All posts in Willow Creek Arts Conference 2009

Behold the Dreamer Cometh

My friend Blaine is the Experience Engineer out at Willow Creek (what a cool title, huh?) and he and his team put together a phenomenal piece called Behold the Dreamer Cometh for the opening of the Willow Creek Arts Conference back in June.

I was so excited when Blaine posted a blog entry about the process behind it as well as a link to the video.

If you are an artist or creative-type, take a few minutes to watch this video.

This piece did an excellent job highlighting the creative process and the struggle we all face to find inspiration and new ideas and thoughts in our constant struggle to give glory to God in what we do with our art… whether it’s with words, images, video, song, etc.

I was totally moved by it experiencing it live, and you’ll get the same feeling as you watch it here:

Pretty awesome, huh?

If you don’t already, be sure to follow Blaine on Twitter and subscribe to his blog. He has some brilliant insights and I’m excited to see where’s he’s going to take Willow’s experiences in the next few years.

The Wonder of it All…

So I blogged all of my notes from the Willow Creek Arts Conference but wanted to share a few take-aways…

The theme of the conference was Wonder… and I think that it could have not been a more fitting idea. It was incredible how all of the speakers, though from all different backgrounds, churches and organizations, all basically said the same thing.
I don’t necessarily consider myself and artist, but I do feel more at home with artsy people. I have some flair, but I’m not necessarily a full-fledged artist per se.
Willow Creek has had its ups and downs, and while I might not necessarily always vibe with everything they do, they never cease to inspire me in their heart and passion for God and for the local church… and to see people find connect with Christ.
I blogged all my notes, so I won’t go quoting everything, but my few personal take-aways were this…
  • I need to push “pause” in life more often… I need to not be so focused on what’s next, but focus on what’s now.
  • I need to learn to re-discover a child-like faith and wonder when it comes to viewing God and the world around me.
  • Everything I do must be an outflow of what God is doing in my life.
  • Joel Houston said something that stuck with me… “The very breath of God is creativity…” in context, he was saying that as we walk with God and draw near to HIm, He will inspire us and empower us to create things to give Him glory.
  • If what we do, in Church, does not go outside of the church walls and touch and impact the community and people around us, it’s not worth doing.
  • When we think of justice… those in need aren’t just people in Africa or other places around the world… our neighbors, co-workers, and friends are in need, too.
  • We have to simplify… communicate one idea, one truth about God and move people to do something.
  • I need to worship God with abandon… not with just my words or my voice, but with everything I’ve got.
  • We need to create art… music, songs, visuals, media,etc… that will cause people to move people from a state of brokenness to a place of recognizing that they are beloved of God.

I was sad to hear they won’t be doing the full-fledged Arts Conference next year… they will be doing a few simulcasts instead… but I’m glad that I was able to be a part of the experience and was able to once again remember the wonder and awe of who God is and the incredible opportunity I have to be a part of the Church.

Thanks to Nancy Beach and the whole team at the Willow Creek Association for their efforts… thanks for inspiring me to look for the wonder that’s all around.
Hillsong United did a night of worship as part of the conference and it was absolutely incredible… here’s a small taste of what we experienced.

Worship of the Beloved :: Efrem Smith

Senior Pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church, Efrem Smith serves close to 1,000 people with the vision to be an urban, multi-ethnic, relevant, holistic, and Christ-centered community. He is an internationally recognized leader, speaker, and consultant on diversity and multi-ethnic issues. Smith has held leadership positions in both church and parachurch organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club of America and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including The Hip Hop Church.

  • “I’m an artist acting like a pastor…”
  • 1 John 3
  • The wonder of Beloved worship.
  • We need to use our artistic gifts and passion within the experience of worship from the identification of the Beloved.
  • We lead, we serve… in worship… use our gifts God has given us, but use them and serve and lead from the identification as being God’s beloved.
  • We can’t contain God’s love… we can’t keep it to ourselves.
  • There’s something different about us than just our artistic gifts.
  • What does it mean for us to serve, to lead, to use our gifts, rooted in our identity in Christ?
  • Use your artistic gifts as an extension and expression of God’s love.
  • There was a time when worship wasn’t about performing for an institutionalized, consumeristic Christian church.
  • There’s something powerful when we truly express our worship out of our identity as the beloved of God.
  • Blues music is the difference between singing out of belovedness and brokneness.
  • There’s a deeper root and understanding for why our gifts our needed for the advancement of God’s Kingdom.
  • There’s a need for people for people can use their gifts to bring anointing where there is addiction, bring freedom where there’s bondage, belovedness where there is brokenness.
  • Why are you using your gifts? Use them to expand and express God’s love in a broken world that the lost might be found.
  • Worship must be connected to a movement of freedom and reconciliation.
  • We see preaching as some scientific, systematic, exegetical process… how can we look at this story of drama, love, redemption, song and betrayal as stagnant?! We need rhythm!
  • “You don’t need to be black, but be something expressive!”
  • Preaching is an art form.
  • If we could recapture the idea that preaching is an art, then we can embrace the idea of art in the church.
  • Storytelling at its best, from God’s word, is an art.
  • Beloved in the Greek is about 2 words being intimately connected together:
    • agape – unconditional, compassionate love of god. We don’t deserve it, did nothing to earn it… and is most expressed through Jesus.
    • agapao – to be loved and be loving, simultaneously (1 John 4:7)
  • God is loving us, and this love empowers us to love others.
  • We must utilize our artistic gifts, rooted out of an understanding of God’s love.
  • We don’t need production meetings or worship design meetings, we need meetings to remind us that we are here and we are loved by God and that His love can be extended through our artistic gifts.
  • We must be reminded we do what we do because the only difference between us and “that artist the church is talking about” is that one is using their gifts out of belovedness and the other out of their brokenness.
  • We have to come to terms with how the ridiculing of the arts in the church has impacted artists.
  • When we know we are God’s beloved and not people’s property, we are free to use our gifts.
  • Freedom will show itself through our art and will be set free.
  • We need free expressions of who God really is… not institutionalized religion.
  • How is freedom and reconciliation really expressed?
  • God has placed artistic gifts within us that God, through His love, pull them out, that the lost might be found and the hurting might be helped. God wants mercy, compassion, healing and reconciliation to be expressed through our gifts.
  • We must build beloved communities of artists that have the space and room, not to just perform and use their gifts, but have their brokenness to be replaced with belovedness.
  • We don’t just need platforms, we need spaces and places with others where our artistic gifts are affirmed.
  • We need a monthly day alone with God.
  • We’ve got to explore the cultures in our contexts and find where people are expressing themselves and their art out of brokenness and show them how to use their gifts as the beloved.
  • The arts ought to be a Kingdom-advancing movement.
  • The African impala has the ability to stand still on all fours and jump over 8 feet high, as high as 13! It can go 30 feet out! If it can’t see where it’s going to land, it won’t jump… it has no faith. It will only jump where it can see… which is why it doesn’t jump over 3 foot zoo walls.
  • God has given us gifts… what’s the 3 foot wall in front of us that we aren’t trusting God helping us to overcome? What’s keeping us from going higher and further with the gifts God has placed in us to advance His Kingdom?
  • Kris Kross said, “Jump, jump!” … Cypress Hill “Jump up, Jump up, Get down, Jump Around!”
  • We’ve got to jump… take our gifts the world.
  • Don’t sit in religion, get up and jump!

Made to Stick :: Chip & Dan Heath

Brothers Chip Heath and Dan Heath are the co-authors ofMade to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die and are regular columnists in Fast Company magazine.

Chip Heath is a Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He is the co-author of the book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, which has been a New York TimesWall Street Journal, andBusinessWeek bestseller. Chip has spoken and consulted on the topic of “making ideas stick” with organizations such as Nike, the Nature Conservancy, Microsoft, Ideo, and the American Heart Association.

Dan is a Consultant to the Policy Programs for the Aspen Institute. He is the co-author of the book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, which has been a New York TimesWall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek bestseller. Dan has spoken and consulted on the topic of “making ideas stick” with organizations such as Microsoft, Nestle, the American Heart Association, Nissan, and Macy’s.Thinkwell in Austin, TX. Dan has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a BA in the Plan II Honors Program from the University of Texas at Austin.

  • Sticky ideas are understood, are remembered and change something.
  • Every culture has its own proverbs.
  • Sticky ideas have things in common…
    • Simple – easy to understand, remember (i.e. “Just Do It”)
    • Unexpected – something about it that surprises.
    • Concrete – you can visualize what’s happening.
    • Credible – convinces us to believe it.
    • Emotional
    • Stories – often told as stories… Aesop’s Fables, parables in the Bible, etc.
  • We all spend tons of time and energy making art because we want to change minds and hearts.
  • We have ideas that our precious to us and we take time to make them matter and make them last.
  • SIMPLE – Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, “A designer knows he’s achieved perfection not what there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
    • Simplicity is not about dumbing-down. It’s about finding the core of an idea and stripping everything else away so the core can shine through.
    • Journalism is about finding the real heart of the story… not regurgitating facts.
    • Our role is to find the core of our idea.
  • UNEXPECTED – A sticky idea breaks a pattern.
    • Voodoo Doughnut, Portland … gets press attention because they broke the pattern. They made remarkable doughnuts!
    • The Sermon on the Mount … broke patterns… blessed are the meek, don’t store up treasures on earth, don’t do your good works in front of men, love your enemies, sex is not required on the 3rd date (haha!).
    • If you want to get people’s attention, our role is to find what’s unexpected.
    • Don’t let the profound truth fade into the background.
  • CONCRETE/STORIES – Concrete ideas form a picture and stories make the ideas come alive.
    • Too often we tell stories in the language of expertise. 
    • Too often we use abstraction in communicating messages.
    • Subway’s previous marketing campaign was “7 under 6″… because people didn’t get what they met. Then came Jared.
    • When you talk in abstraction, you haven’t told your story yet.
    • Our role is to find a story and find a visual.
  • EMOTION – How do we get people to care about our message?
    • Our role is to find something to make people care.
  • The Curse of Knowledge – as we become experts in our fields, it’s hard for us to imagine what it is like not to have our expertise.
    • Experts talk in complex jargon.
    • Even when experts are trying to connect with others, they will speak a different language.
    • The things we’re most passionate about can cripple us.
    • Experts talk in complex language… we need to use simple language.
    • Experts tell lists and facts… we need to give a concrete idea.
  • In the context of church, there is an abundance of information about the Gospel, God, etc and we get anxious to tell everyone everything… we have to learn to strip things away… and make it simple.
    • We need to  go after exclusion without sacrificing depth.
    • We need to get realistic about how much people can really retain.
    • What’s the one simple idea or truth we want people to remember about God?
    • Stories make ideas tangible.
    • 5 out of 100 people will remember a statistic, 60 will remember a story.
    • Be collectors of stories to unveil the truth you are trying to communicate.
    • What do you want people to know? (Truth) what do you want people to feel? (Emotion) What them to do? (Application)
    • The unexpected… Do people know what’s going to happen in our church services before they get there?Is there a pattern?
      • There is room for tradition… but if we get into a tireless, relentless routine, people are no longer engaging.
      • Curiosity is a great tool to use. We need to create space between what people know and what they want to know.
        • There’s got to be a gap between what people know… not a chasm.
    • “A credible idea makes people believe. An emotional idea makes people care.”