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.

This is Blaine, btw …

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

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.

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 Times, Wall 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 Times, Wall 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.”

Jud Wilhite lives in the Las Vegas area where he serves as the senior pastor of Central Christian Church. Thousands attend services at Central’s campuses each weekend, along with a global community who attend online (centralonlinecampus.com). Jud is the author of several books, including Eyes Wide Open: See and Live the Real You and Deadly Viper Character Assassinswith Mike Foster. The Wilhite’s have two children and a slobbery bulldog.

Joel Houston is the Creative Director of Hillsong Church and a world renowned songwriter and worship leader. As well as overseeing the creative team, Joel also travels the globe with Hillsong United bringing a message of worship and justice to an emerging generation. Through this, he has birthed ‘I heart’; a movement that inspires this generation to rise up and change the world around them.

Australian Darlene Zschech is acclaimed all over the world as a singer, songwriter, worship leader and speaker, most notably for spearheading the music that comes from Hillsong Church. Although she has achieved numerous gold albums and her songs are sung in many nations of the world, her success is not the result of pursuing stardom and fameit stands as a testimony to her life’s passion to serve God and people with all her heart.

As a songwriter, Darlene is perhaps most famous for the chorus “Shout to the Lord,” a song that is sung by an estimated 25 to 30 million churchgoers every week. “Shout to the Lord” was nominated as Album of the Year for the 1997 Dove Awards and Song of the Year for the 1998 Dove Awards. In 2000 Darlene received a Dove Award nomination for Songwriter of the Year.

Darlene has written over seventy songs that have been published by Hillsong Music Australia alone. She has also written three books on her passion, which includeExtravagant Worship and her latest release, The Kiss of Heaven.

Darlene has a great heart for helping hurting people. Currently, she is an ambassador for the work of Compassion International, and is committed to relieving human suffering in any possible way. A new project, featuring the theme of worship and justice is in production now.

A missions trip to Central Africa in 2004 prompted Mark and Darlene to initiate Hope: Rwanda, a global endeavor designed to bring hope to a nation seemingly forgotten since the horrific genocide of 1994. The 100 Days of Hope (April 6 July 15, 2006) project was strategically coordinated to cover the same 100 days that saw approximately 1 million people viciously slaughtered. www.hoperwanda.org

Darlene and Mark reside in Sydney with their three daughters, Amy, Chloe and Zoe. Darlene’s greatest joy is her role as wife and mother.

• On leadership… The process of developing a team was a deeply spiritual one and she had no clue what she was doing.
• God spoke to her in Psalm 45… “And God your God will anoint you with joy and set you above your companions…”
• She struggled from being pulled from among her peers and to lead them.
• She knew she needed to be anointed to lead.
• The intentionally pursue joy.
• Without joy, it becomes works. We don’t get saved to work… we’re saved by grace, through faith.
• The worship team is not its own “church”… it comes underneath a greater vision… the vision of the senior leadership.
• There’s not a culture of whining and complaining… it’s a culture of serving the Lord with gladness (Psalm 100).
• Wherever Jesus is being preached in Australia, the church will grow.
• On Developing People… God gives way for the ordinary with passion and the call on their lives to see their gifts released.
• Gifts are honed over time… you’ve got to give people time to develop.
• Darlene was known as the “velvet sledgehammer”… when there’s an environment of commitment that values people more for who they are than what they do, you earn the permission to speak the truth to them.
• Help people go on the journey to find where there gift lies.
• We’re not asking people to join a club or do a gig, it’s a holy calling.
• On Songwriting … If you aren’t open to receiving critique or correction, don’t give something to people to check out.
• “We’ve never been under any allusion of not being under the hand of God in what we do… we know it’s nothing we’ve done to earn the platform or the influence we’ve been given.”
• They “workshop” songs… there’s never one song that’s been written by one person. They critique, work through the songs, check theology, etc.
• “In the early days we sang things that weren’t even in the Bible… we didn’t know!”
• On Compassion International… true worship is that we go and be Jesus hands and feet whenever and wherever we can.
• If you’re leading up front you also need to be leading in the areas of the unseen.
• On Her Transition… She is no longer the worship pastor at Hillsong Church for nearly 14 years and gave leadership to Joel Houston to pursue global efforts.
• She said she felt an urgency to “replace herself” and sensed change was coming.
• She knew it was time to invest in the next generation.
• It was intentional.
• Worked hard at getting a good theology of worship and teaching them to be disciples… not puppets or to follow a method.
• They stayed at Hillsong intentionally during the time of transition and are still there.
• She promised not to get in the way and committed to not “standing the way.”
• Her new book “The Great Generational Transition” is coming out soon!

Joel Houston is the Creative Director of Hillsong Church and a world renowned songwriter and worship leader. As well as overseeing the creative team, Joel also travels the globe with Hillsong United bringing a message of worship and justice to an emerging generation. Through this, he has birthed ‘I heart’; a movement that inspires this generation to rise up and change the world around them.

• On the transition… Darlene used to babysit him!
• Growing up as the pastor’s son made for an interesting dynamic.
• In his personal journey, he learned to love God and love the house of God, the Church .
• Just as parents love their children and point them in the right direction, he felt Darlene set him up well and set the stage for him.
• He used to play the bass and primarily write songs, but didn’t see himself as a worship leader.
• Went on staff at Hillsong 2 years ago, not sure of what God was up to.
• When he was asked to assume the role he knew God was in the midst of it.
• Hillsong United only travel 5 times per year but the rest of the time they are committed to their church… Hillsong has 4 campuses and over 30 services per week.
• Biggest challenge assuming the role was the huge shoes he had to fill in the wake of Darlene’s leadership.
• Find the place within yourself where even if you don’t feel like you have enough to trust that God is with you and will give you grace to work through you.
• You need to learn to be not be moved by what you see.
• Worship is about giving.
• If you are really doing this “as unto the Lord” we must be a gracious people and give grace to one another to work through our personal challenges.
• It’s your faith not your gold that God puts on display.
• There’s a definitive “Hillsong sound”… how did that happen? The style has changed over the years but just as what the mouth speaks is in the heart… the sound of Hillsong is reflective of the heart of their church and the vision God has given them.
• The church is not built on the gifts of a few but on the sacrifice of many.
• How do you keep yourself and your heart in check? Matt L (Willow): Amount of time spent in God’s Word makes the difference. Joel: Surfing. He lives in the heart of the city near the beach and is connected to the culture where he’s at… away from the church and the suburban setting. He sees the world and the people in it and it keeps him balanced with why they do what they do. In a very worldly setting, but with the right safeguards in place… remembers the ministry is with the people and not on a platform. Darlene: We need to be Spirit people, Spirit-led, Spirit-filled. It’s a balance that we’re in the Word and in prayer… but for her soul to be fed she needs to do other things… be with her family, on the mission field, etc. The spiritual thing is a non-negotiable… you cannot be in ministry and not be a prayerful person or a person of the word. We need to be soulful and identify what also fills our souls… not just in our artistic expression but also the expression over the course of our lives.
• Joel: Prov 16:9 … walk where you are and with what God has placed in your hand. God has called every single one of us and we all have a part that only we can play. God has given us everything we need to do everything He has called us to do for right now. It might not seem like much, but step with confidence and in God’s grace. Honor Him where you you are at. Over the course of your life as you continue to be obedient and die to self, you will look back and see God has taken you further than you could ever imagine.
• Darlene: Take stock. How are you leading others and speaking life into other’s dreams? Are you encouraging? Mentoring? Giving life to others? As threatening as it can be, the reward on the other side of obedience is greater joy. Seeing someone released into the call of God on their lives is the greatest reward. Humanity is depending on it. Historically, in the church, we haven’t done it very well. We are sitting on the cusp of the greatest time in history… as fear is ruling the church in America, it’s our time as the church in America to shine.

Nancy Beach is a visionary leader and champion for the power of the arts and artists in the local church, Nancy Beach is known around the world as a leader and mentor of church artists and teachers. Vice President of the Arts for the Willow Creek Association, she is a teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church and the author of An Hour on Sunday and Gifted to Lead.

Our Creator has lavished this world with wonder, and waits to see who will notice.

Psalm 40:5 – many are Your wonders…

Wonder points us to God.

Wonder is the base of our worship. It’s our call to worship.

Wonder is closely connected to beauty, awe, mystery and imagination.

The early church knew a lot about wonder… everyone was filled with awe.

Children are natrurally filled with wonder.

Children ask at least 125 probing questions every day… Adults ask 6.

How did we lose our childlike wonder? Check this great example.

Something terrible happens to us when we move toward adulthood – we exchange
awe and wonder with apathy.

Too often we’re hardened towards wonder and don’t realize greatness when we see it… example.

There are many enemies to wonder: hurry, stress, too much technology, lack of solitude, boredom of routine, noise, information overload, unrealistic job descriptions.

Every weekend artists and teachers in the church have the profound privilege of leading
people into the presence of God. When we are in awe and wonder of God we can
usher people into the presence of awe and wonder of God.

We can be agents of wonder.

Without a childlike wonder we’ll go on auto-pilot. We’ll use the same old
words, images and routine… dead inside, and no one we’re reaching will be inspired towards
life.

Cultivating a spirit of wonder means we have to wake up.

We need to go through life saying, “WOW!”

We need to marvel at God’s creation.

We can look at our own human bodies and wonder at God’s creation.

“…there is nothing more artistic than loving others.” – Van Gough

Recognize not only the beauty in creation, but the beauty in the people around you.

Too often we’re hard on ourselves about our bodies. (Psalm 139:14,15)

We can marvel in wonder from the dynamics of human relationships.

Is your default setting “open delight”?

Who are the people you are thankful for?

We need to learn to once again marvel and be in awe of God’s grace. That should astonish us on a regular basis.

We should never grow tired of understanding God’s grace.

We must, especially as artists, accept our responsibility of ushering in the light to those who walk in the darkness.

Whatever palette we are most gifted to use… words, creating images, painting, video, lighting, dance, singing, music or technical arts… we are called to be agents of wonder and hope.

Do you notice the “pennies” God has sprinkled around you or are you indifferent to them.

“Never be indifferent… the opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference… the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference… whatever you do in your life, indifference is never an option…” – Elie Wiesel

We have to fight against indifference, boredom and cynicism.

Isa 29:13-14 – What is the solution to indifference? He astounds us with wonder upon wonder. God will break through our boredom and indifference with wonder upon wonder.

We need to wake up and notice what God is doing.

“It’s terrible to be grateful and not know who to thank…” – CS Lewis

Let’s be people who are easily “wowed.”

What God said when He made the world was a prayer… “it is good.”