This is part two of the clay-building workshop. We will meet on the 2nd floor of the Meridian Building on Saturday, April 13th at 10AM for the second class to glaze our pottery.

Registration is closed.

Faith in Fiction will meet on Monday, March 18th at 7pm to discuss Kindred by Octavia Butler. Content warning: Contains physical and sexual trauma and abuse related to slavery and racism.

Location - 803 Cattleya Ct. Louisville, KY 40207

“The visionary time-travel classic whose Black female hero is pulled through time to face the horrors of American slavery and explores the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now.

’I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm.’

Dana’s torment begins when she suddenly vanishes on her 26th birthday from California, 1976, and is dragged through time to antebellum Maryland to rescue a boy named Rufus, heir to a slaveowner’s plantation. She soon realizes the purpose of her summons to the past: protect Rufus to ensure his assault of her Black ancestor so that she may one day be born. As she endures the traumas of slavery and the soul-crushing normalization of savagery, Dana fights to keep her autonomy and return to the present.

Blazing the trail for neo-slavery narratives like Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Water Dancer, Butler takes one of speculative fiction’s oldest tropes and infuses it with lasting depth and power. Dana not only experiences the cruelties of slavery on her skin but also grimly learns to accept it as a condition of her own existence in the present.” — Publisher

Our book discussions aim to equip each member to read and interpret novels thoughtfully from a Christian perspective, and to learn to discuss challenging content graciously.

Mark your calendar for upcoming books:

• Monday, May 20th - Haven by Emma Donoghue

• Monday, July 15th - Dante’s Indiana by Randy Boyagoda

• Monday, September 16th - Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

• Monday, November 18th - Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

This workshop is full and registration is closed.

Learn foundational watercolor techniques with Midtown member Sammi Lawson on Saturday, March 16th at 10AM. We’ll go over techniques such as painting wet on wet versus wet on dry, and you’ll also learn to use frisket, a water resistant medium, by painting an Easter scene. This class will work with a limited color palette of rose madder, cobalt blue, and aureolin yellow.

We’ll meet on the second floor of the Meridian Building (1303 S. Shelby St.). The workshop is $5, which covers the cost of supplies. Registration is closed.

Art by Cameron Lawrence, Stephen Procopio, Jeremie Riggleman, Michael Winters ,and Ali Wunder

Join us for the opening reception of Exuberant Spring on Saturday, March 9th. Artist talks by Cameron Alexander Lawrence and Michael Winters will start at 5:30pm. Doors open 5-7pm.

Exuberant. Effusive. Profuse. Superabundant. Gushing. Excessive. Lavish. Extravagant. 

Coming out of winter, spring first has a quiet liveliness, but it soon erupts over-the-top. Peak spring can seem gaudy. So much life in the world!

The five artists in this exhibit have made objects that reflect on this quality of exuberant abundance found in the spring season. Exhibited around Easter, these objects of floral excitement also align well with the over-the-top grace of God found in Christ’s death and resurrection.

Cameron Alexander Lawrence is a poet and visual artist from the American southwest now based in Decatur, Georgia. His poems appear in many literary journals, and his paintings can be found in private collections in Europe, South America, and across the United States. Learn more at cameronlawrence.com.

Stephen Procopio is an illustrator living in Northern Virginia. His work has been featured in many churches and galleries in Europe as well as across the United States and Canada. His work has appeared in many publications including Christianity Today and Lifeway Publishing. He has created album covers for popular musicians including Caroline Cobb and Lovedrug. Stephen was hired to illustrate an on-location book for the popular TV show The Chosen and has worked with corporations including Pinkston Co. and Aslin Brewery. He is a partner at Fish Coin Press - whose goal is to illustrate beautiful and contemplative works that partner with the Bible. He has taught illustration at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania and at The Art League in Alexandria, VA. He received his MFA in illustration from SVA in New York City. His iIllustrated Gospel of John "Come See a Man" and newly illustrated 1 and 2 Peter book "Reason For The Hope'' are available at Fish Coin Press. Learn more about his work at procopiodraws.com.

Jeremie Riggleman is an artist and art educator based in Indiana. Largely, his life has been spent in the Midwest United States, although much of his visual aesthetic was shaped while living in the Los Angeles area. He began exploring ideas related to race, class and privilege in his work when he relocated to Indiana from Southern California in 2017 and observed dramatic social contrast between these places. Riggleman holds a BA in studio art from Bethel University (Mishawaka, IN) and a MFA in visual art from Azusa Pacific University (Azusa, CA). He has participated in solo and group exhibitions at the Museum of Art and History (Lancaster, CA), Coagula Curatorial (Los Angeles, CA), il Palazzo della Provincia di Frosinone (Frosinone, Italy), Oceanside Museum of Art (CA), Riverside Art Museum (CA), Westmont College (Santa Barbara, CA), Concordia University, Irvine (CA), and Gallery 825, (West Hollywood, CA, Los Angeles Art Association). His art has been collected by numerous public and private parties, including the late Carrie Fisher. Learn more at jeremieriggleman.com.

Ali Wunder is an artist and educator living in Northern Virginia. Her current body of work features embroidered paintings of plants and flowers that celebrate the beauty of things that grow, and explore her deep connection to the garden. Ali received her Masters in Art Teaching from George Mason University. She has over ten years experience working with art non-profits, primarily The Art League in Alexandria VA. There she served as gallery director, a teacher, and community arts programmer. Learn more at aliwunder.com.

Michael Winters is an artist and arts organizer living in Louisville, KY. His artwork has been featured in galleries such as Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft, Intersect Arts Center (St. Louis), and Biola University (LA, CA). His work has also been featured online on Vice and in print in CIVA’s Seen Journal. He’s director of Sojourn Arts, a project of Sojourn Church Midtown where he has curated exhibits and facilitated artist groups since 2007. Learn more at michaeltwinters.com.

In this workshop, Midtown member Tasha Irving will teach beginners how to wedge and join clay together, making their own pinch pots and slab building, and she’ll help intermediates grow in their skills.

This is a two-part class, as the clay needs to dry out before we glaze it: please make sure you are able to attend both dates.

We will meet on the 2nd floor of the Meridian Building on Saturday, March 2nd at 10AM for the first class. The second class will meet on Saturday, April 13th at 10AM.

The cost is $20, which includes cost of supplies, firing, and compensation. When you register, you will submit payment for the class.

Registration is limited to 30 people and closes on Thursday, February 29th. Please register here.

Faith in Fiction will meet on Monday, January 22nd at 7pm to discuss Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis.

Location - 803 Cattleya Ct. Louisville, KY 40207

“While searching for a place to rest for the night, Dr. Elwin Ransom is abducted by a megalomaniacal physicist and his accomplice and taken to the red planet of Malacandra (Mars) as a human sacrifice for the alien creatures that live there. Once on the planet, however, Ransom eludes his captors, risking his life and his chances of returning to Earth, becoming a stranger in a land that is enchanting in its difference from Earth and instructive in its similarity. First published in 1943, Out of the Silent Planet remains a magnificent and suspenseful tour de force in which epic battles are fought between the forces of light and those of darkness. It is the incredible beginning to C.S. Lewis’s spectacular Space Trilogy, which also includes Perelandra and That Hideous Strength.” — Scribner

Our book discussions aim to equip each member to read and interpret novels thoughtfully from a Christian perspective, and to learn to discuss challenging content graciously.

Mark your calendar for upcoming books:

• Monday, March 18th - Kindred by Octavia Butler.

• Monday, May 20th - Haven by Emma Donoghue

• Monday, July 15th - Dante’s Indiana by Randy Boyagoda

• Monday, September 16th - Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

• Monday, November 18th - Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Join us for an artist talk with Marcus Clarke and Nathan Rice about their work in Witnessing Nearness. Doors open 5-7pm, with the talk starting at 5:30pm.

Witnessing Nearness is about the different beats of relationships along the horizontal and vertical axis. Artists Nathan Rice and Marcus Clarke met over an overlapping semester of their MFA graduate programs in San Antonio, TX. They found quick camaraderie and solace in each other’s faiths and their art practices, and interestingly, they’ve found their work meets at the horizon line, with a gaze of what is above and below.

To expand this conversation, Marcus’s and Nathan’s work uniquely parallels the historical exchange between artist and friends Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Nathan’s abstract, gestural paintings of flowers and gardens explore the sanctity of the created world and quotidian labor, a reformed theology reminiscent of van Gogh’s Dutch Protestantism. On the other hand, Marcus’s work of sculptural and architectural installations with light, often using colored, defused LED lights to atmospheric effect, is reminiscent of Paul Gauguin’s color fields that are backdrops for mystic encounters. Like Gauguin, he deploys numinous visual language to question the ends of perception and ponder what lies beyond our abilities to perceive and know with our senses. As Gauguin’s Vision After The Sermon (1888) and Van Gogh’s The Sower (1888) are in conversation with each other about these theologies and philosophies, this show creates unique conversations held in tensions when a gaze towards the transcendental and the temporal meet. In this exploration of their works and their reference to sky and land, we can meditate on how something as abstract and as far as the horizon can also, in the suspension of unbelief, be near, intimate, and even immediate. 

— Marcus Clarke & Nathan Rice

Marcus Clarke makes objects and installations charged to be sites of self-inquiry.  Raised with a physicist for a father and with a deep curiosity in theology a la his mother, he has a unique perspective from which to approach the metaphysical and ontological as pathways to embracing the unseen and unknown. Similar to the big Texas sky he was raised under, he describes his work as both pastoral and foreboding and as a means of catharsis.  

Marcus studied Advertising and Architectural History at Pratt Institute and Savannah College of Art and Design–he thinks deeply about media, communication, philosophy, theology, and the built environment. He lives in San Antonio and is an MFA candidate at the University of Texas at San Antonio.  He’s pursued theological coursework at Duke Divinity School, assists in the studio of Matt Kleberg, and is active in education initiatives at the UTSA Southwest School of Art, Laity Lodge, and the Old School Makerspace. He is the current Artist and Curator in Residence at Vesper Austin. 

Nathan R. Rice (b. 1991 San Antonio, Tx) is an artist exploring themes of color theory, abstraction, whimsey, and worship through design, drawing, and painting. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Texas in 2014 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2022. 

As a husband and father, his work engages an ongoing dialogue between faith, family, doodling, nature, accidents, singing, and old paintings.

"I believe in order to understand." - Augustine

Join us for a lecture by Dr. Jonathan Pennington: “Light in the Gospels” on Thursday, January 11th from 7-8pm at Sojourn Midtown. This talk is paired with our exhibit Light in the Dark.

About the exhibit:

“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” - John 1:5

On view this coming Advent and Christmas, Light in the Dark will be an art exhibit pulled together from artists’ submissions from around the United States. Contrast between light and dark is a powerful artistic theme seen all throughout history in various media and across cultures, and it is also a deep biblical theme with strong connections to the Christmas story.

Light in the Dark features art by Keith A. Barker, Kyle Benecke, Robert Biesel, Joe Cory, Richard Cummings, Chris Dant, Claire Davey, Lisa Wallace Deen, Cheryl E. Dyer, Mia Eckes, Caroline Greb, Shana Grugan, Brandon Hochhalter, Steven Homestead, brittany anne jarboe jennings, Hannah Johnson, Neal Parker Johnson, David Kasperak, Jennifer Kramer, Cat Mailloux, Sydney Mason, Katie Petry, Samantha Sudbrock, and Lila Youngblood.

You’re invited to the third annual Sojourn Arts’ Christmas party and surprise book swap! We’ll meet at Sojourn Church Midtown in the Connect Room on Monday, December 11th at 7pm for refreshments and fun. Please register here so we know how many snacks to prepare. Registration opens November 1st.

Please enter through the red outside door of the Connect Room. This is located on the right side of the parking lot (or the opposite end of the main glass doors) around the courtyard.

To participate in the surprise book swap, choose a new or used book from any genre that is meaningful to you — it could be your favorite book you read this year, a novel that deeply impacted you, a book of poetry you love, and so on. Then, wrap the book in paper and write a few descriptive words or a sentence about the book on the front. At the party, we’ll play a book swap version of white elephant where you choose a book based solely on the brief description. You do not have to participate in the book swap to attend the party.

Faith in Fiction will meet on Monday, November 20th at 7pm to discuss The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Location - 803 Cattleya Ct. Louisville, KY 40207

“The Brothers Karamasov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the ‘wicked and sentimental’ Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons―the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life, is social and spiritual striving, in what was both the golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture.” — Picador Publishing

Our book discussions aim to equip each member to read and interpret cultural artifacts thoughtfully from a Christian perspective, and to learn to discuss challenging content graciously.

Mark your calendar for upcoming books:

• Monday, January 22, 2024 — Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis.

Join us for the opening night of Light in the Dark on Friday, November 17th. Doors open 7-9pm.

Art by Keith A. Barker, Kyle Benecke, Robert Biesel, Joe Cory, Richard Cummings, Chris Dant, Claire Davey, Lisa Wallace Deen, Cheryl E. Dyer, Mia Eckes, Caroline Greb, Shana Grugan, Brandon Hochhalter, Steven Homestead, brittany anne jarboe jennings, Hannah Johnson, Neal Parker Johnson, David Kasperak, Jennifer Kramer, Cat Mailloux, Sydney Mason, Katie Petry, Samantha Sudbrock, and Lila Youngblood.

“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” - John 1:5

On view this coming Advent and Christmas, Light in the Dark will be an art exhibit pulled together from artists’ submissions from around the United States. Contrast between light and dark is a powerful artistic theme seen all throughout history in various media and across cultures, and it is also a deep biblical theme with strong connections to the Christmas story.

Learn how to design and print your own Christmas cards using linoleum blocks with Midtown member Tasha Irving on Saturday, November 11th at 10AM at the Meridian Building (1303 S. Shelby St.). Cost is $5, which includes the use of tools, supplies, and 10 folded blank cards (4.25"x5.5"). You can bring your own paper and cards for printing as well, and if you have any printmaking tools, please bring them. We will be using printers ink so wear clothes that can potentially get messy.

Registration is limited to 30 people and closes on Friday, November 10th. Please register here.

AN EVENING OF INSPIRATION AND HOPE, CURATED BY JOHN ONWUCHEKWA.

We Go On Live is an evening designed to help you hold on to hope during times that seem to make it so slippery. The We Go On Tour is designed as a next step toward healing. We’ve learned that sometimes the smallest steps are the most important ones - so, we curated a safe space for you to talk (and laugh) about the uncomfortable, intimidating, and sometimes scary topic: Grief. Our time together will be filled with coffee, live music, film, and conversation. Come experience a sense of both anticipation and freedom and leave with a wealth of hope. 

Tragedy doesn’t ruin us. Hopelessness does.  Join us for an evening full of hope.

Get tickets here.

Join us for an artist talk and reception with Alex O’Nan and Parker Bolin on Friday, October 13th at 7:30pm, doors open 7-9pm.

Death, Like a Door is a collaboration, but it is also a documentation of two unique perspectives that explore different worlds of change. It chronicles the passage of time in a way that is both personal and ineffable. The subjects and places shown are extensions of the artists’ lives, beliefs, and daily routines.

Parker Bolin is a designer and multidisciplinary artist living in Louisville, Kentucky. Although his art-making practice has encompassed photography in the context of print-making and digital media, he recently began photographing with the intent of seeing and creating more holistically. He picked up the camera in an effort to stay present and creative in the midst of his life experiences - documenting places and subjects that are closer to home. His photography practice attempts to capture beauty in otherwise mundane objects and environments. See more of his work on Instagram at @parkerbolin.

Alex O’Nan has been making photographs for nearly 30 years. At the age of 13, Alex received a 35mm camera, roll of film and introduction to photography book for Christmas. Since then, Alex has made a habit out of documenting all that catches his attention. From his time at UofL as a photography major, to his nearly 20 year career as a railroad conductor, and now as a property manager who goes on photo walks during his lunch hour, Alex tries to capture in a photograph all the things that catch his attention. See more of his work on Instagram at @wooden.frames.

This exhibit is part of Louisville Photo Biennial.

Faith in Fiction will meet on Monday, September 18th at 7pm to discuss Godric by Frederick Buechner.

Location - 803 Cattleya Ct. Louisville, KY 40207

Frederick Buechner's Godric "retells the life of Godric of Finchale, a twelfth-century English holy man whose projects late in life included that of purifying his moral ambition of pride...Sin, spiritual yearning, rebirth, fierce asceticism—these hagiographic staples aren't easy to revitalize but Frederick Buechner goes at the task with intelligent intensity and a fine readiness to invent what history doesn't supply. He contrives a style of speech for his narrator—Godric himself--that's brisk and tough-sinewed...He avoids metaphysical fiddle, embedding his narrative in domestic reality--familiar affection, responsibilities, disasters...All on his own, Mr. Buechner has managed to reinvent projects of self-purification and of faith as piquant matter for contemporary fiction [in a book] notable for literary finish...Frederick Buechner is a very good writer indeed." — Benjamin DeMott, The New York Times Book Review

Our book discussions aim to equip each member to read and interpret cultural artifacts thoughtfully from a Christian perspective, and to learn to discuss challenging content graciously.

Mark your calendar for upcoming books:

• Monday, November 20th - The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

In this workshop, Midtown member Tasha Irving will teach us two different methods of hand building with clay: pinch pots and slab building. We will also learn how to wedge and join clay together.

This is a two-part class, as the clay needs to dry out before we glaze it: please make sure you are able to attend both dates.

We will meet on the 2nd floor of the Meridian Building on Saturday, September 16th at 10AM for the first class. The second class will meet on Saturday, October 21st at 10AM.

The cost is $12, which includes cost of supplies and the use of tools. When you register, you will submit payment for the class.

Registration is limited to 30 people and closes on Thursday, September 14th. Please register here.

Join us for an artist talk with Asher Imtiaz on Friday, July 28th at 7:30pm. Doors are open from 7-9pm.

About the exhibit:

All of us need to know where to stand. 

For a photographer, where you stand makes all the difference. The infinite number of places to stand yields an infinite number of perspectives. Even the small distance between your left and right eye gives you two different perspectives. For a photographer, moving slightly left or slightly right, a little forward or back, makes a different picture. The composition changes. Some things come into view and some things disappear depending on where one stands.  

Asher Imtiaz has often chosen to stand among immigrants and refugees, meeting them with kindness and attention. Some of the people in these pictures have needed to flee war or famine. Some have sought new geographies for better opportunities for themselves or their children. We all make choices about where to stand geographically.

And we all need to know where to stand convictionally. When confronted with differing viewpoints, doubt, or conflict, how do we know where to stand politically, socially, or theologically? Many feel this has been especially difficult in recent years. Knowing where to stand isn’t a simple matter. 

It’s not a simple matter and it’s also not static. Along with the need to know where to stand is the equally important need to know when to move on. In Asher’s photographs, we witness his ability to flexibly move into new spaces. Originally from Pakistan, Asher began photographing religious minority groups there. This included his own community of Christians living in a majority-Muslim country. Since moving to the United States in 2012 for graduate studies, his photographs have focused on immigrants, but more recently, he’s also found his photographic subjects expanding again to include a broader look at America, documenting life here in both heightened moments such as the streets of Minneapolis after George Floyd’s murder in 2020, as well as in the daily routines of subway rides in New York City or life on the Navajo reservation, for example. The ability to graciously enter other people’s spaces and see them as they are is an admirable skill. 

Wherever Asher finds himself, he’s drawn to people. Humanity is his true subject. My awareness that Asher is a Christian leads me to wonder how much his faith impacts the way he sees and photographs. Asher’s vision seems to align with Jesus’ way of seeing. The gospels frequently note Jesus seeing people. When approaching the city of Jerusalem, “He saw the city and wept over it.” He sees the crowds, too, but most of the notes about Jesus seeing in the gospels are closer up and intimate. He sees a blind man lying on the ground. He sees the woman at the well. He sees Nathanael under the fig tree. While he’s on the cross he sees his mother. In all these instances and more, Jesus’ vision is characterized by compassion (Matthew 9:36) and that’s the same spirit that comes through in these photographs. 

Through the magic trick of photography we are able to stand where Asher stood and see what he saw. Our way of seeing overlaps with his way of seeing and our imaginations may expand a little to include this new way of looking. 

See more of Asher’s work at asherimtiaz.com. Interested in purchasing a print? Contact asherimtiaz@gmail.com. 

Faith in Fiction will meet on Monday, July 17th at 7pm to discuss The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Content warning: this book contains content that may be triggering to readers.

Location - 803 Cattleya Ct. Louisville, KY 40207

“A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission entrusted with a profound task: to make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end.” — Ballantine Books

Our book discussions aim to equip each member to read and interpret cultural artifacts thoughtfully from a Christian perspective, and to learn to discuss challenging content graciously.

Mark your calendar for upcoming books:

• Monday, September 18th - Godric by Frederick Buechner

• Monday, November 20th - The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

A one-part clay class for kids and parents taught by Midtown member Tasha Irving! Kids will learn how to make pinch pots and underglaze their pottery. We will meet at 10am at the Meridian Building (1303 S. Shelby St.) on Saturday, June 10th. Please wear clothes that can get messy. Registration is $6 per person and covers the cost of supplies. Registration extended to June 8th.

Register here.

Understanding the Soul through the Arts

Our sorrows can be experienced, processed, and transformed by lament, an ancient form of expressive therapy abundant in the Bible. The arts provide ways to express lament that others can hear, see, touch, and be touched by. Join the Christian Psychology Institute for an evening of song, visual art, poetry, music, and story-telling on Friday, June 9th at 7pm at Sojourn East.

Register here for $10.

Faith in Fiction will meet on Monday, May 15th at 7pm to discuss Remembering by Wendell Berry.

Location - 803 Cattleya Ct. Louisville, KY 40207

“After losing his hand in an accident, Andy Catlett confronts an agronomist whose surreal vision can see only industrial farming. This vision is powerfully contrasted with that of modest Amish farmers content to live outside the pressures brought by capitalist postindustrial progress, and by working the land to keep away the three great evils of boredom, vice, and need.

As Andy’s perspective filters through his anger over his loss and the harsh city of San Francisco surrounding him, he begins to remember: the people and places that wait 2,000 miles away in his Kentucky home, the comfort he knew as a farmer, and his symbiotic relationship to the soil. Andy laments the modern shift away from the love of the land, even as he begins to accept his own changed relationship to the world. Wendell Berry’s continued fascination with the power of memory continues in this treasured novel set in 1976.” — Counterpoint Publishing

Our book discussions aim to equip each member to read and interpret cultural artifacts thoughtfully from a Christian perspective, and to learn to discuss challenging content graciously.

Mark your calendar for upcoming books:

• Monday, July 17th - The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

• Monday, September 18th - Godric by Frederick Buechner

• Monday, November 20th - The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Join us for the reception and gallery talk of The Resurrection and the Life on Friday, April 28th, 7-9pm.

Jared Boggess (owner and art director of Fish Coin Press) and Stephen Procopio (Curator, owner and illustrator at Fish Coin Press) will be discussing Visual Theology and its role in the local church. There will be a time for questions, an opportunity to get a sneak preview of upcoming projects, and a chance to purchase illustrated books, cards, comics and prints!

“Understanding the Bible, and truly knowing the great story of our Savior is central in the life of Christians. Jesus is predicted in the Old Testament, revealed in the Gospels, preached in the Acts, explained in the Epistles and expected in Revelation. Fish Coin Press is dedicated to creating rich visuals that bring alive the clear doctrines that are expounded in these texts. As each illustrator engages with the Bible to create visual theology our hope is that the reader will be compelled by God’s Word in a deeper, more intimate way. This selection of works, sampled from Fish Coin Press’s Behold Trading Cards, illustrated books of the Bible and biblical graphic novel adaptations, work in harmony to point the viewer to the wonder of Christ as found in the Scriptures.”

— Fish Coin Press

This is part two of the clay-building workshop. We will meet on the 2nd floor of the Meridian Building on Saturday, March 25th at 10AM for the second class to glaze our pottery.

Registration is closed.

Faith in Fiction will meet on Monday, March 20th at 7pm to discuss People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.

Location - 803 Cattleya Ct. Louisville, KY 40207

“Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity by an acclaimed and beloved author. Called “a tour de force” by the San Francisco Chronicle, this ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fifteenth-century Spain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—only begin to unlock its deep mysteries and unexpectedly plunges Hanna into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultranationalist fanatics.” — Penguin Books

Our book discussions aim to equip each member to read and interpret cultural artifacts thoughtfully from a Christian perspective, and to learn to discuss challenging content graciously.

Mark your calendar for upcoming books:

• Monday, May 15th - Remembering by Wendell Berry

• Monday, July 17th - The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

• Monday, September 18th - Godric by Frederick Buechner

• Monday, November 20th - The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Join us for The Golgatha Experience, a music event from Poor Bishop Hooper

In 2014, Jesse and Leah Roberts (Poor Bishop Hooper) were inspired to write and compose The Golgotha Experience to help the curious better understand the truth and importance of Jesus’ crucifixion. Complementing the beautiful visual history that surrounds the "Stations of the Cross" tradition, they composed fourteen, scripture-based original songs that invite the mind and heart to experience the Savior’s suffering in new ways. With original music at its core, The Golgotha Experience uses powerful visuals, God’s Word, and guided prayer, to draw people nearer to Jesus.

Since its origin, The Golgotha Experience has become a full-fledged ministry, and has had a widespread spiritual impact on thousands of individuals around the country. The Roberts have been blessed to serve in a variety of settings—from living rooms and churches, to theaters and prisons. Their prayer is that God would continue to use The Golgotha Experience for His purposes and for the strengthening of His people.

"Golgotha" is the Aramaic term used in the scriptures meaning "the place of the skull." Golgotha is the hill on which Jesus was crucified.

Learn more about the Golgotha Experience.

This is a free event, but childcare will not be offered.

Join us for the closing reception of Zac Benson: Reflecting on Faithfulness on Friday, March 3rd from 7-9pm. A brief artist talk will begin at 7:30pm.

Honest Christians in America have needed to ask themselves challenging questions in recent years. Faced with social and political changes, how does one live faithfully now? 

In the book How to Inhabit Time, James K.A. Smith wrote, 

“There are lots of religious people for whom their faith amounts to a leap into a nostalgic past or an escapist future, but the present bedevils them: awkward and unsettled, they stumble and waver. They know how to be faithful anywhere but now.”

Faithfulness can only be lived in the present. It must be tangibly enacted within one’s current time and place. Zac Benson’s artworks in Reflecting on Faithfulness wrestle with this question of how to live Christianly in the contemporary world. Contemporary art serves as an engaging vehicle to drive forward questions about contemporary faith. Benson writes,

“My studio is where I navigate current happenings, personal beliefs, and anthropological perspectives, while allowing myself to concentrate on the ones that grip my attention. I toil over aspects of life and society that are concerning, meaningful, or just overwhelming. I want the viewer to have the opportunity to grapple with these ideas as well.”

Zac Benson is an international artist who has shown in Taiwan, Bulgaria, and throughout the United States. He has also had public commissions in Australia, California, New York, and Washington, D.C.. His gallery work deals with the relationship between his personal faith and beliefs and his engagement with society while his public sculptures deal with the traditional relationship of scale and form.  He graduated with his B.F.A. in sculpture from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2011 and an M.F.A. in Studio Art from The University of Maryland in 2017. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Anderson University where he teaches sculpture and ceramics.

Find more of his art at zacbenson.com and on Instagram @zac.benson

In this workshop, Midtown member Tasha Irving will teach us two different methods of hand building with clay: pinch pots and slab building. We will also learn how to wedge and join clay together.

This is a two-part class, as the clay needs to dry out before we glaze it: please make sure you are able to attend both dates.

We will meet on the 2nd floor of the Meridian Building on Saturday, February 25th at 10AM for the first class. The second class will meet on Saturday, March 25th at 10AM.

The cost is $12, which includes cost of supplies and the use of tools. When you register, you will submit payment for the class.

Registration is limited to 30 people and closes on Wednesday, February 15th. Please register here.

Faith in Fiction will meet on Monday, January 30th at 7pm to discuss Deep River by Shusaku Endo.

Location - 803 Cattleya Ct. Louisville, KY 40207

“The river is the Ganges, where a group of Japanese tourists converge: Isobe, grieving the death of the wife he ignored in life; Kiguchi, haunted by war-time memories of the Highway of Death in Burma; Numada, recovering from a critical illness; Mitsuko, a cynical woman struggling with inner emptiness; and, the butt of her cruel interest, Otsu, a failed seminarian for whom the figure on the cross is a god of many faces. In this novel, the renowned Japanese writer Shusaku Endo reaches his ultimate religious vision.” — New Directions Publishing

Our book discussions aim to equip each member to read and interpret cultural artifacts thoughtfully from a Christian perspective, and to learn to discuss challenging content graciously.

Mark your calendar for upcoming books:

• Monday, March 20th - People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

• Monday, May 15th - Remembering by Wendell Berry

• Monday, July 17th - The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

• Monday, September 18th - Godric by Frederick Buechner

• Monday, November 20th - The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

You’re invited to the second annual Sojourn Arts’ Christmas party and surprise book swap! We’ll meet at Sojourn Church Midtown in the Connect Room on Monday, December 12th at 7pm for refreshments and fun. Please register here so we know how many snacks to prepare.

Please enter through the red outside door of the Connect Room. This is located on the right side of the parking lot (or the opposite end of the main glass doors) around the courtyard.

To participate in the surprise book swap, choose a new or used book from any genre that is meaningful to you — it could be your favorite book you read this year, a novel that deeply impacted you, a book of poetry you love, and so on. Then, wrap the book in paper and write a few descriptive words or a sentence about the book on the front. At the party, we’ll play a book swap version of white elephant where you choose a book based solely on the brief description. You do not have to participate in the book swap to attend the party.