My reason for choosing to produce a paper like this.

I love drawing, so I decided to create a paper around all the sketches of brothers and sisters I've done in the church. I have tried to use my drawing interest to glorify God. One of the ways of doing this that has evolved is drawing the men that preach, or brethren in moments of talking or eating, just whenever the Spirit moves me to draw.

It was in 1994 that I decided to become more seriously involved in painting and drawing, I had intended to make it my business. Sketching is usually something that is done by someone who wishes to produce greater works as a stimulation, to develop ideas that usually grow into paintings, for sale.

I decided after a few years to work mainly at drawing, because this is my strongest ability, it’s also simpler and cheaper.

Not long after this I decided not to sell anything, but simply to draw for God, so that I could not be drawn towards the area of competitive marketing, where I get very disturbed and stressed, and lose my focus on God's will.

I decided it would be much better to strive for the same goal I’d been working slowly at since 1967, to live by faith, allowing God to provide where I can’t manage, and dedicate in my mind, everything to Him.

I have accumulated thousands of drawings over the last eleven years. Since I had all these drawings and nothing to do with them, when Ted Paull, who runs the Macquarie School of Biblical Studies (MSOBS) told the students who were studying there in 2006 that we had to produce a paper on some aspect of the church, the first thing that came to mind was to use the drawings of brethren as a starting point for the paper. It wasn’t long after this that I could see that what I had was “A portrait sketch of the church.”

Since my year at MSOBS I have begun to appreciate the enormous value of the school library which has many very informative papers, but few pictures. There is a sad lack of images in the library. The papers that I have read are about the congregations or the church in general, but I've not read anything yet, about the mind of those of us walking in Jesus. I must confess that I haven't read very much of what is in the library.

I composed a simple questionnaire for each of the people I had drawn, to fill in.

Thinking about this working of the Spirit in the body of Jesus, I was given an idea about how a drawn image comes together on paper. This I believe was put in my mind as Judy my wife and I were driving to school one morning. I was able to remember what I’d thought, a small miracle in itself, and write it down. It’s about the rhythm of line and the rhythm of the Spirit. If you don’t agree with what I’ve said, I give in.