AEC Arts
Engaging with the arts is a meaningful way to get to know the heart of our creative God better, to grow with each other, and to invite others into His goodness. AEC Arts has grown into a ministry that seeks to inspire and equip people with what they need to connect with God through the arts in the everyday, ordinary parts of life. We seek to call out and cultivate beauty and to create work that draws people even deeper into the truths found in Scripture. Our hope is that every individual would recognize and embrace their unique God-given creativity.
Art Wall
Our gallery wall (found in the hallway between the atrium and Playland) features work from various artists and from art nights; it is meant to encourage others to look for and find God everywhere. This gallery wall allows people to share visual testimonies of what God has done in their lives. This could be through poetry, lyric, paint, photography, etc.
James Series Artwork and Stage Installation
James is a book that enables believers to flourish and thrive as they face the realities of a broken world. The figure in the collage is a picture of the dramatic contrast between a life that’s full of God and a life that’s full of the world. “You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced out into the open and shows its true colors” (James 1:3 MSG).
The right side of the figure emphasizes disorder, dysfunction, conflict, and death. The newspaper is meant to communicate the darkness and chaos of the world. This half is mostly grey, void of any meaningful growth, and receding behind the black paper.
The left side emphasizes health, wholeness, abundance, and a well-developed maturity. As we seek God’s heart, He grows His righteousness in us. Experiencing His love produces not only whole-hearted devotion to Him but also a love for each other that comes out in very specific and practical ways. What begins to overflow are blooms of humility, patient endurance, wisdom, gentleness, peace, sincerity, faithfulness, a willingness to yield to each other, and much more. These flowers grow up and outward because God is cultivating something in and through us. A watching world can then catch glimpses of the Creator and Cultivator himself as the garden spills over with beauty.
The flower, fabric, and newspaper backdrop is intended to give a visual of our humanity. It shows the tension we live in. A loyalty divided between God and the world leads to instability and unsettledness (James 1:8 NLT). We aren’t 100% on one side or the other; we’re in the process of being sanctified and becoming more like Him. Double-mindedness resides in all of us, but He is at work making our faith complete.
“So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls” (James 1:21 NLT) or as the Message paraphrase puts it: “Let our gardener God, landscape you with the word, making a salvation garden of your life” (James 1:21).
Daniel Series Stage Artwork
For this series, our aim was create something ethereal, something that allows you to use your imagination. Picture streets of gold, layers of light, a city bursting with multi-dimensional colors, designs, and textures. As we work our way through Daniel, let yourself dream about what this forever city will be like, feel like, and look like, where love is the air we breathe and the language we speak.
The hanging fabric conveys the spiritual realm, the heavenly kingdom filled with God’s glory-light. It’s faint and slowly coming into focus, but unmistakably more beautiful and eternal than anything this world can offer. It’s the upside-down kingdom because it defies our natural assumptions. The way Jesus does things is markedly different.
The black cut-out silhouettes convey right where we are, our current context. We are longing for restoration. God is building His kingdom here in our midst, making all things new, bringing life. As God fills more and more of those who seek and love Him, His kingdom begins to take shape and fill our homes, our lives, our church, our neighborhoods, our world, and it becomes easier to see. This happens as we surrender to Him in greater degrees, giving Him the throne of our hearts, making room for Him to rule and reign in us. We learn to let Him live His life through us as we trust Him with our whole selves (Galatians 2:20).
In Daniel 7, Daniel lets us in on a vision he has, “I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence. He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him. His rule is eternal—it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed.” And a few verses later, it says, “But in the end, the holy people of the Most High will be given the kingdom, and they will rule forever and ever.”Another version is worded this way, “But eventually the holy people of the High God will be given the kingdom and have it ever after - yes, forever and ever.” (Daniel 7:18 MSG)
Jesus is and was and will always be in control. He is a good and attentive King - He knows our need and wants our best. He can be trusted with every piece and part of our lives. Even when all seems lost and everything feels like it’s going in the wrong direction, He keeps working and moving and drawing near. The One who is in complete control is the One who came to humbly lay down His life for the ones He loves and to be with us all the time. He has ushered in His kingdom. He came and we know He is coming again, so with hope on the horizon and hope in our hearts, we begin the book of Daniel.
Ephesians Series Artwork and Stage Installation
Kintsugi is a centuries-old Japanese tradition where broken ceramics are mended with gold. This “gracious process of repair” suggests that there is “profound strength and beauty found in imperfection.” “Kintsugi refocuses our attention from what should have been toward creating something infinitely more beautiful with what remains, and perhaps far more honoring of who we were made to be all along” (Magnolia Journal, Fall 2019).
The uneven brush strokes, paint smears, unexpected color palette, and varying shapes are meant to tell the story of our distinctiveness and the nuances of our connections. The gold binding all the parts together and covering over our rough edges communicates the perfection and scope of God’s love, the heart He has for His people to be one. The size of this piece is meant to convey the length His love will go to reconnect and restore us (Eph. 3:18).
We know that life doesn’t stay in the lines of neat, tidy boxes. There is complexity and brokenness in relationships, but the strong love of our good Father is not only what has brought us together, it’s what holds us together. We are joined with gold, connected, built into a dwelling place for Him (Eph. 3:22). As he walks us into the light, we become new and we become whole in His love (Eph. 4:24 & Eph. 5:8). Then, what is seen is His glory and goodness spilling over the cracks and crevices that we once thought were un-mendable.
Each of us is his thoughtful workmanship with unique and very specific gifts. Yes, we are able to offer to the world what no one else can individually, but it takes all of us as one to display the full picture of who He is. Each part is needed and necessary. And then what we discover is that we are standing in the middle of a masterpiece, bigger and better than we could have ever dreamed up on our own.
Upcoming Events
Find out more about upcoming art events on the Church App Center
Prompts
Resources
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AEC supports missionaries who share God’s love with people around the world through the arts:
The Cloin Family