The artist
Matt Lamb was born in Chicago in 1932. His artistic career began very late in life. After successfully expanding the family funeral home into an empire, he was wrongly diagnosed with a fatal illness at the age of 54. This changed everything for him. He sold the company and devoted himself entirely to art. He wanted to use his artwork to spread the message of peace, tolerance, hope, understanding and love among people.
The painter and peace activist had already painted churches in the Vatican, Chicago, Westminster, Barcelona, St. Petersburg and Tünsdorf. Now 75 years old, he has expressed his wish to paint one last church.
The village
In the small village of Bergern, a district of Bad Berka since 1994 and only around 5 km from Weimar, the church „Zum Kripplein Christi“ was built at the end of the 17th century. The name refers to the fact that the church was built on the site of a former sheepfold. Two thousand years after the birth of Christ, the small church in Bergen was threatened by decay.
The project
It is thanks to a variety of coincidences and relationships that Matt Lamb found his way to Bergern. He wanted to realize his last big project there. In 2008, a fortunate combination of initiatives and commitment from the people of Bergern and the clever cooperation of decision-makers led to the church shining in new splendor today. The members of the local fair and festival society made their free time, manpower, materials and knowledge available in an exemplary effort. Together with the young people from Bergern and the surrounding area, Matt Lamb almost completely painted the interior of the previously very plain church. 
The intensity of the colorful painting surprises and impresses, stimulates conversations and leaves one silent. It symbolically depicts the grandeur of Christian salvation history, the „work of God and Jesus Christ from God's mission to Jesus to save the world to the redemption of the world“ (Matt Lamb on his work). The result is a church that combines tradition and modernity, with an interior that is both simple and colorful, thought-provoking and at the same time conveys a feeling of security and intimacy.