When the Catholic novelist closes his own eyes and tries to
see with the eyes of the church, the result is another addition
to that large body of Pious trash for, which we have.
So long been famous. The tensions of being a
Catholic, novelist are probably never balanced for the writer
until the church becomes. So much a part of his
personality that he can forget about her Flannery O'Connor.
This is the redeemed imagination podcast, a podcast of the Anselm
Society on re enchanting the church.
Welcome to the inaugural episode of the redeemed imagination
podcast, my name is Brian Brown. I am your host and the director
of the handsome Society. An organization based in
Colorado, whose mission is a Renaissance of the Christian
imagination with me are the members of the Anselm Society.
Ward, who will be regulars on this show, Lancia Smith, Heidi,
white matter. Net and Joel Clarkson.
The story behind this podcast and what you're getting yourself
into here is a long one, but the short version goes something
like this. Five, six years ago now and
2013. Father, Matt, and I sat down and
said, what could we do to improve the life of the Mind in
our church? And a few months later, we
hosted a lecture. And then another and then
another and it was almost a coincidence that the first
couple were or a few of the first couple were Michael Ward.
Don c.s., Lewis, and Peter light hired under staff ski.
And he wondered if anyone would come but we figured.
Hey, these are great speakers will come.
And next thing we knew 250 people came out for Michael Ward
and we had to use the backup room.
We still had overflow from there and what we found was that
person after person after person exceptional people, people who
had incredible gifts to offer the kingdom of God, we're saying
to us. Where have you been?
I thought I was the only one I thought I was alone and we had
teenagers who came in armed with their well-worn, copy of a
Dusty. ASCII story saying, I didn't
know that the stuff related to church.
I didn't know that my love for Lord of the Rings had more than
a passing impact on my faith. And so the enzyme Society was
born out of that, we helped start an art skill to support,
local artists. More churches, joined, and it
grew. And there are we live in a time?
We're fortunate to live in a time when more and more churches
are passionate about spiritual formation in a holistic sense,
who are thinking deeply about, what does it mean to form a
whole person? What does it mean to surround
someone with the best stories and songs and images?
What does it mean to teach ourselves our own story?
What Being to inhabit our part in the greater story.
What does it mean to be on to move?
Beyond not merely a Sunday morning, Christian type Dynamic
but to be able to approach our role in the world not as someone
who is 95% formed by the world and gets some good morals and
training here and there on the side but someone who is formed.
So thoroughly by a vision of the kingdom of God.
So thoroughly by a total imagination.
So thoroughly by the notion that he or she is a participant not
only in the work of God but in the very character of God in the
here. And now and for all eternity and
next thing we knew as thing kept growing and we started a
podcast, belief to see podcast just in the last few weeks.
I've met half a dozen people who found us through the podcast, we
were fortunate enough to add a second.
Just speaking with joy. The first podcast, believe to
see is about art and Faith, it's conversations with artists who
are trying to integrate their craft, with their faith.
The second speaking with joy is about integrating art into your
life, about approaching art in such a way of approaching life
in such a way, that not just the good and the true, but the
beautiful inhabit, you and effect in a beautiful.
And thorough way, the way that you are able to See the world
and the piece that was missing and the piece that increasingly
become the focal point of the ants on society in a, an
increasingly large and exciting, International tapestry of
organizations that are working towards a Renaissance of the
Christian imagination is that our space is really reconnecting
the Arts and the church helping churches to learn to better.
Be places that know how to minister well to That know how
to engage artists as partners in Ministry for the formation of
Every Soul. Everybody in the church, there
are many organizations that focus on community for artists
many organizations that focus on theology, many organizations
that focus on publishing or promoting beautiful Arch, our
Niche. That we've evolved into is
specifically the space working with the churches on their end
of this puzzle. And working with the artists to
re-engage the church, those who have been hurt those who have
been burned, those who maybe have been have had wonderful
Church experiences with just feel a little bit On The Fringe
of things or feel that this huge part of who they are, is not as
connected as it could be to their life or to their life as a
part of the kingdom of God. So, this podcast is oriented
towards that end towards helping.
Those of you who are past And church leaders to tackle some of
the toughest questions, the toughest, most practical
questions, where do I start with this stuff?
What do I do? How do I start?
If I'm starting from Square One, what does that look like?
If I feel like I've been doing decently well, but there's this
area or that that I could be doing better, you're not alone
in these conversations, you're not alone in these wonderings
and we want to be a resource for you and engage you in an ongoing
conversation, a two-way dialogue, pretty easy to get a
hold of Of on Facebook or Instagram or on our website,
those of you who are artists, we want to show you a vision of the
church that is open to you. That needs you in which you like
every other member of the church.
Every other member of the kingdom of God are a sub Creator
created in the image of the great Creator.
And for those of you who don't see yourselves as either
category, Church leader or artists.
We want to show you that on some level you are both and allow you
to be a steward of the kingdom of God in the role that God has
called you to and a patron of the Arts and to help you
ReDiscover. Not only perhaps your own
creative side. If you feel that you don't have
one, which is a myth by the way. But also ReDiscover a role as
perhaps a redefine 21st century version of the role of Patron of
the Arts in which you can provide the kind of relational
spiritual, maybe Financial Lifeline for an artist.
That a Renaissance Patron might have done with just their money
or just their Prestige, that's what you've gotten yourself.
If into this is the redeemed imagination podcast, I'll take a
moment and allow you to meet the rest of the team and then we
will look forward to joining you for a more substantive
conversation in our first full-length episode to my right
is Father, Matt Burnett I've mentioned him already as the the
co-conspirator who started and some with me at the beginning
and I will let him introduce himself.
All right, thanks Brian. It's pretty simple.
I'm the senior pastor at Holy Trinity.
Can church. I love Christ, I love the
church. I love giving glory to the
father through the son, by the power of the spirit and worship
and I love the Arts. And so this Confluence of those
things just tickles me pink. I love it.
So thank you to father. That's right.
Is Heidi white and I want to launch straight into telling
people cool things about all of you, but I'll let you do that.
I'll let you two talking Heidi. Hey there, I'm Heidi white and
interesting, Brian that you talked about the people who
don't necessarily identify themselves as either church
leaders or artists and I would put myself in that category and
I love the Anselm Society. I love being part of casting,
the vision for it and seeing it play out in the lives of the
church and the artists who are involved.
I'm a literature Teacher book, girl.
So I tog I speak in lecture and teach about books and literature
education, the Christian Action. That's my Niche.
And so I think that education in the Arts are like peanut butter,
and jelly, they belong together. And so I love being involved
with the Anselm Society. So thanks for the opportunity to
be here and finally physically here in Colorado, Springs is a
Lancia Smith. Lots.
Yeah. Hi everybody.
I'm Lancia. I'm the founder of cultivating
is an online magazine dedicated to encouraging.
Jane Christians everywhere, but especially those were engaged in
the creative arts. I'm also the founder of the
cultivating project, which is a discipleship Initiative for
people who are working as writers and artists.
And it's one of the things that I am most deeply passionate
about. Thanks.
Lotsa, and calling in from Scotland.
Today is Joel, Clarkson, Phil? Hello, I'm Joel Clarkson.
I am a composer. I've worked in music.
I work in sacred. So, you can film music and
concert music, all sorts of different things and have
especially been focusing on Sacred Music for academic work
that I'm doing here in Scotland, while I pursued PhD at The
Institute. For theology imagination in the
Arts at the University of st. Andrews.
Thanks Joel and fun. Fact, part of where this podcast
came from was that we had a board retreat.
Probably six months ago now and we had an agenda, I swear, we
had an agenda and we actually gone through every item.
Item on that agenda but we did so by completely out of order by
organically following the flow of our conversation.
And what we found was that as much as we talked about details
and Logistics and what we need to do with this or that program,
a ton of it was Vision, a ton of, it was why do people need
this stuff? What are we doing here?
And we got to the end and we looked at each other and thought
body and we have a microphone on the whole time and thus the the
seed of this podcast was born. I'm going to wrap up this
introductory episode and allow you to get on to the real stuff
for the enzyme Society board of directors, I'm Brian Brown.
Talk to you soon.