Void Collective: Elephant

A couple of weeks ago I went to an event called Elephant by the Void Collective at Treff's Bar & Grill in Waco. It was a Monday evening and the upstairs room, normally the venue for bands, DJs, and other musical acts was full of people and props. This was the first event, some people and groups that were involved in getting this started are Adam Moore, Emergent Waco, Peter Rollins, & Ikon.

Seeking to closely involve faith and doubt, Elephant brought forth various illustrations, stories, music, and visual elements to give life to ideas, images to concepts. There were confessions of doubt, prayers seeking understanding, liturgies that explored questions. We wrote doubts on a stained glass portrait to see it smashed into pieces and then rebuilt it as a new work, the brokenness with it's own beauty.

The entire production was developed in parts and not even the participants had seen the entire work together. Some of it felt deliberate and staged, but much of it seemed an authentic presentation of refined questions and thoughtful looking toward issues that nagged at the mind of the doubting faithful and of faithful doubters. I don't know that new questions were brought forth, but there was comfort in experiencing doubt and faith with a group of people that I personally know are seeking honest answers to honest questions.