Community Arts for God's Purposes [Chinese] 貼近神心意的社群藝術

People communicate by speaking words in over seven thousand languages around the world. They also sing, dance, paint, preach, dramatize, and design communication that enlivens heart, soul, mind, and strength. God gave every community unique gifts of artistic expression to enable its members to proclaim the Truth and to bring healing, hope, and joy to others in the fallen world in which we live.

Community Arts for God's Purposes highlights the CLAT (Creating Local Arts Together) method, a seven-step process that inspires artistic creativity and collaboration with local musicians, dancers, storytellers, actors, and visual artists. In this manual, the arts are treated as special kinds of communication systems, connected to specific times, places, and social contexts. As local communities use the creative gifts developed in their particular culture to worship God and extend his kingdom, a beautiful example of the Lord’s complex artistry emerges.

This book helps communities draw on examples and insights from over two thousand years of church history to understand and improve the present. It motivates people by painting a vivid picture of a better future: the kingdom of Heaven. Contributors also apply expertise from multiple academic disciplines, such as ethnomusicology, performance studies, anthropology, biblical studies, and missiology.

Experiment with this manual. Adapt it to your setting. Let it be an aid in creating astounding bits of artistry on earth that you’ll recognize in Heaven.

神的藝術，建立神的國度 

人們透過世界上超過七千種語言進行交流。他們還會唱歌、跳舞、繪畫、講道、演戲和設計不同的交流方式，去使人們的心靈、靈魂、頭腦和力量充滿生氣。神賜予每個群體獨特的藝術表達方式，使其成員能夠宣揚真理，並在我們所生活的敗壞世界中，為他人帶來醫治、希望和喜樂。 

《貼近神心意的社群藝術》強調「共創本地藝術」（Creating Local Arts Together，CLAT）中的七個步驟，啟發與當地音樂家、舞者、說故事者、演員和視覺藝術家等進行藝術創作和協作。在本手冊中，藝術被視為特殊的溝通系統，與特定的時間、地點和社會背景相關聯。當本地群體運用在他們獨特文化中發展起來的創意天賦，來敬拜上帝並延伸祂的國度時，這會展現出上主那綜合藝術之美。本書幫助不同群體從二千多年的教會歷史的例子和見解中借鏡，去理解和改進現在。它透過生動的描述畫面，激勵人們追尋一個更美好的未來：天國。作者們還運用來自多個學術領域的專業知識（例如民族音樂學、表演研究、人類學、聖經研究和宣教學）在本書之中。  

讀者可嘗試使用本手冊，將它處境化地應用在你的環境，讓它成為你的助手，創造令人驚嘆的天國藝術作品。