Should Christians create art specifically for Christians?

“Should Christians create art specifically for Christians? Sometimes we feel the need to engage with work, regardless of the quality, which has led to a lower standard in the Christian cultural imagination.”

@dorothy.megan and @ekstasismagazine

Short answer: no, Christians shouldn’t create art specifically for Christians. Christians should make art for Christ. There’s two parts to this….

First, IF your goal is to get paid then yes, you should make art for an audience that’ll buy your work. I get it, sometimes the Christian audience can feel small and that much larger secular audience is a little more appealing *especially* when you don’t need to make a total change but just a little watering-down of the message.

Here’s the problem; chasing an audience (in this case for money) puts an expectation on your art that your art might not be able to bear. Despite what a lot of mentors and gurus will tell you - making money off of art is *very* difficult. And it seems like a universal rule that once you depend on your art to make rent; someone will come out of nowhere and ask you to compromise your art. In many cases; your day job should take care of the rent and your art should take care of your soul.

Second: I’ve heard the phrase “if it’s Christian it should be better” A LOT. In the early 2000’s there was a focus on Christian excellence and we had people getting turned away from drama teams because they didn’t have any formal training. I’ve never like that phrase because “better” is almost always a measure of resources. Better usually means “more expensive.” As Christians if we measure resources we’re almost always going to lose. We can’t make a Christian Avengers movie because we keep giving away our money to the poor. I much more like the phrase “if it’s Christian it should be genuine.”

My advice to Christian artists? Just make art for Him. I won’t guarantee you’ll get rich or gain a thousand followers or even reach a hundred likes; but if done prayerfully and with the right heart you’ll please Him - and that is the highest quality. 🙏🏻