fervency...

I'm gonna' use this in my sermon tomorrow at THE WELL.

It's an example of 'evangelistic fervor'.

Courtesy of my kids.

It was Halloween night, they'd gotten back from their trick or treating and felt like they should JUST MAKE SURE that all the rest of the kids knew where it was at.

Our house.

We got candy.

And just in case you missed it, we got a sign.

Candy evangelists, that's my kids.

Point is, they LOVE Halloween, start planning for it a couple months in advance.  They love it so much they'll tell anyone they can about it.  They'll talk your ear off about it.

They'll put a sign on their house.

Do I love what I do that much?  The most important things in my life, do I believe in them so much that I'd put a sign on my door?

Challenging.

T

The importance of meetings...

I hate meetings.

Always have.

Used to lay on the floor with my ball cap over my head during staff meeting at the first church where I was a youth pastor.  Makes me smile thinking about it.  I must have been good at some part of the job for them to tolerate that kind of behavior.

Seriously?  You're going to lie on the ground with your ball cap over your eyes?  Really?

My rationale was--meetings made me so angry, and people can always tell how I'm feeling, it just oozes out of me, that for me to sit there seething was more offensive  than for me to do the aforementioned.

Hate 'em.

(meetings)

There's a difference though between meeting for meeting's sake and meeting 'cause your people need you to.

I've been accused of being a bad manager several times throughout my career.  I always reply in the affirmative.  "Yup, you're right.  I'm not a good manager. Guilty as charged..."  I never wanted to be a manager.  I'm an entrepreneur, a 'starter' a catalytic kind of guy.  In a war I'm the guy leading the charge out of the bunker.  Wanna' come?  We got some enemies to kill, some ground to take and a victory to make.

I'm a leader.  

That's a problem.  Why?  Well, you keep leading long enough and you'll end up with people following you.  Those people need to be managed along the way.

Crap.

I suck at management.

But I'm good at leadership so I keep ending up in this same position. 

Better learn to manage.

Here's something I'm learning.  A little communication can go a long way.  Like today, I did a conference call with our post-team on UNSCRIPTED.  Two guys in Vancouver, two in Toronto, my business partner in Welland and me at home in Burlington, all of us on skype.

Took thirty-two minutes.

Made all the difference.

Everyone feels 'heard', there's a chance to decompress and air concerns, a moment to hear each other's voices and take the emotional 'pulse' of the team.

In thirty two minutes.

I set up the first one because one of the guys on our team was freaking out last month. Communication was breaking down, jobs weren't getting done, details were slipping through the cracks.

All of it my fault 'cause I wasn't managing the process well.

But I'm a sucky manager right?

So, what to do?

Well, I took immediate action.  Called each of the guys involved that day.  Talked them down off the ledge, helped where I could, offered my assurances that I'd keep on it, reminded them to call me anytime and took the suggestion from one of 'em to book a conference call.

I booked it weekly.

A key leader suggested after the first one that we go to once every two weeks.  I took his suggestion.

Did the second one today.

And it's amazing to me how people just settle down when they feel like you're listening.  Sure, I work best with self-starters and I'd say most of our team are--which is why we've made it this far--but even self-starters need the guy running out of the bunker to keep his head on a swivel and ask, "YOU OKAY!!??" once in a while.

Point taken.

And, for you, this might also be applicable.  It's not like I've suddenly turned into a great manager.  I'm still a mushroom (re: the image above) and that means I'm never going to be a sprout or a clover or a blade of grass.  I'm a fungus, that's all I can say.  But, I'm a fungus who's learning from the other plants around him.  I'm not trying to turn myself into something I'm not.  I'm not trying to focus on my weaknesses, but am continuing to play to my strengths.

I'm just trying to be a talking fungus.

(I'ma fungin' kill that enemy though, watch...)

What's the thing you need to add to your arsenal?

Part of the problem is I'm shy.  Part of it is I'm lazy.  Part of it is I hate conflict.

Gotta' overcome all that and do what's needed.

'Cause, charge all you want, but if you don't got a platoon coming up behind you, you're going to find the enemy encampment a mighty lonely place.

T

Vegas...

Got back late last night.

Man, what a town.

Maybe 'town' isn't quite enough.  Maybe we should think of it as its own planet.  Or maybe one busy street in the midst of what feels like a dusty, sad town.

You go out at night and every block there are four or five Mexicans (no joke) slapping these cards in their hands, trying to get your attention.  The second they do, they reach out towards you, handing you something.

If you were to take what they were offering you'd find a stack of business cards with naked women on 'em and a phone number to call.  You call that number and that girl (supposedly) shows up at your location.

Vegas.

The ground is littered with thousands of those cards.

Any takers?

Me, I couldn't imagine anything less appealing.  Can you imagine?  I can't.  What in the hell kind of lonely person would take advantage of another lonely person like that?

Call me.  Pay me. F&$K me.

What kind of city is this?

I mean, it's full of people.  Like New York full.  All these people crammed into this one little strip of bright lights and tacky signs and casinos.

We came down the first morning (6:45am 'cause for us it was 9:45am) and the slots were already going.  I couldn't believe it.  The air was alive with smoke and the music was blaring and the flashing lights promised instant wealth.

Hated most of it.

Later that night hit 'Planet Hollywood'.  Liked that a bit more 'cause it targets a slightly younger crowd so is a bit (and just a bit) less tacky.  We watched a guy play roulette for a while. Stopped 'cause the girl running the table was real cute. We talked some. I kept reminding myself her smile was inviting money not friendship.

All these women, wandering around half-dressed trading away their assets for assets.

Shot one day in the desert.  Magnificent.  Couldn't get more of contrast from the strip to the red hills and black rock of the valley of fire.

And I was thinking 'The Valley of Fire', how appropriate.

Went out again our last night.  Hit the Wynn and the Encore.  Finally a spot my wife would like. Certainly younger and much hipper.  You should see the pool area.  Hit their newest club.

XS.

Good name.

Everything about it was.  Excessive.

$30 cover.  $15 per vodka red-bull. Excessively loud music.  Excessive decor. An eighty foot high by sixty wide archway opening from the dance floor out onto the pool deck.  Like something from the movies.

Girls.  

You can't believe the girls.  All ages.  From young twenties up into vivacious forties.  Dressed to kill.  Dressed to be hunted. Dressed for their lovers.  Dressed for the...

Dudes.

You don't like most of the dudes...hovering, waiting to move in, buying drinks hoping to leverage assets with their assets.  Most of 'em can't dance, are overdressed, wearing too much cologne and trying too hard.  Some are having fun.  Most are just frontin'.

The girls smile at me and my director friend.  "Yeah, I'm a producer, he's a director..." Best pick-up line ever.  Couple times a couple girls look like they want us to come over and dance with 'em.

We love our wives though.

(truly. madly. deeply)

Would be ripping up the floor if they were there.  So we dance a bit together.  He at 6.4 and 250 lbs me at 6.1 and 215 the only thing between us and the proverbial closet door.  There's this guy (late thirties easy) with an Eminem hairstyle and burgundy leisure suit (no kidding) and a gold chain vogue-ing next to the go-go dancer platform.  He's got a ten foot radius around him. People avoiding him 'cause he's weird.  Me 'n Chris kind of like him. 

At least he's authentic.

Over there a grandpa (no kidding) is dancing his a$$ off with a young blonde.  She could be his great grand-kid.  She's loving it though.  He's not coming off dirty, just wants to dance.  People are laughing, getting a kick out of this, forgetting they'll be old someday too.

Wonder if I'll have the balls to hit a club in my early eighties.

Probably not.

If my wife was there though...

Girls on the banquettes.  Stripper poles next to 'em so they can pretend for a while.  Would they be strippers if they could?

Of course not.

There's a guy trying to move in on two girls dancing together.  He tries to slide between 'em, they shift, closing him out, he shuffles, trying again.  They rotate, locking him out.  I can see their eyes as they roll 'em at each other, "Like, get this guy off of us..."  Bouncer's watching.

I want to fight him.  Just 'cause.

Music's great.  My wife would love this.  A couple of our 'couple friends' would too. Wanna' go dancin' T&D and K&N and S&J and C&C and S&C and R&J and T&J and J&E? I'd be dancing too. Gave up my Pentecostal uptightness years back.  Repented of it.  Asked my wife to forgive me for the self-righteous prick-ness that had defined me from 14-26.  

Didn't really get over it 'till a couple years ago, up at my friend's cottage where I partied for the first time in my life.

"What?  A pastor who parties?"

Yup.

Playing catch up these days.

If only my wife was with me.

It's no fun just standing around watching.  

Couple hookers over there with two plain rich guys.  You can always spot 'em.  The dudes look like they live in an office most of the time (all pasty and pale and trying too hard in clothes they think look 'cool') and the girls look like they're trying too hard; both in looks and in their interaction with the stiffs.

Hookers walk past us.  Real gorgeous up close.  I feel sad for 'em.  Wonder how they're feeling on the inside, wonder how calloused they've become.  Wonder if they'll ever have kids.  Wonder what they'd tell 'em about what they used to do. 

There's this cocktail waitress who's so gorgeous she could be a movie star. Like stop you in your tracks, punch you in the gut, take your breath away gorgeous.

Wow.

There's the two blondes again.  They'd been smiling at us on the dance floor an hour or so ago. We didn't bite.  They'd since found two dudes who did.  Dudes can't dance.  Trying too hard.

People are lonely.

People want love.

People want to let loose and have a little fun.

People gotta' make money.  Wanna' find a mate.

I want my wife.

Gotta' bring her back here, do a little dancin'.

In Vegas.

T

let the burgers teach you...

So, I just had lunch HERE.

Pretty dope spot.

Leaving the house, Niki asked me where I was going.  "To find Jesus..." said I.  "Where do you find Him?" asked our friend Kat.  "I'm not sure" said I.

But find Him I did.

At a burger joint.

Now--let me be clear--finding Jesus for me can/might be synonymous for you with finding your muse, or finding a way to get the creative juices flowing.

For me, all that, lives in Jesus and I needed to git me some.

Hit Home Depot, looking for a pair of fall gloves.  Can't beat $2.99 for black work gloves. Great for running at night, great for driving ('cause of the grippy black rubber on the front) and totally non-fussy.

I'm a dude.  I don't like 'fussy'.

Then I needed food.

Decided to hit South St.  Had only been there once before (with Niki) and we had a great experience.  Same deal this time.  Awesome veggie burger (I'm a dude...I eat veggie burgers) great poutine (can't beat NYF) and a chocolate shake worthy of the name.

Great.

And that got me thinking about being great.

Everything about South St. is great.  Great design, great concrete floors, great flow, great food, great service, great vibe.  The moment you think, 'Gee, I need to drop this in the garbage...' you realize there's a garbage right next to you.

They thought of everything.

And that challenged me.  Got me thinking about my new Church.  Got me thinking about my work as a producer/writer and sometime director.

"What is it, that can make what I do as good as what South St. does?"

"What can I learn from their attention to detail and follow through?"

Let's answer those questions:

The make burgers.  What's more common than that?  Almost nothing.  They deliver a product that's ubiquitous.  Same deal with Church and TV and Movies.  There are all kinds of Churches in my town.  TV and movies are everywhere.  What is it I can do to stand out?

"Burgers done well..."

Is their tag.

Church done well.  Movies done well.  TV done well.

What does that mean?  What would it look like for me to 'do well' at the things I've been given to do?

They've paid great attention to their environment.  They know it's mostly dudes who eat burgers.  Their store reflects that knowledge.  Concrete floors, square lines, simple textures, almost no color, no fussiness.  

Taking that into account, who's going to 'consume' my stories?  Who's going to want to come to my Church?  Am I constructing my stories/preaching with them in mind?  Does my Church--in it's construction--reflect my anticipated audience?

They've thought through the whole 'flow' from parking lot, to front door, to ordering, to eating to disposing of things.  I gotta' do me the same.

They gave out ice cream samplers.  Not one person refused a sampler.  Everybody loves ice cream and they know it.  As a result of my sample I ordered a shake on the way out.  They got me.  How can I translate that ethic to my show biz work?  How can I translate it to my Church?

HOW CAN I HOOK MY AUDIENCE?

How can you translate this to your context?

T

ps: Oh, and by the way, if you want to be reminded what it look like to drop hot shi-- and do your thing and bring your 'A' game, and rep your block and make the rest of us feel sick, hit THIS.

A little portraiture...

I thought I'd post this for you.

I often refer to my wife and four kids.

That's them.

Courtesy of a super-talented photographer/DOP/Director friend of mine.

If you've got a wedding coming up--he's your man, hands down.

I gotta' say, it seems like it was just yesterday that Niki and I were just newly dating.  Fast forward to today and those four lovely kids you're looking at seem to have 'appeared' out of nowhere.

A reminder to be really focused about your life--what you feel called to do and the way in which you apply yourself to 'the doing' of it--because it'll be racing past before you know it.

T

Sobering...

Couple quick things...

Last week we were in Kentucky, shooting some interviews for a TV special I'm currently producing on the whole 'Creation vs Evolution' debate that'll air November 23rd, 2009 on VisionTV.

On the way home we stopped by the National Air Force Museum just outside of Dayton Ohio.

And we saw 'Bockscar'...

"What's Bockscar?" you're asking.  Well, 'Bockscar' is THE actual B29 bomber that dropped the nuclear bomb on Nagasaki to, effectively, end World War II.

Right there...

Keep in mind, you're not looking at a reproduction, but at the REAL thing.  Take a second and scroll back up to the first picture.

The happy boxcar with angel wing flies (on tracks) from the lovely American city and drops a nuke on Nagasaki.

Everyone's happy.

I tell you, it made my blood run cold.

Now, far be it from me to stand in judgement.  Far be it from me to say whether Truman was right or wrong.  Lemme' just say...

It made my blood run cold.

I didn't know what to think, standing there looking at it.  I actually touched it, just to be a witness.  I reached out and touched the leading edge of the propellor on the outside left wing and...

It made my blood run cold.

I find it deeply sobering the things we humans can do to each other.

It makes me need an answer--a solution.

It makes me need to write, produce and direct (not always all three) stories that try to honestly make sense of it.  I makes me need to preach.

'Cause as I stand there looking at that abomination of a killing machine--all shiny and preserved for my kids to see--I'm thinking about all the graves that machine made.  All the widows and orphans that killing machine created.

And, yes, the Japanese and Germans and Russians and Canadians and British and French and Italians (etc. etc.) all dug their fair share of graves too.

I'm not looking to blame anyone--my grandpa fought in that war, and I 'kill' people with my thoughts every day--but I'm looking to testify.

That beast (the plane and all it stands for) must burn.

IT must perish from the earth.

Peace must come.  Peace must prevail.

Where can I find the 'Life and Peace forever' museum?  'Cause my kids would LOVE that place!

Anyone?  Anyone?

T

more of the same...

That'll be us tomorrow.  Another eight and a half hours on the road--in torrential rain I hear--headed north and home.

So SO tired today.

Was up at 6:00AM and on-set by seven.  Shot five in-depth interviews with leading scientists on the creation side of the 'creation/intelligent design/evolution' special I'm currently producing.  Shot one with an eminent--and rabble rousing (if you believe the reports)--atheist evolutionist last night.

Went well.

Spent the second half of today playing with my kids, swimming, grabbing lunch, hanging out etc.  This is the first time they've accompanied me on a short-term shoot.  I found it a bit more stressful than I expected.  Not 'cause of them but because I didn't know 'how' to do what I needed to do with them around.  I've got a pretty established rhythm when it comes to doing this kind of thing and I've never had to account for them being there on a short term shoot.  The uncertainty attached to this made me real grumpy the first day we were here but by the time I'd finished shooting last night I'd settled down, realized I can do this with them here, and stopped being grumpy.

Today was effortless.

The footage we shot is SPECTACULAR (shooting with a superbly talented DP/Director) and the content matches.  I think we might have something with this one.

We'll shoot two more interviews next week and fly to Vegas to shoot my stand-ups (as host) out in the desert with the red rock and cobalt blue sky.

While we were here our permanent screen and projector were installed at THE WELL so that should be fun this weekend.

Got my wife's birthday to plan this month and our next shoot in L.A for UNSCRIPTED.  And, on that front, I just found out this week that we may have a ratings hit on our hands.  So far UNSCRIPTED is doing better than anything the network has aired in our time slot in the past two years.  If we can grow another 10% we might be the highest rated show they've ever had in that time slot.

So, that might be cool.

Also reconnected with one of my oldest friends last night (via text on FB) and for that, I'm very thankful.

All in all, one of those good and productive weeks.

DOG tired though.

(that sounds SO 'Kentucky')

Gotta' get home.

T

The land of the free (guns)...

Eight and a half-hours in the car later, we arrived in Florence Kentucky--just outside of Cincinnati Ohio.

My kids were great in the car.  Pretty cool to be at the stage where I don't quite need to stab myself after that drive.

Anyway, they hit the pool, and I hit the local Walmart for some milk...

And a shotgun.

Well, not really, but I thought I'd let you know that, here in Kentucky aka: 'god's country', you can get a side of shotgun with your milk AND the shells are on sale right next to the portable stereos.

Wild.

It's amazing to me how different the World is a mere eight and a half hours from my front door. This challenges me to keep the wide wide (weird) World in mind when crafting stories and sermons.

'Cause people may be different everywhere but they're also the same and finding the hinge between those two realities is the key to effective communication I think.

T

kindergarden on the go...

Everywhere I go I've got this mini-kindergarden that follows me around.

Just took the wife and kids to Starbucks downtown.  I'd finished writing for the day a little earlier than expected and my wife was going a bit stir-crazy 'cause it's raining in our hometown. As a result of said rain she was also feeling a little depressed about what's coming to our neck of the woods--mainly six months of basically awful weather--so I figured a little intervention would be worth it.

She's also stressed that--having just planted a new church--we can't escape to the sun for the winter which would be her first choice given the opportunity.  Add to that my wrestling with the enormity of what we've done and the long-term implications and I figured some coffee and a scone were definitely in order.

On the way the kids didn't stop talking, laughing, singing, screaming the whole time.  And I do mean the whole time.  I looked at Niki at one point and said, "It's like I've got a kindergarden following me around wherever I go..."

And--as we spent some time over coffee--I realized that that is a good thing.

Keeps us young.  Keeps us on our toes.  Keeps us healthy.  Keeps us selfless.

Have some kids friends.

You'll be the better for it.

And the deaf-er.

T

I always end up here...

For me, this is the nexus, the point, the destiny.

In every story and every sermon I always feel myself drawn back to this place and to this hope. For me every tension and all struggle is about the urge to got 'home' to here and the issues I have with fighting the total surrender required for entrance.

It's all about home for me.

All about why we were made and who made us and what that means.

For me, Heaven is at the heart of all story.

Gonna' go there again this sunday, 10:30am at...

THE WELL

T