ARTBRIEFS
Mainstream and mellifluous, singer Steve Green does little to expand the artistic boundaries of contemporary Christian music. But Green, who grew up in Argentina, the son of missionaries, is working to push back the cultural frontiers of Christian music.
In 1987, Sparrow released Tienen Que Saber (“They Need to Know”), Green’s first Spanish-language album. The record, a mix of Hispanics’ favorite hymns and translations of selected songs from earlier Green albums, was the easy part. Getting it to the potential audience is another matter. No distribution and promotion channels exist in the Hispanic market comparable to the way Christian pop reaches English speaking listeners. “The album has not yet broken through in distribution,” says David Green, Steve’s brother and manager. “The English-language ministry financially supports his ministry to Hispanics.” Lucy Diaz, a product/marketing manager at Sparrow, says any Christian record company that bankrolls Spanish music is clearly doing it for the ministry, not the money.
In late July, Green was a featured soloist at Congresso Hispano, an international gathering of 6,000 Spanish-speaking evangelists. Green also attended this largest-ever gathering of its kind to establish contacts for his coming 1989 Latin American tour.
Does The Choir Wear Leather?
Heavy metal music is everything early critics said of rock n roll: Loud, repetitive music, obsessed with sex, drugs, and the occult. Somehow “Christian heavy metal” still seems like a misnomer, even though bands such as Stryper have established the genre and ministered to leather-clad young people.
With the development of Christian metal (or “white metal”) has come a need for ministry to metal musicians. The Sanctuary, in Redondo Beach, California, is a church devoted not only to reaching and discipling these youth, but also in deepening the spiritual lives and lyrics of white metal bands. According to an article in Media Update, six bands held firmly accountable to the Sanctuary have recently produced an album to benefit the church’s 24-hour counseling hotline.
The Sanctuary is spreading. Franchises are now located in five southern California locations and in Puerto Rico.
More Than Wombscapes
An aquamarine tricycle is parked on the steps of the Supreme Court. Visible in this 14-by-17-inch oil painting is the inscription, “Equal justice under the law.” Unknown Child, by Daniel Michael Canavan, is one of 41 works of art in a juried show called the Life Exhibit.
When we heard about this exhibit, assembled by North Carolina artist Annie Mackey, we expected to see mainly shock art and dreamy wombscapes. But a visit earlier this year to the Paul VI Institute for the Arts in Washington, D.C., yielded a fascinating array of serious art committed to the sacredness of all life—young, old; born, unborn; able-bodied, disabled.
Friends, by Mark Weber, shows an obviously disturbed man with uncombed hair and furrowed brow. On his shoulders rest two strong hands, a symbol of caring for the afflicted.
The Boost, by Lee Richardson, is a 24-inch bronze statue of a kneeling mother holding up her child, who in turn reaches higher. Says the artist: “The essence … of motherhood is that a mother, in trying to help boost her child to reach higher goals, finds that the effort has given a special boost to her own spiritual growth.”
The exhibit winds up its national tour this month, but it is available to groups in either slide or VHS format.
