|
Excerpted from a letter Sharnessa wrote in 1998, when she was 20.
For a f
God is calling Christians to excellence, which means that what we produce in the area of the Arts should be at least as good as what the world produces, if not better! The world sees most of what the Church in general has produced (as far as the Arts go) as being "low quality" not usually attractive to the unsaved. It's not meant to be that way! The Arts were God's arena to begin with! What we produce should "blow the world away." The world should be drawn to Jesus by what we do. Not that it's supposed to be alluring in a sensual sense, but by their seeing the purity, truth, and love of Jesus in it.
I
know that God wants to use me in the Arts, particularly
God has already used me in this area to a degree in several performances and productions that I have either been involved in or that I myself have choreographed, directed, and produced. But I now feel God is leading me to go deeper with it all as He has opened the door for me to take this to the next level! I have been accepted at the School of Creative Ministries in London, which is under IBIOL the International Bible Institute of London. This is a one-year program.
Part
of the school's focus is to give the students a broad perspective of
the Arts, from theater to the entertainment
[And its what she was completing as my book on homeschooling through high school, Senior High: A Home-Designed Form+U+la, was in the final stages of being printed in June of 1999! ... And fast-forward to fall of 2020, IBIOL was now 21 years ago! She ended up going to this school for a year, and it's where she got part of her foundation in the arts, as well as where she met her husband, Sam (of 20 years now!), who shares her heart and vision for the arts, and who is the biggest part of making it it all happen! The "wind beneath her wings"! That's him in the photo here, praying for the teachers right before a recital began! The two of them created and have owned and operated Fresh Attitude Dance Studio since 2001!!!]
All photos are from Sharnessa's own stash on Facebook.
|
ew
years now, I have been excited about the move of God to bring "the
Arts" back into the church and the church back into the Arts. I
believe He desires to do this in such a dynamic way that the world
will be touched by Him through this medium. 
singing,
dancing, and acting. But I don't want to just "perform" or
"get a name for myself"; I want to draw people to God
through what I do. I'm SO excited about being part of all of this, and
about being on the "front lines"! (Hey, my mom doesn't call
me her "little Joan of Arc" for nothing!)
industry. But most
importantly they focus on the relationship with God, not on
religion or legalism, but on the reality of Jesus, for real
people in a real world with real needs. The combination
of God and the Arts at this school is so rare and so incredible!