ARTS AT ACS

Why instruction in the arts is essential in a Christian school program...

The arts are an integral component of corporate worship.  The psalms enjoin believers to approach worship with singing, dance and instrumental music.  Visual art, drama and film are all effective tools to advance worship, teaching and evangelism.  These are exactly the skills that are taught and developed in a school fine arts program. An effective, well-planned and well-taught arts instruction program prepares the next generation of believers to lead the church with excellence.

An arts program addresses the reality of the creative dimension of the human personality.  We are all creative, we are all artistic.  A school program that purports to “educate the whole child,” and provides academic, professional, athletic, social and religious instruction must also provide training directed at the creative, artistic dimension of the student.  Students should learn how to listen to music, look at a painting, and watch a play or a film or a dance with understanding and appreciation.

For many of our students, participation in the arts will be their calling to serve Christ’s kingdom.  Their vocational and professional gifts will include making art, music, theater and cinema.  It is crucial to recognize these gifts and begin to train students from an early age. They must have access to instruction that not only affords them an opportunity to develop excellent skills and technique but does so in the context of a Biblical world view that recognizes the reality of God as the Lord of Creation.     

It is imperative that Christians shine the light of the truth in the world of the arts.  Christian influence has long been absent and spiritual darkness has long been prevalent in this realm.  In the twentieth century, evangelical Christians largely abandoned many fields of the arts, and the resulting void was quickly filled by unprecedented darkness.  Christ’s call to redeem the world means, in addition to sending missionaries to Africa and Asia, taking the light to the theater, the concert hall, the cinema and the art gallery.