Expressing Worship Through Art

From the Archives: 2010

Written by Ben Wesemann

I was born during my father’s time in seminary and I grew up in a church environment. My parents are loving and faithful believers. I don’t remember not loving the Lord. But over the past few years, I’ve learned that there is a difference between believing in Him and having a deep relationship with Him.

I grew up attending private Lutheran schools. I truly enjoyed it while I was there. Whether it was Sunday School classes in church or theology classes in school, I enjoyed learning and growing, I was very proud that my dad was my pastor.

A turning point in my approach to the Lord came during my freshman year of high school when I went on my first mission trip to Belle Glade, Florida. We had just moved to a new church, and I was learning new styles of worship. It was a time of stretching and learning for me. This mission trip is when I first realized that God wanted a relationship with me, not just for me to believe in Him. I knew He was real, but I finally felt that He was alive.

While on this trip, we did construction, working in soup kitchens, prayer walking, and worship. It was so challenging and rewarding to stay in a worshipful and serving mindset during the entire week with a group of people. I came home looking at everything in a new light. The experience gave me a heart for missions and serving. When I’m serving, I can really feel the Lord in way that is different than studying about Him.

Another thing that draws me close to God is my art. I graduated from Appalachian State University in 2009 with a BFA degree in Studio Art, where I double concentrated in Painting and Sculpture. And although I’ve always grown up doing art, it wasn’t until recently that I embraced the idea of using my hands to honor the Lord.

App State was the first school that I went to that wasn’t a Christian school. I grew up sheltered, so it was difficult to find a way to be open and honest about my beliefs in the secular world. I wasn’t used to that. I tried to disguise everything. I moved into a world of creating art that was very abstract. And I was too timid to go into detail about it with people. And as I did more research, I found out that in the art community in our society, there is a term called “Christian art,” that is considered a lower form of art. It is in its own category that isn’t respected as much. This made me shy away from expressing my faith in my art because I wanted to be in the “art world”.

Eventually, I realized that my fear was silly. I didn’t need to be ashamed of my faith that influenced my art. I realized that I was willing to go overseas for missions, but was afraid to talk to people about the Lord in the midst of the art community. I ended up doing my Senior Show with a major focus on the Lord. It was very liberating for me.

Soon after graduating, my pastor here in Boone asked me to paint in a Sunday morning church setting. This was a significant challenge for me; something I didn’t feel I was ready for. But when I finally did it, something new clicked in my heart. It has led to a new way to feel the presence of the Lord and a new way for me to worship Him. On that Sunday morning, the more I painted for Him, the freer I became.

And ever since that morning, I view all of my art as a form of worship. It has freed me to see that we use gifts that He gives us by giving those gifts back to Him. We can all use our hands to honor the Lord. We each have our skills, passions, and hobbies that we can use to worship Him.