Art For God's Glory

An interview with Colin Kirton, Artistic Director of Footstool Players and freelance performing artist (October 2006)

"While the arrogance of modern art sets itself against God, Christian art history tells us that art is one of the finest expressions of mankind’s spiritual aspiration. Indeed, art is more than just word or dance or paint, it is also the voice of one’s soul in his or her spiritual quest. In the Malaysian Church context, art has yet to be recognized as having a role in the Kingdom of God. If at all, it is merely seen as an evangelistic tool. Perhaps an interview with Colin Kirton may enlighten us on how art plays its role in discovering and articulating Christian faith. Simply, do art for God’s glory!"

Read The Entire Interview Here

Question: One of Footstool Players’ objectives is to challenge Christians and seekers with regard to matters of faith. In this increasingly visual-oriented culture, the Bible seems to have lost its appeal in its written form; young people today don't read. How can art provoke them to read the Bible? How can art help young people to understand God's work through Scripture?

Colin: We find ways to creatively express the eternal truths of the Scripture in art forms that will have memorable impact in the lives of our audience. Art makes the familiar unfamiliar so that the audience is forced to see something with new eyes. For the Footstool Players and I, we do this through the medium of theatre. Theatre is in effect storytelling, and that is pretty close to the way the Bible goes about communicating God’s heart to us! Much of Scripture is narrative, metaphor and poetry. It makes great subject matter for theatre!

Often, we forget that the Judeo-Christian faith is very much based on the pre-Gutenberg oral tradition.

In the 21st century, audio-visual has become dominant, not just with young people, but with the older folks too! We need to rise to the occasion and find ways to communicate Scriptural truth in the media of the day. This is certainly not to diminish the need to read our Bible! But there is a need to creatively explore other options to capture the minds and hearts of people. I am always amazed at how, years later, some of the audience can articulate details and the point of the theatrical pieces we have performed, when they are often unable to even remember what their pastors preached about two Sundays ago!