Immerse | A Journal of Faith, Life, and Youth Ministry

Still Going Deeper With Rustin Smith’s: St. Johnny

by Aaron Babyar on October 10th, 2011 -- filed under Arts and Culture

Artistry in music inspires me, but country music doesn’t typically thrill me.  In 2003, CMT proclaimed Johnny Cash the “greatest man in country music,” and I honestly didn’t notice. Then something surprising happened.

On a gorgeous afternoon, while I was driving with all my windows rolled down, I stumbled upon a cover version of Nine Inch Nail’s song “Hurt” playing on a local alternative station. The song was raw. It was beautiful. It was Johnny Cash. And I loved it.

Long before he received the nickname “the man in black,” Johnny Cash was born and raised in the same state where my wife and I are raising our four children. Arkansas is both beautiful and rugged, much like his final recordings. This is exemplified in the fantastic music video he shot for the cover of “Hurt,” not long before his death.

In “Saint Johnny and the Artist’s Pilgrimage,” Rustin Smith essentially says that a main reason Johnny Cash had a musical career comeback at the end of his life was that Rick Rubin first helped him get back in touch with who he was as an artist. Johnny had to strip down to the basics and spend time recreating there.

I believe there is great need for Rick Rubins to coach pastors who have lost their way. I’ve known many ministers who started out in ministry with a bang of enthusiasm and lofty yet loosely defined goals for making disciples for Jesus. They may have even experienced some early…

Going Deeper With Maggie Dawn’s: Words, Pictures and Imagination

by Jim Kast-Keat on April 29th, 2011 -- filed under Arts and Culture

This year one of my interns began reading The Chronicles of Narnia. He’s 30 and had never read them. Claiming to resonate more with the world of non-fiction, he had avoided the once-upon-a-time genre, but now I receive almost daily text messages from him with his favorite quotes from this captivating story. He has been drawn into this world of truth, beauty, imagination and wonder. He has discovered the subversive power of narrative.

Maggi Dawn writes that “fantasy sometimes perfectly expresses some truth about the real world.” This is why people (like my intern) still read the books that Lewis wrote for his goddaughter Lucy; this is why hordes of people (like myself) flock to the midnight showings of the latest Harry Potter books and movies; this is why we remember stories but forget information. We live in a storied reality, making meaning of our existence via the narrative of our own existence and the narratives we create. This is the subversive power of narrative.

Words Create Worlds

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much more is a compelling and well-told story worth? Our words can create worlds. From the images we see in movies to the images we imagine as we read and hear stories, a world is opened up that wasn’t there before. This “visual representation” speaks far more eloquently than mere facts and information. Ink on paper is one thing, but a world unfolding in your very hands is another. Facts and information…