WORSHIP ARTS

Worship Arts

Commissioned Liturgical Pieces | Worship Arts Weekends | Community Arts Projects

Liturgical Art Commissions

I have been asked numerous times to create artwork for the sanctuary that will help the community engage in the church season or a special sermon focus. usually there is a limited budget and not a lot of time. Sometimes we brainstorm many hours to get a good idea, and other times I come up with it on my own and just get started. I've divided these into smaller groupings below.

Lent Artwork
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
Lent 2016 involved seven strips of purple cloth sewn with symbols of the passion. Interspersed were branches with space for the community to write their prayers and responses to the Lenten sermons.
2018
40 Days in the Desert: Faith Formed in the Wilderness
After his baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to spend 40 days in the Judean wilderness. The season of Lent calls us to remember this event in the life of Christ, when Jesus was tempted by Satan before beginning his ministry. We’re told in the gospels that there were three distinct temptations, but we should also recognize that Jesus was wres- tling with his identity and calling throughout his days in the desert. Was he really the Son of God? What kind of Messiah was he going to be? How would Jesus save the world?
Join us in our Lent 2018 sermon series, 40 Days in the Desert: Faith Formed in the Wilderness, as we look at how Jesus was shaped by his desert experienc- es and how this time of testing impacted his faith and mission. Each week we will begin in the desert and then jump forward to reflect on a future episode in Jesus’ life and ministry. What are some of the lessons we can learn from Christ’s example? How does God want to shape our own faith for the journey ahead? In 40 Days in the Desert, you’re invited to develop a faith that’s been formed in the wilderness.
Easter Artwork
2018
2019
2022
2023
2024
2025
2018 Road to Emmaus
This image was created as a deliberate contrast to the desert scene we saw for the past 40 days. Full of joyful, hope-filled color, the landscape now is in full bloom. The figures walking toward the viewer could be the disciples on the road to Emmaus, just after Christ’s resurrection. I was hoping to remind us that we are not alone. Jesus is on the road with us too, and our job is to be alert to his
presence and stay on mission with him as we walk bravely each new day. The artwork is a digital print on foam core.
Advent Artwork
2016
2017
2018
2019
2022
2023
2024
2025
2016 Ancient Words:
This advent a group of Grantham artists brainstormed together to create a new piece of artwork for the sanctuary based on the sermon series Ancient Words. Pastor David gave us some of the Hebrew words he would be preaching about, and we played with visual ways to portray these prophesies. We arrived at this idea of a “word cloud.” You’ll see a huge scroll — a section of the Great Isaiah Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls. During the Advent season you’ll begin to see many words from the prophets, some are complete, some are just partial words, but they will be revealed in time. And some of the words have special meaning in the Christmas story, but we will be asked to reexamine how we internalize these words in light of the reality of Christ’s coming.

-- Geoff Isley, Bonnie Prior, Lynne Cosby, Gretta Owen
ADVENT 2017
This year we started planning for Advent in August. Under the direction of our new Worship Arts Pastor, Dave Perry, we decided we would invite the entire community to help create something new for the sanctuary to facilitate worship during the season. The design we chose was intentionally simple, using mostly purples—the liturgical color of Advent—
and abstract candles that remind us that the whole point of Advent is the anticipation. It expresses our longing for the coming of the Christ Child. We’ll all have to wait until Christmas Eve Sunday to see the center window’s nativity
scene and the completion of the design.

Stained glass mosaic is a wonderful medium for church artwork. The sparkle of multi-colored light shining onto the congregation is a picture of the splendor and beauty of God washing over his people gathered to worship. Thousands of fragments of glass—each a distinct and broken piece—are put together to create something completely new and beautiful. Each shard has a back-story. But now it joins other shards to tell a new story—one initiated by the Master. God uses each of us in his grand design in ways we could never imagine on our own.

Mosaic glass also allowed for maximum participation—people of all ages could help out. (We had helpers ages 8 to 80!) I outlined the design on the windows, so people could come and glue bits of glass for as long as they wanted. With donated windows, glass, and some glass-cutting tools, we began gluing together on Wednesday evenings in early October. By
mid November we added some Tuesdays to catch up, and we were done before Thanksgiving. That allowed for just enough time to find and install a lighting system.

Thanks to the many people who graciously donated their time and materials. A complete listing is posted at the rear of the sanctuary.

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Sermon Series Artwork
To accompany the sermon series on healing, I discovered this paint- ing by J. Kirk Richards (born in 1976). Titled “Healing” but merely 4 inches tall, I knew enlarging it to this size (12 feet wide) would require some touch- up. So, I digitally enlarged it, adjusted the colors, and created the textures that would be better seen from across our large worship space.
This image works because it is evocative without being an illustration of one specific event. It represents many different healing stories we find in the gospels. The Christ figure stands, the ill person — could be male or female, Jew or Gentile — kneels in submission and supplication. To each side of the central image are passages from ancient Greek Gospel texts with stone vessels representing oil and water, elements that appear in many of the healing narratives. Hopefully this image invites meditation and a new openness to understanding and receiving the healing we need.