I’ll be honest, I didn’t do my homework on this, so if there is anything inappropriate about my title, sorry, it was unintentional. I am using the term in the simplest way possible. It is really cool to be around people who understand where you’re coming from. I remember it like it was yesterday. I had this idea to do creative arts ministry. I know I didn’t invent it, and I am aware that people have been incorporating art in ministry for centuries, but in my small corner of the world, it sure felt like I was alone. And then one day it happened. I was surfing through this new thing called YouTube and I saw this woman from Idaho that was doing the same thing I was trying to do. Well not exactly. She’d be quick to point out that in ministry, one size does not fit all. Eventually I made contact and we traded notes, and since she was a little further down the road, I decided to fly out to Idaho and see what she and her ministry were doing first hand. It was amazing. That was my friend Jessie Nilo and we have been friends ever since. Our experiences are not exactly the same, but she gets what I am trying to do at least as well as most of my ministry friends and better than most when it comes to using art in ministry.
Well recently Jesse has started a kind of virtual community for arts ministers called Emerge and it is wonderful. Over the last two days she has sponsored a web gathering for people to talk and trade notes and yes even create and worship together. It was truly amazing. Time after time I heard other people share my heart for art ministry. To be clear, many of us have never met at all, yet so much of what was shared resonated with me and a few of the things were things that the Lord has laid on my heart as well. It felt like I was surrounded by kindred spirits, people who the Lord is speaking to in similar ways and it was wonderful. It’s always nice to be truly understood.
AMOKArts 