Well, of all things!

Hey Folks:

As some of my faithful (few) readers know, Jess and I are plotting a big move to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In June I will begin working as the Associate Pastor for Community Mennonite Church of Lancaster. Obviously, this means many changes for us, although we have some time to get the work done. Meanwhile, I will begin doing some traveling back and forth to do some preliminary work with the church before our move.

For those of you who know me well, the idea of me being a pastor is not exactly a shocking turn of events in my life. It seems to flow out of my experiences lately of striving to figure out how my faith and my work as an artist intersect, and what they say to each other. The job I will be starting seems especially fitting; the congregation includes many artists and people who already look to art and art-making to help shape their spiritual lives (not least of whom, Jess' high school art teacher and a family friend who used to shoot beautiful photographs of Jess' family when she was a toddler).

For those of you who read my blog to follow my fledgling career as an artist (and I cannot believe there are too many of you), don't worry, I will not stop making art or keeping you in the loop about what I'm up to.

What does this mean for my life/role as a blogger? How strange, I never really thought of myself as a blogger. Nonetheless, the tagline of Chadthepotter does say that I write about spirituality, among other things. I suppose this all means I might more often treat this place as a venue for pondering questions and ideas about faith and theology. I'll be spending considerably more of my time thinking about the church, so I imagine that will spill over to this venue.

I guess for some artists, talk of religion is frightful stuff. Likewise, for some Christians, art congures images of -- at best -- strange, abstract messes that " second-grader could have made," and -- at worst -- straight-up pornography. But for many, many other people art and faith co-mingle, inform each other, make each other richer and, when it comes down to it, are really one-in-the-same thing; spirituality and creative expression cannot be separated. I doubt many people who fit the first two descriptions even read this blog.

Regardless, my hope is that this blog is one more place, however small or mostly insignificant, where people can think about how their spiritual lives are nurtured by creating and experiencing beautiful things. More and more, this is what I care about in my life. Hopefully it does something in yours as well.

Peace...