Wooing the arts

By Steve Beard

The New York Times recently called John Woo "arguably the most influential director making movies today." It went on to admit that "it’s hard to cite a major action film in recent years" that hasn’t incorporated his "attitudes and innovations." Not a bad plug for a man who had to flee China as a child when the Communists took over. Woo has made his mark with his unique style in movies such as Face/Off, Mission: Impossible 2, and most recently, Windtalkers.

The success and reputation that he enjoys today is a far cry from the trauma that he experienced as a new immigrant in a Hong Kong shantytown filled with drug dealers and gangs. He soon discovered two sanctuaries from the violence. "Whenever I got beat up or whenever I had any bad thing happen to me, I always liked to go to the church or to the theater to find my dreams," says Woo, who still carries scars from ambushes he suffered at that time.

Through the generosity of an American family associated with World Vision, Woo was able to attend a Lutheran school. "In high school, I already wanted to learn to make movies, but my first dream was to be a minister, because I got so much help from the church. My friends in missionary school didn’t think I could concentrate on the Bible," he recalls. "They felt I was too artistic, and they encouraged me to go for art rather than be a minister."

Woo’s friends were wise. Thankfully, he took their advice, kept his devout faith, and discovered his vocation. I only wish that more parents and pastors would encourage young believers to pursue their dreams in the creative arts.

We rarely (if ever) hear sermons about Bezalel, but we should. He is an Old Testament character who was filled with the Spirit of God and "with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts—to make artistic designs…and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship" so that the tabernacle would be a spectacular work of art (Exodus 31).

God still gifts people with the creative arts. This is the way they are wired. They might be involved in drama, cartooning, architecture, landscaping, painting, sculpting, recording, designing, editing, writing, photography, or filmmaking. Pastors and parents need to encourage the emerging Bezalels in their gifting the same way they would if someone sensed a call to be a pastor or missionary.

In the 1940s, writers Dorothy L. Sayers and C. S. Lewis were invited to present the claims of Christianity via radio on the British Broadcasting Corporation. That kind of offer is unlikely to occur today. Instead, the challenge before us is to communicate biblical truth through unconventional and artistic means as Lewis did with The Chronicles of Narnia or J.R.R. Tolkien did with The Lord of the Rings.

As I grew up, the only kinds of drama produced by the church were Christmas pageants featuring little children scampering around in bathrobes and spooky end-times movies such as A Thief in the Night that gave me high-octane nightmares. Happily, that is all changing.

I was recently invited to Washington D.C. for the screening of entries from the Damah Film Festival. The event was wall-to-wall with artists, think tank staffers, writers, congressional aides, clergy, and filmmakers. Damah (which is a Hebrew word connoting "metaphor that transforms") gives a forum for "short films that capture raw, truthful, moments of spiritual redemption, struggle, inspiration, and surprise." The films are judged by a remarkable jury (www. damah.com) on the power of the storytelling.

They have tapped into something powerful. This year alone, Damah received 243 short film submissions from eight countries. This generation is hungry for spiritual redemption and they are hooked on movies. Projects such as Damah are a godsend. It is giving a platform for an artistic renaissance of parabolic storytelling, a medium that Jesus used so effectively on the streets and hillsides 2000 years ago.

The disciples were often perplexed by some of the stories told by Jesus and one time they asked him why he spoke in parables. This is how Eugene Peterson interprets the response from Jesus: "Whenever someone has a ready heart …, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness; to nudge people toward the receptive insight" (Matt. 13, The Message).

Artistic endeavors such as painting, storytelling, or even filmmaking are tremendously effective means of creating a readiness and nudging us to ask the big questions. We need to tap into these creative avenues.

Admittedly, "The Art of Bazalel" doesn’t have the punch of a slogan to jumpstart a cultural renaissance, but then again who ever heard of a prayer from a guy named Jabez.

Steve Beard is the editor of Good News and founder of www.thunderstruck.org.