2027 Artists Network

Billions listen. Trillions spent. Every continent has caught the wave. Yet the church struggles to understand and engage the hip-hop culture. Whilst hip-hop gave the streets a voice, hip-hop heard the silence of the lambs in reply. Hip-hop isn’t just music—it’s the heartbeat of a generation. Discover how its unstoppable rise exposes gaps in Christian mission, and how we can learn to engage subcultures and marginalised communities with Gospel creativity. Let’s explore what Arts, Media, and Worship practitioners can learn from hip-hop’s rise to boldly represent Jesus and reach the culture with power and purpose.

Most assume that modern artists had no spiritual influence in their lives, since religion is often excluded from discussion in the public square. But Van Gogh was a failed missionary, Picasso made a bargain with God, and Andy Warhol attended Mass almost daily. Why does so much art have a spiritual history and motivation? In this seminar, we will explore the answer to this question as we discuss well-known artists who had profound religious influences even if they did not live lives as Christ followers.

As artists, we know the tension of living between vision and reality — the dream that stirs our heart and the pit that tests it. In this session, we’ll explore the creative life through the lens of a biblical dreamer whose imagination was both a gift and a burden. Together, we will uncover what it means to stay spiritually alive when circumstances and waiting stretch us thin.

Artists create out of how they see. This session explores how we can nurture our eyes, cultivating a theologically in-depth view as redeemed artists in Christ. Following biblical examples, we learn how to integrate this redeemed view in our contexts in the world, which are our mission field.

English-born Thomas Cole is best known as the pioneer of American landscape painting, in particular, sublime wilderness scenes. His work also expresses regret at the utilitarian attitudes to the earth that result in its desecration. The Course of Empire series could be interpreted as a ‘pioneering study in the Anthropocene’. Contemporary artists such as Eliasson and Gormley also interrogate humanity’s use and misuse of the earth. Are there implications for contemporary Christians working in the arts?

Most evangelical theologians are silent when it comes to issues of creativity, beauty, and art. Here, Francis Schaeffer is a rare and stimulating exception. Not only did he comment on artwork in his writing; he formulated a biblical view on art and its intrinsic value, famously writing that “art needs no justification”. He also discussed how and what art is communicating and what tools can be used in evaluating art.

Artists from the Middle Ages onwards have found inspiration in the gleaning fields. Initially, the Biblical story of Ruth was the focus, and then, in the nineteenth century, Millet and others shifted attention to contemporary peasants. In the twentieth century, filmmaker Agnes Varda took up the theme. Why is the ancient agrarian practice of gleaning of such enduring significance?

Aesthetic delight refuels the creative soul. Discover a biblical understanding of Christian pleasure that is a way to engage God and nurture a creative life. Learn how to enjoy aesthetic moments without guilt in such a way that grants rest for the soul and reinvigoration for creativity.