The Hill Country Institute for Contemporary Christianity

Presents

"Transforming Culture:

A Vision for the Church and the Arts"

The Hill Country Institute for Contemporary Christianity

SPEAKERS : Eugene Peterson, Jeremy Begbie, Barbara Nicolosi, Andy Crouch, David Taylor, John Witvliet.

AUDIENCE & PURPOSE: The symposium brings together pastors, church leaders and artists to discuss the Church's relation to the arts and to artists. If you are interested in exploring the ways in which we can encourage a more theologically informed, biblically grounded, liturgically sensitive, artistically alive and missionally shrewd vision for the Church and the arts, then we welcome you to join us for a stimulating and refreshing three-day conversation.

SOME OF THE SEMINARS:

·         The use of Visual Art in the church

·         Scripture-telling and the art of Theater

·         Spiritual Formation of artists

·         Blended worship: "preserving the old, releasing the new"

·         Art & Evangelism

·         10 new ways the Church can become again a Patron of the arts

·         Cultivating the Imagination of the congregation

·         Perspectives on Preaching Narrativally

·         A Biblical Basis for the Arts

THE DESIRED OUTCOME: Our overriding desire is to inspire a movement among pastors and artists to lay hold of God's great purposes for the church. We wish to encourage a more theologically informed, biblically grounded, liturgically sensitive, artistically alive and missionally shrewd vision for the arts.   We hope to connect people from across continents.  We hope to foster a 30-year dialogue.  We want to set loose an eventual J.I. Packer poet laureate and an Amy Carmichael breaking new ground in the field of modern dance. We're looking at our artists making films for Universal Studios, showing in the vanguard galleries, teaching in the college theater departments. We're looking at seminaries with programs in aesthetics. We're looking at a generation of children growing up in our churches getting the kind of nurture that will produce first-rate artists—a Mozart, a Charlotte Bronte, a Duke Ellington.

The hope is for a powerful, grace-filled transformation of the culture.

And that future begins now.

        DATE: April 1-3, 2008.

         LOCATION: Austin, Texas. First Evangelical Free Church, host.

REGISTRATION and ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Visit our website, www.HillCountryInstitute.org .   Discount for Early Registration prior to January 3.

CO-SPONSORS: Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Calvin College; Christians in the Visual Arts; International Arts Movement; Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Austin, Texas; The Christian Post.

Please pass this on to pastors and ministers in your area. Invite ministry leaders and artists to consider joining us. 

Artists as Agents of Grace.  Pastors Rich in Imagination.  The Church as a Patron of the Arts.  A Winsome and Prophetic Renewal of Culture.  Join the conversation. Blog with us, email with us -- see the six questions posted on the web site.

Blessings,

Larry

Larry Linenschmidt

Executive Director

Hill Country Institute for Contemporary Christianity

www.HillCountryInstitute.org

512.680.7993

W. David O. Taylor
Arts Pastor, Hope Chapel, Austin, TX

Artistic Advisor to the Institute