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Encouraging girls on their journey towards Biblical womanhood. bloom!
teens & culture-
with andy crouch making
10-11
meet the
dâtÜàxà Q&A with the miller sisters!
6-8
XwxÇ fàÜ|Çz
sarah tillman 4-5
on becoming a palace
spring 2009
The Reason for
God: Belief in
an Age of
Skepticism
by Tim
Keller
—g{x BOOKSHELF— ::This Issue’s Recommended Reading::
The Narnian:
The Life and
Imagination
of C.S. Lewis
by Alan
Jacobs
The Bulletin Board
A Little
Primer on
Humble
Apologetics
by James
W. Sire
Keep a Quiet
Heart by
Elisabeth
Elliot
A Diary of
Private
Prayer: A
Devotional
Classic by
John Baillie
Oh Soul, my soul! Why are you in despair? Why have you, Spirit, grown discouraged now? Do you forget the hands that formed with care,
This body from which these tears and grief now flow? I thirst for you, O God, to come. Draw near!
A wave, a hopelessness engulfs me now. I run to find some source of refuge from fear,
But as I run the waves crash over my brow. I find that I am drowned in grace and peace, And now I shiver, drenched in heavenly love. Your arms enfold me, warm and comforting. You calm my anxious heart, and to my knees I fall, and from my lips no praise is enough.
And this I found through pain: Your love is unfailing. —Submitted by Kayla Heimbaugh, based on Mary’s song
Mine eyes have sought beauty that is bereft of blemishes The soul starves over lack of light, after endless tempests We have only choked galleries formless, empty ecstasies that arrest the heart like a mockery of the Heaven our soul knows exists My grief persists— not for a stilled heart in a case of flesh but for thine sight in a City endless gazing on diamonds and sapphires rivers of silk and tears captive in bottles Burning envy, for I thirst for beauty utmost for sight of rapturous scars in a Lover's wrists. —Submitted by Amber Roberts, written on the occasion of her Grandmother’s
death last September
—I Peter 2:9-10—
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a
holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received
mercy, but now you have received mercybut now you have received mercybut now you have received mercybut now you have received mercy.
this issue’s
Book Giveaway
To enter to win a free copy of Trust: A
Godly Woman’s Adornment by Lydia
Brownback, send us
an e-mail with your
full name and put
“book giveaway” in
the subject line. You
must be a subscriber
to enter the contest.
The deadline for
entry is July 20,
2009. The winner will be
chosen randomly.
Banana Blueberry Smoothie!
Ingredients:
—1/3 cup blueberries
—1 small banana
—4 ounces of yogurt
—6 ice cubes
Blend the blueberries, banana, and
yogurt together in a blender. Add the
ice cubes and continue blending until
smooth. Pour and drink immediately.
Serves 1.
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God
who makes things grow. —I Corinthians 3:7
“To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will aban-
don prayer as a noticeable characteristic in our lives. The
closer we come to the heartbeat of God the more we see our
need and the more we desire to be confirmed to Christ. Wil-
liam Blake tells us that our task in life is to learn to bear God’s
‘beams of love.’ How often we fashion cloaks of evasion—
beam-proof shelters—in order to elude our eternal Lover. But
when we pray, God slowly and graciously reveals to us our
evasive actions and sets us free from them.”
—Richard Foster
We want to congratulate ALL t
he 2009 graduates, including t
hree
of our own: Megan Dutill, Joann
a Suich, and Curran Adelman.
God’s blessings to each of you a
s you enter into the next step o
f your life!
—the bloom! staff
“Heaven is not here, it’s There. If we were given all we wanted here, our
hearts would settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself
and His still invisible Kingdom, where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for.”
—Elisabeth Elliot
“Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.”
—Leo Tolstoy
No temptation has seized you except No temptation has seized you except No temptation has seized you except No temptation has seized you except
what is common to man. And God is faith-what is common to man. And God is faith-what is common to man. And God is faith-what is common to man. And God is faith-
ful; he will not let you be tempted beyond ful; he will not let you be tempted beyond ful; he will not let you be tempted beyond ful; he will not let you be tempted beyond
what you can bear. But when you are what you can bear. But when you are what you can bear. But when you are what you can bear. But when you are
tempted, he will also provide a way out so tempted, he will also provide a way out so tempted, he will also provide a way out so tempted, he will also provide a way out so
that you can stand up under it.that you can stand up under it.that you can stand up under it.that you can stand up under it. —I Corinthians 10:13
4-5
The Bulletin Board………………………………………………………………….…………………………………….page 2
Contents and Contact Information…………...………………………………………………………………………...page 3
Sister to Sister: On Revision by Sarah Tillman………………………………………………………………………pages 4-5
The Eden String Quartet: Four Sisters Talk about Womanhood, Family, Serving and Their Music…………...pages 6-8
Author Profile: Andy Crouch………………………………………………………………………………………..pages 9-11
Need a subscription form? Go here. …………………………………………………………………………………..page 11
Contents
Our Purpose ::
How to Contact Us ::
To encourage, inspire, and support
girls on their journey towards a
gospel-centered, world-altering,
Biblical womanhood.
E-mail:
Address:
PO Box 157
Matthews, NC 28106
We love to hear from our
readers! Feel free to send us your
suggestions, comments,
questions, or article submissions.
with Sarah Tillman sister to sistersister to sistersister to sistersister to sister
andy crouch
author profile 9-11 g{x XwxÇ
fàÜ|Çz dâtÜàxà
6-8
Staff ::
:: editor ::
Jessina Leonard
:: co-editors ::
Megan Dutill Joanna Suich
:: photographers ::
Emily Lupo Jennifer Goggans
:: staff ::
Curran Adelman Lara Bryant
Amy Leonard Janine Noble Danielle Noble Heather Paulsen
——> check out our blog at
www.bloomthemagazine.com
O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.
—Isaiah 25:1—
As for his failing you, never dream of it—hate the thought. The God who has been sufficient until now, should be trusted to the end.
—Charles Spurgeon—
Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.
—Psalm 36:5—
-to- “The older
women…can train
the younger women
to love their hus-
bands and children, to
be self-controlled and
pure, to be busy at
home, to be kind, and to
be subject to their hus-
bands, so that no one will
malign the word of God.”
—Titus 2:4-5—
by sarah tillman
Dear girls,
This morning I taught my
freshman composition stu
dents a lesson on writing
and revision. It’s one of m
y favorite lessons (ironical
ly, it’s
among their least favorite
). I consider this lesson a k
ind of two-for-one deal: m
y students think they are
getting a lesson on why th
e
teacher thinks it’s importa
nt to proofread and why
they should begrudgingly c
onsider whether or not ea
ch paragraph supports a t
hesis
statement. But, really, it’s
as much a lesson about sp
iritual growth as it is abo
ut writing.
I begin my lesson by askin
g my students to share wi
th the class their strategie
s for revising papers. Typi
cal answers run along the
lines
of “oh, I don’t change any
thing after a first draft. I
t only comes out right th
e first time” and “Maybe
I add a few commas, or c
hange a
word or two.” Sometimes
I get this one: “Revising j
ust messes up my paper.”
When I get these answers
, I like to prod my studen
ts to realize the implicatio
ns of these statements. “S
o, you really always write
a pa-
per perfectly the first tim
e? No changes needed at a
ll?” I ask. I then encourage
them to slash out whole
pages, to unashamedly re-
order
passages with cut and past
e. By the end of the day’s
lesson, my goal is to take
my students from miniscu
le alterations of commas m
arks
to radical, whole-scale ch
anges of the purpose and
thesis of their papers. Usua
lly at this point they star
t to see what I’m driving a
t -
the important correlation
between being open to rev
isions in a paper and bein
g open to life revisions.
I am concerned by the mi
splaced confidence and un
willingness to try out chan
ges that I see in some of m
y students. But I am mor
e
concerned that this is ofte
n similar to the misplaced
confidence that I perceive
Christians taking toward
God’s methods of revising
us -
we’ll allow change for a few m
etaphorical sentences, but the
n we feel confident that we a
re “good enough,” or that tru
e, radical
revision would just mess up o
ur image of an idealized, con
tented Christian life. Often we
deceive ourselves into believin
g that we
somehow got things wrong, o
r are being punished if God im
poses major life-revisions on u
s, and we forget that we are
in a beauti-
ful process of being re-fashion
ed into an utterly new creatio
n.
I like to remind myself of a qu
ote by one of my favorite writ
ing theorists, Peter Elbow: “M
eaning is not what you start o
ut with,
but what you end up with.” I
enjoy thinking that God sees
purpose in our lives in a simil
ar way. I believe God is all abo
ut revision;
and while I believe that He ap
preciates even the small, pun
ctuational changes we make, m
y hunch is that he’s out for w
hat I call
“global” revisions - whole-sca
le revisions that leave no part
of us untouched.
Any form of change is scary -
it’s scary for my students to t
hink about deleting a beloved,
yet redundant, paragraph, a
nd it’s far,
far, scarier for us to think ab
out the kinds of sweeping rev
isions God might bring about
for us. Will He revise a caree
r plan? Will He
revise the family or communi
ty that we live near? Will He
revise our plans for marriage
or a family? Will He show us
the need to
revise faith in a loved one? R
evisions are always difficult, a
nd I can well understand why
it’s not our idea of a fun tim
e. The process
of revision is time consuming
, scary, and extremely messy
, yet always, always necessar
y.
In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
draws on a parable by Georg
e Macdonald to explain God’s
idea of revision:
“Imagine yourself as a living h
ouse. God comes in to rebuild
that house. At first, perhaps,
you can understand what He
is doing. He
is getting the drains right and
stopping the leaks in the roo
f and so on: you knew that th
ose jobs needed doing and so
you are not
surprised. But presently he st
arts knocking the house about
in a way that hurts abominab
ly and does not seem to mak
e sense.
What on earth is He up to? T
he explanation is that He is b
uilding quite a different house
from the one you thought of
- throwing
out a new wing here, putting
on an extra floor there, runn
ing up towers, making courty
ards. You thought you were go
ing to be
made into a decent little cott
age: but He is building a palac
e. He intends to come and liv
e it in Himself.”
A palace - how wonderfully u
nimaginable! And so, dear gir
ls, I want to encourage you to
look at your changing lives a
s part of
God’s process towards a new
creation. His command of Be
Ye Perfect means just that, bu
t it will be perfection on His t
erms, not
ours. So, if nothing looks to y
ou like you thought it ought t
o, rejoice! You’re most likely
in the process of becoming a
palace.
Much love,
Sarah
Sarah Tillman, 26, is a graduate student in English lit-
erature at the University of Delaware where she also
teaches freshman composition classes. She lives in
Newark, Delaware, with her husband, Nathan, and
her two kittens, Venus and Diana. Her favorite things to
read are poems in Middle English, novels by Thomas
Hardy and Toni Morrison and fabulously revised papers
by her students.
XwxÇ fàÜ|Çz dâtÜàxà g{x
four musical sisters
L-R: Krista, Therese, Leah, and Megan
talk about womanhood, excellence, serving, and their music.
P A G E 6
Can you tell us your “story?” When did
you all begin to play music? How did
the quartet begin? How did you choose
the name Eden String Quartet?
We were exposed to music at a very
young age from our Grandma Bobbie who would often sit us by her piano as infants and play for us. Later on, when each of us was around age 5-6, we started walking down the road to her house for weekly piano lessons. We are often asked if our parents play any in-
struments, and the answer is no. Our mom played the piano for a few years growing up, and our dad the trumpet, but both of them ended up quitting and have always regretted it. When we started learning to play, it was made clear to us that quitting wasn’t an option.
My parents’ goal was not to raise world-class musicians, but they knew that soon the newness would wear off, things would get hard and we would come to them, begging to be able to quit. It is here, when the rubber meets the road, that
character is formed. Our parents knew that if we could learn to persevere through the difficulties, we would come out victorious on the other end. All four of us at one time or the other (or multiple times) requested to quit music
lessons, although we already knew what the answer would be- we thought we would ask anyway just to be sure! We all started our second instrument after we had been playing piano for a few years and believe that helped us get off on the right foot as we already knew the basics
of how to read music and count rhythm. Megan and I (Krista) started violin les-sons when we were 8 and 9 ½. We were around the same size and were going to share our violin. However at our first lesson, our teacher suggested that Megan should play the viola because her hands
were large and there are not as many violists as violinists. So, as soon as we were able to get a viola, Megan switched instruments. Ever since Leah had heard a cello choir perform at a local university, she had wanted to play cello and started lessons when she was 9. I don’t think
that Therese really had a choice of what she was going to play. She really wanted to play the harp, but was told it was too
expensive and plus we would have to get an even bigger vehicle to haul it around in. She started taking viola lessons from Megan at age 7. There is almost an 8-year age span between Megan and Therese so by the time Therese started
viola lessons, us older three girls had already been playing for a while and often performed for various local events and nursing homes as a quartet with another violinist-friend. Although we loved mak-ing music together, we didn’t set out with the goal of forming a family quartet as we
had one violinist, two violists and a cellist in our family. The first time we performed as a quartet with all four of us girls was for a wedding in 2003. After that time, we had more and more gigs, made our very first CD
(which is now no longer in print—we call it our archival copy) and kind of took-off in terms of being asked to perform in various venues around the country. Our quartet has had many names—some of which we picked, and some that others
picked for us. The name that stuck for quite a while was “Daughters of the King String Quartet.” However, people who were unfamiliar with the verse in Psalm 45:13 had trouble remembering such a long name. And it was often mistyped in the address bar of the internet when peo-
ple tried to look up our web site. Eden means “delight,” and we also just really liked the name. Our new name was nice and short, easy to say, type and was a fun word for our web-design-inclined sister, Leah, to work with as she made
our website.
How did growing up on a farm help
prepare you for your musical work and
life in general?
Farm work is hard work and most of the
time, not very glamorous. We grew up mucking out barns, taking care of cattle, chickens and horses, baling hay, paint-ing barns and cleaning equipment in the sweltering summer heat and many other odd jobs around the farm. We all enjoyed growing up on a farm and being able to
go out and work with our Dad, though Leah made sure that she was indispensa-ble in the house so she would not be
asked to help with the outside jobs…she still had her fair share though! I think one of the most important lessons we’ve
learned from working with our Dad on the farm is that any job can be fun, re-gardless of how yucky it is. I can still picture my dad standing on a hay rack on an extremely hot day, doing a cheer for us just to make us laugh and have fun. Hard work is all about attitude and
can be a lot of fun and very rewarding if you make the choice to rejoice. In addi-tion, after being outside in the hot, muggy weather of summer in Central Illinois, it made practicing in the air-conditioned house much more attractive and seem more like “play” than “work.”
Can you tell us about your family? How
many other siblings do you have?
My parents have 7 children: Megan 26, Krista 24, Leah 20, Therese 19, Max 17,
Isaac 7, and Evangeline 4. Now that two of us are married, our family continues to grow. Megan married Justin Goff in De-cember 2004 and they have 3 children: Samuel 3 ½, William 1 ½ and Madeline 6 months. Krista married George Ochen-
jele in June 2007 and they have one little girl, Grace, who is 10 months. Over the past few years as we’ve gotten older and some of us have gotten married and moved away, our family life has changed drastically. Currently, Leah and Therese are both in college at local schools, Max
is a junior in high school and my mom is homeschooling Isaac and Eva.
You’ve talked multiple times about how
your music was not simply just to
please other people, but you also pur-
sued your music with the mission of be-
ing excellent for the glory of God. How
does pursuing excellence through mu-
sic play out in your day-to-day life?
Would you encourage other girls that
pursuing excellence is not just limited to
music, but can be applied to various
other arts, and even just school and
family life? Colossians 3:23 says: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for
men.” The Lord wants us to be whole-hearted in everything we do, whether it is the everyday aspects of life that no one else sees or it is something that many people see and notice. Please note that we are normal people with issues and struggles just like any other family. We
girls have not always been the ideal mu-sic students and children. However, as we grew in our walk with the Lord, we began to see that if we only tried to meet the bare minimum requirements just to check it off our to-do list for the day, it
didn’t get us very far. For example, my
Megan, Krista, Leah, and Therese, four sisters from
central Illinois, are gifted musicians and devoted
Christian women. Five years ago they formed the
Eden String Quartet and they share their music
throughout the United States—everywhere from
the Crystal Cathedral to a friend’s wedding. In
2006 they produced a CD entitled What Wondrous
Love. Listen in to our conversation as the girls
share about their story, music, and life.
grandma would ask us to practice each piece she assigned 3 times. On a good day, we could dutifully play through the
piece our 3 times, but if we played it sloppy, with wrong notes and rhythm, we might as well have not practiced at all instead of practicing wrong and with a bad attitude or “B.A.” as we liked to refer to it. You’ve heard the saying “practice makes perfect.” We say that “perfect
practice makes perfect.” When we saw that the Lord cares about every aspect of our lives and desires for us to bring Him glory through our thoughts, words, ac-tions and attitudes, it began to change the way we would practice. We would instead do what we needed to do to learn
the music correctly- however long it took. Being excellent for God’s glory doesn’t necessarily mean that we practiced longer, it means that we practiced better.
What is your favorite type of music to
play together? Do the four of you have
a favorite song? We really enjoy all types of music: classi-cal, hoe-down, hymns, Celtic, Christmas
and pop songs. We love to play music that engages our audience and is fun for everyone to listen to, not just the classi-
cally trained musician.
Can you walk us through what one of
your concerts would be like? What
songs do you play? Do you speak or
give your testimonies? How has your
music allowed you to share the gospel?
A typical concert for us usually com-prises a mixture of hymns and classical music. We have given our testimonies
before during a performance—we usually just do whatever we’re asked. Through music, the Lord has opened up many doors for us to go places, meet people and develop friendships that we would otherwise not had the opportunity to do.
We have found that really connecting with people on a personal level is the best way of sharing the gospel.
What instruments do each of you play?
Megan plays the viola, violin, and piano. Krista plays the violin and piano. Leah
plays the cello and piano. And Therese plays the viola and piano, although she’d also like to learn the guitar at some point
in the future.
As Megan and Krista are now married,
do you still give concerts? Will you con-
tinue to play music together? Do you
have any future CDs planned?
We have played quite a bit together until the past year when Krista got married
and moved 3 hours away and two more babies were added to our family. We still play for weddings and have done a few local performances. We would like to make another CD in the future- it’s just a matter of finding the time and resources to make that happen. We have some
more very beautiful hymn arrangements that were not included on our CD “What Wondrous Love” and have toyed with the idea of producing another hymn CD. We’ve also discussed the possibility of doing a Lullaby CD and Christmas CD. Right now, nothing is in the works, but
continue to check back with us as we do hope to make another CD in the future.
As you are now married, do you have any encouragement for
younger women?
Waiting on God's timing and finding out God's will requires lots of patience, but it's worth it! I was encouraged with
the thought that my future husband was most likely "out there" somewhere. It really made a difference in the way I lived my life, knowing that the Lord would bring us to-gether in His timing. My encouragement to younger girls, is to be proactive in your waiting: learn new skills, serve others, pray for your future husband and family, take the time to read the Bible and other challenging books, mentor
younger siblings or friends, sit under the teaching of older women (Titus 2), seek to do your husband good all the days of your life (Proverbs 31) and pray that the Lord would direct you specifically in how you can be a good help-meet to your future husband. Life doesn't start once you're married; life is for today. Each season should be
fruitful. Seek out God's will for the particular season you’re in and jump in with enthusiasm! Also, one's single years aren't to be spent living for ourselves, for "fun's sake", and for our own "betterment", but to prepare us for the future. I know that's counter-cultural, but that's
the principle taught in the Bible, under normal circumstances. I was reminded just the past couple weeks, through the death of a friend, to live like today is our last. Life is too short to spend whining, complaining, being mad,
being lazy, or being unfruitful. As II Peter 2:18 says, "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen."
Can you recommend one encouraging book to our readers
and tell us why you liked it?
There were many excellent books that I read growing up.
Several of my favorites were
books written by Eric and Leslie Ludy and Elisabeth Elliot. How-ever, most of you have probably already heard of those authors. The book I would like to recom-mend is entitled “God Knows My Size!” By Harvey Yoder. This
book is about a girl named Silvia, who grew up in a Christian home in communist Romania and was constantly told by her teachers that there was no God. She de-cided to find out for herself if
God was really real and asked Him for 3 things: a pair of shoes,
a sweater and a coat—all items, which at that time, were almost impossible to buy. God answered her prayer and gave her a faith that carried her though persecution and imprisonment for her faith. Right after I finished reading this book, one of my violin students saw it at our house
and casually mentioned that “Silvia” was coming to their church to share her testimony in a few weeks. We were able to meet Silvia Tarniceriu and hear her story again, this time in person. For me, it was really a faith-building book and an inspiration for me in my walk with the Lord. ———————————————————————————— We’ll highlight the rest of this interview—including one-on-one ques-
tions with Leah and Therese—on our blog in the near future. Make sure
to check there (at www.bloomthemagazine.com) for extra features
about the Miller sisters and their quartet. Also, check out the Eden
String Quartet website: www.edenstringquartet.comwww.edenstringquartet.comwww.edenstringquartet.comwww.edenstringquartet.com
//meet megan: //meet krista:
Author Profile
Although your target audience was
most likely not teenagers, what would
you hope a teenager would gain after
reading "Culture-Making?"
Actually, I definitely hope teenagers will
read the book! I tried to write it in a way
that would be accessible to any motivated
reader. The book is really written for people
who are ready to take on more cultural re-
sponsibility. That describes not just teenag-
ers, but college students, recent college
graduates, people at turning points later in
life . . . it's for everyone who has become a
bit dissatisfied with the way they're relating
to the broader culture around them.
I think part of what happens in one's teen-
age years is that for the first time, often,
you become keenly aware, first of all, that
there is a "culture" that is shaping and form-
ing you for better and for worse, and you
start to make intentional choices about how
to relate to that culture. So I would hope
that teenagers would read Culture Making
and learn how to interpret the culture they
are in, and then start to imagine what they
could creatively contribute to a world that often wants to treat us merely as consumers
of culture rather than agents of cultural
change.
In your book, you describe culture as
"the furniture of heaven." What do you
mean by this?
This came out of my reading of Revelation 21 and 22, where the apostle John, clearly
influenced by the prophet Isaiah (Is. 60),
describes the "kings of the earth" bringing
"the glory and honor of the nations" into the
New Jerusalem in God's restored, re-created
world. (Isaiah is more specific: he mentions
the ships of Tarshish, the camels of Midian,
and the silver and gold of nations far and
wide.) It seems that the New Jerusalem is full not just of redeemed people, but of re-
deemed cultural artifacts as well.
This has fascinating implications. It sug-
gests that at least some human cultural ef-
forts will not simply disappear at the end of
history: they will actually reach their in-
tended fullness as the "furniture of heaven."
And that means that it's possible that some
of the culture that we ourselves cultivate
and create might actually show up, in re-deemed and purified form, in God's eternal
good world. If that's a possibility, it gives
incredible dignity and importance to our
cultural efforts, and gives us an incentive
for becoming as skillful and excellent in our
culture making as we can be.
What are some practical suggestions
for becoming a skillful culture-maker?
In one sense it is alarmingly simple. Skill in
any cultural domain requires time. A lot of
time. Recent studies (summarized by the
an interview with andy crouch
In Andy Crouch’s Culture Making (IVP
Books, 2008), he explains how the only
way to change culture is to create cul-
ture—instead of the oft-attempted meth-
ods of condemning, critiquing, or simply
consuming culture.
But what does culture making look like
for teenagers? Or what does culture
making look like for someone who’s in
school or working at the grocery store?
What part does the arts play in culture
making? And what does Crouch mean
by calling culture the “furniture of
heaven?” Listen in to our conversation
with Andy Crouch as he answers these
questions and more.
journalist Malcolm Gladwell) suggest that
10,000 hours is about right for achieving
real mastery in a cultural domain—whether
architecture or painting, civil engineering or
nursing. That's sounds like an awful lot of time, but it comes down to 2 hours a day, 5
days a week, for 20 years (with two weeks
off for vacation every year :) ).
And then what you have to do for those
10,000 hours is be willing to embrace disci-
plines: small, simple things done over and
over that gradually develop the capacity to
do more complex things. Drummers prac-
tice their rudiments. Painters work on the
basics of the human figure and still lifes. Writers write in journals. Most of these
disciplines stay completely invisible—no
one would be interested in watching me
play scales on the piano! But they make it
possible for us to do the things that ulti-
mately become culturally excellent.
This is where being a teenager is really
helpful. You have time! For a 40 year old to
commit to 10,000 hours of practice of a
particular cultural discipline is very diffi-cult, sometimes all but impossible. But if
you're 14 or 18 years old, one thing is pretty
certain: assuming God grants you a normal
lifespan, you will spend 10,000 hours doing
something. Why not make some choices
about what you want to devote your 10,000
hours to? By the time you are 40 you could
have developed significant skill in a par-
ticular area—and all that in just two hours a
day.
You talk a lot about the artistic dimen-
sions of life. What does culture-making
look like in the arts? How can teenag-
ers seek creativity and servanthood in
the arts?
That's a fantastic question, and it pairs two
really important concepts: creativity and
servanthood. I would say that genuine crea-
tivity requires a few important factors. First, it requires deep immersion in a rich tradi-
tion. If you are a dancer, learn everything
you can about the history of dance, and see
as much dance as you can. Second, it re-
quires plenty of practice—see above. Third,
it requires a willingness to open yourself to
new experiences—to go places you would-
n't ordinarily go, to try food and books and places and acquaintances you might not
normally seek out. Finally, once you've
invested in all those prerequisites, you have
to be willing to risk failure, and be fully
aware that the great majority of the time,
your creative efforts will fail. Failure is
actually a key ingredient in developing full
creativity!
As for servanthood, I think this is a way
that Christians can be especially distinctive and helpful in the arts. So often the arts in
the modern era have been about self-
expression. I think a more deeply Christian
way to do art is to put one's artistic talents
to work telling the stories and expressing
the experience of people who otherwise
would never be noticed: the poor, the for-
gotten, those in pain, those without a voice.
So I would encourage artists of all kinds to
seek out ways to represent other's experi-
ence in their work, rather than simply re-hearsing their own self-expression. Most of
us are just not that interesting!
But also, for those of us who are in
school or are stay-at-home moms or
are working at the local grocery store,
what does culture-making look like in
those situations?
I am very eager for us to recognize that
culture happens just as much (and in fact,
much more often) in the grocery store, at
the playground, or in our own kitchen as in
artists' studios, highrise office buildings, or Hollywood production lots. All of us are
responsible for some cultural domain!
I like to talk about two aspects of culture
making: cultivating and creating. "Creating"
is introducing something new into the world
that wasn't there before. This can happen
even in the most basic job (for example,
when an employee goes out of their way to
build relationships with fellow employees
and to go above and beyond the routine
with their customers). It can happen—has
to happen, in fact—in parenting, as we re-
spond creatively to the unpredictable direc-
tions our children's lives and interests take us.
"Cultivating" is not so much about creating
something new, as keeping something that
is already good, good. I think Christians
have often been very quick to point out
what is wrong in our cultures—and cer-
tainly there are plenty of things to criticize.
But much of every human culture is actu-
ally in many ways very good, and
"cultivators" are people who keep that good. When I dust the shelves in our living
room, do the dishes, weed the garden; or
when I take out the trash at work, tally up
the cash register at the end of the day, or
send out this month's round of invoices, I
may not be doing something deeply
"creative," but I am still cultivating: tending
and keeping these processes that contribute,
hopefully, to a flourishing human environ-
ment.
So I would ask of every occupation (paid or
unpaid): "What am I cultivating—keeping
good? And what am I creating—offering
that is new and helpful in this cultural envi-
ronment?" Those aren't just questions for
artists—they're for all of us.
Do you know of any examples of teen-
agers who are culture-makers?
Absolutely! Now let me acknowledge that
to some extent, the teenage years are often
more about cultural apprenticeship—
putting in the first few thousand of your
10,000 hours—than about radical cultural innovation (though there are exceptions). A
lot of what you're called to do in these years
is simply learn about and become fluent in
our amazingly complex culture. So I would-
n't want anyone to feel tremendous pressure
to "change the world" right away . . . you
might do more harm than good.
But once you realize that culture isn't just
“So I would hope that teenagers would read Culture Making and learn how
to interpret the culture they are in, and then start to imagine what they
could creat ively contribute to a world that often wants to treat us merely as
consumers of culture rather than agents of cultural change.”
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P A G E 1 1
something that happens in highrises and
Hollywood, you realize that culture is hap-
pening in your high school, for example.
Your high school has a very particular cul-
ture, for better and for worse, and just like every other human being you can ask,
"What should I be cultivating here? What
could I be creating?" The answer might be a
school musical, a sports team, a school or-
ganization . . . all these are very much part
of the culture of your school.
I have also had the chance to meet a few
teenagers who are creating culture at much
larger scales. I think of Zach Hunter, who
started the campaign "Spare Change to Loosen Chains" or Emma Sleeth, who has
written the book It's Easy Being Green. If
God has given you a vision to do something
like that, go for it! But don't be at all trou-
bled by
starting much smaller. Most of the teenag-
ers I've met who have done something ex-
ceptionally prominent also have access to
unusual kinds of social capital (certainly
that's the case for Zach and Emma, whose
parents are unusually well-connected and influential leaders in the Christian commu-
nity). For the rest of us who don't happen to
have a famous last name, the much more
important thing is to get to work on our
10,000 hours. We won't be overnight suc-
cesses, but there is no reason that we can't
be making significant contributions to cul-
ture, no matter our background, if we stead-
fastly pursue excellence and integrity.
If you could recommend 5 books to a
teenager, which ones would you rec-
ommend?
For some reason only four really stick out
to me:
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables . . . the un-
abridged version. An extraordinary, moving
story of grace and forgiveness played out over the course of a whole life.
Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the
Same Direction. Probably the book that had
the greatest direct influence on me as a
teenager, albeit just barely still a teenager—
I read it my freshman year in college.
Homer, The Odyssey. Read this one three
times: once from the perspective of its hero,
Odysseus; once from the perspective of Telemachus, his son; and once from the
perspective of Penelope, his wife. You'll
see different things each time, including
some that will trouble you . . . this is defi-
nitely not a work of Christian fiction!
Shakespeare, King Lear. Read this out loud
with some friends. What does this play say
about family, loyalty, power, success, fail-
ure?
(Of course, there's this really good book
called Culture Making by Andy Crouch . . .
:))
Do you have any suggestions for an
aspiring writer? Obviously, you did not
start out as a writer, so what has shaped
your profession?
There are really only three things an aspir-
ing writer must do.
1) Read. Read widely. Read as much good
writing as you can, and avoid reading bad
writing as much as you can. Read novels,
read poetry (out loud), read journalism, read
about a field you know nothing about: read,
read, read.
2) Write. Find an audience, even if it is just three friends and your parents :) and write
for them, on some kind of regular schedule
so that your writing becomes a pursuit of
calling rather than mere self-expression.
You really become a writer the day that you
don't have anything bursting forth from
your heart to say, but you sit down to write
anyway and discover the deeper things you
have to say that are not merely the literary
equivalent of Too Much Information. :)
3) Be edited. Find someone who is a better
writer, a better thinker, and wiser than you
(although they don't have to be older—one
of my best editors ever was someone I first
met when she was a college student and I
was a campus minister). Ask them to be
brutally honest with you about the strengths
and weaknesses of your work. As far as
possible try never to publish anything
(keeping in mind that publish essentially
just means "to make public") without sub-mitting it to an editor.
As you can see, none of these essentials
requires you to have a "career" as a writer.
In fact, like being in love and singing the
high note, being a writer often happens just
when you stop trying too hard to be one.
Thank you, Mr. Crouch!
For more information about Culture
Making and Andy Crouch—or for extra
resources or to check out Andy’s nifty
blog—visit www.culture-making.com.
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Matthews, NC 28106
