Our fundamental premise is that there is a need for restoration of the arts to their God-given calling, i.e. the revealing of the glory of God and the enrichment of human culture.

Why does the church need the arts? I suppose there are at least two ways to approach this question. One is the understanding of the ultimate origin and purpose of art, which is revealed in Psalm 19. There the Bible speaks of a testimony about the reality and greatness of God which speaks without words to all the earth. This testimony is the beauty of creation, which is God's artwork, his self-portrait, if you will. Because God is himself beautiful, there is beauty - it is a revelation of his person.

When God made the earth with intentionality (i.e. specifically so that man would have a home and the plan of eternity for a Bride for Jesus could be played out, Isaiah 45:18), he made it beautiful. The earth we live on is not merely functional, it is extravagantly beautiful. And God holds man accountible because of this (see Romans 1). God was the first artist and created art as a love language, which ultimately finds its fulfillment in worship.

To ignore this is to ignore a significant element of the joy of life which God has built into this creation. The joy of self-revelation through creative expression is shared among God and man. To call people to a faith in God while eliminating expressions of the creative nature of mankind is contrary to the essence of the gospel, i.e., that Jesus came to give us life in it's fullness, which includes exercising the image of God in us by being creative … just as He is.

Secondly, Francis Shaeffer wrote that people act as they think – and culture has a huge influence upon the way people are taught to think. Culture can be a hindrance or help to the Gospel, and we have a responsibility to not just stand by and let things go - this is the issue of being salt and light.

A case in point: I will quote from an interview with Dr. William Dyrness in Cutting Edge Magazine (vol .5 no.4 winter 2001 association of Vineyard Churches, USA) "We disengaged in the first half of the last century and withdrew from art schools and the arts and then wondered why the arts were so secular. Twentieth Century Fox wrote Christian colleges during the 1930's and said, "Please send us writers, We want writers!" The letters that went back said, "We would no more send people to you than we would send people to Hell." That's what happened. Is it any wonder that the movies have become so bad? Whose fault is that? It's partly ours."

Another of my favorite quotes: "... the practice of artistry must have some priority among us (Christians), given the cultural wiles of the Evil One in our highly developed, mass-communicating civilization. ... The Devil ... is scrounging for the hearts of men and women in North America, including the youth of the church, especially in the city life of technology where the centres of human cultural power and mass-communication media are. Where the cultural action is, its most current marketplace, that is the very place where the Holy Spirit must be called into forceful play. That is where the young Christian artists must be encouraged in the name of the Lord to pour their talents, bending steel, composing melodies that fill the air waves, filming the complexities of our tensed, hidden lives, using the grit of sand and glass and pigment in compositions to expose the meaningless waste of sin around us and to show the life of exciting joy present in our modern world when the law of the Lord is obeyed." Calvin Seerveld Rainbows for the fallen world.

In view of these comments, I believe it is reasonable to conclude that the arts are a kingdom of God issue. Art and culture are as much a means of perpetuating the kingdom of darkness in the earth as are war, social injustice and poverty. Our purpose is to see the reign and rule of God come to the arts!