All posts tagged art

The Wonder of it All…

by Tim Schraeder on 06/17/2009 in Notes, Willow Creek Arts Conference 2009 with No comments

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

by Tim Schraeder on 06/12/2009 in Notes, Willow Creek Arts Conference 2009 with 1 Comment

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!

Willow Creek Arts Conference Session 1 :: Nancy Beach

by Tim Schraeder on 06/10/2009 in Notes, Willow Creek Arts Conference 2009 with 2 Comments

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.”


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