One of our family cars for seven years was an art car. In so many ways, the story of how it came to be embodied a model of my ministry. The art car brought joy to people when they saw it. It brought people together in community. It was silly. It invited people to the act of re-creation.
This old model Honda had lost much of its paint after years in the West Texas desert where it was driven by my mother years ago, but it still had lots of life left in it. So, we brought it home with us to Georgia. Instead of a new paint job, we chose chalk paint. It became a blank canvas on which we could play. We drew pictures and shared poetry on it. We asked questions for others to ponder. With each rainfall, the canvas was washed clean, and we could create again.
I drove it for several years, and then my oldest daughter drove it in her college years. Finally in 2022, it finally went kaput. It had become a community point of interest where we lived. My daughter was known as the “art car girl.” We shared the car at local events. Most often, the children drew on it. Yet, when invited, adults openly would too. It brought people together. This art car was a medium for bringing people “out of their shell” and invited unexpected playfulness and reflection amidst the usual rigidity of adult life.
Most often, we would write a question on the car in brightly colored chalk. Then, we left the box of chalk behind by the bumper of the car. Friends, neighbors, and strangers shared their answers. We often asked, “What does the world need more of?” The answers were joyful, loving, and profound: love, chocolate, peace, Super Bowl victories, fried chicken, laughter, hugs, AA meetings, poetry, Jesus, art, time with my grandchildren, gratitude, and more. I was often surprised by how heartfelt the answers were – written by strangers.
When I was driving it, it allowed me to minister to others through art. At community events where meals were shared with those who were hungry and often unhoused, those same smiling faces engaged in coming together in community to create art. At events such as these, the art car brought joy to others. On these nights, I wondered if the art car brought an experience to this community that may not have been available to them very often – a chance to play.
When I was a chaplain resident at a recovery center for men who had previously been homeless and sometimes incarcerated, part of the community building was to come up with a weekly theme for the car – a new question to ask, a design, or a canvas for a resident budding artist at the center. The car brought the men together to express themselves and be accepting of each other. I was proud of the ministry I was able to offer through the collective experience.
This art project was recreational, certainly. Yet, it also allowed for the re-creation of community through the joy of something surprising such as multicolored sticks of chalk and a few quarts of paint.
My vision of ministry comes from a love of bringing people together in ways that fosters the joyful expression of themselves in ways that also deepen community. I look for ways to re-create who we are, together. This art car, as a means for this, was a special ministry in and of itself.
Rev. Christina Branum-Martin 