Last week I drove to Winnipeg for a day of art, culture and teaching at Millar College of the Bible. I drove downtown to the Winnipeg campus, where I was welcomed warmly by Nathan and the Urban Edge students. I was excited to improve on the teaching I did for Urban Edge last year. Namely, this time I had a long enough HDMI chord, plus a much better defined schedule for myself. (no last-minute "oops, no keynote for me!" or going over time! Success!) It felt very gratifying to experience the increased peace I have through repetition and experience. I look forward to doing this teaching again! In fact, I' looking forward to it so much so that I figured I'd teach you right now in this blog post! ;)
The objective of my day of teaching
The Urban Edge students focus on understanding culture in its context so they can become active participants in the world around them and good witnesses to Jesus Christ. Speaking from my experience making art for unreached people groups, I strove to set a precedent for using art to understand and serve culture, providing the students with a specific perspective into the general topic they're exploring.
Understanding Worldview
What is there to learn about culture, anyway? When getting to know a person, or a family, or a people group, you want to go beyond what they look like or what they do to really understand them. If you can get down to the nitty gritty "WHY's" of a culture, it can give opportunity for more relevant communication.
If you only see a person's actions, and draw conclusions on what you can see, you run the risk of shallow understanding, which is a mere hop skip and a jump away from straight-up racism. But if you strive towards a "WHY," you are already on your way to empathy and compassion.
I used an article I found on missiontools.org (though now for the life of me I can't find this article anywhere! So, I'm sorry I can't point to the source material I found!) to go through different elements of culture. When learning about a culture, there are a few different levels one can collect data on:
Behaviour
Are there any specific, historical actions that they are known for? (protests, service, economy, political actions, etc)
The food. How is it produced? How does it taste?
How are typical homes laid out? How are they furnished and decorated?
The way people dress. How is the way they dress practical? In what ways does dress classify people in the society?
What do people do for leisure and recreation?
What occupations are common?
Greetings. Do greetings differ according to setting, relationship, etc?
Major celebrations and holidays. What are they and how do people observe them?
Gender roles and family norms. Who prepares meals, trains the kids, provides financially, etc.
Values
What traits do people value in others?
Who are considered heroes? What makes a hero?
Do people like to work independently, or together?
What are the major areas of societal pain and suffering?
Who are recognized as leaders in the community?
Are people motivated to do the right thing by social pressure (shame) or by rules and laws (guilt) or by animistic power (fear)?
Attitude concerning money and property. Does property have a symbolic or utilitarian value? Is it freely shared or held privately?
Beliefs
How do people explain sickness, natural disasters, or similar troubles?
To whom, what, or where do people turn for help when they need it?
What is the religion of the people?
What do they believe happens when people die?
What do they believe sin is?
What do people trust in for acceptance?
Who or what in the universe has the power to alter/change the course of history?
Worldview
What is prime reality – the really real?
What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us?
What is a human being?
What happens to persons at death?
Why is it possible to know anything at all?
How do we know what is right and wrong?
What is the meaning of human history?
I didn't come up with those lists. They were in the article that I can't find now. (ugh!) I like them because they provide a lot of potential material for learning about a person or culture. How do we discover the answers to these questions? We can learn about these things through studying the history, economics, politics, art (etc) of a people group. And, of course, I focused on art!
Understanding a culture through their celebrated art
After going over the worldview "target," and setting the precedent for taking time to find answers about the different layers of culture, I presented a well-known piece of art in Winnipeg - one that the students see every time the drive up to Millar's building!
This beautiful mural is entitled "Mending." Take a look at it, and study it closely. What is this mural about? Who is the woman? What do the muskoxen represent? What is the message? You can look up a full description from this article I found from the Winnipeg Free Press.
"Mending was created by the Montreal-based Indigenous Chilean-Canadian artistic duo The Clandestinos, Shalak Attack and Bruno Smoky, in 2016. The crown of muskoxen, they say, represents a circle of protection for Mother Earth, as she works to mend the broken hearts of her many children, and to recover the broken health of her own sacred earth body."
This mural is a great example of an expression of Winnipeg's worldview, where people find hope, and what they think the solution to humanity's problem is. The way I see it the message is, "we must return to the earth, and to traditional culture to mend the broken heart of humanity."
From my perspective (as a person who strives to put her worldview under the authority of Biblical scripture), this is not the truth. Mother earth does not have the power to renew our hearts, and neither does any culture. However, my point in highlighting this mural and the worldview it expresses was not to simply say, "see, look how wrong they are!" (how unproductive is that?) but to reveal avenues of thought that Christians can speak into. Now that we know what's on the hearts and minds of many people in our culture, we can witness about the gospel in a relevant way. What does God have to say about the earth? What does he have to say about culture? Do you know? Could you speak to someone about it, if they revealed their hope for salvation through environmental and cultural restoration?
Culture care
After talking about what to learn about culture, and how to learn about culture through art, I moved on to the cultural garden metaphor that I mentioned in my previous blog post. The reason I wanted to use Makoto Fujimura's garden metaphor was because I believe that facing our world as proactive "gardeners" establishes an attitude of care, patience, and faith and discourages the vices of anger, fear and impatience. After all, the best strategies of a gardener or farmer are about long-term growth and development, for the purpose of producing life-giving fruit and soul-enriching beauty. If all Christians saw themselves that way - as gardeners, working the "soil" of their culture and planting seeds of truth wherever they can, cutting down sun-blocking weeds, defending young "sprouts" from enemy vermin, etc, etc. it may protect them from impatience, discouragement, and laziness. The best gardeners have a good understanding of their location and how to factor in the climate, zone, elevation, etc. when they set out to create a fruitful space. I've already talked about Makoto Fujimura's book on Culture Care a lot, so I won't go into it anymore, here.
I got the students to each draw a metaphorical "culture garden," and we had a time of show and tell. I was so impressed by the students' varied points of view about culture, and their willingness to look into it, though we all felt like we needed much more time to do the cultural garden assignment justice! Some tried to express their own cultures, some described cultures they have observed on missions trips or in the city, and one even zoomed out to cover the whole world's culture! (pretty broad! But hey, we're all part of one planet!)
Understanding to Serve Better
Most of our class was about learning about culture through art, and we even got to go to the Winnipeg Art Gallery to study the exhibits there and see what we could glean about culture. But I also wanted to show the students how art can be used to plant seeds into culture. After all, that's my job! I looked to "Culture Care" again to describe some key aspects to living a "generative" life - a life that brings life. You can read more about these following bullet points if you buy the book. :)
Becoming a “generative” (fruitful, life giving) artist (or, a generative person):
Utilizing Genesis Moments
"Genesis Moments" Include creativity, growth, failure
These moments shock us into looking at things with a new perspective, and can be the inciting incident for generative acts
Showing Generosity
Generative thinking is fuelled by generosity, counter to base survivalism and utility
Practicing Generational Thinking
Culture is formed slowly over generations
Be grateful for how past generation have shaped you
Be thoughtful towards the generations that will come after you
I described these things in a previous blog post, too. If you want more, check it out!
The way I look at it, Christians are meant to be building the Kingdom of God - a culture in and of itself! So the things we do to respond to the darkness and chaos of our world: the gifts we give, the art we create, the moments we curate, the families we build, the acts of service we do... these are all like scaffolding for invisible, eternal buildings. I know that the books I create will someday fall into obscurity or burn up. However, if a child reads my book and encounters the Holy Spirit, that is eternal! I believe that that possibility makes it worthwhile to throw myself wholeheartedly into telling the gospel through children's books, and to try to use my finite and temporary life to create space for the eternal. I hope that metaphor inspires you to likewise strive to make space to develop the eternal and invisible in your own finite and temporary life.
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."Colossians 3:1-4
Conclusion
I finished up my class with a simple summary: art is a good tool for learning about culture, and speaking to culture. So let's learn, and let's speak. I pray that the things we create in this world will plant eternal seeds in people's hearts, that God will cause them to grow, and that the fruit of those seeds will bless the world for generations to come.
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