The Art Conference

What do you think of when you hear "art conference"? I think of someone trying to teach me to draw or paint. Maybe a new technique will be discussed. Perhaps the speaker will talk about art in history. When I think of an art conference I do not general think of humility. I would not think that the goal of the speakers would be to bless, honor, and serve the people in the audience.

Imagine with me for a moment. You hear a single guitar but its player is completely hidden from view. As you look for the musician, you notice a potters wheel on the stage. A man walks over to the wheel and starts throwing pottery. Then he speaks. He speaks about the potters house. As he forms the cup he is making, he explains how he has to form and mold it, how he is cutting away the imperfections. He explains how when he is done he will put the cup on a shelf and he will leave it there until it is bone dry. If I were the cup, I would feel forgotten and abandoned. Oh how I would long for the days when I could feel the potters hand. How I would yearn for just a little water. I would question if the potter would ever return to me. But, the potter knows better than I, the cup. The potter knows that if there is any moisture in me when I am put into the kiln, I will be ruined. He explains how he never forgot about the cup and he is eagerly waiting for when he can use it. First it must be fired. In the fire the makeup of the cup changes and it is never the same. It can be filled over and over again. This is the first night of the art conference.


Here Artist were honored. Artist were envisioned. I will be the first to admit that this was not at all what I expected. I did not expect that a drama team would travel numerous hours with small children so they could speak freedom from comparison over a room full of hurting artist. I did not expect that one of the key note speakers would validate the unknown artist in the room and give them places of honor. I did not expect that one of the other speakers would stay at least four hours after the doors were locked every night to pray over people. I did not expect that the people we were honoring would humble themselves just so they could lift up the heads of others. This was unlike any other conference I have been to. This was an upside down conference for an upside down Kingdom.