Author: Jason McConnell
Located in: Franklin, VT
Submitted: March 30, 2022
Tell us a little about yourself. Dr. Jason McConnell has served as the Senior Pastor of the East Franklin Union Church and Franklin United Church in Franklin, Vermont since 2004. He also serves as the co-director of the Ockenga Fellows Program and a Mentor in the Doctor of Ministry Program at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Pastor Ministry from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois, a Master of Divinity and Master of Theology Degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry Degree in Preaching from Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. In his spare time, Dr. McConnell loves spending time with his wife, Jennifer, and their four children in the Vermont outdoors skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, cycling, and kayaking.
What was your motivation behind this project? This book was written by a cohort of pastor/scholars and college/seminary professors who participated in the Ockenga Fellows Program at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary from the fall of 2018 through the spring of 2020. This program, which is generously funded by the Lilly Endowment's Early Career Pastoral Leadership Development Initiative, creates cohorts of young clergy who explore issues of faith and ministry in the public square. Among other things, this cohort has toured key sites in New England's rich spiritual heritage, dialogued with faculty at Harvard Business School and the Boston College Lynch School of Education, met with legislators at the Massachusetts State House, walked on the Great Wall of China, and discovered artistic treasures displayed in the halls of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts together.
What do you hope folks will gain from this project? This book has three primary purposes and audiences. First, the book is written for everyone who desires to think about art and beauty from a biblical, theological, and liturgical perspective. This book may serve as a resource for private worship and personal devotions. The chapters are neither long nor difficult to read, but they do provide a plethora of devotional ponderings (paintings, photographs, hymns, poems, songs, Scripture readings, theological reflections, and spiritual exercises) to help individuals worship our God in new ways. During the final editing phase, I read through the manuscript for my morning devotions while savoring copious cups of black coffee (which is an artistic and devotional endeavor in itself).
Second, this book could be used as an adult Sunday school or small group curriculum in a local church context. Again, the chapters are succinct enough that they can be read and discussed in little more than an hour’s time. The “Discussion Questions” toward the end of each chapter are designed for this very purpose. Hopefully, this volume will stir the imagination of church members and spur them on toward greater expressions of artistic creativity in their own churches.
Third, this book may serve as a sermon source for pastors and a liturgical guide for church worship leaders. I hope that worship leaders to use the components in these chapters to form aesthetically invigorating church services? The calls to worship, hymns, poems, and liturgies are meant to arouse the soul in worship. But don’t stop with these components; add your own creative elements to theologically coherent and compelling worship services.
How were you personally impacted by working on this project? As a coauthor and first-time general editor, I have experienced the exhilaration and exhaustion of watching an idea about a book on beauty and worship develop through all the gestations, from conception to delivery. Collaborating and co-creating with cherished colleagues (17 of us in all) spawned tremendous delight but being critiqued by each other caused moments of discomfort.
In the end, though, like a proud mother holding her beautiful newborn baby, I happily concede that the pleasure was worth the pain. I am, indeed, elated by each author's creativity and commitment to helping the Christian church see beauty, art, and worship in a different light.
Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know: It has been an honor and pleasure to share a birthing room with all of these authors from the beginning to the end of this venture! We hope this book will be as much of a blessing for you to read as it was for us to write!
