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Supporting Ministry Leadership
Supporting Ministry Leadership and Worship through the Arts is a research study that will evaluate the efficacy of art-based training in the leadership development of pastors, and consequently, how the meaning-making operations of art creation serve communal worship.
The study seeks nine adult volunteers who hold a church leadership position and who are able to apply a creative strategy learned in the workshops to their leadership of communal worship. This will typically, but not exclusively, be a pastor. Any church leader with authority for planning and executing worship is welcome to apply.
Chosen volunteers will participate in a one-month learning cohort, including expectations to:
Chosen volunteers will participate in a one-month learning cohort, including expectations to:
- Attend four online, weekly, 90-minute workshops (six hours total — see schedule below),
- Complete two at-home creative assignments (approximately 3-6 hours total).
- Employ at least one art expression in their congregational worship setting (hours vary),
- Provide essential feedback through interviews (no more than 3 hours in total), and
- Consent to articles and essays being written as a result of the program. (Your name and context will not be disclosed.)
Benefits to volunteer participation include:
Benefits to volunteer participation include:
- Engagement in an art-based educational opportunity that, according to previous studies, may have demonstrable cognitive and social benefits;
- Practice analyzing art forms and learning art-making skills to enhance personal leadership development;
- Application of new skills and analytical tools to communal worship leadership;
- Group learning experience that offers social connections;
- Gratification of contributing to academic research in the area of art, theology, ecclesiology, and liturgy; and
- Payment of $150.
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE:
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE:
MONDAYS | June 7, 14, 21, 28, 2021
10–11:30 am PDT | 12–1:30 pm CDT | 1–2:30 pm EDT
MONDAYS | June 7, 14, 21, 28, 2021
10–11:30 am PDT | 12–1:30 pm CDT | 1–2:30 pm EDT
Workshop 1: Analyzing Art Together. Participants will be exposed to the Feldman method of analyzing art works, which will be practiced from a theological perspective.
Workshop 2: Creating a Non-Figurative Self-Portrait /Icon Collage. Participants will create a collage that represents who they are and what they care about. The assignment and subsequent conversation will explore meaning-making activity that includes symbolism, self-reflection, and non-verbal communication.
Workshop 3: Creative Writing and Collaborative Writing Collage. This multi-step assignment consists of composing a psalm and creating a phrase collage as part of a larger collaborative effort.
Workshop 4: Body Movement and Text Interpretation. Participants will experience social connection through the collaborative creation and performance of a text, where body movements express the meaning of a written text.
Workshops will be led by artist, theologian, and Brehm Center Director, Maria Fee. Dr. Maria Fee is an artist with an M.F.A. in Painting, M.A. in Theology, and a Ph.D. in Theology and Culture, Fuller Seminary. As a professor of worship, theology, and the arts, she assists seminarians' negotiations of theological queries through a creative discipline. Maria's own art practice explores ideas of fragmentation, metizaje (cultural mixing), alienation, and hospitality.
To be considered as a possible volunteer, submit the Google Form below by May 1, 2021. All participants will be notified by May 14. Email mariafee@fuller.edu for more information.
To be considered as a possible volunteer, submit the Google Form below by May 1, 2021. All participants will be notified by May 14. Email mariafee@fuller.edu for more information.
This program is made possible through a Vital Worship Grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Grand Rapids, Michigan, with funds provided by Lilly Endowment Inc.
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