This is the new Brock’s Folly “Primary Issues” music video that we debuted at the 2015 Dinner and Artist Showcase on February 6. It was a long time in the making (months of hard work), and we’re excited about how it turned out.
Share it around if you like it.
Dear friends,
With great joy and anticipation, we cordially invite you to the Nehemiah Foundation for Cultural Renewal’s very first Dinner and Artist Showcase!
The Nehemiah Foundation for Cultural Renewal has completed recording and mixing our sixth studio album: In Clover by Fiery Crash, and we need your help to get it out into the world.
Visit the Fiery Crash In Clover Kickstarter page to watch the video, read the story, hear some clips, and pledge your support. Unless we reach our entire goal by January 18, this project will go entirely unfunded. We have a little over a week left, and we are just over halfway there.
I remember every time I played “Naysayers” with Micah Stout. People would cringe. I could see their faces changing when Micah would get around to the chorus, singing in a bracing nasal register just slightly above his range:
Naysayers go to hell! I think you will do we-e-e-ll … Naysayers go to hell, I think you will do well … to say yes to Jesus.
And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. (1 Kings 19:11-12; KJV)
In its best moments, Monarch, by Zach Winters, effortlessly creates silence. That music can create silence is one of many paradoxes you are going to have to get used to if you want to get to know this record. In the violence and foment of our instantaneous age, there are few things more alien than quality silence and intentional waiting. In all the hot noise of our weird, wired, wide, webbed world—noise which we often mistake for information and connectedness—our inner ears have become accustomed to ignoring the still small voice of God.
2014 has been the busiest year yet for the NFfCR. We have been experiencing exponential growth: adding new artists, new patrons, and new audience members, and pushing forward an incredible number of new artistic projects.
I wanted to highlight some of what has happened this year, in case you missed it:
Renew the Arts is regularly asked how we decide which Christian artists we support. Our criteria are actually quite inclusive:
If you meet those four criteria and you want our assistance, we will do everything we can to support you in the way we think will best serve your art, benefit the church at large, and steward our limited resources.
This is the fourth installment in the “Whatever” series on a biblical view of the arts, drawn from Philippians 4:8. If you missed the last three articles, you can read them here: Whatever is True, Whatever is Honorable, and Whatever is Just.
Something pure (ἁγνός hagnos) is set apart or holy; such a thing is “free from ceremonial defilement.” This word indicates two main things about Christ-honoring art: it should not glory in sin, and it should not be tainted by unbiblical worldviews.
This post is the first of a new series the NFfCR is beginning which couples a song with its story, as told by the songwriter. Today’s post is from the record The Great Commoner by Brock’s Folly. (You can buy it right here.) It is the song Lesson in Dying from Heather written by Jesse Murray, and the following text is his explanation of the song. But first, you should listen to the song and read the lyrics.
Is it possible for art to be unjust? In this installment of our “Whatever” series on aesthetics (drawing from Philippians 4:8), I discuss how to make just art. Because we can’t just make art. We need to make just art. (Groan.) But what does it mean for art to be just or—as most translators put it—right?
The word “right” (δίκαιος dikaios) used in Philippians 4:8 is mostly translated “righteous” or “just” in the rest of the Scriptures, and it indicates guiltlessness or innocence. For our purposes, the phrase refers to art that defends and promotes God’s legal perspective. The first and most obvious denotation of law-keeping would be that just art does not break, or encourage breaking, any of God’s Law(s). But the criterion drives deeper than that.
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