In almost 2,000 years of church history since Pentecost, believers have expressed their faith in many ways: through prayer, corporate worship, music and even creative arts.
“In centuries past, the church has led the way with artistic expression,” said Keith Hibbs, associate in the worship leadership/church music office of the State Board of Missions. “In recent years, we’re seeing a fresh return to finding creative and artistic ways of expressing our faith.”
Toward that end, Hibbs has planned the annual Creative Arts Festival to be held March 8–9 at Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center in Talladega. “This retreat will help churches find ways to express their faith creatively for a culture such as ours,” he said.
Workshop topics will include drama, puppets, clowning, mime, interpretive movement, video production, multimedia and script development. Jere Cooper, media specialist at Lakeview Baptist Church in Auburn, will lead a conference where she will “talk about the art of presentation, rather than projection equipment — using projection to enhance a worship service, not detract from it.”
Visual creatures
God has created people as “visual creatures. We live in a culture with 24-hour cable news, where we watch 120 TV channels as we play computer video games. We expect visual stimulus,” Cooper stated.
During Lakeview’s worship, Cooper explained, the projector “is never off during the service. Whatever image or text is displayed must be appropriate to what’s happening in worship at that time.”
Another conference leader, Jeff Smith, director of Salt and Light Ministries of Richmond, Va., said he wants “people to see options for communicating the gospel to a postmodern generation. We are fishers of men, and I want to help people find ‘sanctified bait.’”
Smith teaches interpretive movement using upper body movement with hand gestures based on American Sign Language. “Children and teenagers are wanting to move. When we try to shut it out of church, they’ll find other ways to express it.”
Carol Heier, drama director at Heritage Baptist Church in Montgomery, oversees the congregation’s Visions ministry — an adult drama ministry that involves “20-somethings” to those in their 60s and 70s.
“We don’t do drama for drama’s sake,” Heier said. “It is part of an overall plan to help open people’s hearts to the pastor’s message for the day and help them relate to what God has to say.”
Reservations for the Creative Arts Festival may be made online at www.alsbom.org/creative or by calling Shocco at 1-800-280-1105.
(ABSC)
Share with others: