Touchdown Jesus Touched By a Fire Angel...or just fire.

So the latest WWE-style wrestling match I've been having with both God and the rest of the world or some brothers and sisters in the faith. It's all got to do with Touchdown Jesus, the big old goofy statue by the side of I-75 north of Cincinnati. It burned down recently and now we don't really have anything to poke fun at when we drive up to Dayton or beyond, as the case may be.

This has been an interesting issue to consider, though. The gut reaction to the thing when you drove by was to laugh at it. "It's good!" Here's another country megachurch full of rich people that have no idea what they're doing and they just wanted to spend money so they built a goofy statue. Then when you heard it burned, the gut reaction was, "It's finally out of its misery! But now it's no fun to drive by anymore... *sigh*"

That's when it struck me. What if the people of Solid Rock church thought that was good art but didn't know any better? I mean sure, at Sojourn, we think we're making good art all the time because most of us went to college, studied art, we think we're cool, and think our work's a shoo-in for God's acceptance. But compared to what we'll do in Heaven, does our stuff even come close? Like we think our stuff is close to the mark and Solid Rock's isn't, but how are we to know it's not the other way around or if there's any difference?

A friend of mine, who is the graphic designer at another megachurch about an hour north on I-75, said the statue kind of aggravated him because the church spent a quarter of a million dollars on a statue instead of helping the people around Monroe, Ohio. That's an incredibly valid point, but what he said was word-for-word what the disciples said when the woman poured the rich perfume on Jesus. And Jesus rebuked them for rebuking her. But he did it on the grounds that she was getting him ready for burial and that they'd always have the poor, but not him. On the other hand, though, it was still pointless for her to use the perfume because even though he was going to die, he wasn't going to stay dead. So I'm not sure if this passage applies to Touchdown Jesus or not. But I'm going back to the idea comparing the world's idea of good art to God's.

The church, in an interview, said that the statue was supposed to be a beacon of hope for people, not a way to impress people. If that's true, then that's definitely not what a lot of people got from it. Or if they did, we're not really hearing from them because they're probably not this tech-savvy. But was it wrong to build? Yes and no. Just because it was flawed and an epic fail at communication, I think if it was still an honest expression of love for God, he would've been pleased with it just as much as the work we do at Sojourn.

The graphic designer friend said he'd been to Solid Rock before and they were a Pentecostal church and didn't have much of a missional focus. He felt that didn't really give them the right to build a big-ass statue of any kind for that amount of money. Personally, I'm not sure what I think of that. It depends on what kind of light the anointing at Bethany is supposed to shed on this issue. But it definitely wouldn't be wrong of them to take up more of a missional mindset in addition to building big-ass statues.

The point I want to make, though, is that I really feel convicted for scoffing at Touchdown Jesus...maybe it's me wanting to have respect for the dead. I don't know what those people know or don't know about art. It sort of looks like they don't know much, since not many people saw it as a beacon of hope, like they'd hoped. Also, as an artist myself, I know how hard it is to create work that's relevant and effective at communicating. I'm kind of new to it myself. I'm sure if I were to throw everything I had into creating the best possible piece of art I could create, it'd still be a piece of shit in someone's eyes and maybe even mine in a few years. God would still love it, though, because it was worship nonetheless. Bad worship is better than none at all and maybe even better than no action at all, including not doing anything missional.

With that in mind, I'm glad Solid Rock's going to rebuild. What I'd like to see, though, is that they really try to articulate the statement they're trying to make with it and make sure the new one will effectively communicate what they want. It'd also be nice if they didn't pay so much for it or maybe tried to spend as much on outreach or ministry. Also, it'd be cool if they got as many members of the congregation to help rebuild it, each of them adding their own touch to it and helping in the creation process. On top of that, it'd be cool if other churches donated some money to help them not just rebuild it, but to help their outreach ministries within the community. Also, it'd be cool if churches like Sojourn (and there aren't many) were to reach out and help Solid Rock learn how to express itself effectively and create some quality art that inspires thought, not ridicule.