Something New
This week I'm devoting this post to some of the new sites and friends that I made last week at the National Worship Leader Conference in Austin.ShaunGroves- Shaun is a Christian artist, blogger and descriptive writer of our times. He taught the Advanced Blogging seminar at NWLC and gave some great tips on increasing readership to blogs. He also works with Compassion International- setting up bloggers to go on trips with Compassion.
Russ Hutto- Russ was one of our traveling companions last week. He is from Valdosta, Georgia where he serves as the Music and Media Coordinator at the Houst of Joy. I really enjoyed getting to know Russ--we shared some smiles and jokes during Fred Mc Kinnon's class on Web 2.0
Chris wasn't at the conference...but gave his input via Twitter. Chris is Media Guru at St. Simon's Community Church in Georgia. He creates lots of graphics and loves to give them away--we love Chris!
This is a flickr account where Church Media folks share the goods--and by goods-I mean goods. Graphics, logos, print and publication pieces--all for the sharing. Thanks guys!
The Sticks Conference popped up on my screen last week and looks very interesting. Churches doing large things in small towns! Check it out--and if you go--Blog!
What new sites have you seen this week?
Worship Post-Fessional, July 27, 2008
This post is part of Sunday Set List over on FredMcKinnon.Com. Each week worship leaders post what their sets were for the week. I met Fred in person last week at the NWLC. This is the first Sunday for Set List--I'm anxious to see what others are doing.
When we go to conferences like NWLC, I'm always heartened that our church is singing some of the best songs written today. And, we continue to polish up the old hymns and do them in new ways so as not to abandon our past. Just a thought here....
Here is our list this week.
O Worship The King (Tomlin)
Sing To The King ( Foote)
I Will Sing of My Redeemer (Ortega)
Show Me Your Ways (Fragar)
What Can I Do (Baloche)
I Stand Amazed (Jernigan)
The Wordle above is from this morning's teaching in Proverbs 6--can you guess what the topic was?
So, how was your Sunday?
Blogging For Your Health
Now only if they could find that blogging took 20 pounds off you-we'd all be doing it!
HT: Brody Harper
Make New Friends--Meeting Up With A Fellow Bloggers and Twitter Buds
(Pic from www.fredmckinnon.com)This week I got to meet some of my fellow Twitter buds. They are left to right: Fred McKinnon, Worship Pastor from St. Simons Community Church in GA; Chad Wright, Photographer and Artist from Cedar Park,Tx and Snyder native; and Russ Hutto, Media Guru from Valdosta, Ga.
It was great to put names and faces together and to make the in person connection. We all laughed that we had been teased that meeting people from the net would be equal to meeting a slasher or such.
What I've found is a community of believers, pastors, artists, dreamers and just authentic people who want to share this journey together. My realm of friendship has been widened and my pool to draw from has been deepened. I'm a better man for it. Thanks guys for a wonderful week. Here's to the journey together in faith.
NATIONAL WORSHIP LEADER CONFERENCE-Thursday-Final thoughts
(Pic via fred mckinnon's twitpic)ISRAEL HOUGHTON LEADS WORSHIP IN AUSTIN
Tonight wrapped up the week of worship sessions and teachings at the National Worship Leaders Conference. It has been a busy week, but a full week of great worship and connection with worship leaders from all across the globe.
There were 21 nations and 41 different states represented at this conference.
Highlights from Thursday were:
Worship/Web 2.0 class--led by Fred Mc Kinnon. We twittered and did a live video feed via Mogulus where I found even more twitter buddies. Will the fun never end?
Lunch--Jason's Deli again. Ok-we're tired of chicken!
Afternoon-Worship with the Daniel Doss Band-man can they sing
Supper--Texas BBQ. This was a worship experience in itself!
Night--Tommy Walker (he was the real deal) He sang " Lord I Believe In You", "He Knows My Name", "We Will Remember"--a fantastic set; Cici Winnans and Israel Houghton closed out the night with a great spirit filled concert.
Annie--In production
While I am away this week, my middle child is getting ready for the production of ANNIE this weekend. My wife sent me these pics from her phone during this morning's dress rehearsal.I can't wait to get home and see it.
We'll be posting more pictures as the production comes together.
NATIONAL WORSHIP LEADER CONFERENCE--The Tabernacle Experience
One of the things that I was looking forward to the most of the trip to NWLC was the Tabernacle Experience. Carlton Dillard had already told me that this was part of the conference and I couldn't wait.
It took until last night to get in. They only allow a certain number of people to go through and experience it at a time. I snagged the last ticket of the evening and thought I had missed it because of a sudden shower storm. But I didn't.
What I experienced was incredible! I already knew about Prayer stations and such, but this one was so invigorating for me. To actually walk through the steps of the tabernacle and the things that the priest would do when he would enter into the most holy place were very moving for me.
Some highlights:
1. Offering a burnt offering (a piece of wood) into the fire of the Burnt Offering--wow!
2. Washing my hands in the laver in front of the temple
3. Lighting the lampstand (which reminded me of the scripture in Rev. where it says that heaven needs no light--because Jesus is the light!)
4. Taking communion at the Table of Bread
5. The Altar of incense---I once thought this was an irritating smell--not so anymore.
6. The Holy of Holies---to actually see the smoke and the incense surrounding the throne was very moving.
Then I headed into worship and Don Moen led us in a sweet time of worship where we sand " I Just Want to Be Where You Are" and "Thank You" and "I Offer My Life To You" (as a pleasing sacrifice. You know that I was undone at that point--tears were really flowing but my mind was still going through the experience of the tabernacle. So much more to think about--but I thought I'd share this experience with you today.
You can learn more about the Tabernacle Experience here.
NATIONAL WORSHIP LEADER CONFERENCE-Wednesday Highlights
It's late Wednesday night, and anyone thinking that I'm laying by the pool getting a tan before Family Camp next week is crazy. We leave the hotel about 7:15 AM and get back here around 10PM--so it's a long, long day.
Highlights from today:
Morning worship with Bishop Joseph Garlington--amazing talk (and even more amazing presentatation with his keyboardist accompanying him)
Morning class: Planning Center- an amazing product and some even more amazing things being added in the furture
Reconnection: with Mike Paslay--Minister of Music at FBC Fayetteville. Mike and I served together in Johnson Association in early 1990's.
Lunch: Jason's Deli--I called it early in the day in my twitter
Afternoon: Some video class.....I forget what it was
Afternoon worship with Rita Springer and Gordon Mac Donald
Supper--Chick-Fil A
Experience: The Tabernacle---wow! Do that right before evening worship and I gurantee you'll be filled up. More posts on this later. I'm still digesting
Evening Worship: Don Moen, Gateway Worship, Chris Tomlin and Lincoln Brewster--wow again.
Tomorrow--it's classes again with my new worship/twitter/blogging buddy Fred McKinnon
NATIONAL WORSHIP LEADERS CONFERENCE:Tuesday Afternoon-Marcos Witt
Worship led by Rush of Fools
Marcos Witt
What did people say about David behind his back? (1 Sam 16:18)
1. He plays skillfully---artists must practice, pray and play together
2. He's a courageous man-- you'll never have to look for a Goliath in your life--they come looking for you!
3. He was a warrior - worshipers engage in warfare--stand, sing, lead like a warrior!
4. He speaks well... He's prudent in matters (good judgement). He makes wise decisions and measures what he speaks before he says it.
5. He is a good looking man - Not just outward beauty, but the inner glow of character and a godly personality
6. And the Lord was with Him! -David's strength came from God
NATIONAL WORSHIP LEADERS CONFERENCE: Tuesday Morning--Dr. Leonard Sweet
Tuesday at the NWLCToday opened with a sweet set of music from the Riverbend Choir and Fernando Ortega as they presented songs from The Odes Project. Fernandos worship set was sweet as he did as only he could do
Praise To The Lord, The Almighty
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
I Will Sing of My Redeemer
Then Len Sweet brought an amazing talk on the Metaphors that will reach this generation for Christ. They are:
1. Design--everything is designed today and we as the church must embrace the process of design (not the product) in order to communicate the gospel. I blogged about design last week on Watercooler Wednesday.
2. Transformation (the oyster)--we are all becoming by the power of Christ
3. Pilgrim (Journey)--we need more followers of Christ--not more leaders (ouch!)
4. Connections (Web)--we are all more connected (1/2 of the world's population uses a cell phone--not to mention the connections via web (aka-Twitter and blog world) I met two fellow twitter buds today at the Planning Center booth.
5. Organic (Apples instead of Oranges). We don't live in segmented societies anymore.
6. Wind (Spirit)--we operate more out of flesh than spirit.
7. Harmony (the energy of God )--I know this sounds a little new age, but I don't think that was his intent. We all sang (can you imagine 4000 worship leaders singing in harmony) JOY TO THE WORLD and listened to the harmony of singing together and experiencing the presence of God.
My morning session was with Mike Harland of Lifeway Music Group as he talked about 25 years in Ministry and how he has changed and what he has gone through. I knew Mike back in Carrollton, so I know some of the back story he refers too. This was a good reminder to me of some principles of ministry that I need to visit again.
I'm off to the Advanced Blogging session with Shaun Groves in a few minutes. More tonight after I get back to the hotel.
National Worship Leaders Conference-Austin
We arrived here in Austin about 3:30 this afternoon. Boy was it hot and muggy! After some great food at PEI WEI (that was worship itself) we headed to Riverbend church for the conference opener. Here's the line up tonight
"the Love of the Lord"
Sarah Kelly
Matt Redman
Blessed Be Your Name
You Never Let Go
Mighty To Save
Skip Hertzig--the Priority of worship
Paul Baloche
Hosanna
Because of Your Love
Your Name
Something Old, Something New
Today, I'm on the road to the National Worship Leader Conference in Austin--so I hope this will post while I make my way there.Something Old
This is the blog site of Jim Houser, manager for Steven Curtis Chapman. He is giving us regular updates on the Chapmans and specific things to pray for them.
Something New:
This resource came as an ad in the last Collide Magazine. For $99 per year you have access to their entire library of motion, still and countdown graphics. Cool! We're using them now and at our Family Camp in 2 weeks.
Camron Ware is an amazing artist with the video projector. I blogged about his creations here back in March. Camron has joined the blog world and I can't wait to hear what he's got to say.
Worship Post-fessional, July 20, 2008
Sunday's Set:
It Is You (Instrumental)
All The Earth Will Sing Your Praises
Only A God Like You
Welcome-in TLA's (that would be Three Letter Acronyms)-we have an intern this summer who does this, so we let him do the announcements like that today. You had to be there (but we also put the definitions on the screens)
Psalm 19
Scripture Reading
Let My Words Be Few
I Stand In Awe
The Power of Words Video-Sermonspice (I think?)
Message
Psalm 19-Reprise
Arts On The Square--Scurry County Arts Alliance
This is how we spent our Saturday morning--painting some pottery on the Square here in town. The Scurry County Arts Alliance sponsors several events in the summer (Sidewalk Chalk Contest,etc) to encourage people to come to the downtown area and also to support the arts. So--we picked a piece of pottery and started painting. It will be glazed and fired this week and we can pick it up next week. It reminded me of the vacation time in Austin at Cafe' Monet.
Annie
It's almost time for ANNIE, the second season of the NOT READY FOR BROADWAY COMPANY's production for the summer. This cast inclued 17 Junior high students who began rehearsals this Monday (no previous rehearsals) and will present the musical in full next weekend June 25-26th.
It's amazing to see a group of young people pull together, with love for the arts, and put their whole heart into it. I'm looking forward to it.
And--I'm kinda partial to ANNIE (Mattie Drake)! She isn't really an orphan. She lives at my house.
Creative Chaos--When A Series Makes A Lasting Impact
In reviewing some figures and history the other day, we began talking about some of the series that we've gone through in the past three years. It's funny that I can mark the time and history by which series we were in (and most of them have a graphic to go with it).This brought to mind the series that we did in Novebmer of 2005. It was our first "Money" series after my arrival that July.
We borrowed the title from Andy Stanley's talk of the same, but we took a different course. We borrowed shopping baskets from a local retailer and placed them on stage for our props. (We lined them with red paper to make them pop). They looked kind of funny up there at first--empty and lonely. But along with this we emphasized to our folks that this series would be about STEWARDSHIP and not just money. So we came up with a FOOD DRIVE at the same time. This was around thanksgiving time--and we filled the baskets to overflowing by the weekend before the holiday. It was a tangible visual for the people to see their stewardship of their food and gifts. I wish I had pictures of that--but this was before I started documenting all of our visuals for our series.
The slogan for the series came from Andy. "It all comes from God; It's all dispursed by God; It's all belongs to God". That mantra was said over and over and over and to this day (some three years later) I still here that slogan used around here. And the most visible sign that this series and teaching were impactful is the reality that our giving here has grown significantly in the past three years. Just last week our pastor reminded us that as of the half year (6/30/08) we were on pace to shatter our giving records here and give more to missons than ever before. The interesting fact: We haven't had a MONEY series since STEWARDS R US. I think we shifted the focus from money to stewardship and that was the key.
Nothing much creative here---but wanted to share that what we do as creatives and artists to enhance the services of the church is making an impact in our world. We're changing the culture of the church--and heading towards changing the culture that we live in.
This post is part of CREATIVE CHAOS on Ragamuffinsoul.com
Watercooler Wednesdays-Designers:They're Everywhere
Somewhere around 2004 or so I was getting ready to attend my first Catalyst Conference in Atlanta. I noticed that one of the things they said the conference for was for WORSHIP DESIGNERS. I thought to myself--"I wonder what one of those people look like?" I kept my eyes open during the whole conference trying to spot the elusive bird called a designer. That was really my first introduction to the term DESIGNER as it pertained to worship and the church. You may ask- "What is a designer?". Here's the official wiki answer:
A designer is a person who designs something. Perhaps the broadest definition is that provided by Herbert Simon: ‘Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.’ [1]
Examples of different types of designers include:Ok, you say "What's the point?". The point is that in every industry, every trade, every organization there are designers--and legitimately called designers on staff.
architect or architectural designer, automotive designer, costume designer, engineering designer, fashion designer, game designer, graphic designer, industrial designer, interaction designer, interior designer, jewelry designer, landscape designer, lighting designer, scenic designer, systems designer, web designer.
For example, one funeral home in our area has stopped calling it's employees FUNERAL DIRECTORS, but now they are MEMORIAL DESIGNERS- they design memorial services. I told that to our local crew of directors and they chuckled. They said it beat undertaker!
There are FLORAL DESIGNERS, EXPERIENCE DESIGNERS, SOCIAL DESIGNERS and the list goes on and on.
So--how do you feel about being called DESIGNER? Does it change how you look at your work? Are the compelling questions that you ask different? Do you find inspiration in your work that leads you to better design? Is there a design plan for your services and ministries?
The Design Star Challenge is but one manifestation of this new division of workers in the field.
This post is part of Watercooler Wednesdays over on Randy Elrod's site, Ethos. It's where all the cool kids hang out. Come on over.
Something Old, Something New
Something Old:Little People-Tiny Art -I'm not sure where I got this site, but I always watch it amazed at what they come up with. They take tiny people (models) and place them in strange places. The first picture makes it seem it's real--then they do a pull away and show you how small these things really are. Some incredible photographs here. Check it out.
Something New:
Vecteezy- Graphics such as these are made with vectors. If you aren't an Adobe Illustrator genius, these graphics are quite complicated. You can find a whole gallery of them on this site.
Brillidea- You know those homes that have the synchronized Christmas light displays, well this is the place where they get some of their ideas and schematics. Most of what I've looked at has to do with the LED lights and syncing them to music and such. Oh that I had the time to build and create with these. I'm thinking of O HOLY NIGHT with flashing LED's this Christmas (not really. If any of you can help me figure these things out--I'd be grateful.
It's Just A Statue People!
Watch this video... listen to the shrieks when it falls. Remember what God said about idols? What idols (sacred cows) have you broken lately?
I feel sorry for the guys carrying this thing--bet they weren't in the receiving line after church.
Worship Post-Fessional, July 13, 2008
We survived the sudden storms last night, but discovered that some of our building didn't fare so well. We just had a new roof put on the building--and you guessed it-leaks (major leaks!) were everywhere. With the severe electrical storms and such, we were without AC much of the morning.I guess the Spirit knew that the storms were coming because the Praise Team had already planned to sing "Til the Storm Passes By" for our Traditional service.
Here's the line up for Contemporary Worship
"That's My King"--Video
I Will Boast (Baloche/Brown)
Welcome/Annoucements
You Are Worthy of My Praise
Knowing You
You Alone
"That's My Money"-Video ( a parody of the first video)
Message-Right Riches
Response
We All Bow Down
You Are Worthy (Reprise)
My Jesus I Love Thee
So how was your morning? Any storms?
A Creative Booster Shot
I blogged some time back about Accidental Creative and the wealth of inspiration that they offer on their site. Now you can get a booster shot to your creativity by listening to their podcasts. I did so this week (they're only 8-15 minutes long) and I found myself saying "Ah, someone who speaks my language!" The podcasts are practical and extremely helpful. If I need it, there are more out there that need it too. Thanks to Todd Kelly for doing this. It's my new watering hole when I'm dry creatively!
The Creative -Process vs. Product
Todd Kelly over at Accidental Creative got me to thinking the other day when I listened to his podcast about the Creative Process. You should go and listen to it here.His thesis is that in the world of creativity you must pay attention to the process and the product. The process is the means, the inspiration, the journey of the creative to get to the product. And of course, the product is the product.
He continues on to say that the tension felt between creatives and the powers that be often lies in the fact that the product is elevated above the process. The Powers don't enter into the process that the creative went through and only focuses on the end product.
He says that perhaps if the Powers would enter into the process, maybe the product would turn out differently-or perhaps a tweak here or there in the process (and possibly in the re-do) would yield a more pleasing product. Hmmm.. that's food for thought.
Creative Juice!
You've got to watch this video! It's great! And we wondered where all the creative juice in the world came from!
Design Star-Guts, Glory, Glam
Ok, this one is hard to admit, but for the last three years my family has been stuck to HGTV on Sunday nights to watch Design Star. It's the reality show on HGTV to select the next star for it's network. The first year was interesting with David Bromstad winning hands down with his creativity and artistry. We continue to watch his show on TV--now in it's second season.
Last year we watched as Kim Myles won, and we sometimes watch her show, Myles of Style
This year we are late comers to the show which was based this year out of Nashville. None of the designers have been stand outs so far--but we continue to watch. We also tried to watch the companion show on Food-Network (Next Food Network star or something like that) but honestly it was hard to follow. So-we'll stick to one reality show in the hiatus of American Idol.
We enjoy the show for the challenges that they face and watching them having to come with a design and execute it in a short amount of time. It also helps if they have some creativity which I think makes the Design Star stand out.
So if you call on Sunday night and we don't answer the phone between 8-9, you'll know what we're doing. Sorry!
Creative Chaos--Christmas In July-What Gives?
This post is part of the Creative Chaos over on RaggamuffinSoul--where the creatives gather each Thursday to exchange ideas big and small.
It's July and I'm thinking about Christmas. It's crazy, I know, but in the field of worship and music minsitry you have to start thinking about Christmas in July. Consequently you are thinking about Easter at Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July at Christmas. It's a messed up world.
I thought I would blog this time about a Christmas set that we did a couple of years ago at my former church. The first picture you see is the Worship space. It was wide open with theatrical lighting and such. The Christmas production we were doing called for a massive procenium arch and red velvet curtain. Yea! Right--who has one of those laying around that you can rent.
So--what tricks do you ahve for Christmas sets?
It's July and I'm thinking about Christmas. It's crazy, I know, but in the field of worship and music minsitry you have to start thinking about Christmas in July. Consequently you are thinking about Easter at Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July at Christmas. It's a messed up world.
I thought I would blog this time about a Christmas set that we did a couple of years ago at my former church. The first picture you see is the Worship space. It was wide open with theatrical lighting and such. The Christmas production we were doing called for a massive procenium arch and red velvet curtain. Yea! Right--who has one of those laying around that you can rent.
So, necessity and creativity forced us to think outside the box. The second picture you see is the schematic of the arch. We used (4) 4X8 luan sheets across the top and (2) down the side to create the opening. We framed them with 1''x4''x8' boards to create our box. We hoisted the four cross pieces up on a lift and chained them to the inside light cove just above the stage. We attached the side pieces with small screws and presto we had a stage.
The red velvet curtain was actually red gossamer from Stumps Party supplie. We had about 25-30 15' lengths attached to a ledger board and screwed them in to the top of the arch. It didn't have to open or close--but just provide a background for the performace. You can tell by the pictures that the colors really popped off the stage. I think we spent less than $150 to create this look. The large holly leaves were blown up using a overhead projector, think insulation board and paint.
So--what tricks do you ahve for Christmas sets?
Watercooler Wednesday- Artistic Silos
Scenes like this are common here in West Texas. Large silos ,located close to railroad lines, hold the precious cargo (usually grain, sorgum or corn) in these silos to be stored until needed. For many cities out here it's the tallest structure to be seen for miles.
When I hear the word silo, I think of these things. I know in the midwest they can be single story structures, but you get the idea. A silo is a tall, cylindrical structure that holds a single set of
content.
This ties into the book by Pat Lencioni, Silos, Poltics and Turf Wars, which tells the tale of professional life that is isolated and non-participatory in nature. Lencioni's thesis is that the days of silos is gone. We need collaboration across paradigms and practices in order to stay current with innovation and exploration of ideas.
I didn't think much about this until I read this article today in the Austrialian News which detailed an idea that I think is interesting.
What if all arts considered themselves "un-siloed" and began cooperating across practices and paradigms? What if the music field didn't just consider themselves musicians, but interacted with actors and painters and poets? What if there were a cross pollination of ideas from different areas? Could it happen? Yes indeed! Just look at the Renaissance--where artists were doing such things. What do you think it would take for this to happen? What are the barriers that keep something like this from happening? Could our educational system benefit from such cross cultural experiences if only in the arts area?
The article is talking about reaching the cultural omnivore (for the layman--that is reaching the upper crust who are cultural consumers and have an interest in more and more about cultural things). Omnivore sounds like a dinasour that has gone extinct--but I think the thought here bears discussion.
Let the discussion begin. I think this is one that we could chew on for a while!
Do you see this happening anywhere?
This post is part of Watercooler Wednesday on Randy Elrod's site, Ethos.
Wreck This Journal--An Experiment in Writing
My blog friend, Nathan Gaddis, alerted me to this new publication which basically asks you to take this journal with you and do whatever the instructions ask you to do. Not your typical journal, it's more of a creative exercise. Some examples Nathan cited were:1. Filling a page with office supplies
2. Pasting fruit stickers on a page--like from apples and bananas
3. Writing one word over and over again.
You get the point. It would be a time killer when you are waiting in the grocery line or gas station line when rationing comes along.
Haven't decided if I'll by one yet--I probably could just take one of the empty journals on my shelf and do the same!
HT: Pied Piper.. Piping?
Something Old, Something New
I feel like this week I've hit the jackpot with new sites. I'll highlight a few below.SOMETHING OLD
RodsProd- Blog site of Rod Kaya, Programming/Worship Pastor at Journey Community Church. Rod is always sharing what is going on in the ministry there. Their "God At The Movies" series just completed it's 5th time around--they're heading for number 6 next year. Check him out.
SOMETHING NEW
What I Care To Share- This is the blogsite of a fellow actor from the production I was in last weekend. We began sharing about blogging during the breaks---now we're reading each other's blogs. This artist has just returned to the stage after 20 years away and is adding to the artistry of her already talented family. Stop by and say hi.
Designing For Phillistines - Dorothy and I connected last week with my post on WORDLE on Creative Chaos on Raggamuffin Soul. She's a designer of worship experiences from Virginia.
Wordle-Blog - Need I say more?
Worship Post-Fessional , July 6th, 2008
Sunday, July 6th
What did you do today for worship? We kind of split the middle. Early service was traditional patriotic hymns and a video (which the audio wouldn't play--so guess who had to play? Me!) Luckily a past Patriotic musical had a great medley of "Battle Hymn and God Bless America" with key changes. It worked well.
Here was our set in the second service
Come Now Is The Time To Worship
Scripture Reading
Beautiful One
Welcome
Look Like A Fool (Part 2)
Offertory
You Are-(Mark Roach song)
You Are My All In All
Sermon
You Gave Your Life Away
Sermon
You Gave Your Life Away
What Can I Do (Baloche)--new song for us this summer... I think they're gonna love it.
And my WORDLE from todays sermon. (Proverbs 9) Can you see which
word is the biggest ( and said the most today)?
Electric Windows
This video is about a festival of artists in Beacon NY that took over an abandoned factory for a weekend to display their art. What a great idea. We have several buildings in our downtown area that are unoccupied. Why not create a festival of arts displayed in these windows that will draw people to the downtown area. I found this very interesting.
HT: Cool Hunting
Reflections On The 4th-LIFE IN SNYDER
These are some pictures from our 4th here in Snyder. This is only our 2nd one here but it's a big deal! Most class reunions are scheduled during this time. The entire town (and possibly county) gather in the Park for a day of cook outs, parades, and finally a firework show at the end of the night.
Our day began early and ended late. In short--here's the run down
7AM-Set up
9AM-Balloon Blow up--750 balloons
10AM-PARADE--every kind of vehichle, every kind of machine, every organization in town.. you name it. Our fave was the Ritz Theater float with our Daughter Mattie on it.
11AM-Hand out 1000 cones of ice cream
12 PM-4PM--see above
5PM--Shower and collapse
8PM--back to park for Fireworks show
12 Midnight--home
Our day began early and ended late. In short--here's the run down
7AM-Set up
9AM-Balloon Blow up--750 balloons
10AM-PARADE--every kind of vehichle, every kind of machine, every organization in town.. you name it. Our fave was the Ritz Theater float with our Daughter Mattie on it.
11AM-Hand out 1000 cones of ice cream
12 PM-4PM--see above
5PM--Shower and collapse
8PM--back to park for Fireworks show
12 Midnight--home
Scenes from Two Plays--Rising Star Theater Performances
Below you will find pictures of the productions today at the Ritz Theater and the conclusion of the Rising Star Theater Camp. My son was the Prince in Unlucky Cinderella and we had friends in the early morning production of Alice In Wonderland.
UNLUCKY CINDERELLA
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
They did a marvelous job! The Arts are alive with this generation!
UNLUCKY CINDERELLA
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
They did a marvelous job! The Arts are alive with this generation!
CREATIVE CHAOS--WORSHIP AND WORDLE
For those faithful readers of this blog ( I think there are 3 or 4) I apologize for the "one more" push for Wordle, but I've been captivated by this program this week.
I captured all of these words during our Pastor's teaching last week in Proverbs. I put them into Wordle and it came out with this graphic. So, I've printed it up in 24X36 poster size on our large printer and mounted it to some thin insulation board from Lowes (the very thin blue kind), and we're going to display these each week after the services as a reminder to our people about the teachings that they've heard. By the end of the series we should have a gallery full of these and maybe on the last day we'll remind people to walk through the Wisdom of Proverbs to keep the things they've learned fresh in their minds. Just an idea I had.
This post if part of Creative Chaos over on Ragamuffinsoul
Bait and Switch on the Star-Spangled Banner
I understand that we have freedom in this country, but this one goes beyond--where personal view supercedes the protocol of the moment--where you have been asked and honored to sing the National Anthem at a civic event. What an embarrasment! She really owes an apolgy to the city of Denver, regardless of whether it was her choice. She can acknowledge that it was her choice and also acknowledge that she made a mistake.
Have you heard about this?
Have you heard about this?
Water Cooler Wednesday-The Next Generation of Artists
I'm so proud of my kids.. they have participated in the Rising Star Theater Camp at the Ritz Theater here in Snyder the last two weeks. Tomorrow they will present their plays. My daughter has been one of the afternoon directors and my son is the Prince in the production of UNLUCKY CINDERELLA. I'll post some more pictures of them from the production on Friday I love it that my kids love the arts. I love it that they have found their niche in the arts ( some like singing, some like band, some like writing, all of them love drama).
What are you doing to encourage the next generation of artists?
This post is part of Water Cooler Wednesday on Randy Elrod's site, Ethos.
ONE MORE WORDLE:The Bible (ESV) Wordled
This is what the Bible looks like in Wordle. Believe me--I didn't do it and it must have taken.....days to do it. What are the prominent words you see?
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