2009 Teaching Topics

Well, I think I figured out what the rough plan is for sermon topics for 2009. It looks like Pastor Dan will be leading the Grace Community through an in-depth series on the book of Ephesians. This should be really good. On the Living Stones side, 2009 will see the beginning of an extended trip through the book of Genesis. If you've been around in the past for the chapter-by-chapter studies in Colossians or Revelation, you know we're in for a great series.

I think there's plenty for all you creative geniuses to sink your teeth into with these two books. My suggestion is that in the coming weeks you take some time to read through and study these books. If you have any brilliant ways to communicate any of the truths contained in these books, please email me. I'd love to share them with the creative staff.

Here are some questions you might consider:

• What is the author trying to communicate in a broad sense?
• What focused points are the author trying to communicate?
• What words or phrases particularly stand out?
• Are there any words or phrases that don't make sense to you?
• What contextual difficulties stand in the way of understanding these passages?
• How can we re-contextualize the passage to communicate it to a modern audience?
• If you were directing a movie about this passage, who would you cast in the lead role?
• Do any of these verses bring to mind another scripture passage, or a story, illustration, movie scene, television commercial, song, or poem?
• Try to imagine that you are reading these verses for the very first time. How does that change your impression of them?

I think the type of process I'm describing would be beneficial to you personally on a spiritual level. Even if it doesn't lead to a creative breakthrough, asking these types of questions can help you become a more thorough student of scripture. And that is never a bad thing.

So, engage with God's word!

"Heart of the Artist", part III: Chapter Two

Humility is a concept that I have always found fascinating. Like many, I have often admired it from afar. Very rarely have I had what I would call a true taste of it. But sometimes I catch fleeting glimpses.

Pride – or a desire to be exalted by others – isn’t always the primary enemy of humility for me. In my life, humility has more often been warded off by a simple preoccupation with self. Self-concern. Self-centeredness. Sure, I get overly concerned with others’ opinions of me. But more often I’m just overly concerned that I get what I want.

So what is humility? In Noland’s quote of C.S. Lewis on page 59, humility is equated with “self-forgetfulness”. Where does self-awareness fit in relation to humility? Is humility a lack of self-awareness? Or is it simply a proper view of self?

Is it that I find the truest and best Jeff when I take my eyes off Jeff and focus instead on Christ? If this is the case, then taking eyes off self (or fighting self-absorption) doesn’t equal “self-forgetfulness”, but rather a true and appropriate self-awareness. Truly this is a topic of great subtlety and nuance, but I find it reassuring that Moses’ prayer in Psalm 90:17 (and on pg. 70) – “Lord, give permanence to the works of my hands” – is counted an appropriate and faithful expression of self which is self-aware, yet fully humble.

Changing gears:
I thought Noland’s discussion on volunteering versus being called of God (pp. 70-74) was very insightful and keen. In my experience, some people just get this and some just don’t. I don’t know how to effectively turn a volunteer into someone called by God. Just a guess, though: Maybe it’s because I’m not God! So any level of exhortation or challenges to “step up” that I may issue only make somebody called by Jeff. The harvest is plenty, but the workers are few.

Lord, call your servants to the work of the harvest!

Right Brain Left Brain

Typing w/ a fractured elbow is really fun.

Just read a great article by Mark Batterson entitled Right Brain Preaching. It's not just about preaching, but about the creative communication of the Gospel in general.

Here's a tease...

I think the greatest threat to the future of the Church is a failure of our
God-given imaginations.

Enjoy.

Artown 2009?

This article got me to thinking...

What if Grace Church was somehow a presence next summer amongst all the Artown festivities in our community? What if the community saw us as a beacon of creativity?

Any ideas?

Butterfly Happy

We are wrapping up the Ecclessia series and we just tie up the creative side of it by posting some more of the creative elements used over the last couple weeks.

For week 4, we constructed a mobile of an alien butterfly galaxy- I mean, of the elements that make up Ecclessia:

The center unit is the church, and the outside forms represent Mission, Gospel, Leadership, Sacraments (baptism and communion), Preaching, and Relationship (including church discipline). These 6 elements are essential to the definition of the church; any element missing and one risks intergalactic imbalance of the universe, at least for the butterflies anyway...

The entire mobile was placed in the hands of Christ who presents the church as his bride for he is at the head. The hands were sculpted separately by Cassandra Star.

The final week of Ecclessia we used a video made by Gina Peraldo:

(to be posted soon)

"Heart of the Artist", part II: Chapter One

Just a couple thoughts on Chapter One of Noland's Heart of the Artist...

On page 39, he says,

Any growth that we experience in character will be an asset in everything we do.

Do you believe that? Do you believe, for instance, that growth in honesty will not only help you relationally, but creatively? Do you think that growth in discipline will help you not only vocationally, but artistically? Can an increase in kindness make you a better
designer? Can growth in tact make you a better videographer? Can more courage make you a beter writer?

I actually believe the answer to all these questions is "yes". The reason it is called integrity is that it has to do with everything in your life being integrated. What lack of integrity (or integration) in your character is holding you back?

One more question. The first "Personal Action Step" on page 49 asks you to choose a personal ministry verse. Do you have one?

I don't know that I have one specific verse. But I am reminded often of Philippians 2:3-4.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

I look forward to the day that I can truly exemplify these words.

HELVETICA

Thanks to good old Netflix, I watched a great little documentary last night. Helvetica is about – you guessed it – the ubiquitous typeface. How could a documentary about a font not be great?

Call it “corporate”, or “boring” if you must, but Helvetica is everywhere. (It’s also described in the film with any of the following adjectives: democratic, socialist, inscrutable, brilliant, legible, limited, unlimited. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget that according to one interviewee in the film, Helvetica is responsible for both the Vietnam and Iraq wars!)

The documentary is packed with literally hundreds of cut shots of Helvetica in action. I bet you didn’t realize how many logos and storefronts use the font. But probably more interesting is the film’s investigation of its status as the apex of “modern” fonts. If you don’t quite understand the difference between modern and post-modern, this film will make you think you understand. (Perhaps this might be helpful if you’re not sure why Grace Church has two “expressions”.)

But then you will inevitably ask the question, “What is post-modern?” Is the proliferation of more expressive, more curvy, more avant garde typefaces the post-modern reaction to Helvetica? But what about all the designers who now flock back to Helvetica in reaction to these expressive post-modern fonts? Does that make them post-post-modern? Or is there room within post-modernism to react against oneself? Can Helvetica be both modern and post-modern?

If you are a designer - or even just a student of culture - I would recommend a viewing of Helvetica.

New Series; New Creative Theme

Our new series entitled "Ecclesia" explores how the church operates, how it is structured, what it functions as, and its relationship with heaven and earth. Because we are basically laying out the "blueprints" for the global and local church we decided that blueprints/schematics were a perfect creative motif to flow through the mediums, and design concepts for the next few weeks. Below are some of the examples of blueprint art from the creative team.

The words in the blueprints below were done with stencils and spray paint, and the butterflies drawn with colored pencils.

The following blueprints are by Layton Diament with pen and ink:

“Heart of the Artist”, part I: Preface and Introduction

Here it is… the first installment of our “online book club”. I want to share a few thoughts on the opening of Rory Noland’s The Heart of the Artist, and see if any of you had some thoughts to share.

The first thing that jumped out to me was the quote from Irving Stone’s biography of Van Gogh, Lust for Life…

But then, no artist is normal; if he were he wouldn’t be an artist. Normal men don’t create works of art. They eat, sleep, hold down routine jobs, and die. You are hypersensitive to life and nature; that’s why you are able to interpret it for the rest of us…

So insightful. Along those same lines, this quote of Noland from page 17…

Artists look at things differently than nonartists do. We notice detail; we appreciate nuance and beauty.

And this from page 18…

The world doesn’t need more thick-skinned people. It needs more people who are sensitive and tender.

I hope you appreciated these nuggets of encouragement as I did; and not just as proof texts which justify you thinking more highly of yourself than you ought because of your artistic nature, but instead as humble validations of your God-given identity.

As further validation, I hope you appreciated Noland’s citations on pages 20-21 of artists in the Bible. Did you know that Bezalel (mentioned on page 21, and of course in Exodus 35:31-32) is the first person in all of Scripture described as having the Holy Spirit?

…He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs…

Wow. Could I be so bold as to pray that God would fill us in the same way?

Notice the context of that passage. Bezalel was called to use all of this skill and intelligence for Kingdom purposes. Noland is right in saying (on page 23) that, “[s]erving God in the local church is a high and noble calling.”

What do you think?

DOMA Launch Party... Launch Successful

Thank you to everybody who came out this past Friday for the launch of DOMA! It was a great crowd, and I was very encouraged. Here's a short list of things that encouraged me:

• The wide variety of people who came
• The wide variety of gifts and passions represented
• The lack of awkward chit-chat... Everybody seemed to really genuinely enjoy each others' company
• The number of people hanging out afterwards, connecting and conversing
• The enthusiasm and receptiveness of everybody to the call to serve Christ and his church

You guys are all awesome, and I am greatly looking forward to working with all of you! Please always feel free to call/email/post/etc. with any questions or comments.

Welcome to the DOMA Blog!

Hello to anybody and everybody who happens to come across this blog. This will be a space for members of the DOMA (Department of Media Arts) network to share thoughts and stay up-to-date on the latest projects and happenings in the Grace and Living Stones Communities at Grace Church.

As posts are added to this blog, please feel free to respond and share your thoughts and comments!

I look forward to this blog being a fun and interesting medium of communication,
Jeff

The Doctrine of Sex Series Continues....

These images were used this weekend in the DOCTRINE OF SEX SERIES to represent four different types of people dealing with sexual temptation.
Artwork by Seth Mach.


Surrendering life and struggles to Jesus


How far can I go without stepping off the edge?


Comfortably apathetic- Living life at a distance from the cross, although feeling sufficient to at least be keeping it within sight. These people often tell themselves "at least I am not doing such and such like so and so."


Pressing through the dark to following Jesus

"Married Sex is the Best Sex" sermon illustration

First of all, can I just say that it is crazy that I just typed the words "Married Sex is the Best Sex" into the title of the LS Worship journal. God is truly breaking down the barriers and negative connotations that the word "sex" has in church culture...

Anyway, for the week on married sex we went through the book of Song of Solomon. Often the language used in this book to describe beauty can actually be seen as funny or even gross. For Example, "your hair is like a flock of goats"- err yeah... awkward! So we decided to use beautiful pictures of the written imagery in order to show just why the lovers would have used these metaphors to describe their love and adoration of each other.

We hung the pictures across the width of the sanctuary on gazebo light rope. The purpose was to allow the congregation to see the beauty of the imagery during the sermon to enhance the text as it was being read to them.

In the south venue we placed serveral photos on the tables around the room at which people sit so that they could pick them to take a closer look if so desired.

One Prayer T-shirts

This last series was packed full of creative expression!














On the second week of the four-week series, we built a canvas made of 50 T-shirt 1x1 squares and on it painted the OnePrayer logo during the service. It was a lot of work, but ooooohhh so fun!



First, we cut out three sets of stencils on to black paper. We had a stencil of the church, the girl, the hands, the world (two separate stencils), the "N" and "E", and the "PRAYER."





Then, we built the canvas backdrop upon which the t-shirts would rest by arranging several plywood planks into a formation that fit 5x10 square feet. The t-shirts need only to stack on top of each other at a slight slant to remain in formation for the canvas.

The t-shirts themselves were wrapped in 1x1 squares of plywood. Each t-shirt was wrapped individually with a different section exposed to the outside, in order that some of the final products would have the dye on the back, front, shoulder, or side of the shirt when it was unwrapped.






During the service, the worship team played the song "Never Contained" by Anchordown -- as it corresponded with the message -- and a team of four artists began to paint the canvas. It took about five minutes to complete using 2 types of spray bottles and 3 colors of t-shirt dye.














After we finished removing the finished t-shirts from the canvas, we still had about 2 shirts left over so we decided to experiment and make up our own picture -- "no shirt should be left out!"















In the week to come, we took all the plywood out of the shirts and began to do -- what we thought to be -- small touch ups and the addition of the LS logo to each shirt. Let's just say that we got a little carried away and ended up adding new stencils to the parts of the shirts that didn't have the squares and adding detail to the parts that did. We created several different LS logos and distributed them to all sizes and in all different places, making each shirt completely different from any other.







The following two weeks, the shirts were sold in order to benefit the NOW project (the building project at GraceLS) at a $10 min. donation. We did well and sold almost half the first week! Thanks to everyone for your support!