On the lookout...

Took this last night while setting up a mock battle with my boys.

T'was pretty cool to watch them playing the exact same way my brother and I were playing 25 years ago.

Can't believe it's been that long.

I have vivid memories of setting up our own epic mock battles.

Crazy.

I took a bunch of shots of the soldiers but this one, in particular, grabbed me. Couple reasons why.

1) Shot up close, this generic soldier turns into something personal. This reminds me that in storytelling and preaching the goal needs to be to 'make it personal' which means getting right up close to the issue and how it applies to the end-user's life. On a leadership or pastoral level this reminds me to get up close to someone as often as possible when dealing with them because they won't move beyond a 'generic' problem or opportunity until I do.

2) I love that he's on the lookout. He's looking for things. Waiting AND watching. I think it's one thing to WAIT for something to happen, it's another to--while waiting--get out onto the field, where things HAPPEN, and be on the lookout there. Watching seems more active to me, suggests some things to 'do' while waiting and I like that.

God knows I need all the 'hope generating' insights I can get these days, because...

Life is hard right now for us.

We're still deeply grieving our brother-in-law. Easter was his favorite time of year. My family kinda' skipped it this year (at the 'family' level--we still did church, and did it as best we could...) as the prospect of gathering together without him was simply too painful.

We're officially week-to-week now income-wise. I realize that might be a little too personal for you (and my wife) and I don't want to get into it in-depth but I do want to just try to share openly and honestly with you. It's going to be one thing two or three years from now, when THE WELL is a smokin' hot large-ish church and my production business has stabilized into some kind of regular remunerative pattern, to look back on these days and go "Well, that was bad, but I ALWAYS *knew* we'd make it..." I want and need to say right now that we're right in the MIDDLE of that part of the story where we're not sure we're going to.

(make it)

My wife is struggling with this more than me but that's mostly a function of how she's wired differently from me.

We are VERY tense, somewhat afraid, a little depressed, VERY uncertain and doing our best to walk through it, but I want to report that it's not easy. We find ourselves battling against despair and having to work very hard (every SINGLE day) not to lash out at each other simply because the 'other' happens to be the closest target.

Like it or not, in some small way (between this blog, my TV and Church work) my life is 'public' so I need to keep it as real as possible and not project an "Everything's peachy, we're just FINE 'bless God'..." type attitude when really it feels like everything is on the verge of falling apart.

There are signs (we're SEEING) of life.

Easter attendance at THE WELL was DOUBLE in 2011 what it was in 2010. That's something very remarkable, to be celebrated, and to bless God for.

In addition to the stark numbers, there's a real SENSE of the Holy Spirit beginning to 'move' in a special way. This bodes well for the future. What's happening practically (for those of you who pastor or are planting churches) is that people are worshipping better (like singing, raising their hands, weeping) I'm preaching with passion and conviction and people are responding, whether with angry emails or weeping and repentance or inspiration and activism. The second you stop getting any kind of tangible feedback (good or bad) from your preaching is when you really need to get worried. Also, people are being saved. We had five on Easter Sunday. That's very significant. We'll baptize seven people two Sundays from now. In the midst of that, three families left the church abruptly last week. Don't need to go into the details but it's important for you to know so you can get the 'whole story' re: how we're feeling and coping. When people leave your church you need to 1) let 'em go 2) reflect on it to see how you can learn and repent 3) re-focus on your vision and calling and 4) keep going.

This Sunday we start a new sermon series, "How to TAKE a city..."

On the showbiz side our Worldwide reps are starting to close in on some possible 'actual' sales. It looks like our flagship show will be popping up all over the World starting this fall. It remains to be seen what the actual 'numbers' (# of stations, # of episodes ordered, actual $'s per episode) will be but it's a very good sign to see real companies out there repping our 'real' show. Once we get 'real' results I'm going to heave one HUGE sigh of relief.

Then move on to shooting more episodes...

The PILOT we worked on last month was very well received by the client. We're working on some tweaks for them in the next couple weeks then--it looks like--I'll be hopping up on my 'hire a team' horse to help us turn the pilot into an honest-to-goodness TV series that you'll be able to start watching, coast to coast, come September.

In addition, another series we've been working on for almost TWO years, looks like IT might be getting shot end of July.

Crazy times.

I've been working very hard to remind myself to keep 'zoning in' on the things I'm particularly supposed to be doing.

It's not easy lemme' tell you.

Lots of tension in my life these days, relationally, financially, personally but I'm working very hard to slog through it.

Just wanted to say it's not easy, I'm making a lot of mistakes and falling short quite a bit but doing my best, all the while, to stay out 'in the field' and...

On the lookout.

T