Documentaries/Audio Visual Arts

We love audio visual arts! In addition to the videos of our events displayed elsewhere on this website, we have produced two documentaries and hosted a documentary division in one of our exhibits. In 2020, God led us to venture more deeply into the audio visual arts to help us maintain and grow the ministry during the pandemic crisis. See more details about that story below. 

In 2024, we also filmed a wonderful photo shoot called God in the City. Hosted by local professional photographer Wayne Moran, we explored the power of photography to capture everyday moments in real time and draw us closer to God. 

Now in 2026, we are excited to release our latest documentary, Go to the Potter’s House!  We hope and pray that it inspires many people to seek and know the Master Potter who fashions and forms all of us for His glory.

In March, 2025, GCA Director, Marianne McDonough, read Eugene H. Peterson’s elegant and inspiring book, Run With the Horses. When she meditated on Chapter Six, “Go the Potter’s House,” she immediately envisioned a new documentary, especially since a local potter, Kathi Koester, had asked her to integrate pottery into the ministry. After prayer and discussions with her advisors, Marianne invited Kathi and GCA artist, Sue Redfield, both a painter and a potter, to be interviewed. As it turned out, to Marianne’s great surprise, both potters had home studios. “Where do you make your pottery?” Marianne asked Sue, and the moment Sue answered, “My studio is in my house,” Marianne surmised God’s grace was upon the project. In the course of filming the current traveling exhibition launch in May, Marianne asked cinematographer Rich Marek, to do the honors. Having teamed with Marianne before, he readily caught the vision which was an added blessing. 

Also in May, 2025, knowing that Southwest Christian High School had an excellent ceramics program and studio as well as a department chair, Stephanie Pieske, who loves clay, Marianne spoke to Stephanie who enlisted two amazing students, and we had our third venue for the documentary.

Rich Marek did a masterful job of filming and editing! The result is beyond anything we had dreamed, and we are immeasurably grateful and humbled that God gave us such a beautiful and inspiring assignment

On May 20, 2024, professional photographer, Wayne Moran, led a photoshoot at Centennial Park in Edina, Minnesota. It was a beautiful Spring night, despite the dismal forecasts, as Wayne and participating artists gathered at one of the most visited city parks in Minnesota to answer the questions:

  1. Everyone is inspired by mountains, oceans, thundering waterfalls, vast prairies and country sides, but how do we find God in the beauty our own back yards, urban neighborhoods, or city parks with cement sidewalks and statues?
  2. What are the best photography techniques for capturing images that inspire and delight?
  3. What corresponding applications can we make to our everyday lives?
  4. How do we see, experience, and display God’s glorious creation, even in the midst of busy lives?
  5. Why and how does beauty lead us to God, wherever we find it

During the worldwide pandemic in 2020 – 2021, Great Commission Artists sought God for direction. Until then, most of our events and activities were in person or in public venues. Marianne McDonough, as director, asked the Holy Spirit for the vision: how to continue, options to seek, what to do during a time when everyone was expected to isolate and refrain from community interaction. The answer was clear. Go virtual. Expand the internet presence. Redo the website. Utilize Facebook more. Start an art blogging ministry. And, most surprisingly, create a “combination documentary and virtual art exhibit.”

As far as Marianne knew, some virtual art exhibitions were online, but a “combination documentary and virtual art exhibit” had not been done before. It made sense, though, given the parameters of the times. Together, the  documentary and exhibit would chronicle how Christian high school students navigated a global pandemic and designed art to reflect their experience. Based on Psalm 91, the results would appear on our website, focusing on how God protected, empowered, and encouraged the artists during a world-wide crisis. Now, in hindsight, we see that this project served many purposes. In addition to inspiring many viewers, it has preserved a record via art and film of a deeply impactful and difficult time in our history. God Our Refuge has also toured nationally in various Christian film festivals.

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Communications Advisor

Debbie Gustafson

Debbie Gustafson has been an active member and participating artist since the first Psalms Exhibit in 2012. Consistently, she has supported our events and exhibits with wisdom and excellence. Her wisdom and faithfulness to our vision prompted us to seek her support as a board member, and she graciously accepted although she also serves her church and community in a number of other roles, including arts and education. In addition, she is an original member of our blogging ministry that now comprises our “Fresh Oil” artists group.

Programs Advisor

Roberta Sawyer

Roberta (“Bobbie”) Sawyer describes herself as “a lifetime dabbler with a love of experimentation with learners young and old.” Currently an elder at Prairie Community Church in Eden Prairie, Bobbie has participated in numerous types of ministry. She has taught art seminars for children including her “Art in the Park” outdoor summer series, served as a scenarist for church skits, plays and musicals, led Bible study fellowships for 12 years, and created backdrops and props for Vacation Bible Schools. She has also served as a literacy tutor and office support staff for South Hennepin Adult Programs in Education. Also an original Great Commission Arts core group member, Bobbie co-coordinates the monthly Art Klatch painters fellowship group. As a board advisor, she contributes much prayer, a tenacious faith, and a love for people and artists of all definitions.
Outreach Advisor

Geraldine Antoinette Mehta

Geri Mehta has served in numerous ministry positions, which include teaching Sunday school at Way of the Cross church in Blaine, directing girls programs at Hospitality House in north Minneapolis, serving on the mission field in Guatemala and India, and co-leading a home church. She has also been active in community organizations such as Jaycees and Toastmasters.
Geri brings a clear sense of vision and discernment to the board, especially in the area of outreach. She has a passion for promoting the gospel with compassion, love, and respect. As a painter and original Great Commission Artists core group member, Geri has served GCA faithfully in numerous capacities. Her wisdom, like her art, inspires us to seek God’s heart in all things.
Pastoral Board Advisor

Reverend Roger Kuhn

Roger Kuhn has extensive ministry experience, including numerous pastoral positions in New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Ohio, and Minnesota. Most of his career he has served as lead pastor and has particularly enjoyed discipling new believers. Currently, Roger serves as the National Pastor of Member Care and the Director of Church Relations at International Ministerial Fellowship, the licensing organization for W.I.N.D. of the Spirit Ministries. Additionally, his pastoral responsibilities include all IMF Alliance Churches and 200 Lead Pastors. With deep faith and a thorough understanding of ministry, Roger provides pastoral supervision, support, and prayer for W.I.N.D. Ministries, including Great Commission Artists.
Founder & Director

Marianne McDonough

Licensed for ministry in the creative arts through International Ministerial Fellowship, Marianne McDonough founded Great Commission Artists and serves as its director in addition to directing   W.I.N.D. of the Spirit Ministries, the 501 (c) (3) umbrella ministry. Believing the arts have a unique capacity to exalt God and inspire His people, Marianne loves to encourage and mentor Christian artists toward the full expression of their gifts, especially in the context of worship. Marianne’s experience includes writing in secular and Christian venues, leadership in worship and dance ministries, teaching worship arts seminars for children, and sponsoring visual arts workshops and exhibits.

In 2010, she initiated “Art in the Beauty of Holiness” seminars, specifically designed for visual artists and subsequently produced in DVD format. After the formation of GCA and its core group in 2011, she produced four more DVDs featuring artists’ interviews and three other seminars: Worship in the Potter’s Hands, Waterfalls with Rev. Paul Oman, and Banners with Elsa Hammond. She also created a cable television presentation on art and worship. 

Starting in September of 2012, Marianne inaugurated the first Great Commission Artists Exhibition, “Psalms Exhibit and Creative Arts Celebration,” at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. This event included a juried exhibit, continuous original worship music provided by local composers, and dance presentations. Since then, as of spring of 2023, GCA has presented eleven exhibitions with multi-generational artist participation, including numerous high school students from local high schools. The last six exhibitions have traveled for month-long display at Twin Cities’ churches.

Additionally, Marianne believes the Great Commission applies to all of the body of Christ, including artists of all definitions. Thus, she has guided Great Commission Artists to create a variety of teaching conferences and art-based community service projects including Kids Love, a popular Valentines day outreach to homeless children. Great Commission Artists is fulfilling its namesake mission to minister Christ to their world and glorify God.

With a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Minnesota, Marianne is an author and speaker. She has served as a board director for the Minnesota Christian Writers Guild and also leads a Christian writers’ critique group. Her 2016 book, 8 Steps to Getting Real with Cancer, won the Midwest Book Awards in the health category. In 2018 she released Beating Cancer One Truth At A Time, another guide for newly diagnosed patients designed for individual or support group reflection.

Marianne enjoys writing in various genres and desires for writers to explore new ways to release their talents to exalt Christ. Her passion is to see God’s beauty revealed in all of the creative arts.