Imagine That: Discovering Your Unique Role as a Christian Artist

This book is the best tool I have found to use with a group of artists. I watched their faces light up as they realized the book was written by someone who truly understood what being a Christian artist really was. The masterful way the Manuel Luz described their responsibilities and struggles as artists who belong to Christ was very accurate. It both challenged and encouraged the group. It allowed them to grapple with all of the questions and vulnerabilities they deal with as they work through their unique role in God's church. Our artist group walked away from this book believing they have a vital role to play in the church and in society. A role that only the artists can fill.

As God's creation we are designed with an innate desire to create and participate in God's story of Life. The joys and pleasures derived from the works of our hands or the collection of our thoughts are God-given. We create because He creates. We desire because He desires. "We are intended to reflect the image of our Creator..." In Imagine That: Discovering Your Unique Role as a Christian Artist., Manuel Luz expresses how the relationship between God and the artist, and the artist to his art finds it's greatest fulfillment--in community. Our collective stories "written" in our art tell the Greater Story of our fall and God's Redemption With insightful questions at the end of each chapter, Manuel encourages the reader to look at their creativity beyond a hobby or even an occupation to see how God is glorified in us through our art. This book can be used as a group study or a personal devotional. I recommend it to pastors and teachers, poets and painters, gardeners, and organizers, and every artist in between. You will come away with a better understanding of the creativeness you are endowed with and the beauty in the stories your art communicates.

For too much of my life, I didn't understand the connection between my creativity and my Christianity; after much studying and prayer, I came to realize that art can be an outpouring of my faith and an integral part of my relationship to God. Reading this book, Manuel Luz takes the reader through much the same course of questioning, study and prayer, pointing to our Creator God as the source of our creativity. Manuel shares his heart while digging into the relationship between the artist, the church and God, with all of the follies and joys that come with any set of human relationships, then points toward a way for understanding on all sides. In the chapter "Art and the Spiritual Disciplines," the reader learns how art can be a spiritual discipline in and of itself, bringing the artist closer to God. "Imagine That" has become one of the touchstone books in my collection on art and faith, a book that I devoured cover to cover and that I am now leading a group of artists through as the basis for study and discussion. The questions that Manuel poses at the end of each chapter have led to some of the most profound and stimulating discussions I have ever had with my fellow artists.

Imagine That by Manuel Luz has been a book that I have been wanting to read for a while since seeing it advertised in Worship Leader magazine. This book caught my interest because I am also a worship leader at a church just as Manuel Luz is and have been involved with the arts for a long time. I also have to work with the arts in the church and I really wanted to get a better understanding of how the arts fit in the church. I believe Manuel has a great understanding of how the arts fit in the church and in ministry. In the opening chapter of this book, Manuel focuses us on God as the Artist and us being created in the image of God. In that chapter he says this, "We create because we are made in the image of the creator. We simply cannot help it." He parallels this with how God gave Adam the task of naming the animals to Adam. Manuel says that because God did this with Adam, God is also calling us to be creative, the created becomes creator. Because we have this call and are made in the image of the original Artist, we have a wonderful opportunity to use our gifts and talents in service to our God. We also have a great tool to aid us in our worship, a tool that we continue to develop. I love how he says that artistry can be a spiritual discipline. Manuel says that "spiritual disciplines are external behaviors that aid in internal transformation" and "the discipline of art can bring us closer to God, and can be a spiritual discipline, one that should be encouraged, nurtured, trained, and developed." Just as our spiritual life is a journey of learning and growing, so is our art. Artists as individuals should never stop honing their skills, learning, practicing. After reading Manuel's quote, I believe that we as worship pastors have a special calling to seek out the artists in our congregations, to help them understand that their craft is an essential part of worship, privately and corporately, and allow them the opportunity to use their gifts to honor and glorify the One who gave these gifts to them. And what better place to use them, in corporate worship in our local body of believers.

I am an artist myself often thinking that my art is an elective part of my life not important to the main things required for living. I purchased Imagine That in order to investigate another artist's view of his talents and how he sees them as useful in this world and as tools in ministry for the Gospel of God in Jesus Christ. It served me well.