Many
Christian singers say they minister and they don’t perform. As a scholar in the
arts, I take it as a layman’s view, whenever I hear such statements. People
think when we say ‘to perform’ we are singing a secular song or dancing to a
secular music; this thought is wrong. I will like to examine this ‘problem’ and
provide a remedy. Before we conclude, let’s look
THE
ARTS:
Art is a diverse range of human activities
in creating visual, auditory or performing artifacts (artworks),
expressing the author's imaginative
or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional
power. Major constituents of the arts include literature
(including poetry,
novels
and short stories, and epic poetry);
performing arts (among them music,
dance,
and 
theatre);
and visual arts – including drawing,
painting,
photography,
ceramics,
and sculpting.
Architecture is often included as one of the visual arts; however, like the decorative arts,
or advertising, it involves the creation of objects where the practical considerations of use
are essential—in a way that they usually are not in a painting, for example. Music,
theatre, film, dance, and other performing arts
are well included in the definition of art or the arts.
MUSIC
AS AN ART:
Music
is an art form whose medium
is sound and silence, occurring in time. The primary elements of music are pitch
(which is used to create melody and harmony), rhythm
(and its associated concepts tempo, metre, and articulation), dynamics, and the
sonic qualities of timbre
and texture. The creation,
performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to
culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions
(and their reproduction in performance) through improvisational music to aleatoric pieces.
Music can be divided into genres and subgenres, although the dividing lines and
relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to
individual interpretation, and occasionally controversial. Within "the
arts," music may be classified as a performing art,
a fine art,
and auditory art.
A
PERFORMANCE:
A performance, in the performing
arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of
performers present one or more works of art
to an audience.
Performances can take place at designated performance spaces (such as a
theatre, concert hall), or in a non-conventional space, such as a subway
station, on the street, or in somebody's home. Music performances (e.g. a
concert or a recital)
may take place indoors – in either a concert hall
a theatre hall, conference hall, or church – or outdoors in a field, and may
vary from requiring the audience to remain very quiet to encouraging them to sing
and dance
along with the music.
TO
PERFORM:
In
the arts, to perform means to
present a performing-art piece, either through music, dance, theatre, film,
poetry, spoken word, etc. To perform also means to present (a
form of entertainment) to an audience.
A
MINISTER:
In
Christianity,
a minister is a person
authorized by a church, or other religious organization, to
perform functions; leading services; or otherwise providing spiritual guidance
to the community. In the Catholic Church
the term minister enjoys a
variety of usages. It most commonly refers to the person, whether lay or
ordained, who is commissioned to perform some act on behalf of the Church. It
is not a particular office or rank of clergy, as is the case in some other
churches, but minister may be used as a collective term for vocational
or professional pastoral leaders including clergy (bishops,
deacons,
priests)
and non-clergy (theologians and lay ecclesial ministers, as well as
singers).
TO
MINISTER:
You
don't have to be religious to minister. When you minister to someone, you take
care of them. All of these meanings of minister — both as a noun and as
a verb — contain a grain of the original Latin meaning, "servant." A
minister in a church serves his or her flock, and a prime minister serves his
or her country. In a general sense, any Christian exercising a ministry is a
minister. Since all the baptised are part of the universal priesthood, whenever they
engage in their vocation to evangelize the world and to help those in need,
they are ministers – it can be singers, pastors, dancers, lay preachers, etc.
THE
CONCLUSION:
From
the discussion above, we are made know of what is the ‘arts’ and what
constitute it. We are also enlightened on what is meant to perform and what a
performance is. Lastly a knowledge is also passed on who is a minister and what
it is to minister. A performance is the artistic presentation of a work of art
– being music, dance, etc – to an audience and to perform is to present the
artistic work to an audience. In Christianity, to minister is to be engaged in
any activity that will pass the Gospel to another person. You can’t give any
artistic work to an audience without performing it.
You
can perform any work of the art to an audience and not minister; probably, your
art work is meant for entertainment or philosophical reasoning. You can also
minister to an audience without performing it, which means that you are not
using any art medium – such as music, dance, theatre, film, poetry, etc.
however, you cannot minister through any art medium and say you are not
performing. Whenever and wherever there is the arts, there is a performance.
The
performance is the channel the art work is presented and it includes ethics or
principles. The ethics or principles standardize the presentation through whatever
art medium that is being used for the presentation. The basic function of a
performance is to communicate to your audience. Your performance can either entertain,
educate, or incite an audience, it can also minister to an audience. So, for
the Christian fraternity, the right thing to say is, We or I ‘perform’ to ‘minister’ and not We or I don’t ‘perform’, I minister.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/perform
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minister_(Catholic_Church)
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/minister
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