On July 15 - 16, 2021, Dr. Michael Bauer, professor for organ and church music, will come to St. Benedict Center, four miles north of Schuyler, and direct a retreat titled, Faith and the Arts: A Creative Exploration.
Saint Augustine asks the immortal question: "What do we love, if it be not beauty?" What, indeed? There are many paths to beauty and many different ways in which beauty intersects with human living. Arts ministry enables the church to encounter beauty through an extraordinary variety of creative ventures accomplished by individual artists, parishes, and organizations. It encompasses all the fine arts (music, dance, architecture, the visual arts, literature, poetry, and film) as well as the wider arena of human creativity. This experiential course will explore the notion of arts ministry, and help participants understand this model of ministry through talks and worship services involving each of the fine arts in conjunction with discussions of the different issues involved in arts ministry.
Michael Bauer, DMA, holds a doctorate in organ and choral conducting. He directs the doctoral church music program at the University of Kansas, which features multiple courses in the area of the Judeo-Christian Tradition and the Arts. Along with colleagues in Northeast Kansas and Missouri, he founded Imago Dei, a Kansas City-based non-profit organization that worked in the area of Christianity and the Arts. He has also founded and run three church arts ministries, and is the author of Arts Ministry: Nurturing the Creative Life of God’s People (Eerdman’s). He is married to Dr. Marie Rubis-Bauer, the Director of Archdiocesan Music in Omaha.
The program fee is $60, for students $25; room and board charges will be added. – Social distancing will be observed, please bring your mask..