Media Library: The Lab Session 1

We invite you to explore all of the videos from The Lab, Session 1: On the Images of God. Explore the live-stream videos from our four community events under our Community Event Videos section. Watch how our Lab Rats tackled this journey under our Lab Rat Videos section. Grab bite-sized content in our Additional Videos section.

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Community Event Videos

Community Event – Part 1: Watch the livestream from our community event on May 3, 2023. Participants in-person and online kicked off our discussion series about the image of God by examining what we currently believe and what our personal experience has been. What was the most present image of God that you carried in your mind growing up? Has that changed? One of the most common images of God in western culture is that of an older white man. Has the image of God as an older white man impacted your life?

This event includes videos from episode 1 of our Lab Rats’ discussions. To watch our episode 1 unbroken and in its entirety, see below.

Community Event – Part 2: Watch the livestream from our community event on May 10, 2023. We continued our discussion series about the image of God by examining where our imagery of God comes from. Our abrahamic sibling religions of Judaism and Islam both claim to be aniconistic (without imagery for God). Why aren’t we? We also take a look at the images of Jesus and Mary and how they impact our faith.

This event includes videos from episode 2 of our Lab Rats’ discussions. To watch our episode 2 unbroken and in its entirety, see below.

Community Event – Part 3: Watch the livestream from our community event on May 17, 2023. We conduct an experiment where we imagine our Zeus-like image of God never existed, but instead God looks like a 9-year-old Syrian refugee girl. To help us picture this, we watched this video, called Edge of the Valley, by the Norwegian Refugee Council. If we imagine God looks like Darine, how would our language and ideas about God be different? How does this reimagining reveal biases about how we view God that we may not have realized before?

Community Event – Part 4: Watch the livestream from our community event on May 24, 2023. With the goal of placing love at the center of our topic, we explored ways that we might create a more inclusive space that encourages the sharing of ideas and views around the imagery of God. How can love + imagery of God be used to transform us personally and our society at large?

LAB RAT VIDEOS

Episode 1, Confront: The Lab Rats come together to discuss what images of God have been most present and influential throughout their lives. They also discuss the white-male God image, most famously represented by Michelangelo’s art in the Sistine Chapel, and compare their personal feelings of God to feelings conjured by this white-male God.

Episode 2, Deconstruct: The Lab Rats come together to discuss their research into the history of God imagery. They discuss the use and impact of God imagery over the years and why our white-male image of God has been so enduring.

Episode 3, Reframe: The Lab Rats change things up by exploring the spaces within Canvas Church for what God imagery exists. They discuss what story about God that imagery tells. The Lab Rats then participate in an exercise that forces them to confront biases of which they may not have been fully aware.

Episode 4, Rebuild: The Lab Rats discuss how their exploration of God imagery has impacted them and seek to address how we move forward in regards to imagery of God from a place of love.