Worship and Art: The Quest and Commitment of the Edna Wong Christian Worship and Arts Education Centre

Holistic Worship

　　The Church is established by God to reveal His truth, goodness, and beauty. Believers respond to God’s grace, word, salvation, and call through praise, prayers, proclamations, and bearing witness. That is the “worship” of God. Augustine of Hippo stressed that beauty is the pure manifestation of truth. Since God is the essence of truth, the source of goodness, and beauty, whether we can shine through our worship of Him by reflecting His divinity and declaring His works will demonstrate whether we are truly serving Him: the Bible describes “serving God” as worshiping Him.

　　From the biblical narrative, we see that in the Old Testament world as well as in the new Heaven and new Earth in eternity, when people gather to worship God, they do so using multimedia, creating multisensory dialogues, experiences, and responses. The form of expression that we call art is the most effective way of communicating this.

Variety in Art

　　Nato Thompson, Artistic Director of Philadelphia Contemporary, pointed out that art and culture in Western societies had long been a part of daily life. However, during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, people focused on technical skills, which led to the emergence of the so-called “High Art.” In the mid to late twentieth century, avant-garde artists reasserted that art should be part of the everyday and that everyday life should be an artistic expression, subject to the will, consciousness, and self-definition of the actor. ^*

　　This is a good reminder that all cultures and art are deeply related to people in terms of their mutual fulfillment and influence. From thoughts, emotions, consciousness, actions, and the understanding of self-identity, to interpersonal, communal, class, and inter-ethnic relationships, to all aspects of social systems (including politics, economy, education, family, religion, etc.), there are significant interconnections.

　　The definition, origin, and application of art have been explored from different perspectives and been based on different evidence, resulting in the formation of a variety of art theories. But generally speaking, all theories involve two major aspects: one focuses on the aesthetic response, using such notions as harmony, beauty, and sublimity; and the other is about the mediums of creation, considering the acquisition and application of skills and techniques, etc.

　　God is the Creator and Redeemer of all things, the source of truth, beauty, and goodness; and we only know the ultimate truth, beauty, and goodness in the state of God being with us, the true meaning of “Emmanuel.” Experiencing divine presence is a way of worshiping God in practice. Through the daily acts of communication and expression, Church members manifest beauty and goodness as God-created beings (that is an expression of art); this is an essential enactment of worship.

Christian Worship and Arts Education

　　The Church is on a mission to witness God’s divinity and works while holding on to our hope and entering into the eternal procession of worshiping God. This process initiated by God and responded to by all created beings is described by different names such as spiritual growth, worship, teaching and learning, pastoral care and counseling, evangelism and service, fellowship, etc., depending on the different emphases that we place within God’s kingdom. As far as theological education is concerned, it obviously focuses on such activities as teaching, imparting, researching, studying, reasoning, synthesizing and discovering, in order to provide holistic training for students in their development of spirituality, character, mentality, knowledge, ethical practices, and so on. For organizations responsible for arts education, it is their role to design, plan, and launch relevant courses and to promote them to churches and Christians.

　　HKBTS’s Edna Wong Christian Worship and Arts Education Centre also plays this role. Established in 2002, the centre’s mission is to renew Christians’ understanding of worship through wisdom from the Bible, theology, and church history, to broaden the scope of and enrich their experience in their ministries, and to enhance their ability to use the arts in worship and other church ministries through diversified and integrated arts training.

　　In this postmodern age, a trend toward a multisensory approach to communication has taken shape. Our programs are also geared toward the worship of God with all our senses. For more than 20 years, we have been offering courses in music (auditory), art (visual), dance (tactile), drama (multi-sensory), and electronic media (all-sensory), with the aim of nurturing believers for churches, so that they may enrich the worship of God with various forms of art and enhance the expression of their services.

　　Since its establishment, the centre has been organizing a wide range of in-depth programs and courses that are related to or integrated with various art forms that are relevant to our local context. Programs and courses are offered in more than ten different but interrelated major areas, including worship, church music (including music arts, hymnology, keyboard playing, vocal training, etc.), dancing, drama, visual arts, cinematography, electronic media, architectural space concepts, floral art, humanistic quality, Chinese opera, lyrics studies, and so on. It also provides students with publications and teaching materials, as well as venues for teaching and performing. We hope that churches would find the arts to be a powerful medium for worshiping the Lord, spreading the gospel, fellowship, Bible teaching, and community service.

Forward on a Narrow Path

　　In reviewing the churches’ response since the establishment of the centre, it seems that music courses are generally given more attention; singing, voice training, and musical instrumentation are the most popular among our students. The rest of the courses are often neglected. Therefore, we are actively striving to help churches realize and utilize other forms of art.

　　In fact, art forms are inherently infused within worship services at churches. For example, words, actions, and things involved in each part of a worship service as well as their sequence, and the division of labor among the various persons in charge are just like a drama where there are also characters, an order of appearance, dialogues, movements, actions, etc. Let’s take another example. When a chairperson of a worship service calls to worship, reads the Scriptures, prays, or greets the congregation, or when a pastor gives a sermon, they will pay attention to their voice, tone, volume, and pace. All these are similar to the requirements of a dramatic production. In addition, when the congregation stands, sits, or kneels, lifts or bows their heads, or raises their hands, all these movements are the basics of dancing. Furthermore, the setting of the venue, air conditioning, lighting and sound, color selection, and general ambience are all expressions and extensions of the visual and architectural arts. One of our objectives in offering different courses is to arouse the interest of our students and to bring about their awakening of the close relationship between worship and the arts.

　　Nowadays, Hong Kong society tends to emphasize the outcome and focuses on utilitarianism and quick results; it seems that some churches cannot escape from following this trend. However, when it comes to the art of worship, artistic skills need to be developed gradually through repeated practice over time. Therefore, we have been trying to grasp appropriate opportunities and look for suitable areas for cultivation in the hope of gradually renewing the culture of worship through a variety of educational programs. In order to counteract the current trend of “entertainment first” and the “culture of immediate gratification,” the centre has invited scholars and experts to design various courses in the hope of constructing a discourse that reshapes our thinking and our discussions in context of the values of mass culture; this will lead to a biblical and theological worldview in which one can judge, define, discern, and break through the often-confusing talk about art forms (e.g., the false proposition of “traditional” versus “modern” for church singing).

____________________________________________

^* Nato Thompson, introduction to Culture as Weapon: The Art of Influence in Everyday Life (Brooklyn: Melville House, 2017).