The Thriving Christian Artist

Creative Couple Uses Art to Equip, Heal & Inspire: An Interview with Stephen & Tricia Preston

• Matt Tommey: Artist, Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur and Artist Mentor

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In this powerful episode of The Thriving Christian Artist Podcast, I sit down with long-time friends Stephen and Tricia Preston, a creative couple whose lives are a beautiful example of artistry, ministry, and Kingdom impact working hand-in-hand. From running multiple creative ventures to hosting a thriving conference for artists in their church community, the Prestons have spent decades inspiring and equipping others to step boldly into their God-given creativity.

We talk about the joys and challenges of being a married creative team, how God has provided and guided their steps through seasons of transition, and why building authentic community is essential for artists who want to thrive spiritually, creatively, and relationally.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • How Stephen & Tricia blend artistry, ministry, and entrepreneurship
  • The role of community in overcoming self-doubt and isolation
  • Trusting God for provision in your creative calling
  • Practical ways to gather and empower creatives in your church or city
  • Lessons from launching and leading a creativity-focused conference

🌟 Favorite Quotes from This Episode:

“Being an artist is a walk of faith — you’re trusting God for inspiration, provision, and the courage to keep going.” — Tricia Preston

 “In community, we breathe life into each other and silence the lies of inadequacy.” — Matt Tommey

 “Our gifts aren’t just for ourselves — they’re meant to be shared, multiplied, and used to build the Kingdom.” — Stephen Preston


🌐 Connect with Stephen & Tricia Preston:

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Speaker 1:

All over the world, artists are awakening. Painters and potters, writers and weavers, poets and dancers not chasing followers or fame, but sons and daughters called for such a time as this, transformed from the inside out, creating with purpose, releasing the glory of God and living in the power of the kingdom. Right now, this is the Thriving Christian Artist. Well, hey, everybody, Welcome back to the show. So glad that you're here, listen, I am super excited. It's not often that you get to have friends that you've known for a long time on the podcast, but Stephen and Tricia, preston man, y'all are just I don't know just people that have been in my life for a long time, who I love and trust and so respect in all that God is doing in your life. So thank you so much for joining and welcome to the podcast again.

Speaker 3:

Thanks, matt, so glad to be back with you.

Speaker 2:

It's a pleasure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's funny. I was telling somebody that I was going to be interviewing you the other day and they're like how long have you known them? I'm like a long time. Y'all been in our world for a long time, yeah, it's been. I want to say like We've been in each other's lives in a lot of ways that week.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, like 2008, 2010, somewhere in there, I think. Yeah, it's good.

Speaker 1:

So crazy, so crazy. So you guys were on the podcast before and I'll be sure to put that in the show notes. Everybody can listen to that episode as well, but maybe those that are just getting to know you guys and everything give us the thumbnail sketch of who you are, what you do, where you are in the world and all that, and then we'll start talking about some other things today, about community and and all that God's doing in your business as well.

Speaker 3:

So Awesome, yeah, so Steven and Tricia Preston, we've been.

Speaker 1:

We live up here in just outside of Stratford Ontario a little town called St Mary's and Canada, canada, canada, eh. Yes, we are Canada, eh. Is that in Alabama? That sounds like Alabama.

Speaker 3:

You might hear a few A's in my conversation today, but yeah, we've been doing all sorts of creative things for quite a number of years, pretty much since we got married, and I was just talking to somebody the other day. It's of wedding a number of years pretty much since we got married and I was just talking to somebody the other day, um, it's like seems like trish and I do everything together, right, and so it's like you know, she does her, she brings her uh artistic dynamic to the table. I bring my, my musical uh dynamic to the table and we just kind of it's us right. So, yeah, it's uh inspire. Hopefully we're inspiring people and and uh, stirring creativity and people and encouraging them and the things that God has placed in them.

Speaker 3:

And we had a little business called Fantastical Studios which was stories, art and music and we we would go into schools and and different things like that and just, you know, share our stories and and stir creativity in the kids and let them know that everybody can be creative. Right, you've all got a creative bent somewhere in your life. So that was a lot of fun and it's funny because when we moved out here to Stratford, god kind of morphed us into some other things. I'm the children's pastor at the church, so we've been doing art camps and different things like that at the church, but he's also allowed us pretty cool opportunities just in doing arts conferences at the church. But he's also allowed us pretty cool opportunities just in doing arts conferences at the church. And he's also brought us a fun little art business as well, called Social Art, which is basically like a paint night type of thing, where we go into restaurants and businesses and teach people how to paint. So that's the nutshell version of some of the things we've been doing.

Speaker 2:

We are, yeah, steve's the musician, I'm the artist, I'm not musical. Steve thinks I'm tone deaf. That's, I don't know, that's because, she is.

Speaker 1:

Listen, my mom used to say some people should sing in the choir and some people should pray for the choir and when we got married, when we first started dating, it's like how is this gonna work?

Speaker 2:

he is so musical and I am so not, but it was so neat to see how god really just grafted our gifts together and how there was such a common theme of not just the lord but creativity. That really just came alive when we got married. So we've kind of been trying to walk in that for 20 years now.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, I'm sure, as y'all were first got married and growing in your marriage and all that did, did your parents or friends of y'all be like now we're glad y'all are creative, but like, what are you actually going to do for a living? Like two artists getting together Like this is not a recipe for for what most people think of success. I mean, did y'all ever face that and struggle with that?

Speaker 3:

I. I didn't feel so much on my side. I don't know about your family, but yeah, I.

Speaker 2:

I felt that it's like, well, what, yeah, basically, what are you gonna do, like you should be, in a job making money and creativity? You like a little more freedom, a little more flexibility to to practice your craft and that. So, yeah, definitely there was a bit of that. I would say yeah.

Speaker 3:

Well, I was. I mean, for me I was teaching music lessons, so I was bringing in some income through that, right. And actually the thing that amazes me about it is, like you know, typically, at least for up here, at least in the summer months, everybody's on holidays, right. So you know, I just kind of shut down the business for teaching in the summers. But God, he just provided this supernatural connection with a metal fabrication shop and I go in and I create there. Wow, it's just a different way, and it just supplemented everything that we needed. So it's like there was never really felt like a place of lack or anything like that, but it was always there when I need it. Actually, they, they, there's a. At one point the plant manager came to me and says, yeah, you can just anytime you want to work to show up.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, it's not your everyday thing, but God's faithful. I'm just going to say being an artist really is like a complete walk of faith, right, Cause, whether we're creating or trusting God for income in different ways, it really is an opportunity to trust him every day and not get so tied up in you know, my income's got to be this much or look like this or come in this way but just be able to, like you say, trust him in that flow, right.

Speaker 3:

Totally, totally, and it's always multiple streams. You've talked about this many times over the years right.

Speaker 3:

Just, you know, you've, you've got multiple streams of where, where God chooses to pull in the income for the season, Right. So you know, for us right now it's we've got social art, we've got the stuff that we're doing at the church and you know, and God's blessing us and which is amazing, right, and I had this thing spoken over many years ago, and I had this thing spoken over many years ago like you can always make money, and that always really took root in my heart.

Speaker 2:

So, regardless of how, there was always a way I could make money, whether it's painting or teaching a lesson or something that always kind of resonated with me, regardless of how little or how much, there was always opportunity to make money.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, yeah, I think for all of us, once you get that revelation that God is the provider right and if I'm doing what he's called me to do, however he chooses to bring it and in whatever amount, it's what I need for the season that I'm in and that allows you the freedom. So I just I've always loved that about you guys, cause every time you know we talk, it's like we're doing this, we're doing that, we're doing that, and you know but I love it, so it's something different.

Speaker 1:

No, but there's this freedom to respond to what God's told me to and, um, you know, one of the things I love about you and I know a lot of people love about you is that you're not just creative for yourself. You really do have a heart, uh, for other creatives, not just in teaching teaching, but really in gathering, and, um, that's been something that's been a long time coming in. You guys, you've got this conference now that that you guys are doing now at your church, but where did that whole passion for for community start with with the creative community?

Speaker 2:

yeah, go ahead well, you know it. Really a lot of it started with what you were doing um matt, um, because when the things we were really drawn to were the fact that you like to gather artisans for God's kingdom right.

Speaker 2:

It was like gathering this army, and so when we went down to the gathering there years ago, that really stirred something. It was like a seed that got planted in our hearts and it's like, well, why not do something like that up here in Canada? Because there was nothing in Canada. So I think a lot of it started going back to what you were doing and there was inspiration for us in that.

Speaker 3:

But even before that, I mean we were doing our little art gatherings, like in our local church as well, right, Just spots where people could come and create and see what the Lord wanted to kind of birth through them.

Speaker 3:

And in our gatherings together, right. And I mean sometimes we would do things where we'd focus on a theme and you know, like one time we did a whole series on creating something regarding social injustice stuff, right, and then we took that out into the community, we did a little fundraiser and used and use that to go towards homeless, the homelessness in our, in our city. At that point, right, yeah, and you know, I mean it's always kind of been there, you know, like I feel like it's funny, cause, like I'm, I'm, you know, part of my gifting is pastoring, right, and so I always want to see how do we encourage people in the way that God has wired them, and I think, just because we're creative and it's just part of who we are, right, it just naturally flows out of us to those who are creative as well, right, and, yeah, really really neat opportunities that I feel like God has really really blessed us with.

Speaker 2:

In that sense, yeah, and there is also just recognizing the need for creatives to come together. Yeah, I was going to say you know where people they have a lot of creative ideas but they're not doing it, and them being in an atmosphere with other creatives where they can inspire one another. We saw that helping each other was was a big part of that too.

Speaker 1:

There was a need there for a community for creatives yeah totally well, so many of us work by ourself right in the studio or you're just not around. I mean, you know artists, you kind of feel like the the lone man out. Sometimes they're like nobody else is creative in my life. So if you can get together with others, you do feel like you're not crazy and you know like you can begin to share those ideas. And I think one of the I mean you know there's one of the things that the enemy hits most in creatives is just feelings of inadequacy and in this you know not being enough and and you know not being qualified for what god's called you to do. And it's in community right that we get to speak life into each other and kind of combat some of those things that the enemy throw at us all the time.

Speaker 3:

Totally, there's something about community, right, and you know it's. You know, even like when we started doing our creativity and law conferences and you were there for the first one, matt, but it's like the thing that the resounding thing that came back, it's like, oh, it's so good to connect and gather with other people that are just kind of wired the same right. Um, you know, like a lot, lots of people look at artists and say you guys are just wired differently.

Speaker 3:

So you know, yeah, I know and even in the context of the church, right like there's so many artists that were that have been coming out of the woodworks lately that say, you know what? I've just been hurt by the church. I feel like they just don't understand the way I'm wired Right and uh, it's like, but there's a place, I feel like there's a place where where I can go, you know, even if it's only an annual thing, there's a place where I can go and it's like this is kind of my tribe. These, these people kind of get the way I'm wired. They kind of see the same way I do, Right. So, um, really really cool stuff. I think God is just kind of building, uh, in that sense, here, uh up in Ontario at least, and uh, hopefully we'll see this kind of go on a more nationwide thing, Um, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's so awesome. I, I so enjoy being there and getting to meet all the people that were there, just kind of of hang out, and one of the things I think that struck me was that you know your pastors, other leaders like they were there, involved in having a supportive leadership team in your church. I mean if you're, if somebody is listening today or watching today and wanting to serve something in their church, I mean that that's just huge and that God knit your hearts together as an artist with with the leaders of your church, realize this is not in competition.

Speaker 3:

This is here to to compliment and really build up all the different parts of the body of Christ. Yeah, totally, totally yeah. And I mean at Jubilee at our church here in Stratford it's like our pastor Trevor, he's just he's. He's kind of wired creatively too, though in many ways right, he's a musician and so he he kind of gets, gets it too, and so he's just he.

Speaker 3:

He kind of looks at us and he says okay, you got a dream, go for it, right, yeah, and which is amazing, which is absolutely amazing, and even the dynamic of you know, like even just putting resources into it, right, it's not just, hey, you can use our building, it's like, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna put some resources into this and enable you to to do this and to do it well, right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And so that's huge.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's so good, you know, I think of, really, I think, well, honestly, we were talking a little bit before the call. I've been in kind of a season of of transition in these last probably six or eight months that he had for me, of raising up this army of artists and and, um, when he first called me he said, you know, ministry and marketplace, both full-time. That was the call and as of late, I've been feeling the Lord say mobilization, that that's a big thing that he's he's calling me to and I'm just, I think if there's so many, you know, nobody can be at all places at one time. God's not called one man, one person, to be at all places at one time. God's not called one man, one person, to be in all places all times. It takes all of us as a movement of artists and I think you know so many artists are like, oh well, I wish I had something like that in my church, I wish I had something like that in my, my community, and I just always like to remind people. I just love your thoughts on this. You know, all of us are just regular people, right? That just chose to say yes, um, to the call of god in in our life, whether it was a small business or whether it was like for me.

Speaker 1:

I started a small group at my studio and it was eight people, then 30 people, then it turns into conferences and then blah, blah, blah. And for you guys, same thing you got a small business, but you started gathering artists in your, in your church. And I guess, if you guys, same thing You've got a small business, but you started gathering artists in your church. And I guess if you guys were to pull the curtain back for somebody that thinks, oh gosh, I could never do something like what you guys are doing hosting a conference or ministering to artists. I mean, we're really just talking, in essence, about loving each other and creating a space for artists to get together. Right?

Speaker 1:

And share life and encourage one another. I mean, this is not rocket science, right? If you got brownies and a book and are willing to, you know I have a comfy chair for somebody to sit and you can do this, right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you're right on. It's like, I think for us it was just like we just said, let's just start something right. And it's like if God puts the desire in your heart and like, I think, a lot of the time he just stirs in you, it's like it's almost like we get the desire first for ourselves, almost Right. It's like I need that creative community I need, I need something to kind of people to gather around me Right Cause I mean we're wired for that, that connection right. And if he puts that in your heart, that's usually a pretty good indication that maybe he's saying, hey, maybe it's you, maybe you're the one to kind of ignite it, get things on the and just step out in it on the road.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, to step out because, like I just say, why not you? Right, like, why not you, especially if there's a desire inside of you? Sometimes we talk ourselves out of this thing oh, that can't be the Lord. But what if it is the Lord putting that in your heart and you don't know? Like we've never known with anything 100% until we start stepping right.

Speaker 2:

It's always requires faith, it always requires a step. So, yeah, I would just encourage people in that. If you're having a desire to start something, I would just encourage people in that. If you're having a desire to start something, why not Like? Why not you Right?

Speaker 3:

And the cool thing about it is that it just kind of builds from there Right, like, like when we first started doing our small groups at our previous church, when we, when the Lord called us to go to Jubilee to Stratford, he rose up. The next person to come in that had been part of our group and she just carried it on Right. And so it's like it's. It's like it's began to multiply. And there's another person from our group who went up to a totally different region in Ontario and she'd started doing one up in her area. Right, and it's like it just keeps on growing and it really starts to build and grow. It's like this this hive, almost right. It's like every, every worker is a part of the bigger picture, right, yeah, so.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's it. I'm just so passionate about that because I, you know, again the Lord's kind of been bringing me back to this original vision of when he called me to raise up this army of artists. I saw these fires all over a global map and, like these, you know, creative communities and this sort of thing, and of course, you know, in my type a organizational leader mind, you know, I'm like we need to start a network and we need to have everybody join and all this and I just it felt like the Lord calling me so much lately. And it's the same thing you're saying of just mobilization doesn't always mean control, doesn't always mean organized to inspire, to inspire and to say to people hey, if it's on your heart, go for it.

Speaker 3:

Right, totally.

Speaker 1:

Others of us that are doing it too, and we can link arms in whatever way that makes sense, but this is not about some organizational structure. This is about you trusting God to use you among the people that you're around, and and let that that fire catch, and and god's going to do something unique in stratford that he does in texas that he doesn't actually, or whatever. And that's the beautiful part, right, that's the that's exactly it yeah that's exactly true yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2:

I love the uniqueness because you can't have carbon copies right. It is going to be totally different from one place to the next, so I love that.

Speaker 3:

I think that's the dynamic. Like you know, like we're wired creatively, God is wired creatively. So why are we, why do we try to do a carbon copy all the time?

Speaker 1:

Right, you know so it's like it makes sense to our little mind, right? Yeah, I know, no, I know, I know.

Speaker 3:

So it's like what is, what is it that he's putting you? That's unique Right, and what's what's the? You know, I, I, I say this a lot about, about churches, in regards to worship, right, you know, it's like, you know, I'm not saying I'm not knocking like the Bethels or the Hills songs or you know, elevation or anything like that, but that they've, they do we just copy everything that they do. Or it's like what is the sound that in your church, that that God wants to bring out? Right, it's not that you can't do their songs or anything like that, but it's like what is the unique sound that you've got you guys carry?

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah. Yeah, so all the all that stuff, right it, all it. As much as you guys are passionate about community and all of that, you also love being in the marketplace. It's not one or the other, it's both. And you guys are seeing God show up just as much in the marketplace as you are in quote-unquote ministry. And for somebody that says, can that really happen? Of course that can happen. That's how the kingdom is designed to be released. So what fun things are you guys seeing God do in the marketplace, even right now?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we go out fairly regularly with our business and we basically just teach people how to paint. It gives us such an opportunity just to speak into people's lives, a lot of people they don't think they can. They can paint, or it's so awesome to see when God starts unlocking that ability in them that they never knew they had. I had one lady. She was talking about how her daughter was a painter and I said, oh, did she get that from you? And she was like no, no, I can't paint all this.

Speaker 2:

And she then she began to just share how her mother had told her you wouldn't let her paint as a child like she was very task oriented, so it was like painting was just, you know, something you didn't have time to do, so she wasn't allowed to do anything creative. And I just said to her I said Well, you know, maybe that's just laying dormant in you, maybe it just needs to come out of you. And so she sat in our, in our event, and she absolutely loved painting and at the end of it.

Speaker 2:

She was telling me how much that was like stirring in her mind, just saying you know, maybe there's something dormant living in like in you.

Speaker 2:

And she's like I think you're right, and she was crying, she was all tearing up at the end of it because she realized there had been something in her that had not come out, that was kind of squashed, you know, from when she was a child. So we're we're hearing stories like that of just the opportunity to bring out, you know, what has God put inside of you, that's just been laying dormant inside of you.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, I mean we also get. It's pretty cool because sometimes you know, God just highlights certain people in certain, maybe just certain situations that might come up in our events, right, and he'll say I want you to go pray for them after, right, and I'll come up to them after. And it's like, you know, there's one she, she brought her, her son who's handicapped, he's in a wheelchair, and I felt the lord just say I want you to go tell her. It's like I see you, everything you are doing for your son, it has so much value. And and she's just like oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much, right, uh, my one of my favorite stories is that, uh, at one of our social art events, um, there's this little guy who came.

Speaker 3:

He was probably about maybe nine, nine or 10. And he started painting and he was a little bit grumpy when he came in. I think it might've been one of those scenarios where mom just kind of dragged him out You're going right and so but he started painting and what he was doing wasn't bad, but he got into this mode of perfectionism and he got super frustrated and he took black paint and he basically sabotaged the whole canvas. And I can't. So I'm kind of watching this like, okay, oh god, how do you want me to, how do you want me to interact with this, with this guy? And I came over and I said I said to him it's like having a hard time. He's like, yeah, yeah, it's okay. Do you want me to help you?

Speaker 1:

No, he's got this grump.

Speaker 3:

It's like, okay, all right, it's like you know what you were doing there. It was looking pretty good. It's like you were on the right track with it. It's like it's like do you want me to get you another canvas? And you can, you can start it over again. She's like no, you know, and and uh, finally I just said to him it's like, okay, well, here's, here's the deal. I'm gonna get you another canvas, I'm gonna put it on on your, on your uh um, easel there, and you can do whatever you want. You don't have to do what we're painting, you can just do whatever you want. It's like does that sound good? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he finally got. He asked me for a pencil. He started drawing this stuff out and I kept on coming over. It's like that's really cool.

Speaker 3:

And the words, the words that I feel like you know how sometimes the holy spirit just speaks through you. Yeah, the words that, the words that I I said to him it's like I don't even this isn't even the way I would talk, so I know it was. It was God, kind of just highlighting that moment. I said to him it's like it's like I think you've got some cool things going on. It's like I want to, just can you? I want to see what comes out of that brilliant brain of yours.

Speaker 3:

It's like the word is just the wording that that God put in my, through my mouth and he, just, he totally responded to that and by the end of the night he was excited, he was, he was happy, he was smiling. His mom was like thank you so much. It's like just really, it was like literally like you can shift an atmosphere when you bring the presence of God into a situation. Right, and it's such a key thing. And it's like I know that kid will go, we'll go from that moment and it'll stick in his mind. It's like that guy took the time to see what I was doing, see the frustration speak life into me. You know, and I don't know where they're at in regards to faith or anything like that, but it's like there's always a moment somewhere, in whatever situation you're in, where you can bring the life of Jesus.

Speaker 2:

Right, yeah, I had another lady. It's funny because God will highlight people to you you don't necessarily even know why, right? But he was kind of highlighting this lady to me because I loved what she was doing with her painting and I see, so often people's personalities just start coming out in their paintings, right, and I love that because I see they're walking in what you know who they are. So this lady, this particular lady, I saw so much adventure coming out in her painting. It was different than everyone else's, and so I began to speak that to her, because there's such opportunity to even prophesy over people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they don't even know it, right, I know you're right.

Speaker 2:

So I began to speak this know, I see, are you adventurous? Because I see a lot of adventure in you. And she's like, yes. And then she started opening up to me and, uh, her husband I had no idea had died two weeks prior, and so she just began to cry and, uh, open up a lot to me.

Speaker 2:

I had a lot of opportunity to speak into her life, but it showed me that the lord was was using that moment to bring hope into her, because I had said to her before I knew, you know her husband had died, you know there's adventure ahead for you, and it was like something she I think she needed to hear after just losing her husband. It is such a young age too, right? So there's these little moments like that that you're like, you know, this is such a privilege to be out in the marketplace, yeah, uh, as a christian, and just speaking the heart of god into these people. And you know, god, what it? What is it that you want to show me about them that I can, you know, relay your heart to and uh that's one of our favorite things I think about doing it.

Speaker 3:

I seriously love that. Yeah, it.

Speaker 2:

It isn't so much about hey, this is how you paint a painting. It's more about like you know, what can we speak into your life?

Speaker 1:

That's oh yeah, it's total undercover kingdom, right, I mean I love that, yeah, totally.

Speaker 3:

And the cool thing is it actually really brings life to us too, right? Sure, it's like when you're going out and you see those moments where God just kind of steps in, it's like, oh, thank you, jesus, this is awesome. And you know, we often joke that I'm like the event pastor, I'm like the undercover pastor, because I like to schmooze. I will readily admit it and I will go out and I will schmooze with all these people, and it's like God just gives us some neat opportunities to speak life.

Speaker 3:

That's a lot of fun, a lot of fun.

Speaker 1:

You know, as you're talking, I just, I just kept hearing no separation, no separation, and it's like God is. I think that's when the kingdom gets fun, right, it's when we get out of the silos and we start realizing hey, it's all the kingdom, whatever I'm doing, it's an opportunity for overflow and opportunity for the kingdom to intersect this moment and, and whether somebody recognizes it or not, Right, like that lady just may have thought well, gosh, that lady is really nutritious, really encouraged me today. Well, that's a seed.

Speaker 1:

Right, that's exactly it in her life and we can just get used to releasing that and not trying to manage the outcomes.

Speaker 3:

Life is a lot more fun, doesn't it?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I know Totally.

Speaker 3:

And seed planting is a huge thing, right? I think sometimes you know the Western church, you know we've tended to focus so much on the harvest dynamic of it. But a harvest never comes without seeds being planted. That's right, right you got to have the seeds planted, so every opportunity that you get it may not be this overt in your face. Hey, Jesus loves you.

Speaker 1:

You know the Lord?

Speaker 3:

Yeah yeah, exactly Right, and sometimes we get we got to close the deal kind of thing. But it's like no, there's all these different steps that God takes and those seeds who knows who how he's going to grow that and how he's going to develop that and the next person comes along it, how he's going to grow that and how he's going to develop that, and the next person comes along. It's like Paul talked about you know, some water, some harvest, some plant, but God is the one who does it right. He's the one who makes it grow. So it's like every opportunity you get there's, there's a chance to plant seeds somewhere.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, that's so good. You know, as y'all are, as y'all are talking, I just I just heard the Lord. I just feel like he wants to release people today into the same kind of creative adventure that you guys are living on, that, this, that this life is. You're listening or watching this today on YouTube or on the podcast or whatever you're going. Oh my gosh, this sounds so much fun. Like I would. I would love to live this Like. This is the list. Life is available to everybody, right? Life in the kingdom, and I just I'd wonder if you guys would just pray for people today that maybe are sitting out there going.

Speaker 1:

I need a. I need a new level of creative adventure in my life. I need a new level of of yes, just to be able to step out in the things that God's called me to and be able to, to live in the adventure that that you guys have been living a long time and are going to continue to live and we're all trying to live in. But I just feel like the Lord wants to release that through you guys today. Would you do that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, go ahead, Steve. Okay, I'll start.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, father, thank you so much for all the goodness that you bring to us each and every day. Father, thank you for your life, thank you for your vision, thank you for your hope that you give us, father. And Father, I just pray for those who are looking for something more, who are just saying there's got to be a little bit more to life in serving Jesus and what I'm experiencing, father. I pray to God that they would recognize the opportunities that you place in front of them every day. Every day, there's always something and, father, I pray in the name of Jesus, that their eyes will be open to it and then, on top of that, that they would have the boldness and the courage to go forth and just plant those seeds. And, father, and it's uniquely in the way that they're wired the sense I'm having is that there's a unique voice and a unique way that you are wired that God wants to release through you, and it's in a way that nobody else will do.

Speaker 3:

So there's no pressure in it, it's just it just it's going to naturally flow out of you into the people around you. And so, father, I bless them in the name of Jesus that that would just flow so easily and so naturally, without it's like, without, without being forced, without that pressure that comes from it. I got to do it this way, or I got to do it the right way, or did I say this the right way? Just trusting you, holy Spirit, that you are speaking through them and that you are flowing through them, the exact way that is needed for that moment.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, as you were praying, steve, before you said pressure, I'm hearing the pressure's off, yeah.

Speaker 1:

As you were praying Steve before you said pressure, I'm hearing the pressure's off.

Speaker 2:

So, god, I pray that off of people right now, pressure to come off of you, and that you would just be, you would just be and that creativity is just a lifestyle, it's all around you, it's it just comes out of your fingers. So, whatever you do, there's creativity and all around you and that your eyes would be open to that and, as you walk in that, just as you are to be, that there wouldn't be the pressure and there'd be a release. There'd be actually a releasing that would start coming from you to people's lives creatively. And, lord, that you would, yeah, you would use many people to really inspire people in them being just who you've made them to be. And the uniqueness we just, we just call forth, the uniqueness in individuals and the divine appointments we don't even always know, god, those divine appointments to come forward. In the name of Jesus.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes and Lord, I just I just want to finish with this Lord, we, we call forth those, God, to raise up this army of artists. God, wherever you call people all over the world if they're feeling this call to to gather others, to say that I need encouragement, I need to be an encouragement giver. Lord, I pray that you would just light a fire in people, even as they listen. Today, lord, that creative communities would begin to spark and start all over the world. We just pray for your grace, your passion, your fire, god, to begin to well up inside the creative community would not just be about a conference here and a church service there, but, god, it would be, a night across the creative community in this world.

Speaker 1:

And the safe places, beautiful places, God places for artists to be cared for and loved and nurtured and set free, and all of those things God places for artists to be cared for and loved and nurtured and set free, and all of those things, God, we just, I pray God, birth that. Birth that, Lord, even as you've done that in us and you're doing it in others, God, we just pray for more. God you said that you'd give us. Nations is our inheritance. And God, we ask nations, and nations, creative communities, God to be raised up all over this world we thank you for that god in jesus name.

Speaker 1:

In jesus name amen. So good, yeah, amen I done preached myself into encouragement. I tell you what this is good yeah, you know, I just one.

Speaker 3:

One quick thing I'd like to just mention is like god will bring the people that you need to connect with as well.

Speaker 3:

You know, like I'm amazed at, just you know, since we started stepping out in some of these things, just the connections that God has allowed us to have and, um, you know, just even just this past weekend, we had a meeting with with people from across Canada about what God is doing in the arts in Canada and in the church and how he wants to birth something really, really cool in Canada, creatively, and it's like God will bring the people that you need and he'll bring the resources you need to step into things that he's called you to do.

Speaker 1:

That's right. That's right. Yeah, this does not have to be in anybody, any of our own strength right, we're just responding to the open doors that the Lord gives. So I remember the first time that I went to Scotland years ago and it was one of those situations like I think there were more people in our team and the worship team than there were at the conference.

Speaker 1:

Like it was one of those like I'm just here out of obedience to the Lord you know, and our good friends Lynette and Keith G gainer opened the door for us to, to come and um, but in that little room there were artists from all over europe and all of them came were like leaders of creative communities and we ended up sitting around the table one night and god birthed something so incredible and I ended up going to germ and Spain and Romania and all the all these places.

Speaker 1:

but so much of it came out of that little, that little gathering, and I just, just, like you're, saying you never, ever know what God's doing in these little moments of your obedience, just to go and do and open your home or whatever, and I don't know.

Speaker 1:

It's just an encouragement. You guys are encouragement. I know that people are going to want to connect with you, not only what you're doing artistically, but also maybe take a trip up to canada, come to to stratford, come to your conference that you're doing. So give us all love where do we, where do we find out all that stuff? And we'll make sure to put in the show notes as well, for people yeah, well for us.

Speaker 3:

Uh, you can follow us on fantasticalstudioscom or. Uh, probably best spot is actually facebook or instagram for that. Um, social art as well, socialartca, um, or the church is probably the best spot to find out about the conferences. Jubilee, straffordcom, and, uh, usually we have stuff up there about the conferences that work, the creativity and law conferences. Uh, next conference is actually scheduled for the end of april, um, so be watching for that. We're working on getting getting next year's lineup together, so yeah, we gotta get you back up matt I know, I know I'm ready.

Speaker 1:

Great worship, great creativity, great food, great chinese food. That's a back story. Anyway, listen, guys, I love you. Thank you for being on. You've been a great encouragement. Folks, as you're listening and watching, make sure to go to all their links, connect with them and, especially if you're in Canada, reach out. I don't think I'm overstating that. Reach out, connect to them and God's going to be a big, it's going to be a big encouragement for you. So, trisha and Stephen, thanks guys, love you very much. Thanks for being on today.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, matt, thanks for having us.

Speaker 1:

Hey, my friend, before you go, make sure that you're signed up for the Thriving Christian Artist Weekly. It's my free newsletter, full of spiritual encouragement, creative inspiration and practical tips to help you thrive in everything that God's called you to do as an artist in his kingdom. Every issue is absolutely free and it includes the latest podcast episode, featured artist spotlights, a worship song of the week and, again, tons of tips and encouragement and inspiration for you to keep you inspired and encouraged in everything that God's got for you as an artist in the kingdom. You can click the link right here in the show notes to join us, and it's a great way to stay connected. All right, love you, bye.