Hello everyone, It's me Mike Lewis aka the JesusPainter . This is a place to talk about worship / ministry through the visual arts. Feel free to contribute.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Q and A "How do we incorporate visual arts into worship?"

Lisa asked:

Great blog. I feel called to lead worship, but it seems that so many churches are hesitant to incorporate ALL of the arts... seeing worship as just music... so my style doesn't fit too well! What have you done to get churches/large events to accept what you do as an appropriate part of the worship process?

JesusPainter Responds:

Wow... good question. I wish there was an easy answer but to me it seems that it varies from group to group. The best tool we have in a situation like this is to send a sample video out to groups who seem to be on the edge. Sometimes the problem is that in more conservative audiences change tough to pull off. Other groups don't want to spend money on an artist. As for convincing large events the trick is to do well at small events. And the real trick is to go for free. If people don't want to pay lower your price. I worked for free for a little over a year. I was not intending to start a career, I just felt called to use my gifts. Eventually I was busy enough to ask for a few bucks. God provided. Thanks Lisa

Lisa asks:

Yesterday I asked a question that was a little too broad. Here is what I was getting at... How do you see visual arts being effectively incorporated into corporate worship for local churches? What can worship leaders do to make sure this happens?

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I want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to chime in here. I will offer my 2 cents but I am not a worship leader employed by a church. Please contribute, I feel like this thread could be one of the most important topics here. I am going to think about this before I just churn out some lame answer. I will try to answer this within 24 hours.