The Spirit of Collaboration Painted live at the L4 Congress in Seoul, Korea 2024. 72x72” acrylic on unprimed canvas by Bryn Gillette and Alexis Newsom.
In many ways, the real fruit and discovery of the L4 conference for me was the delight of collaboration with my new and dear sister in Christ, Alexis Newsom (“sister Lexi”). As we spoke and debriefed daily about what it was the Spirit was doing in and through our connection, we returned to the new equation that the result of our collaboration was greater than the sum of our parts… or as I would say: “1+1=7!” As we delved deeper into why we, who were COMPLETELY different styles of artists, ages, genders, etc., still found it so simple and natural to work together, it came down to the POSTURE and Spirit of collaboration. As artists in tune with the Lord, we had already mastered our crafts and learned to posture ourselves in humble attentiveness to Jesus in real time while we work… “Father, what are you doing right now?” While both of us took up that same posture individually, we could look over at the other with incredible trust and humility and offer that same attentive responsiveness to one another. I trusted Lexi as co-master, and she trusted me. We would hand off our brushes, painting directly over one another’s work at times, inspired by one another and continually discovering “MORE” unfolding on the canvases as we worked side by side… laughing and dancing along beside one another in the joy and discover of the work. Lexi noted that a major part of the success of the work was our willingness to “surrender control” and the ego that so often permeates the process, ownership, and pride of making. It was truly a creation born of our gifts converging in the collaboration… and something new emerged. 1+1=7.
The world’s population growth is currently accelerating faster than the spread of the gospel, and as global evangelical leaders consider the pressing needs of our time, it is clear that new strategies, new methods, and new technologies will be needed to grow in pace with the needs of our world. Humanly speaking, this is impossible, but the Church is not empowered by human wisdom or strength, but by the Spirit of God. New wineskins are needed to hold the “new wine” of God’s assignments for his people in the new millennium, and collaboration is a key element to what is being revealed. Collaboration requires the individual members of the Body of Christ to surrender their own control, personal agendas, and ego, and to look to the “head” of the body: Christ. Rightly aligned with Jesus, we can then approach one another in a posture of humble attentiveness, each doing our unique part, mutually honoring what the other brings, believing that in Kingdom collaborative math: 1+1=7. Where is the Lord stirring your heart to the white fields of The Harvest, and how might you collaborate with your brothers and sisters to hold the new wine and fulfill the new assignments of spreading the gospel in this place and time?