Saturday, November 24, 2012

A NEW REVISED ARTS MINISTRY VISION STATEMENT


(God has seen fit to clarify, sift and refine the vision and purposes of Prodigal Arts.  What follows is the result:)

Prodigal Arts is based in the understanding that creating is a gift of God; and that creating art as a response to that gift is an act of worship, is a calling, and is indeed an obedience to that call.

Through on-on-one, community, exhibitions, presentations, groups, conferences or interactive special events, Prodigal Arts seeks:
·         to foster the understanding that just as we do not have to justify ourselves to earn God’s grace, art is not required to justify itself in terms of its usefulness;
·         to foster the understanding that every person is not only gifted and called according to His purpose, but by God’s grace  there is life-transforming freedom in that gifting;
·         to further nurture and equip artist and non-artist alike, who have come to Christian faith, or renewed, deepened their faith in God, so that they may grow into and fulfill their callings and be a faithful presence in our communities;
·         to encourage, assist & equip others in developing locally meaningful arts ministries.

Prodigal Arts is an arts ministry which seeks to share the fullness and the freedom of the grace of God…
…to see the ordinary, the broken and the un-useful,
as remarkable, precious and redeemed.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Beginning to See the Ordinary as Redeemed

In the rush of daily life, we look at many things, but “see” very little.

We ride through God’s creation so fast, and so preoccupied that we look out the window and “see” but a pale, fleeting impresson of the wonder that we are traveling through. When we walk or even ride a bike slowly, we allow ourselves to be part of it all – to actual participate in it all – and we begin to “see” the ordinary as remarkable and wondrous.
 
That is the stuff of good and great art – that which makes us “see” the ordinary again, or “see” the ordinary in a new way.
 
Taken further, how many of us live our lives at such a frenetic pace – very busy, with many “good things” that keep us very busy – that we “see” very little… A perfunctory quick read through a mini-devotional or listening to something spiritual on the ride to or from some place… a quick prayer… How many of us don’t take the time to “walk”, and allow ourselves to “participate”, and never get a sense of God in our real lives?
 
That is the stuff of the good and great “art” of being in the Spirit, and allowing the Holy Spirit a chance to make us “see” what He would have us see…
So, good art is like a good relationship with God – we begin to see as God sees –
the ordinary as remarkable, redeemed and wondrous…