I was delighted! A group of artists from my church had been asked to create live art at a national worship conference for training and equipping pastors. Yes!!
Even so, the question was WAY bigger than, “What will we create at the service?”
So we decided to start six months ahead of the conference. We artists prayed together, sketched together, ate meals together, and waited on the Lord for whatever images he wanted to give us.
The week of the national conference arrived, and 3500 pastors and leaders attended. Our artists traveled there to create the images we were given, live, at the front and sides of the sanctuary (Road trip!).
I’d like to share with you what we made there.
During the week of the conference, members of our art team created individual paintings as separate pieces and small collaborations during various times of worship.
We had planned each image ahead of time, much like musicians plan the set and practice their songs ahead of time.
On the last night, our team assembled all the various parts together as a unified whole to make one image.
It truly was a holy moment to witness all the components being fitted together as one.
Here are the images we made and their meanings:
On the first night, we began our live art by bringing out two mysteriously shrouded quadrants of a circle. Each quadrant was a thick canvas that was actually a quarter-circe 2 feet across. Our team began by scraping and pulling away scales, rags, and dirty debris that shrouded each canvas to reveal a sculpted eye and a sculpted ear that we’d already made ahead of the conference, in clay-colored bas relief. In this action, our artists were visually asking The Lord to open our eyes and ears, to give whatever the Lord wanted to give each person at the conference. On this first night, we saw an amazing physical healing surrounding this piece of art that I will tell you about in another post.
The next day, we live-painted the third and fourth quadrants of the circular canvas. On the third quadrant, we live-painted the wine and the bread to represent communion and the community we have in Christ and each other. On the fourth quadrant, we depicted chains of death being violently broken apart, to represent being set free from sin and suffering through Christ’s finished work on the cross.
During the next day’s service, our team created two tall stained-glass window images using transparent paint markers and glazing colors… one window with hands, and the other window with feet. The worldwide Church is commissioned to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
The window with hands shows many upturned hands supporting one another, with the hands of the older generation at the foundation, and younger hands actively joining at the top.
The window with feet shows many different sizes and types of shoes representing all cultures and walks of life. How beautiful on the mountain are the feet of those who promise peace, the shoes of the Good News!
During the conference, this was the very spot that missionaries chose to gather in prayer at the conference to pray for anyone who wanted to learn a foreign language.
At the next worship service, our artists created a depiction of the New Jerusalem as a circle wrapping around the top of the earth, as heaven comes to earth.
On the final night of the conference, we put all the pieces together!
The completed image together reveals the Christian cross from the fifth century, a modern interpretation of an ancient symbol. Its overall shape also suggests the cross as the key of entry into God’s Kingdom.
May this story of God in the Arts bless you and remind you of the mission God has for his Church everywhere we go.
Love, Jessie Nilo
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