Visual Arts
FreeBibleimages offers free sets of Bible story images for teaching. There are over 760 sets of Bible story scenes to view, project or download.
There are over 600 Bible story illustration sets, and over 100 Bible story photo sets. Contributers include Good News Productions, Sweet Publishing, LUMO Project, Moody Publishers, the Glory Story, YoMinistry.com and many more organisations and individuals.
Are the images really free?
"Yes! We have a heart for busy teachers and those in poor regions of the world. All pictures are free for use in teaching. We provide the pictures and you tell the story, with the Bible as your reference source. Conditions about the reuse of the images in new projects vary with each contributor. Those who donate to this project help share these resources around the world as a gift."
FreeBibleimages is a registered Christian charity in the United Kingdom with no denominational or commercial affiliation. [more...]
Mike Waters' cartoon Shepherd's Voice illustrates the effect of today's many distractions on Scripture Engagement. It could be a good discussion starter as you think together with others about this topic.
From joyfultoons.com (April 26, 2009). [more...]
The MA with a major in World Arts prepares students to work cross-culturally alongside singers, musicians, actors, dancers, storytellers, and visual artists, researching the arts of their community. Using these insights, the student will be able to spark artistic creations with artists to respond to their community’s needs in community development, health education, justice issues, language and arts preservation, literacy, Scripture engagement and translation, worship expressions, and other areas.
This program will be of interest to people with artistic skills and sensibilities, curiosity about culture, a commitment to serious research, and a drive to see others create. Depending on prior background and training, as well as the specialization and application courses chosen, graduates will be prepared for careers such as the following:
- Arts journalist
- Community development worker
- Ethnodramatologist
- Ethnomusicologist
- Orality consultant
- Trauma healing consultant
- Arts consultant for Bible translation projects, Schools in cross-cultural contexts, Non-governmental organizations, Multi-ethnic churches, Literacy projects, and sending agencies
"We make posters, bookmarks - laminated and non-laminated, bookmark kits for groups to make their own bookmarks, refrigerator magnets, note pads, stickers..."
The Inakeanon People of the Philippines are seeing God’s Word in colorful attractive posters, bookmarks, key chains, greeting cards and more. The Inakeanon Scripture Promotion team has produced over 1,250 Scripture posters as well as hundreds of the other Scripture items. These were hand made, scrapbook style from used greeting cards, stickers and punched-out shapes sent from interested prayer partners.
This article contains samples of the posters that have been produced as well as links to images of many more. [more...]
"By using Participatory Methods, my students have seen all eight conditions for Scripture engagement strengthened, and Kingdom Goals met, working with various communities around the world. Both literate and oral-preference communicators have become more actively involved in creating with and learning from their local language Scripture."
This paper outlines the application of participatory methods to the “Eight Conditions for Scripture Engagement.”
Using the new “Appreciative Inquiry for Scripture Engagement” facilitation tool, translation teams and local leaders explore existing strengths and future hopes for each condition. Together, they prioritize their goals, and make an action plan to achieve them. The eight conditions provide an analytic framework for participants to evaluate strengths and overcome obstacles to their community’s interaction with Scripture.
Following appreciative inquiry, the new “Use of Our Arts in Ministry” tool allows teams to expand Scripture use to further artistic domains in ways that strengthen each weak condition. Participatory methods facilitation leads a team to engage their community with their translation in life-changing ways. Script outlines in appendices 1 and 2 explain how to use the two participatory methods discussed. [more...]
“The illustrations captured the imagination of the children.”
Mary Beavon describes a Scripture Use activity their team used in an area of Cameroon where churches are small, travel is difficult, and people have little money. They developed Scripture Big Books (from Shell Books), which served to both teach the Bible and promote literacy. They were used in churches and open air. Though it is not a sustainable activity, it provides useful manuscripts and exposes people to written forms of the Bible. [more...]
Login to post commentsThe choice of medium can make a difference, and better artistic quality enhances any communication. However, the most important quality is how relevant the message seems to be to the lives of its hearers. If a hearer (or reader or viewer) thinks the message can make an important difference in his life, he will make an effort to listen, even if the quality is poor. Conversely, if he thinks it says nothing personally relevant, he will ignore even the best presented message. This principle of personal relevance is critical to communication.
Wayne Dye expands upon his third condition for Scripture Engagement:
Accessible forms: People are able to read the Scriptures or hear them from others or by listening to electronic media.
The article describes different ways of making the Scriptures more accessible: storying, literacy, local performing and visual arts, audio recordings, cell phones and video. [more...]
The Glory Story is the whole of the Bible Story from Genesis – Revelation in film on just two DVDs: the Old Testament & The New Testament.
Glory Picture Gallery: All the stills & text to tell the whole of the Bible story from Genesis – Revelation. You can download the pictures and text. These great bible pictures are an ideal resource for Sunday schools, home schooling, educational institutions and of course the family. [more...]
"I realised that no translation was worth anything if my children didn't read it on their own because they wanted to. The burning question for me as a parent was how do I get my children into the word of God so that the word of God would get into them? As a professional illustrator the answer became obvious."
The Illustrated Bible - containing the historical books of the Old and New Testaments - is available in two formats: as illustrated pages and as video. Each Bible story selection contains the full Bible text with accompanying images.
The videos are made from the still images, with the camera moving over the illustrations, zooming in and out, and panning across. The images are realistic rather than using a cartoon style.
There are several free Bible stories and video clips to view online or download, as well as others to purchase. Translation and dubbing is possible into other languages. [more...]
It is urgent and necessary for us to proclaim and to express the message, the life and the whole person of Jesus-Christ in an african artistic language, in our language which is the expression of our daylife, of our culture. Many people of different cultures have done it before us and will do it in the future, without betraying the historical Christ, from whom all authentic christianity arises.
'The Life of Jesus Mafa' is a set of 63 pictures from the life and teaching of Jesus, viewed by the artist as if the events had taken place in a village in Cameroon.
Millions of these images have been printed and distributed around the world since their creation in the 1970s. [more...]