but where is purpose or utility of artists, if art is only intrinsically valuable? Is it just a bunch of grown-ups playing instruments, or scribbling paintings?
So after a long set-up on my part, the point that Crouch makes is that art is NOT only intrinsic but serves two major functions within the culture, the first being PLAY, and while it’s not very grown up, it transitions people into joy.

It’s the wallpaper on our walls, it’s the carefully worded phrase, when a stupid one would have done, it’s architecture, design, and ergonomics. Then there’s PAIN, Monet’s Lillies take a whole different meaning when you understand the pain …that laid behind them. It allows people to enter into their pain in order to face it, and deal with each’s own demons. It’s The Moonlight Sonata, Phan Thị Kim Phúc, or Schindler’s List. (*Then there’s the asterisks of, you can’t have one with out the other, or Play becomes tantalizing. Pain, macabre.)

If you want to read more from Andy himself, you can visit his blog.

So I got the tattoo as a reminder to myself about the cultural shaping that I can have as an artist. (which Crouch goes into at lengths, but his book will do a better job than I). How God is a culture-maker, how he commissioned Adam, and all mankind to be culture-makers, and what an amazing role the church can have in that discussion!

I have to say, I’m proud as punch! …is that the right term? I think so. Sounds like something I just started saying now that I’m a dad. But aside from fathering my genetic heir, I also am responsible for 3 other little lives. I am of course referring to my 2 contractors and the intern!! Throughout this summer our small, humble video department has produced more videos per week than I did some months, back in the day (need to stop with the aged comments, making myself sound old). Now, we’ve been avoiding narratives, but we’ve made up for the labor with our weekly web show/announcements video, titled, “8B4″. We’ve done dynamic typography, personal stories, jumpbacks, and song-backgrounds. And we have no end in sight (I say that as a good thing)! In the months ahead we still have our web show (I say web show, it’s really not, but that’s the closest thing I can think of to compare it to) on top of two story-intensive series. There are 7 stories we’ll be shooting between now and September 9th. We’ve been fortunate to gain Nathan, the intern, this summer hailing from film school in Nashville, he’s been a huge asset to our team as his ripping, burning, camera & lighting skills have come in handy. He has some great intuitions when it comes to story and we’ll consider missing him when he’s gone. Then we have the other new guy, Mike the editor, this guy has saved me so much time and head-ache already! I can’t wait for him to look back on this experience at Gateway and recall a time when I wasn’t sitting over his shoulder while he edited (maybe someday Mike!). Well, that said, I’d hold up our work to most any church our size with pride and admiration for the Gateway Studio Studs!

I’m really stoked about Echo 2010 this year! I really am! ‘Oh-nine was my first year to go and I learned so much there. Primarily, my twittering went to a whole new level! Right between Level “Insane” and the mushroom kingdom level. But Echo showed me that I wasn’t in it alone. I wasn’t the only video guy who struggled to communicate with his pastoral staff. I saw that the level of talent within church media is seriously ReDonk (I’d argue it parallels professional sports multi-media departments)! And I learned a great deal about managing artists (coffee is a plus).
That said, while there God really spoke into a growing passion of mine: art in the church, or church-art. Now, I’m not talking about the end product, which is better termed “media”, I’m talking “Art”. The kind made by Shakespeare, Bach, Monet …Michelangelo. I’m talking art produced by the church that is at it’s core still PURPOSEFULLY & PRIMARILY experiential. And God just nudged me, and showed me that while most everyone at the conference was there to learn & talk about the “How” (HOW to make sweet jumpbacks, HOW to use Twitter to create online community, HOW low-budget churches can make high-budget effect). Nobody was addressing the “Why”.

Why did Jesus tell parables?
Why was this art-form of storytelling the most effective way of reaching his audiences?
Why would Jesus want us to keep doing art (again, not media, Art).

See, I think we (as humans) can get a little cart-before-the-horse. But when we satisfy the WHY questions (horse) we can then be sure we’re following up with the appropriate HOWs (cart).
(I’ll leave off that I believe, in my job, my use of and the Church’s production of art are no where even close to God’s intentions for it .)
And honestly, this is where ECHO really came up short for me last year. When I asked break-out leaders and key-noters, about this the response was more than a few glazed-over “Yeah, that’s a hard one, …the church has really got to figure that one out…” Blabbity-blah. And yes it did feel a bit patronizing. (You can ask @locustfist how long I vented on the return home.)
Aaaaaaaall THAT said, I have high hopes for ECHO this year and it’s years to come! Mostly because this conference is attracting the eyes & ears of artists around the world, artists whose passion is first to glorify the creator, and create in the fashion he created! And we have friggin’ Don Miller this year! Mr. Professional Story-Teller himself (after Jesus of course). But ECHO is where this dialogue & many more like it can take place as creatives & artists gather for fellowship, accountability & (I hope) beer.
That’s it for now! See you at #ECHO10.