Peep Show

Washington Post sponsors an annual show where they ask readers to submit dioramas made with peeps. You know what dioramas are--they are like the project you did in 6th grade trying to depict life in a particular time or place in history.
You can read more about the show here. and here are a few pictures.

Now This Would Be Fun

Given that it's going to be cold here on Easter, maybe this would be a good idea instead of Easter Egg Hunting. How about an Ice maze to go through? 

This is all from the Ice Alaska festival where the World Ice Championships are concluding this weekend. You can read more about it here

I saw this on the Weather channel where they have like 3 days to carve these sculptures. It takes great creativity and skill to use chainsaws and drills, even household irons to create these sculptures.

Here's a video to show you the artists in action

This Isn't Funny.. It's My Life

I've got good credit...but my car looks like that!

This Is Funny!

Artist In Your Church

This painting is at the entrance to our Prayer Stations today. It was painted back in 1994 by Amy Patton, a dear saint in our church who just passed away last month at the age of 94. This means that she would have painted this picture in her 80th year of life. She was an artist until 3 months before her passing (she had moved to China painting then)

Tonight, we'll also feature a painting by one of our church members in the Maundy Thursday service. It is an abstract picture of Golgotha and will tie in with our PORTRAITS of THE PASSION theme.

There are artist in every church. I've been blessed everywhere that I've served to have someone with an artistic eye, touch and canvas close by. Young and old they've all been a blessing to my ministry and to the churches they've served. I've come to cherish not only their works, but their artist hearts.

Who in your church is an artist? Have you asked them to share their gift with the body?

MAUNDY THURSDAY

"In the Christian liturgical calendar, Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday is the feast or holy day falling on the Thursday before Easter that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles. It is the fifth day of Holy Week, and is preceded by Holy Wednesday and followed by Good Friday.

On this day four events are commemorated: the washing of the Disciples' feet by Jesus Christ, the institution of the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper, the agony of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot.

The morning celebration of these events marks the beginning of what is called the Easter Triduum or Sacred Triduum. The Latin word triduum means a three-day period, and the triduum in question is that of the three days from the death to the resurrection of Jesus. It should be noted that for Jesus and his followers a day ended, and a new day began, at sunset, not at midnight, as it still does today in the modern Jewish calendar.[1] The Last Supper was held at what present-day Western civilization considers to be the evening of Holy Thursday but what was then considered to be the first hours of Friday. Its annual commemoration thus begins the three-day period or triduum of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, days of special devotion that celebrate as a single action the death and resurrection of Christ, the central events of Christianity." From Wikipedia.org

In Memory of Bubbie (1991-2007)

This is in memory of our dog--"Bubbie". We lost him last fall, and at that time I wasn't blogging much. Today a conversation on Twitter brought him to mind (not to mention the venture to the tool shed on Saturday where he used to lounge when he was out side.) I hadn't thought much about his absence since the fall, but pulling out that mower reminded me how much he hated the thing.

Bubbie was a gift from our first youth group when we were going on to our next church. He was a pound puppy delux--rescued from an animal shelter in Fort Worth. He was part terrier and part dachsund (so he was long and had a terrier nose). Bubbie was an excellent dog. He was our first baby--before we had kids and as each kid came along he would dutifully accept them and move on.

After 15 3/4 years of life, Bubbie just got too stiff to walk around and on Sept. 17, we had to make the hard decision to put him out of his misery. We really, really miss him and hope that our next dog will be as good as he was.

FBC's Top Ten Songs

We've been tracking our songs since October for CCLI reporting (we have one more week in this period). Here' s our top songs:

Mighty To Save (6)
Hosanna(5)
Everyday( 4)
How Can I Keep From Singing (4)
How Great Is Our God (4)
Everylasting God (4)
Once Again (4)
Come Thou Fount, Come Thou King (3)
Our God Saves (3)
My Savior, My God (3)
My Savior Lives (3)

The numbers indicate the times that we've sung these songs since October 1. We definitely love Paul Baloche as 2 of the songs are his. We like Tomlin, Hillsong, Brenton Brown and Gateway worship (Come Thou Fount is one of the most requested songs here).

It's good to look back and see what you've done over 6 months. We've tried to be more intentional with songs added to the lists and to repeat songs more often. I think it's paying off as more people engage with the songs in worship.

What's your Top 10 songs? Any that are getting ready to go out of the mix? Notice we don't have Lord I Lift Your Name in the list althougth it is still one of the top 100 in US.

I'm So Hiring These Folks For EASTER

Now, this is experiential worship--crucifying someone in your service

Did I hear this guy right...they are going to crucify someone at their Good Friday services? Listen closely--this is extreme.  This is from Mars Hill Church in Seattle (www.marshillchurch.org) and at their Ballard campus they are going to crucify someone for 30 minutes. 

Cool Twitter App

This is a cool visual representation of your TWITTER neighbors. Try it here

The Real Truth About Bear Stearns

The truth is...the E-Trade baby made some bad investments. I love these commercials. They make me laugh!

In Texas, we don't play DOLLS

In Texas, we don't play Barbies...we go big. GI JOE for us--no wimpy Ken Dolls. I thought this was funny.

Experiential Worship

My mind is on Easter week ( as it should be since it's EASTER). Mostly it's on the Experiential Worship that will take place on Thursday in our Prayer Stations (7Am-6Pm) just prior to our Maundy Thursday services.   This will be the third year for us to do this.  The last two have been traditional stations of the cross, but this year we've chosen to merge the stations with our teaching series on THE NINTH HOUR, the miracles around the cross.  We'll install everything on Wednesday.

I came across this site that is a companion to the Experiential Worship book seen here.  I've read this book.  It was one of my recommended readings for the Recreate Conference in February.

Look at this site to gain a wealth of knowledge about Experiential Worship.  There are all kinds of forms and expressions of it.  From simple to elaborate, it all focuses on  the wonder of God expressed through the senses.  So many times it worship all we engage is the mind, to the exclusion of the sight, smell, taste, touch of our faculties.    We used a video today in worship that was the visual expression of Isaiah 53 (For by his wounds we are healed).  The video shows scrolling words of sin being projected on to a "Crucifix" of Christ.   Wow! what a visual expression of a scripture and it gave us the opportunity to express that in song later in the service. 

This week we'll try to engage those senses.  I have some Frankincense and Myrrh candles that are potent--you won't be able to miss these. We'll have them touch, smell, taste, hear and see at most of these stations.  I'm excited about it and will post some pictures later.

What's your path to worship?  Is it intellectual?  That's ok.  Is it nature?  That's ok too?  Is it through the senses?  Go for it.  Whatever it is that connects you--do it with all of your might and enjoy the journey of worship.

Worship Post-Fessional March 16, 2008

Worship Set for March 16

*Salvation Is Here--New this week... learning it for Easter Sunday

*My Savior Lives-- 2nd week on this one--one more for Easter

*By His Wounds-Video from Worship House Media. This was really cool effect. You'll need to watch the video here. We might try this sometime (projecting words on objects)

         *Let The Worshippers Arise--a favorite always

                            *Come Thou Fount/Come Thou King--ditto

                            *Once Again--2nd week-- learning for Easter

                            *Here I Am To Worship/I Surrender All

                            *Once Again (Reprise)

It was the beginning of Spring Break for us...so we were down.  Down last Sunday for time change and this Sunday for  Spring Break.  We might have done better to have it all in one Sunday.

But all in all--a good day.

The Ways of St. Patrick

Dan Kimball has an interesting post on St. Patrick. You can read it here

Points that he brings out about St. Patrick
1. St. Patrick was sent by the church to "take care of business"--meaning just maintain status quo. They were quite annoyed with his church planting and missionary ways.
2. He understood the people--their ways, their language, their culture.
3. The result of St. Patrick's venture was a group of "fully devoted" followers of Christ.

And you thought St. Patrick was just about being green.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

"My Garden will have a tall Caramel Macchiato please"

So I was working in the garden this morning and I noticed something.  For the last 6 months I've been feeding the soil Starbucks coffee...the grounds that is.  When you go to a local Starbucks, they have a pail just at the end of the line where they collect their coffee grounds for the day and package them for use in gardening and composting.  So I've put about 5-8 pounds of coffee grounds on this little garden for this period.  When I began to turn over the dirt, there were tons of worms (no doubt Starbucks customers) and the soild was so moist and loose.  You could smell the coffee grounds.  Just around the corner there was a section that I thought I would til ( it had not had the luxury of Starbucks)--the ground was like concrete!

Just proves the point if you feed the soil, it will yield good material for future growth.  There's a spiritual lesson here too.  The soil that I paid attention too was the best soil. The one I ignored was the bad soil. 

So--when you pick up your latte, as for some grounds and remember the growth principle here!

It' Spring Planting Day

It's nice and warm here today... and I have the urge to get out and clean up the garden and get going on the Spring.

Here's hoping there are no more freezes.  In West Texas we go by the old saying "If the Mesquites (trees) are out, then no more freezes."  You should have seen me driving down the road trying to look at the Mesquite trees. I couldn't tell.

Here's to artistry in the Garden!

A Great Visual Resource

While attending the CREATIVE FUSION conference last year in Grand Rapids, someone shouted out that they bought large backdrops from BACKDROPS.US. 

We purchased one for our LIFESONG series last summer.  It was beautiful.  The are 20x10 in size and are airbrushed.  All for the cost of $119.   

The picture to the left is one that is based on an oil painting.  They'll even let you upload pictures and graphics if you can't find one in their stock.  We did that for an upcoming series today--I'm anxious to see what they look like in 2 weeks when they get here.  You read that right--they'll be here in two weeks.  No painting for me on this next one.  I'll post photos here when we get them.  Check out this site, you might find some help here.

This is my son... or is it

This is my son... I think?  Today is crazy hair day at school ( we never had those!) and I heard him screaming from the kitchen loudly as each rubber band was put into his hair.

Proof number one that his hair is too long ! ( I sound like my father) and that Spring Break is almost here.  The kids are out at noon--I bet there won't be much "educating" going on today.

Want To Be A Better Designer?

"What is design? Design is both the process and the final product of an endeavour to fulfil a personal or professional brief. Whether you are creating a piece of graphic work, a website, or a design for a new product, the underlying principal is the same – the creative process is everything". COMPTUER ARTS MAGAZINE

You can read the full article here  I thought it was a good article to apply to most any DESIGN process.  

AN INTERESTING SITE

I found this website through Make Magazine which was recommened by a fellow blogger this week.

If you are a  DIY'er ( Do It Yourself), then you could spend hours going through all of the projects that are here.  Talk about creativity.  Some of them have some very inventive and cheap ways to get some projects done.

When I have 3-5 hours (ha ha) to just sit and read through these, I'm coming back.

You Want To Be In Cartoons

One of the "newbies" to be touted this week at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin has been the site Bitstrips. It serves as a way for people to visualize conversations (ie. Twitter) or ideas.  It seems pretty simple.  You get to pick the characters and settings that best represent your conversation. You can pick expressions and emotions; you can set them in any scene or setting.  It seems pretty simple.

For those of you who wanted to write the next Dilbert, this may be your chance.  Check it out.

Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do (The State of Arts in Public Education)

I'll spend the majority of my day today being the accompanist for our local Junior High as they go to competition.  You can read about it here.  I've been attending their rehearsals for the last two weeks and have seen a lot about the education system and how it works in the real world.

This is an artsy little town in West Texas.  We have a great tradition in the area of Arts (Drama, Music, etc). We were discussing the other day how much ARTS there is in this town (population of 10K or so).  It's very unusual; a strong elementary music/arts program; strong choral tradition in Junior/High School; two strong drama programs in Junior/High school; and band programs that consistently score superior ratings. We also have a local community college that has a strong drama tradition too.  Recently they have formed an Arts Alliance for our county. You can read about it here . This group supports arts in the community through Exhibits and interactive Saturday events for kids in the town.

So, we're quite unsual. I'm afraid that in other places around the country the arts are in jeopardy.  In a race to increase scores in math, science, reading and other areas, arts courses are cut or sadly still in place with little or no support from the administration.  I'm glad that's not the case here.

My observation is that schools with strong arts traditions also have strong academic scores too. It has been consistently shown that students in arts programs score higher on national tests.  Could it be because they are exercising creativity and expression in another part of their brain by participating in music, drama and dance?  I think so.  I think it benefits kids to be part of Arts programs in public schools.

What is the state Arts in your public school?  Are you a participant and supporter of the Arts in your community?

A CREATIVE SPACE

This post is part of Water Cooler Wednesday's (Randy Elrod's Cultural Watercooler Blog Carnival)

Welcome to my office... If I had known you were stopping by I would have cleaned up.

Seriously, how many of us have a space where we can be creative and be the artists we are called to be. In my years of service to the church I've had several kinds of offices. My first one was a closet--really. Then it was a Sunday school room. The next one was a bedroom in an old house that the church rented. After that it became pretty standard--the office complex. In all of these spaces I just accepted the decor, lighting and such as given and worked with it.

Not until I helped build the office plans for our new church in the Metroplex did I really stop to think about the space that I would be spending most of my life in. I had to make the most of a space that was 10'X12' with 12' ceilings. You know what they say, if you can't build out, build up. And so I did. I put shelves all the way around the top of the room and down the wall. I got so much merchandise (books) in there, it was very cozy. And to top it off, I told them no overhead lights! Yep--no overhead lights--only lamps.

Which brings me to my current space. It's an old narrow space in the office complex. Orignially meant for that part time Minister of Youth who only came in for the weekends, it is only 9X12 with a 9' ceiling. I painted it...yep! That was a no-no when I got here because everything was hospital white. I didn't think I could live in it. So I painted it a neutral tone color. And for lights--yep, I had them take out the overhead lights again. I have 7 lamps in the office including an old street lamp that we've used for a prop. You can see more pictures here

Some things I love about my office:

1. It's Unique---no other office is like it. It reflects my love of different things. You'll find different things that I've collected from years in ministry (photos, gifts, etc) and trips to different countries. It's so unique that they refer to it as the gift shop--because we usually pull props out of it for visuals in worship (ie. the old 5 panel door against my wall) I have my Dad's old Ordination Certificates hanging on the wall (from 1937) and a signed scripture by George Truett (old time Baptist preacher). One of my prized treasures is the Nativity given to me by a former church. It's up all year long in my office. Did I say that I like lamps!!!


2. It smells great..really. I have a candle warmer going at all times... sensory stuff is big to me. People come into the office and they say "what smells good?". It's Jim's office.


3. It is my sanctuary--I retreat from the world in here. With good music, good coffee and some time with God--I could stay in here for days.

Some things I don't like about my office:

1. It's not big enough. I know if I got rid of a bunch of stuff it would seem bigger--but that would have to be a BUNCH of stuff. Plus as you know in Worship Arts Ministry, things just pile up in every corner, especially in the seasons.


2. I don't have a comfortable sitting/ work area. In one of my offices I had a small love seat. It was great to move away from the desk and work or read or visit, but no such luck in subsequent offices. In the office I built I had an 8' foot window--so I built a bench underneath. I could easily fit 4 people on that bench for a meeting.


3. It's not secluded enough-- I can hear every conversation in the outer office.


4. It doesn't have a Keyboard in it. I have to go to the worship center to play out sequences or songs for planning. It would be great to have one handy to do that.

So--make your space your own creative space. Mine has been called the Den of Tranquility--laughingly posted by one of our maintenence people. I call it home!

American IDOL--the Final 12

Syesha begins the evening INTO MY LIFE (EW&Fire arr.)..can you say PITCHY!! wow...my eyebrows were up trying to help her. Simon says it was better than alright. What was he listening too.  She'll be safe though.

Chickezie-singing next. Used to work @ LAX.  Singing She's A Woman.  He's wild tonight.  Started out pretty good--but wow--where did that one go!  Took a big risk on that one!  Safe!

Ramiele- Singing IN MY LIFE. Not bad...a little breathy, but hey that's popular! Not as powerful as in past weeks..this one may be in trouble.

Jason Castro- If I Fell In Love With You... started out ok in his lower register...but when it went up..uh, oh. This one may not be pretty. Still he's from Texas. Whoop!
Carly Works 7 days a week--wow, you go girl! Really thick accent tonight--I don't remember that in previous weeks. Singing COME TOGETHER.. sounds a little like Reba Mc. singing Beatles...I don't know. Safe for this week I think.
David Cook   Singing Bar Tender.. Uh oh..what kind of guitar was that he just smashed. ELEANOR RIGBY... a little Daughtry like. I like this guy... mmmm. could be one of the finalists. SAFE
Brooke Starts with playing the piano.. I see a trend here.. singers that can play an instrument. she looks worried over the chords and notes... see those silly people in the mosh pit waving their arms.. come on MOSH PIT..be creative. Back to vocals...I dunno-she's good, but may be vulnerable this week.  Simon likes it...so she's safe.

David-  a course in college on the BEATLES?  Why didn't they have that class when I was there.   I SAW HER STANDING THERE..hmm... I dunno.  Safe I think.

Michael-- I like him--good tone

Kristy--Rodeo queen--I don't think she'll last--- not a good pick

David A---like him--he'll stay because they like him.

My prediction:  Syesha and Kristy--Kristy is gone!

Fun With Words

We ordered two of these MAGNETIC POETRY kits for our Maundy Thursday prayer stations. You can order one here.They arrived today and I opened it up to see what they are like. I immediately began to challenge my brain to come up with some coherent phrase or saying. It took me a moment to clear my head, but once I was into it, things began to flow.

This will be part of one of our stations where people are asked to respond to what they see in the station. I've been working on this for weeks and it's almost done. Next Tuesday I'll post the entire set up and the pdf for the stations.

If you're looking for a great gift, this one would do nicely. Challenge them to be creative, even come up with a new song, psalm or praise.

Vatican Names Sins For 2008

I saw this today. How interesting that we have to "update" the sins of man in order for him to know if he is righteous or unrighteous. Read about it here

Would You Let Her Officiate Your Wedding?

Seriously, would you let this lady officate at your wedding? Some couple in New York did. Read about it here

Seems that this couple is such a fan..they asked her to do it and she did. Anyone want to take a guess how long this marriage will last? And we wonder why the state of marriage is in the shape it's in. Oh boy!

Twitter is so..last year (Wink, Wink)

The South By Southwest Festival in Austin is going on right now and according to this article, the next "Twitter" has arrived. See the article here "Twitter" was the buzz and rage last year at the festival (Microblogging-where people are limited to 140 words and you can participate by mobile or computer input).

The application that is all the rage this year is a Sched.org. It's an application that combines all of the activities of the festival visually so that the user can see everything going on at once and in color. The two young inventors spent about 12 hours writing the code and putting it together.

So next year for RECREATE, I fully expect us all to have Sched.org working and for us to keep up with the activities via this app.
What do you think?

Knowing when to quit... Should Hillary quit?

Seth Godin has an excellent article on knowing when to quit something. Read it here He applies it to Hillary Clinton's campaign. Basically he says she'll have to slash and burn everything in order to win...and in the end he asks "Is it really worth it?"
A great article Seth. Everyone must read.

Worship Confessional #2--Sunday March 9, 2008

Wow! Today was amazing...
Here's the set:
My Savior Lives (New Life) new song this week--this one rocked!
Hosanna (Baloche)--quickly becoming a fave here
Video from Sermon Spice-The Bridge--powerful
No, Not One (Cottrell) old hymn done in new way--wow, wow! (we were suppose to sing this last week but we cut because of time--it was meant for this sunday--see below)
How Great Is Our God (Tomlin arr. G3)
Once Again (Redman)--the last line "Thank you for the cross my friend" just hit me in the midst of singing--tied back to "there's not a friend like the lowly Jesus"
Closer: I Am Thine O Lord (chorus and 1 verse)
Our God Saves and then Chorus and Bridg of MIGHTY TO SAVE--this works well together in A.

Chris From Canada said that two weeks ago his worship services were....well, you know. And then last week they were awesome. Same thing here.. two weeks ago I was really concerned about worship--and today, somebody lit the fuse under the crowd. Felt the passion of the songs and they all flowed well into the Word. A good day!

How was your Sunday? Any highs or lows?

Walk #25--The Countdown has begun

Today was our first team meeting for Walk To Emmaus #25 in Sweetwater. For those of you that don't know about Emmaus, go here
There are three meetings (1 today) and 2 more to follow in which we will preview all of the talks for the Walk prior to the weekend.

This meeting was at FBC Sweetwater where I served from 1997-2001. It always amazes me when you go back to a former place of service the emotions and feelings that are brought to the surface. I was immediately greeted this morning in the basement with the COLD HARD FACTS...literally COLD AIR blowing on all of these team members. I hadn't thought of that old boiler system in years--but somehow magically I remembered how to fire up the furnace and get some heat going ( it was 26 degrees here this morning--brrr..)

The morning rocked along pretty well. We took communion together and again I was reminded how much it means to break bread with those you love and have had such an impact in your life. I weep everytime that I do this and it was a special time.

In going through these talks, I was reminded once again what I love about Emmaus. Yes, there are rules and guidelines that we must follow for this to be "OFFICIAL", but getting beyond the organizational, I love the spiritual aspect of it. So many nuggets of truth come out during the weekend. Today we learned about PERSEVERANCE--and how that must be done in community. So true. No of us can endure alone--we need each other. We learned about PRIESTHOOD OF THE BELIEVER--we're all priests. I loved the line from the talk today--"we're either Priests or Beasts...when we're pressed to be Christ to someone, which one comes out. We learned about walking in our FOURTH DAYS--everyday after your Walk. I previewed the MEANS OF GRACE talk where we talk about the sacrements of baptism and Lord's supper along with the many ways God surprises us with visitations of Grace in our daily journey.

So, all in all, it was a great start to the weekend. I'll be posting more here as the time nears. Just remember to lift up Walk #25 in April. It's always a holy time of the presence of the Lord.

Have you been on a Walk To Emmaus? If so, what was your experience like?

And My Strengths Are

A great post over on Ragamuffinsoul.com (you can read it here) talks about the Creative Leadership lid.  It's worth the read and discussion to have about leadership and it's limitations.  

It got me to thinking about my own strengths.  For several years I have been fascinated by the Gallup Strengths Finder test.  Initially I took it as part of a pre-interview for a position with another organization.  I was amazed at how much this test said what I believed to be true about myself.  My strengths listed by this test are:  

Strategic,-meaning I like things in order and can see down the road.
(Ideation)-I like to think about ideas (ie IBM Ideation room--yeah!)
Achiever,-I like to tie a bow on things and see what I've accomplished 
Positivity,-I like to have fun 
Woo,-I like to meet new people (thanks Twitter! thanks Recreate!)
Learner-I like to read (just look at the stack of books beside my bed, and on the floor...etc) 

Each of these in their own description accurately describe part of my make up and knowing each of these has helped me steer myself in the direction where I can utilize these things.

The follow up book "GO PUT YOUR STRENGTHS TO WORK" is an excellent follow-up to this test.  I agree with Carlos (www.ragamuffinsoul.com) that you can take so many of these tests to know about yourself;however, after a period of time they all say the same thing.

Marfa--Hollywood's Best Kept Secret

For those of you Oscar buffs, this may already be old news--but Hollywood has discovered (like it didn't already know about it) that Marfa (small West Texas town) is the perfect back drop for Box Office hits.  Both "NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN" and "THERE WILL BE BLOOD" were filmed in this sleepy,dry and dusty West Texas Town.  It was also the setting for the 1957 epic film "GIANT" with Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. 

You can read the articles about Marfa here.  The article goes on to say that Marfa is quickly becoming an "Artist" community like Santa Fe, NM.   

It may be worth a drive for me to spend some time in Marfa.  I'd better get there before Hollywood comes calling again.

The Shining Diamond of Creativity

This is an excellent article.  You can read it here

Visual Worship

I've been wanting to post about this for a while. Some of you may have seen these photos in COLLIDE MAGAZINE in December. When I saw these photos, I think I took a big gulp and a gasp of air. These pictures are beautiful. If you read the article and go to the web site here
you'll see that they achieve these looks by using 3 video projectors and a separate laptop send/signal. This is at Irving Bible Church in Irving, Texas. Camron Ware is the visual designer.

We purchased some of the images from his collection and used a few at Christmas. We have some ambient lighting issues (stained glass windows) that keep us from having a totally dark room. However, at Christmas when the windows were covered, we tried some of these. Totally cool.

Take a look at Camron's gallery hereand his Flickr gallery here

They can totally change the look of the room in one setting--visual painting! It may be the next wave of visual design for Worship.

A Creative Arts Family Vacation

One of the best family vacations we had was very spontaneously planned. We headed to Austin in the summer of 2006 just to get away for a few days before school started. We knew we wanted to go to Austin and so we decided that we would only eat where Rachel Ray had eaten when she took a trip to Austin. You can read about that trip here. While at one of these restaurants, I picked up a local arts scene magazine. In it was an ad for Cafe Monet (www. cafemonet.org). It's a paint your own pottery place.  I thought it might be a good "hour" killer before we headed on to another family activity on the list (like swimming at the hotel pool).  We arrived at the store and quickly determined that on our ministerial budget--we could all afford to do a tile.  So we jumped in and did our own artistic best.  My daughters  did their own names; my son chose a favorite sport and my wife did her name.  I chose Psalm 121.  Anyway, after 4 hours of pure family fun and creativity--we broke for lunch and came back and did some more.  All totaled we spent about 6 hours doing this family craft activity.  It was the best family time and vacation that we've spent together.  The kids still talk about it and we have them prominently displayed in our family room.

So, when you are on vacation, look for the offbeat to do.  You might just have one of the best family memories by doing something creative together.

This post is part of Watercooler Wednesdays where creative artists are talking about changing the culture around them

It's Test Day

It's TAKS day here in Snyder. I awoke this morning to the smell of bacon and eggs...yes, mom cooked a good breakfast for the kids.

TAKS is our statewide assesment of knowledge and skills. It's a benchmark test where they can measure a child's progress and a school's effectiveness. It's the scorecard for the educational system.

I'm all for measuring our kids progress, but my fear is that we are teaching the test and not the knowledge behind the test. I've seen my kids have to add simple numbers together and have to count the dots on the number to add them together. What happened to the day when you had to know your addition, subtraction and mulitiplication by memory? There are other examples, but I have family in the education system and they tell me that this is happening. So much so that kids who focus so much on science and math in the early grades are poor grammar students in the later years.

It's TAKS day in Texas and I hope that in the end the next generation is better for it. We'll wait and see.

Don't Eat Snow

Ok..another thing that my children will never get to enjoy is...SNOW ICE CREAM! Arggh.... what else will they determine is bad for you? Read about it here on this site. Like we didn't already know that once you eat snow (snow ice cream that is) that you are going to have a sore throat. We know that--that is part of the trade off of getting to eat the stuff (now I won't eat yellow snow!!). Now they tell us that snow is full of deadly, poisonous, ravenous, treacherous, flesh eating, organ consuming, life taking bacteria! Duh!  But it tastes great!!!

One of my favorite childhood memories was getting a bowl of SNOW ICE CREAM at least once a year when the white fluffy stuff hit the brown dirt of West Texas.  It was a little gritty--but fun none the less.

Ok--Chris from Canada...can I get some brotherly snow support on this issue. Do you guys make Snow Ice Cream in the northern territories?

Let me know what you think.

If Pets Could Blog

My brother sent this to me today--suggested I should post this here. Enjoy

Lego's-The Toys of Creativity

I read about this guy in the American Way magazine last month on my way to Recreate Conference in Nashville. A very interesting art form. You can visit his site here
I remember that I used to spend hours with Lego blocks. And here's a confession--I did it way past the 10 year old limit--probably wasted more time as teen with these things than I was suppose to--but it was a creative outlet. I made things, tore them apart and made some more. I don't even know what happened to my original set (probably collectors editions now), but I remember what fun I had with them.

It's good to see someone take an ordinary object and turn it into an art form. This guy has million's of bricks--now that's a toy obsession. And by the way--the secret to his art form is glue!

An Outstanding Resource

In searching for how others handle prayer stations, I came across this site. This church lists out it's 18 station resources with an excellent list for set up. If you are putting together a "Stations" experience for Easter, this would be a great place to check out. You can find it here

We will have our third Prayer experience on March 20th. This year we are centering around the miracles of the crucifixion. We will have 6 stations total (5 for the miracles and one for "IT IS FINISHED"-the final station before they leave. This is always a solemn day around our place as we keep all of the overhead lights off and light the hallways only with lamps and candles. Our stations move through our library area which is separated from the main traffic area. It ends in the Garden room (indoors) where worshipers can pause and reflect before they leave.
People have told us this is really the start to their Easter weekend activities and prepares them for Sunday. We close Thursday night with a service in our chapel (seats 200) and this year we're using the resource from Willow "The Portraits of The Crucifixion" which is a multi-media experience with slides, audio and such. I think it's going to be powerful.

Worship Confessional -March 2, 2008

Today's Music--Choir Led Worship
*Here I Am Again-Never Gonna Stop--Tommy Walker (from the collection That's Why We Praise Him)
*Everlasting God--Brown
*That's Why We Praise Him--Tommy Walker
*When All Is Said and Done--Tommy Walker
*Take My Life--Underwood (Holiness, Holiness)
*The Wonderful Cross--Tomlin

Here's Tommy Walker singing "When All Is Said And Done"


The Choir led today--in both services. They did a great job! We are using the collection from Tommy Walker--so that's the reason for all of the Walker songs today. All of the songs in the collection (Benson Publishing) are great. It was a full morning--new series, new set, new, new, new. So much happening.

Just glad to get one under the belt. Easter is coming...and fast. No time to stop.

How was your Sunday?

What To Do With #2

I read this on another blog tonight. Seems that an Indian company has come up with a way to turn #2 (Deux) into ....Gas. Read about it here This comes from the part of India that I visited in January 2007. Believe me, they have lots of cows to deal with...their stuff. The article says that the Indian governement is paying 1/3 of the cost for people to install these. US Cost is$425. That's a great deal of money for a typical Indian family. Maybe the cost will come down. Who knows--maybe people will opt for these instead of pools in their back yards. What will they think of next?