Forced Creativity

I’m going to confess something to you. I’ve been a little depressed the last few days. The Corona Virus has caused us to close church at least for two weeks. I love what I do and I hate to ever miss. I love my people and all of the sudden things I took for granted like visitation is limited and the people I need to see the most are the ones I really can’t visit. It’s hard and I’ve been in a bit of a funk. I’ve struggled with a whole lot of things behind this, but what I struggle with most is wanting to make sure I’m doing the right thing and taking the best care of these people I’ve been given to love. It’s hard.

But today I had a new thought. Here I am the creative ministry guy. I usually love a creative challenge, and I am starting to realize that is precisely what I am facing. I need to find a way to minister to people I can’t be with. Digital solutions are part of the solution, but quite a few of my folks are not online, so I am still working on that. Today I looked at a way to deliver Bible study and Christian ed to my folks. Further I am looking for ways to “visit” and keep us connected. I’m learning some interesting things along the way. Have I found a perfect solution yet? No, and odds are, I won’t get it perfect. Of course my hope is, before I have it worked out, the danger will have cleared and we’ll be back together again.

In the mean time, we who love the Lord and the church are faced with a creative challenge. Now would be a great time for us to share our ideas. I’m especially interested in solutions for the lower tech/smaller church. Now would be a great time for the body of Christ to help each other out.

Yesterday I posted my sermon to Youtube, along with announcements, videos and other things into a resource for home worship. I’m looking at Zoom.us for Bible Study and Christian Ed. and I’m probably going to old school phone work for “visitation,”

My Paintings and the Stories Behind Them: Forgiven

Some of my best ideas came from my prayer walks. This was one of those. I knew I wanted to speak on forgiveness, but how could I express it in a way that would stick? I walled a couple of miles when it hit me. At first I just thought I was just being distracted, which happens far too often, but no it turned out to be the right image for the story. I started thinking about Pink Floyd’s album The Division Bell These two monolithic/robotic looking heads that when seen at a distance appear to be one face. Cool design, but the connection didn’t come right away, but then I thought about it. What if instead of two statue like heads, I did two human faces? And what if I make them look like they are about to fight. I put large frowns on their faces.

Then at the crucial moment near the end of the presentations, I pick up the paint and join the faces together. The large frown becomes the mustache, and the finished product is one face, the face of Christ. The idea is simple. There are many things that would keep us in conflict but there is one who gave His life to bring us together. For the message text I use Matthew 18, starting with Jesus teaching about how to deal with conflict and moving into the parable of the unforgiving servant. Here’s short clip to show you how it goes.

How would you illustrate forgiveness?