My baby girl turns 15 today. Wow! Where did the years go? It just seems like yesterday we were awaiting her arrival on Tax Day (she waited to show up @ 4:32 AM the next). It seems just like yesterday.
It's Monday--time for Something Old, Something New
"I believe the potential for life begins at conception," Clinton said. "For me, it is also not only about a potential life. It is about the other lives involved. ... I have concluded, after great, you know, concern and searching my own mind and heart over many years, ... that individuals must be entrusted to make this profound decision, because the alternative would be such an intrusion of government authority that it would be very difficult to sustain in our kind of open society."
"This is something that I have not, I think, come to a firm resolution on. I think it's very hard to know what that means, when life begins. Is it when a cell separates? Is it when the soul stirs? ... What I know, as I've said before, is that there is something extraordinarily powerful about potential life and that that has a moral weight to it that we take into consideration when we're having these debates."
Today was the second part of our series Winds of Change. We're talking about Biblical characters (Jacob today) who encounter God and their name is changed and their character too.
Evidently I missed this yesterday. Big Ben turned 150 on April 10. Here's a picture of me holding Big Ben up this last summer as we visited London.
1. The City-- this may sound strange for those of you that live in the city everyday (I don't), but I find when I go to the city I see and experience things that spur my creativity. Advertisements, displays in stores, radio shows, food and more spur my creativity. I love to sit in open spaces in the city and watch the people go by. It's one of the most creative things I can do.
3. Home Supply Centers- I've said this before, I find Lowes (and some find Home Depot) one of the most creative spaces. Looking at raw materials, pieces, pipes and paint somehow get me going. I walk through sections and just let my mind go. Regardless of what it's meant to be, I can imagine it to be something else.
4. Hobby Stores- Stores like Hobby Lobby and Garden Ridge are must stops when I go to the city. Whether I'm looking or not, there is always something that sparks my imagination. Usually the scale of things in here is too small, but I can always re-imagine how I could recreate something on a larger scale. I usually can't give up a sale in these places and I especially love to hit the Clearance tables and see what's 70-90% off.
5. Theater-- there is something magical for me about the theater. The lights and scenery always take me away to another place. Whenever I travel somewhere I try to see what is happening theatrically in that place. If I can, I schedule some time in the theater. Great creativity can be found on the stage.
6. Travel
64 Box 50th BirthdayHow many of us can remember the great feeling of opening that brand new box of crayons and looking for the new colors and our favorite ones (have you ever seen another color named FLESH?)
The Crayola 64, the iconic box of crayons that millions of kids reach for to color their world, is turning the big 5-0 and to celebrate, the box has been given a makeover with the addition of 8 new Kids' Choice Colors.
This is the second post in the series SEVEN LAYERS. Using the ideas of Christopher Lowell, who uses these principles in Interior Design, we apply them to the areas of Worship Space and Ministry Organization. (By the way-this isn't my office picture-really!)
3. Reclaim & Update One of Lowell's suggestions is to look at ways to repurpose items--maybe a bookshelf before becomes a table or divider next. He's a big proponent of paint, paint paint and reuse!
5. Design & Build -Now that all of the hard work is done (the de-cluttering) it's time to have fun designing and building the space that you want and need. I can remember being on the ground floor of a new office space. I got to imagine it from unfinished to finished project. (I wish I could find those pictures of it). I had very little room to work with (refer to my CREATIVE OFFICE SPACE blog) and so I became very familiar with the rooms dimensions and limitations. I had very little floor space but lots of wall space. I chose to build up the walls for storage. 
Ministry Application: This is one that I've learned over the years. When I went to conferences, I kept every piece of music. I kept every magazine. I kept everything. After a while I realized that this was a monster that was going to consume me. So, now I read and glean, then I toss. If it's worth keeping, its worth scanning into my computer, or cutting out and put in a file that I regularly purge. The garbage has become my friend--it's only inches away from my desk and I am religious about throwing away catalogs and flyers and other junk that keeps coming in my inbox. Maintaining is about be disciplined to keep these layers in mind when being organized for ministry.
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It's become a habit. When I get up in the morning I check my bloglines cue to see what posts have come through in the night. To the left is a snapshot of the ones I read most frequently--it's become my morning newspaper. Along with feeds from some actual news sources, these are the ones I read first and process.
There are just those TV shows that you missed the first time that capture you when they are no longer in production. Somewhere in my life I was way too busy to watch EIGHT SIMPLE RULES when it was in production for time it was around. Now that it is in syndication, my kids DVR every episode. Some of them we've seen two and three times, and they still are so funny. Why? Because it so closely resembles my family.
Having had some major dental work this year, I think I can really say that I prefer the dentist to doing my taxes. I've devoted today to sort through the mounds of receipts that were tucked away in those files; trying to remember what each of them were--(although I wrote on them what they were)--it's hard to remember. Receipts just don't hold up very long-some of them have faded and I can't barely read them.
Monday again--time for Something Old and Something New (blogs that I read and have discovered in the last few days)
Today we began a new series WINDS OF CHANGE which will lead us into our 125th Anniversary as a church during the first week of May. I'll post pictures later this week of our stage backdrops and my light boxes that were made for this series.
I was sharing with someone this morning how much I'm enjoying being part of an online community (Twitters--Recreate Twitters to be exact). This is a group of artist that have gathered together to communicate with each other about everything and about nothing. 
So I left the house at the crack of dawn this morning to travel south about 2 hours to see our youngest daughter play tennis ( she won two games by the way--thanks for asking). So during the third set, my phone rings. My wife is in a dead panic as she's looking for the dress my oldest daughter is suppose to wear this afternoon in a Quinceanara for a friend of hers. Since I was in my wife's car, I didn't think I saw it when I opened up the trunk, but on further inspection, way underneath my teen's golf clubs--you guessed it. The Blue Dress. It's now 12:20 and I'm almost 2 hours away from home. The ceremony starts at 2:00. So much for a day to myself in a larger city (so long Starbucks!). I hoof it back home (in the driveway @ 1:50 PM) just in time for the wife to snatch the dress, iron it, get it on the teen and out the door. I think they were 2 minutes late for the ceremony.
If you are a student of culture and in particular Art in Culture, then you must have your eyes open at all times to observe what is happening around you. Last night I ventured with our Sr. Adult community to a HEE HAW. You ask what a HEE HAW is? Do you remember the 1970's music/comedy TV show by the same name, where country music was sung and short comic episodes were given? It's the same thing... almost the very same thing.
of the band was from Abilene and surrounding areas). It's a family thing from small children to grandparents.
The centerpiece of the show is Minnie Pearl, the raucous emcee who does two stand up sections in the show. This lady is 78 years old, and let's just say she and Rosie could go toe to toe. Her jokes were a little of colored--and made me blush--but everyone laughed. (Maybe I need to relax what people think about what I say!)
This post is part of CREATIVE CHAOS over on Carlos Whitakers blog
where each Thursday Artists gather to share a creative thought or activity they have used in their church or will use this weekend. You can visit the chaos here
Sometimes it's hard to carry a theme through a series. Summer time is especially hard-because people are in and out so much, one series themes are hard to pull off.
The Summer of 2007 was going to be a challenge as we were to have weekends with different speakers.
We knew that we wouldn't have consistent teaching from only one pastor during this period, so we needed a way to connect all of these stand alones. We were having about 4-5 different speakers during the summer. 
So we came up with a Theme "LIFESONG", where each of the speakers would speak from a life verse that means someting to them or has impacted their life. So, there is no way to connect that except with a theme. We were drawn to this gerbera daisy from stockexchange photo. It was bright, summer like and clean. We also used the LIFESONG "song" as a theme song throughout the series.
We found a backdrop from Backdrops.usthat gave us a visual effect on stage. By in effect branding the series with the flower, we created consistency across our services. Now I canshow this graphic (less the words) to anyone and they can name me sermons and scriptures used. Effective? I think so.
We also asked the congregation to submit their favorite life verses during the series and used these during services.
In using a theme in worship, we've found that visual branding of a sermon series helps people to remember the teachings. In over 3 years of doing this, our retention of topic and teaching has increased. My last test showed that nearly 80% could recall title, text, and teaching clearly.
I'll be posting next week about new series "Winds of Change" where we've chosen the Windmill/Wind Turbine (since we're surround by a farm of 700 nearby) to show change and God's faithfulness. We have two backdrops from Backdrops.us (we sent them our pictures--not their stock photos) and are building light boxes with backlit logos. I think it too will be will remembered.
So my thoughts on themes:
1) Find a common metaphor/picture/story--explore how that can be expressed visually, verbally and through communication pieces.
2) Keep it broad--don't be too narrow. Allow space for it to breathe.
3) Connect uncommon things with a common graphic or representation. It can provide the umberella for things that would normally seem disjointed.
4) Color and Music can also be connectors to themes in music. Look for inspiration in color combinations in fashion, furnishings and more. Music can carry you week to week as a "theme" song is reinforcing the teachings.
What do you do to connect your services when a common scripture or section of teaching isn't used?
Ok, so I'm almost 2 years into this thing called blogging. What began as a way to communicate to my family while overseas has now turned into a passion and part of my life. I've blogged from Italy, India, Guatemala, London and Paris, and even in Texas and Tennessee!
This information comes from Christopher Lowell's website.Lowell was one of the first persons that I ever heard speak about design. His weekly program on the Discovery Channel was a must for us as we taped (yes, videotaped) each of his shows each day and watched and were amazed at his creativity. 
I counseled a family member today about their church situation. I'm constantly amazed how the experience in the local church is most often marred by an incident or series of experiences that make them feel like leaving the church forever. It reminds me of Dan Kimball's book "The Love Jesus--They Just Don't Like The Church". That makes me sad.
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