Art and Spiritual Formation Practices for Students

An Interview with Cristy Dagenais

Welcome to the first of many posts on the subject of the Arts in Spiritual Formation. We start with interviewing Cristy, who uses art and spiritual formation practices with students in Ottawa, Canada.

Cristy Dagenais is married to Matt, and they have a son, Jesse. Cristy has worked for InterVarsity as a Campus Minister at Carleton University and Algonquin College for the past eight years. Cristy has a sense of calling to raise up leaders and disciple young adults, helping them find Jesus and develop spiritual practices that keep them connected to Jesus long term.

The interview was really thought-provoking and gave valuable insights into art and spiritual formation. This will be part 1 of the interview, where Cristy talks about art and faith practice in the context of working with students. Part 2 will be a more personal application of Art and spiritual formation while on a self-guided spiritual retreat this summer. The following are some edited highlights of the interview.

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"We're talking about something that feeds their souls, and then they do something that helps them remember that they have a soul." - Cristy Dagenais

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The Interview Part 1

Doug - Do you do art with your students, or do you use art as part of an overall idea of connecting with them over the long term? 

Cristy - I started trying to bring art into ministry with InterVarsity around COVID because we had to start getting really creative about how we could interact with each other. InterVarsity does have an arts team in Canada, and so we do have some artistic pursuits and things going on.

During COVID, I realized we need to do something online, but online is horribly boring. So how can we make this fun? So, we came up with this art and theology discussion group where we watched a Bible Project video, which in itself is very artistic. Then we had a discussion about the specific word or theme that came out of that? Then we'd create something to represent that one-thing they wanted to hold on to.

Sometimes we were creating in the Zoom room together, sometimes people were creating on their own. The next week we'd come back and we'd share. I had one student making music. I had another student that was into drawing, other students that were writers. It was really quite awesome to see the variety of arts that were happening.

Doug – So, a multidisciplinary approach to using art?  

Cristy - Yeah, because I didn't put on any limiters. It was just like, how are you going to remember the thing that stuck out to you? Let's make something to help us remember it. That was the basics; there were no other rules. So, that was the start.

The Fruit of Art and Spiritual Formation

And, you know, today, the guy that was making music, he's now made a lot of digital music. He's got a good following on his channels, and has a portable mic wherever he goes. If he's inspired, he makes music out of that. He says, just that little bit of space and encouragement was like his starting point.

The other one that's writing, he's now written a compilation book, and he's written a chapter in a fictional novel that's based on the book of Judges. And so, it's, it's been really fun to see these seeds actually did grow.

Creative Prayer

So fast forward today, the Algonquin College, Spiritual Centre wanted me to come in and do Christian hour. I'm thinking, oh, that's the worst name ever, “Christian hour,” no one's going to come to that! So, I said, "Can I change it up? Can I, can I do something like creative prayer?" And they said, "Sure, change whatever you want." So, I've been endeavouring over the past couple of terms just to create space for people to figure out how to communicate with God.

The Creative Prayer Process

The first hour is usually a guided experience, so I try to do different ways of prayer. Some are very visual, some are more audio. An example would be going back to an ancient practice: Visio Divina. We look at that picture together in a prayerful way and ask God to talk to us. Then we talk about what came to us, what was inspiring to us from that picture. Some of these students have never tried anything like this before. So we are introducing them to different ways of praying.

The second hour of creative prayer, I have stations set up with different ways to interact with God through the use of your hands. Maybe I’ll have clay in one area, and the verse about God is the potter and we are the clay. And so they're meditating on that verse as they're working the clay. And who cares if it makes anything they like, doesn't matter. It's just being connected to the hands and the meditation.

I have a really big mural that we're all colouring over the course of a year, and asking people to write down the verse that's loud to you today. So, it'll be filled with Bible verses and coloured, hopefully by the end of this year, showing different ways that people can interact with God and communicate, but hopefully, back and forth as they learn how to have fun with it, really.

Doug - And how do the students respond to using different kinds of creativity? I'm assuming that they would be predominantly Christian, or is there a mixture of Christian, non-Christian, that would be engaged in these processes?

Cristy - We never differentiate; anyone could walk in. Usually, there's a core group, and those often are Christian. But then we'll have other people just walk in. Some of them are international students that have a different belief in God. The conversation is then around how they communicate with God. Creative prayer can really be an outreach tool just as much as it can be spiritual formation.

In general, I would say there's just a lot of curiosity. I haven't really hit any negativity, but maybe some tentativeness if they believe they are not artistic. A lot of times having colouring books is really helpful because that's not too scary.

Doug - Right, yes, “I've got the outline, I can colouring within the lines,” kind of thing.

Cristy - Yeah. Also, having different levels of difficulty, I think, is helpful. So, colouring is very simple. The clay might be a little bit like, “What do I do with this lump of clay?” It might take a little bit more creative thought or imagination to play with that. And some people might not be there.

Another aspect of doing creative prayer is, a lot of students are extremely stressed and there is a dedicated space where when they walk in, it is quiet, I'm playing really calming worship music. Often instrumental, you know, and we're talking about something that feeds their souls, and then they do something that helps them remember that they have a soul.

Doug - Is there anything surprising that comes out of these creative prayer sessions? Are the students surprised by what they do, what they hear, what they sense, as are they connecting with God?

Cristy - Yeah. I think often... like forms that they've never tried before, and then they come out the other side and they're like, “oh, I never thought that God could talk to me through a picture,” right? Visio Divina is one of those “aha” moments. For some, they realize, “oh, this is one of the best ways I connect with God, and I never knew it,” you know?

I also have these emotion cards.  They have different emotions painted on one side. I lay them all out. During the lead up to exams when there's a lot of emotions, I ask them to look at these emotion cards, and pick two or three that really speak to them. They’re just looking at an image and attaching emotion to it. That’s helping them name how they feel. Then it gets super vulnerable, sharing why they picked those pictures. The great thing is on the other side of those cards are verses that talk about the emotion. If you feel fear, if you feel shame, if you feel whatever. And so, then it becomes art, taking us into spaces of healing in that moment.

End of Part 1

Part 2 will be posted soon and we discuss the recent spiritual retreat that Cristy went on.

You may want to listen to the full, upcoming podcast interview that has much more in depth discussion around Art and Spiritual Formation as well as some of the challenges that Gen Z and Alpha are facing today.

A link to the podcast will be in Part 2.

We would love to hear your responses or questions regarding the topics raised. Please leave your comments below.

Creating is Spiritual Formation