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Hey guys!

Here are three things to spark your inner missional flame:

💥 INSPIRED BY

Art School Dilemma

When I was saved as an illustration major, my art work reflected it.

I thought that being faithful as an artist meant I had to evangelize my classmates. And that meant one thing: share the gospel through my art.

But I remember having a struggle.

While I wrestled with my own steps of faith in doing such work, some of my other Christian friends in other art departments were killing it relationally with their non-saved classmates.

I would internally smirk, thinking, “well, at least I’m being faithful!” They never seemed to share the gospel with their work.

But underneath my complaints, I felt another thing. I felt bothered that they were hitting something that I longed for: how to love their neighbors.

🛠️ EQUIPPED BY

You have to make a choice

Patrick Lencioni has some helpful insights about miserable employees. He observes three threads common to miserable jobs:

1. Irrelevance: When employees don’t feel like their work matters to someone in some way.
2. Immeasurable: When it doesn’t feel like an employee can assess daily, weekly, or monthly if they are succeeding in their work.
3. Anonymity: Feeling unknown personally and professionally in their workspace.

Many artists find themselves in this “miserable employee” situation in their churches. They watch as other gifts are summoned for usefulness. Another extrovert gets stage time. Another eloquent speaker gets to give the announcements. Another design firm hired to create the graphics. Another non-church-member-theologian’s opinion is taken at face value.

Here is my charge: If you are in a station in life where you want to feel relevant, known, and your gifts being “tapped into” in a local church, then be all in at a church that makes you feel at least one of those things.

If your church isn’t providing those three qualities for you, you have two options:

1. You could acknowledge the reality of your situation, stay, doing the work of service and trust building, and see if God opens doors for your artistic gifts.
2. Or you could acknowledge what you need in this season of life, and be all in at a local church that values your using your gifts.

In both, you must build trust. In both, you must serve.

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🚀 SENT WITH

Tom Peters