Prayer Journal - Start

Inspired by one of those "hey, we should do this" remarks by a friend, I went out and bought a journal. http://www.lookatbook.com/ I agreed that it looked like a lot of fun and would be inspiring to collaborate with other artists. Especially those artists that we might have met and spoken to online but never in person. It just sounded fun.

We settled on the following a few rules for structure.

1. 5 days to complete a spread. So if you receive it on Weds., you have to mail it the following Mon.
2. A visual expression of a prayer or scripture.
3. Medium: pen, ink, graphite, colored pencil.
4. Keep it moving. Finished or not you need to mail in 5 days.

I think it will be a great way to build community. Christian visual artists tend to have a harder time finding a supportive community for their work. Most galleries and other art venues typically don't want to exhibit Christian themed work. They don't show that sort of thing, they don't want to make people uncomfortable or offend anyone. etc. But then on the other side of the aisle, churches in general don't have any oppertunities for artists to share their creative gifts. Your average church nowdays has become a more multipurpose space than the beautiful churches from art history class. A church is more likely to have a scoreboard or concert lighting than stain glass windows or original art. Churches dont really get their artists and their artists typically dont see how they can use their gifts in church.

I hope that awkward relationship between artist and church will pass. Artists should be tapped for their talent much like musicians typically are. Artists have a lot to offer the church and worship experience, and the church could help the artists grow spiritually if it had an outlet for their creativity. Artists are passionate people who tell stories in provocative and unique ways. Art provokes conversation and community interaction – artist to viewer and viewer to viewer. Art encourages personal reflection and searching for meaning. Along with music and message, art is another way that God speaks to you. Art inspires creativity in others. The art work created during a service becomes a memento of the worship experience it was a part of.

Anyway, I'll be sending out a couple of journals to visual artists that I've met and posting the results here.