A new book has moved towards the top of my list for recommended reading, and it’s Michael Gungor’s “The Crowd, the Critic, and the Muse: a book for creators.” Or “CCM” for short, which is genius in a subtly ironic kind of way. Because this is anything BUT “CCM.”

Never in your entire life have you ever read a book like this… trust me. If you think Güngör’s latest contributions to the world of liturgical music are astounding, then just wait until you hear the unfiltered heart behind the melodies. Be prepared to have your preconceived ideas of sacred art slowly unraveled and sewn back together with Mystery and Beauty!

Michael’s musings are beyond hilarious yet radically prophetic. You will taste a hope for a world free from the chains of fundamentalism and catch a glimpse of the culture of sacred creativity that ought to be. I couldn’t think of a more timely message for artists & industry professionals in the early 21st Century Church. I hope that you’ll allow these stories to shape you as they’ve shaped me.

I will give you a little forewarning though and say that if this book were a movie, it would be rated “PG-13.” If you are offended by culturally offensive language that would make your Sunday School teacher blush, then you better not pick up this book. Michael addresses his unfiltered language and the reasoning for it early on in the book. It’s honestly no big deal for me. In fact, I quite enjoyed it; it made me laugh! But I do recognize that many out there have issues with today’s “cuss words”, so I just wanted to give you the heads up. ;)

Moving on.

Michael’s story deeply impacted me in many ways. I resonate with so much that he shares and feel that my life and career has been on a similar track. I highlighted several statements that spoke powerfully to me, and so I’ve decided to share them below. I could probably write a blog post about each and everyone. These are life-giving words that open up my imagination and heart. But I won’t add any more commentary…I’ll just let these quotes & observations speak for themselves.

“(Art) is simply an intentional ordering of reality.”

“Aesthetic beauty is a statement of value that makes the world a better place.”

“Art, along with all work, is the ordering of creation towards the intention of the Creator.”

BACKSTORY: I met Michael and Lisa on a trip to Gulu, Uganda. We were a small band of artists who went to visit a school and orphanage and to hang out with the kids. Michael wrote about this experience (which flooded my heart with memories). One of the projects was to create a wall of murals and to let the kids paint with us. As Michael recalls, “The murals weren’t anything special. They were actually a little cheesy, like the kind of paintings that you see on the walls of nurseries and children’s rooms in daycare centers or churches. But despite their lack of artistic sophistication, there was something beautifully important about bringing intentional color to those plain white walls. It felt like placing a crown on a beggar’s head, yet somehow we also were the beggars receiving our own crowns in the process.”

This phrase humbled me beyond words. I have to repeat it again. “But despite their lack of artistic sophistication, there was something beautifully important about bringing intentional color to those plain white walls.” (Sound familiar?)

Listening to Cultures: the Major Scale of the West, the Arabic Scale of the Middle East, and the Pentatonic Scale of the Far East. Michael’s observations were very eye-opening and sharpens may ever-widening worldview. It also explains why I love Arabic music so much.

“Perhaps artists in a culture are like prophets in ancient Israel, calling for society to repent and re-imagine itself.”

“Somebody breaks a rule and steps outside of the expected box. Eventually, that unexpected action becomes the new norm, the new box, until someone else comes along and breaks the new set of rules.”

“But the voice of the crowd will never lead the creator to step outside of the crowd’s expectations. The crowd will always demand the expected and controllable. And the plain truth is that the crowd is often wrong.”

“Creative work should never come out of who the external voices want you to be, or who you wish you were, but from who you are.”

“As an artist, the voices you listen to ought to align with that inner Voice that knows who you are.”

“The books or the music in which we thought beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them: it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things — the beauty, the memory of our past — are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never visited.” – C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”

“The danger of art created to rise above the noise is that it may end up being noise itself.”

“Part of what it means to be fully alive is to fully experience the beauty of existence. That includes experiencing a full range of emotions in response to the sights, sounds, smell, and tastes of this good world. How could a full human life consist of anything less than a robust, sensual experience of the goodness of creation?”

“Taste and see, sings the Psalmist.”

“Like an old married couple that needs to remind themselves of why they fell in love, ask yourself what it is about your craft that made you fall in love with it. Why do you do what you do and make what you make?”

“Virtuosity is not simply about playing quickly or accurately. The virtuoso is someone who has developed his skill to the point where his tools and instruments become like an organic extension of himself. … It’s like when a person masters a language — she doesn’t have to think about the words as much as the ideas that she would like to communicate.”

Technology As a Crutch – “On a purely technical level, sure, technology can make up for human error. On a human and unquantifiable level — the level of the soul — much is lost when we fill every pore and wrinkle with plastic ‘perfection.’”

“For the creator, technology will make a much better servant than a master.”

“In this story, technology becomes just another tool to order creation towards that future where God is all and in all…”

“When a culture’s greatest enemy is boredom, its greatest savior is entertainment.”

“In a fame-worshiping culture, the stage can be quite a powerful place. It can also be a dehumanizing one.”

“It was as though God was speaking through every piece of art and architecture around me.”

“Part of the reason people aren’t building cathedrals anymore is that we are too lazy and spoiled for the pain and the work that they demand from us. This sort of laziness leads to an artistic narcissism that creates art as a mere emotional expression of the ego rather than an intentional and profound re-ordering and re-imaginging of the world.”

(thinking back on the way Michael used to believe, a fundamentalist view of art) “Good art was that which preached a perceived Christian message or had practical use in a worship service. Art had no value in itself. There was no room in my belief system for experimenting or pushing creative boundaries. As a result, my art stayed safe, stale, and boring (by my current standards anyway).”

“The Serenity Prayer asks: ‘God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

“Faith gives structure to work, but doubt gives structure to faith. Doubt purifies faith.”

“In Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell writes, ‘Christian is a great noun and a poor adjective.’ I agree with him. When the word “Christian” is used as an adjective, the assumption is that the essence of Christianity is something that can be transferred to a lifeless object.”

“And since when was Christianity a safe, positive alternative for the family anyway?”

On the Liturgy and Liturgical Music/Art: “It is a sort of sacrament that allows a community of people to brush up against the future God in present space and time. Liturgy is simply public worship. The liturgical space is a broad and open space for experimentation. This space is largely unexplored right now, and there is so much room for creative experimentation.”

“But then the Bread that was dipped in the Wine touched my lips, and the scales fall from my eyes and the broken fools shine like gods. I see Reality and my heart beats to life. I’m an addict. I can’t stop coming back to the Table. Nor do I want to.”

and finally…

“To truly see is to find hope.”