In worship, the church embodies an organized community of believers expressing their devotion to a caring God through the shared language and symbolism of the liturgy. The nature of this structured community is ultimately reflected in its cultural creations. Elements such as architecture, art, liturgical actions, rituals, and music, not only provide insight into the community behind them but also have the potential to enrich and deepen the worship experience.[1] However, despite the church’s historical connection to the arts, it has often approached them with suspicion. Iconoclasm has repeatedly disrupted the relationship between art and the Christian faith community. For example, since breaking with Catholicism, many Reformation traditions, such as Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist (including many Korean and immigrant churches), have downplayed the visual arts and favored the written word over visual imagery.[2] However, in more recent times, many plain, undecorated Reformation-influenced meeting houses with simple services have been transformed into modern mega-churches adorned with floral arrangements, banners, and stage props. This shift raises important questions about the role of the arts in contemporary Protestant worship.[3]

In today’s image-oriented world, it is important that Christians find effective ways of conveying their beliefs through the visual arts. When integrated with the Word and liturgy, a well-crafted work of art can add profound insight to, and enhance the overall worship experience.[4]

Beyond Spoken Words

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, held a deep appreciation for the rich tradition of Christian iconography, and asserted that the Gospel message is effectively communicated not only through spoken words, but also through visual images:

Artists in every age have offered the principal facts of the mystery of salvation to the contemplation and wonder of believers by presenting them in the splendour of colour and in the perfection of beauty. It is an indication of how today more than ever, in a culture of images, a sacred image can express much more than what can be said in words, and be an extremely effective and dynamic way of communicating the Gospel message.[5]

Ratzinger highlights the profound role images and visual symbols have in surpassing the limits of verbal expression in conveying God’s message. This perspective is mirrored in the experiences of Asian American churches, where cultural and generational differences present unique challenges and opportunities in worship. For example, as a visiting scholar at Calvin Institute of Christian Worship (CICW) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Kai Ton Chau frequently engages with worship leaders at Chinese American churches to discuss their congregational strengths and weaknesses.[6] In a recent discussion, he noted that Chinese people often emphasize intellectual aspects of faith, resulting in worship services that heavily rely on verbal communication—scripture reading, songs, sermons, and benedictions. This focus on words can create barriers, especially given the generational and cultural gaps within communities. Most Chinese born in the U.S. prefer English, while Mandarin and Cantonese speakers use different written characters, requiring interpretation or translation in worship services.[7] Chau suggests incorporating more bodily movement into liturgical practices to help bridge these gaps. He explains: “Chinese Americans mostly sit through the services. Occasionally we stand for a hymn or benediction or move out of our seats for the offering or communion. Making body movements a part of our liturgical practices would let us rely less on language…this could include using rhythm and instrumental music, liturgical dance, and visual art.”[8] Chau particularly highlights the potential of visual art in worship, noting that many Chinese evangelical churches do not use banners and visual art. “The worship space is very bare. We tend to pay attention to functionality of the space rather than liturgical or worship implications. Many of our PowerPoint slides are text based as well.” He believes an intentional study aimed at introducing visual art as part of worship is warranted.[9] In fact, the situation Chau describes in Chinese American churches is also common in contemporary Korean immigrant churches. Here it is helpful to note that Lisa DeBoer, an art professor at Westmont College, argues that art in worship can shape identity, define space, interpret sacraments, guide movement, signify time, and anchor memories.[10] In the Christian tradition, particularly in Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, visual arts have long been used to communicate doctrine, share stories, and create a welcoming atmosphere for worship.[11] Over the centuries, the churches and numerous artists have striven to convey the Bible and its teachings visually. From the third century, Christian art flourished, as believers sought to represent the intangible aspects of God through tangible imagery.[12] The focus was not on direct portraiture, but on creating images that could stir the mind, heart, and soul, thus invigorating people’s faith. For many centuries, this pursuit of insight was considered of paramount importance, with the Church becoming the primary patron of the arts.[13]

As a Protestant pastor, I was recently struck by the use of art at Christ Church, an Episcopal parish located in the heart of downtown New Haven, adjacent to Yale University.[14] From its stunning architecture to the statues, decorative altar and vestments, this church is awe-inspiring. The experience enhanced my awareness of the sacramental worldview, in which the church is more than just a place to hear the Word of God, but becomes a space to see God through various forms—whether images or symbols—and recognize His transcendence. A strong emphasis on visual elements and sacred objects, such as religious icons, murals, and liturgical furnishings, all deepen a sense of the divine presence. This realization resonates with the idea that in art, “we create through God, and participate, then, in the sustaining, renewing, and recreative activity of God the creator, redeemer, sustainer.”[15] When artists capture something of the way “God does things,” whether they are Christians or not, we are challenged to see the world, and even God’s presence therein, in ways that we have not done before.[16] Art therefore becomes a way of engaging with the materiality of the world in such a way that it illuminates a way of knowing as well as doing.[17] This connection between art and the divine transforms the church into a living gallery where faith and creativity intertwine to reveal deeper spiritual truths.

We need the visions presented through images, visual art, and symbols. In his classic work, Art in Action: Toward a Christian Aesthetic, Nicholas Wolterstorff encourages Christians to move beyond the narrow confines of high art and thoughtfully reconsider the role of art in church liturgy.[18] He suggests viewing art as both an instrument and object of action, explaining that worship liturgy is a dialogue between God and the congregation, and that art plays a crucial role in facilitating this interaction.[19] In fact, the words of a text alone cannot fully convey its meaning. Language is built from syntax and grammar, and yet ideas often come to us as images.[20]  Similarly, elements of visual art—light, color, line, shape, and texture—combine to create something far more significant than a simple picture. Just as our senses of sound, smell, taste, and touch communicate directly and powerfully, helping us discover, learn, remember, and recall our experiences, so too visual art profoundly enhances our understanding of, and engagement in worship.[21] In this regard, Robert Webber points out that Presbyterian worship often lacks sensory experiences that engage more than just the mind. Consequently, worship in Presbyterian churches can sometimes be perceived as simplistic and one-dimensional.[22] Thus, if worship is aimed at helping us discover or experience something beyond the ordinary, it must incorporate the arts.[23]

Visual Art for Faith Communities

Nancy Chinn is a multimedia artist known for her paintings and her creation of large seasonal and site-specific installations for liturgical spaces.[24] Her most famous artwork, “Tongues of Fire,” is an ephemeral liturgical installation created to celebrate Pentecost, the Christian festival marking the Holy Spirit’s descent on the disciples following Jesus’ ascension. The design at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, shown below, symbolizes the movement of the Spirit and reflects the fifty days between Easter and Pentecost Sunday.[25]

Figure 1. Tongues of Fire

Figure 2. Tongues of Fire

Chinn explains, “The work is composed of fifty painted nylon net strips, individually hung. The work moves, each element gently rocking in air currents, creating a sense of ebb and flow. The movement is almost imperceptible, subtle but significant. The work evokes without being literal.”[26] Through this visual representation, the congregation can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit descending. The gentle movement of the strips evokes the Spirit’s activity, even in silence. Although they are merely nylon net strips, the artist’s meaningful design transforms them, offering the congregation a new understanding. Congregants feel as if they are in the place of Pentecost. This artwork brings depth, wonder, and mystery to the church, moving the heart, spirit, and emotions, and providing new insights into, and testimonies to God’s creative power still at work. Chinn says, “Our work is not so much to make the Holy visible as it is to proclaim that the Holy is present.”[27]

Furthermore, Chinn’s work demonstrates how an artist can design fabrics for a worship space and involve the congregation in their creation, thereby building a sense of community within the church.[28] For instance, while working on a commission for St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis, Chinn invited members to pray about a specific personal relationship. As part of a ten-week program on relationships at the Cathedral, each congregation member received a strip of fabric with which to visually represent their prayer through sewing, collage, painting, or writing. Participants of all ages and backgrounds, including those served by the Cathedral’s outreach programs, were encouraged to take part.[29] For the remainder of the program, the topic of relationships was incorporated into weekly preaching and formation activities. With the congregation’s help, Chinn then wove the individual pieces together to create a canopy large enough to span the length of the Cathedral. The context for the artwork came alive in liturgy. “The pastoral team organized a wonderful service of music and readings,” says Chinn, describing the effect as “a canopy that sheltered all, that connected and covered all in the church and symbolically all the world.”[30] The prayer canopy at St. Mark’s Cathedral, shown below, invites all who experienced it to place their own relationships in a broader context, encouraging participants to see their relationships as part of a whole.[31]

Figure 3. Prayers of the People

Figure 4. Prayers of the People

Nancy Chinn’s philosophy centers on using inexpensive, humble materials to create beautiful, temporary art installations with the congregation’s involvement.[32] She believes that everyone can participate in making visual art and highlights the importance of collaboration, acknowledging that most of her work could not be accomplished alone.[33] She works with assistants and volunteers, fostering a sense of community and joy in the process: “What ends up happening is that we have a perfect time together, and we make art.”[34] By engaging the congregation in the creative process, Chinn not only enhances the beauty of worship spaces but also strengthens the bonds within the faith community, making the experience of creating art a shared spiritual journey.

Conclusion

The visual arts can capture human agonies and joys and bear witness to divine love and grace in ways that words cannot.[35] Just as Jesus used simple objects and images to teach, we can share the same gospel using common items to inspire our visually-oriented, contemporary audiences. Like Jesus, the church incorporates elements of the earth into its worship: clay, oil, water, wine, bread, and more. Early Christian symbols, such as the cross and the fish, are seen everywhere. These symbols convey the earliest creeds in their simplest forms, lines, and arcs. The cross silently declares, “Christ is risen, indeed!” while the fish proclaims, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior!” These visual representations express our faith and enhance the gospel message, often communicating more clearly and universally than words. They create symbols and metaphors that invite us to reflect on the meaning of faith and life.[36] Liturgy, similarly, is a combination of word and event, word and narrative, and word and imagination. If confined to words alone, never broken open or visualized, liturgy can be heard and spoken but remains unseen. Such an imageless liturgy is less evocative, less engaging for the young, and less real. Placing liturgy in its aesthetic, biblical, and often narrative context maximizes its impact and enhances its memorability. Here the preacher becomes a teacher, an interpreter, and once again, an artist.[37]

Chinn eloquently describes the power of art in worship, stating:

Great art for worship lies somewhere between these extremes on the continuum of form and content. It has an edge to it, which means often that it is more enigmatic than predictable. It functions more as a metaphor than as literal truth. It can make us uncomfortable with its multiple meanings, especially if we are in a community that values a uniform or predictable theology. Its main purpose is not to decorate or to please. Its appropriateness for worship is in the fact that its meaning cannot be contained in either form or content, but shimmers between both. Often it participates in creating its own meaning, rather than telling us about something. And its primary function is to serve the liturgy, to make it come alive in a new way.[38]

This perspective emphasizes that art in worship serves to draw us beyond our comfortable assumptions about life and faith, prompting new insights. For these reasons, the church must recognize the need for an ongoing, active relationship with the visual arts. By continuing to create and endorse the arts, the church opens itself to knowing and celebrating God more completely, authentically, and wholeheartedly.

We are all called to be co-creators, engaging in the process of art, bringing what we have, just as we sing God’s praises, feed and clothe God’s children, and minister to those in need. Participating in the creation of art can meet unspoken or unrecognized needs, truly opening someone to the presence of God. By involving the congregation in the creative process, we not only enhance the beauty of worship spaces but also strengthen the bonds within the faith community, making the experience of creating art a shared spiritual journey. Thus, the visual arts in worship serve not just as decoration, but as a vital means of engaging the entire being—mind, body, and spirit. They enrich our understanding and experience of faith, making liturgy come alive in new and profound ways.

Sewon Jang

Paikwang Church

[1] See Kenneth Schmidt, “The Silent Witness: The Visual Arts in the Service of the Church,” Issues in Christian Education 40, no. 2 (Fall 2006): 17-21.

[2] See Edward Farley, Faith and Beauty: A Theological Aesthetic (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2001), 8, 68; Richard A. Jensen, “Thinking in Picture,” A Journal of Theology Dialog 43, no. 4 (8 November 2004): 298-99. See also Clifford Davidson and Ann Eljenholm Nichols, eds., Iconoclasm vs. Art and Drama (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1989); Alain Besançon, The Forbidden Image: An Intellectual History of Iconoclasm (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000).

[3] Robin M. Jensen, “The Arts in Protestant Worship,” Theology Today 58, no. 3 (October 1, 2001): 360. See also Janet R. Walton, Art and Worship: A Vital Connection (Collegeville, MN: Michael Glazier Books, 1991), 68-69; William A. Dyrness, Visual Faith: Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001), 21.

[4] Schmidt, “The Silent Witness: The Visual Arts in the Service of the Church,” 20.

[5] Joseph Ratzinger, “Introduction,” in Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2005), 17.

[6] See Joan Huyser-Honig, “Nonverbal Worship Practices that Bridge Differences,” Calvin Institute of Christian Worship for the Study and Renewal of Worship, October 9, 2015, accessed May 10, 2024, https://worship.calvin.edu/resources/resource-library/nonverbal-worship-practices-that-bridge-differences/.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10] See Lisa J. DeBoer, Visual Arts in the Worshiping Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016), 80-121.

[11] Ruth C. Duck, Worship for the Whole People of God: Vital Worship for the 21st Century (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013), 90.

[12] See Angela M. McCarthy, “Integration of Visual Art for Small Worshipping Communities,” Australian Journal of Liturgy 12, no. 4 (2011): 197.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Christ Church, New Haven, “Who We Are,” https://www.christchurchnh.org/aboutus.

[15] See Dyrness, Visual Faith: Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue, 99.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Nicholas Wolterstorff, Art in Action: Toward a Christian Aesthetic (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1987), 183-191.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Jensen, “The Arts in Protestant Worship,” 364.

[21] Ibid., 365. See also Nancy Chinn, Spaces for Spirit: Adorning the Church (Chicago, IL: Liturgy Training Publications, 1998), 22.

[22] Robert E. Webber, Worship Old and New: A Biblical Historical Introduction (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1982), 81.

[23] Jensen, “The Arts in Protestant Worship,” 365.

[24] For more detail, see Luther College Fine Arts Collection, “Nancy Chinn,” accessed May 1, 2024, https://fac.luther.edu/index.php/Detail/entities/1073.

[25] Pattie Pace, “Creating Art for the Spirit,” Lewis & Clark, accessed May 1, 2024, https://www.lclark.edu/live/news/4322-creating-art-for-the-spirit.

[26] Chinn, Spaces for Spirit, 31.

[27] Ibid., 35.

[28] Ibid., 7-8, 12, 32. See also Duck, Worship for the Whole People of God, 90. Ruth Duck also mentions Chinn’s work in her book.

[29] Chinn, Spaces for Spirit, 15-17.

[30] Ibid., 16.

[31] Ibid.

[32] Vickilyn Hussey, “Scottsdale Church Unveiling Art Installation,” in azcentral.com, April 1, 2015, accessed May 2, 2024, https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/scottsdale/2015/04/01/scottsdale-church-art-installation-cbt/70774990/.

[33] Chinn, Spaces for Spirit, 4-8.

[34] Ibid., 35.

[35] Duck, Worship for the Whole People of God, 90. See also Dyrness, Visual Faith: Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue, 9.

[36] Ibid.

[37] See Paul Grime and Dean Nadasdy, eds., Liturgical Preaching: Contemporary Essays (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2001), 199.

[38] Chinn, Spaces for Spirit, 40.

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