Mentoring Artists,
Part II
By Rev. Byron L.
Spradlin
Founder & President of
Artists in Christian Testimony Intl
We’re
just back from our first national conference, “Artists
Unleashed: the Arts in Ministry,” held during the
Gospel Music Association’s Estes Park CO “Music in the
Rockies.” And you know what? I’m stunned
again at how little “MENTORING” goes on FOR artists and
BY artists.
We
saw a great deal of encouragement given through the 51
workshops Artists in Christian Testimony Intl provided.
Our 16 conference faculty spent many hours with
conferees giving affirmation and directions.
But
we also saw much woundedness, much confusion [about the
differences between arts-business pursuits and arts
ministry pursuits], and much need for more mentoring,
training in biblical perspectives on the arts, and
direction in doing ministry [first volunteer and then
developing a real ministry-career path].
So to
help YOU, right where you are, I want to share with you
some of my thinking on how the LORD has led me to mentor
artistic Christians (throughout my life). I’ve
developed three little grids that might give you some
helpful guides for your own mentoring of artistic
Christians. The first grid is below, and I will
share the other two in our subsequent eNewsletters in
the upcoming months.
GRID
#1 - GATHER them.
That is …
Gather
them,
Affirm
them,
Teach
them (the Scriptures--about spiritual growth,
biblical theology of the arts in ministry,
biblical strategies of the arts in ministry, and
biblical ministry skills),
Help
them move forward whatever that help might be,
Envision-Equip-Encourage
them,
Resource
them in any way possible
... all so that they
will take ACTION to grow in and to do for the LORD as HE
directs each of them individually.
The KEY is to GATHER
them together—whether in a small group or larger groups.
Get
busy mentoring other artists; and in the process let us
know what you are doing—so we can pass on the
information to encourage others to do the same.
Blessings to you—in Jesus,
Byron |