FUMC to teach art to Pinkston Street students

Mar. 11—HENDERSON — Come April, a group of third graders at Pinkston Street Elementary School will board Noah's Ark.

Whoops, that's Noah's Arts — a program through First United Methodist Church, a 15-year long, "hand-in-hand" partner with PSES. The program's name, of course, is a play on that famous Biblical boat.

Every Wednesday in April, May, September and October, 20 hand-selected third graders will attend one- to two-hour classes at PSES. They'll enjoy snacks and fellowship in the first half hour and hands-on learning in musical, dramatic and visual arts.

Then, one Sunday in each of those months, the kids will attend a service and present their work. The content of the service itself will depend on what they present. If they paint a starry night, for example, Pastor George Loveland would find Bible verses about starry nights to complement it.

A $6,200 Mission Seed grant through the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, plus $2,000 from a private donor, are paying for the program.

Work on getting the program up and running dates back to last summer. The church was looking for a need to address — and found one.

PSES' students are largely economically disadvantaged, Loveland explained. He cited a 2022 U.S. News and World Report article that found that arts education led to better performance in all other areas of academia — an effect that was amplified for economically disadvantaged students.

Lastly, PSES doesn't offer many formal art classes.

Cultivating those sorts of relationships with community members is part of FUMC's form of evangelism. It starts as a simple invitation, explained Pastor George Loveland.

Loveland is no arts afficionado — the congregation has a running joke that the sound booth operators need to cut off his microphone when it comes time to sing a hymn, he said. It's a joke, but they do so.

Part of the program's goal is to deepen relationships with students and parents. During their 15-year partnership, the congregation has offered prayer partners and annual breakfasts to faculty, and delivered food-laden backpacks for students who get reduced price or free lunches.

That partnership was mostly institutional, though. The church seeks new members — but Loveland said that any time spent with PSES' faculty, students and parents is a form of church.

A Methodist tradition is something called "social holiness," explained Loveland. That means building schools, hospitals, providing healthcare — performing services that lead to lasting or widespread positive outcomes — as opposed to volunteering once a month at a soup kitchen to "check off a box."

For the FUMC, the point of evangelism is community, not just shared religion. Noah's Arts is just a way of putting their money where their mouth is, Loveland explained.