Now What? by John Talley III

Recently, I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Christian Studies from Grand Canyon University, a private Christian university located in Phoenix, Arizona. After the ceremony, my sister asked me, “So what are you going to do now?”

I’ve been asked that question numerous times. I think it’s a very valid question. Before I answer, though, I want to unpack why I chose to pursue a degree in theology. First, I have a desire to preach and teach the Word of God. Second, I want to grow in my knowledge of Yahweh and His word. Finally, I would love to and I feel called to preach and teach in the local church context, as well in the world of Academia. I think my local church plays a critical role because church leadership will be able to evaluate me and testify to the gifts that God has graciously blessed me with.

So what am I going to do now that I have my degree? I told my sister that I wanted to be a pastor, an author, a Bible teacher, and a business owner. She looked shocked and said, “Oh, okay. Cool.”

I don’t think she was ready for my answer.

Nevertheless, I seek to continue to grow in my knowledge of God, lead my home and wife well, make disciples, and eventually church plant in the urban/inner city context. Furthermore, it would be a privilege to be on a church staff or in leadership in some capacity whether in a youth or college ministry or in the role of Bible teacher at a Christian high school. I would also like to further my theological education by attending a seminary within two years.

There is much more I can say about my preferred future. I know that God is sovereign and He will place me where He wants me to be. I have dreams and plans, but the Lord is the one who directs the steps (Proverbs 16:9). So please pray for my family and I as we step into the next phase of our lives.

A Book Review: TOTAL TRUTH by Nancy Pearcey (reviewed by Jennifer Bell)

I read this book over the course of several months, which isn’t a bad way of reading it, since it’s big and it covers the history of Christianity, the totality—if you will—of Truth. If I were to sum it up, I might say that it’s primarily concerned with Christians taking all thoughts captive to their worldview. Rather than embracing parts, or segmenting faith (Christians on Sunday, Secular Humanists at the office), Pearcey makes the case that Christianity is an all-pervasive worldview, leaving none of life untouched. By living in a kind of duplicity, we’re hamstringing Truth.

She traces, in a pretty extraordinary way with a strong knowledge of history, how we came to this weird point in which we privatize our spirituality. We sharply divide the secular and sacred, the public and the private. She argues that we’ve allowed Christianity to take the backseat. We’ll keep out of science. We’ll keep out of Corporate America. More than that, we let our faith be this absurd joke that no right-minded thinking person would ever, in a million years, go for. Basically, the church in America has become anti-intellectual, and it’s ugly.

Well, anti-intellectualism has a nasty tinge to it, doesn’t it? On the one hand, believers who are a little cynical by all this emphasis on talking and studying and reading (the anti-intellectual crowd?) shirk from something that sounds stringent, puritanical, and like the over-intellectualization of something beautiful and true like grace. But on the other hand, believers who pull out the Five Points of Calvinism and are dying to debate eschatology or St. Augustine or the role of women in the Church (the so-called thinkers?) cringe at the dumbing-down of theology, the rejection of doctrine, an ignorance-is-bliss model for belief. Where, however, does Truth come into play in this divide?

How about Truth?

Perhaps one might ask oneself the following questions: How much Truth are we personally responsible for? Do you want all of the Truth, or some of it? How much Truth is enough—for you, for your kids?

For those interested in worldview studies and the way Christianity might be applied to all of life, I recommend Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity. Author Nancy Pearcey, who draws much from the legacy of Francis Schaeffer, has written quite a bit on worldview, and this book proved to be comprehensive and engaging.

Pastor V’s Shout-Outs by Vermon Pierre

1.     Gary Haugen and his recent TED talk on the secret to addressing global poverty. Stop whatever you are doing right now and spend twenty minutes watching this. Yes, it is that good, and that important to watch. I came away grateful for the many blessings we have here in the States, saddened by how it seems like what we have is the exception rather than the rule when it comes to the developing world, and challenged to think more holistically about how to help the poor. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofsncCF9O_U

2.     Anthony Bradley and his post about how, yes, poor white people do also need the Gospel. It sounds funny to say that, but the reality is that many Christian leaders I know mostly talk about reaching young professionals and cultural elites in the urban cores of our cities. A good thing to do, I would agree. But I’ve only met a small handful of people who have a heart for doing ministry near places like trailer parks or depressed rural areas of our country. These are places where you find the kind of poor whites who aren’t attractive to our culture and who are largely looked down upon and devalued, but who thankfully God is immensely interested in and greatly values. These are people who need to be and can be reached with the Gospel, if only we would be willing to reach out to them. As we say at Roosevelt, ALL people need to be reached with all of Jesus.

http://www.worldmag.com/2015/03/poor_whites_need_jesus_and_justice_too/page1

Roosevelt Favorites: Centered by Doxa (an album review) by John Talley III

I love this album! I have been bumping it in my car non-stop. Big shout-out to Epiphany Fellowship Church in Philly and all the people who contributed to this album! True music lovers will appreciate it. This is Christ-centered music that stirs affections for the Lord Jesus Christ, and it has a Gospel, neo-soul, R&B, jazz element wrapped all into one body of work. Simply put, it’s phenomenal! And I encourage you guys to pick it up.

Check out Doxa:

Meet Doxa Part 1

Meet Doxa Part 2

Meet Doxa Part 3

Meet Doxa Part 4

An RCC Response: Sean McGinty Takes on the POST?!?

(On March 20, 2014, Erin Lane published an essay called “Why So Many Young Christians Are Leaving Their Churches — And Coming Back Again” in The Washington Post. Sean McGinty wrote the following response.)

“It’s all so strange – and beastly,” said Jane. She liked these people, but her habitual inner prompter was whispering, “Take care. Don’t get drawn in. Don’t commit yourself to anything. You’ve got your own life to live.” – C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

In addressing the apparent lack of commitment among Millennial Christians to a particular church or creed, a recent Washington Post editorial makes the claim that, rather than viewing the matter as a failing, it should actually be seen as a successful attempt in “re-imagining the structure of belonging.” As is fitting an article so skittish about the notion of commitment, author Erin Lane never goes on to define exactly what this new structure of belonging looks like. We can, however, parse out a few elements of her vision.

It seems the foundation consists of selecting bits of theology from the various traditions one is familiar with. From there, a person should find an environment where he or she feels most comfortable, recognizing that no place will hold to the exact doctrinal stew one has cobbled together. Finally, commitment can be given, not to the particular church one winds up in or to a church’s particular confession of faith, but rather to its people or members.

We’re encouraged to view this as a new approach for a new (and very special) generation, but both the ideas and the anxieties that have produced them have been around for some time. Ms. Lane’s suggestions really only amount to a type of less-engaged liberal mainline Protestantism, and all the weaknesses of that theology. A prime example of such weakness is the suggestion that one might pick and choose the parts of theological traditions one likes. The idea sounds very open-minded and inclusive, but the whole effort falls apart the moment any serious attention is given to those traditions. To say that one holds to the Catholic theology of the sacraments while rejecting the Catholic understanding of Church authority undermines the very structure that Catholic Sacramentalism is based on. One quickly finds oneself holding a host of contradictory positions.

The thought that Scripture might actually be a source of Objective Truth that coheres into a logical whole never comes up. Indeed, theology as a whole is really treated as a secondary issue. It is chiefly the notion of comfort that drives the author’s opinions. She cannot bring herself to think that one theology may be wrong, while another may be right—simply because of the perceived insult this would cause. But this immediately begins to vindicate the view that a general lack of commitment pervades the millennial generation. In an attempt to combat this, the author insists that generational commitment can be found in relationship to people, if not to institution.

That, however, is a mere dodge.

True commitment can only be found when Christ unites individuals into one people through the divinely established institution of the church. To say that one wishes to commit to people but not to a church denies all Christian understanding of what the church is. Ms. Lane subsequently finds herself in the same position as Jane Studdock in That Hideous Strength. She is pulled in two directions, unable to wholly commit to either. In order to avoid this embarrassment, she tries to cover it with semantics. But that will only work for so long. Sooner or later, Ms. Lane will realize, like Jane—like all of us—that there is ultimately no neutrality. There is only a “for” and an “against,” and there is no more important commitment one could possibly imagine.

Pastor V’s Shout Outs by Vermon Pierre

Shout outs to:

1. The Focoso Wood Fired Pizza Truck. The RCC staff knows well my love for Food Truck Fridays. There are several trucks I enjoy, but most recently my affection has been strongest for the Focoso Wood Fired Pizza Truck. Listen well, young chefs and food lovers everywhere, fresh ingredients make all the difference!

2. Mark Noll, and his recent book on global Christianity, From Every Tribe and Nation: A Historian’s Discovery of the Global Christian Story. You can read John Piper’s reflections on the book here.

Noll reinforces one of my key convictions as a Christian leader: namely, that we better understand our Christian faith the more we are attentive to how it expresses itself in various cultures. Thus, there is no “pure,” non-culturally based Christianity. There never has been! Instead, there is the one Christian faith whose beauty and power we better experience as we look at it from various perspectives, as if turning a rare diamond over and over in our hand. As Piper puts it, “The very nature of the Christian faith consists in, and is illuminated by, ever-fresh translations from one culture to another.” This reality is why local churches should be active in missions and also why local churches should strive to draw in as many of the different people groups and social classes that exist in their local areas.

3. “This American Life” and their recent podcasts about what policing is really like and the intersection between police offices and race in America. There is a whole lot of smoke and not a lot of helpful heat in some of the dialogue I encounter on these issues. I appreciate work like this that begins to help us see the complex realities behind these issues and, by God’s grace, some beginning steps towards improvement. Well worth your time to listen to these podcasts (and let me know what you think next time you see me).

Cops see it differently, Part One

Cops see it differently, Part Two

Wild Women 101: A Dialogue Between Dennae Pierre and Jennifer Bell

Because we had so much to say, we’re launching a series. This is the first in our series of blog posts on you-know-what.

Jennifer:  Oh, wow. Well, there are about a million different topics we could touch upon. The challenges Christian women face in terms of marriage, career, kids, the Church. Relationships, our understanding of feminism, our sense of personal vocation. Yeah, I’m all over the place. But where is our place? I think displacement may really get to the heart of it. What does the Church do with women?  

Some contextual info: we’re both married moms with jobs. We’re women with opinions. You’re pretty vocal. From the beginning, I sensed you might be trouble. I liked that about you. What kind of challenges do women in the church, the Church with an upper case “C,” face?

Dennae: Ha. Well, there are so many topics you just listed that I would love to talk about . . . but let's just start with your last question. What kind of challenges do women in the "C"-church face?

I always like to answer questions like that by acknowledging that my church experience is in a particular part of the world and within a particular tribe or "stream" of Christianity. I don't want to speak for all Christians in America or the world. I will start by discussing broad categories that I think women struggle with and then narrow it down to our own particular context: complementarian reformed churches in America.

Jennifer: I’m going to interrupt you in order to ask you to define complementarian reformed. What is that?

Dennae: Well, it’s a broad category; for simplicity’s sake, I am talking about the group of Christians who may be likely to associate themselves with groups such as The Gospel Coalition, Acts 29, Desiring God, Together for the Gospel, etc. There is a lot of diversity among those churches in how they articulate and work out different theological aspects but there is unity on some specific doctrine.

One of those unifying factors is a theological position called “complementarianism,” meaning the office and role of “elder” is to be held by an elder-qualified male only. The other view (which is not heretical, and good Bible-believing folks hold this view) is egalitarianism. Egalitarians would approach the passages of Scripture that discuss qualifications for an elder with a different hermeneutic resulting in the conclusion that the office of elder is not restricted to men, but can include women as well.

Jennifer:  I know you’re wanting to move on, but I really think this needs clarification. We’ll get in trouble if we presume mutual understanding here. I’ll skip the reformed stuff, only for the purpose of our discussion. But: we’ve got complementarianism on one side, and egalitarianism on the other, right? I won’t ask you to prove to me that egalitarianism is not heretical, but I will ask you to explain what complementarianism looks like in a local church.

Dennae: Simply speaking, “complementarians” look at passages on eldership and say that Scripture teaches that only men should be elders in a church. However, where there is unity on male-only eldership, there is great diversity in how this plays out in each local congregation.

One church may apply the Scripture to mean women can’t teach a co-ed Sunday school class (or offer any real leadership to the church besides perhaps women’s ministry and children’s ministry). Other churches may hold that women can teach co-ed groups in any setting other than Sunday morning.  Still other churches will welcome a guest in to preach on a Sunday morning (think Joni Eareckson Tada).

It all depends on how that local church works out what only an elder can do.   

Jennifer: Thanks. You were saying . . .

Dennae: I think women worldwide face all sorts of challenges and, unfortunately, many of these same challenges get imported into the church.

Women in America are still viewed as less intelligent, more emotional, and less capable than men. On top of these deeply embedded beliefs, our sexualized culture leads to women to be constantly viewed through and weighed against the tainted lenses of a pornographic culture. Sexuality is our power. It's easy to buy into that and use it in the workplace, in our marriages, and in the church.

Culture is like a river that carries everyone downstream, without anyone even realizing it; and Christians get swept up into it. I fear that often we take the biblical call for husbands to lead and women to submit—or male eldership—and import all of our cultural baggage (and idols) before asking what these texts really mean.

I could come at this from a thousand angles. But one angle we can look at this from is by asking some important questions. How does our cultural idols cause us to poorly apply Scripture to gender? To roles within marriage? To leadership within the church?

How is a woman who God has gifted with leadership abilities to use those gifts within her church and within her family? And in regards to her vocation, either by necessity or desire, how do pastors equip and release her to do this well? Because too often the norm for women who work within the church is to feel guilty or ostracized for making decisions that allow them to faithfully obey whatever calling God has placed on their lives.

Jennifer: Oh, there’s too much here, Dennae—is it because we’re women, prone to free-association and multi-tasking?—so let’s attempt to do some very rudimentary work here. First, let’s define complementarianism. Second, and this one may be tough: how do you define womanhood? And, related to this, we might ask: How are men and women different? What is unique about women? If we can first answer these questions, we’ll probably be able to take up the challenges better.

I’ll give you a little info on my own “plight” as a woman. I feel like I experienced two distinct phases. First, I was single. I was headstrong, very education-oriented, and struggling with my place within the church. While displacement comes to mind, I felt—most sincerely—that the general attitude the Church had about me was that I was uncontained. I had no man, and that was a problem. No one quite knows how to handle the single woman! Should you talk to her, if you’re a guy—or will everyone get the wrong idea? Should you ask her to babysit for your kids or invite her over to make a pie? Is it okay to get into a debate over politics with her? Is such intense conversation with a woman—an uncommitted woman, a woman not on reigns—dangerous? I felt, mostly, like I had a great big NO! sign over my head. I can name the Christian guys on less than three fingers who persisted in friendship. Second, I got married (at thirty-four, when I already had a career as a mediocre college prof), which meant—Thank God!—I was now contained. Christian men spoke to me more, but they rarely said much of substance. In this second phase, the marriage phase, I have spent a lot of time struggling with vocation and identity. I always wanted children, so that wasn’t the issue. But I never felt like motherhood was, well, my true calling. I felt horribly alienated and totally depressed during the baby years—like your classic post-partum thing. The other Christian moms were wary of me, and I of them. Breastfeeding killed me. I failed at all things baby. There were medical traumas with both of my kids. I finally mustered up the courage to tell my husband I didn’t want to homeschool, even though I was a teacher (more failure). In one very dramatic confrontation, I announced to him, “I’m a Christian first, a woman second, and a writer third.” I may be off-base here (still working on this stuff), but I persist in my thinking. I should say that my husband supported me eventually (!).

But here we are. You’re turn. Would you address those initial questions?

Dennae: Thanks for the illustration on free association. :) Just kidding.

You said a lot there that I would love to unpack.

Jennifer: If you insist.

Dennae: First, single or married, men and women seriously struggle to relate well to each other within the church. Scripture tells us very clearly to be brothers and sisters, but it is rare to be able to have that type of deep, authentic, intimate brother-sister friendship within the church (part of this is because we haven’t answered some of the questions I first listed).

Second, it sounds like you had a very specific mold of what it meant to be a good mother/wife.  I would love to talk more about that as it seems shaped by a very specific view of “motherhood.” That sounds like a difficult experience.

Last, I resonate with the idea that what we are first is not a woman, but I don’t know that I would even put “woman” as the second category of what I am.  But there is too much there so I’ll punt those topics to the next part of the series.

Jennifer:  Remind me, because I’d like to hear your ordering or categorization of self.

Dennae: Let’s just start with your question: How are men and women different? What is unique about women?

Honestly, Jennifer, the question in and of itself is part of what I find so challenging about where the church is at in this discussion. We have filled bookshelves with scholarly writing on this topic. We have approached it theologically, psychologically, and sociologically. There are a lot more brilliant people than myself who can talk about the differences. Part of what I want us to start asking is: how are we the same? How is our obsession with the differences preventing women from using the gifts God has given them?

A lot of our answers to the differences between men and women are very culturally rooted. The problem with this is that when we make broad, blanket statements such as “women are nurturing” and “men are assertive,” we alienate the men that God made to be nurturing and the women God designed as more assertive.

What does it mean that a man in our church is more in-tune to his children's emotional needs than his wife is? What does it mean that I do not multitask?  We assign western majority cultural values to gender. That may be helpful to the men and women who fit that specific mold, but it’s going to be very alienating to those who do not.

There are a few important differences between men and women, but they are few. The main differences in my mind are as follows: Women are physically vulnerable, and weaker than men. Because of the upside-down nature of the Gospel, I believe our weakness is our strength. Our weakness gives us the potential to be some the best leaders and a great gift to the church, insomuch as we are able to embrace this Gospel idea that our power is in our “weakness.”

Jennifer: I’m wondering if you could give an example of this?

Dennae: A personal example: I don't turn off my leadership gifts in my marriage. In fact, when I tried that early in marriage in attempts to fit into whatever I thought headship/submission was, it didn't go so well.

In my home, I am clearly weaker physically than my husband. I have to trust him for safety, protection, and provision partially because he has a physical strength that I do not have. Learning to depend on another human being teaches you a valuable lesson as a leader. I lead by bringing vulnerability and weakness into our conversations, decisions, and plans.

A practical example: I can't tell you how many wives express frustration over how rare their husbands "lead them in prayer" or "initiate romance or sex." Those are very vulnerable acts; why can't the gift of being a weaker vessel (literally) teach us to identify with the weak and initiate things like these more often?

Jennifer: Ha! This kinda cracks me up, because I totally remember the new wife-routine and thinking stuff like, “Do I say something? But I’m not supposed to say anything.  So then what? I wait around till when? Should I say something?” But you’re right: our ability to be vulnerable, to go out on limbs, is a strength.

Dennae: Women know that we may be attacked anytime we go hiking in a desolate place, and women know that we have no power to make men look into our eyes instead of looking up and down our bodies. . . We are aware of our dependence on others for much of our safety, and even our accomplishments.

Attaching oneself to someone stronger than oneself is a great leadership quality. It helps you build strong teams and get much more accomplished. Also, living this every day allows us to remind the Alpha males in our lives that no matter how confident they are in themselves, to truly be great they need other strong leaders around them.

So what then does it mean to be uniquely male?

Quick example: Men have a physical strength and because of that strength they are born with power. Again, the beauty of the Gospel is that God gave up His power for the sake of the weak. Scripture tells us on almost every page that those “with” are to steward their power for the sake of the vulnerable, the ones “without.”

I also think that, within the home, there is a difference between “fathering” and “mothering,” as well as “husbanding” and “wifing” (like my made-up words?) but, even then, I think we have to be careful what we assign to each category. Cooking is not necessarily connected to motherhood; car maintenance is not necessarily connected to fatherhood.

But let’s ask the important question: how are we the same and what does this matter in the life of the church? While complementarians and egalitarians disagree on who can be an elder, they agree that the Spirit of God gives gifts freely to the church without regard to gender, ethnicity, or wealth. God has given leadership gifts, pastoral gifts, preaching gifts to men and to women. The skills it takes to run a household, run a Fortune 500 company, homeschool, start a business, be a social worker, write,  or lead have been given to both women and to men.

If we are going to take a complementarian approach to Scriptures, meaning the role of elder is reserved for men, then let’s be honest in saying that this excludes women from one of about ten thousand things a woman can do to serve her city, church, family, and world (by the way, it also excludes a vast majority of men within the church).

So if it is only excluding women from one thing (elder) out of the 10,000+ things we can do, why then does it feel as if women like us are excluded from so much more? Why does someone like you feel like being head-strong or career-focused is not something that aligns with what it means to be a woman? Why are our Christian brothers told they must be non-emotional, scientific thinkers to be a man?  None of those things really have anything to do with being a male or a female.

Jennifer: Good points, Dennae. Let’s do a part two, immediately.

But, first, I would like to ask you to summarize and give us takeaway points on the biblical justification for complementarianism (because the easiest way for Christian women to deal with their tendency to “defy” traditional roles is to reject complementarianism), and on your biblical justification for how men and women are—in some ways—the same.

Can we do this for part two?  You mentioned how “the biblical call for husbands to lead and women to submit” is often tainted by the ways in which we “ import all of our cultural baggage (and idols) before asking what these texts really mean.” What do you think?

Dennae: I can't do justice to the complementarian or egalitarian arguments in a blog post, but I will recommend my favorite book on this: Half the Church by Carolyn Custis James. Kathy Keller, the co-founder of Redeemer Church in NYC, has a little e-book that is very helpful too.

Jennifer: I love that you called her “the co-founder.” She’s Tim Keller’s wife. He’s the pastor. That would be heretical in some circles! By the way, I attended that church for a bit when I lived in NYC. No one—like no one—would remember me. I was too busy being displaced (not their doing—I had some baggage with me).

Dennae: I really don't think we fail as Christian woman because we buck against the passage of Scripture that talks about submission and headship. When we fail, it's because our lives are not yet fully transformed to the shape of the cross. Pursuing Jesus is my safe spot, and has shaped my womanhood/wifehood/mothering/ being a sister in the body of Christ. I find a lot of the advice that skips "being like Jesus" and jumps to "being a godly woman/wife/mother” to be advice that asks me to be something different than I was created by God to be.

So to summarize:

1) We who are leaders are to lead like Jesus who is a Servant Leader.

2) A woman's weakness is not her shame; it's her glory.

3) A man's power is not his own; it's to be stewarded and given for the weak.

4) I don't spend a lot of time thinking about what it means to be a woman or a man, but I do spend a lot of time thinking about what it means to follow Jesus.

Jennifer:  Thanks, Dennae! Great stuff to think about!

The Discerning Art Consumer? by Jennifer Bell

That’s probably not me, though I like very much to think of myself this way. And, in a recent conversation about a popular TV show, I did say to my husband, “If TV is to be considered an art form, it must be held accountable to artistic standards.”

Whatever that means.

Well, you may be one of two types of people I tend to encounter in the Church. You’re a Christian, and you only want to view/listen/read Christian stuff, or You’re a Christian, and you only want to view/listen/read in a discerning way—but you’re always a little torn because you love “Seinfeld” and Jimi Hendrix.

My hope is that you’re in the latter category, and not the former—because it’s our responsibility to produce the best stuff, and I don’t think that happens in a vacuum or a bubble. There’s great stuff out there, but it requires active discernment and not passive absorption. God has gifted non-Christians with blow-your-mind talents! That’s amazing, right there. Have you ever stopped to wonder why?

It’s just way too simplistic to dismiss the entire secular artworld as unworthy of our attention. But that’s another story.

This post is for those who really just want some good Christian stuff. I hear you, friend. Sometimes it’s nice to just kick back and breathe easy, and not worry about hearing or seeing a litany of perversity or porn or a tirade on why atheism is the way to go or something belittling to your deepest held beliefs. It can be exhausting, trying, and horrible on the parenting-front.

Well, I may mean something different than you when I say good Christian stuff. I pretty much gave up on Christian rock n’ roll around the time of Petra and Amy Grant’s 1985 album, Unguarded. After five whole minutes of trying to immerse myself in the Christian music scene (okay, so I didn’t give it much of a chance), I stepped out into the unholy world of secular rock n’ roll—and I haven’t returned since.  I admit that this might’ve been my mistake.  I admit that damage was done. Not the sex, drugs, rock n’ roll kind. Rather, something different—maybe a propensity towards cynicism? Philosophical gloom? At fourteen, I fell into a romantic love trap that seemed to make young womanhood sheer hell. The music helped.

But, hey, I say to you, with a grain of salt and a twinkle in my eye, there were benefits: Led Zep, the Stones, the Smiths, the Cure, Janis Joplin. Artistic merit?!?!

Where can artistic merit among Christians be had?

Caveat: I know it’s out there. I know I’m missing 98% of it.

But here are some Christian Christians, if you know what I mean, who might be worth your time. Like, your Art Time. These are artists who are Christians who function, largely, within the secular artistic community. They probably have their reasons why they choose the secular world as their arena—and I wouldn’t underestimate their reasoning. But their stuff is worth your time.

            Literature:

James McBride! I love this guy. If you like nonfiction, try The Color of Water. If you like fiction, try The Good Lord Bird. In his nonfiction memoir, McBride tells about his black minister dad and his white Jewish-Christian mom. In his novel, he writes about a slave boy disguised as a girl and on the run with famous abolitionist John Brown. The thing about McBride (and Robinson—see below) is that he holds his own in the secular lit world. So often, when you encounter a Christian artist, there’s this sense that he or she is pretty good for a Christian. That is so not what we want for our artists! We want them to be excellent, held to high artistic standards (like I mentioned above when my husband and I were discussing that popular TV show, which was “The Walking Dead.”) Demand Art from Your Christian Artists. That’s my new mantra.

Marilynne Robinson! Well, she’s totally amazing because she’s a woman, a Christian (a Calvinist!), and a writer. She’s got this “trilogy” (I hate using that word because book series usually seem subpar and generic to me but, well, there are three books set in a fictional town in Iowa with recurring characters—so it’s a trilogy). The books are amazingly written. Writers and critics love her. She’s a writer’s writer, which means writers want to sit at her feet and learn from her. Plus, she makes no bones about her Christian faith. The books you might want to check out are as follows: Gilead, Home, Lila. There are others, but these three are amazing, and the winners of major secular literary accolades, including the Pulitzer.

            Music:

Johnny Cash! Really, it’s up to you to look him. But, yeah, Johnny. Awesome.

U2! They saved my teenage years artistically, and this is no exaggeration. I will forever be thankful for the top-notch rock n’ roll of this band, who—say what you will—set out to make great rock n’ roll, and not second-rate or substitution Christian rock. And, now, as a mom, I like that my kids can listen and I really don’t need to worry that Bono is going to suggest an orgy or anything. I’m taking my kids to their first concert this May. Very exciting! It’s U2! Instead of putting a downpayment on a new house, we’re seeing U2!

David Eugene Edwards! Initially, the lead singer of Sixteen Horsepower, Edwards now fronts Wovenhand. I really don’t know who knows about him, or who his fanbase is, but I love his music for its authenticity and artistry. I remember my husband playing a song for me and saying something like, “You’ve never heard Christian rock like this before,” and it’s true. Here’s a song: “Strawfoot.” There’s a documentary available too. I think he’s a major talent.

Movies, TV, the Visual Arts: Help me out, folks. I’d welcome your recommendations. Fireproof was sweet and cheesy, unlike life as I know it. A far cry from Art? I haven’t heard too many good things about God is Dead, except that it was embarrassing. Pulp Fiction is like a parable to me, but it doesn’t count. Fill me in. Send me your recommendations.

So let’s get going. Demand art from your Christian artists.