Dean R. Heetderks

   If you’ve been reading the Come and See column for very long, you know how important I think drawing by hand is. All of us have known how to draw from the day we could hold a spoon. We made patterns in spilled food, we made shapes with our fingers in the condensation on our backseat car windows, we covered our school notebooks with cartoon characters, and as adults we doodle during meetings.Over time, though, many of us stopped drawing. No doubt digital devices played a role, but I fear that, somewhere along the line, a parent or teacher or someone else we looked up to taught us that we simply weren’t good enough to keep at it. For those of you reading this who say, “But I can’t draw!” my response is: Yes, you can!  Back At ItI encourage you to get back at it. Here are a few ideas to keep you sketching worship visuals:Kid Collaboration: I wonder if the reason we think so highly of art done by kids is that it reminds us of a time when we too were uninhibited. There’s joy in kids’ art, and even more when they tell us about it. What if you had a few kids and a few adults work on the same paper or whiteboard and let each inspire and refine each other’s work? They could even use sidewalk chalk in the parking lot!Prompts: A search for “drawing prompts” online will bring up thousands of ideas to get you drawing. In time, you won’t need these prompts and will instinctively add drawings alongside or in place of your words.Ditch Digital: If you usually boot up your computer to solve a visual problem, try putting pen to paper first. Yes, the computer can help with amazing visuals, but in the early stages of creating, the computer will quickly narrow your focus to details rather than the free flow of ideas that sketching can produce.Graphic Scribes: There’s a whole industry of people who draw in real time during a meeting. They’re called graphic recorders or graphic facilitators. A combination of words and graphics are drawn on large sheets of paper, white boards, or sometimes on a computer tablet with the image projected. Take a page from their book. For a devotion sometime, have your youth group respond to the Bible text with pictures and words on large sheets of chart paper or on a white board—the bigger the better. If you’re not yet convinced, look up “the picture superiority effect.” Pictures, we’ve learned, are more memorable than words alone. Why? When someone sees a picture, their mind not only remembers the image, but associates a word or phrase with the picture. Do you have something you’d like people to remember? Look for (or create!) pictures to help. 

One Friday morning recently I had the opportunity to reminisce with Reformed Worship’s art director, Dean Heetderks, about the visual aspects of the journal. Because Dean has been involved with Reformed Worship from the first print issue to this last one, the conversation became a reflection on the history of the journal in general. This article highlights some of what we talked about.As art director, Dean gives guidance on layout and graphics and oversees the design process. But you may know him best as the author of seventy-nine “Come and See” columns that appeared on RW’s back cover. We are grateful for Dean’s leadership and the work of his team, including our current designer, Frank Gutbrod, who has been with us since RW 63. —JBWhere It All BeganDean: It was an interesting exercise going through past issues. It brought back lots of memories—problems we had, decisions we made, the publishing process—but it’s all right, it’s all good. We had lots of conversations about covers and colors. Oh, and I remember the long titling meetings to decide on the titles of all the articles. I’m not sure where we found the time! Joyce: Yes! I remember when I started we would meet at least quarterly with at least ten people in the room to talk about titles and marketing. It certainly was a different day with a much bigger staff. Dean: The titles were one thing, but we also spent a lot of time on the layouts. Of course there was a different process—in the early days it wasn’t digital.   RW 1, Fall 1986Issues 1–12-RW issues 1–53 were two-color, and eventually the colors followed the pattern of the liturgical year.-RW 5 introduced the color band wrapping over the spine. When issues were shelved in a row, this colored spine was helpful for identifying the liturgical seasons, making it easy to grab what you needed when planning worship. RW 5 was also the first time a color photo was included.-RW 1, 3, 7, 9, 12, 13, and 17 all included an insert of choral music.Education and InspirationDean: The conversations we had as a team were lots of fun. But by far what I’ve appreciated about working on the magazine since 1986 has been the worship education. I learned so much about the theology of worship and worship planning, and I received a lot of inspiration as well. It’s also been interesting to watch the transition as more church members became involved with worship planning and creating visuals. Prior to the ’80s and for some churches well into the ’90s, it was only the pastor who planned and led worship, with an organist or pianist receiving a list of songs a few days or hours before the service. Reformed Worship marked a shift toward including lay people in worship planning, and as they became involved they learned the theology of worship. Just as they needed to learn about worship in order to plan it, I needed to learn about it in order to design for the magazine. Vertical habits? What is that? Lament? Some might learn about such things through a seminary class, but for me that significant education happened through RW. Joyce: I think many of us—writers, designers, editors, and readers—received worship education through Reformed Worship. It was the curriculum for worship planners, committees, elders, and even pastors. When RW began, many of our congregations hadn’t been attentive to the Christian year outside of celebrating Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and Ascension. We certainly didn’t know anything about the liturgical seasons or colors. While Reformed Worship encouraged the observance of the Christian year, we approached it as a tool that could help us deepen our understanding of the arc of Scripture and the salvation story, but we’ve never claimed it was the only tool that could do so, and that flexibility has allowed more space for creativity.  Changing TimesJoyce: Truth be told, I have taken and even taught worship classes, but I’m still learning from the resources that people send in for publication. The world changes, and the acoustics of our worship change. While God remains faithful, the conversation we need to have with God changes over time, as do some of the tools that we use as a medium for that conversation. It’s not surprising, then, that Reformed Worship has also changed over time. Dean: That change is visually evident in the covers and layouts.  RW 13, September 1989Issues 13–34-In these issues we began to include bulletin cover designs that churches could photocopy.-RW 14 was the first full-color cover with a banner. (RW 21 also had a full-color cover.) But full color covers were not consistent until RW 54.-In RW 25 we started offering for purchase a diskette that included print versions of some of the worship services.  RW 35, March 1995Issues 35–53-RW 35: No color band on spine, but the colored band returned with RW 40-RW 37: One spread in full color-RW 40: Tenth anniversary-RW 42: Nine pages of full color-RW 45: This issue began offering devotions connected with a worship series that could be purchased through CRC Publications / Faith Alive.RW 50: First mention of an RW website-RW 51: First mention of an RW email address-First appearances of “eyebrows” indicating the types of articles and resources; back covers featured banners with patterns downloadable from RW’s website.                                                                 RW 52, June 1999Dean: This cover of the woodcut by Robert Hodgell has always been one of my favorites. There is so much expression—and not happy-clappy expression—in the face and energy in the arm reaching toward heaven.  Dean: Until RW 54, the journal was primarily published with only two colors: black and the color that represented the liturgical season. Starting with RW 54, the front and back covers were printed in full color while the inside continued with two colors. For each interior page, we had to indicate to production which parts were to be printed in the second color. Then two different printing plates were made, one for each color. It was a fun challenge that required a lot of clear communication and review. Everything changed, of course, when printing became digitized. I’m not sure when we switched to digital page assembly and digitally assisted printing, but it coincided with the time that churches began to think more about projection, beginning with the overhead projector. This change affected church architecture: there needed to be room for projector screens, then flat screens, and now entire video walls with snazzy lighting.   RW 54, December 1999Issues 54–56-Every issue included full-color front and back covers.-RW’s description was changed to the still-used “Resources for Planning and Leading Worship.”   RW 57, September 2000Issues 57–63-The color band on the cover moved to the top of the page.-The nameplate was changed.-With most people having web access, RW stopped offering the diskette with printable versions of resources.  RW 64, June 2002Issues 64–80-The nameplate changed again.-RW 64 showcased the winners of a visual awards contest we held and included multiple full-color pages.-Starting with RW 71, the index occasionally published on paper moved to Calvin University’s web-based library catalog.  RW 80, June 2006This issue marked RW’s twentieth anniversary, Emily Brink’s last issue as editor, and a new website that included scans of all the articles and resources from previous issues thanks to a gift from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. This was a big help for worship planners, who could now digitally cut and paste liturgies instead of retyping them. The digitization also made articles and resources available to anyone around the world, expanding RW’s ministry reach.  RW 81, September 2006Issues 81–99-RW 81: Joyce Borger became RW’s editor.-Slight design changes added a color band across the tops of pages and increased the size of the front cover image.“Eyebrows” indicating article types moved from the side of the page to the top. Starting with RW 82, the accompanying icons were dropped.  RW 100, June 2011Issues 100-156-RW 100 marked RW’s twenty-fifth anniversary and debuted a new design with full color on every page. Other than a few tweaks and color palette updates, this design has stayed through this last print issue. Initially we often used images of people on the front cover, but over time we began to use more art.-RW 121 was the beginning of the celebration of RW’s thirtieth anniversary. This was a big year for RW. We moved to online subscriptions and payments, and we launched the digital library for subscribers. While the website served as a text-only archive of every issue, the digital library contained flip-through versions of each issue and retained all the visual and formatting elements. -RW 140: RW’s thirty-fifth anniversary.-RW 149: The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship replaced the Christian Reformed Church in North America as RW’s publisher.-RW 156: Last print/digital issue. RW 121, September 2016 Gifts from Our SubscribersDean: RW certainly changed over the years, which is evident visually. The art and images originally had a more homemade feel. Then the internet gave us access to a world of art created by professional artists. When you look back at the first issues, it’s not all great work, but it is what we could do with the tools we had and our own experience—or inexperience. Joyce: Something I’ve noticed is that in the earlier issues there were always bulletin covers to go with the worship series. There would even be instructions on how to photocopy the image from the printed journal for bulletin use. Over time we stopped doing those. I’m guessing that the “homemade” look of bulletin covers also became dated, and photocopies of black and white images no longer made the grade. Or maybe folks simply stopped sending them in? Dean: I certainly do appreciate those who send in artwork and photos to accompany their resources, especially when they provide ideas that other churches can use or adapt. Joyce: One of my hopes for the future is that this generosity of spirit among those who use the RW website will continue and that it will be a place where ideas from worshiping communities around the world are curated and then shared to bless others. Dean: Folks shouldn’t be afraid to send in their ideas. You don’t need to be a professional artist, and the work doesn’t need to be fancy or high-tech either.  RW 99, March 2011Dean: RW 99’s cover and spread is a great example of supplied art. This is often the one that first comes to my mind when I think of creative, low-tech (and low-budget) installations.  RW 134, December 2019Dean: RW 134 is another example of supplied art. It was great to have a quality image sent in with the worship service that could be used on the front cover. The action photos of the installation were terrific. This checks all of my boxes for creative worship visuals that involve lots of people of all ages for a result that carries a strong message and is beautiful to boot.  Highlighting ArtistsJoyce: You talked about how much you learned about the theology and practice of worship through Reformed Worship, and as a parallel to that, I grew in my appreciation of beauty. Some might think that spending money on art or installations or purchasing fabric for banners or paraments might be a waste, but our Creator God obviously delights in beauty. How can we worship the Creator of all things beautiful without attending to beauty? Over the years it became more important to me to find Christian artists whose work we could highlight—not only to encourage them, but to encourage the use of art in the church and to help make RW a beautiful offering to God. I like so many of the covers—it’s hard to choose which ones to highlight.   RW 86, December 2007  Dean: I still love this art:   Crossroads by Rachel E. Durfee.   It is a hand-colored woodcut.  Joyce: It is one of my favorites as well.   It’s a visual reminder of how we bring our   worship into the whole world,   for Christ came to save the world.   RW 97, September 2010Dean: I’ve always appreciated the art of Wayne Forte, which may be why we have featured one of his works on the cover twice: RW 97 and RW 125 (Holy Family, Small 91, by Wayne Forte).  Challenges Joyce: I’ve been on RW’s editorial team for 21 years. Sometimes I wonder if there is anything left to say or if this is the year we will run out of ideas. Truthfully, some issues come together more easily than others. Yet time and again I’m surprised at how the Holy Spirit manages to bring articles together—sometimes singing in harmony, sometimes as counterpoints to each other. Dean: We face a similar challenge visually. It’s great when we find an image that communicates something unique, providing a different angle from which to see what has become too familiar.  RW 103, March 2012 Dean: This cover is a great concept for Ascension. I generally like the challenge of Ascension Day and Pentecost covers. The subject matter doesn’t lend itself well to easy illustration like, say, Advent, Christmas, and Easter do.  Joyce: There are lots of challenges facing the church now too. Statistics tell us that the majority of Christians attend a megachurch. These churches, often with multiple sites, are very professionalized and high-tech. Yet most churches are small and becoming smaller. The trend in these churches, it seems to me, is to use less technology and be less professionalized. In a sense, we may be coming full circle to the homemade, folksy feel of the earlier days of Reformed Worship. Dean: I like that term “folksy.” It is more permission-giving than simply thinking it’s only about how many paid staff a church has. I want to attend the church where I am needed, where everyone is needed to make worship happen, because worship is the work of the people. I get a little worried about how, with the hiring of worship staff and tech staff, we’ve stopped including lay people. In the process of reprofessionalizing worship, something was lost. Many people like myself need the worship education, need the involvement, need to hear other people talk about worship and learn about worship, but all of a sudden we’ve once again become observers and consumers of worship that is being done for us. But I think there’s hope. I read an article recently from a blogger on design and culture (Tobias van Schneider, “One Step Forward, Two Steps Backwards—From the Desk of van Schneider—Edition No. 255,” January 20, 2025). The blogger points out a trend toward less-than-perfect images. You may have a very large, high-resolution image, but before users put it on Instagram, they are applying filters that break down the high resolution and break down the color quality, and the resulting image has this “chromy” sort of look to it. Van Schneider goes on to talk about fashion being sort of thrown together rather than coordinated, he talks about interiors becoming less minimalist and more lived in, and he mentions dumber electronic devices—instead of having a smartphone that can do everything, we have tools that do just one thing. This trend has been driven by younger people. He suspects it’s a shift to something a little more organic. I’m curious about what that trend might mean for worship and worship visuals (though I’m not wanting to get back to using only felt!). Joyce: Indeed, though it’s not that there isn’t a need for those with the professional skills. I don’t think either of us is ready to give up the art of Rachel Durfee or Wayne Forte (See sidebar p. 22). It’s a question of balance. But it is also a call for those who do have gifts to constantly be looking for someone to mentor and for ways to engage more people in the process. The pastoral and formative aspects of worship and worship planning have certainly been a consistent theme across RW’s history.  Trees! Trees! Trees! Joyce: Another unintentional theme of RW has got to be trees. As I looked through back issues, it struck me just how often trees appeared. Given the use of the image throughout Scripture and how trees express both groundedness and growth, it shouldn’t be a surprise. (In addition to the covers highlighted below, trees featured prominently in RW 60, 77, 90, 104, 110, 114, and 140.) RW 116, June 2015Dean: RW 116’s cover art by Pamela Becker, was also the woodcut used on the cover of Psalms for All Seasons. There is another great image of a tree on page 5 of that issue.   RW 128, June 2018 Joyce: When I was working on this theme issue on mental illness, it struck me as particularly fitting to use a piece of art from Vincent Van Gogh, who struggled with his own mental health. This issue, while maybe not one of the most popular, might be one of the most important ones I worked on.   RW 132, June 2019 Dean: Inspiration often comes from nature. Petra Zanting’s Tree of Life is lovely. Visually, this entire issue is one of my favorites.   The Work Continues Dean: My work with the print version of RW has been wonderful, both in what I learned and in giving me a creative outlet. What a privilege it was. Every once in a while I would get a letter or email about one of the “Come and See” columns, and I would be caught off guard a little—someone is actually reading this? It was always a highlight to see how they would interpret the idea I had written about and make it their own. While my work with Reformed Worship might be done, there’s still a lot of work to be done around worship visuals. If I could leave RW readers with one charge, it would be to give people the opportunity to learn to express themselves visually in worship—especially the kids. Don’t forget that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and when it comes to visual expression, “Yes, you can!” (see article by that title).

After the last worshiper exited the sanctuary, I went to the front to make some adjustments to what I thought was a visual masterpiece: a couple of pieces of foam core from which was cut a silhouette of the town of Bethlehem with strings of Christmas lights highlighting the silhouetted town.Two church members joined me. She was the organist, and he was a regular member of council. Both were small in stature, but they were serious influencers in our neighborhood church. She with her hand to her chin and he with both hands behind his back, they asked me to tell them about my creation. They listened without interruption—like, really listened. When I finished, they thanked me for my contribution to worship and said they’d be looking forward to more. I was probably a freshman in high school at the time, and my little town of Bethlehem wasn’t nearly as great as I thought. It was too small for the front of the sanctuary and lacked any sort of point besides it being Christmas. Scale Is ImportantI remember this experience because I learned an important lesson in scaling visuals for worship. Often the spaces where we gather are big, and often beginners’ designs are too small.More importantly, though, I learned a lesson about the role encouragement plays in raising up church volunteers. Encouragement prompts talent to grow until it fits the scale of what a church might need. If you’re a pastor or worship leader, here are some tips for scaling up your encouragement.Don’t Stop Asking: Young people especially might need repeated requests to get involved. Start low-key and scale it up if you see any interest.Make Connections: People often lack confidence when they start to share creative ideas in front of a group of people. Leaders know lots of people in the congregation who might be a good mentor for a newbie. Please, get these people in touch with each other.More Than a Job: I don’t know if musicians feel this way too, but church artists and designers sometimes feel as if their work is an assignment, like the paid work they do during the week. Remember that art done for worship comes from the heart and is as much of an offering as the dollars we put into the offering plate.Constructive Criticism: Even if you’re not a seasoned artist or designer, you know something about worship, so don’t hesitate to teach us what you know so we can learn how to do our part better. If you see a problem, try to focus on the result (e.g., legibility) rather than dictating a fix (specifying your favorite font).Say Thank You: Maybe you don’t have the time or interest to learn everything artists might want to tell you about their work. That’s OK. But do remember to show your appreciation. It goes a long way. Thank you for doing your part to make sure all members are given an opportunity to express their gifts in worship. 

Last summer my wife and I had the opportunity to drive along West Michigan’s lakeshore. It was a warm but windy day with occasional rain showers, so our attention was drawn more to the houses lining the lakeshore than to the gray lake and misty beaches below.As we drove, slowly dodging the silver-haired power walkers we shared the pavement with, my wife and I kept up a running commentary on the mostly very large and very expensive houses built on these shifting sands. I was struck by how our comments were not what they might have been years back. No longer were we wondering how expensive the houses must be, or how the people who owned them made their money. Our conversation was more about the colors or textures that were combined for good effect, or how the landscaper deftly made the transition from beach grass to manicured lawn. As we drove, we wondered aloud what might be behind various design decisions.More Critique, Less CovetingOur real estate musings might seem far removed from thoughts about worship visuals, but they illustrate an attitude I’ve been trying to cultivate recently. We’ve been attending a much larger church than we used to—one where both the talent and budgets available for worship visuals outpace my experiences with visuals in smaller congregations. Do you struggle with this too? What’s a small- or medium-sized church to do? Here are a few thoughts:Hone Those Appreciation Skills: Even after all those art appreciation classes I was required to take, it’s taken me a long time to be able to appreciate something I’m not able to do myself. Rather than trying to emulate what more money might enable, figure out what elements make something work well and apply that learning to what you can afford.Go Deeper: When we see something we like or that moves us, we often are too quick to respond with something like “That’s cool.” Without needing to enroll in art school, you can learn the principles of art and design—contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm, variety,  unity—and use these words to describe why you like (or dislike) something.Discuss Ideas With Others: One of the best ways to enlarge our appreciation vocabulary is to talk about our ideas in a group setting. Yes, you’ll all have to wear your thickest skins, but there’s nothing like a lively conversation around a bunch of ideas. How do you get a bunch of ideas? Require everyone to come with at least three.Stay Offline: Idea-sharing sites like Pinterest might have their place in designing visuals for worship, but too often they contribute to the we-could-never-do-that feeling. And because these sites are trend-driven, there’s also a certain sameness to the ideas found online. Whatever you decide to do, make it your own. Make sure your visual worship design acknowledges the types and tastes of the people with whom you are worshiping and fits the style of the other aspects of your worship. 

The office building where I work is being sold. My employer has been headquartered here for about seventy years, so you can imagine the sorting and sifting and recycling that’s been going on to prepare for the move to a newer, smaller building.Watching a group of people move has been fun. People I would have thought to be “dumpers” are suddenly sentimental, and ones I thought would be “savers” are almost gleeful as they throw boxes of receipts and correspondence into blue recycle bins, never to be seen again.By the time what needs to be saved has been boxed and labeled, the artwork has been taken off the walls, and essential office furniture is all that’s left, a sense of relief seems to have replaced all the clutter. I suppose the feeling I’m picking up on could be just my minimalist bias at work, but I don’t think so.I wonder if we prefer less clutter but need a shakeup of some kind to start the decluttering. It’s easier to let stuff pile up. Remember the good feeling of coming home from school to see that a parent had rearranged the furniture in the living room? Or the sense of a promising future an empty apartment for rent or house for sale gave us? What could we do to create these feelings in our worship spaces?Shake It UpAs with a move from one office building to another, maybe you need to shake things up a bit. You could renovate your church building entirely, but I think you could accomplish the same sense of newness for a lot less. Here are some ideas to declutter your worship space:Prepare yourself for both dumpers and savers. You will not make everyone happy with the changes, but with grace, think through how different people will respond and honor them with a clear explanation of what you’re trying to accomplish. That will also keep you focused and prevent spur-of-the-moment decisions that everyone will hate later.Pretend that you are moving out and your mother is moving in. Take down the visuals, empty out the cabinets, and move all the collected worship paraphernalia somewhere else. Do a deep clean.Paint. Repainting is a relatively inexpensive way to help rethink a space. But before you paint, fill in all the nail holes so you’re not tempted to just put up what was hanging there before. And don’t go too trendy with your color choice—you know how long the current color has been on the walls.Give the new look time. When you think you’re done, commit to it for at least three months. Change is hard for most people, and, especially when faced with disapproval, people tend to make concessions. But concessions clutter. This goes for you, too. Don’t second-guess yourself and make more changes.Prune the pixels. If you’re worshiping in a space with digital components, like an LED wall, cutting on-screen clutter can be a visual relief. In a world of too many images and so much movement, perhaps our churches can be places of visual refuge: “Ah, I’m at church. Finally some peace.” 

Sometimes a person has to die to get noticed.That may seem a little dramatic, but I hadn’t heard of Phil Baines before his death. I don’t recall how I discovered the website that featured a memorial to Baines, but what a great find. Baines was a British-born would-be priest turned graphic designer and later professor at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. An online search for “Phil Baines” will turn up some really great work using typography. Often he used big type in less-than-obvious ways, such as the extra-large hanging paschal “candles” shown above. Un-flat What makes these candles so compelling to look at? Once you get past the beauty of the color and shapes and imagine them moving slightly, you can’t help but try to make something of the text. A letter here, a recognizable word there. Compared to so many too-full flat screens of text, the graphics on these cylinders are a puzzle to be studied and solved. AdaptFrom the hour or so I spent learning about Phil Baines—the person and his work—I think he’d be the sort of person who would allow us to simply copy his work. But we shouldn’t. Inspired, we should find our own ways to accomplish the same wonder and beauty. What opportunities are there in or around your worship spaces to adapt the idea of cylinders wrapped in a familiar text such as John 3:16? The words could be printed using a wide-format printer (check with your local sign companies), and cut paper could be applied decoupage-style. But where to put such a thing? Here are some ideas for what you could wrap with words:An architectural pillar or two in the sanctuary so that the installation must be viewed from different angles for the text to make senseThe baptismal font, particularly when a baptism is scheduledA troublesome support post in the middle of your narthex just waiting for a sense of purposeMultiple concrete forming tubes placed on the sanctuary platform Wherever you find or however you create your cylinders, avoid the temptation to place them so that the full text is too obvious. Beauty can be simple, but it is seldom obvious. 

In late 2023, The Washington Post decided to publish previously unpublished graphic images of the aftermaths of mass shootings. Understandably, reaction to the decision was mixed. Some believed it added to the trauma already suffered by people directly affected by these heinous acts, but others—including some people directly affected—hoped the gruesome images would shock the public into taking action to avoid these shootings in the future.Whatever the reaction to this decision, it’s clear that visuals carry an emotional punch that words sometimes fail to deliver.Effectively communicating injustice is particularly tough. Many of us have never experienced injustice up close. Here’s an idea for a visual sure to spark some curiosity, maybe some questions, and, if you’re lucky, enough uncomfortableness to motivate us to action.  Who’s Sleeping in My Church?The idea is simple: in your church narthex or lobby or near the entrance—wherever most worshipers will pass through—recreate the scene in the picture with as much realism as you can (consider using pillows for the human figure). Don’t post any explanation or station someone nearby to explain. Let those gathering wonder for a bit.In the worship folder or perhaps as part of the message, refer to the scene and wonder with each other, young and old:Have you ever come across people who are homeless? If so, do you know their names?Why do you think they are unsheltered?Do you think they have family?Do they, or did they, go to school or have a job?Are they members of a church? Do they or would they attend our church?Where do they go to take a shower or to get something to eat?Where would this person go if they get sick?What should our city, our church, or we as individuals do about those of us without adequate shelter?Is there something that we think might help them but might actually make the situation worse?Have you ever been homeless, or can you imagine what it might take for you to become homeless?What do you think Jesus would want us to do if we see someone without a home? Perhaps after introducing this visual and reflecting on the questions you can invite someone who works with the unhoused in your community to help you better understand the challenges and unjust or failed systems that lead to homelessness. Then consider how your church can work to bring about change. 

It was my wife’s birthday last week. It was an even-numbered one of significance, so we had a celebration. We invited family, friends, and neighbors via paper invitations sent through the mail. How old-fashioned of us, right? A couple of our friends couldn’t make it and sent flowers. For more than a week now, we’ve been taking care of these floral arrangements—watering, cutting dead leaves off, rearranging after removing dead flowers, and so on. It is not an unpleasant process. Like so many things, this has me thinking about visuals in worship. What might this flower ritual have to say about what we do—and could do—in our worship spaces?   Somewhere between Fabric and Pixels I don’t have good data to back me up, but I think there are a good many of you working with both fabric arts and digital art. I’m also guessing that flower arranging—which I’ll refer to as “natural art”—isn’t part of your worship planning unless, of course, a member of your church dies and the family can’t bear to toss an expensive funeral arrangement before it too dies. I think this needs to change. Digital art is often shown for a moment and then disappears, only to be replaced with yet another perfect stock image overlaid with trendy type. Fabric art will often stay on the wall until someone notices that its original liturgical colors have faded into something else entirely. Natural art fits somewhere in between. It will be gone eventually, but not so fast that you can’t observe it over a period of time. And until it dies, it will likely need some attention. That can be a good thing. I can still picture two women in our church, members of the visual arts team—or more likely at that time, the “flower committee”—regularly standing in front of the platform after the service, scanning the natural art installation and making an adjustment here and there and talking and looking and adjusting. Maybe it’s been a long time since you’ve had natural art in your worship space. Here are some ideas for getting it back. Above all, keep the hierarchy of visuals in mind. When planning for a natural art installation, think about grouping the plants or flowers rather than spreading them across the whole front of the worship space. For Easter, for example, instead of a row of lilies on the platform steps, what about a cloud of white orchids on or near the communion table to focus attention there? Churches in the northern hemisphere could get their kids and youth involved by taking them into the spring forest and cutting just-sprouting branches to arrange in large pots. Most worshiping communities have a group of gardeners. Find one, and he or she can probably tell you who the others are. Find someone to coordinate these good people to keep fresh flowers and plants and decorative vegetables coming in the doors. If your worship space can accommodate only digital visuals, find ways to get natural art on the screen. But don’t rely solely on those beautiful but cliché broad landscapes of places unknown. Show close-ups or maybe a video montage of one subject. For example, display all the parts and angles of apple tree blossoms by slowly dissolving one from another. Here too you can solicit the help of teens and other congregants to take photos to create an image bank for your church. Natural art is simply a way to engage people in worship using the work of the God we worship.

Why do we do it? The sketching—oh, the sketching—and the forever wondering how to show something familiar in a fresh way? Especially in an age when a Canva template or a Pinterest page or even generative AI is reminding us that we’re still amateurs, why do we do it? And it’s not just us wondering why. We’re not hearing as often from the perpetually positive people about our last great visual for worship. The requests from the worship team are coming less frequently or not at all. Unsplash.com appears to be doing most of the creative work these days. What’s an artist to do? Throw up our hands (or brushes or pens or computer mouse) and admit defeat? I think not—even if not doing what we were made to do was an option. But maybe we just need to work harder—well, not necessarily harder, but differently. Create Differently If you’re like me, when given an assignment or commission, you immediately drop keywords into a web browser search field and see what comes up. We tell ourselves we’re just looking for inspiration, but what search algorithms serve up is the most common solution to a problem—not helpful if we’re after a new approach. Here are a few ideas to refresh our imagination: Begin not with an internet search, but with a blank piece of paper and some time. Throw down on the paper any and all ideas that come into your head, be it words or pictures or phrases. Continue this practice for a few days, reviewing what you’ve done so far and adding to the mix. Quantity is more important than quality. Brainstorm with your pastors. They’re in the same position: needing to come up with a fresh approach to Advent or Christmas. Perhaps you could bounce ideas off each other from your respective perspectives: words or visuals. Ask a child or middle-schooler to describe what they see when a Bible text is read to them. It’s amazing how narrow our adult brains can be. Make your browser work harder. Rather than typing “Ideas for Christmas worship visuals,” for example, try “mother child travel tired.” If your pastor’s plans aren’t settled yet, make up a sermon title or series that you know would stretch you. For the visual above, I assigned myself “Christmas: Personal Pain” to bump me away from the overly sweet visual interpretations of the Holy Family; instead I depicted the confused and exhausted Mary and Joseph witnessing the birth of a Savior whose pain was only beginning. (Images from Unsplash.com, of course.) A creative mind is often able to connect seemingly unrelated things to solve a visual problem or artistic need. But that could mean getting out from behind your computer and walking through a gallery, taking a trip to an unfamiliar place, or maybe taking a class in a medium you’ve never worked with. The original ideas will come.

When it was mentioned that the theme for Reformed Worship this year would be the intersection of worship and justice, my mind immediately went to protest posters. It seems there is so much to have an opinion about these days. A strong opinion. An in-your-face opinion! Memorable protest posters have strong graphic images and few words. Their creators, who were just as effective behind a drawing board as in a picket line, were able to capture a point of view so compellingly that others were inspired to join their causes.  Since we’re people who are often called upon to create visuals in support of our worshiping communities, there might be something for us to learn from protest images. Protest the Protests Whether or not we are living in a more divisive time now than ever is hard to say, but it sure feels like it. What if we directed our creative energies to fighting—I don’t think that’s too strong a word—the things that are dividing us. There’s a sign in the front yard of a church I drive by every day, and it’s been there for some years. It is a large but simple text-only sign that reads “WAGE PEACE” in big white letters on a field of blue. It’s a strong statement, one I suspect created lots of conversation in and around this congregation. I like it. You’re getting this issue of Reformed Worship well into Ordinary Time, and soon you’ll be preparing for Advent and Christmas. What about a “Peace Lives Here” visual for summer and a “Jesus Was a Refugee” visual going into autumn? Do them up big—like you mean it. And like our “WAGE PEACE” friends, why not create something that’s visible from the street? I know some of your churches have just the right columns or overhangs from which to display something like this. Your neighbors will appreciate knowing a little more about you. (Just make sure you’re following your town’s signage ordinances.) But don’t post something for all to see that you don’t actually believe and live by. This might be a case where the benefit comes as much from getting everyone to agree on something as from the final art.