PLNU Students Worship Creatively

Renewal Week at PLNU brought unique ideas this semester by incorporating live painting during chapel and interactive art on caf lane. The team behind this is the Creative Arts Department. Led by Charlie Lyons-Pardue, Creative Arts weaves in beautiful art as an act of worship.

Lyons-Pardue said, “The act of art-making is in itself fascinating to many people and the sense of wonder and curiosity they feel can help open their spirits to a posture of wonder in the worship gathering.”

A new addition to Renewal Week this semester was the “Abide” mural that students and professors could contribute to. This was set up on caf lane on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The imagery was drawn from a passage in John 15 that anchored Stuart Williams’ message of “Abiding in Christ.”

PLNU senior Kate Erath is interning for Lyons-Pardue, and they worked together on the design for the mural.

“The goal was to create something that represented the ways we abide in God through recreational activities that the PLNU community could relate to,” Erath said.

Students on caf lane took notice of the mural and even added to it. Zoey Zoerner is a transfer sophomore at PLNU, and she said she loved seeing the mural every morning.

“I was always excited to see the new colors and items they added,” Zoerner said.

Charlie Lyons-Pardue spent the mornings encouraging students and professors walking by the mural to help paint it.

Tatum Tricarico, a PLNU sophomore, spent some time on the mural, saying it made her stop and be present with her friends.

“I got to add a part of myself to this painting along with everyone else, just like I get to add a part of myself to Loma’s community…being in relation to everyone else is a really beautiful thing,” Tricarico said.

The final product for the mural is a beautiful, colorful wall spelling out the word “Abide,” and it currently graces the chapel lobby. This art project, along with the live painting done by Lyons-Pardue during Friday’s chapel, are two creative aspects of worship unique to this semester’s Renewal Week. Both Kate Erath and Lyons-Pardue believe that incorporating forms of worship through creative arts is beneficial for the PLNU community.

“My hope is to see more visual arts used in worship, especially in Kaleo chapels,” Lyons-Pardue said. “Because worship is a posture of our lives—a giving of ourselves back to the Creator—things like being diligent in homework and, yes, even painting, can be acts of worship.”

Including creative arts in Renewal Week, Kaleo, as well as other chapel sessions, may be a captivating way to show the beautiful opportunities a community has to worship.