Posted 1003 days ago

Invitation to Inspired Imagination

by Tom Sine

God is stirring up the imaginations of artists, musicians and ordinary people around the world to give creative expression to the new breaking into the old. “The God who put the ‘sliding shutter’ on the lizard’s eye and created more than three hundred forms of hummingbirds has a boundless effluence of creativity,” says Mark Labberton in his new book The Dangerous Act of Worship. Remarkably the creator God invites us to become co-creators giving imaginative expression to a new world of resurrection and hope that today we only barely glimpse. Let me share just a few examples from all over the planet of what God is stirring up. Then I invite you to join those on the creative edge and use your imagination to give birth to new artistic expressions of life and faith.

Welcome to the NuJERUZ

Soaring above the restored Norris Square Park in Philadelphia is a huge three-story butterfly on the side of an apartment house made entirely of ceramic tiles. A Cuban artist, Salvador Gonzales, worked with the community’s children to paint the tiles for the mural, which is, of course, a Christian symbol of resurrection.

There is a story behind this soaring butterfly. A group of Christians, from different cultures and different faith traditions, took back and transformed their neighborhood in inner city Philly. Together, they built new housing, provided a center for drug rehab, started a new café and restored the Norris Square Park. “…The Badlands have become green lands for the people of Norris Square, the NU JERUZ is come, and it looks every bit like heaven.”

Welcome to the Soweto Mountain of Hope

A 45-acre site with a mountain and a water tower was transformed from a dangerous garbage dump to a symbol of hope in Soweto in Johannesburg, South Africa. Mandla Mentoor organized young people to not only clean up the mountain, but to create a process that is transforming the entire community. Mandla said, “I prayed day in and day out so that God could give the power and lead this process.”

Initially, volunteers not only cleaned up the garbage from decades past, but planted vegetable gardens and fruit trees on the hillsides. Residents created makeshift theaters, cooking huts and dialogue circles for community gatherings and performances. Initially, Mandla sold his art to help fund this venture, but in recent years they have received funding from a number of environmental groups.

The inspiration that created the Mountain of Hope has spread like a green contagion through the townships. These people have written the book on creative scrounging. Small bits of land have been turned into community gardens. One community planted olive trees down a long middle divider between tow roads, which has become a lucrative source of income for the community. Now, if you visit the Mountain of Hope you will find it surrounded with bakeries and sewing shops as well as film and recording studios that have all grown from a small seed planted on a garbage dump in Soweto with much prayer and many willing hands.

Welcome to musical shotguns in Colombia

Cesar Lopez, a musician in Colombia, found a very unusual way to respond to the ongoing violence in his country. Over 100,000 people have been killed over the last 40 years between leftist guerillas and right-wing Paramilitary forces fighting each other and the government. Of course, there is also violence connected to drug trafficking. It is estimated that there are between 2 to 3 million illegal weapons floating around Columbia. There is little hope that the government is going to bring an end to the violence or get the weapons out of circulation.

In response to the ongoing violence Cesar created an artistic “rapid response battalion.” He mobilized a group of artists to perform at the scene of recent attacks in Bogota, and put on concerts for the victims. After one attack, Cesar decided to approach the mayor of Bogota with a very unusual request. He asked for some of the guns they were collecting from the streets. The mayor granted his request and gave him five shotguns they had confiscated.

Five weeks and $800 later, at one of his concerts, Cesar Lopez thrust a new guitar made from those shotguns into the air and announced, “This is about transformation… It’s about turning something bad into good… It’s about possibilities.”

An Invitation to Imagine New Possibilities

Christine and I conduct a six hour workshop for churches called “Imagine That! Creating New Possibilities for Life, Church and Mission.” People are always amazed by their own creativity. For example at a recent workshop in Sherwood, Oregon one creativity group suggested that the church offer a Christmas gift wrapping ministry at one of the major places where people congregate—the local YMCA. The creative twist was that they not only wrap gifts but that they also offer brochures and advice on how to decrease the stress and angst of the pre-Christmas season for people who are overbooked and overcommitted. Typically during the workshops participants create ways in which parents and kids can be involved in ministry together, singles can bring about change in their neighborhoods, families and singles can create new celebrations and their churches can develop new imaginative ways to make a difference in their communities. [If you are interested in scheduling a workshop with us contact me at tom@msainfo.org.]

The winds of the Spirit are blowing through the imaginations of ordinary people. We find particularly that those in the emerging church and new monasticism movement are giving imaginative expression to their faith. Check out www.churchinfo.org and www.simpleway.org for creative examples.

A central part of our ministry at Mustard Seed Associates is to encourage friends like you from all over the world to invite God to blow through your imaginations and discover you can give expression to the new work that God is giving birth to. Artists, musicians and ordinary followers of Jesus, send us examples of the creative new possibilities that God is stirring up within you. We want to share them with your friends in MSA.

1- J. Nathan Corbitt and Vivian Nix-Early, Taking It to the Streets: Using the Arts to Transform Your Community (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003), p. 179.
2- Ibid. 3 – “Interview with Mandla Mentoor: The Soweto Mountain of Hope, Making People Free” In Motion Magazine (June 8, 2003), accessed January 30, 2007 at www.inmotionmagazine.com/global/mm1.html.
4 – Megan Lindow, “From rubble to revival,” The Christian Science Monitor, February 26, 2004, pp. 14, 16.

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