About Troy Bronsink

The whole process of creating this unique collection has been an exercise of practicing what I preach. I had never produced a film before and when I partnered with my friends Tim Omara with Organic Videos, Todd Fadel with Love Is Concrete, singer-songwriter Aaron Strumple, and my brother Jonathan, at Bronsink Design, I had to loosen up and let them get into playful space. We took several iterations to get a feel that we all felt comfortable with. I had to let go of my own images and perfectionism as we all were drawn more deeply into a new collaborative synergistic space.

Worship leadership is no different.

How often do you create something with your worship curators that get them involved in the theological exploration? How often do the exercises, prayers, songs, sermons in your worship gatherings involve the congregation in using their imagination, their hands, and seeing creative projects come to life? How often does the art of worship teach the ways that moving novels, portraits, and paintings can teach? How often does making church reflect the process of making our lives?

Each of the six narratives in this collection are organized into these four segments:
1. LET GO: releasing ourselves to be fully present
2. DREAM: opening our hearts to God’s will
3. LISTEN: receiving God’s comfort and provision for mission
4. LEAP: participating in the mission of God in the world

This “order of worship” is designed to reverse engineer what we want worship to “do.” We become what we practice. And so if we know that God is calling us to the body of Christ, loving and serving the world that God loves, then why not create prayer and learning environments that lead to such an outcome? If we believe that God is still speaking, then why not name space in worship for quieting our pre-conceived notions? We can more responsibly accentuate the “missional” character of the church with a flow that moves from listening to leaping.

The collection video ends with the images of painters, warehouse workers, chefs and teachers, being part of the song of praise. Hopefully this collection will give your faith community the chance to translate worship into life calling as well!

It all begins with God’s drawing love, and the rest is a process of listening and joining. Enjoy the process!

One year, preparing for Easter, I was trying to find a way to communicate about the unity of all things after the resurrection. The Forgiveness Exercise, a moment in Narrative 5, came out of this creative dilemma. I kept thinking of that conventional evangelical image of the cross lying over the canyon and thinking to myself that the resurrection is more powerful than a bridge. Resurrection rips out the old and replaces it with the new.  The resurrection holds a greater purchase on all things than a bridge, and that difference informs a different way of living.

At the same time, I was also reading an essay by Daniel Johnson describing a phenomenology of hope and the concept of “horizon experience.”  Songs like David Gray’s New Horizons, and U2’s No Line on the Horizon each brought imagery that reinforces Johnson’s article:

[A] horizon may signify an end, but not an end beyond which there is nothing. Rather it is an end beyond which there is necessarily something, something that we could very well see for ourselves if only we were somewhere other than where we are. (Daniel Johnson, “Contrary Hopes: Evangelical Christianity and the Decline Narrative” in The Future of Hope, Miroslav Volf and William Katerberg, editors, p. 30.)

And so this exercise was first invented in an effort to visualize how the resurrection functions where we are today.

In the collection God’s Grand Work of Art, we learn that the new creation inaugurated in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one that changes the vision of what is possible. We envision a path just ahead of where we are where all things are made new, where the swords of war are melted into plowshares, where forgiveness flourishes, and where terrorist and terrorized are reconciled citizens in the new creation.

This simple exercise using a plain sheet of paper asks the worshiping congregation to come to terms with the enmity and separation that we live with in front of that horizon, and to cultivate a vision to recognize and join that future horizon, forgiveness.

Curating the Clayfire collection, God’s Grand Work of Art, gave me the chance to write some new music as well as teach my own original songs and songs by others that I love.

Narrative 5 uses the St. Francis of Assisi song, “All Creatures of Our God and King.” The lines, “all you ones of tender heart, forgiving others take your part” came to life in this collection’s context of being God’s works of art. Like the trees and mountains have a part in God’s Life, so does our forgiveness!

In narrative 2 and 6, you’ll find a song by Marty Haugen, a composer of liturgical music:

Bring forth the kingdom of mercy,
bring forth the kingdom of peace.
Taste, and see the kingdom of justice,
bring forth the dreams of God

Ask your own bands to write original versions of the whole song, making it your own (but don’t forget to credit Haugen in onelicense.net if you do base your song on his).

Narrative 3 uses music by Mike Crawford of Jacob’s Well church in Kansas City.

Throughout the collection are several original songs of mine. The one I am most excited about is “Beyond Our Wildest Imaginations”:

for all people of the earth
before all nations of the earth
you’ll be like sands of the earth, making life with God

from the west to the east
from the mountains to the seas
like the galaxy’s stars will be your reach

root us here, oh Lord God
show us your heavens God
give us eyes to see and ears to hear
to follow you beyond our fears
beyond our wildest….. imaginations
make us a blessing to the nations

As my take on the “God Bless America and Iraq” bumper sticker, I wrote this song as part of a Genesis series in collaboration with the band at City Church Eastside in Atlanta, GA. I loved the challenge of writing music that reflected the tone of bands like Wilco and Blitzen Trapper that we enjoyed listening to, while also exploring the poetry of folks like Walter Brueggemann who writes, “This is how it is when we praise [God]/ We join the angels in praise, and we keep our feet in time and place… /awed to heaven, rooted in earth.”

The scandal of incarnation is that material things, the bits and pieces of art and life, become more real, local, and consequential. Hopefully the variety of music included in this collection helps you to be incarnational with your music as well.

What does it look like for God to make? How much is forced and how much is pulled? This may not seem like a big difference, but the assumptions we make about this affect our own posture of mission and our approaches to spiritual formation. Creating a narrative that would recast the all-too-familiar notions of creation and rebirth by referencing the ways rain forests birth new life out of decomposing life was a lot of fun.

In the second narrative, Bring Forth, of the God’s Grand Work of Art collection,  there is a dramatic reading of Genesis 1 and 2 and Ephesians 2. As the reading unfolds, the congregation will be watching selected footage from Planet Earth, “Jungles” (available in the US on iTunes and Amazon.com), to emphasize how creation continues to take place.

An excerpt can be seen on the Discovery Channel (with a 28-second advertisement).

Here is an excerpt of the reading:

Voice 1:
Listen as we read from the first account of the creation story and from the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Notice how many things God is “calling out” one from another. Like a Russian nest doll, one day opens to the next, which opens to the next. And like a plant that drops seeds, future skies bring forth fowl, and land brings forth animals… Like a field of mushrooms that sprouts out of nowhere, it seems, something that was not there before is suddenly possible.

Voice 2:
While we read, watch this film of the Amazon rain forest and ask yourself, “How am I that kind of seed, that kind of nesting doll? What am I to bring forth next that participates in God’s continued rhythms of creation?”

Voice 1:
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

Voice 2:
You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

Imagine being made alive through decomposition! Imagine a world designed to naturally rejuvenate, through death and rebirth.

For all the talk about missional churches and arts ministries, too few communities of faith actually get under the top layers of paint to explore the textures, lines, shades and colors of the church’s place in the world. You and I are God’s craft, created in Christ Jesus to perform and shine goodness, good working-ness.

When Clayfire commissioned this collection, I jumped at the chance to curate six narratives tracing the creative story of God and God’s world. I enlisted some friends to help record demos of original songs, to shoot a short film that traces the narrative arc of the 6 weeks, and to design original templates for projection or other supporting materials. The collection traces biblical stories of innovation, integration, sabotage, and reconciliation. Your congregation will learn new songs, bands will get some raw materials to write original arrangements, everyone will have a sketch pad to build upon from week to week, and the sermons and prayers and exercises are supported by film clips including Planet Earth and songs ranging from Ben Harper to Jónsi.

If your church has been exploring an “arts ministry” or program with artists, then this is a great chance to integrate their insights into the theology and teaching of your community. But this is not just for “artsy” churches. Anyone wanting to deepen their experiences of creation and missional theology will have fun with this too! This takes 7 years of my Church as Art consulting and writing and puts it into easy-to-implement congregational environments, practices, and conversations.

I hope you enjoy the ride, and would love to see/hear how you put it to use for the good of God’s dreams in the world!