Pastor-cartoonist-professor Steve Thomason never “grew out of” drawing. Drawing was his go-to way to play as a kid, and he never stopped. As a pastor’s kid, he was also very interested in Scripture. Since, in order to understand something, Steve has to draw it, mapping out biblical stories or drawing theological concepts was part of his own process of growing in understanding.
Yet he wrote The Visual Preacher for non-artists, for any preacher who wants to take full advantage of visual elements in their preaching, regardless of artistic ability.
Thomason acknowledges that this is a sight-centric conversation. For those with low vision or leading among the blind community, this is not going to be as applicable. Yet for many of us, spoken words are only a part of human communication. Being physically present in front of a congregation, how you carry yourself, and your facial expressions are all visual elements of your preaching.
Visuals and the Gospel of John
“Come and see.” The invitation Jesus extends at the beginning of his ministry in John is inscribed on pulpits around the world. That’s a reminder that our encounters with Jesus have to engage not just our minds, but our senses. In the Gospel of John there is also an emphasis on light, another necessary component to sight or receiving visual cues. Preachers must take into consideration that visual element and help people “see” the gospel.
It has only been for a short period of human history that we have been fixated on the written word for communication, since we have not been majority literate for very long. We still communicate visually how God is in the world. The gospel has always been shared through the spoken word, which is a performative act, yet if you can bring visuals into that, how much more clearly you can communicate!
How do you visually depict God?
On the podcast, cohost Rolf Jacobson points out that something always goes wrong when we try to create a visual of God the Father, the first person of the Trinity. And one of the commandments was not to make a graven image of God. How does an artist engage this conundrum?
Steve Thomason never draws God the Creator/Source, but acknowledges the deep tradition of iconography, as windows into the divine. As soon as you draw what God is, you are instantly wrong. This is also true of systematic theology. As soon as you say, “This is how it is,” your construct is wrong. The constructs help us to see, but we are never calling the objects we’ve created themselves “god.”
What if I don’t have a screen?
Visual communication is not the same as digital communication! It is still possible to be a visual preacher, even if you don’t have technological ways of projecting images. The colors of altar cloths change with the seasons. The worship space itself is a 3-D visual element. Where you stand in it communicates something different. You can put a painting on an easel or draw on a flip chart. Put on your children’s-sermon lens when preparing the message for adults too, and bring an object to set on the pulpit.
Thomason was formed by Evangelical mega-church preaching, the point of which was giving people one thing to take home. So if you start with an illustration, and you circle back to it at the very end, it bookends the sermon with cohesive imagery. A gesture can be repeated, perhaps with a sound (for example, “brain exploding”) for integrated visual/movement impact. But also, Steve Thomason just talks with his hands. Be who you are when you are preaching!
In the book Thomason also details the process of storyboarding (like Walt Disney) for a sermon. It’s a bit like writing every tidbit of research you take from a library for a research paper on an index card, then laying them all out so you can rearrange and move them around to see what flows best, one idea connecting with another.
For more on this volume in the Working Preacher Books series, The Visual Preacher: Proclaiming an Embodied Word, listen to a podcast episode or watch it on YouTube, in which Steve Thomason discusses the book, as well as his wider perspective on preaching, with Rolf Jacobson and Karoline Lewis.
