Worship As Art
Worship as Art
Robert Faircloth (shopbible@yahoo.com)
I am not an artist. Can’t brush paint a pretty blob. I recently joined my wife on a night out with co-workers at a local “paint & canvass” studio. The lead artist had prepared paper plates with squirts of different colors of paint for everyone. We were going to paint a lighthouse.
An artist prepares the pallet with colors he or she wants to use in the portrait about to be born. If the color isn’t on the pallet, not gonna be in the portrait. Acquiring a visa for travel to Cuba is not easy. I have been blessed to visit that island country twice. On the first trip I was a member of a mission work team; the second visit I went solo. A local pastor asked me to visit his churches. Later I received an official invitation from the Bishop of the church, the Methodist Church of Cuba (MCC). This helped with the visa approval. In name and history, the MCC is sister to the United Methodist Church (UMC) we know so well in the United States. You would not know this from experiencing worship services in both countries. These sisters: each one has her own personality and worship style. Each one has her own worship pallet. On a Sunday afternoon during my first visit, I walked to a church close to where we were staying. I slipped off my shoes and left them near the door with the others. I walked in quietly across the incredibly clean ceramic tile floor and took a seat at the back as the service was beginning. I would not understand the Cuban language; I don’t speak Spanish. I just wanted to be there. |
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The sanctuary was quiet with everyone praying individually, waiting for the leader to begin the service. All I heard was a few whispers of prayer. The minutes passed and the service began. I learned that knowing you are in a place where true worship is happening does not require being fluent in the indigenous language. The worship pallet I was observing and absorbing was a wonderful experience.
One by one other parishioners came in as the service continued with singing, praying and speaking the Word. Each person knelt in the aisle or at their chosen place in the pew and prayed for a few minutes before joining in whatever was going on in the service. What a display of reverence and respect for their house of worship and other worshippers. Their smiles, body language, kind gestures to each other; I could tell worship, and Christian love, and kindness were collective and contagious.
How is it with a typical UMC at the beginning of the worship hour, or in your church? Quite often it is noisy with people talking in their gathered click groups while the acolyte processes the light of Christ. Where is the reverence, the awe and the respect for the moment; respect for the place and the physical representation of Christ in our midst? This is certainly a different worship attitude, and you can only paint with what is on the pallet.
I suppose we all have painted at least one “paint by number” picture. Worship in a UMC will vary between inner city, suburban and country churches, and swing a little more when you compare traditional and contemporary service times. However, her sister just a hundred miles or so away owns a worship pallet of many colors, and a UMC “paint by number” bulletin controlled service would stifle her. The secular life of Cuba might be under a lot of government control, but the Spirit is alive and well in the MCC. The singing is joyous with heads often looking upward as the tears flow down their glowing faces, hands lifted and arms waving.
Many of the UMC churches, and to speak more fairly, many of other denominations have churches which open only for Sunday morning service. The windows are dark and doors locked for the remainder of the six days and 23 hours or so in a week. Worship for those faith groups is limited to that one hour on Sunday morning; if they are not on vacation, or have “more important” things to do. They don’t see each other or interact with one another very much during those days and hours between each Sunday. Their “worship” is one hour each week. It is hard to paint a great portrait in just an hour.
Many Christian people in Cuba walk miles to church and are faithful every Sunday. If there is a prayer meeting scheduled for 5 am on a weekday morning, they will be there. Maybe someone is sick, or they are praying for the salvation of a particular person, or there are certain physical needs for the church; whatever the reason, people volunteer to join the prayer group on these various occasions. It is an extension of their worship.
Here in the states, most baptisms occur in the church building during the regular worship hour. It is clean, neat and convenient for everyone to just add that item to the bulletin. It can be done without major interference to the worship hour. It doesn’t disrupt anybody’s schedule for the afternoon or take a day out of their week.
What did we do in Cuba? Glad you asked. During my second trip, it was a Saturday morning, and it was going to be an all-day event. There was a caravan of worn-out cars as well as trucks that hauled sugar cane during the week, now filled with smiling people, from babies to feeble grandparents. We traveled an hour or so and went to the beach for a baptismal service. There were several hundred people present. We shared food that everyone brought from home. The District Superintendent preached and we gave away a hundred Bibles to people who didn’t have one. We needed more Bibles that day.
There were three teams of us; two to each team, who waded out into the salty water ‘til about chest deep. Assistants helped the baptismal candidates get to us and helped them back to shore. One man held his little girl as I baptized both of them together. Several people came up out of the water with shouts of praise, and others were simply floated back to shore and laid out on the beach. They were so moved by the event and in such a state of awe, they could not walk. They were not ashamed of their expression of worship. There were a little over 100 people baptized that day. It was a day that extended their worship beyond Sunday morning.
The sanctuary was full and overflowing on Sunday mornings with people crowding the windows on the outside. During weeknight services, there were no empty pews. Many of the people brought a chair from home. Afterwards, the same trucks that hauled cargo during the day departed into the darkness of night filled with people of faith.
Worship is an art form as much as any portrait hanging in any museum around the world. The art of worship should not be confined to Sunday morning. It should flow through every day of the week, dancing vibrantly on the canvas of every person’s life in the surrounding community. The colors on our worship pallet should include prayer time at church, at home and in between; our respect for God’s house and other seekers gathered there; our commitment to join with others during the week for focused prayer and fellowship.
When we have professed Christ and wants to be baptized, it should be important enough that we are willing to give up a day of our life to nurture that faith decision. I know I didn’t cover all that but you get the idea. Worship is art. How is your portrait coming along?
By: Robert Faircloth
One by one other parishioners came in as the service continued with singing, praying and speaking the Word. Each person knelt in the aisle or at their chosen place in the pew and prayed for a few minutes before joining in whatever was going on in the service. What a display of reverence and respect for their house of worship and other worshippers. Their smiles, body language, kind gestures to each other; I could tell worship, and Christian love, and kindness were collective and contagious.
How is it with a typical UMC at the beginning of the worship hour, or in your church? Quite often it is noisy with people talking in their gathered click groups while the acolyte processes the light of Christ. Where is the reverence, the awe and the respect for the moment; respect for the place and the physical representation of Christ in our midst? This is certainly a different worship attitude, and you can only paint with what is on the pallet.
I suppose we all have painted at least one “paint by number” picture. Worship in a UMC will vary between inner city, suburban and country churches, and swing a little more when you compare traditional and contemporary service times. However, her sister just a hundred miles or so away owns a worship pallet of many colors, and a UMC “paint by number” bulletin controlled service would stifle her. The secular life of Cuba might be under a lot of government control, but the Spirit is alive and well in the MCC. The singing is joyous with heads often looking upward as the tears flow down their glowing faces, hands lifted and arms waving.
Many of the UMC churches, and to speak more fairly, many of other denominations have churches which open only for Sunday morning service. The windows are dark and doors locked for the remainder of the six days and 23 hours or so in a week. Worship for those faith groups is limited to that one hour on Sunday morning; if they are not on vacation, or have “more important” things to do. They don’t see each other or interact with one another very much during those days and hours between each Sunday. Their “worship” is one hour each week. It is hard to paint a great portrait in just an hour.
Many Christian people in Cuba walk miles to church and are faithful every Sunday. If there is a prayer meeting scheduled for 5 am on a weekday morning, they will be there. Maybe someone is sick, or they are praying for the salvation of a particular person, or there are certain physical needs for the church; whatever the reason, people volunteer to join the prayer group on these various occasions. It is an extension of their worship.
Here in the states, most baptisms occur in the church building during the regular worship hour. It is clean, neat and convenient for everyone to just add that item to the bulletin. It can be done without major interference to the worship hour. It doesn’t disrupt anybody’s schedule for the afternoon or take a day out of their week.
What did we do in Cuba? Glad you asked. During my second trip, it was a Saturday morning, and it was going to be an all-day event. There was a caravan of worn-out cars as well as trucks that hauled sugar cane during the week, now filled with smiling people, from babies to feeble grandparents. We traveled an hour or so and went to the beach for a baptismal service. There were several hundred people present. We shared food that everyone brought from home. The District Superintendent preached and we gave away a hundred Bibles to people who didn’t have one. We needed more Bibles that day.
There were three teams of us; two to each team, who waded out into the salty water ‘til about chest deep. Assistants helped the baptismal candidates get to us and helped them back to shore. One man held his little girl as I baptized both of them together. Several people came up out of the water with shouts of praise, and others were simply floated back to shore and laid out on the beach. They were so moved by the event and in such a state of awe, they could not walk. They were not ashamed of their expression of worship. There were a little over 100 people baptized that day. It was a day that extended their worship beyond Sunday morning.
The sanctuary was full and overflowing on Sunday mornings with people crowding the windows on the outside. During weeknight services, there were no empty pews. Many of the people brought a chair from home. Afterwards, the same trucks that hauled cargo during the day departed into the darkness of night filled with people of faith.
Worship is an art form as much as any portrait hanging in any museum around the world. The art of worship should not be confined to Sunday morning. It should flow through every day of the week, dancing vibrantly on the canvas of every person’s life in the surrounding community. The colors on our worship pallet should include prayer time at church, at home and in between; our respect for God’s house and other seekers gathered there; our commitment to join with others during the week for focused prayer and fellowship.
When we have professed Christ and wants to be baptized, it should be important enough that we are willing to give up a day of our life to nurture that faith decision. I know I didn’t cover all that but you get the idea. Worship is art. How is your portrait coming along?
By: Robert Faircloth
Robert Faircloth is a joyfully married licensed minister with the International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC) and an ordained member of the National Association of Christian Ministers. He also served with the United Methodist Church as a bi-vocational licensed pastor for a little over six years. His ministerial education includes Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, Georgia; Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina and is presently attending IPHC’s School of Ministry in Falcon, North Carolina. Missions is a heart throb, with trips to Thailand, Haiti and Cuba. He and his wife continue to support mission projects in Africa and India. At age 66 he continues to work in his cabinet business, was awarded three US patents, enjoys mowing the grass, doing things which put a smile on his wife’s face, making small wooden crosses to give away for ministry witness, loves writing and continues looking for a conventional publisher to take a chance on one of his three books. He can be reached at: brokenchurchpreacher@yahoo.com.