Filed Under church, creative, worship
Our next Agape is right around the corner, and this one is going to be amazing.
For those of you who don’t know, Agape is a worship concert we have about every quarter. It’s a creative worship environment with different elements, videos, communion, readings, etc.
So this next one (August 3rd) is going to be very cool because we’ve got the worship band from Gateway Church (Dallas) coming in for it. If you haven’t heard these guys you need to, they are amazing. They’ve just released their second live album and its smokin.’
Here’s the art Jeff worked up for the night. I’m diggin’ the pink.
This is my creative chaos.
Filed Under random foolishness
ahhhh I love the smell of mutiny in the morning…
Found this in my mailbox this morning. I thought it was funny. And yes, we live in Historic Malbis, and yes Bay Community Church is my church. This should be entertaining.
Filed Under entertainment, film
Aight, whats the deal people, why’s everybody hatin’ on Hancock. It wasn’t that bad. Before I walked into the theater I’d heard quite a few folks bash it for being a terrible movie. I couldn’t disagree more, and I don’t think its just because I love Will Smith. I think the problem was that most went in expecting Iron Man or any other typical superhero movie. Honestly I don’t even really think it was a superhero movie, it was really a dramatic story of redemption that only uses the superhero thing as a device in telling the story.
It’s obvious that Director Peter Berg and the writers were trying something new with the storyline itself. I’m not even sure it even followed the 3-act arc, it seemed to be more like 2- 45 minute movies slapped together. They did the whole Kill Bill thing but didn’t wait 6 months to release the 2nd, they just decided part 1 wasn’t long enough to release alone, so they went ahead and attached the sequel. 2 birds people. At least they tried something new, it worked for Tarantino in Pulp Fiction (trying something new that is).
Big negatives: the CGI wasn’t great. Thats a big deal for me. If your gonna spend $150 mil on a movie, a “superhero” movie… make sure the CGI is freakin’ good! The other misstep I think they made was in the promotion, which is why folks went in expecting a hilarious version of Iron Man. The marketing wanted us to believe Hancock was a special effects riddled action comedy centered around the hilariously cranky (and drunk) superhero as he botches every attempt to be a hero. In steps Bateman, who is the down on his luck PR guy who sees a golden opportunity in rehabilitating the public image of L.A.’s very own superhero. Ok, so thats what we were led to believe was the whole story, which in reality on took about the first 25 minutes or so. This is should be a lesson in marketing who you are, not who you wish you were. We’ve seen this type of promotion work before, but in this case, right smack in the middle of superhero summer, people needed to be pleasantly surprised, not disappointed.
I liked it, because right smack in the middle of superhero summer, they tried something risky and different. Hancock definitely does not conform to the typical superhero arc whether you like it or not.
I’m gonna give it a 3 out of 5.
Filed Under church, creative, leadership
Edging your lawn is a pretty small thing in the grand scheme of lawn maintenance, but it’s that one little thing that makes all the difference in how great your yard looks. It’s the difference between a “nice” lawn and a “well-manicured” lawn… which is a BIG difference. It’s an easy step to skip and no one is going to look down on you for skipping out it (depending on the neighborhood of course). But it’s that extra step that makes your lawn pop.
We have opportunities every day to put that little extra into everything we do. That small detail that most would overlook that takes us to the next level in excellence. It’s amazing how much the small things, I mean tiny, can make or break a design, a video, a sermon or anything else for that matter. A tiny detail, and not just any detail, but the one that is above and beyond.
These little extras are gonna take more time, but in the end its totally worth it. For me, it also means that I’m gonna need to start every project earlier. I know the rest of you aren’t like this (ha) but it’s an every week thing for me to skip these small things simply because I’ve waited till the last minute to work on my project. So I’m doing good just to crank it out, forget the polishing.
It’s these small things that set us apart. I believe the church should be the most creative and excellent place on the planet, we won’t get there by dodging the details. It’s the persistence of the details that equal greatness, not one great act.
I hope that made sense. What do you think?
Filed Under church, leadership
Saturday night, about 30 minutes before our service started, our power went out. Now, thats not necessarily a big surprise because in that last few months we’ve had it go out during services, but typically its only for a second or two. Don’t get me wrong, that’s bad, because it takes a few minutes to get everything back up and running. But this black-out on Saturday was a brand new experience, you guys that follow me on twitter you may have witnessed the drama as it unfolded.
This was a whole new thing, because it went out, and it stayed out. Service time rolled around and we were still in the dark, and its starting to get hot. It stayed out until about midnight. So we created a back-up plan on the spot, which involved us cramming 130 people in our youth hang out room, which overflowed into the back portion of the main auditorium. We opened the garage door in that room for light and airflow, and we had church… the old fashioned way. Felt like an ol’ time revival.
Why we haven’t come up with a back up plan for that scenario before then I don’t know, but you better believe its something I’ll start working on real soon. If it would have been one of the larger services we would’ve had some serious problems. But it wasn’t and everything went great, considering.
Here are some pics I took from my iPhone…
