Arts Across Cultures

In today's highly connected world, many people are still unfamiliar with the good news of Christianity. How do we invite them to think afresh about the Christian message and the Christian faith? What is the role of the arts in mission? How could we, as artists, explore ideas about mission?

This book seeks to address and answer these questions by showing the potential of the arts to impact the life and mission of the church. It suggests how the arts can enhance worship and witness, and help transform the wider world. It demonstrates what being a "missional artist" means--how the two parts of that vocation fit together--and examines the nurture and training such artists need.

The book looks at how the performing arts (such as music and drama), the visual arts, digital media, and the use of creative arts workshops can form a rich tapestry to "bring out" the Christian faith in church and beyond. Against the backdrop of global flows that reach into every local community, it connects the arts to mission in culturally relevant ways by revealing how Christians from different contexts can work together, drawing on the arts across cultures to reimagine the Christian faith, so as to speak powerfully to contemporary peoples and cultures in our ever-changing world.

Not just designed for artists and mission partners, the book is also for pastors and leaders of churches and mission agencies, to illustrate how the arts (and artists) can be embraced in creative ways to fulfill the task of mission in our increasingly "glocalized" world.

Written by practitioners with firsthand experience of these issues, this book challenges the reader to widen their horizons in thinking about the vast possibilities for the role of the arts across cultures, the arts in mission, and missional artists in the sharing of the good news.