Archive - June, 2010

Nice Find: Jonathan Kingham

June 28, 2010 in Good Stuff with 0 Comments

I love original music. While I don’t usually get the chance to go to coffee places or concerts and hear people I do not know, someone came to me last night. We hosted a concert for our parents and volunteers last night and Jonathan Kingham was there and was one of the Nicest Finds ever.


Not sure who the other guy is, but just press play while you read this post

Jonathan is an incredible musician who’s lyrics are creative and even though they go deep quick, are really easy to listen to. He was an excellent performer and really funny. All he had was an acoustic and his voice, but that was more than enough. At one point he did a cover of Bobby Brown’s “Every Little Step I take” and in the middle of it broke into some freestyle and sang about random people in the audience. It was very impressive. I liked his performance so much that I bought not one, but two of his CDs on the spot.

Freestyling at 4:30 minutes

I also love his music because even though he is not under a Christian label and plays in secular places, he loves God and his lyrics often reflect that. I’ve said this several times, but the creative world needs more people who know Jesus and Jonathan Kingham gives me hope. This guy is going to make it big soon, and now you can say you knew about him before anyone else did. Check him out Here or buy/sample his music here or here

Some more testimony videos

June 23, 2010 in Videos with 0 Comments

A few months ago I posted a couple of testimony videos that I have been working on for Grace. Well I am still making them for our website and I wanted to post some cool new ones.

The first is from Mark Messler. I like his because even though he is a lawyer (and a good one) he still says the most important thing he does is youth ministry. This video explains it all…

This second video is from Joe Pinson. He did a great job because he had no prep time. He just happened to be at the church and I had an opening so I asked him if he wanted to do his testimony and he nailed it. Pretty cool. His story is powerful too…

If you want to see the whole collection it is here: http://vimeo.com/channels/109997
I will be adding some more as I finish editing them.

Toy Story 3 Review

June 19, 2010 in Cultural Connection with 0 Comments

Movies are a huge part of our culture. Their messages can be very influential, and so whenever I see a movie in theaters I may just post a review/analysis of it. Here we go…

Toy Story is one of the few movie series that I literally grew up with. I can still vaguely remember seeing the first one in theaters and being blown away by the Computer Generation that looked sooooo cool. When most animated movies have a sequel, it is usually a stinker. Come to think of it, it is extremely rare for a sequel to surpass the original. Toy Story 2 was one of those exceptions. I loved the second one, maybe even more than the first. And now, years later, now that it is time for Andy to go to college we get Toy Story 3. Surely the 3rd movie in a series can’t get better right? And yet, somehow, those geniuses at Pixar found a way to make Toy Story 3 the best movie in the series!

Toy Story 3 had everything a good movie should. An incredible opening scene, funny jokes, very funny jokes, great characters, an intimidating villain, huge obstacles to overcome, and it was even touching. While most sequels don’t put forth as much effort because they know they can make money off the movie name alone, Pixar refuses to do this. You can tell they put years into this film, thinking through the plot and how to build upon the first two. It doesn’t even feel like an add-on, it feels like closure to the series. It is a testament for all of us about going that extra mile to make sure our creative work is done well and never settling.

Loved these guys

As for the new characters, I loved Ken. He might have been the funniest character in the whole series. There is also a character named Mr. Prickle Pants that I got a kick out of, but I wish I could have seen more of him. The new villain is also fantastic, and surprisingly sinister. The classic characters are all still here in rare form, and Rex sticks out to me because I think I laughed at every single line he said in this movie.

My Favorite New Character

I enjoyed the message of Toy Story 3 as well. As with all Toy Stories, the importance of friendship and sticking together is highlighted. There are a couple scenes at the end (don’t want to give them away) where you can really see and feel how important the bonds of friendship are to these toys. There is also a great picture of evil. The villain makes it seem so appealing, but once you get beyond the nice packaging, you realize how twisted it really is. In our lives, sin almost always looks like a good idea. But once it gets started, we realize how unsatisfying it can be, and often it is too late to avoid massive consequences. The theme of loyalty was also present in the movie, and I think that is an important one for our culture as well. Too often we try to take the easy way out and just give up when we face trials, but we should never do that! And Toy Story 3 shows this extremely well.

So I loved Toy Story 3. I recommend it to anyone. It is safe for everyone, and it is brilliant. Anyone else seen the movie? Any thoughts?

The Role of Creative Arts in Worship

June 16, 2010 in Abundant Life with 0 Comments

Today I read a really cool verse in Exodus 28:3. It says, “You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him for my priesthood.”

Now before you get excited about me starting my own clothing design business, let me explain why I think this is an incredible verse. People often wonder if Christians should participate in the Creative arts or if there is a place for the arts during a worship service. This verse shows that creativity is a gift from God and that we can and should use that gift for His glory! “The spirit of skill” comes from God, and any gift that comes from God should be given to Him and enjoyed.

Some people argue that production should not be a part of worship services. They don’t think that lights or videos do anything to glorify God, but I disagree. Something that really appealed to me when I cam to Grace was their philosophy about the role of production in worship services. In the Gospels, Jesus would often preach to loud crowds. When he addressed them, he would either stand on a hill or a boat out on the water. This is because hills and water act as natural amplifiers of sound, and it allowed more people to hear and understand the message.

Lakes: A natural sound amplifier

We believe that production in worship services is just like the hills and water in Jesus’s day. We are not giving the message, we are simply amplifying it. Good sound and video allows more people to see and hear the message, good lighting helps people see the message, and good videos or testimonies can help illustrate the teacher’s message like Jesus did with parables. During worship songs, creative lighting can help people enter a reflective mood or help lift their spirits. Inspiring backgrounds can remind them of the awe of God’s Creation. The lights and the sound and the video should never be the primary focus of the participants. God should be. Production elements should only help bring people into His presence.

Some would say funny videos have no place in worship services,
but I think something like this one helps people see and believe deeper truths
(in this case, facebook friends cannot replace authentic relationships)

Production can be a place that is easy to get arrogant in (at least for me). Production people get to use cool and expensive equipment, they get to see results almost instantly, and people are more likely to compliment a funny video than a challenging sermon. But if you view your job as being an amplifier of the message, it is much easier to maintain humility. After all, the hill and the lake were always at the feet of Jesus, and were never the spotlight.

Lastly, I think production has a place in worship services because the person running lights can run them as an act of worship. The videographer can edit for God’s glory. The mic man can monitor frequency and honor God as He does this. God filled these people with the spirit of skill, and they have just as much right to use their gifts for His glory as a guitar player in a worship band or a preacher uses his gift to teach.

Shout Outs

June 9, 2010 in Abundant Life with 0 Comments

Being married is awesome for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons is how much it teaches me about my relationship with God. I plan on writing some posts about that, and this is the first.

Morgan (my hot wife) is a teacher. I love summer because I get to see her so much more. During this past school year, she worked over 50 hours a week and spent about 10 hours in Masters classes. This meant that there were some days where she would leave at 7AM and I would not see her until after 9PM. It was not fun.

During those days I would always try and send her a text or a short e-mail to let her know I was thinking about her. Obviously, our relationship would not work well if that was our only way of interacting, but it was a nice way to remind each other that we were in love. When we could actually hang out again for real, it was always more exciting for her to see me because she knew I had been thinking about her (and more exciting for me too).

I think it is important for us to send God little shout outs throughout the day too. Since we cannot be in the Word or singing praises 24/7, it is vital to let Him know we are thinking about Him as we go about our day. We may not be able to text Him or e-mail Him, but we can look up towards Heaven and say, “Hey God, hope you’re doing well. Just thinking about you and wanted you to know I love you.”

Not only does this let God know we love Him, but it reminds us that we ourselves love Him! It is so easy to get distracted by all the craziness in the day, and I think giving God a shout out helps keep us grounded. While it should not be the foundation of your relationship with God, just like it should not be the foundation of my relationship with Morgan, it is a nice supplement. So it doesn’t matter if you are driving, or riding an elevator, or stressed out about school or work, just give God a shout out. You won’t regret it.

Hilarious News Story #6

June 7, 2010 in Humor with 0 Comments

Imagine you have been saving up for years to go to Europe. You finally make the trip and spend a day in Zurich, Germany. You have heard that the financial district has some cool buildings and decide to check it out. While walking around you turn the corner to see…..

An Elephant on the loose!

Clip the Pic to see original story

It seems as if the circus is having more and more trouble keeping their animals at bay. A few months ago, a zebra escaped in Atlanta and ran around on the interstate causing traffic for miles (read here). Now the land of chocolate has fallen prey to a crazy elephant who decided peanuts were no longer good enough as a paycheck. No word yet if she is part of a union.

Rumor has it that someone could hear the following song being sung, “I’ve seen just about everything, but I ain’t never seen an elephant fly,” but no one could identify the singer.

The way I fell in love

June 5, 2010 in Favorite Posts with 1 Comment

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about how we tend to pursue things that are easy instead of memorable. I recently taught a seminar where the whole idea of being memorable was discussed. One of my points about living memorable scenes was to “live on a whim.” To illustrate that, I told the following story of when I knew I loved my awesome wife (who was my girlfriend at the time).

We both went to college at the University of Georgia. Every year UGA plays this little team named Florida in a town called Jacksonville. We made the journey down to Florida with about 20 other college students and stayed in a hotel in the city. Like most college students, I was in a room with about 7 other guys and she was in a room with 7 other girls. Our hotel was overlooking the river that flows through Jacksonville and we went to dinner on the other side of the river one night.

After dinner (where they charged us for water, which was an outrage to us college students!) Morgan and I decided to walk back to our hotel. There is a really cool bridge that has blue lights on it (you know what I am talking about if you have ever been to Jacksonville) and we basically had to walk across it. A couple minutes in, we got a call from a friend who informed us that it was about to rain. He asked if we wanted a ride, but we decided to just live on a whim and walk anyway.

Sure enough, the rain began to pour down, and we got soaked. We then proceeded to do cartwheels and jump in fountains and have one of the best times of our lives. Now for several months leading up to this event, I had been considering whether or not I loved Morgan. I had written pages and pages in my journal, trying to understand what love was and whether or not I had it for this girl.  I had prayed about it and poured over scripture, and was pretty confidant in my love, but wasn’t positive and did not see the need to rush things. When we went running through the rain in Jacksonville, that sealed things for me.  The exact moment occurred when we were in a grassy field in front of the hotel and she straight up tackled me. So not only was I wet, she got me muddy too. I’m not sure why, but at that moment I was sold. I knew then and there that I was in love with her hand there was no getting around it.

The Bridge and Fountain

When we got back to the rooms one of my guy friends made an attempt to make me feel stupid for running through the rain (like I said, most of the time we choose easy over memorable. It would have been much easier to drive and not get wet and have to shower and deal with smelly clothes, but not nearly as memorable). In a sarcastic voice he said, “bet ya feel pretty dumb for walking in the rain, huh?”

I replied, “no, that was actually fun.” To which he said, “yeah, but your going to have to take a shower now! That stinks doesn’t it?” I just smiled and said, “not really,” and in my head I was just thinking about how awesome the experience was, and that he just couldn’t understand.

I would say the rain was worth this...

While it may not have been easy or convenient, it was certainly a memorable experience. Now whenever I go through Jacksonville, I remember this moment and my heart jumps a little bit. The memory is one of the reasons I am married to the best wife in the world, and I would not trade it for anything. I’m not saying that every time you do something memorable or play in the rain you will fall in love. I would even say that it is very dangerous to create moments that you believe will make you fall in love, those moments should happen on their own and after a lot of thought and prayer. What I am saying is this, there are a lot of things in life that are easy, but they are not always memorable. Choose the memorable as much as possible.

The Writing Process

June 3, 2010 in Abundant Life with 0 Comments

Well it has been a week and a half since my last post, but I guess that is what happens when you have two summer camps, a rehearsal dinner, and two weddings to go to in 7 days. Despite the craziness and the endless hours of driving I did, it was all wonderful and I had a great time. I am, however, glad to be home.

Today I will be doing a lot of writing for videos that we will be filming and editing this summer (woohoo!). Some people wonder where ideas come from and how much time we spend on projects before they are completed, so I thought I would write  a blog about my writing process and the things I do to help myself be creative. I know a lot of people try to make videos by just showing up and trying to think of what they will say on the spot, but I have found that it is pretty important to put more thought into it than that.

1) Location- It is a bad idea to write in a place that is distracting. I think writing is like sports, once you get in a groove you don’t want to be stopped. If you are going to have people coming by all day or if the television is going to be too tempting, then avoid it. It also helps to be in a place that stimulates creativity. A room with plain/pale green walls probably won’t help you, but a place that is uniquely decorated or in the outdoors will do much better.

I think I could come up with some ideas in a place like this

2) Music- I prefer to listen to movie soundtracks while writing (Check out my favorites for this here). Classical is also good. Words distract me so I avoid them, but soundtracks and classical music help me find a rhythm and keep me from getting frustrated. It also makes me feel like I am in a movie, which really helps when it comes to writing movies.

3) Brainstorming- This actually occurs all throughout the week. Some of my best brainstorming is done in the car, in fact. The only problem is, when I brainstorm and come up with great ideas throughout the week, it is easy to forget them when it is time to write. So I have a list (currently around 20) of ideas for things I want to write. This is huge, because the hardest part of writing for me is getting started. When I already have ideas waiting for me, it is like I have already started when I sit down! Some of them may end up not being any good, but usually there are some great ideas. Where do these ideas come from? Many places: random jokes, funny events in life, hard questions that need answers, other videos, TV commercials, books, conversations, songs, and so much more. It is also helpful to have other people with you while brainstorming.

I am trying to think of a way to relate this picture to brainstorming, but mostly I just think it is funny.

4) Writing- I tend to write very quickly. As ideas come into my head I get them out as quickly as I can. I don’t worry about grammar or spelling or anything the first time around, I just want to get it all out there. Then I go back, almost immediately, and clean things up so I still know what I meant to say. When the second draft is done, I tend to wait for a few hours or a day or two and then come back and do a more intense revision. In this round I analyze every line to make sure maximum humor or impact is being delivered and that there are no pointless lines. I also read each line out in my head, to make sure it sounds like something people would say in real life. It takes an act of will, because it would be easier to breeze through it and just look for grammar issues, but the more time spent on it the better it will be.

So there you have it, my writing process. Hopefully this is helpful for you if you want to make your own videos or write your own skits. Other people may do it differently, and that is great because we are all wired differently, so if you have any ideas on your own writing process, let us know!