I've spent the last couple of days at this years Global Legacy conference at New Horizons Church in McMinnville, OR. Among other topics the main subject last night and today sparked some interesting discussion. "What makes rivers flow from the Temple in scripture, as in Ezekiel 47?". Paul Manwaring's argument is that perfect beauty was the key, and will be the key for the modern church to bring about change in our world.

It raises an interesting idea, and one that I think will work at the minds of the church leaders at the conference for quite a while. The biggest challenge is who or what defines beauty in a world corrupted by the fall of man? To some it is limited to the physical but obviously it was intended to be much farther reaching than just human physical presence.

For too long the church has seemed to wait for permission from somewhere or someone to allow modern technology or art into our churches, never taking time to wonder why it ever left? In the renascence art was central to every place of worship, and the church sponsored more art than any king or queen yet today we are afraid to have a picture on the background of our overhead.

We need to first redefine beautiful, and then acknowledge that it needs to come back to our community and our churches in godly ways for the Kingdom to move forward.