the Mosaic Workshop (extended version)

The Mosaic Workshop explains the meaning of 1 Corinthians 12 "Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ." We also touch on Church unity and our ability to show the face of Christ to the world when we work together.
We have a new program called the Mosaic Project. I teach a painting class where 30 separate groups each paint a 24" x 24" canvas. I give each group a blank canvas and a card with a sketch that they must reproduce. They learn about value, contrast, mixing paint and application. None of the 30 canvases contain a recognizable image by itself. During the class I ask the students to rate their ability 1-10. Most people will rate themselves 1-3. We paint for a few hours and usually people have difficulty handing in the canvas because they are not confident in the quality of the image.
Later we assemble the 30 tiles on a 14ft tall grid with and reveal the face of Christ. I then give a 5 minute talk about church unity and what it means to be a part of the body of Christ. Part of the lesson is that individually it is sometimes hard to see the Big Picture when we serve God. But as the body of Christ, we show his face to the world. Our mistakes just blend in and disappear.