January, 2002

Ministering with a Paintbrush

From business school to seminary and from spreadsheets to canvasses, talented artist and mission director honors God through art with heart

ROBERT GAIL

Paul Myhill didn't grow up aspiring to be an artist. Nor did he see himself as an evangelical Christian minister. Quite the converse, entrepreneurial dreams and visions danced in his head as he set his course to launch business endeavors for himself and others. He was a "Fast-Tracker," a gifted financial and marketing specialist who zoomed through college and graduate school receiving multiple honors and winning entrepreneurial competitions.

He started his first business, an advertising placements company, while still in school at the University of Texas at Austin. That company established 121 small billboards in and around Austin before he sold his interest and headed across the big pond to start a large restaurant venture in Cambridgeshire, England. After a spell of management consulting, Paul founded an exclusive gifts business with warehousing operations on two coasts. That was followed by ownership in a specialty drinks manufacturer and a financial public relations firm he later started with a partner. Various consulting engagements were spread throughout his ten-year, high profile business career. Paul was featured in multiple newspapers in America and Europe as well as in various consumer, trade and business magazines. In short, he was living the dream…raising millions of dollars and having fun doing it.

Until he lost it all…that is.

"Yes, I rolled the dice…put it all into one new venture and three highly-speculative investments. I thought I had a good hedging strategy and sound partners but I really didn't. It all crashed the same year, bringing me down with it," Paul says in a surprisingly lighthearted manner. Adding insult to injury, he narrowly missed cashing in some stock options that were later worth $2.5 million. Losing more money than most people save in a lifetime was a real eye-opener for Paul and left an indelible impression upon him. "It was actually the biggest blessing in my life," He claims, "It was a reflective, purpose-seeking time for me that was far more precious than all the money lost."

Paul was a believing Christian at the time, but found his security and passion in business and financial success. Material things, recognition and control were his motivation. "In a swift reversal, God righted me and dramatically showed me that He is the one in control; He is the one where satisfaction and purpose rest." After a few months of prayer and good counsel from church members and pastors, Paul decided to enroll at Dallas Theological Seminary. During that time he was also chairing one of the missions committees at his church, Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Carrollton, Texas. "That was a real affirmation to me that I was to pursue full-time ministry, specifically in a global missions context."

So, with a new zeal for the Lord, and a greater sense of significance and resolve, Paul embraced theological studies and ministry opportunities. It wasn't long before he was asked to join the mission staff at Bent Tree full time. He now serves as the church's Director of Mission - no small role for a church with a missions budget approaching $1 million - but a significant change from the multi-million dollar deals that were daily life for him.

Naturally, the job comes with quite a bit of exposure to other cultures. Paul has traveled with missions teams all over the world. "Most of the areas that God has shown me involve primitive or under-privileged peoples," Paul explains. "Their cultural forms and artistic expressions have a real sense of authenticity to them, an honesty that is hard to explain. My wife and I had previously collected tribal art pieces from areas of Africa, Indonesia, Latin America, India and the Eskimo peoples of Canada, but my travels have widened my appreciation and have helped me to put those expressions into context."

Ten years ago, the primitive art collection awakened a desire in Paul to start painting complementary pieces, using ethnic designs and a bold use of colors. "I kept being drawn to the cross, though. I experimented with a variety of styles and techniques, but felt a real affinity to applying them to cross designs and motifs," explains Paul. "Initially, my desire was to simply produce primitive cultural patterns in a contemporary perspective, but that quickly graduated to a means to glorify God through the incorporation of diverse cultural elements and redemptive analogies."

COURTESY Paul Myhill and his wife, Lisa, at a recent show.

PHOTO BY BRAD NEWTON "The Choice" exemplifies Paul's use of primitive cultural forms to share the Gospel.

"Paul always liked to draw," his mother, Sylvia, says. "The potential was always there but he never chose to develop it." Maybe that's because Paul had grander dreams and didn't see art as part of their realization. Despite having an artistic bent since a child, Paul never sought formal instruction or even simple training. In fact, besides the obligatory elementary school classes, Paul hasn't even had a single art lesson. That puts him squarely in the self-taught, or "Outsider" category.

"God-directed," says Paul, "is the terminology I prefer. I want it to be clear that He gets all the glory; that I had nothing to do with it than to simply be obedient to His gifting. That's not to say that God is not involved in the work of art school graduates, but I prefer to paint in ignorant bliss - to not know the parameters, to break all the rules and simply follow the brush as He pushes it. I don't want the knowledge of technique or painting mechanics to be an impediment. Does that make sense?"

It's easy to see that Paul is focused on God's glory with his art. From idea germination to production, God is very much a part of the process. "I pray before each blank canvas and ask Him to paint it for me. I then crank up some contemporary Christian music and go before Him in worship as I put paint to surface." The result: a dizzying array of paintings intended to connect Paul and the viewer with the Master Artist. "My goal is foremost one of ministry. I desire and pray that these paintings be a catalyst for spiritual discussions and points of reflection for worship. They need to have an eternal consequence, otherwise I'm simply producing something I know will be dust someday."

Recognition came quickly. Paul was asked to display his work at Bent Tree. No price tags, no advertising that they were for sale. Yet the paintings immediately started selling from $1,000 to $2,000 at a blinding pace. "People just started approaching me and making offers. I hadn't even had the chance to develop a pricing policy. I was totally overwhelmed."

Three weeks later, Paul took a call from Scott Peck, the curator of arguably the nation's finest private museum of Christian and Judaic art, Dallas' Biblical Arts Center. The next week Paul was offered a sixteen piece three-month show in the museum's Main Atrium Gallery. "Basically, I was thrust into the art world at breakneck speed. How wonderful it was to so quickly be given an opportunity to share the art with so many people."

A "Fast-Tracker" once again, Paul's work is in high demand as he now juggles two ministries - his missions day job and his very promising painting career. "I really see them as one in the same," he explains, "the purpose of both is to make God known and to see Him glorified."

Paul talks a lot about gifts. He believes that he was initially given many talents to be used for God's work, but that he tried using them for his own glory. His new motto is "God's gifts for God's glory," as he tries to not squander again the abilities he has been entrusted with. "Basically I'm a steward. As the Parable of the Talents clearly accentuates, I'm to take these gifts and multiply them for God's Kingdom, not mine."

Paul's paintings surely are gifts. The next few years should be very interesting indeed as the world discovers the ministry flowing from his paintbrush.

Paul's work can be viewed at his Web Site at http://www.paulmyhill.com