Moody Church consists of 1,000 to 2,000 people- diverse in age, ethnicity, and economically. A large community of artists is growing within Moody Church. The Church has tried to provide a creative involvement for artists in the community. One way the college group has sought to do this is with an event called “Create”. The purpose of “Create” is for artists to display their work, and for others, who are not necessarily artistic, to have an opportunity to delight in these works. Whether its poetry, photography, paintings, music composition, culinary or anything else, they seek to declare the image of God by creating.

The message of the event is that because we are made in God’s image, we are all creative. The first thing we know from Scripture about God is that He is the Creator, and one of the first things we know about man is that we are made in His image. Thus, we create. What is also astonishing is that this Creator, God, has formed us with affection. He has affection for us. Thus, as artists, we have the responsibility to have affection for our art.

As we were discussing these things, I remembered one of the papers I wrote as a freshman in college. Even though I spent time and work into this paper, I was completely bored while I was writing it. This paper was just a task to be done, another check off the list of things to do. When I had a friend read over this paper, she told me that the content was fine, but that she could tell I didn’t care about it. She could tell I had no affection for it.

We further echo God as Creator more accurately when we have affection for our art. This is because God has shown us ultimate affection through the gospel.

This was the discussion of the night. We glorified God as we delighted in both beholding art and in creating art. Not every piece there was about the Bible or about God per se. But it was all exemplary of God’s glory shown forth through His image bearers. This is one way I have seen an honest expression of what art can look like in the church. What ways have yall seen this open expression among believers?