Through the Lookout Glass

I know, really punny. Bear with me.

Most of my blog writing seems to happen at around 5am, after I’ve tried to get a sweet baby back to sleep. So let’s just get some housekeeping out of the way: 1. I will probably make terrible puns every now and again, but I’ll try to keep it under control. 2. I’ll do my best to keep the spelling/grammar errors at bay, but again, #5am. And 3. If you haven’t heard from me for a while, then that means my kiddo is sleeping through the night! So do a little celebration for us, but do not fear. She’ll be not-sleeping again before we know it, I’m sure.

Now, let’s get to the actual point of this post – to show a bit of the behind-the-scenes that happens when designing a magazine! If you’ve read any of my previous posts, then you know that I am not an expert in the field of graphic design. But the beauty of this day-and-age is that you can basically pursue anything if you’re passionate about it!

My history teacher used to say “what you learn in school isn’t nearly as important as making sure you learn how to learn, and to never stop.”

It’s. So. True.

Before I go off on a different tangent, all of that is to say that this is my process. This is just a little peek into how we ended up where we did.

If you or your church subscribe to Christian Standard, then you may have seen the ad shown above in the March 2018 issue. It promoted the upcoming series of Lookout issues, which are currently out now. They’re pretty bold, but it’s intentional, so I thought you might like to hear about it!

This series of issues, 03-05, focus on worship. But what does “worship” mean?

I immediately assume music. My husband is a worship leader, and I love worship music, so I always am quick to correlate worship with music. I feel like that’s probably pretty common, but it doesn’t take long for me to be reminded, “no Megan, worship isn’t only music. Think of all the ways you can worship God without using music . . .” So, I immediately transition to my instincts as a creative. My goal is for the work I do to always glorify God, and trust me, it won’t have anything to do with music. #notmygift

So while I was thinking about “creative, non-musical worship” I immediately thought of stained glass. I’ve always been totally mesmerized by stained glass windows. Beautiful pieces of art, crafted by hand, out of such a fragile material, yet they withstand such force!

Stained glass also reminds me that the Christian faith is capable of producing incredible works of art! This may be a polarizing statement, but I feel like “contemporary” Christianity has had a tendency to produce some pretty mediocre . . . meh. I don’t even really know how to finish this sentence. Do you know what I’m talking about? Growing up, I didn’t look to Christian artists, musicians, or designers and think, “that guy – he’s gonna take art culture to places it’s never been before”. It just seemed like we were always trying to keep up with secular culture.

It’s sad, right? That the faith that worships the Creator of the universe has ever lacked creative originality? Now, your experiences may be different than mine, and I’m definitely not saying that Christians aren’t capable of making beautiful or original things. In fact, I think especially in recent years, Christian artists have made great strides! My point is simply, I think we kind of needed to.

I’ve loved making things my whole life, and I feel like that has always been something that really personalized my faith. I wanted to honor God with what I made, and I wanted to make it as good as it could possibly be – because it was for Him.

Even as a graphic designer, I’m trying to be like Him – the one who created the heavens and earth and everything in them – so I’d better bring my A-game.

Whoa there, Soap Box. Get back to the stained glass.

Stained glass is in this vein to me. I can’t tell you the exact history behind stained glass, and I even looked it up for this post. What I do know is that stained glass is often specifically associated with the church, especially during medieval times, when stained glass windows adorned places of worship, and communicated Biblical truths and stories to a people who were largely illiterate. Stained glass glorified God with its beauty, and literally communicated the gospel to people in need. What a great picture of worship!

So, issues 03-05 of The Lookout, entitled Follow, Honor, and Praise, all feature stained-glass-inspired design. That notebook in the picture up there is the notebook that goes everywhere with me, and those are the actual notes from our brainstorming session. My design partner, Abby, and I were amazed at the ways “stained glass” communicated “worship”. You can see the key words in the ad up there: creative, beautiful, bright, colorful, light, reflective. All of those apply to stained glass and worship! Not only does stained glass remind us of places of worship, but it’s a representation of worship itself!

So when you’re flipping through your Lookout these next couple of months, wondering what’s with the glass texture and all the bright colors, now you’ll know! It’s a reminder that you are a creation of the God of the universe. He crafted you to be beautiful, colorful, creative, and most of all to reflect His goodness – to worship Him.

These three issues remind us to follow, honor, and praise our God – to worship Him for, and as, His beautiful masterpiece.

ps • The stained glass image above is from our @LookoutMagazine instagram feed. If you want to see more, (which we would appreciate, because we work really hard on it), give us a follow!

And visit www.lookoutmag.com if you’d like to subscribe!

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