If Banksy Were a Church Planter: Street Ministry and Street Art

      Having just watched the film documentary film “Exit Through the Gift Shop”, I got my first real look at the worldwide, mostly urban, subculture of “street art”.  If, like me, you have been unfamiliar with the provocative, enormously creative and somewhat subversive world of contemporary street art, I can heartily recommend “Exit” as a good starting place. 

            The instinct behind street art is to post, paint or otherwise display arresting images on everyday spaces such as walls, billboards, sidewalks and the like.  The “art” may be words or images painted from aerosol spray paint cans of course.  But, as the film shows us, the true masters of the art utilize media and techniques as diverse as stickers, tiles, stencil art, mural painting and more. “Banksy”, the featured street artist of the “Exit Through the Gift Shop” documentary has done much to push the envelope of what is possible in these regards and much of his work is fascinating and eye-popping. 

            All this has gotten me to thinking: what if Banksy and his kind were church planters rather than so-called “post-graffiti artists”?  What kinds of spirit would they bring to the notion of taking the ministry out of church buildings and other formalized environments to the streets of our cities?  After all: isn’t this what they have done to the art world?

            Yes, it most assuredly is.  The street artists have confronted the notion that art belongs in climate-controlled, well-lit and sterilized galleries and museums and broken the rules by exposing their work to the raw elements and human environments of the abandoned buildings, bridge abutments and billboard spaces of our cities.  In doing so, they have confronted our monotony by surprising us with delightfully light-hearted or powerfully thought-provoking images and messages.  By doing so, they demand us to take notice of things we would otherwise dismiss, neglect or assign to the fringes of our lives.  Isn’t this, in a sense, what Jesus and the Apostles did when they healed the sick in the streets and preached sermons from hilltops and parked fishing boats? 

            The street artist’s message is, in a sense: “Art is breaking in to your everyday environment” and challenging you to see the world differently”.  And, in a similar way, the message of Jesus is: “The kingdom of God is breaking in to the present age and challenging you to see the world and the meaning of your own life differently”. 

Could it be that Banksy and his contemporaries “get it” about the way the unexpected is capable of breaking in to the everyday that has somehow eluded many of our most notable church thinkers and leaders?  

See us at www.vineyardathome.com

"Bringing Church"

Christy has two daughters who regularly participate in our Vineyard at Home Foothill Ranch House Church.  She usually has to work Sundays and so has not been able to join us for our regular Sunday a.m. meetings.  However, recent circumstances allowed her to join us for about a month or so.  She even participated in the mudfest (see the previous post).

On the last Sunday before she had to return to work she made a special point of telling us how much she has felt at home and how enriching the house church had been to her and to her children.  Sadly, though, going back to her normal schedule would once again prevent her from continuing her fellowship with us on Sundays each week.

That got us to thinking: if Christy can no longer be "at church" with us, how can we "bring church" to her where she works?

Before long, we came up with an idea.  What if, in a couple of Sundays from now, we put together a visit to where Christy works?  What if we "took church" to her by packing up the kids and adults and carpooling over to the retail store she manages.  We could bring a nice array of things for a coffee break for her and her coworkers.  We could bring some handmade cards that the kids could make between now and then.  We're going to give some more thought to this and put together some things that allow everyone to participate in some way.

The message Christy will get when we "bring church" to her will also, no doubt, overflow to her coworkers.  Christ's love is mobile.  His community is not confined to a particular locale.  The Scriptures teach us that, as believers, we are the church.  Therefore, when we visit Christy, we bring "church" with us.  I can't wait to see what happens and, don't worry, we'll make sure and tell the story in a future post!

See us at www.vineyardathome.com

Welcome to Vineyard at Home

Vineyard at Home is a new blog about our house church experiences, philosophy of ministry, quirks, adventures and points of view. In it, I will be sharing not only my own insights and experiences, but also those of others who are meeting in simple church / organic church / house church modalities. Should be pretty interesting - and fun!

Vineyard at Home is the name of our house church "network" in Orange County, California. We are affiliated with the Vineyard USA which is the community of Vineyard Churches in America. However, as a house church, we are definitely breaking new ground for our movement and for ourselves. We don't mind (too much) that people don't always get why we would move away from more traditional/conventional church life to house church. Indeed, there are things we sometimes miss about the "old days" when we were a small church in Southern California meeting in a rented building and reaching out as churches in our neck of the woods do. But, after two years in house church mode, we're pretty hooked on the chance to "empower everyday people to bring the ministry of Jesus to everyday places". Oh, and you'll notice that - while we take God very seriously - we don't take ourselves too seriously at all!

We welcome comments, questions and the experiences of others who, like us, are launching out into the sometimes lonely paths of alternative church modalities. Please don't hesitate to weigh in!

So, welcome!

Bill Faris, Director and Blogger

Vineyard at Home