“Created to Create” Interview with Lisa Smith

Through the arts, local congregation invests in Alexandria’s public life and culture.

By Dan Brendel/Gazette Packet

Lisa Smith pastors Convergence Church, an arts-centered congregation in Alexandria. This is the fourth of an ongoing series of interviews with local religious leaders about religion in the public square. In 2006, then-Fair-Park Baptist Church invited Smith, who’s formally trained in theater, to suggest how the church might “restart” itself in a changed demographic context. Based on her life experience as a Christian artist, she wanted to help bridge the contemporary worlds of faith and the arts. Convergence’s worship services incorporate interactive artistic practices, like playacting biblical narratives and contemplative prayer singing. The church also supports local artistic entrepreneurship by providing low-cost space for exhibits, theater, and sound recording, as well as a variety of community-oriented programming.

#How do you define art, what do you include in that term?

#Smith: The number of people who are either creative in some way, or just like being around that, or are interested in living their lives in a more artistic or creative way — that’s a lot of people. … An artist is somebody who spends intentional time to develop craft … Art is about meaning-making; I think it’s one of the best forms for exploring those deep existential questions … Within our congregation, there’s … an engineer, and we were looking at … this “rain room,” where it’s raining all the time except when you step in it, it stops raining wherever you are. … It’s designed by these engineers … And for him, he was like, “Yeah! Engineers can be artistic as well!” I think on the very broad spectrum, a lot of people are maybe disconnected from that part of themselves.

#What would you say is the role of art in the purpose that God intends for humankind and for human society? A statement on your website, which sounds like it gets at this question, says that you want to help people “become imaginative visionaries, prophetic critics and culture creators.” …

Click Here to read the rest of the interview at the Alexandria Gazette Packet…