Greenbelt '97 sees the welcome return to the UK of singer, songwriter, producer, executive and thinker CHARLIE PEACOCK. Tony Cummings reports.

9. Imitate Jesus
True artists imitate Jesus. They pursue greatness in craft in order to give the Lord the best fruit of the talent he has given them, not to build themselves up. They understand that true greatness is found in the heart of the servant.

After Jesus had washed the feet of his disciples he told them, "I have set an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things you will be blessed if you do them." (John 13:15-17)

This Scripture from Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of the New Testament best summarizes my philosophy of artmaking: "So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ - that's where the action is. See things from his perspective." Colossians 3:1 (2)

GENERATION X
"Usually at the start of every decade, they label that decade or that generation, and then" they take the next 10 years to try to unpack the confusion that exists within them. If people were honest, they'd just declare how baffled they were by the human condition... I think part of (their problem) is that they've just lost hope, and I actually see that as a good thing. I kind of hope they've lost hope in America and in the American dream because in as much 'the Christian right' would want to sell that as part of what it means to be a Christian, that's just rubbish. What it means to be a Christian is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ however that takes form. It doesn't necessarily take form in a two-car garage in suburbia... The real overriding question is that if you put your hope in something that was a false assumption, then where now can you put your hope that's true? Only the Christian has the answer to that."