January 13, 2009
Ministering to the Imagination
It’s often neglected, but the imagination is critical to discipleship.
by David Swanson
The imagination calls up new words, new images, new analogies, new metaphors, new illustrations, new connections to say old, glorious truth. Imagination is the faculty of the mind that God has given us to make the communication of his beauty beautiful. –John Piper
I begin with two assumptions. First, John Piper is correct about the magnitude of the imagination to the Christian life. How else can we relate to our spiritual ancestors, distant in time and culture? The teachings of Jesus demand his hearers to imagine a different way of living; his parables draw us into worlds we’ve never experienced. Scripture is filled with the poetic, apocalyptic and prophetic along with nail-biting and head-scratching narrative. Imagination helps me participate in this active Word of God; it’s what moves me from an observer to an accomplice. Through a Christ-centered imagination history becomes my story, poetry becomes my prayer, and the coming Kingdom of God becomes my reality.
Second, Christian imagination is either stimulated or sedated by our surroundings. Having recently made the transition from the suburbs to life and ministry in Chicago, I’m convinced that our environment either hinders or stimulates this overlooked facet of discipleship. Consider a few generalizations from my previous and current zip codes.
Art
Music, theater, visual arts and film all prod us to consider the world in new ways. Chicago has dozens of small theaters, film festivals and galleries of all kinds. A woman from our church recently staged a series of one-person Bouffon clown shows; something I didn’t even know existed until she invited my wife and I to a performance. With few exceptions, suburbia’s artistic exposure comes from one place: the megaplex. The movies consumed at these theaters generally reflect Hollywood’s interest in the box office bottom line. The aesthetic quality of standard megaplex fare can be argued, but there is no comparison with the myriad of imagination-provoking artistic venues found in the city.
People
The suburb we moved from was 90% white, reflecting well my own skin color. Our new Chicago neighborhood is mostly made up of Polish and Mexican families. The ethnic and cultural diversity of city life exercises my imagination. I can’t help but wonder about my neighbors’ lives, customs and values. How does the priority of extended family held by some of my neighbors differ from my values of independence and autonomy? How does the immigrant experience of other neighbors affect their view of God?
History
Some friends and I once considered opening a coffee shop. While we wanted the shop’s name to connect with our suburb’s culture and history, it became clear that anything we chose would be just as meaningless as the brand names that would surround it. Why? Because suburban life is ahistorical. While an interesting story exists about any town’s beginning, that history has been covered with architecture and branding designed to blend in with every other suburb. In contrast, our American cities are famous for their histories. Chicago is know for the Great Fire in 1871, the world’s first skyscraper in 1885, the World’s Fair in 1893, years of racial division between the city’s north and south sides, the largest Polish population outside of Warsaw, and a cursed baseball team that hasn’t won the World Series in a century. Even a cursory awareness of this history is enough to provoke the imagination. Monuments to the Great Fire, buildings from the World’s Fair, Polish Catholic cathedrals and Wrigley Field all invite questions and stories.
I’ve made some big suppositions thus far, but let’s assume that in general the city provides more imagination stimuli than does the suburbs. (I’ll not comment on rural imagination since I’ve not lived in that setting.) One implication of this has to do with our preaching and worship. When preaching to our city church I assume that people bring with them a robust imagination. Their environment makes it easier to connect with such Biblical themes as grace, justice, sin, liberation and God’s majesty. More so than their suburban kin, these folks regularly interact cross-culturally making the leap into the ancient world of the Bible a bit easier. Songs about God’s coming reign seem slightly less abstract to those who regularly encounter their astonishing world through the arts and cultural diversity.
What then for those called to serve congregations with less vigorous imaginations? Here are two brief observations and I’m curious to hear your ideas. First, the suburbs are never as culturally barren as they appear. There is art, diversity, and history to uncover for those willing to look. Could a local congregation become adept at pointing these out to their suburban neighbors? The possibilities seem great for a church that is committed to understanding and validating these hidden gems. Second, in reference to the quote above, a church that enlivens the imagination will make God’s beauty beautiful in ways rarely experienced by those raised on a bland cultural diet. Instead of imitating the benign aesthetics of suburbia, what if churches preached, worshiped, and celebrated the Lord’s Table such that people’s imaginations were engaged in ways the surrounding cultures couldn’t hope to copy?
Our churches ought to be communities of imaginative people who celebrate God’s past faithfulness and wonder over his future victory. The challenge of enlivening these Christ-centered imaginations is great, and for those in the suburbs the challenge is greater still. But just imagine the possibilities.
David Swanson is Community Life Pastor at New Community Covenant Church in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood, and a regular contributor to Out of Ur. Read more from David at his blog, Signs of Life.
Posted by UrL Scaramanga on January 13, 2009
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Comments
As a born and bred city native of color, I can identify with your ideas. I am sure the suburbs can be a colorful place. But there is a problem: the suburbs creates many rules to ensure the blandness. Many know what they are getting when they move there: they trade creativity for uniformity on some level. In live in the city and from what I see, the suburbanites come into the city for culture.
I noted something to my wife the other day. Every year, we receive Christmas letters complete with pictures from relatives who live in suburbs in another state. In the letter, they tell us about their lives, their kids and their church. One thing I never hear is about their neighbors.
Me, my wife and kids live on a diverse block and continue to pray and ask God to open hearts. Some have been easy and some have been hard. As I was writing our New Years letter (because we missed the Christmas letter), I am talking about our two summer block parties, my Dominican neighbors and others.
It is rare to hear my suburban friends talk about spending time with their neighbors or simply engaging them. I believe relationships display this creativity that you speak especially when it is somewhat unpredictable and exciting as city life.
Does this make sense?
Posted by: Prophetik Soul at January 13, 2009
It does make sense Prophetik. One of the pleasant surprises about living in Chicago has been the people we've met. I know this happens in the burbs as well, but my own experience was generally one of isolation from my suburban neighbors. Thankfully there are plenty of exceptions to this and plenty of Christian folk who are intentional about their neighborhood relationships, but the city's climate and layout does seem to make these relationships a bit easier to develop.
Posted by: David Swanson at January 14, 2009
i would even go as far as to say that in the city, u have no choice. i have met neighbors under good and bad circumstances. Either way, i must walk by faith instead of fear.
Posted by: prophetik soul at January 14, 2009
Of course, there will always be the challenge of convincing people that imagination - creativity, difference - is not a bad thing. As an artist, I've been keenly aware (well, I'm sure most Christians are) of the vortex that's become the definition of "Christian art" - stuff like Thomas Kincaide and Precious Moments (and all their imitators), with room for little else that's acceptable. Sure, there's Makoto Fujimura and the International Arts Movement - but who's heard of them? Cornelis Monsma, anyone? And consider the trials of Christian musicians who try to create outside the CCM formula on a "Christian" record label, and the shrunken definition of what makes a "Christian band". Until the church at large can ask and respond to the artist's questions ("what if?" "how about?") without the base reactions being "inappropriate!" or "un-Christian!", until we move beyond that, more genuine imagination is going to be a tricky sell. Not that this is anything new, of course!
Regarding your notes on needing imagination to engage Scripture: something I have always been averse to (and come to greatly dislike) is in-service Scripture reading, especially when the congregation says it all together. Inevitably, it is a toneless drone, a soulless chant...it sounds empty, boring, dead. In the first "Cadfael" novel, our hero comments on a young monk who makes others uneasy because he reads the Living Word as something that's, well, living - with passion, and emotion, recounting Old Testament events the way any tense, high-drama, high-adrenaline story should be told. I've been to many churches that could learn a thing or two from Cadfael's Brother John. When we simply engage in our duty to stand and drone, no wonder so many people think Scripture is boring.
Posted by: elly at January 15, 2009
how ironic that someone like piper, the america pope to the reformed / calvinist types, would argue for imagination - when according to their crowd there's only one way to believe, one theology that's right, one specific well-worn path to God, one way that spiritual gifts are given/used, one way to understand the acts in acts, etc. etc. etc. my point for years has been that this approach makes ANY imagination complete irrelevant.
so to this view re: imagination, i have two words to jp:
if only...
mike rucker
fairburn, georgia, usa
Posted by: mike rucker at January 16, 2009