A Place to “Come and See”

During a worship service at Pasadena Covenant Church, you might find Steve Stuckey seated with a journal and pencil, possibly taking notes but more likely drawing. “When I’m listening to sermons, I’m always listening for the image,” says Stuckey.

Stuckey began attending Pasadena Covenant 38 years ago when he and his wife moved to the area. He and a team are working to renovate the church’s 100-year-old sanctuary and lobby as part of a Centennial Renovation. He is also working on another project, a space to showcase art by members of the congregation.

Stuckey created the “Come and See” gallery during renovations in 2019. There was a small storage room off the lobby that was used as a prayer room. “But it was always locked, and no one ever went into it,” Stuckey says. “I’m creating it partly to give other artists in the church, and that includes children, the opportunity to share what they are discovering.”

The first installation consisted of Stuckey’s work depicting the life of Jonah to enhance the message of the Lenten season. The second installation honored part of the church’s rich creative past. Members of the congregation had created bulletin covers depicting sermon themes, producing 1,800 bulletin covers from 1975 to 2010. The works consisted of black and white sketches, colorful drawings, and watercolor works, 26 of which were displayed in the gallery.

Stuckey encouraged visitors to the gallery to get involved. He provided paper, pencils, and a sketchbook and invited children to try sketching. “A number of kids came by and picked up paper and pencil during the service, and they sketched something,” Stuckey says.

Lead pastor Steve Wong sees the gallery as a creative opportunity to expand discipleship. “We get to, as a church, exercise and reimagine and practice seeing, hearing, touching, and experiencing God with one another,” Wong says.

The third installation opened in November with the theme “The Sanctuary As…” Inside the gallery, artwork created by members of the congregation portrays the sanctuary as a place in nature, a signpost, and a place of safety.

Stuckey wanted to tie the third installation to the renovation of the sanctuary. “It’s a room. It has a functional purpose,” Stuckey says. “What I was trying to do is to highlight the symbolic purpose.”

He points to the Garden of Eden as the first sanctuary, which included the Tree of Life. So Stuckey created a tree of life for the gallery from pews salvaged from the church’s original sanctuary. He says everyone has a personal feeling of what “sanctuary” means to them.

Stuckey’s larger goal for the gallery is to help members experience their faith differently. “I tend to find church environments as a verbal environment. We come Sunday morning and we listen,” says Stuckey. “I wanted to augment that and use another body part: the eyes in addition to the ear.”

Worshiping with visual art is not new to the congregation. When Mel White, a documentary and movie producer, was pastor in the 1970s, he attracted creative people who brought their desire to worship through visual arts, fueling a renaissance of creativity. Over the years, the church hired staff as ministers of arts and formed worship and arts committees.

And now Pastor Wong encourages curiosity and risk in worship. “We are invited to see God everywhere. Often, we limit that to what we say and hear,” he says. “Whatever we can do to use all the senses, let’s engage with it wholeheartedly as an adventure.”

Stuckey says he hopes, amid the Sunday morning chatter and noise, that the Come and See gallery can be a place where people can ponder the Creator reflected in the pieces of creatives, “I find art galleries tend to be meditative or reflective spaces,” Stuckey says. “Sunday morning is a very extroverted affair. We are a large crowd of people. This is a quieter space for folks to look and see from another perspective, things that they might have not thought about previously.”