Should You Even Be a Christian Artist?

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.