On stage the final day for after the big reveal with all four pillars regathered from around the world and the "fifth" pillar (we affectionally call it) of the Harvest beside it.
Alexis and I sharing the moment of the unveiling...
At long last, Alexis Newsom and I joined the Lausanne president Dr Michael Oh on stage at the very end of the L4 Congress to reveal the 50th anniversary painting “The Harvest” as a capstone moment to prophetically usher us in to the next season of the gospel going into all the world. Our presentation followed Rick Warren’s admonition and he kindly encouraged us back stage, and the unveiling was followed by the Getty family leading worship and a communion service lead by church leaders from the historic enemy countries of Japan and Korea.
Rick Warren gave an amazing exhortation just before Dr. Michael Oh gave the closing message and lead into the unveiling of the painting.
The Getty family leading worship
VR live artist and dear brother in Christ Phil Bezalel lead a visualization of God's presence redeeming the whole earth.
Upper lefthand corner detail of "Pillar 4" from the Lausanne Movement. I had finished painting this and unveiled it back in 2019 at the last large gathering of Lausanne in Manila during the Global Workplace Forum. What an amazing "God Wink" to have the LAST element I paint in the previous painting be the prophetic exclamation point showcasing God's anointing at the unveiling of the 50th!
It was beautiful! Michael ended his address with a poem about beauty and honeybees as the visual metaphor, and I had chills up my spine as he introduced the two of us, we dramatically unveiled the painting, and immediately went off script as I began to laugh, exclaiming that in the Lausanne pillar painting four, the very last one we finished five years ago, the final element I added to the work was a honeybee pollinating The essence of the Kingdom of God into every sphere of society.
John Stott and Billy Graham signing the Lausanne Covenant in 1974 and the Songdo Convention Center in S. Korea over their shoulder where we were actually meeting during the unveiling 50 years later to the day in 2024.
This painting is about time, from creation to the wedding feast… and we were literally IN the moment of the painting as the final imagery embedded in the harvest wheat was of Billy Graham, John Stott, and the Songdo convention center where we were physically standing in time for the unveiling- within the entire sweep of the eternal biblical Metanarrative.
5400+ participants from 200+ countries gathered in one room as the Global Bride made visible!
The live, collaborative artwork that Alexis and I had completed over the course of the week was spread out all across the front of the stage, the four pillars of the Lausanne movement paintings were gathered back from the four corners of the earth, and put on display together, now joined with this “fifth pillar“ of the harvest. May the Lord catalyze this movement of Kingdom hearted believers, and in great collaboration and coordination send us into our divided and digitalized world to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone: the whole church bringing the whole gospel to the whole world!
The view from back (under) the stage just before we walked up for the unveiling...
Since I first heard of this 50th anniversary event of the Lausanne Movement, I’ve deeply desired to produce an image to capture the scope of time and the scale of “the whole church bringing the whole gospel to the whole world” (and perhaps I’d add… “To the whole timeline of history: past, present, and future”). I remember being on a drive with Leighton Ford to an art opening (I was his chauffeur that night) and as I shared about the meeting in Seoul, Korea, my heart was on fire with a vision to go and to somehow prophetically visualize the moment in time amidst the sweep of all that has unfolded in the global church.
The evening that the families of Lexie and I first met over dinner, we prayerfully imagined working TOGETHER on a 50th anniversary work, and I sent her home that night with the canvas I’d built for the work so she could lay the base layers in her expressive, prophetic, and abstract style. The work is symbolically the same size as the other Four Pillar Paintings of the Lausanne Movement, yet now is turned on its side to show the sweep of time, or the table for the wedding feast… or some other unforeseen metaphor of “same but different”.
A famous Russian Icon of Abraham Sacrificing Isaac to hold the 2000 B.C.E. placeholder in the Biblical Metanarrative.
How do you paint time? Is it possible for an artist to capture a vision of this moment in the full time and space continuum of humanity’s meta-narrative? My desire in this anniversary painting has been to honor the 10 years I’ve served the Lausanne Movement as an artist, the 50 years since it was founded, the 500 years since the Reformation, the 2000 years since the cross, the 4000 years since our father Abraham… and the infinite before and after: the entire Harvest that will be gathered at the end of time! Sound a little overwhelming? It was.
The Harvester is the main figure, where the Fisherman (Pillar 1), the Bride of Christ (Pillar 2 & 4 and now here again), the Good Shepherd (Pillar 3), and the King (Pillar 4) comprise the main imagery of the four pillars of Lausanne.
Winslow Homer's "The Veteran in a New Field". One of my artistic heroes and major inspirations... and I am now tributing and appropriating his visually legacy to tell the story of time as an artist who has inherited his visual vocabulary.
Until the last 500 years, most believers came to understand their faith through BOTH the written/spoken word as well as artwork. It was the layman’s Bible. In this tribute painting of time, I chose to tell the story through Art Historical reference, intentionally recreating the biblical narrative through artwork from as many diverse regions and artistic traditions throughout the world as possible, as it is one of humankind’s deepest and most universal impulses to express their divine connection visually. Artwork has ever been the meeting place of history, spirituality, emotions, politics, imagination, and power, and what better way for me, an artistic heir of every work that has come before me, to tell the story of God’s time through the language of art history.
The "harvest" is full of visual art historical reference from the sweep of Biblical history to the world cultures of many heritages and traditions (representing ALL of the global artistic languages). In addition to Winslow Homers "The Veteran in a New Field" done following the Civil War in 1865, from left to right: Michelangelo's Adam and Eve (1508-12) symbolizing earliest know human history , The Cave of Lascaux 16,000-14,000 BCE, Running Horned Woman- Algeria 6000-4000 BCE, Russian Icon of Abraham Sacrificing Isaac - historically near 2000 BCE, stone tablets of Moses representing circa 1500 BCE, Olmec Stone head of Middle America circa 1000 BCE, Bernini's "David" representing circa 1000 BCE, Terra Cotta Warriors- China 210 BCE, Egyptian Coptic Cross representing the life, death, and resurrection of Christ circa 27CE (best known adjusted time from modern research), Buddha from India carved early centuries CE, Emperor and Empress Justinian and Theodora of the Byzantine Empire 500CE, Bayeux Tapestry circa 1066 CE Normandy/ England , Easter Island Moai circa 1200 CE, Martin Luther representing 1512 CE, Billy Graham and John Stott in 1974 with the Lausanne Covenant, Songdo Convention Center, Incheon Korea 2024, and the wedding feast of our Lord in the future Kingdom Come!
A photo from my trip this June to see Bernini's "David" in the Borghese Gallery in Italy. A representation of this images is just to the left of the harvester as the 1000 B.C.E. placeholder of the Biblical Narrative of time.
The Bride of Christ is radiant in her glory, looking with joy upon a laughing Jesus wreathed in the glory of galleries. Her dress is made of the white of the harvest floating up among her... or is it the outnumbered stars in the sky of Father Abraham's promised future offspring? This is the fulfillment and culmination of all things that followers of Christ are looking ahead and setting our course to follow. It is our guiding Morning Star.