{"id":19865,"date":"2018-11-01T12:33:21","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T19:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=19865"},"modified":"2018-11-01T12:33:21","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T19:33:21","slug":"images-of-the-divine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/images-of-the-divine\/","title":{"rendered":"Images of the Divine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four years ago, I attended a seminar about mid-career ministry.\u00a0 A panel was discussing different unique ministry opportunities they had created sharing them with the other mid-career clergy to see if any ideas may work for another congregation.\u00a0 Many opportunities were discussed, including ideas about a sermon series on personal finance, unique ways to tie the web into worship services whether through live tweeting or intentional messaging displayed on message boards from the chancel.\u00a0 One presenter discussed removing the cross from the sanctuary and replacing it with an image of a wireless router, the router symbolizing the way we are currently \u201call connected.\u201d\u00a0 The final presenter discussed how she had started a photography dinner group.\u00a0 The group met once a month for supper and during the month prior either took pictures, or found them in media, and would then bring them to the supper to discuss how they saw the divine in the image.\u00a0 I LOVED this idea!<\/p>\n

At the time I was just starting to lead the annual Confirmation Class here at Huguenot.\u00a0 Confirmation is the time when a youth \u201cconfirms\u201d the vows that someone else made for them at their baptism. Each church organizes the confirmation process with their own unique local flavor.\u00a0 I know of a church that has a two year confirmation process.\u00a0 I know of a church that has a two month confirmation process.\u00a0 The only thing the Presbyterian Church requires is that each student \u201cprofess their faith\u201d and that the local governing body of the church approves that profession.<\/p>\n

Here at Huguenot, eighth grade students work their way through a process that lasts the better part of a church program year.\u00a0 Most eighth graders here in town have cell phones and so I took the idea of a monthly picture supper group and turned that into the confirmation class for the year.\u00a0 Instead of writing a two page \u201cprofession of faith\u201d statement, the images of God that the students took throughout the year turned into their profession – the way they experienced the divine in and through their life.\u00a0 I asked them to look for God in the world and when they saw something that made them think of God, Jesus, an attribute of church (basically anything faith related), to snap a picture and send it to me.<\/p>\n

This of course meant my phone \u201cblew up\u201d at all hours of the day and night during this season of confirmation, but it was so incredible to see where these students saw God in their lives.\u00a0 Equally as amazing was to witness the different attributes of the divine the students were able to see in the different images they all shared.[i]<\/a>\u00a0 A tree for one student represented experiencing the majesty of our Creator God in nature; but for another student it meant God\u2019s steadfast love.\u00a0 Both of these interpretations differed from the student who took the image; she took it because she was on an annual camping trip with her family and the image signified the time she spent with her family in this sacred place.\u00a0 All three incredible meanings. All three incredible students.\u00a0 One incredible image.<\/p>\n

I will share some of my favorite images from the class, ask you what you think of them, and then share the photographers intention below.<\/p>\n

Tree<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Flood<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Font<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is true friends, every picture does tell a story. What an honor to share those stories together.<\/p>\n

Legend:<\/p>\n

Tree – This image was taken during the annual Christmas Tree Sale held here at Huguenot Church.\u00a0 The tree is obviously tied on to the Jeep very poorly.\u00a0 The student said this image represents God’s forgiveness.<\/p>\n

Flood – This image is taken of the golf course right across the street from the church after a large spring rain.\u00a0 The student said this reminded him of the story of Noah and the great flood.<\/p>\n

Font – The class spent the night at the church learning about worship and the numerous different elements of our sanctuary.\u00a0 They had learned about baptism earlier in the evening, discussing the cleansing waters of baptism.\u00a0 Later in that night (11:30-ish pm) we were asked to clean the wood on the pews with the wood cleaner you see here.\u00a0 This image represents the way the student blended the ideas of cleaning the pews with the cleansing waters of baptism.<\/p>\n

[i]<\/a> Pink, Sarah.\u00a0 Doing Visual Ethnography: Images, Media, and Representation in Research<\/em>. (Thousand Oaks: CA, 2010) 51.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four years ago, I attended a seminar about mid-career ministry.\u00a0 A panel was discussing different unique ministry opportunities they had created sharing them with the other mid-career clergy to see if any ideas may work for another congregation.\u00a0 Many opportunities were discussed, including ideas about a sermon series on personal finance, unique ways to tie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1385,1340,672,1322,279],"class_list":["post-19865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-confirmation","tag-dminlgp-9","tag-images","tag-lgp9","tag-pink","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19877,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19865\/revisions\/19877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}