I believe that that was the name of the in-depth sectional that Alex and I attended at the Higher Things youth conference in Minneapolis this July.  The speaker was Pastor David Kind, who was also our liturgist for the services.  He gave an excellent presentation on art in the church, touching on the Old Testament, the New Testament/early church, and today.  One point that he made that really stood out to me was the nature of certain images used in church.  Some of the pictures we use in church are purely didactic; they depict Bible stories, for example, like the medieval church where the stained glass windows were said to serve as a kind of “lay Bible.”  Pr. Kind pointed out that in early Christian art, however, the images tended to serve quite a different purpose.  They were intended to pull you in to the reality of what you were immediately experiencing in that building.  A graphic image of the flood or of other baptismal symbols communicated the reality of dying and rising with Christ through Baptism.  The set-up of the architectural space with “thrones” around the altar, or images of the elders encircling the throne as found in Revelation, says to the church-goer:  “You are experiencing heaven on earth!  In worship, God comes down to you and you experience this amazing communion!”  I thought it was a point well made.

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