More About MAJIC

Musical Arts

The MAJIC Concert Series features music written and/or performed by local and regional musicians for a listening audience. The atmosphere of the church will provide a performing space that unlike bars, coffee shops, or restaurants give performers a chance to develop a greater sense of artistic intimacy with their audience. Artists and performing groups were chosen based on the originality of their repertoire or compositions, and the newness of their musical projects. The MAJIC concert series is an excellent way for people who are interested in cultural enrichment to attend live music and at the same time help others in their community. The series is also a draw for those who may not be as familiar with concert music settings to get involved for the sake of the social justice cause of the series. We will also draw a diverse audience through varied programming of contemporary classical, jazz, and world music. The MAJIC series is unique in Grand Rapids because it provides a concert venue for local artists and composers that combines music from a diverse range of genres.The downtown location of Bethlehem Church is an ideal venue for a concert series that supports both musicians and artists as well as those in need that live in the greater Grand Rapids area.

Justice In the Community

MAJIC is an integrative project that combines social justice outreach with and through community support of the arts. The 2007-2008 MAJIC series gave nearly $4500.00 from concert donations to the Coalition to End Homelessness. The Grand Rapids Coalition to End Homelessness is a coalition of more than 40 governmental, private and religious organizations the work with shelters, housing providers, service providers, state and local agencies, foundations, businesses, local elected officials and private citizens throughout the greater Grand Rapids area to prevent homelessness and to provide basic needs for people in crisis. The Coalition to End Homelessness began as a division of The Grand Rapids Area Housing Continuum of Care that has developed a ten-year plan to end homelessness that was originally called the “Vision to End Homelessness.” Among the key areas of focus are:
1. Prevention of homelessness, with more resources directed to this strategy
2. A dramatic decrease in emergency shelter need, use, and bed capacity
3. Increased coordination of systems and services
4. The expansion of the role of Housing First as a local strategy for permanent housing
The Coalition to End Homelessness recently implemented a plan to end homelessness in Kent County by the end of 2014. The MAJIC concert series looks forward to being an active part of this plan for its subsequent series.

Thoughts From the Project Director: Carmen Maret

I had the idea for the MAJIC series for a year, and it wasn't until I brought it up to Pastor Jay Schrimpf at Bethlehem Church that I felt it was something that was possible. The thought of putting something together that combined social justice efforts with supporting local music artists seemed like a project out of my reach-- too big, too risky, and definitely not profitable for a woman who is a free lance artist herself. But isn't that the point?

I realized over the past six months of actually putting MAJIC together how important the project is for Grand Rapids in terms of artistic outreach and how appropriate it is for me, others on the series, the task force for the project, and for all those that will attend the concerts to support a cause for social justice through participation in music. What better way to encourage people in the greater Grand Rapids area to get involved in their community and help other than to offer donation based concerts held in the Heartside district of Grand Rapids?

I recently read a book by Brian McLaren called A New Kind of Christian. McLaren calls for a kind of christianity today that embraces the practicality of Jesus's teaching that bring us to act within a whole community of people in the world. This idea is especially important for MAJIC, a ministry of a Bethlehem Church, because as a Christian community we are asked us to reevaluate our sense of social responsibility.

McLaren discusses modern Christian values surrounding sin as an example of how Christianity' sense of social connectedness can change and grow. Neo, one of the main character in McLaren's book summarizes, "The only kinds of sins we want focus on as modern Christians are the isolated individual sins committed by isolated individual monads: lying, having an abortion, indulging in pornography, taking drugs, saying naughty words. Not to minimize those things in any way, but that is far short of a fully biblical understanding of sin, and it leads to dangerous truncations of justice and compassion." As an example Neo goes on to tell the story of a white woman who get her purse swiped by a black teenager in the inner city who uses the money to support his drug habit. Neo explains that we all agree that the black teenager has sinned, "but so has the woman!" he exclaims.

"But what has she done!" another character in the book retorts.

Neo replies, "That's exactly my point, She hasn't done anything. Ten years ago this violent drug addict was a kid, stuck in the city with nothing to do and not much hope for the future...To use Jesus' words, the boy was her neighbor, and he was in need, and she succeeded in crossing to the other side of the road for all her life...The issue isn't who is wrong or righteous; that's obvious. The issue is who is truly good...To be truly good means more than not robbing people. To be truly good means more than being righteously religious. To be truly good means being a good neighbor. And to be a good neighbor means recognizing that there are ultimately no strangers."

I look forward to using the MAJIC series as an opportunity to enable myself and others to be truly good neighbors!

Carmen Maret
May 30, 2007