When you talk about Christians and art, there are always people who are very critical of Christians who make music and other art forms such as movies. Somehow to these people they feel a need to criticize the artwork of other Christians. I do agree that Christian music and art can always be better and there is always room for improvement, but I disagree with this constantly critical attitude that some take.
I’m not one who would rather lie and tell people that I think music made by Christians is the best music ever made. But I have interviewed my share of artists associated with Christian music and I do feel that some of them have a negative attitude towards other Christian artists. Somehow people think that being critical of Christian music or Christian art is their vocation in life.
I realize that musicians want to be the best in their field just as much as pro athletes or movie stars. But what we often mistake a commitment to excellence with the need to be the best. Committing to excellence should be a goal of every Christian. But the need to be the best sounds more like the Apostles fighting over who should sit at Jesus’ right hand.
Criticism is a valuable tool to help us improve our art or whatever we work at in life. But criticism too must stay in its place. God does not give us a right to be overly critical of other people. When we make judgments against them and fail to give them the benefit of the doubt we are not doing anything beneficial.
On many levels excessive criticism can cause us to be unhappy with ourselves and other people. It can also lead us to constantly question our faith and to not hope for the best. In many ways criticism leads us to believe that we are helping ourselves and others when what we are doing is hurting ourselves and others.
What we need to achieve excellence is not more criticism, but more encouragement. More people encouraging others towards excellence instead of finding faults and putting others down. More people helping others succeed and encouraging them to give God their best.
True Tunes 
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January 11, 2011 at 11:33 pm
DJ JoNa
This is so true and it is something I have realized within my own life over the past couple of months. I am a electronic media student often cringe and criticize Christian music, movies, and television that I find to be corny, old school, or “Churchy”.
I think your last point is the biggest and most important of all. We do need to strive for excellence in what we do but not just for the sake of being excellent but to serve God to the best of our abilities. We too often put God in a box and it works its way into our hearts. It begins to make us believe that the way God speaks to me is the way he should and does speak to everyone. But our God is so much bigger and stronger and has the power to speak in move in people lives in many ways that we have not even seen before.