Summer 2026

I am dedicating much of my energy during the summer of 2026 to focus on discipleship. This is the core of Ordinary Time. I am writing a new course for Faith+Lead Academy called Leading Discipleship in Your Context. It will be a simpler version of the course I teach at Luther Seminary called Discipleship in the Missional Church. All of this flows from my ongoing scholarship.

Real Art. Real Time. Real Connection.

An 8-Week Summer Series of Contemplative Art & Scripture

In an age of Artificial Intelligence generating endless content, let this be a refreshing connection to a real person, creating real art, in real time, and contemplating a real God.

Every Thursday at 4:00pm Central Time

Choose Your Platform to Watch Live

Watch on YouTube

Watch on Facebook

Grab your supplies! If you are with me live, you can leave comments on either platform to interact and chat during the session. (Can’t make it live? No worries. Each session will be archived here to view in your own time and space.)

What to Expect Each Week:

Every Thursday at 4:00 PM (Central Time), we’re slowing down to connect with scripture through creativity:

The Deep Dive: We’ll start with a live visual study of a scripture passage.
The Creation: Watch (and create!) in real-time as I craft a piece of contemplative art based on the text.
The Community: Chat with me and other viewers live in the comments.

Want Personal Feedback & Community?

If you would like to share your art with me, get personal interaction, and dive deeper, I invite you to join The Art Pastor’s Network.

Members of the network get:

Personal interaction and feedback on your artwork.
Connection with a vibrant community of like-minded creatives.
Participation in our weekly Zoom Text Studies.
FREE access to download all Art Pastor resources!

Join the Art Pastor's Network

Membership to Discipleship Course Thumbnail

Explore Course

In A New Focus: Membership to Discipleship you’ll explore the key characteristics that distinguish membership-focused churches from discipleship-focused churches. When churches focus primarily on membership, they often become centered on attendance, buildings, and budgets—measurable metrics that provide a sense of control in an uncertain world. The identity of the church becomes tied to a place, a worship service, and clear boundaries about who belongs and who doesn’t. But what if the church reclaimed its original calling as a movement of disciples—apprentices learning to follow the way of Jesus in their everyday lives?

The Art Pastor’s Guide to Discipleship

This is a work in progress. Keep coming back to see new pages. Click the page to explore.

What is Discipleship?

Jesus’ Model of Discipleship

Take the Four-Week Course. learn more…

Back to Deep in the Burbs

Posts for the Journey

Is Life a Line or a Circle? | A Contemplative Art Experience

What if the way you measure your spiritual growth is based on a flawed concept of time?
In our fast-paced, modern culture, we are subtly trained to view life as a straight line. We draw charts, track metrics, and calculate progress on an upward, left-to-right slope. We treat spiritual formation like a ladder: you start at the bottom as a struggling novice and climb toward efficiency, agency, and spiritual perfection.

But when Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven, he rarely uses the language of industrial progress or linear ladders. Instead, he talks about seeds quietly dying in dirt, yeast permeating dough, nets cast into mysterious depths, and tiny mustard grains expanding into sheltering trees.

In this Art Pastor Live session, we explored Matthew 13 alongside reflections on how different cultures understand time. By pairing Jesus’ parables with visual art, we paused to ask a fundamental question: Is life a line or a circle—and how does the Kingdom of God grow within us?