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# Should You Even Be a Christian Artist?
- URL: https://www.theartnewsletter.com/should-you-even-be-a-christian-artist/
- Published: 2026-08-19T23:11:23.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-19T23:12:32.000Z
- Description: Asking the (not so) age old question.
- Author: Wolfgang Bakari Burst
- Tags: Lifestyle, Art, Articles

I'm a little different than other writers, when I sit down to work out my ideas, whether it's for a video or one of these articles, I just free-write it out. In the age of AI, when everyone's trying to run a newsletter and do everything, the most honest thing I can do is keep it minimal, minimal cuts to my natural voice, minimal distance between my actual thoughts and what ends up on the page.

Not to toot my own horn, but some genuinely influential people in the Christian art and music world have reached out to me and said, "I like the way you think, I'd love to pick your brain on how you come up with ideas," and that's what I want to talk about today.

Here's the truth, I'm not much of a thinker. I might seem like I've got things figured out, especially to people who know me personally, I've been told that before, (again, tooting my own horn) but I don't. My own ideas are bad ideas, and it wasn't until I actually aligned myself with what *God's ideas* are that I saw any real success. I think that's the most important thing for Christians, and especially for Christian artists.

**Step One: Ask Yourself If You Should Even Be Doing This**

If you're a Christian artist wondering how to break out, how to make it happen, the first question isn't strategy, it's whether you should even be a Christian artist at all.

(I'm a musician myself, and I have music out, but I don't actually consider myself a "Christian artist," because what I make isn't necessarily Christian music, it has Christian themes, but that's beside the point. This isn't about me. It's about *you*, the reader.)

So ask yourself, do I actually play an instrument, do I actually know how to sing? Saying "I sing in my church and I like Christian music" is one thing, but are you a musician, are you an artist?

I'm speaking specifically to musicians because that's my background, but this applies across every discipline. If the only thing you listen to is contemporary Christian worship music, you're probably not going to be a great artist, the best artists have wide-open taste, the same way the best chefs aren't picky eaters. (Anthony Bourdain would surely agree) A chef who only likes Italian food, who only makes and eats a couple types of pasta, is never going to know how to experiment or make something new. The people I know with the best taste in music, fashion, and art who are also Christians, they're the ones constantly searching for more, whether it comes from Christian or non-Christian sources.

So before you decide to become a "Christian artist," ask, have you actually listened to albums, have you pursued any kind of education in your craft? I started playing piano at ten. I went to college for music composition and got my associate's degree in it, two years of higher education. I played piano through jazz band in high school, and all through elementary and middle school before that and I'm still learning today, I practice almost every single day, because I love music, not just Christian music, because loving God and loving your art form are two different things.

You can love God, enjoy singing, and think, "I'm a pretty good singer and I love God, so I should be a Christian artist." Maybe not. Maybe you don't actually make good Christian art, because you haven't really wanted it, haven't really desired it.

If you're a visual artist, have you spent time learning to paint? That doesn't require a fancy degree, but it does require time. Have you engaged with your community? I've played hundreds of shows, I've done all kinds of creative projects, and that's what made me feel ready to build something like The Art Newsletter, not because I'm a Christian who happens to like art, but because I actually *live* inside the world of art. My whole world is wrapped up in it, art, fashion, music, design, architecture. It's stitched into my vocabulary.

**Step Two: Gather Your Influences and Just Start Creating**

Say you've done that work, you're a genuine fan of music, you've listened to everything from James Brown to Deftones, and now you want to make music for God in your own style, whatever that turns out to be. What's next?

Once you've gathered your influences, the best thing to do is start creating, if you haven't already. You have to create constantly.

I think about creating the way I think about praying, there's a quote from Shia LaBeouf that stuck with me, from [channel 5 podcast interview](https://www.instagram.com/reels/DVYoxZrAUEe/?ref=theartnewsletter.com). Shia asked the interviewer if he knows how to pray. His answer, (which is vulgar) "shut the f\*ck up" and just sit there to quiet your ego and listen. It's a rough way to put it, but it's true. The moment we shut up and start listening is the moment God actually speaks. We stop talking, that's when He speaks.

It's the same with your art. If you want to make good art, you have to get all the noise out, the ego, the borrowed influences you're still shaking off. Make a lot of art, make a lot of beats, a lot of songs. Don't release the first songs you make unless you truly love them. If you do this right, you should end up making twenty, thirty, forty, fifty songs. Learn other people's songs. Get all of that out of your system, and then you'll start to see your actual style emerge, and it'll keep evolving. But that's the first step into whatever it is you're trying to do.

**Step Three: Get Connected**

You cannot build anything in isolation. I don't care who you're looking at, unless someone is extraordinarily good at producing, singing, and playing every instrument themselves (and a few artists are), albums are made in conjunction with other people. Art is made in conjunction with other people. Even a painter working alone on a canvas needs to be connected to a community around him, look at da Vinci, Michelangelo, they had people around them.

If you're a musician and you can't play drums, guitar, or piano, if you can't produce or sing, or even if you can do some of those things, you're going to have to meet people. You're going to have to go to the shows, the jam sessions, the museums, wherever your medium of Christian art lives. You have to get connected, because if you're not connected, how are you supposed to understand what you actually want? Seeing what others are doing is what inspires you toward what you need to do. Creating with others beats creating alone, every time.

Take The Art Newsletter as an example. You might think it's just me, you see my face, you see me writing these pieces, but it's not just me. I didn't build the website. I didn't design the logo. I didn't even come up with the whole idea on my own. It's a team, there are five of us writing, directing, and managing this business. My partner Jesog runs the business side of everything. I just do the creative work. I'm telling you this in the most honest way I can, you need to be connected, you need to find your tribe.

And if you're somewhere with no community around you, get on the internet and start creating. Creating content is the best way to build real connections. Right now I'm focused on building this newsletter, but when it's time for me to put out music again, I know there are people out there who already follow me and would want to hear it, because we share the same interests and values. You don't have to make content specifically about the thing you want to do, you should just be making content, whether it's directly about your art or something adjacent to it. Every time you make something, you're killing your ego a little, and that matters, especially when you're making music, art, or film for God, because getting rid of your ego makes room for the Holy Spirit to actually speak, and then you place your own voice on top of that.

That's the problem with a lot of Christian art, people strip away their ego entirely and just do what they think God is telling them to do, without putting any of their own creativity into it. We need your personality, we need your creativity in the art, but you do need to get your ego out of the way first, so God can actually tell you something. Maybe you make a beat and don't know what to sing over it, sit with it, let God give you the lyrics, then put your own spin on top. That's how you make something that's truly yours and truly connects to something higher.

**(Optional) Step Four: Be Multifaceted**

One more thing. In my own life, I'm married. I'm still in school, I spent six years in the military, which is actually where I met my business partner, and I'm studying geography now. I have my associate's in music composition, and I'm working toward a master's in architecture. I run this business, I keep a moderate level of physical fitness, and I'm signed to a model agency, I learn french, and I am trying to release more music later this year. 

I'm not telling you this to say "look at me," none of this makes me famous or a hotshot. (Because I am not) I'm telling you because I've seen firsthand how all these different pursuits have connected me to ideas in ways I never expected. When people ask how I come up with the ideas I do, or how I think the way I think, it's because of everything I've done, all of it, layered together with God on my side.

I'm not saying overload yourself the way I have, but try to do more than just the one thing. Do more than music, more than art, more than film. Go find a hobby with zero expected implications for your career, read a book, watch a movie, play badminton, whatever it is. Just get genuinely interested in it. Those things will shape your art in ways you can't predict. 

It's the intersection of culture and faith that creates the best (contemporary) Christian art. 

*If you are reading this you are a paid subscriber and if you would like to speak to me personally. Feel free to reach out,* [*wolfgang@theartnewsletter.com*](mailto:wolfgang@theartnewsletter.com)*.*