Trinity Baptist Church
Children's Ministry
Art Mural
"God's Paintbrush"
The genesis of the Trinity Baptist Church Children's Center mural was in the redesign and renovation of the center made possible with money generously left to the church by Alby and May Lee Grantham, who were both long and enthusiastic supporters of childhood education.
The renovation included breaking through walls to create larger classroom spaces and construction of a performance stage, complete with lighting and wired for sound. New windows and flooring were installed and colorfuly, kid-friendly furnighsing purchased.
But children's minister, Debbie Potter realized that decorating the center was just as important as building it and, in exploring potential concepts, she visited churches across the country, observing how they were decorated to engage members from preschool to high school. She saw centers built to resemble space ships, three-dimensional Hollywood movie sets and cruise liners. Delightful, yes. But she wanted something different.
"I envisioned something that children could interact with, something that would trigger their imaginations," she says. "But I also wanted something spiritual. Something scriptural."
Who could help her to realize such as concept? Potter considered commissioning any number of artists who'd previously worked with other churches. But she knew the result would just be a copy of something already done. That's when someone mentioned Shawn Bridges.
A local artist, Trinity church member and devout Christian, Bridges was probably known by most members for two things: Her stylish, black-frame eyeglasses and the many moving, poignant and joyful paintings she has donated to the church over the years. Perhaps most memorable is the painting titled simply, "September 11, 2001," which depicts a large pair of hands encircling figures representing the many firefighters, police and medical workers who sacrificed and died that terrible day. The painting has since been donated to the Pentagon in Washington, DC where it hangs today.
Potter says she didn't know Shawn very well, but the two met at the artist's home studio one day in April, 2005. Potter's request was a simple one: She asked Bridges to submit a bid to paint two of the activity rooms in the Children's Center. She wanted something "where, when children walked in, the walls would somehow come to life."
On Bridges' coffee table was a book on Noah's Ark by the Dutch artist Rien Poortvliet. Why not put the children on the ark? Potter knew immediately that this was the idea she'd been looking for.
And as for payment, Bridges quickly put that notion to rest. "I told Debbie I couldn't imagine charging my church for my work," she says. Once the project received the necessary approvals from the different committees (Trinity is a Baptist church, after all), Bridges got down to work.
The first brush stroke was made on May 4, 2005, but not before Bridges completed a small, private ritual she'd repeat every day thereafter. "I put my hands on the wall and said a prayer for my church. And I thanked Him for letting me be his paintbrush," she recalls. "If I can just be God's paintbrush, it would be the best thing I could ever be."
But Bridges didn't paint alone. She often got help from children and adults. Church member Matt Till, for example, painstakingly painted the downstairs doors and door frames so they looked like they were made from knotty wood. She started her Noah's Ark in the rotunda, a popular gathering place for children and adults alike. And she didn't start timidly.
"I painted the elephants first because I felt I had to win over the members with a big start--to give them an idea of the scale of the project." she explains. "It was the reaction of the children that won the day for me."
Mulberry School and Sunday School teachers have found the animals have a curiously soothing effect on fussy children, who can often be seen "petting" individual members of the lifelike menagerie. Bridges placed many of the smaller, furrier animals at a child's-eye level so even the tiniest church members can appreciate the work.
Once she'd finished the Ark, Bridges realized that her work wasn't done. She next headed for the upstairs hallways, where many of her favorite Bible stories began to march across the walls, beginning with the Garden of Eden at one end, on through the Old Testament and finishing with the birth, life and resurrection of Jesus at the other.
As with the animals downstairs, Bridges wanted the images to be as life-like as possible. Goliath, for example, towers over the diminutive David, even as he is felled by the brave young boy's hurled stone. As Jesus teaches the Rabbis in the Temple, village gossips congregate in the back, their disapproval evident. In the story of the Good Samaritan, the priest who refused to help the woulded traveler can be seen lurking in the background.
But the stories retain their essential humanity, too. In one particularly touching scene, Mary hands the baby Jesus to a 10-year-old child because, as she says, "I want children to realize that He is real and touchable." And in the newly renovated and redecorated Children's Center, He is and always will be.