Members of the New Providence Community Church (NPCC) have a constant reminder of the way they should respond to the space God has given them as a community, with the erection of a sculpture to celebrate Earth Day at the church.
The sculpture, entitled "We Restore", sculpted by Pastor Tyrone Ferguson, was unveiled to the community on Earth Day, to advance the power of art as a symbol.
"The idea of the sculpture came about as we talked about how we would celebrate Earth Day," said Pastor Ferguson, one of the pastors at the NPCC. "Being an artist, I'm always looking for ways to connect the creativity that is in art and the symbolism that is in art. I wanted to do something very spectacular that would have a long-lasting impact," he said.
The 12-foot sculpture is a full-size door, on top of which are hands holding up a globe. Pastor Ferguson hopes his sculpture reminds members of the community that they should be holding up the globe and celebrating Earth Day 365 days a year, instead of just doing symbolic efforts.
He said persons should see it as their responsibility from God to make the world a better place.
"I want people to see the country every day and be reminded that they ought to be thoughtful about the way they handle God's Earth 365 days of the year and not just that one day," said the 56-year-old pastor.
The base of the sculpture is purple, signifying, holiness and royalty, reminding people that as they walk through it that where they walk can become holy ground. The yellow in the sculpture represents moving into a bright new day. The hands and the globe are made of stainless steel and the pastor deliberately left them in the color of the material he worked with.
"The idea is that at the end of the day we really should not be seeing color. Our hands are all one if we purpose it to be so," he said.
With the erection of the sculpture, Pastor Ferguson said he hoped to emphasize to people that they should put their hearts, hands and resources into making the community a better place.
"We tend to spend a lot on our own personal gardens at home, but the communal garden, where we want people to come in and experience God as a community, and also invite others to come in and experience the presence of God, sometimes we neglect it and don't want to put finances into that, and we should," he said.
Members of the NPCC traced their hands onto the metal. Those hands were cut out, and are attached to the globe, symbolizing the communal effort they need to have in responding to the way the Earth is taken care of.
"The sculpture is like 12 feet tall and there's a doorway under the sculpture which I invite people to walk through, because it represents a gateway that helps us to push into a new understanding of that collective assignment, and for us to see we have what it takes to maintain and make better what God has left us with," he said.
Pastor Ferguson said the erection of the sculpture is part of a push at the NPCC to be good users of the Earth. As the NPCC celebrated Earth Day, its members also began phasing out their stage lighting with LED (light-emitting diodes) bulbs. They also launched a recycling center, which has a bin for cardboard and paper, and another bin for cans, located strategically where members of the public can drive up, recycle their products and drive out of the compound.
As a matter of fact, the "We Restore" sculpture that weighs approximately 8,000 pounds is made of recycled material. Pastor Ferguson is one of those artists who uses recycled material in his sculptures.
The base of the sculpture is a wood door from a bank that closed several years ago. Pastor Ferguson was paid to remove the door, which the bank told him he could keep. The door sat in his workshop for years. With the commissioning of the sculpture, he finally found something productive to do with it, which speaks to the effort of restoration.
The sculpture took Pastor Ferguson a month to make.

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