'The True Purpose of the Church'

The painting shows the people bringing their gifts into the “Barn”/storehouse, which is representative of the Church.

The “gifts” are their resources – time, talent and money. The gifts/resources are used to promote the Work of the Kingdom. This is the objective of the Church, not for the Church to get “fatter”, but to touch the world… to reproduce more churches throughout the earth.

One gift in the left corner shows a gift tag, and the Name “Jesus” can be easily read.

On the right bottom corner is the wheat. The wheat is stored in the Barn in the natural. The wheat speaks of the natural harvest, which once again, would be the gifts that we would bring into the Church. The wheat also symbolises the spiritual harvest, which is people.

The people are entering the Church through an open door. There is a cross over this entrance. The Cross represents Salvation. This is how people actually come into Christ, as the first step being Salvation.

The Holy Spirit, represented by a dove, hovers over the “Barn”/Church. This represents the transforming power of God which is happening within the Church.
We are now also in the era of the Holy Spirit and He needs to be portrayed as active in our lives.

Through the transforming power of God, as evidenced in our changed lives, then we are able to “touch” the world for Jesus. The light flowing out from the back of the “Barn”/Church highlights the world where the moon might be expected. This light penetrates the night sky, which depicts the spiritual darkness around us.

This is the flow of the Church. People come in with their resources. They are changed within the Church. And then they are able to reach the world as Jesus commanded. This inflow/outflow is simply depicted in this painting.

In the left top corner, there is the sun. For me the sun is always a play on words… representing the Son, Jesus. The sunshine radiating from the sun always reminds me of God’s Glory.

This same “Son-shine” light is used as the light that touches the world from the “Barn”/Church. It is God’s Glory.

The Sun and the palm trees give it a Caribbean flavour, as well as the use of bright colours.

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