Preacher, Producer, Poop-cleaner...

It looked like it was going to just be another lovely day at our new church.  I drove to our location with my boys in-tow (they're the only 'paid' employees the church has right now at $2/week to help us set up and tear down...).  I pulled up to set the first sign at the main intersection leading into our parking area and saw the image above.  Beautiful sun lighting the way.  Had to take a shot.

Then, I got to work.  We removed all the music stands (we use a rehearsal hall as our 'sanctuary') moved all the chairs (84 of 'em at this point) into position then, right before we started with all the sound gear I figured I'd pop downstairs to use the bathroom.  As soon as I walked in I could smell it.  Someone had been there before me.  It smelled so bad that I got that sinking feeling--oh man, somebody dealt it and left it.  So, I checked the stalls.  Sure enough, one of 'em looked like a Grizzly Bear had snuck in, dumped its load, and bailed out before it could get caught.  I mean, it seemed incomprehensible that something of that SIZE could have come out of a human.  "Note to self..." I thought, "Check to see who's LIMPING and you'll know who did this."

(what do these people EAT?  Can I make a suggestion?  'BRAN FLAKES')

'Cause, seriously, you do something like that and LEAVE IT?  What kind of person does that? You KNOW that someone else is going to have to deal with it and you're leaving it for them to do just that.  It's so disrespectful it boggles the mind.

(I'm wondering if that Grizzly will read this and be mad at me for calling them out.  "Hey Grizzly!  I'm mad at YOU for making me deal with YOUR POO!")

'Cause that's what I was going to have to do.  I am, after all, 'The Pastor' and we don't have a janitor yet and if I didn't deal with it I was only going to have myself to blame if we had a new person join us at Church this week then leave 'cause, when they hit the john before service, they found GRIZZLY POOP left to rot in the bathroom and got a--justifiably--poor first impression of us 'causing them to never come back to THE WELL again.

So, I walked back upstairs, found an old drum stick in the garbage an prepared myself for the worst.

(be warned, the image you're about to see is rated 'N' for NASTY...)

Yes, two peaces of POOP the size of small bricks.  I can STILL smell it.

Of course I tried to flush 'em down!  The water swirled around, doing it's best and the Grizzly Poop just laughed at it.  

I was definitely going to have to break them apart.

You wouldn't believe how hard it was--no pun intended.  I mean, it took me a good three minutes to break those suckers up.  Holding my breath, trying not to look but having to peak now and again to see if I was making any progress in reducing the GIANT PIECES OF POOP to a manageable size.

The moment of truth.  

Flush...

And, VICTORY!

No that drumstick is never going to see the light of day again.  

And I'm SO happy to be a church planter, TV/Film producer, and POOP-BREAKER-UPPER I just have to friggin' GRIN from ear to ear.

Seriously though, it was a very good lesson in humility.

Plant a church. Clean the toilets.

Then go PREACH your butt off.

T

three month update...

Are we having fun yet?

That's the question I've been asking myself for the past three months.  See, I've up and planted another church.  Here's my FIRST one.  They're rockin', have a great dude at the helm, have just moved into a new location, gone to two services and are set to grow like gangbusters this year if you ask me.

Planting again was near impossible. Took us almost four years to get up the guts.  I think, at the root, it's because planting a church means giving your life away. If you're anything like me (a freedom-loving, imaginatively-inclined guy) you dream of sailing away, seeing the World, embracing the far-horizon.

Planting and pastoring a church means staying put in one place for a very long time.  I think that, more than anything else, was 'the goads' we were kicking against.

And let me say, the first two months out of the gate at THE WELL my wife and I were freaking out. "What have we done?" was how we were feeling and what we were saying to each other. Had I just 'done' this in my own strength or was I really hearing God?  What would happen to my media career? Would everything stop cold? Would things continue?  What if things got busier?  Would I be able to keep up?  Would God bring us people to help us?

Would we come to love THE WELL?

It's hard to imagine loving another church like you did your first one. We still almost 'hurt' inside when we think of many of the people from our first church.  When we look back on their journey, on what God did in their lives through the work of that first church we still stand amazed.  We remember a room packed with 275 young adults, their hands and voices raised to Heaven, singing their hearts out in worship in the heart of downtown Toronto.

Great days.

How could it ever be that good again?

You really worry that it won't.  You worry that you've missed your chance, that you've blown it.

Then, all of sudden, in 'month three' your wee little suburban church plant starts showing signs of life.  New people start coming. People start crying during the sermons.  The worship starts getting some electricity (by the Spirit) to it. Your offerings start growing.  You feel momentum shifting. 

And you and your wife stop freaking out.  You stop feeling trapped.  You start feeling excited, start looking forward to next Sunday.

God starts working.

"What, even here?  Even now?  After all this?  Could it be?"

Well, yes it could.

Check out the 'official' three month update here.

And pray for us when you think of it.

(and thanks for that, by the way...)

T

ps: and the picture off the top is to remind me what 'evangelistic fervor' looks like. That was a sign my kids spontaneously made Halloween night after doing their rounds.  They wanted to share their bounty with their city--kind of like what we want to do at THE WELL.

lay them bricks...

I've been getting some unusually strong response to one of my recent sermons.

Specifically, the content has to do with finding a way to be happy in your vocation.

If you're one of my readers who has absolutely no 'faith-oriented' inclination then this link isn't for you as it'll take you to a 'sermon' with all of the bias, assumption and cultural enmeshedness that you'd expect of that type of thing.

However, if you know you won't be turned off by all the "Jesus" in it, (or are feeling unusually intrigued by 'them christians' today) then you might find it helpful, specifically if your JOB is getting you down lately.

My hope is help inspire you to 'keep at it'.

Best,

T

300...

That's my Grandma in there.

Well, not my Grandma, but her body.  See the note stuck in the middle?  That's from one of her 25 great-grandkids.  "We love you Grandma! Can't wait to see you again..."

That kind of note.

A note full of hope.

Like her funeral.  Like her life.

Hope.

I'm wondering if there's hope in your life these days?  How are things going? Are you sensing stagnation or momentum in your life and work?

It's funny, for me, things have been a bit of a grind the last three months.  Part of that has had to do with getting ready to launch, and actually launching THE WELL our second 'from-scratch' church plant. Part of it is connected to coming to the end of our producing year which always means a 'gee, so what do you think is next for us..." moment or two.

(the joys of independent production)

Part of it has to do with a wife who is getting more and more invested in her career which is a great thing and is changing the rhythms of life for us a bit and that--as it always does--takes some adjusting.

But I thought I'd mention that I do feel a sense of momentum.  This past Sunday at THE WELL I could just 'feel' it.  It's not that there was any tangible thing that happened to put my sense of things into that 'positive' zone--well, we did have six new people, which was cool and (at the same time) illustrates how tiny we are at the moment where six are noticed and cheered--it's just that things 'felt' different to me.

Momentum.

You can feel it, and the lack of it.

Thing is, I don't know of any foolproof way to generate momentum.  I mean, sure, I know how to work and keep working.  I know how to 'make myself available' but I also know that I'm absolutely unable to conjure it (momentum) out of thin air.

So I've found that the trick is simply to survive long enough for it to find you.

We're eleven weeks into THE WELL.  I'm ten years into my media career.  I'm thirteen years into my marriage, ten years into being a Dad.  I've followed Jesus for twenty four years, have lived for thirty five.

Momentum.

I'm feeling a little bit of it.

I had dinner with the very high-powered President of a major corporation a couple months back.  He's mid-forties.  We got talking about my life and career.  He said, "You're 35?  Then you're right on-track.  Just watch, the next ten years of your life are where your revenue-generating capability will catch up with all the work you've done the past fifteen years."

Here's hoping.

I mean, he should know, but you never know.

All the above to say this.

I think I'll just keep trekking.  Keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Waiting for momentum and living my life well (like Grandma did) in the meantime.

You too?

T

The me I used to be on TV...

That's 'season five' of FREETV you're looking at right there.

Shot in a TINY studio downtown Toronto, cast with mostly friends and friends of friends 'cause we couldn't afford to do any different.  Set with borrowed furniture from EQ3 and Pier 1 that we had to handle with kid gloves to the point that, at the end of our last day's shooting, my Executive Producer was tasked with the very non-executive-like task of 'pledge-ing' the crap out of the tables to try and eliminate the scratches so that we wouldn't be charged for the tables upon their return.

Glamorous.

Not at all.

A little different from where we are today, and yet, today still feels no different in its own 'moment'.  We're still doing things we don't really want to do, still stressing about the budget, though by this point it's more than fifty times what it was then.

Progress.

Maybe, but mostly small.

The thing is, we're still at it.  We started producing 'season one' of that same show back in 1998. That's a million years ago, but we're still at it, hoping to get fifty times bigger still.

Crazy, humbling, overwhelming and exciting.

T

From Grandma...

My Grandma died this week.

She was 101.

It was time.

Monday I helped my Mom move Grandma (or her stuff) out of her last place.

Two trolley's worth was all that was left.  One above, and one below.

Her last address.  A special photo of her and my grandpa from their younger days.

Her last bed. The room all cleared out, ready for the next grandma.

How we'll remember them.  Mom noted that it's appropriate that the photograph of her and grandpa (the original photograph from which many copies have been made) is starting to fade.

Poetic.

That's how I'd describe her life.

Poetic.

She was a wonderful woman.  Kind, gentle, wise.  Loved her husband and her kids.  Made a huge impact on many lives.

Grandma.

And, you know, as Mom and I moved Granda's stuff out I got to thinking about you and me and about the fact that we're going to go someday too.  

And you might have more than two trolley's worth left but really what you'll have left is your family and your friends and their family and friends and offspring--the people you impacted with your kindness, your gentleness and your accumulated wisdom.

As I packed up her meager belongings I kept thinking about the richness of life she left behind in her kids and her grandkids and her great-grandkids.

And that reminded me to live my life in such a way that it's not the things I leave behind but the people, and what I've invested into their lives.

'Course, if you live your life right, you leave so much behind that nobody would be able to handle the trolleys.

And that'd be a life well-lived.

Like my Grandma's.

Love you K.

T

Up to no good...

I know I've mentioned it a few times but, for those of you who have some passing interest in the work I do on the 'media side' of things, I thought I'd link to an article that ran a couple months back on UNSCRIPTED one of the things I'm currently producing...

Enjoy.

T

What's your point?

I use cue cards for everything.

Grocery lists for shopping.  Story points for screenplays.  Blocking diagrams for directing.  Or to make sure I've made my point when preaching.

That there card is 'the point' of what I'm going to try and do tomorrow as I step up to preach at THE WELL.

Thought you might like to read it and/or pop by to see us in-person or peep the podcast when it's uploaded Sunday night.

'Cause--at the end of it all--all of this is for you.

T

At work...

Thought some of you might get a kick out of these.

I'd mentioned my recent trip to Vegas a couple posts ago.  Well, the two shots below were taken 'on set' out in the Nevada wilderness about an hour from Vegas.

My DP/Director friend, Chris Stacey,  shot on Canon's 5D off an 18 foot jib.  The light was all-natural.

I always remember to tell myself, when I'm having a bad day, that the kind of work I find myself doing these days sure beats temping at Pepsi back in 2000.

The special is called 'The Great Debate' and explores the finer points in the creation vs evolution debate.  You can catch it November 23rd, 2009 on VisionTV.

Wait 'till you see them shots...

T

Surviving...

Oh man, oh man, what I week I just had.

Two weeks.

Rewind with me to Sunday October 18th, 2009.

Dad's preaching, so that's cool.  I get to sit with my eldest boy in the front row, his head resting on my shoulder as he splits his time between reading and listening.  Three generations of Cantelon men in one spot under the preaching of God's Word.  Pretty cool.

Problem.

It's also my wife's birthday and she's NOT at all happy that, later that afternoon, I'm hopping a plane.

To fly to Las Vegas.

I arrive in Vegas, scout the town, study and write, hit the sack.  Next day I'm out in the blazing sun in the Nevada desert filming all day.  Dust, blazing sunshine, whirling wind.

Survive that.  Hit the town.  Miss the wife.

Fly home all day the next day.

Thursday/Friday/Saturday catch up, study for my shoot upcoming in L.A.  Make it up to my wife. Write a sermon.

Sunday Oct. 25th.  Preach my but off.

Next day, fly to Los Angeles--what--ten or eleven hours in-transit?  Awesome.

Oh--hang on a second--rewind to Friday the 24th.  I can feel myself getting sick, can feel it's going to be a bad one.

Monday, the 26th.  On the plane.  Sick as a DOG.  Eleven hours in-transit on a 100% full flight sitting next my photographer/DP/Director friend who's 6.4 and weighs 250.  Add that to my 6.1 215 and put us in adjoining seats and you can picture how comfortable THAT flight was.

Get to L.A.

Tension brewing.  Typical stuff at this level of the game but no fun all the same.

Wife calls--all four of my kids are getting sick.  Niki's not going to be able to come.

Rewind...

The week before, we'd booked her into L.A for Wed/Thurs/Fri.  She was going to come to see our set, meet our crew, and party with us on the last night as is our custom.  We were booked into two of the hottest Hotels in N. America, she was going to pimp out, chill by the pool, get spoiled.  Couldn't wait.  She hasn't left all four kids EVER.  That's a long ten years folks.

And now, she's not coming.

Weeping (and lots of it) ensues.

Tuesday, 11 interviews.  Tension brewing. So sick I don't even know what end is up.  Fake my way through it.

Wednesday, 11 interviews.  Tension increasing.  So sick I can barely tell what end is up.  Feeling better (much better) than yesterday but still.  

Wife is definitely NOT coming.  Kids are DEFINITELY sick--seriously so.  You can imagine my phone calls at this point.

Thursday, 12 interviews.  Tension hits boiling point.  Feeling much better.  Appetite's back. Wife's resigned to her fate.  Wrap.  Meeting (...) Dinner with our principals and out to dance for a bit (cool club with Macy Gray on open mic) then back to the pool/hot tub.  To bed by 4:30am.

Friday.  Up at 6:30am.  Yes, that's TWO HOURS SLEEP.

Awesome.

Take the house car to the airport.  That was fun.

Hop my flight.  Got a seat open next to me this time.  Close my eyes--sleep straight through for four hours.  Lord only knows who I drooled on.

Cleveland.  Connector flight.  Dissect my sermon.  That goes well.

Car.

Driving home.

11:30pm (14 hours in-transit) kiss the wife.

Sleep.

Saturday.  Stumble around.  Hang with my kids.  Sleep.  Write tomorrow's sermon.  Can't bring myself to double check the powerpoint.

Sunday, Nov 1st.  New screen and projector supposed to work.  Don't.  

Problem:

We don't figure it out 'till ten minutes before we're supposed to start.  End up with incomplete or non-existent power point for the service.  Start 15 minutes late.  You can imagine how that goes over.

Oh, and did I mention that our town is reeling under Swine Flu panic?  No joke.  Attendance is cut in HALF.

Full suckage.

(HOLY FRIGGIN' CRAP I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M BACK TO SQUARE ONE LIKE THIS!!!)

That's how I was feeling anyway.  Did my best to preach through it.

Felt like the bad old days when I was nineteen and just starting out and had no idea what I was doing.

Balls.

Sunday night.  Want to quit.

Monday.  Still want to quit.

Today, get the screen and projector working.  Finally.  Looks awesome.  As I'm sitting there with my worship leader watching the thing work for real I start getting excited, imagine it being re-installed in our final building someday with room for a thousand.

Alright.  We can do this.

Back to it.  Just tallied the attendance for our first eight weeks at THE WELL.  Figured I let you know how things are looking so you can see how humbling and nascent this aspect of my career is right about now.

Average attendance over the first eight weeks: 47/wk

Average giving over the first eight weeks: $645/wk

Hilarious right?

What's really funny is, those are pretty good numbers as far as Church plants go.  We were hoping to be averaging 60 people and $600/wk by December so we're pretty close to on-track. Also, if you look at things from the inside perspective, we've got a good group of people with us (6 or 7 solid families) and--with the exception of some worried looks last week, and fair enough I was worried too--they seem pretty 'into things' and have started showing tangible support.

We have every reason to be hopeful.

Plus, we got a nice shiny sign (up top) and a SMOKING hot screen.

Looking good.

(come see for yourself this week)

So far.

SDG

T