A great beginning

Several months ago I had a brilliant idea. Brilliant! It began with a minor annoyance.

Every morning I have to leave the house at 7:30 to take the kids to school. Then I turn around and go back home. There’s no time to start a project. My wife has already started her day. I can grab a cup of coffee and sit down but before it’s cooled off enough to drink it’s time to head back out the door again.

So here’s my brilliant idea. I can drop of the kids at school, go straight to work, and have a full hour before anybody gets there. I can read, make an effective plan for my day, and do some of the things that get lost when you get caught up in firefighting and a never-ending task list.

So since August I’ve been coming in at 8 every morning very effectively. I’m always the first person here in the morning. Here’s the problem. I haven’t been using that time in the way I designed it to be. First of all it seems that even at 8 there are always people who need to be helped and they will find me if I am at the church office. Second, the preschool workers begin to come in and they often have issues. Third, and perhaps biggest, is that far too often I face an overwhelming task list that looms over my head. I find myself unable to make myself read or look ahead or plan when I know what needs to be done next and how daunting it is. So I just get started on the work day. Next thing you know, that planning hour in the morning is gone and I am left with just a very long work day that leaves me drained and unenergetic.

But today was different. Today I came in, closed the door, didn’t check my email or the phone messages. I still had a couple of interruptions, but I found that my attention goes where I allow it to go. If I check email first there will invariably be some kind of crisis that needs to be resolved. Same with the voice mail. It wasn’t a crisis until I heard the message, but once I know the situation exists, it takes my mental energy.

So I decided ahead of time to make today different. I reminded myself how behind I was in my reading. On to chapter 4 of Cloud’s “9 Things You Simply Must Do”. The whole chapter is about the thing that is holding you back. The infected tooth. The thing that drains you, that keeps you from your best. It robs you of your focus. His first advice is to deal with it. He spends a large part of the chapter convincing us to deal with and resolve our issues – get them off the plate – so we can focus on what’s important to us. I’m nodding my head in agreement when he gets to the next part, which is to never let them happen in the first place.

A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. - Proverbs 22:3


I have to say it’s been a great morning. I’m on track, on schedule, and at peace.

So the decision is made beforehand. You’ll understand if I don’t get to your email until 9:00.

My posting

I can't believe I'm getting negative feedback because I didn't blog for a day. ONE DAY! My phone is ringing off thehook because I didn't blog yesterday.

Well here. Now I've blogged. So Stop calling me, Mom!

The reason I haven't blogged is because I'm worried. I heard a tale that Google is taking over the world. Their databases are logging every blog and they know everything about me.

For a while I thought maybe I shouldn't post that story here, because then they would know that I know. But then I figured out that they know anyway. They probably have taken over control of my web cam in my office and they know what I'm thinking right now.

So anyway, at the risk of having them shut down all my computers, here's the link. Just take my advice. If you go, do it from somebody else's computer. Then at least it will be their computer that "spontaneously" explodes one day when they least expect it.

http://www.masterplanthemovie.com/

Worship Train Wreck

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This is hillarious. It's from a church called Addison Road and is a short recording of a train wreck praise song from their Sunday Morning service. It's about 15 seconds long. Trust me. You'll love it.

Phreaky Phriday: Holy is the …

You know how, sometimes, you totally forget to take your guitar capo off between songs?

Dixie Grammies

Did anybody else catch the Grammies last night? I began watching the grammies a few years ago to keep up on the music industry and happenings. This time, though, I lost a lot of respect for them.

The Dixie Chicks cleaned house.

For any who haven't followed the story, they made some anti-Bush, anti-war comments a few years ago and ticked off a large part of their audience - the country music fans. Then as revenues and tour dates began to take a hit, the Chicks got ticked. Now they began bashing not only the war and the president, but their fans as well. Country music stations stopped playing their music.

Then came their new album, which is all about how mad they are at everybody. It was picked up by liberal artists and was met with some moderate sales despite the road they had taken.

Here's my trouble with the album - it's not that good.

Free speach is great and reguardless of my opinions of the Chicks' political statements, I continued to listen to their music. I could list out several of ther previous songs that I have quite enjoyed, but "White Trash Wedding" tops the list. It's fun, it's funny, and it's musically impressive. But that's off of an old album. There is no "Goodbye Earl" on this album. It is by their standards and by the standards of great music in general, forgettable.

So what's up with the industry giving them so many awards?

Does it all boil down to a political statement? Should we pass out accolades for a viewpoint at the expense of the art that communicates that viewpoint?

The answer, at least from the record company exectutives that vote for the Grammy recipients, is apparently a "yes".

Unfortunately, it's not that uncommon a view as we begin to look past the Grammies and into our own back yard. There was a time when the church was the epicenter of great art. Walk the halls of any art museum and you will see that the greatest artists were inspired by for the message of Christ. The greatest composers were passionate about the same message.

And somehow over the years, many churches took the opinion that the message transends the messenger.

It does, of course. At its root level the messenge does transend the messenger. But communication also transends intention. Too many times in my life I have intended to communicate a messenge and walked away from a conversation only to find out later that the person I was talking to walked away with a completely different mental picture than the one I was painting. At times my words of compassion have failed to cause my adversary to bow at my feet and thank me for my my thoughtfulness.

A messenger that never delivers his message is a failure.

Is the packaging important? You bet your aspirin it is. (I get headaches. Aspirin is important to me.)

Is the excellence of the artwork important? To the artist it is. Art isn't simply reminding people of a passion they already have. It's insighting passion where it doesn't exist.

That's where the Dixie Chicks failed in this last foray. And it's why they don't deserve a reward for their work.

And it's why the rest of us artists don't deserve a reward when we don't give it our best. I believe my biggest pet peave of the moment is artists who get lazy. It's the painter who finds that it's a lot of fun to take paint buckets and splash their contents at random onto a huge canvas and call it "art". It's the musician who loves loudness so much that he thinks whatever he plays will be good enough. It's the actress that loves the approval of the audience so much that she believes her job to be done because she's memorized some lines.

For the actress, the artwork doesn't even begin until the lines are memorized. There's hand movement and blocking and facial expression. Tone and accent.

For the vocalist, the artwork doesn't even begin until the lyrics and the notes are known. The art comes in the dynamics and the tone. The attacks and the releases of the note. It comes in the cry she puts in her voice at just the right moment. It's in the emotion she communicates. It's in the transitions between the phrases.

So here's to those artists who don't check the "complete" box on their project before the art has even begun. Here's to those who hold to excellence to the end, who realize that the message does transcend the messenger, and that such a statement means that the message must be delivered rather than dropped too early.

Web Site for the Willow Arts Conference is up!

 

The web site for the Willow Arts Conference is up. Apparently there are still a few plans to put in place. But a theme seems to be evolving. I haven't yet gotten approval from Pastor Rick to take a group this year, but I'm hearing from several people that want to go. So if you'd like to join us, reply to this post so I'll know.

Desperate Housewives of the Bible

Some of you may remember a couple of years ago we had a drama group called "Righteous Insanity" come to our church. They did such a great job, I kept wanting to bring them back. But they no longer do any touring. I suppose it gets harder as you get older.

Anyway, John Cosper, the founder of Righteous Insanity is getting more into doing Independent Films. This is a short he produced called "Desperate Housewives of the Bible." There is definately some cheese in here. But the funny parts are funny enough to make it worth your time. My favorite is Lot's Wife.

Enjoy.

Life Direction

I fully believe that most people don't know what they want to do with their life. After 10 years of ministry and coming into contact with people of all walks of life, I've discovered that a disproportionate number of people fell into careers that they don't necessarily love and don't necessarily take advantage of their giftedness, their passions, or their design. Consequently they end up unfulfilled.

Ufortunately, it's not always an easy process to figure that out. How do you know what you're good at if you're doing something else? How do you know what you love to do if you're always chasing temporary reprieves from a an unsatisfied soul?

Every year our staff retreat begins with Pastor Rick spelling out what he's looking for in the coming year. This year he began the retreat by talking about a book he had read and that had gotten him excited. He followed his introduction with the following statement:

"You all will get this book and you will read it. Soon."

The Book is called "9 Things You Simply MUST DO to Succeed in Love and Life". And it carries the subtitle "A Psychologist Probes the Mystery of Why Some Lives Really Work and Others Don't".



Well, we got it. He ordered a copy of it for each of us. And I have to admit that am finding it as insightful as he said it was. (Not that I ever doubted it). In addition to carrying Pastor Rick's stamp of approval, it also carries the name of it's author, Henry Cloud, who wrote two other books that I have long considered some of the most helpful of any I've read: "Boundaries" and "How People Learn".

I'm on chapter 3 right now, which covers the first indispensible principle for life: Dig It Up. Dig up your passions. Dig up your talents. Dig up your frustrations and your success points. Don't be casual about it. Don't expect it to just happen. Find out what sets you on fire.

There are a lot of things that get me going. I love creating art. I love being creative. I love music and visual art and story. I love to write. I love to perform. I love to worship.

I'm learning about myself as I read. But I'm also learning how to express a lot of things that I had known intuitively. And I'll better be able to help others to find their passions.

And that may be the thing I enjoy most about my job. As an Arts Pastor, I work every day with people who have a heart for the arts but who have scarce time in their schedules to allow for the thing that brings them the most joy. They are lawyers and call center workers and IT guys and ladies who have to support their families and would love to spend more time on their passion, but where can that time be found?

To all of us I would say this - for the artist, it is not selfish to spend time on your craft. To the creative person, it is not selfish to spend time creating. On the contrary, it's worship.

A few years ago my computer suffered a nasty virus. When I tried to log on, all I saw was a black screen. In the background, though, it was working. It was sending out emails to people all over the world. It was being productive, in a fashion. It was making money for the smammers that created the code. But I built that computer with my own hands. I had a purpose for it and it was failing to execute its calling. Despite all the productivity for someone else, I ended up pulling the plug. I had to rebuild it's programming and start all over again.

The dreams - the design - is always there in our hearts. But we allow them to be pushed down so far that they never make it to fruition. Our creator has created us for a purpose. As an artist, it is to create. Our fears and failures and frustrations should never be allowed to hijack that design.

Just having some fun here. Pastor Kevin and Jessica decided they were going to start a covert operation to take out my camera. They didn't know it was filming at the time...

http://www.impactarts.net/jblog/PK_JH_covert.mov

For Media Team - ChurchMedia.net

One of the ways I will use this blog is to post helpful resource links for various ministry groups as I come across them. This one will be very helpful to the media team. It's an open forum for church media volunteers from all over the world. Lots of useful tips.



ChurchMedia.net - Welcome to CMN!

"Amazing Grace" Movie

If you are like me and never watch television you may not know about an upcoming movie that should catch your attention. It's called "Amazing Grace" and it's made by Walden, the production company that brought us Narnia last year. These guys are Christians, and they put their company together to put classic literture or stories into film.

This particular movie is the story of William Wilberforce, who was the primary leader in getting slavery abolished in England. His thought was heavily influenced by John Newton, his Pastor, who penned what is perhaps the most famous praise song of all time - "Amazing Grace". The song comes straight from what Newton felt about his own transformation after coming to Christ. When Newton became a follower of Christ, he put behind him his alcoholic binges and his weekend partying lifestyle, but he was still a slave owner for many years afterward. It's just a reminder of how deeply entrenched the concept of slavery was in the minds of the people at that time.

http://www.amazinggracemovie.com/video/amazinggrace_trailer_320x180.mov


"Amazing Grace" comes out in two weeks on February 23. You can find out more at their web site - [url]http://www.amazinggracemove.com[/url]

And for those fans of "Narnia", you'll be happy to hear that Walden is currently working on the sequel, "Prince Caspian", which should be realeased next year. That will be followed by another C.S. Lewis great work of art - "The Screwtape Letters."

A New Beginning

I've been blogging for about 2 years now. I started with a blog for my family and friends. It's a great way to communicate with your friends from around the world that you rarely get to see.

Then last year I decided to begin a blog on our new arts forum, ImpactArts.net.

The only problem was, to be successful in blogging you have to do it regularly. You also have to have some nice tools to make it happen easily and quickly when you come across a nice song or an interesting web page. Our forum has none of that. And that makes it difficult to blog regularly. So this is my new attempt. Consider it a test.

When all is running smoothly, you can look here for my reviews of our worship services, for upcoming announcements, and for music and technology reviews. I get a lot of questions about what mp3 player to buy or who are the new recording artists or movies that others should know about. I do in fact have to listen to a lot of music on my job. I'm a big fan of Amazon.com, so I'll often include a link of some of the stuff I'm doing reviews for.

So here's the first. I heard this album today for the first time.



Jesse Daniels is only 18 years old. She started off doing some acting at the age of 8 and began writing the songs for her first album just a year ago.

I got turned on to her music because of a song she has called "What I Hear" that I'm planning on us doing during the upcoming "Why" series. But after I listened to the album, I was impressed. She's a Christian Kelly Clarkson. Part of it is that she uses a lot of the same harmony structures in the vocals, but it's also the style of the music. The guitars are a little more tame than those on Kelly's last album, but they still have the same feel. Listen to one or two of her songs and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

I am constantly searching for new female vocalists who do our style of music. There aren't many in the Christian genre that tackle the rock sound. There was SuperChick and Barlow Girl, but beyond those two bands the Christian music market holds slim pickings for anybody who isn't looking for a classic CCM sound. But Jesse's the real deal. You can expect to hear several of her tunes at our church.