sustain:if:able kiwi

training in artistic mission

Wondered how to link creativity with mission? Wondered how to tell the Christian story without words? At Queen’s Birthday weekend at Opawa Baptist Church, Peter and Joyce Majendie are presenting a one day seminar entitled, “From Inspiration to Installation: Public mission through public art.”

Peter and Joyce will share their knowledge gleaned from years of practical experience, including;
1. moving from ideas to creativity to implementation
2. art, creativity and mission
3. using public spaces
4. mobilising volunteers
5. working with media groups
This seminar is part of a Pentecost weekend experience that will include art, creativity and spirituality seminars, cafe and live music.

For full press release

From Inspiration to Installation

An Easter Journey, the creation of Peter and Joyce Majendie from Opawa Baptist Church has just finished. Peter and Joyce used 15 cubic metres of sawdust and 1000 concrete pavers were used to create an indoor garden with two pools of water and thousands of potted colour plants to portray the essential elements of the Easter story in art, music and words.

The Majendie’s are, possibly, two of the most effective evangelists in New Zealand today, proclaiming the gospel story through interactive art to thousands of New Zealanders and tourists, said the Rev Dr Steve Taylor, Senior Pastor of Opawa Baptist Church in Christchurch.

At Queen’s Birthday weekend Peter and Joyce are presenting a seminar at Opawa Baptist Church entitled, “From Inspiration to Installation: Public mission through public art.”

This seminar is part of a Pentecost weekend experience that will include art, creativity and spirituality seminars, cafe and live music. Peter and Joyce will talk about how they more from ideas to creativity, how to mobilise volunteers and work with media groups. They will share their knowledge gleaned from years of practical experience.

“What they do, can be done in other churches,” said Steve.

Last Christmas, Peter and Joyce waded through piles and piles of Council paperwork and secured permission to run a Christmas Journey in the Christchurch Square. They used shipping containers to create a safe and secure way for people to walk and engage with the Christmas Journey. They returned Christmas to its origins, not in a church building, but among innkeepers and public foot traffic. Near 7000 people walked through the Christmas Journey, many tourists from countries as far flung as Mongolia and Saudi Arabia.

As part of the Christmas Journey, people were invited to reflect on how far Mary and Joseph walked to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem. By placing a pin on a world map to indicate how far they had travelled to reach the Christmas Journey. Rob Kilpatrick, Director of New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society, looked at the finished map and commented “Oh, you are reaching more countries than our entire Denominational mission agency.”

This Easter, “the best Journey yet” was a repeated comment from near 1400 people who walked through 14 stations created by seven different artists.

Steve said that for a church of Opawa’s size, an Easter Journey offers us huge influence among our wider community.

“I would encourage any church committed to engaging with their community to consider sending some people to this seminar.”

For more information contact office at opawa dot org dot nz.
For photos of previous Easter and Christmas.