The Yellow Ochre Newsletter
Turn your art from a hobby into a purposeful blessing for your community and culture.
How Much is Your Church’s Cultural Tax?
Have you ever wondered what’s behind the walls of another religion’s building? Perhaps a Mosque, temple, or even another denomination’s sacred space.
What is a central reason for you not even attempting to visit during a service?
Obviously, if you don’t know anyone attending, then you’re less likely to show up, cold turkey.
But let’s just say you are considering visiting. The immediate questions begin to form:
What am I supposed to wear?
What is expected of my kids?
Should I shower that morning because I need to take my shoes off?
Should I arrive earlier than the start time? Or exactly on time?
If they sing, should I also sing? What if it’s an archaic language?
Am I allowed to use the bathroom during the “service” (if that’s even what they call it)?
…do they even have bathrooms?
etc.
These questions come from one simple thing: Cultural Tax.
Without realizing it, our churches do the same thing to our neighbors. Before ever hearing the good news of the gospel, they perceive the church’s culture.
Culture gaps come from all directions. There are migrant gaps, demographic differences, generational gaps, socioeconomic divisions, and the list goes on. In such a divided time, the church must take the initiative in closing such gaps. We must not be cultural toll booths charging fees our neighbors cannot pay or don’t desire to pay.
That’s why I created this tool. If you’re curious what your church’s estimated Insider/Cultural Tax is for your specific neighbors, fill this out:
Calculate Your Church's Insider Tax
Estimate your cultural friction score in 30 seconds.
Ready for a full diagnostic or want to discuss your score?
Contact Matt directly at Matt@taylormake.org
Arts As Metaphor for Making Good Works
The arts operate within the realm of metaphor. God has appointed good works for each of us to walk in since before the creation of the world (Ephesians 2:10), and these good works are brought to life through the act of making them.
We create meaningful moments with others through our words and actions.
Consider the impact of encouragement: have you ever been uplifted by someone’s words? Ever felt motivated by a coach to pursue action with renewed kindling? Or has your heart ever moved deeply from a movie? Or brought to tears by a thoughtful gift? Each of these experiences stems from something created by another person. Creation extends far beyond traditional arts and crafts.
The act of making is fundamental to how we live our lives.
How Metaphorical Christs Change the World
What happens when believers obey God’s word?
What impact does obedience have on the world? On society? On institutions? In our communities?
What change comes to the world through obedience to Christ?
It’s hard to change the world. How do we change something uncontrollable?
With the Spirit’s help, we can change something that has social and cultural ramifications.
1 Timothy and Titus tell us two surprising ways we can change the world: godliness and good works.
This is how metaphorical Christs change the world.
Cultural Tax
When we fail to remove these ethnocentric barriers, we unknowingly impose a steep cultural tax on the diverse communities and neighbors living right beside our churches.
These barriers function as invisible tollbooths just to enter the church’s presence.
Many do not know how to pay.
So they won’t even try.
Finding Your Audience
Sometimes, it’s just a matter of audience.
Around age 20, I submitted a drawing to an art competition and it was completely rejected, not even considered worthy to hang up in the show.
The next year, a new batch of judges became the gatekeepers for the same competition. My drawing won second place.
American painter, Henry Turner, was looked down upon back home. But in Paris, he was celebrated.
The elites considered the impressionists the scum of the earth. When the impressionists removed themselves from the elite space, the world opened up to them.
Who are the people of peace in your own world?
Maybe you should create for them.
I See You in the Valley
When life is heavy, we need help lifting burdens.
I believe God gave us such artistic tools to carry us and help us internalize our theology. Sometimes we make to bless a community and other times, we create just to welcome God’s blessing to us.
We couldn’t put this song on our album back in 2014 due to copyright issues. But here it is for free. I took the opening prayer from the Valley of Vision and gave it a musical facelift. Of all the prayers in that book, this one stood out to me for many years as I battled depression.
Lyrically, its helpful to remember the Lord amidst chaos, death, and sorrows.
As hard as life’s valleys are, I have found God uses them to blind us to the things of the world. Our vision for light becomes more clear in a dark room.
Finding Your Domain
The purpose of language in Genesis 2 was to create.
Adam named the creatures.
Creating names was an expression of his dominion.
The command was, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule…” (Genesis 1:28). Naming the creatures was an outflow of that command.
You get to choose what you rule over, what raw creation materials you mold and fashion for God’s glory.
Metaphorical Christs
Because arts are inherently imaginative, ministry never functions purely on an intellectual level.
A “Metaphorical Christ” refers to living life in a way that embodies the distinct nuances and character of Christ's life.
It requires exercising wisdom in daily decisions and remaining self-aware of the multifaceted ways we communicate God's kingdom.
Your life, actions, and words act as signposts that point others toward the gospel.
This concept emphasizes the "how" of sharing the Christian message, rather than focusing solely on the "what."
Paul captured this idea of a metaphorical Christ when he wrote, “In my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Colossians 1:24b). Since the believers in Colossae could not physically witness Jesus’ sufferings, Paul understood that his own endurance served both literally and metaphorically to make Christ visible to them.