Interview: Pastor Matthew Ingalls

This week, I had the opportunity of interviewing Matthew Ingalls, who is the pastor of River Street Church of God here in Newberg. I actually attend this church, so it was a fun opportunity to pick Pastor Matt’s brain a bit on how Art and Christ play a role both in his personal life and the life of River Street.

Pastor Matt and his lovely family!

Not surprising to me was that many of his answers were extremely insightful, and his ideas relating art and faith struck some chords with me. Here are some highlights from our conversation:

In response to the question of what the role of someone who wants to follow Christ, but also wants to be an artist, Pastor Matt responded that oftentimes he feels artists have been cultural critics. This has been negative in many cases, but artists also have the opportunity to put things into perspective in helpful, not hurtful ways. Pastor Matt expressed his wish for the Church to open up to and enable artists to do just that, and for artists themselves to create from a sense of truth, not just for the sake of critiquing. I appreciated this answer, because it presents a charge not only for artists, but for the Church as well. Artists can create regardless of the Church’s endorsements, but if the Church and artists can collaborate and work together, the reach to the rest of the world can expand exponentially. Also, he sees being an artist much like being a disciple – each has to look inside his or herself to find out who they are, and then journey outside of themselves to see and understand the world they’re in. I thought this was beautiful, and very fitting to an artist’s role in the world and the Church.

The second question I posed to Pastor Matt asked how art plays a role at River Street Church of God in particular, and what his visions are for the future in how to incorporate art. Since I attend the church, I knew that there are few art pieces hanging on the walls. I also knew that Pastor Matt likes to draw pictures to integrate into his sermons. Since what I could see of art being integrated into the church was limited, I was interested to hear the answer!

The response of how art is integrated greatly exceeded my expectations. First off, Pastor Matt pointed out that only 20% of the congregation are auditory learners, so the sermon drawings he does are very practical (kudos for consideration of different learning styles!!). Not only that, but he has a love for drawing because he feels he can express ideas far better through drawing than through words. I cannot help but agree with him on this! Secondly, he sees his sermons as art – with each sermon he tries to make it have the same power and life as a poem. Preaching is his art, and he does his best to be an artist of integrity with his sermons.

As for his hopes for the future regarding art and River Street, he has many. Mostly, he wants people to feel comfortable enough to use their own art in the church. He would like to have an art festival around Easter, and his wife would like to have an exhibit where an artist displays his or her work every quarter. These are great ideas, but they would definitely take leadership and work!

River Street Church of God – Newberg, OR

Something I thought was an excellent practice not only for artists, but anyone who believes, is the idea of drawing as prayer. Pastor Matt did this with the “Experience Discipleship” group that meets once a week at the church. Once again, this goes back to much more being expressed through drawings than words. This is definitely an exercise I’d love to try out, and perhaps practice on a regular basis.

Pastor Matt is also a great fan of icon paintings. He loves the philosophy that they provide a window into their purest nature created in Christ. Their old nature is gone, and a pristine nature is depicted in the paintings. As for examples of images that have impacted him, there are many, including Rembrandt’s The Prodigal Son and the icon painting Christ Pantocrator. The latter in particular is interesting due to the split facial expressions of Jesus – one is merciful, the other is just.

“Christ Pantocrator” – located in Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai

As for how the Church of God utilizes art, there is nothing intentional about it. Pastor Matt pointed out that on a national level, the Church of God is very loosely connected. There are pockets of people in the denomination he knows that are passionate about it, but he doesn’t believe the Church of God has any real philosophy on it. This is not too surprising to me, but since I did not know much about the denomination to begin with, it was still interesting to hear.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this time of hearing my pastor’s thoughts on art and the Church. I knew he had a love for art, but I had a greater glimpse into just how deep that love is. I hope that some of the visions for further integrating art into River Street will be able to happen in the future! Perhaps I can play a role in helping make those happen while I’m still in the area.

For a deeper look into River Street Church of God, here is their website: http://rscog.squarespace.com/

For more thoughts from Pastor Matt, here is his blog link (also located in the website above): http://rscog.squarespace.com/the-latest/

For a deeper look into the Church of God, their website is: http://www.churchofgod.org/