Raising the bar...

Okay, so AVATAR is amazing.  Seriously, go see it.  If you've been hiding under a rock check it out HERE.

My homeboys and I had planned to catch the 9:40pm screening last night.  Showed up at 8:00pm (to be safe) for tickets and it was sold out. Had to wait for the 11pm.  Figured we'd show up an hour early to line up--again just to be safe--and when we got there at 10:10pm the lineup was already 200 feet long.

Theater was completely packed 40min prior to show time.

My quip on twitter joked about most of the members of the Director's Guild of America throwing down their membership cards in exasperation 'cause AVATAR is so intense it makes you depressed because the proverbial 'bar' just got raised to what seems--at first viewing--near impossible heights.

Then--in terms of making me borderline depressed--there's this book I've been reading...

And, the overarching sense you get from studying the life of Warren Buffett (the World's richest man, most years...) is that 1) he was totally committed to what he felt he was supposed to do with his life from an early age, in a way that you can't ever match, and 2) he was so committed that he didn't live anything near a 'normal' life, and that's a tough one for you to negotiate 'cause you want to do 'well' with your life but you (probably) also want to HAVE a life and it doesn't look like he did.

So, when faced with Giants like James Cameron or Warren Buffett, while possessed of dreams of achievement of some sort of your own, what do you do?

Do you throw your DGA card down and walk away?

Do you give up any dreams of investing and building a life 'cause you'll never measure up to Buffett's standards and walk away?

Or do you fight the encroaching despair and find a way to humbly 'do you' in a way that's faithful to your time, place, gift mix and calling?

Can you and I find a way to turn the onslaught that is the achievement of these two guys into inspiration that we can practically use and, that said, can we find the moxy to actually use it?

Those are the questions I'm facing today.

And now to work...

T

The season...

Well, put another Christmas season in the books.

T'was a little less hectic than some.  We had no snow.  Missed that.  Our kids enjoyed themselves, rocked out with recycled gifts from their cousins (great idea Niki) slept in 'till 8:00am Christmas day, were good as gold the night before at a Christmas Eve service.

Good times.

Today at THE WELL was a tough one.  Partly due to the classic 'post Christmas slump' most churches see (people are away or just so tired from the week they stay at home in their PJ's--and I totally 'get it' for whatever that's worth) and partly due to me re-preaching my sermon.

I remember swearing off 're-preaching' at one point during my last stint as a full-time preacher/church planter.  I felt like things just didn't 'gel' in the same way when you were coming to a text you'd prepped for another time and place.

With today's text ('The Simeon Sequence' from Luke 2:22-32) I had preached one of my favorite all-time sermons my last night in the pulpit at FT.  I felt like the exegetical work was solid and that re-doing it (from one of my favorite all-time NT passages) would be a waste of time.

So, I decided to re-preach.

And it wasn't great.

Felt like I was preaching uphill the whole way.  Didn't feel like I ever 'hit' the pocket.  Just felt like 'work' when usually--for me--it's work fired by inspiration in the moment as God partners with preacher.

Anyway, I've been bummed all day as a result.

The good thing is, I get to 'do better' next week.  I'll start a new series and will do my best to forget today's lackluster performance remembering all the while that a church is built over time, by God's grace, and not as an exclusive result of my preaching.

A lesson I've taken from this is that I need to remember that I've changed (and will continue changing) as a man, as a writer as a preacher and as a pilgrim.  The points that jump out to me today (as worthy of being preached) reflect those changes.  Also, my context is different today than it was five years ago. Whereas FT was a city church full of hipster twenty-something city-folk, THE WELL is a suburban church filled with suburban folk inhabitants of a fairly conservative city.

I've been finding this a bit of a strain as I strive to stay true to who God has called/gifted me to be, while doing my best to try and 'hear' His word for these particular people in this particular place.

A challenge with church planting is that the church you're preaching to this week is--most likely--not going to look like the church you'll be preaching to five years from now but the church of tomorrow is connected to the church of today in tone, culture, vibe, presence, ethic and many other ways.

How to preach and lead well today with an eye to tomorrow while being faithful to who you've been gifted to be while not allowing yourself to calcify (as in: "This is who I am and I'm not moving.") is quite the trick.

Struggling with it a bit today.

T

In the beginning...

Just letting you know where my 'head's at' come January.

I'm working to get a new TV drama series set up and the whole 'Garden of Eden' thing figures heavily in the tapestry of the story.

At THE WELL I'll be preaching a four week series emphasizing the first key events in the book of Genesis (creation, our place in it all, the fall) as a primer for the year.

We had the above shot done for our promo campaign.  Chris shot it.  Pretty cool right?

Some might call it a bit racy for a church, but the underlying tensions beneath the comment spring right out of the book and fit exactly where I want to go thematically with the series.

If you're in the Burlington area come January you might want to come check us out.

We're really starting to grow now.  Just passed the '70' mark (adults and kids combined) and that's pretty cool.

On the film and TV side I'm expecting to have some pretty interesting news come Jan/Feb re: distribution for THE STORM and UNSCRIPTED plus some other new projects including a documentary feature, a Valentines special and maybe another new feature film.

I'll keep you posted.

Hope to see you some Sunday.

Peace and Merry Christmas...

T

A brief history...

Lost my dang mind this week at THE WELL.

I had a feeling it was going to happen.  While writing it I could feel 'The Presence' hovering like a cloud in my workspace.  It's just a feeling you get.  You 'feel' it.  You know that, if the Ghost falls during the preaching, it's going to bust out like..

NAPALM.

This is what stood behind me when I used to drop bombs at my first Church.

This is what I was seeing as the bombs dropped...

Except there were eventually two hundred mostly young adults out there soaking it in.

Good times.  Gracious days.

THE WELL started feeling a little bit like it used to for me this Sunday.  I could 'feel' the start of some of the things I used to feel.  I could 'sense' the mercy of God coming in a 'practical kind of way' that felt familiar to me from our past.

I've got history.  I'm a little older.  A little grayer.

Still a shouter.

A couple from our first Church came by a couple weeks ago:  "Glad to see, you haven't mellowed with age..."

Me, mellow?

My middle NAME is mellow.

(or something like it)

:)

T

Better than Daddy...

That's my eldest, doing one of his favorite things, reading.

He finished the book of Genesis (in an actual 'adult' Bible) yesterday and has moved on to Exodus today.

Waaayy ahead of where I was at his age.  I didn't really start devouring scripture 'till my early teens.  I told him, if he keeps this up, his 'Cantelon/Kerr preacher instincts' are going to kick in real early.

He smiled at that.

"Really Daddy?  Is that what our family is known for?"

Yeah, that's kinda' the main thing we do.

Last night, after work, while dinner was simmering I came up from my office and sat down on the couch to do my scripture reading.  It wasn't more than a couple seconds before Jordan materialized at my side, put his arm around my neck and started reading his Bible.  Two seconds later Sammie (the youngest son) shows up, perches himself on my lap (the left side, his favorite) and lays his head on my head while I read.

That's what they call 'modeling' or 'patterning' or 'how to ensure the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.'

And, it's worth noting, none of it is 'intentional'.  Kids just do what they see.

What are your kids seeing you do?

T

ps: this is my stone cold fox of a wife. She was there the same day I took the above shot of Jordan.  Figured I'd do the blog a favor and post some beauty...

Doin' work...

Thought some of you might enjoy seeing this.

I've been writing a lot about 'writing' recently.  Part of that is due to the work I've started doing on a new feature-length script.  It's been exciting to get back to flexing those particular muscles especially since, for the first time, I'm working with a writing partner which is proving to be quite fun.

In the midst of all that 'writing', today I sat down to start 'writing' my sermon for this Sunday at THE WELL, the new church I planted 13 weeks ago (together with my wife and four kids).

I'm preaching (of course) a Christmas series and this week I'm working from the prophecy Zechariah (the father of John the Baptizer) spouted the minute his tongue was loosed at the christening of his baby son.

It's a glorious passage.

As I was dissecting it I had to keep choking back the tears--and that's usually a good sign that the sermon (when rightly finished) is going to have some 'life' to it.

Figured I've been publishing charts and cards for our new screenplay, might as well publish the 'preliminary dissection' of this week's sermon.

Would love to see you come out and join us this Sunday to hear how the writing comes together--or (if you're one of my many international readers) you can podcast it.

I'm discovering hope in the process and my hope is that you will too.

T

re-productive...

That's me, hard at work last year in our downtown Vancouver studio, shooting one of our TV series.

Here's the point.

That series is no longer running.  There's two ways to look at that.  The one way calls it a 'failure' 'cause you didn't get a ten year run out of it.  If you think that way you start feeling like all the effort that went into it (and believe me, there was a lot of effort involved...) was a waste. The other way is to remember it as a building block, a step forward, a means to provide for your family and keep learning and giving and growing.  If you think that way you continue feeling like no effort is every truly wasted and you feel encouraged by what that experience was setting you up for in your future.

You might need to remember that with your day today and your life in general.

No effort is ever truly wasted.

You move things with your effort and, once moved, those things have been moved which means you've changed things.

Change is good.

Change makes more change.

And, so long as you keep trying, I think you'll find that the trying you've done impacts the trying you're doing.

In a good way.

T

Celebrating every win...

They say, that in church planting, you should celebrate EVERY win.

I think the principle holds true in any entrepreneurial endeavor.  Starting anything from scratch--trying to build something from nothing--is about the hardest thing you can imagine doing.

I have several friends who've built companies from nothing.  Every single one of them is highly imaginative, tenacious, hard-working, tough and passionate.  Each one had to deal with significant stresses on their way to getting established.  Now that each of their enterprises are well over the million dollar per year mark (as small business) they continue to have to leverage their afore-mentioned skills and work ethic to keep pursuing the dream.

Same deal with Church.

When I planted my first church, back in 2001, I became friends with several other guys who were planting at the same time.  Lemme' name a few of 'em and contrast 'where they were then' with 'where they are now'.

Mark.  Then, 250-300 people. Now, 10,000+.

Darren.  Then, 15 people. Now, 3,000+.

Ethan.  Then, 35 people. Now, 350+.

David.  Then, 80 people.  Now, 800+.

And I'm here to tell you, from knowing them and watching their work, they celebrated EVERY WIN along the way.

Like our (very small and humble) 'win' today.

Today, THE WELL passed 50 people per week in regular attendance.  One the one hand it's such a small number that I laugh as I write it.  On the other, I know that it takes the average church more than four years to pass 100 in regular attendance so I'm encouraged by our pace 13 weeks in.  Also, 13 weeks ago THE WELL didn't exist.  Today, it exists in the hearts and minds of 50 people--people who have been invited exclusively by word or mouth.

And if we had six people (my family) when we started, and have 50 today who are beginning to 'own' this little dream, I feel very encouraged as to where we might be 13 weeks from today.

So, to celebrate todays 'win' I went out and bought an ice cream cake (my kids favorite) and we're going to eat it now, to celebrate God's goodness and His mercy to us.

Teaching them to love the journey and dream their own impossible dreams some day.

Happy 50th everybody.

T

A movie in sixty cards...

So there you go.

(evidence of 'work accomplished' today)

Sixty cards.  Each one is roughly equivalent to two minutes of action.  Each one roughly represents 'a scene'.  Sixty X two = 120 minutes or your average two-hour feature film.  In reality I'll probably end up writing from fewer cards 'cause 60 cards will equal out to a 130 page script and 110-115 is much better.

What was fun was how quick it came together.  Part of that has to do with finding a concept that 'resonates', one that has meaning for you and that exists in a story world that you understand intuitively.  That's certainly the case with this story.

The other reason things went quickly is because I was working with a writing partner.  It's the first time I've ever done that and, man, did it ever make things easier.  Just being able to talk things out, work your way through bad ideas or creative blockages (at one point we mixed ourselves a fairly stiff drink just to take the edge off...) was totally refreshing.

So, there you go.  Another step in the right direction.

Next, I'll write what's called a 'beat sheet' where I'll take each card and write a long paragraph expanding on it.  Once I've done that with all 60 cards I should end up with between 40 and 50 pages of what amounts to a 'beat by beat' treatment of the film.

We'll then workshop that beat sheet ourselves until we're happy with it then we'll start 'telling the story' from the beat sheet to various audiences, starting with our wives (typically a VERY tough audience) and expanding out from there.

We'll take notes related to the comments we get as we read the story then will circle back to our cards, change or update 'em as needed, then write a second draft of the 'beat sheet' which we'll, again, take out for scrutiny.  Assuming that second draft requires only a few minor 'tweaks' we'll do those then I'll write the script from the beat sheet, just working my way through it scene by scene.

Movie-magic.  In-process.

T

'Bout time too...

So I've started (and I do mean JUST started) writing another movie.

I'm working with a friend of mine who's a great DP/Director/Producer.  My hope is that we'll end up co-directing this thing.

It'll be a small-ish drama, probably set in the mid 1970's dealing in subject matter that is connected to both of our family histories.  

Yesterday we spent two hours at Starbucks outlining the story using Syd Field's classic 'paradigm'.  I realize that--for those of you with more experience--the paradigm might seem a little juvenile or 'paint by numbers' but I've found it to be very helpful as a first step to structuring your story.

Today, I'll do a very simple scene breakdown and then we're going to meet--around 12:30pm--to start doing cards.  We'll take 50-60 3 X 5 'cue cards' and write a scene on each card.  My friend has a real big kitchen table so we'll lay the cards out on the table one by one until we've got the whole movie there.  We'll look at it, change it some, throw some cards out, add some news ones, rearrange things a dozen times or so until we end up with a structure that we like.

From there, we'll sit on it for a few days, talk about it with our wives, with our executive producer, with our parents (both sets are quite story-savvy) with some friends then we'll get back together to make some adjustments.

After that, I'll chain myself to my desk for a week and spit out a VERY ROUGH first draft.

That's my December.

1st draft done before Christmas.

How's that sound?

Lemme' see if I can do it.

Keep you posted.

T