Sallie’s Video:
https://youtube.com/shorts/xyoD3_ic-oc
I finally have a tribe that is Art-based, Christ-based, and I love it!
Hearing from Sallie Patterson…
Hello! This is Sallie. I just want to say God Loves Art has been a real blessing to me. I felt so alone until I met God Loves Art and Jessie Nilo and the whole group that’s on Emerge.
I finally have a tribe that is Art-based, Christ-based, and I love it! Thank you, Jessie and Amy.
Emerge is Christ-centered. While members are not required to be Christians in order to be in Emerge, they are graduates of Foundations Art Ministry course. Every member is asked to understand that the point of Emerge is connecting our creativity with our faith in Jesus Christ.
Together we create a safe place to share our own stories. Whether they have pain or celebration, we practice processing our own stories through art. At the core of Emerge, we are a community who seek to understand, be humble, unify, confess, forgive, and make a difference through the power of Christ in each other and ourselves.
Emerge, for me, has been a safe haven where I could explore the path God was leading me to; growing and learning as I walked that path. The non-competitive, supportive “art for people’s sake” ethos has been amazing.
The call to lean deeper into the transcendent beauty of Christ and all creation has been transformational in forming my thoughts and ideas around the meaning of beauty.
Lori A. Thompson, Foundations Graduate and Emerge Member
Hearing from Lori A. Thompson…
My introduction to Jessie Nilo and Emerge was part of a convergence of resources, through my search for a place or space where there were others like me. I quickly found that there weren’t so many of these places, but Emerge seemed to somehow be less than “six degrees of separation” of them all.
Emerge, for me, has been a safe haven where I could explore the path God was leading me to; growing and learning as I walked that path. The non-competitive, supportive “art for people’s sake” ethos has been amazing. The call to lean deeper into the transcendent beauty of Christ and all creation has been transformational in forming my thoughts and ideas around the meaning of beauty.
It’s always been a part of who I am on a deep level, but I didn’t know it was a thing others felt or saw because I seemed to be the odd one out, viewing creation as art; in awe and wonder.
Confirmation, validation, encouragement, mentorship, camaraderie, acceptance, and more, are what I’ve found as a member of Emerge. In the midst of suffering and turmoil, God is pouring out His grace and beauty in the world. He is gathering people from the four corners, to a powerful movement of hope and healing through art and creativity. Emerge is a part of that movement.
“Beauty is God’s message of hope without words. Art is the melody God writes on our hearts, transforming the world with His song.” – Lori A Thompson
What is Foundations Art Ministry?
Through a nine week course with a group of your peers, you will learn to grow through art ministry development. You’ll receive practical guidance that translates to individual, grassroots, for-profit business, and non-profit settings. Part of your learning includes practicing skills in giving kind, confident, valuable feedback that fosters people’s creativity. By the end of the course, students will develop their own Art Ministry Portfolio. All along the way, conversations with fellow students and with mentor, Jessie Nilo, will highlight your passions, creativity, and unique opportunities to grow.
Find out more here.
What is Art Ministry?
Learn more about art ministry by reading, “The Night Hardly Anyone Came to the Art Studio,” here.
For more information about Foundations and Art Ministry visit here.
God Loves Art is an art ministry school and creative community. We equip artists for wholeness and healing – first in ourselves, then our local communities. We train art ministers in Christ through the caring arts, and glorify God through beauty, humility, and kindness. We come alongside people’s spiritual and creative journey, inside and outside of local churches everywhere.
