By Jeff Brumley
Ryan Walker and Dan ABH both spend a lot of time at Convergence, the hybrid arts initiative and church in suburban Washington.
Walker, 35, a professional musician raised by parents deeply involved in Baptist life, hangs out mostly on the church side of Convergence but regularly interacts with the artists and patrons who show up for musical performances, plays and art exhibits.
“Convergence has gotten me excited about the notion of what it means to minister to that community,” says Walker, of Falls Church, Va. “I don’t think people are [evangelism] projects, but I know a lot of people are unchurched and have situations that are spurring them to ask questions.”
Dan ABH — his professional, artistic name — couldn’t be more different. The 31-year-old considers himself spiritual (thanks to Convergence) but certainly not Baptist or even Christian.
“I am not a member of the congregation but I am there to support them and I also volunteer with some of the events that the church side does,” he says, explaining his current position with the title lab of all ages coordinator. “I’m on the arts initiative side.”
While each man represents the various demographics drawn to the Baptist-affiliated community in Alexandria, Va., they say it would be a mistake to assume Convergence is a house divided.
“It’s not segregated,” Dan ABH says. “Some are coming for the arts or for church and there are some that go to both.”
Merging the arts and religion
It’s that “go to both” idea which inspires the imagination of pastor and artistic director Lisa Cole Smith.
She grew up going to Baptist churches and immersed in the arts. She found a way to weld the two together by becoming an actor, director and pastor.
But she wondered if a single community could embrace both art and religion. Would it be possible for an organization to be missional in both directions — where each side served the other in meaningful, relevant ways?
She felt it had to be possible.
“My desire was to connect these two. I felt I was at the intersection of two worlds, and both informed one another.”
‘They’re not all hipsters’
The smart money may not have been on the venture. In the United States, at least, art and Christianity have often been at odds, with each side viewing the other as a threat.
But as she worked her way through seminary, Smith said she saw ever more clearly that the two camps often are wrestling with “big, existential questions.”
“Many in the arts are asking the same questions as people of faith,” she says.
That led to her launching Convergence in 2006.
Its arts offerings include performance and display spaces for musicians, actors and visual artists. That’s why half of Smith’s title includes “artistic director” and why performers, artists and other community members with no ties to the organization are at home in Convergence spaces.
But then there’s the congregation, too — which gives Smith the “pastor” part of her title. She performs weddings, funerals and baptisms and offers pastoral care.
“We operate like a normal church in all of those things,” Smith says, adding that Convergence cooperates with local, state and national Baptist organizations, including the Baptist General Association of Virginia and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
But its makeup is diverse. Seekers, Baptists from traditional backgrounds, refugees from various denominations and all ages are represented.
“They’re not all hipsters,” Smith says. “They’re people in their 50s and 60s, administrators and accountants and stuff like that.”
‘A different kind of evangelism’
What they share is a passion for church with cultural and spiritual depth.
“The people who found us, especially in the beginning, are attracted to something that’s not the same old thing,” Smith says.
They’re also attracted to the belief that a church is to benefit not just itself but also its community.
“Our model is very missional and outward focused. We’ve equipped our congregation to be outwardly focused missionaries.”
It explains the dedication of so much time and performance space to outside groups.
“The artist initiative is about earning trust and creating space where the congregation is able to share its faith or to be present and available” when they’re needed, Smith says.
But it’s a two-way missional movement, one in which members of the church are nurtured by those who come for and provide art.
“It’s a different kind of evangelism.”
Walker can testify to that.
“I grew up in some bigger, more conservative, mainline Baptist churches,” he says. “Convergence is Baptist … and much smaller — and I like that about it.”
But he also sees Convergence as more biblical in the way it interacts with the artistic community.
“We’re thinking about what it would mean to be a church free from the traditions of the past couple of centuries,” he says.
That in turn has equipped him to share his faith when appropriate.
“Convergence has made me more comfortable with an evangelism that is much more accessible and more like the early church in Acts.”
While that’s not how Dan ABH would describe Convergence, he agrees its focus is on helping others.
“They aren’t just about developing artists and people in the congregation, they are about developing people — and that’s what they did for me,” he says.
The Christian side of Convergence was originally a concern for him. While he didn’t have a church background himself, he knew plenty of musicians who had been hurt by religion.
It was a relief to learn that the arts initiatives at Convergence are not veiled efforts to evangelize people.
“We are not trying to convert anyone,” Dan ABH says.
But that fact has had a strong spiritual impact on him, he adds. “Right now, I’m still on that journey — and I’m a lot closer now than ever before.”
Smith says those kinds of conversations are possible by being authentic and not drawing artificial lines between art and faith.
“That line is really pretty fuzzy” at Convergence, she says.