Wonder

If the God who created the immensity of the galaxies is also One who entered into his creation out of deep love for us, then we must be a people who live with expectant wonder of what He will do next in our lives and in our communities. And yet, it is far too easy to allow our schedules, routines, and busyness to rob us of wonder. It is far too easy for that childlike sense of amazement to be squelched by pain and loss. But our sense of wonder over what God has done, and what he will continue to do is vital to the life of the church. It is vital for us to see that there is a much greater story playing out over time that we have been invited into.

So, we must always seek to awaken our imagination, to envision what God is doing in the place he has us.

Without wonder we approach life as a self-help project. We employ techniques; we analyze gifts and potentialities; we set goals and assess progress. Spiritual formation is reduced to cosmetics. Without wonder the motivational energies for living well get dominated by anxiety and guilt... instead of being formed by the Spirit that hovered over the waters and raised Jesus from the dead, we are malformed into lives of moral workaholism or pious athleticism.

Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places

ART

Our church is full of artists, poets, writers, musicians, and cooks. We believe art is not peripheral; it helps us to see and know the truth. It helps enliven our sense of wonder, and draws our minds and hearts to the fact that our God is infinitely creative. Being made in his image, we all have little artists inside of us. As one of our homeless friends commented after worship: “That service makes me want to go paint a picture.” He has the right idea.

ART & our BULLETIN

To continue fostering our sense of wonder as a church family, each week we print bulletins with special attention to the artwork on the cover. We change the art with the liturgical church calendar (Advent, Lent, etc.) and our G&P church calendar (featuring pieces from our annual Art Camp has become a tradition). Most of the art you see here is from Greenvillians, with a few exceptions. Those marked with an asterisk are artists from our congregation.