John Hendrix: A Man Who Draws During Sermons

Illustration by John Hendrix

Christianity Today

Everybody - or everybody who's attended church since childhood - is told as a child to sit still and listen to the sermon being espounced by the pastor (the sweaty guy standing up front talking a lot), for his words are all very serious, and one certainly should not be whiling away one's time sketching images!

But that's what John Hendrix does:

You might think it childish that every week at Grace and Peace Fellowship, a PCA church in St. Louis, John Hendrix spends the sermon drawing. Most churches do not look kindly upon adults bringing crayons and paper to the pews. But for Hendrix - a professional illustrator who has sketched every day since age 7 - sketching helps to capture the strangeness of the Christian faith. ("The Weird and Wonderful Church Drawings of John Hendrix: Interview," Katelyn Beaty, Christianity Today, October 20, 2015)

Who is this Hendrix guy?

A St. Louis native, Hendrix never intended his in-church sketches for public viewing. Alongside teaching illustration at Washington University in St. Louis, he spends his week drawing for high-end mainstream clients. Those have included The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, children's book authors, and In-N-Out Burger (as well as this magazine). There, it's easy "to become a mercenary to making something that's good or productive," says Hendrix.

Why's he coming out of the closet with these sermon illustrations?

Friends began to ask him about the sketches, which are drawn in pen, then painted in watercolor at home. So Hendrix compiled the best in an online series as well as in a new book, Drawing Is Magic.

Click over to the article - or check out his website - pretty weird stuff that's sure to push the boundaries for a lot of Christians.