this past week i worked on creating an irrigation system for the front part of the church. this was to visually show how the living water (Christ) trickles down to other parts of the world. we placed 7 "mission stations" around this irrigation piping to represent specific places around the world to pray for (with specific missionaries to go along with each of them). we drew water from the fountain (the installation i helped make the week before) and visually showed how each of us (represented by the individual pipes, screws, etc) can work together as a church to pour out the living water to those in need. i was kind of skeptical before i worked on the project because i kind of thought it would either be really cheesy or really bizarre, but now i love it!
opawa is a muti-generational church and uses hands-on, creative art installations like this to generate discussion and get people interacting with eachother. in steve's book, ("Out of Bounds Church") it talks about how in this day and age, what we need now is a church that is more in tune with getting practical, hands-on things - or we may be in danger of losing the generation x'ers.
and as far as where artists enter into this picture, i think we as artists have the amazing task (and privelage) of stepping up to the plate. we live in a world full of images. we also live in a world that doesn't like the idea of traditional church (partly because we don't have the best running reputation and history!) so as artists (people who love to make images), we have a powerful tool in our hands. we have the opportunity to get this generation involved in a church.
Thoughts by Shannon, one of our plus 5 interns, who blogs here.
Posted by opawa at June 25, 2005 02:10 PM