Arts and Crafts

As for many of us COVID has completely changed the landscape of work life and home life amongst the staff at The Tapestry Richmond. It has caused us to wrestle with questions like: how do I know if I'm doing a good job in this time? What is being expected of me in this time of ministry? What am I expecting of myself? What makes me look back at the day and say this was a productive day? Am I still feeling God's love and acceptance in the midst of it all?

After a Zoom meeting discussing this topic I wrote this letter (mildly edited) to our Richmond campus staff and was encouraged by our lead pastor Al Chu to share it. It gives a picture of how we are approaching ministry at The Tap, and hopefully it also helps you in the midst of the changing landscape of the ministries you are called to in this season as well. Whether it is the ministry of being a parent, loving a neighbour, connecting with family, or serving and creating some semblance of order at work or at home. May we do it for the beauty. I miss you Church community. I can't want to meet and worship with you together face to face again, but until then stay safe and stay connected!

Sometimes when I’m writing a sermon I sit down and I get a ton of pages. Sometimes I get a few sentences. I get frustrated when the writers block is there but I’m not discouraged (most of the time) because I know that that is how the process works. So my metric is not how many pages I write but whether or not I’m putting in the time. If I put in the time I know the pages will come. After the pages come sometimes I really like a sermon I wrote. Sometimes it feels incomplete or not as good. But I honestly have no control over the result besides putting in the time and getting better with time. Writing a sermon or designing material is more of an “art" than it is a “craft” and that is just how it is when you do art.

For me a engaging in craft is when you are also making something that is more straightforward to replicate or reproduce.  In a craft I think the metric is how many have you made today? Can you make them faster? Could you have made more. I think there are aspects to art and craft in ministry… at the same time I think we can fall into the danger of measuring everything by way of craft. Because it’s easy, it’s quantifiable, it’s more straightforward. But, at the same time so much of writing sermons, building relationships, doing pastoral care and discipleship is more art than craft isn’t it? So on days where you spent all this time and you only managed 5 heartfelt e-mails, or 3 really good conversations, or you put all this time into something and it still feels incomplete or not as good I pray you give yourself some grace. It’s part of the art of ministry.

When you try to take something that should be art and you turn it into craft you know what it becomes? Derivative, superficial, and inauthentic. There is lots about ministry that requires craft, but don’t let everything become measured, fashioned, and produced out of craft. It’ll disappoint you. I’ll play with your expectations. Let us instead commit to sitting down and doing the time and let us do it with Christ so that we not only become more proficient in ministry but so we also become shaped and formed into the beautiful character of Christ through ministry.

For the beauty my friends.

---

Albert Wu is the Campus Pastor of Tapestry Richmond
Photo by Anna Kolosyuk