by Jordan Crump
Installation shot of 25 Years of Sojourn Arts
Sojourn Community Church had its first public church service 25 years ago. In its quarter century history, art and culture making have been a part of Sojourn’s ethos: cultivating beauty, being fruitful, and building up the church through the arts.
In this exhibit, each year of Sojourn’s history is represented by a piece of artwork– from the original logo and bulletin designs to worship albums and commissioned artworks.
Behind each piece are many hands and stories of artists visualizing scripture and members putting what their ears hear into what their hands make. Since its start, Sojourn Arts has hosted over 100 monthly artist meetings and curated more than 150 exhibits featuring artwork from more than 500 artists.
2000: Photograph of early service, early documents.
The official ‘launch’ service of Sojourn Community Church took place in Fall of 2000. For about a year leading up to that point, a community was being brought together, mostly young people who were looking for a fresh expression of Christian faith. After Fall 2000, the worship services of the church took place on Sunday evenings in Highland Baptist Church at Grinstead and Cherokee Parkway.
2001: Mosaic Table by Sojourn Community Church
This table top was probably the first community arts project completed by the church. Everyone present in that week’s worship service was invited to place a piece on the table. The table originally had no base, as it was moved in and out of storage since we rented worship space from other churches. After being used by Sojourn Midtown for many years, this table was given to Sojourn East where Joel Nussbaum created the wooden base.
2002:
Because Sojourn rented space for worship gatherings, the leaders desired a space where other meetings could happen during the week. Instead of only using the space as a private office, they opened the storefront space at 1906 Bardstown Road in the Highlands to also function as an art gallery and small music venue. A document from that time describes the ministry’s purpose as: “to foster a relational environment for all people which celebrates the process of artistic creativity and discovering truth in association with a Christian community.”
2003: Heart print by Aaron Marrs. Silkscreen print on paper.
This print was produced to celebrate the release of Sojourn Music’s first CD, With the Angels. Aaron Marrs was a prominent early member of the church. He was a graphic designer and helped establish the early creative aesthetic of the church. Listen to the album here.
2004: Kill Your TV, Cultivate Beauty
In 2002, April was named Kill Your TV, Cultivate Beauty month where members were encouraged to intentionally fast from TV and movies in order to give more space to cultivating beauty through other things such as sharing meals with friends, gardening, or making things. The month kicked off with TVs being smashed in the parking lot (or piñatas in the years after we realized how hazardous it was to break old tvs) and ended with a ‘film festival’ of wacky films made by people in the church, usually within community groups. Cultivate Beauty month was celebrated from ~2002-2005, with rebooted variations around 2008 and 2010.
2005: Artwork for These Things I Remember album by Michael Winters, In Memory of Aaron Marrs
Original promo text: This 11-track collection of aesthetically diverse songs of faith, pain, longing and reflection based on the Psalms features worship music by Sojourn Community members Mike Cosper, Rebecca Dennison and Jeremy Quillo.
With stylistic influences ranging from the mountains of Appalachia to the villages of Asia to modern American rock, this record reconnects modern listeners with the language of the Psalms, reflects the diversity of creation and explores the tension between faith and doubt, triumph and struggle, laughter and lament.
Dedicated to the memory of Aaron Marrs, a community member lost at sea when the vessel he was working on capsized off the coast of Alaska, These Things I Remember focuses on loss and healing, and the stubborn faith in the midst of tragedy and questions that only comes from the Spirit of God. Listen to the album here.
2006: Travelogues by Sojourn Members, Print Magazine.
Travelogue was Sojourn’s printed zine, produced first in ~2002-2003 and then brought back ~2005-2007. It wasn’t a strategic communications piece, but was produced mostly for fun, to tell stories we thought were worth telling.
2007: Before the Throne Project by Sojourn Music and Sojourn Arts. Devotional, CD, and Passing of the Piece (1 of 10 original mixed media artworks). Funded by Lilly Foundation via Calvin Institute for Christian Worship Grant
Written in 2007: “Sunday worship services at Sojourn Community Church generally follow the same pattern each week. It’s a pattern of Gospel remembrance. Before the Throne is an art, music, and writing project that explores this pattern, often called the liturgy. These images were placed in a daily devotional that walks through the patterns of our Sunday worship services in a way that hopefully extends worship of the One True God into our daily lives and educates the church on why we worship the way we do when we gather on Sundays.”
Listen to the album here.
2008: Feather & Keys by Katherine Groce. Reproduced digital print from original drawing and collage.
For many years, the church handed out paper bulletins to everyone who came for worship services. During this time period, it was typically an 8.5x11” sheet folded in half. The cover would have an image on it that was produced specifically for that week’s sermon text by a member of the congregation. This image was one of many images produced for a sermon series on the book of Romans.
2009: Wisdom, Proverbs illustrations. Community-based project led by Sojourn Arts.
In this project, participants were invited to illustrate a proverb. A large grid of over 200 of these was hung in the 930 gallery as part of a larger exhibit that reflected upon the biblical Psalms and Proverbs called Prayer and Wisdom.
2010: We are the Church by Sojourn Midtown. Photograph
Photographed from the roof of Sojourn Midtown’s previous 930 Mary Street location, this image was made after a worship service. People were invited to stand in the shape of a building to illustrate the idea that the people are the church.
2011: Water & the Blood by Sojourn Music. Vinyl Record.
This album reimagined the hymns of Isaac Watts. Listen to the album here.
2012: Who is Shelby Park? by Sojourn Arts Photography Class. Photographs, wood, paint, pencil.
In 2012, Sojourn Midtown moved from 930 Mary Street in Germantown to our current location in Shelby Park. One of the ways we prepared for this was creating a photography class that would walk Shelby Park, make photographs and get to know the place and some of the people. The class made this ‘map’ of Shelby Park, which became part of the larger exhibit also titled Who is Shelby Park?
2013: Local Church by Wayne Adams. Aluminum foil on wood.
In the exhibit Signals and Reflectors, Artist Wayne Adams exhibited four large aluminum foil panels like this in our gallery. At the end of the exhibit, he gave one of them to us to keep; it usually hangs in the art collection by the balcony. He thought the way these panels reflect light is akin to how the church might reflect the light of Christ.
2014: Breadth by Stephen Watson. Measuring tapes, wood, screws.
As the church was preparing to study the book of Ephesians in a sermon series, we commissioned artist Stephen Watson to create an installation made for our sanctuary. Stephen noticed that the book of Ephesians uses a lot of measurement language and created something to reflect that.
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” –Ephesians 3:17b-18
2015: Ten Commandments from Exodus by Kristin Busby. Charcoal.
As we prepared to study the book of Exodus in a sermon series, Kristin Busby created a series of drawings illustrating the book. The drawings were hung throughout the sanctuary. Kristin was a Sojourn Arts intern through Love Thy Neighborhood.
2016: Jesus carries his cross from Urban Stations by Steve Prince with Sojourn Midtown. Cut MDF, ink.
This piece is one of 14 pieces created for our sanctuary, meant to retell the story of Jesus going to the cross. These pieces often hang in the sanctuary during Lent. Artist Steve Prince created the red image in the center of the panel and members of the church created all the black parts during a series of workshops.
2017: Water Cup by Craig Hawkins. Charcoal on paper.
This drawing was created during a worship service, the only time we’ve had visual art produced on the platform during service. Craig Hawkins had produced many similar artworks for his home church in Georgia, and while we were exhibiting his art in Emmaus Road, we invited him to respond live to the sermon by making this drawing as part of the worship service.
2018: ‘Jesus Warrior’, AL by Devin Lunsford. Photograph.
This print was part of the exhibit Roadside Jesus, curated by Michael Howard. The exhibit surveyed how contemporary photographers around the country were documenting Christian artifacts in the American landscape.
2019: Personal Saints from Asphalt Saints by Kiana Brown, Love Thy Neighborhood. Engineer prints, laser color prints, gold leafing.
These pieces were originally created for the offices of Love Thy Neighborhood (LTN) and then shared in an exhibit at Sojourn Midtown. This series of images pair ordinary neighbors with popular heroes of the faith; for Kiana’s saints, Timothy Keller hangs beside neighborhood matriarch Niki Ross. The goal LTN named with this project “[was] to provoke the viewer to awaken to Christ at work inside of them and in our city.”
LTN was a non-profit that gathered young adults from around the world to relocate to Louisville where they lived in intentional community together, did nonprofit service, and practiced Christian discipleship.
2020: Let Justice Roll. Community-based project, led by Sojourn Arts
During the sermon series “The Gospel, Race, and Justice”, we invited church attenders to decorate these plywood letters with images and phrases imagining a just world. The resulting sign was fixed to the exterior of our church building.
“But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
–Amos 5:24
2021: Moveable Garden by Tim Robertson and Sojourn Midtown. Risograph printed paper, glue, wood panel.
On Easter morning 2021, Tim Robertson led us in this community arts project. Participants created bouquets and then scanned and Riso printed them on bright, colorful paper. The prints were then cut up and collaged on panel, creating our very own “Moveable Garden.”
2022: Community weaving (Pentecost Banners) by Jenny Stopher and Sojourn Arts. Hospital blankets, yarn, thread.
Artist Jenny Stopher started this community art project on Easter Sunday, inviting participants to weave colorful yarn into a hospital blanket, a visual metaphor for weaving our lives into Christ’s. The banners, one with a cross and the other with flames, remind us of Jesus’s promise in John 14:26 to send the Holy Spirit to the disciples, and in Acts 2 when the Spirit poured out. The other banner is hanging in the stairwell to the balcony.
2023: Resurrection: 1 Corinthians 15:42 by Jared Boggess. Illustration.
From the exhibit The Resurrection and the Life by Fishcoin Press. “So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.” –1 Corinthians 15:42
2024: Raised from Stations of the Resurrection by Scott Erickson.
Scott Erickson created a series of 14 images that together tell the story of Christ’s resurrection and invite viewers to contemplate the meaning of Christ’s resurrection in their own lives.
2025: from Alee / Aweather by Phaedra Taylor with Sojourn Midtown. Monoprint with collage. Created for Easter 2025.
Together with participants of Sojourn Midtown, Phaedra Taylor created a series of 14 arch-shaped artworks like this for our sanctuary. This rectangular one was also created at the same time for the art collection next to the balcony.
May we continue to cultivate beauty for the next 25 years!
Many thanks to Michael Winters for sharing the memories above that were printed on each title card.