G-O-D-I-S-N-O-W-H-E-R-E
I have just returned from the Matter 09 conference in Austin, Texas. It was a fantastic few days that blended theology, philosophy, art, theater and music in an endeavor to explore how the Christian faith is infused with creativity. There were so many things that took place over the weekend which I could comment on. However, for now, I thought I would write about the group who brought the conference to a close. They are from Waco, are called ‘VOID‘, and offered a gathering entitled ‘GODISNOWHERE‘.
VOID are a creative powerhouse who describe themselves as ‘an experimental faith collective’ who employ ‘a live mix of music, art, spoken word, personal reflections, and ritual to creatively engage questions of faith and doubt’. On their site they go on to say that they provide ‘provocative and experiential’ events that are ‘marked by the religious question… radically open and non-confessional’.
GODISNOWHERE offered an exquisite theo-poetic exploration of the intimate relationship/antagonism between those (parts of us) that believe in God’s presence and those (parts of us) that find such belief problematic. In a gesture reminiscent of Christ on the cross (where the experience of God’s absence is etched into the very experience of God), VOID drew us, for a brief moment, into a fragile, sacred space in which these seemingly opposed positions wed.
VOID is a formidable group that deserves to be taken seriously as a collective on the edge of religious life who are prophetically exploring an alternative way to inhabit faith. In the current discussion concerning what faith practice will look like in the coming epoch VOID have something to say.
Below are some pictures from GODISNOWHERE and two video’s they created for the event,
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- Photos taken by Jackson Griggs
- Videos filmed by Kasia Plazinska, edited by Chris Burch, and starting Aaron Ellis (who just looks so cool)
- Music by Jackson Bennett (and great music it is too)
September 21st, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Pete – thanks so much for all your support over the past year. I hate that I had to miss Matter, but I’m definitely looking forward to Revival! in March – we’re already working on things.
Peace.
September 21st, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Touched the event held some meaning for you. Your work continues to quicken our imaginations, and invites us to be honest and charitable in new ways. Delighted you’ll be back in town in the Spring!
September 21st, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Thanks. The videos are interesting, although I think 2 minutes would be long enough to get the point.
When I see the photos of the gathering, I can’t help but notice familiar things: a stage, people in chairs basically facing the stage, a central figure, and an institutional space artificially altered to seem a bit more like a living room (although anyone there can tell it’s not). I’ve been in spaces like that before, and it just doesn’t feel right to me, like putting a veneer over “church” rather than really getting outside the box. My opinion is that groups like this may flourish in the coming epoch, as attempts to transition between old and new, but they will not lead the way because they are still defined by the past.
Anyway, these are just impressions, and my impressions may be tainted by my own previous experience at a church that at least looks a lot like this. At that church, an artist who had just participated in a “radical” type of blending of worship service and art once told me confidentially, “The leaders here don’t really get art or artists.” They just made it look that way.
September 21st, 2009 at 11:45 pm
one of these times im going to have the chance to attend
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:40 am
Just a quick response for Andy: The event actually takes place in a local bar called Treffs. There is a stage, but only because the bar has organized a specific room around it in order to facilitate concerts, karaoke, etc. There are booths and tables that line the walls, but they are not all facing the stage as what is happening there is not always of primary concern. There are no central figures; the people you see in the images are various facilitators of the experience who all contribute a piece of what is happening, both in planning it as well as creating/performing it. I can assure you that this is not some sort of “emergent” service that is really just the same old theology dressed up in “pomo” clothing; this is not just about aesthetics and trying to seem hip. This is not in a church, nor is it run by a church, nor does it have any intention of becoming a church. I can understand what you are saying about churches that try to dress things up and place a veneer over the same thing – I have the same criticisms – but it would be a mistake if you thought that is what VOID is about. We would love to have you come out to one of our events if you are ever in Waco. Perhaps you would even like to contribute?
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:17 am
excellent. wish we’d thought of godisnowhere
i love how language takes part in all of this if it’s invited. flesh made word and all. thanks for posting.
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:13 am
Hey Andy
Thanks for the comments. I would just want to add to what John says by saying that actually my issue is not with something taking the form of church (if by that you mean ’stage, people in chairs basically facing the stage, a central figure, and an institutional space artificially altered’). Of course there are so many other gatherings that have chairs, make some use of a stage and alter space (eg theatre, cinema, university etc. etc.). The problem is what is said and done in a setting (i.e. the content).
As a believer in faith gatherings the central issue for me is a theological one and so the new form of church (which I think might take seriously the work of Bonhoeffer, weak theology and the materialist thought of Badiou, Zizek etc.) may or may not look like some current form of Christian community, but its outworking will be very different. For example a Beckett play and a Andrew Lloyd Webber play both involve people sitting, stage etc. but are very different.
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:20 am
Also, I am not sure the point of the video’s were about getting a message across. I.e. communicating what they were about before moving on to the next thing. I think that they were made to create a prolonged space of meditative reflection. Spaces within the gathering to catch breath and wonder. Hence the time scale. This is one of the things I mean when I say about the content being different (as well as the way we learn to relate to the content). We currently think that if something happens in a faith gathering it has a ‘point’ that should be communicated clearly and concisely. In gatherings like VOID there is a commitment to creating a sound and visual scape that invites a different mode of participation
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:58 am
I did not attend so my comments are limited at best. One response however to admin, in the response to Andy. “Of course there are so many other gatherings that have chairs, make some use of a stage and alter space (eg theatre, cinema, university etc. etc.). The problem is what is said and done in a setting (i.e. the content).” I would agree slightly, and see the comment entrenched in modernist thinking. (only the Word matters, the room, music, art, etc only convey the Word) While I do not believe admin believes this modernist thought completely the comments seem to miss the point that space, gesture, sound, color, etc. all matter. Indeed, in the long run they convey far more than the “content.” Or, to quote McLaren, who quoted a friend, “Architecture wins.”
My two cents.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:11 am
Thanks for sharing, this is brilliant. I resonate with your comment regarding it creating “a prolonged space of meditative reflection.” It certainly did that for me. Could have been longer to that end.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:39 am
Thank God VOID isn’t a church.
If it was, I’m not sure I could be involved, certainly not in any of the planning. I don’t need a lot of answers right now, but I do need some help confronting my questions. We humans (Westerners in particular) have a tendency to try to figure things out, come up with answers, pick the one that sounds the best, and go. VOID people try to fight that tendency–both in individual elements of the events and in a very general sense–there’s a commitment to spending time with the questions, the uncertainties, the ambiguities, the both/ands and the neither/nors and the maybes. This is what happens when we meet to talk about how the next event might be shaped, and we do everything we can think of to invite our guests into the same kind of experience, at least for an hour or so. Hopefully we succeed at least part of the time, but I have to admit I’m not that worried about it. I need to do this, and I’m just glad to have some other people who feel similarly. What a participant in one of the events takes away from it is none of my business (although I love the conversations I’ve had, with friends and strangers, after various events, and the stories and ideas and genuine sharing that have happened have taught me as much as the planning process has); I’m glad if people are interested in the topic of an event, and I hope they find it a good experience, but that’s about it. I need to do this, and the actual event is only the most visible part of what VOID is to me.
I feel weird using the first person singular throughout–I am certainly not the voice of VOID or its best representative or anything like that. But that’s what all the “I”s are for–all I can share is my own experience. Anyway, VOID isn’t a church, or a congregation of any particular creed. But it is a profoundly religious community for all that…at least to me, and thank God for that.
Also, last thing: I’m incredibly grateful to those who’ve gone before us and fired our imaginations (and in a big way, I guess that’d be you, Pete). Thanks for helping me look into the void with some hope that the emptiness can be a space for something real to come.
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I am an Apostate Christian and a lazy Buddhist Atheist. I am philosophically inclined and mystical in a naturalistic way.
Peter, I love your stuff on this site. Unique, inspiring. Could you recommend one or two of your books you’d recommend for someone like me?
Thank you friend.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Thanks for the responses to my comment. Perhaps I was wrong about my impressions. I would really like to see examples of people meeting together without falling into old patterns and agendas.
I don’t “go” to church anymore. I’m slowly getting over my old habits of doing Christianity and discovering grace to take a journey. I have more doubts and questions than ever, but I also have a stronger sense of Truth that I’m coming to know.
Someday my wife and I may find ourselves organizing or participating in gatherings, and I appreciate all the insight I can get from others about how such gatherings can be truly honest, free from manipulation, and responsive to the Spirit.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:22 pm
I was uncomfortable typing “responsive to the Spirit.” What I mean is a place where people are free to respond to the Spirit, or God, or Love, or Whatever — in whatever sense that means to them at the moment. A place where we can be together without expectations but with anticipation (a distinction I first understood from reading “The Shack”).
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:26 pm
One last thing…my wife and I talked about VOID a bit just now. Then we were wondering, “What is the thing that brings you all together?”
Did you start with a group with something in common? Like people leaving a traditional church together, or a group of artists, etc? What is the reason for getting together now? I don’t mean a simple answer (e.g., just to hang out).
When you get together, what keeps nothing from happening? (Strange question, but if you’re just hanging out with no agenda…)
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:03 pm
To a degree I enjoyed the photographs and videos but agree with some of the commentary above. If experimental than really experiment, push out far, don’t just spiritually masturbate on the fringe, jump in the lake and dive deep, capture the poemia not simply an idea with form slapped on the surface of things. To Peter’s comment it is true that it isn’t necessarily about form but rather content. However, form does in{form} content, it shows us what the work is about. To me the video and photographs feel more like a surface treatment than a considered work. An illustration at best. The human condition craves expressions that reach to the whole of a person, not simply the mind. Even the most horrific voids are imbued and laced with beauty. Find beauty.
However I love the interactive nature of the pieces. To this end I think your collective is really on to something, the future is reimagining the ecosystem of God as cultivated by priests, actors on a stage, contributors to a work, different formal elements on a painting. There is beauty in collective activity that isn’t driven by functionality.
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:38 pm
I’m glad to see the discussion here – wish I could have returned to it earlier. Even though I’m late, I feel compelled to offer a little more.
I’m a little surprised by the direction the discussion has gone – church or not a church, etc, etc. In the past I have said that VOID is not a church, mostly because I think that question (church or not a church) completely misses the point. If you look at VOID and don’t see a church, I have no problem with that. In fact, I would agree with you. But it hasn’t been pointed out yet in this discussion that the central theme of the GODISNOWHERE event was very relevant to the discussion here. We were using GODISNOWHERE as a means to explore the idea of holy space. Is there holy space? If so, what makes a space holy? Is every space holy? Or no space? So in fact, this event was aiming to explore the very kinds of questions that have been brought up in this discussion (and questions central to what VOID is about). Is the best question whether or not what we are doing is church? Or is the better question whether the space created by VOID just might allow for the incoming of an event that is found in spaces that truly become church? Is a church a church because some authority/building/religious beliefs/etc describes it as such? Or is a church a church because it is a place that facilitates encounter with God that confronts us, transforms us, confounds us? So again, I would agree that VOID is not a church. And if church is about method, form, particular beliefs, then (as John and Mary said above) VOID is not interested in becoming a church. But if church, at it’s best, at it’s core, is about encounter in a place, within a gathering of people, then who am I to say VOID is not a church? This is just the wrong question.
During the GODISNOWHERE event, there were two old tv/vcrs displaying static, but at times the static gave way to various images – traditional and non-traditional holy spaces, an image of a homeless man, two lovers in an embrace, and many more. Perhaps VOID can open a space where moments of encounter might confront us. But it might just be static.
I hope this speaks to some of what has been said here, including Andy’s question regarding what brings us together.
And certainly, each person who is involved in planning VOID, and those who come and participate, would have a different way of responding to these questions.
September 23rd, 2009 at 9:42 pm
I would like to make a personal connection to the church/nonchurch issue. I am the musical element to VOID and have only been so to the last event.
I attend church (for lack of a better word) on Sunday morning and will continue to attend VOID events. I participate in both as a musician – one to play an accepted repertoire of upbeat songs of praise and worship to God, sure, but at the VOID event I play a personal and ever-changing tune to enhance (hopefully) the message there. And though I don’t speak at the event, I have the ability to play my comments, interweave my thoughts with the speaker’s.
But is there an issue of allegiance to one or the other? Not at all. Sunday morning, I get with a group of friends and learn about the Word of God. Sunday night at VOID I get with a group of friends and interpret that Word in my own way.
In both, whether through questions or answers or unanswered questions, we dedicate our time to that which we feel are issues of universal importance. And we reach our audience by becoming “all things to all men.”
September 24th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Just wanted to write a quick note from the perspective of an audience member/viewer. It’s actually hard to say that I was just an observer from the audience, however. The event actually engaged me enough that I felt like I was participating. The lines between “performer” and “viewer” were nicely blurred. Either way, I had the privilege to sit in on the VOID event at the Matter ‘09 conference.
Full disclosure… I am also one of the conference organizers. VOID could not have put a better cap on the weekend. Well done! John B. your music throughout the event had me spellbound. It set the right tone and emotional quality, but also, I couldn’t fathom how you were playing all of that live and in real time! Any cd’s available?
What VOID was able to do effectively was to create a space where individual audience members could wrestle with what it means for a space to be a holy space. I think one of the fundamental roles of art is to ask good questions well. It isn’t necessary for the artists to provide good answers. That seems to be the key separation between art and propaganda. VOID created an environment with enough visual and sonic stimuli to raise questions about what makes certain spaces holy and where one can encounter the Divine presence while also providing the space and time for the audience to reflect on these things. The latter of these, the space and time for contemplation, is where this particular event soared. I’m still reflecting on it, actually.
I think this question of whether VOID is a church or not misses the point somewhat, but it isn’t without a history. I’m a theatre director, and I’ve always thought that the love/hate relationship between the organized church (institutions) and the theatre (as a form) is a territory battle. The GODISNOWHERE event might not have been “theatre” in the traditional since, but it was certainly “theatrical” in the Roland Barthes “density of signs” since of the term.
Historically, theatre as a medium arose out of ritual, overtly religious ritual. Over time, the myths explored by the theatrical ritual have moved out of overtly “sacred” realms, but it hasn’t ever really lost the element of ritual. Even in highly commercialized modern theatre, there remains a whiff of ritual, but in this event VOID probes issues of a more sacred nature in a more overtly ritualistic way. Suddenly, those turf wars between what is traditionally the concern of the church and what is the concern of everyone else begin to crop up. It’s interesting to me in this case that both the form and the content of the event blurred the lines between accepted notions of what is “holy” and what is “sacred”.
September 24th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
two things – sorry to put this so far down the list by comparison to the things I am replying/reacting to:
When John writes that “this is not some sort of “emergent” service that is really just the same old theology dressed up in “pomo” clothing” I am curious about what emergent things he has read/been involved with. I don’t get that “emergent” is just the same old theology.
Ok, one thing for now….
September 26th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Steve – I think John’s probably just addressing the stereotype about “emergent” – that it’s just art, candles, etc, and no real change in substance.
September 28th, 2009 at 10:07 am
“I play…an ever-changing tune to enhance (hopefully) the message…though I don’t speak at the event, I have the ability to play my comments, interweave my thoughts with the speaker’s…we reach our audience…” (John B)
“…from the perspective of an audience member/viewer…The event actually engaged me enough that I felt like I was participating. The lines between “performer” and “viewer” were nicely blurred…the form and the content of the event blurred the lines between accepted notions of what is “holy” and what is “sacred”.” (Charlie)
Peter – I’m totally with you when you say it’d be better if folks say you aren’t going far enough. I’m happy that the people at VOID are searching, and I think they’re onto something. Having said that, these quotes above seem to confirm my original sense. There seem to be roles underlying expectations attached to old notions of what it means to gather, not a real “void” in which either the Spirit leads or nothing would happen. As others have said well, you can get outside the box, but you may still have the box inside of you.