these are a few of my favorite things...

That there is a shot of one of my favorite moments ever.

It's me and my baby-man Sammie asleep on the deck of my wife's Dad's sailboat.  We were anchored off a small island, had had lunch, and I'd decided to lay down in the sun like a cat.

Just as I was drifting off I felt this warm little hand on my neck and smelled his sweet baby-boy smell and knew my Sam had come to snuggle with his Daddy.

No lie, he just crawled up onto me and we went to sleep rocked by the wind and tide warmed by the sun and our love for each other.

Great moment.

That shot--and moment--have nothing to do with the link I'm about to post except that the one moment was a great moment, for which I'll be ever thankful, and so was the other.

I was invited back to preach at the Church I planted back in 2001.

It was July 12th, 2009.

Another great moment.

Thanks C.

T

scouting...

Went to see this spot today.  The search for a location for THE WELL is on.

One of the hardest things about planting a new church is finding a location that will suit.  The location has to be good--ie: accessible both physically and mentally, meaning people have to think, 'Yeah, I know where that is...'--and the actual spot needs to work in terms of the space for meeting, room for kids, bathrooms and parking.

It's quite the challenge.

I've been wandering the city the past few days looking at spots for lease and hoping that something will jump out at me.  I took the shot of the above spot today knowing that it hadn't jumped out at me.  I took the shot anyway.  The point there is that when you don't 'know' you just go, meaning that you keep working, keep thinking, keep praying all the while waiting to get kicked in the head with something.

Tonight I took my youngest daughter for ice cream while mommy worked out then drove to meet mommy and dropped baby off.  I then scouted two more locations right in the heart of the city.  Seeing them I immediately knew neither would suit.  Leaving the two scout locations I had a split second of discouragement where I thought, "Man, this is impossible, just like last time..." 

I should know.

Five years ago I tried to scout a plant in the same city I'm scouting today.  No matter what I did I couldn't find a spot.  I must have, literally, checked 20-25 different spaces.  The last space I walked into smelled so bad I just 'knew' in that moment that I'd hit a brick wall and that it was time to call it.  

I faced huge cataclysm relationally as a result of that decision.

Nonetheless I knew I'd made the 'right' decision.

Anyway, all that to say that my moment of "I've seen this before..." might have had enough potency to throw me.  However, in the intervening half-decade I've learned a little more, suffered a little more, succeeded a little more and failed a little more.  All of it combining to give me a moment that helped me get past 'that moment' of doubt.

I felt the fear, then started my car and kept driving.

I was no more than a block away when this thought popped into my head.  

"Drive Harvester..."

'Harvester' is one of the main industrial streets in our city.  It stretches from the eastern border of our town right to the western limit.  It's full of office towers and industrial complexes.

Anyway, I listened to the voice in my head and drove to Harvester.  Turned right, drove a mile or so and there it was.

THE space.

Did I just say that?  Would I be audacious enough to admit to myself let alone to my 1,500 or so readers per month that I think I just felt that that space is 'OUR' space?

Well, yes I would.

Am I risking being seen as foolish?  Yes.  Am I risking disappointment?  Yup.  Am I responding in childlike belief and trust?

Yes.

3100 Harvester.

I'm just putting it out there.

I'll keep you posted on how this madness unfolds and if you want to read a note on my visit with an area pastor--a guy who's been doing it here for 15 years--and his take on what he thinks it'll take to build a new church in this city go...

Here.

If you want to start coming to church with me in a month or two and '3100 Harvester' (for no apparent reason) 'sounds' good to you, start praying with me and we'll see if we--in fact--end up seeing you there.

Crazy.

Yes, this is crazy.

If you like faith you're going to like THE WELL.

T

to do...

I'm grateful to be living in an age of the world where we put our 'to do lists' online.

I'm currently reading 'Here Comes Everybody' and it deals pretty intensely with the changes coming to all aspects of the entertainment business (and I do believe that--in some sense--Church work is a form of 'entertainment') as a result of the internet, social media, and the ubiquity of cell phones.

It's blowing my mind.  I'm going to have to read it multiple times.

Anyway, here I am, part of the cohort choosing to put my 'to do list' together online and in public rather than in my notebook just for me.

This is first and foremost for me but I thought it might be useful for you as well.  It'll have lots of content for both church planters and producers.

Here we go...

1) Find a a 'launch location' for our Church.  The school I've been looking at is probably going to be too expensive and the 'gatekeeper' I'm dealing with is showing me 'we don't really want you here' signs.  Today I'll scout a community center, some local hotels and some mixed-use business malls.  The challenge is to find something that will work, will be affordable and will be stable ie: a spot where we'll be able to stay a while.

2) Get my editors back on track.  The main series we're producing this year is teetering on getting behind in terms of its post-production pathway.  I'll have to spend some time this week making sure my editors understand that our delivery deadline is contractual and must be met. The fact that they're even asking us to consider moving the delivery date illustrates one simple fact; unless you're the key stakeholder (ie: the one whose balls are on the line) you don't and won't understand the realities or pressure of contracts, fundraising, and delivery obligations. In other words, and this is no disrespect to 'employees', the only people who really 'care' are the stakeholders.  To some degree--varying depending on the quality of your employees, and in our case the quality is very high--everyone except you ('cause you're the 'owner') will treat this as just a job at the end of the day.

3) Write a pilot.  We've done a deal with a co-producer to develop a supernaturally-oriented dramatic TV series.  I have to write the pilot. They want to start pitching it around town (L.A and NYC) by the end of August.  Before I start writing I have some script breakdowns to do (gonna' re-watch 'The Incredibles' and the pilot episodes of 'Lost' and 'Heroes' by way of refresher) then I'ma have at it.

4) Cut a pilot.  As part of the main series we're doing this year we've designed a spin-off.  The spin off is shot at the same time as the main series so--in the ideal scenario--we'll be able to deliver 208 episodes of TV multiple times for the price of one.  These two series are the first time in my life as a producer that we've created something with anything like an 'evergreen' appeal.  My hope is that the work we're doing this year might pay off over the next five years. Anyway, to get this pilot done I'll probably end up flying out to Vancouver to spend four days locked in a edit suite with one of our editors and we'll just spit it out.  Really looking forward to it.

5) Start 'core building'.  The goal is a gathering at our house every week for the month of August.  This gathering will be to acquaint people with our new church plant.  We're hoping to launch as soon as September 13th.  I'm starting to feel the 'fear' that goes with this kind of impending deadline but I'm just walking my way through it.  There's nothing you can do to make the fear go away, so you just work.

6) Decide which book to write and write it.  I've been toying with writing either an adventure novel or one of those spiritually oriented 'self-help' (I hate the term) books.  The adventure novel is about a boy who gets sucked back in time to the very first Christmas eve where he's caught up in a plot to steal the gifts of the Magii before they can be given to the infant Christ. The self-help book might be called 'Forsaking Neverland' and would be a chronicle of my journey from Pastor to Producer and back to Pastor.  Maybe let me know which you'd like to read first.

7) Organize my taxes, finances, and re-mortgage my house so I can build an extension.  We live in a great neighborhood in a small house.  We have four kids.  We are getting to the point where we could really use a little more space--mostly for entertaining guests and family.  With launching a new church we're going to have people over constantly so our small house is set to become even smaller.  I tend to really hate this kind of 'practical work' 'cause I'm not very good at it and I feel like it takes time away from the really important 'creative' work I have piling up but I realize those could just be the justifications of a procrastinator.

8) Clean my backyard.  We've got our dear friends coming over tomorrow and wifey wants the yard looking good.  I still haven't broken down my work bench from renovating my backyard and I have to repair my lawn mower--another chore I hate and am not particularly gifted at.

9) Study.  I've got a sermon series to prep.  Rather, I've got four sermon series to prep.  The September, October, November, December series for 'THE WELL'.

September:  What is this thing called Church?  Out of Galatians.

October: Who is this man called Jesus?  Out of John.

November: Culture Wars.  Out of 1st Corinthians.

December: Christmastime.  Out of Luke.

10) I've got to raise $500,000.  We've got an opportunity to work with one of Hollywood's top graphic novel companies developing five new properties two of them 'ours' and the other three to be sourced in partnership with other L.A-based production companies.  The company in question has some really exciting strategic alliances happening so we could really jump into a new level with this one.  I've got to work with their VP of development to put together a prospectus that will be ready to go investors by the end of this month.  The idea is to develop five graphic novels with the goal of getting one or two of them set up as feature-film projects. I feel very much 'over my head' here as fundraising is about the hardest thing a producer does but I'm determined to see it through as fundraising is about the only thing you do that makes you deserving of the title 'producer'.

11) We've got a major Canadian producer asking us if we can beat the prices he's paying for his current production slate.  We have to totally breakdown his production management scenario then build one we'd propose for less money.  Spreadsheets upon spreadsheets.  Madness.

12) We've got a major TV special (on the debate between 'Intelligent Design' and 'Evolution') to produce for November delivery.  I have to write the pitch this week and get the first budget done.

So that's my 'to do list' for the next month.

Whadduyou think?

T

more excess...

Okay so the image is flipped 'cause I shot it with my laptop but you still get the idea.  The decorative pillow is monogrammed with the first letter of my last name.  My business partner's had an 's' on his.

The newspaper on the left is the lead daily in Norway--my biz partner's home--and the one on the right is the Jerusalem Post--the lead paper from the town where I grew up.

When you arrive at the hotel they don't send you up to your room, the escort you.  Once you're in the room and they've talked you through the various 'room details' they pull out your complimentary bottle of wine and their signature pomegranate juice then ask you if you'd like a newspaper.

"What ones do you have?" you ask.  "What ones do you want?" they answer.

And my crazy business partner keeps trying to stump them.  

When they can't get an actual copy they print it then bind it for you then deliver it in a canvas bag with a rose affixed to it by a ribbon.

That's excessive.

I was actually embarrassed.  

Goes to show you why I keep mentioning that L.A is its own kind of very twisted little town.

T

at last...

So that's it.  

Day two in Beverly Hills is officially 'wrapped'.  A great moment.  You can see it in my smile.

They spell that...

R. E. L. I. E. F.

Yes, it's that hard.  

And I realize you might be thinking that this kind of work can't be hard but it is.  It's hard just like the work you do is hard.  Just like it is for anyone who has a dream and pursues it only to find out that the path to the 'pot of gold' at the end of the rainbow is fraught with hardship and fear and struggle and required-perseverance.

Anything worth doing is tough.

And it's only at the end of a season of toughing it out that you get to smile like that.  The smile comes from the heart and reaches the eyes--is authentic--because there's been so little smiling up until that moment.

You've gritted your teeth and toughed it out.  You've furrowed your brow in concentration.

The last thing on your mind has been smiling.

And your team's been trying to lift your spirits.  They've been trying to help you and there's been nothing they can do that will actually help.

It's just hard and that's all it is--there's nothing you can do to change it.

So you tough it out and you do your job and, if you make it through to the end, you get to smile.

'Cause the job is done and hopefully it's a job well-done.

Hopefully.

T 

in the belly of the beast...

You know you're in the heart of Hollywood when you ask for the Hotel to launder your clothes, 'cause after a day of 12 interviews you've sweat the life out of them, and they bring 'em back the next morning looking great--of course--with your underwear wrapped up like a present.

Seriously, my gitch are in that box all trussed up with ribbon and a red rose.

Crazy.

This hotel is supposed to end up as North America's ONLY six diamond hotel once they can apply for their certification this November.

It's truly humbling and amazing the lengths they go to to make your stay pleasant.

I'm about to head back downstairs to do nine more interviews today.  I'm starting with Melissa Rivers and my makeup artist told me she can be a handful so here's hoping I can get her to like me, relax, and tell us the truth.

Nothing insightful for this post--I'll try to up the ante tonight--but just thought you might get a kick out of seeing what laundry service looks like in L.A-la land.

Peace,

T

evading hypnosis...

Feel free to totally ignore this post.

Especially if you're addicted to texting.

Have you noticed the people on the street?  Everywhere you look people aren't looking back at you looking at them 'cause they're looking at the little glowing screen in front of them.  

Busy texting.

And I'm totally in-favor of communication and connectivity and community--I believe we have been made to be together so I'm not railing against that or against technology (I spend half my career in show biz after all).

But watching people on the street in New York City and in Los Angeles and downtown Toronto I can't help but feel like the intensity of our texting and constant communicating has ratcheted up lately.

Have you noticed?

And this is the thing that occurred to me.  A friend of mine who's a very successful preacher/pastor/author put it this way;

"You need to make sure you don't end up just working 'in' your Church, you need to work 'on' your Church as well."

His point was that we can easily get sucked into managing the minutiae of running a Church and forget that the goal--with church planting--is to obey God in strategic partnership as Jesus Christ, through the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, builds His Church through your focused efforts and the efforts of those partnered with you.

Efforts that need to be strategic and tactical.

This is true of your actual life and career as well.

And the thing that's got me thinking about things is the fact that text messaging, or twittering, or even email is--by nature--a short-form medium that restricts our exchanges to small bite-sized bits.  Which means you can send and receive many bits and need to send and receive many bits to get anything across. 

So we end up constantly sending out small bits of information and checking small bits of information that have been sent to us.

And I wonder if we still have the time we need--what with all the bits and bites--to devote ourselves to strategic focus, to really thinking about the big picture of our lives.

What do you want?  Who do you want to be?  How do you intend to get there?  What difference is your life supposed to make?  What's truly most important to you?

These are big questions and my suspicion is that the answer probably won't come in tiny bits. Sure you may come to the truth one bit at a time but if there are too many bits being sent out and received by you each day--and many of them, due to the hit or miss nature of tactics without strategy, aren't necessarily effective or useful in terms of actually building what your life is supposed to be about --then you're going to be occupying 80% of your time with bits that aren't ultimately useful to your strategic trajectory.

See?

Replying to non-useful stuff or creating non-useful stuff might be taking away from the finite amount of time you have each day to actually make strategic forward progress with your life.

I'm just wondering.

Are we working 'in' our life or 'on' it as well as in it?

T