Celebrating Colin 

In 1980, when Colin Harbinson was 34 years of age, he along with his wife Maureen, joined Youth With a Mission.  They as a family had just completed their YWAM training and had launched a play he had written early on in his teaching career called, Toy Maker & Son. This creative piece was an allegory of the Gospel employing dance, music, and Mime along with narration to marvelously articulate the Gospel narrative to a generation that had begun to listen more with their eyes than their ears. He was four years my senior, but when we met, he was light years ahead of all of us in YWAM in articulating a Christian vision and significance for creativity and the arts. Anne and I had joined YWAM in Germany in 1976 and when Colin and Maureen arrived with their family and the vision of Toy Maker in Hurlach, Germany, we were genuinely excited about this new way of using imaginative allegory to reach the unreached.    

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Many things will be said about this marvelous man of God, but for me Colin, will always be my walking buddy and colleague in pioneering in the arts.Whereas, in 1980 when we met, Colin’s primary focus was harnessing the arts for Gospel dissemination, Anne and I had begun to focus mainly on worship and the arts, but our hearts were knitted deeply from that first meeting there on the back lawn of YWAM’s Schloss Hurlach (Castle Hurlach) in Germany.

 

Colin went on to lead the parade in as Dean of the Arts for YWAM and then later as Dean of the Arts College at Belhaven University in Jackson, MS. I knew of no one who was more articulate in communicating the vision. He mentored hundreds, no more likely 1000s of aspiring artisans around the globe through his Stone Works focus. When I began to pursue my Doctorate focusing on articulating a Biblical worldview for the empowerment of the arts and creativity among Christians, at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS, I stayed with he and Maureen in their lovely home just outside of Jackson, MS during all my many courses there at Reformed Theological Seminary. Maureen was and remains an excellent cook as well and blessed me time and again via her delicious meals. On many walks with Colin during my studies there in Jackson, we would talk and dialogue on the Biblical cultural mandate to be present in society specifically in the sphere of the arts. During this season, Christian organizations, like Intervarsity and Operation Mobilization hired him to invest in their works and aid them in empowering artists in their ranks.

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Colin was a true statesman and an emissary sent by God to aid the church globally to excel in a biblical mindset to celebrate the immense significance of the arts for our time. For me, however, Colin for me was fore mostly a gift from God, a close and wonderfully encouraging friend, who will be missed dearly.  All who knew him well will continue to carry a deposit of his passionate heart for making God known via the arts.  He also played a major role in the launch of ARTS+, meeting with Beat Rink, Andrzej Turkanik, John Baker along with Anne and I in Belgium in 2006 as we gathered with a vision to launch a network of networks for the arts with a Christian vision. I can certainly speak for all the leaders of ARTS+ EU that we celebrate dear Colin as much for our friendship with him as well as a significant voice for the gift of imagination and the arts. Thank you, dear Father God, for good gifts including the gift of journeying with marvelous friends in Kingdom endeavors!