“When you embrace the arts of the community you embrace the community as well,” says Jay Smith, cultural architect for Convergence: A Creative Community of Faith.
That conviction is at the heart of Convergence, a Baptist congregation in Alexandria, Va.
The auditorium of the Taubman Museum in Roanoke will be the site of a forum on faith and the arts this month.
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Lisa Cole Smith, pastor of Convergence, said it was her calling to be both professional artist and compassionate minister that led to the birth of Convergence.
Convergence is described as a community of people who value creativity, spirituality, diversity and exploration. “We believe that imagination, creativity and the arts are spiritual matters and their cultivation is of benefit to the church, our local community, and our world,” says the church’s website.
Through collaboration with local arts organizations, artists, counselors and local churches the church provides resources of space and professional and spiritual development.
The two colleagues — who also happen to be married — will join Halifax, Va, pastor and film critic Mike Parnell for a conversation on Christian faith and the arts. The forum, hosted by the Religious Herald, is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 2 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. in the auditorium of the Tabuman Museum of Art in Roanoke.
The event, the first of what Religious Herald staff expects to be similar forums on relevant topics, will be held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
Parnell, pastor of Beth Car Baptist Church in Halifax, is a longtime film and comics reviewer for EthicsDaily.com.
Parnell believes it’s worth the effort to find Christian themes in films.
“When one sees great themes of faith on the screen, that’s a sign of the gospel coming through,” Parnell said earlier this year in a Herald story on finding Christ in popular culture. “Those images are there, but we have to train our eyes to see biblically. We have to train ourselves to see the movie through the lens of the gospel.”
Both Parnell and Lisa Cole Smith are trustees of the Herald. Smith writes a regular column on faith and the arts that appears in both the Herald’s print edition and on its web site.
The three panelists will initiate a conversation on faith and the arts both among themselves and with participants. The event is moderated by Herald executive editor Jim White.
The Taubman Museum, which opened in 1947, moved in 2008 to a new $66 million building designed by Los Angeles architect Randall Stout. It is located at 110 Salem Ave., S.E. in Roanoke, within walking distance of the Hotel Roanoke, where BGAV breakout sessions will be held at the same time.
The forum is free and open to the public. For more information contact Marty Garber at [email protected].