Painting has taught me much more about life that most things. Sports illustrations are many when speakers try and identify the essence of Christianity. And we usually think of the Christina life sequentially. Meaning event one will lead to event two and so on. But it doesn’t work like a game nor like mathematically. Life is far more like art. And for me painting.
In painting you build with end in mind. You follow a sketch or pattern to draw you efforts from. Then you lay down the base colors. This step is vital to a good painting but it seems so mundane and uninteresting.
This also the way churches grow. They grow by layers. Trying to make everyone a base color messes the painting up badly. Progress can’t be noted just statistically because God is a master artist and our lives are his landscape. Nor is any color of no importance in a painting. Each stoke of each color builds to the final outcome.
Your church may look discouraging at the moment but God just might be relaying the foundation colors. He is for sure interested in every church growing. But this doesn’t happen in sequence.. Nor can it be easily recognized as a piece of art work either.
You can tell a real artist when all the colors blend into a singular image and seem to merge into one whole.
God is always creating. The Holy Spirit is always shaping and designing our lives and our churches.
But note this is layer upon layer not even to event.
