Cool Hand Luke

After lots of dreaming, a project called The Telephone Collective has started. The Telephone Collective is a group of artists from different disciplines who are collaborating to play a game, to create something together that points toward Christ, to learn from each other, and to encourage others to do the same.

The collective takes its name and inspiration from the game Telephone that most of us played as a kid. This is how Wikipedia describes the game: “The first player whispers a phrase or sentence to the next player. Each player successively whispers what that player believes he or she heard to the next. The last player announces the statement to the entire group. Errors typically accumulate in the retellings, so the statement announced by the last player differs significantly, and often amusingly, from the one uttered by the first.”

In this game of Telephone, it all starts with a passage from the Holy Bible. This passage is chosen by the first player with no restrictions and then given only to the second player. The second player then has to communicate the truth or truths of this passage through his or her art, be it song, dance, painting, etc. Keeping the passage a secret, the second player will then give only the work of art to the third player. This will continue until all of the members of the collective have created something inspired by the piece they received. At the end there will be various distinct works that are all informed by the passage in some way.

The Telephone Collective all share a passion for the art they create and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Though it is likely that the original passage will be lost early on this project, the common desire to communicate the truth of the gospel will tie all of the works together.

In the coming days, I’ll tell you more about the specifics of The Telephone Collective and tell you how you can follow the progress of the game online. The game has already begun, and we are excited to see what we learn from the process and the outcome. My vision and hope is that The Telephone Collective will be an ongoing project with lots of games and lots of players so that we can learn how to create together and appreciate different kinds of art that glorifies God. I hope you’ll enjoy following this process with us.