Churches I Can Help

Stuck, stagnant, or a crossroads?

Arts Ministry puts us in direct contact with our immediate community surroundings. We will get an answer to the question, “Who is our neighbor,” because they will respond to the “shouts” from our roof. We already have our “Why” in the gospel—to use our freedom to seek others’ freedom. Arts Ministry proclaims our freedom in Christ and our vocation to share it.
Arts Ministry is not “faith formation” so much as it is “faith activation.” People are given permission, platform and budget to articulate their faith, such as it might be, greater or lesser. Articulation is action, art is mission.
My calling is to re-engage people in the public life out there where the conversation is going on and where we are absent.

If we want to—

• engage in dialogue more widely among more people;
• build community inside the congregation, and out;
• contribute to civility in our society;
• explore what it could mean to be church in this democratic crisis; and
• embrace strangers, who are our future friends—

then, we need to become a Public Church through Arts Ministry.

I preach a gospel of liberation through art—liberation from silence and isolation. Art enables us to proclaim our gospel, to shout from the rooftops what the Lord has whispered in our ear.

1. College town.

Progressive, spiritually healthy, politically active, well-heeled with an immaculately maintained building inside and out, yet this church over its long history has never had an outreach to the college which physically surrounds it. Until five years ago when they instituted the William Sloane Coffin Prize in Public Speaking for the college students. A perfect example of the Arts Ministry template of permission, platform and budget, this contest engages students’ minds and hearts, bringing them into the sanctuary to interact with the congregation.
More of this kind of program could be ventured through Arts Ministry to stimulate interaction between the church and the college.

2. Suburban, healthy but looking for a new direction.

“I don’t feel like we’re we doing enough.”
“Are we making a difference?”
“What do we amount to in the fight against our depredation of planet Earth, the abuse of women, the discrimination against people of color, and the financial juggernaut benefitting the 10%–?”
“Is our church sufficiently “mission minded?”
“Are we the fully realized Christians we want to be, who know what we are doing any more, and why?”

Self-doubt has invaded otherwise strong churches in this Trumpian era. People asking these questions just do not feel as engaged as they used to. People are, frankly, frustrated with our mission as traditionally conceived and carried out.

If this experience sounds familiar or is one you can relate to as a church, Arts Ministry will re-energize members by providing them with a platform for thoughts and feelings about our world that otherwise go unexpressed and become a beacon of inspiration to the neighborhood.

3. Urban, creative but a shadow of its former self.

Located in a thriving, inter-cultural matrix of the city, this church is open to new ideas and exercises them. The budget pinch requires stringent economies, but they are a going concern. Worship attendance reflects the neighborhood diversity. But managing the property, the rentals, and the fundraising leaves little energy for “elective” programs besides morning worship.
If this experience sounds familiar, Arts Ministry will re-energize members by providing them with a platform for thoughts and feelings about our world that otherwise go unexpressed and engage the surrounding community in a lively conversation.

4. Rural, barely hanging on.

A congregation maintaining itself on the very threshold of viability for years finds itself under-powered and over-extended. It is apparent the annual Craft Fair, a traditional and indispensable fundraiser for 30 years, cannot proceed next year with its diminishing labor force. Two years ago they reduced their pastor from full-time to ¾ time. The next minister will be ½ time.
If this experience sounds familiar, Arts Ministry will re-energize members by providing them with a platform for thoughts and feelings about our world that otherwise go unexpressed and open up this isolated congregation to interaction with the surrounding community.