Friday, May 20, 2005
My artistic testimony
One of the people on one of my lists asked this question here is my rather long answer. I felt it was important to tell the whole story. How has God touched me through art? I love to tell this story. I hope you have a little bit of time. I have always done art or at least since I first drew that Tippy the Turtle thing from the magazine art classes when I was three. As I got older, I realized that this was what I really wanted to do with my life. My parents had other ideas. They believed that I would end up starving in an attic some place and they didn't want to pay for that, so instead I went to school for electronics engineering and flunked out after a year. I wasn't a Christian by the way.
When I returned home I decided that I would try my hand at being an artist. I did a variety of fast food type jobs to feed my art habit and took whatever odd art jobs I could get. I was a massive rock and roll fan and went to many many concerts and became more and more involved in music as well, though I never was a good or serious musician. Eventually a man who worked at a print shop saw some of my art and asked me if I would like to work in his print shop as a press operator, until they had an opening in the art department. I took the job, I'm sure God had a plan for that but it felt like a big mistake. I hated running a press, but once I was trained to do it, I never got into the press room. It was during this period of time I discovered alcohol. Now some people can have a drink or two and quit. I was not one of them and in no time at all I had a major drinking problem. My printing job eventually went to night shift leaving my days free, and I finally got some art training. I was a miserable human being during this time, at times suicidal.
My sister was terribly worried about me and decided to help me out by introducing me to a girl. My sister hesitated to mention a few things to me about her before we went out on our first blind date: 1. that my date didn't drink and 2. that my date was a born again Christian and that her dad was a minister. Someone told me that the night before our first date after it was too late to cancel. We went out, we fell in love she led me to Christ and we got married.
But you asked how God used art, well I'm getting to that. The day before our first date, I finally got my first real art job, designing grocery circulars starting at $5.75 an hour. There was an immense amount of pressure and I soon saw that this was not waht I signed on for but by then I was married with a child was very poor and trapped. At that moment, I should have turned to God but I didn't. I decided that if I just worked a little harder I could end up doing what I really wanted to do. I buried myself in the one thing I could always depend on (or so I thought) my work. I freelanced for anybody who could write a check. I worked for a licensee of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a whole bunch of other stuff, sounds cool except some people took so long to pay me that we were even more broke.
Everything that went wrong drew me deeper into my work and further from my family and from God. We had two miscarriages, I went deeper into my work. I lost two of the most important people in my life, I went deepr into my work. My work was becoming an idol. I got laid off from my main job the day my second son was born. I thought that this was God releasing me to become a full-time freelance. I was wrong, God was not going to bless an idol. Eventually it all fell through and I ended up in a series of retail and sales jobs.
One day as I was driving from one job to the next I was crying out to God taking him to task for not blessing all my efforts in this God given gift of mine. I heard Him in my spirit say something that I couldn't shake. Your work is your God. That week I went to Stand in the Gap (Promise Keepers) and spend the day feeling like God got a whole lot of people together just to talk to me. That day I repented of my idol. I went home and apologized to my family and started on the long road toward making things right and I made a promise to God that I kept. I told God that I would quit art and never pick it up again until I did for Him.
For six months I did NO art. It was as if an arm was cut off at times but God called me to the ministry during that time. I started off leading youth, the first thing was to take a group of kids to the creation festival. I wasn't even an official youth leader yet but I went to the youth leader training sessions every day because I knew that was God was leading. That fall I restarted our church's youth group. I was looking for a way to make my teaching stick and that is when God began to show me how I could use my talent to serve Him. Over time, He gave me my art back and now I do it for Him. He has blessed me in amazing ways. After five years of youth ministry I got the call to pastor a church plant where we use art in ministry. I began using a youth ministry resource based on music and began to write my own lessons based on that. That led to me contacting the resource (Interlinc) and I began to write for them (God used my passion for rock music to create a resource for reaching kids.) a year and a half after that first trip to Creation, I was in a room in the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, rooming with the guy who was the youth leader training speaker I listened to every day. We are now good friends and collaborators.
I began to realize that I was not the only person interested in using the visual arts in ministry and so I started A.M.O.K. Arts Ministry Outreach for the Kingdom, to try to help other people to do the things that I have been shown. Now get to travel and teach this stuff. God has blessed me immensely. I want to close by showing you all a piece of art work. After all of those years of trying to become a famous artist, I finally did a piece of work that will be seen by thousands of people from all over the world. It's attached. It's a mural, and it's painted on an outhouse at the Creation festival. That's right, my most famous piece of art is painted on a toilet. God has a sense of humor. But here's what it showed me: some of the best spiritual times I ever had were had while I was painting that toilet and that the art is not an end to itself for the Christian (at least for me) It the means to an end, to bring glory to my father. Thanks for reading this very long post.
(0) comments
One of the people on one of my lists asked this question here is my rather long answer. I felt it was important to tell the whole story. How has God touched me through art? I love to tell this story. I hope you have a little bit of time. I have always done art or at least since I first drew that Tippy the Turtle thing from the magazine art classes when I was three. As I got older, I realized that this was what I really wanted to do with my life. My parents had other ideas. They believed that I would end up starving in an attic some place and they didn't want to pay for that, so instead I went to school for electronics engineering and flunked out after a year. I wasn't a Christian by the way.
When I returned home I decided that I would try my hand at being an artist. I did a variety of fast food type jobs to feed my art habit and took whatever odd art jobs I could get. I was a massive rock and roll fan and went to many many concerts and became more and more involved in music as well, though I never was a good or serious musician. Eventually a man who worked at a print shop saw some of my art and asked me if I would like to work in his print shop as a press operator, until they had an opening in the art department. I took the job, I'm sure God had a plan for that but it felt like a big mistake. I hated running a press, but once I was trained to do it, I never got into the press room. It was during this period of time I discovered alcohol. Now some people can have a drink or two and quit. I was not one of them and in no time at all I had a major drinking problem. My printing job eventually went to night shift leaving my days free, and I finally got some art training. I was a miserable human being during this time, at times suicidal.
My sister was terribly worried about me and decided to help me out by introducing me to a girl. My sister hesitated to mention a few things to me about her before we went out on our first blind date: 1. that my date didn't drink and 2. that my date was a born again Christian and that her dad was a minister. Someone told me that the night before our first date after it was too late to cancel. We went out, we fell in love she led me to Christ and we got married.
But you asked how God used art, well I'm getting to that. The day before our first date, I finally got my first real art job, designing grocery circulars starting at $5.75 an hour. There was an immense amount of pressure and I soon saw that this was not waht I signed on for but by then I was married with a child was very poor and trapped. At that moment, I should have turned to God but I didn't. I decided that if I just worked a little harder I could end up doing what I really wanted to do. I buried myself in the one thing I could always depend on (or so I thought) my work. I freelanced for anybody who could write a check. I worked for a licensee of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a whole bunch of other stuff, sounds cool except some people took so long to pay me that we were even more broke.
Everything that went wrong drew me deeper into my work and further from my family and from God. We had two miscarriages, I went deeper into my work. I lost two of the most important people in my life, I went deepr into my work. My work was becoming an idol. I got laid off from my main job the day my second son was born. I thought that this was God releasing me to become a full-time freelance. I was wrong, God was not going to bless an idol. Eventually it all fell through and I ended up in a series of retail and sales jobs.
One day as I was driving from one job to the next I was crying out to God taking him to task for not blessing all my efforts in this God given gift of mine. I heard Him in my spirit say something that I couldn't shake. Your work is your God. That week I went to Stand in the Gap (Promise Keepers) and spend the day feeling like God got a whole lot of people together just to talk to me. That day I repented of my idol. I went home and apologized to my family and started on the long road toward making things right and I made a promise to God that I kept. I told God that I would quit art and never pick it up again until I did for Him.
For six months I did NO art. It was as if an arm was cut off at times but God called me to the ministry during that time. I started off leading youth, the first thing was to take a group of kids to the creation festival. I wasn't even an official youth leader yet but I went to the youth leader training sessions every day because I knew that was God was leading. That fall I restarted our church's youth group. I was looking for a way to make my teaching stick and that is when God began to show me how I could use my talent to serve Him. Over time, He gave me my art back and now I do it for Him. He has blessed me in amazing ways. After five years of youth ministry I got the call to pastor a church plant where we use art in ministry. I began using a youth ministry resource based on music and began to write my own lessons based on that. That led to me contacting the resource (Interlinc) and I began to write for them (God used my passion for rock music to create a resource for reaching kids.) a year and a half after that first trip to Creation, I was in a room in the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, rooming with the guy who was the youth leader training speaker I listened to every day. We are now good friends and collaborators.
I began to realize that I was not the only person interested in using the visual arts in ministry and so I started A.M.O.K. Arts Ministry Outreach for the Kingdom, to try to help other people to do the things that I have been shown. Now get to travel and teach this stuff. God has blessed me immensely. I want to close by showing you all a piece of art work. After all of those years of trying to become a famous artist, I finally did a piece of work that will be seen by thousands of people from all over the world. It's attached. It's a mural, and it's painted on an outhouse at the Creation festival. That's right, my most famous piece of art is painted on a toilet. God has a sense of humor. But here's what it showed me: some of the best spiritual times I ever had were had while I was painting that toilet and that the art is not an end to itself for the Christian (at least for me) It the means to an end, to bring glory to my father. Thanks for reading this very long post.
A great book is coming out soon from Nav Press
I got an advance copy of this book because I am a powerful and influential member of the ministry community...lol. Seriously, I had the pleasure of becoming friends with Rick Bundschuh through my association with Interlinc. When he asked if I'd like to receive an advance copy of his book, he didn't have to ask me twice. It arrived in the mail the other day and it is awesome. It's called Don't Rock the Boat, Capsize it. I am not saying it because Rick's a friend, but this book is "off the hook" and I plan on having my entire church read it. Then we will sit down together and dream. What I love about this book is he starts it off by reminding us that it's not a formula, like so many books like this are. It is more like permission to think outside the box and in some cases light the box on fire. If you are involved in church leadership at all, read this book.
(0) comments
I got an advance copy of this book because I am a powerful and influential member of the ministry community...lol. Seriously, I had the pleasure of becoming friends with Rick Bundschuh through my association with Interlinc. When he asked if I'd like to receive an advance copy of his book, he didn't have to ask me twice. It arrived in the mail the other day and it is awesome. It's called Don't Rock the Boat, Capsize it. I am not saying it because Rick's a friend, but this book is "off the hook" and I plan on having my entire church read it. Then we will sit down together and dream. What I love about this book is he starts it off by reminding us that it's not a formula, like so many books like this are. It is more like permission to think outside the box and in some cases light the box on fire. If you are involved in church leadership at all, read this book.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
In one of the online groups thatI am a part of The question was asked do you have a visual arts ministry in your church? This was my response.
We do have a visual arts ministry but right now it is mainly just me. Of course we are a new church and very small so I have hopes and dreams to expand it as well as all the other arts. I think where I come in at this point is that if my people see me as the pastor being creative and using my gifts that they have permission to use theirs. Also our church is like an art gallery with all kinds of Spiritual art covering the walls. Of course at this point most of it is mine, but since all the pieces were created in conjunction with messages, they serve as visual reminders of the things that I spoke on.
As a new church plant, we have some freedom about what we do. A big part of my vision is not to create arts ministries so much as it is to tap into the God given gifts and talents of my people helping each member to be all that they can be in Christ. My hope is that this creates some weird and wonderful ministries with things people never thought of before, but that all bring glory to God. Unlike a lot of churches, we change what is behind the pulpit quite a bit. Right now there is a large abstract painting up there that has 1 Peter 4:10 on it. It says Each one should use whatever gifts he has received to serve others... That is our goal.
The visual arts are very important to the church. As far back as the design of the Tabernacle, God has used the talents of visual artists in His worship. Beyond that I tend to adhere to this theory. What I hear I forget, What I see I remember, What I do I understand. My goal is not as much to create art as it is to bring the unchanging Word of God to people in a way that they can hear, see, absorb and comprehend so that they can become not just hearers but also does of the Word.
(0) comments
We do have a visual arts ministry but right now it is mainly just me. Of course we are a new church and very small so I have hopes and dreams to expand it as well as all the other arts. I think where I come in at this point is that if my people see me as the pastor being creative and using my gifts that they have permission to use theirs. Also our church is like an art gallery with all kinds of Spiritual art covering the walls. Of course at this point most of it is mine, but since all the pieces were created in conjunction with messages, they serve as visual reminders of the things that I spoke on.
As a new church plant, we have some freedom about what we do. A big part of my vision is not to create arts ministries so much as it is to tap into the God given gifts and talents of my people helping each member to be all that they can be in Christ. My hope is that this creates some weird and wonderful ministries with things people never thought of before, but that all bring glory to God. Unlike a lot of churches, we change what is behind the pulpit quite a bit. Right now there is a large abstract painting up there that has 1 Peter 4:10 on it. It says Each one should use whatever gifts he has received to serve others... That is our goal.
The visual arts are very important to the church. As far back as the design of the Tabernacle, God has used the talents of visual artists in His worship. Beyond that I tend to adhere to this theory. What I hear I forget, What I see I remember, What I do I understand. My goal is not as much to create art as it is to bring the unchanging Word of God to people in a way that they can hear, see, absorb and comprehend so that they can become not just hearers but also does of the Word.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
The truth will set you free.
When we create, no matter what we create, I think we need to be mindful of the truth that we will be putting forth. What brought this up? A recent Newsweek article that told of the story of interrogators flushing pages of the Quran in Guantanamo bay as a way of intimidating the prisoners there to get information. As a result of that story, there were riots in Afghanistan and 15 human beings are dead. The big news came this week when the Newsweek people apologized saying the story was untrue. Under pressure, from the government, I understand that they have now published a retraction. Too little, too late in my opinion, unless someone has figured out a way to retract 15 people back to life. What should this story teach us? First of all the power of words to harm and destroy and secondly the power of the truth. Jesus said the truth will set you free. As creative people we need to be concerned with the messages we create. Will our creations draw people to the truth and into relationship with the Truth Himself, Jesus Christ. Just a thought.
Oh and while I am on the subject, what kind of devotion does it take to start a riot half a world away over the desecration of a holy book. I am not advocating their actions at all, but then again I don't think they're reading the right book, but I do have to admit I think we could all use a little more devotion to our book. Is your Bible dusty? Maybe today is the day to dust it off and let its truth impact your life.
(0) comments
When we create, no matter what we create, I think we need to be mindful of the truth that we will be putting forth. What brought this up? A recent Newsweek article that told of the story of interrogators flushing pages of the Quran in Guantanamo bay as a way of intimidating the prisoners there to get information. As a result of that story, there were riots in Afghanistan and 15 human beings are dead. The big news came this week when the Newsweek people apologized saying the story was untrue. Under pressure, from the government, I understand that they have now published a retraction. Too little, too late in my opinion, unless someone has figured out a way to retract 15 people back to life. What should this story teach us? First of all the power of words to harm and destroy and secondly the power of the truth. Jesus said the truth will set you free. As creative people we need to be concerned with the messages we create. Will our creations draw people to the truth and into relationship with the Truth Himself, Jesus Christ. Just a thought.
Oh and while I am on the subject, what kind of devotion does it take to start a riot half a world away over the desecration of a holy book. I am not advocating their actions at all, but then again I don't think they're reading the right book, but I do have to admit I think we could all use a little more devotion to our book. Is your Bible dusty? Maybe today is the day to dust it off and let its truth impact your life.
