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Hello fam!
Happy November. I pray you are all experiencing the Lord's faithfulness. I certainly have been. some awesome things happening recently.

1 I told you I was choreographing my first musical: "James and the Giant Peach" with Cal Baptist University. That has been such an incredible first experience. The students, and everyone from the Director to the Assistant Stage Managers, have been wonderful. We start tech next week and the show open on the 13th!

2 I had to postpone my trip to Uganda over the summer. But I'm excited to be going in January. It's coming up quickly!!

3 Today, we are starting Week 6 of The Kingdom Art Life. As always, it has been an amazing time of ministry, conversation and hearing each other's stories and journeys building an art career as a believer.

This past week, we talked about the Christ-Centered Art Life. In that conversation, one of the things we discuss is a phrase I've heard some artists say: I'm an artist who is / just happens to be Christian. I remember hearing someone say that years ago, and feeling the Holy Spirit rise up inside of me and shout, No!

I've always found this to be an interesting phrase. Even though I know it's not the truth, I completely understand why artists say it. I get that there are boundaries they're trying to establish, space and permissions they're trying to preserve, limitations and burdens they're trying to avoid being shackled with. And I honestly could care less what phrasing they use. I'm more interest in the beliefs behind the words.

On Halloween night, I hung out with a friend and one of her colleagues. We had a great dinner and even better conversation. At one point, my friend asked her colleague and I what we thought about gendered language when referencing God, and how we believe it got that way. One of the things I brought up was the limitation of language and the reality that we are not always equipped with the best language to articulate what we know, experience, or understand. So we pull on the language we have available. When I say "Father" or "He" when speaking about God, my mind is envisioning something so much bigger and nuanced than a human father or male person. But that is the language I have available, despite the bigger-ness of God I know exists.

When thinking about artists who say they just happen to be Christian, I wonder if it's simply that they, too, are using the language they have available or if, to varying degrees, it's what they actually believe or suppose? In our Christ-Centered Art Life discussion, we addressed the statement like it expressed a belief and unpacked why this statement is a false representation of our actual experience as Kingdom artists.

If you've been with me for some time, you've seen me address this. The 'Christian' part in that statement is the thing that changes everything about everything else in the statement. Me being a Christian changes the way I be an artist. (Bad grammar aside.) As I travel, and meet and converse with people, there are things I notice. I'm still learning to discern whether the things I notice are what is actually happening, or just how things are coming across. Still, one of the things I notice is there are people who engage with their faith as if it is a belief that stays in their head, heart, and spirit, but never comes to have any bearing on their real, practical, everyday life. A disembodied engagement with faith, if you will. Then there are others who engage with their faith as a leavening agent that transforms them from the inside over time and is reflected in the activity of their daily life. You know I ascribe to and speak to you from the second.

And this led me to think of Romans 12:2, which becomes more and more profound as I continue to dig into this work. It talks about being transformed by the renewing of our mind so that we may increasingly discern, recognize, and, therefore, do God's will.

We are not artists who are or happen to be Christian. We are artists who have said yes to God and our yes has released a leavening agent into our lives that is working to transform us from the inside out. And the form that transforming takes is renewing our mind, changing the way we perceive and understand, how we make decisions and conduct ourselves in our artistic activity.

That is far from "happens to be."

The conversation about faith and art is massive, like a giant mansion with lots of rooms. Each room hosting a different facet of the conversation. And among those rooms are conversations about the art, its nature and function and utility. And there are conversations about the artist, which I'm interested in. My focus and fascination is you, the artist who goes into the marketplace
into the creative process,
into contracts and negotiations,
into relationships, collaborations, and interactions.
I'm focused on this renewal process the Holy Spirit is working in your mind because if you are transformed, then your art and conduct will reflect that transformation. As your mind is renewed, your capacity is increased to recognize and unapologetically pursue God's will for your gift, your creative self, and the career or practice you're building in the marketplace.

There are four areas I'm noticing the Holy Spirit is focusing me on when it comes to supporting artists as He renews our minds.
​1 What are we involved in?​
What does it mean for our life as artists when we say yes to God
What's involved in being a Kingdom artist? Do we know that means change and transformation and navigating a different experience?

2 Who do we think we're in relationship with?​
Who is God to me, the artist? What do I think He thinks about me being an artist, about me making the kind of art I make, about the career I'm building with the gifts He's given me? What kind of relationship do we have?

3 What is the relationship between my faith and art?​
Do I know they're from the same Source, not in competition? Am I confident that I'm a whole artist, not one who is fragmented?

4 How do we walk out / flesh out this creative vision?​
How do we build this career God's way? What does it look like? And what do we have to believe and trust in order to build it His way? What's available to us to help us build it His way?

I think this last one is so important right now. We are seeing that there is no such thing as job security. There is no such thing as a stable job. The only security is the Lord your Provider, regardless of the job or channel. If He brought one one job, channel, or opportunity, He can and will always bring another one, or provide for you beyond them. And just as there is no secure job, the career gatekeepers, structures, pathways, and methods we've known as artists are shifting and crumbling before our eyes. We will need the Holy Spirit to show us the way to build.

Well, amen, blessings to you all. Have an amazing time of fellowship with friends and family this holiday. Talk soon, and I'd love to hear how you're doing!

Marlita