What is INTERACT?
INTERACT is a growing series of discussion guides aimed at helping creative students engage with themes that shape the arts today. These are a helpful resource for you to use in your Arts Network hubs.
Our aim with Interact is to help you to:
Think
By bringing creative works alongside biblical texts in the form of a discussion, we hope to help you investigate and dig deeper into the connections that exist between God's Word and the arts today.
Speak
As you grow in confidence recognising that God's Word speaks directly into the questions our culture is asking, we hope that you will feel able to reach out and invite others into these conversations. Interact is intended to feel accessible to those at any stage of exploring the Christian faith, so invite friends along to join your studies!
Live
We also hope that these studies will encourage you to consider the practical ways in which God's Word shapes the daily rhythm of your life. Each study will prompt you to apply your reflections to practical steps as well as exploring creative ways for you to put these into practice in your time at University.
Preparing for INTERACT
Interact is designed to require minimal preparation beforehand - intended to be worked through as a group.
It will be helpful if you are facilitating the discussion to read the passage ahead and familiarise yourself with the context. Similarly, look at the artwork in advance so you have a better idea of what it is about. You also have the freedom to change the art object in the study if you feel a different artwork/design/text might be more suitable for your group (but keep it connected to the theme of the study!).
INTERACT Format
INTERACT discussion guides are broken down into different sections (following a similar pattern to UCCF's Impact Groups).
Preparing for Interact
This section gives you questions and prompts to begin your discussion together and get you thinking about the theme of the study.
Interact//The Arts
This section will take you to a particular work or text connected to the discussion focus. It is worth spending a little bit of time looking at the work. If your group are really unfamiliar with the work, take some time to look online and find out more about it. This section also contains questions to help you reflect and analyse the work.
Interact//The Word
In this section you will be taken to a passage from the Bible that helps us to further dig into some of the themes that have just been raised in the artwork or text in the previous section. Take time to read through the Bible passage, as well as reading the short reflection on the passage afterwards (it might be a good idea for someone to read this aloud). Then there are a series of questions designed to help you to consider what the passage is saying.
Interact// Ourselves and Others
This is a chance for you to consider how the Bible passage might be practically applied to your lives as creatives. In particular, we want you to think about how the Bible might shape our behaviours and the way we live.
Wrapping Up
To finish your time together, take a moment to reflect on all that you have just thought about. This section contains a prompt to help you consider a practical action you could take into your week after the discussion has ended. Also, make sure to spend some time praying in your group - you can follow the prayer written or pray your own prayers as you conclude your time together.
We love to hear from you!
If you have any feedback on these discussion guides, or have ideas of themes/questions you'd be interested in exploring for future series', then please get in touch with us!