Philip Sasser Introduces Jermaine Powell's Painting

Incorporating Art into Church Life

I hope you have enjoyed the recent installation of Jermaine Powell’s painting of the communion elements in our church lobby. His talent needs no exposition: it is obvious and the painting speaks of it loudly. What is perhaps less obvious is the immense amount of time Jermaine spent in creating this piece. And what is not obvious at all, is that he did this for free. It is his gift to us.

But we don’t incorporate art into our church life thoughtlessly. And there are more questions at stake than simply “does it look nice?”

Artistic expressions of our faith are constrained by our doctrine and by our circumstances.

Our doctrinal constraints say that we may worship God only according to the commands of Scripture and we tremble, lest in our creative rashness we bring “strange fire” to the altar of our God and find ourselves, as Nadab and Abihu did, consumed by a holy God.

And we are further constrained by our circumstances, contentedly acknowledging that God has providentially given us a certain budget, a certain moment in history, a certain length of time as a corporate body, a certain geographical place, and certain giftings among those who occupy our pews.

But even considering these constraints (constraints, it remains to be said, that God’s own hand has apportioned for us and that are not goads against which to kick) the thought has been this: we can do better.

Beauty needs no apologists and we demonstrate God’s stamp on our souls when we repeat those “it is good” words from Genesis 1 over some created thing. Yet our priorities as a church have placed other financial needs ahead of aesthetics (a high pastor-to-member ratio and caring for the poor, to name just two). A church with one pastor, rich members, lots of PHDs, and six generations to build a church will get you a good looking church. A church with multiple pastors, middle-class members, average intelligence, and one generation to renovate an old swimsuit factory will get you...well, us.

That isn’t something to grumble about, but something to acknowledge as part of God’s plan for us as a body of believers.

Here are some guiding affirmations, coupled with some restraining tensions that ought, I believe, to inform our church’s doctrine of aesthetics.

1. We should communicate a high regard for beauty and craft, while remaining fiscally responsible, materially modest, and biblically faithful in how the money entrusted to us is spent.

2. We should communicate with our art our church’s connection to the historical church, while also communicating our belief that God does not dwell in temples made with hands or occupy only a certain golden-age of history.

3. The various giftings of the specific people in this particular church should make our church physically unique among churches, yet those same people must be prepared to serve as ushers, Sunday School teachers, and greeters at the door to do the necessary everyday tasks of operating the church. We don’t simply serve the people of God with our hobbies, sometimes (in fact, usually) we serve the people of God with sweat and elbow grease.

A final observation from scripture requires no balancing restraint to it: when the Israelites were following God, they contributed their goods and treasure to the building of his tabernacle. The force of Exodus 36 as a model for corporate engagement and sacrifice has not been lessened by John 4.

We have in this room, seated right now around us, gifted carpenters, gardeners, coffee-roasters, arborists, painters, musicians, farmers, bee-keepers, photographers, brewers, poets, quilters, and butchers.

I hope over the next year, Jermaine’s painting becomes only the first in many such creative acts that fill our church. Already, plans are underway to construct a wooden cross to fix on the wall behind the stage. Do you have flowers from your garden? Bring them. Do you have an idea for sprucing up the coffee station? Share it. Did you just inherit a baby-grand piano from your aunt and don’t know what to do with it? Give it to us. Do you have a shovel and some stone-cutting equipment? Lets build a church cemetery.

And if your idea gets rejected, don't feel bad. Or if your idea is expensive and we can’t afford it, just try to think of something else. Or pay for it yourself.