mini-break...

Love that shot.

I was surprised by it actually.  I was just shooting a bunch of shots this morning and thought I'd sit the camera on the edge of the canoe, looking up it towards the sky and see what happened.

"See what happened..."

That's the thing that stuck with me today.  See what happens.  Let it happen.  You never know what's going to happen.

So you keep doing your thing, one step at a time, day after day trying to keep your spirits up and trying to do your best.

Setting yourself up for lightning to strike.

Like that shot.

I'm still kind of in 'mini-break' mode so will keep this short.  Tomorrow I'm back at it again and I'll give you a little status update on my ridiculous 'to do list'.

Some exciting--and terribly sobering--things are happening.

And I'm hope for a miracle.

'Cause you never know what could happen...

T

date time...

Cute right?

She was my date today.

Sarah, also known as 'bird' for short or 'goonie bird' if you want to use the full nickname.  It started with calling her a 'goon' 'cause she was crazy from day one.  Seriously, the most eccentric, cool, hilarious, weird, lovely child from three months on.

Crazy like a goon.  A gooney bird.

"Goonie Bird" that's her name.

My bird.

We went on a date today.  She'd been at art class and Daddy picked her up in the 'sports car' and we went for cheeseburgers at Wendy's followed by a trip to the dollar store for pink sunglasses, some band aids for a cut that had been bothering her and some bazooka gum.

Then we drove to the marina, got ice cream and went for a walk by the boats in the sun.  She didn't let go of my hand for two hours.

That's about as good as it gets.

This is my simple reminder that, in the midst of the high-pressure careers we endure (church planting and producing for me, _______________ for you) the things that really matter are the simple ones.

For me it's always been loving Jesus, loving my wife and babies, then loving myself and my work.  That's the value system my parents taught me.  It worked for them.  They're almost 40 years married and still love each other and have three kids who're happily married and have given them ten grandkids and my folks still do what they love to do, have no plans to retire but still get to drive their twin Harleys all over creation when they're not in their TR6 or off in Africa caring for tens of thousands of orphans and widows in AIDS stricken communities or producing TV shows or preaching.

It's a good life.

And a simple one.

My hope is that we don't miss the beautiful things.

Like dates with daughters.

T

the view from up here...

I recently took my kids (and the cousins) up the CN Tower.  The trip kinda sucked.  Super expensive and packed.  Serves me right for going during the summer tourist season.

Being able to take this shot was cool though.

I'm looking west from the top of the tower towards Burlington--the city where I live--where I do my work as a TV and film producer and where I will work (starting any day now) as a--soon to be--second time church planter.

I'm in this weird holding pattern as I wait for Friday.  Friday I'll sign the documents to secure our location for launching this 'second time' church.  Said contract will run from September 13th through 'till June 27th, 2010.

Almost a year.

And the weight of it is making me sober.

Sober because I realize how tough this is going to be--I've done it before and have gotten older which has taught me that what little I know is nowhere near equivalent to what I'm going to have to learn.  Sober because I realize that peoples actual, literal, lives will get caught up in this thing and that's serious business.  Sober because I believe that Jesus builds His Church which means that there's really nothing I can do to make this 'second time' church grown.

Sure I can be faithful and obedient but ultimately I'm not in control.

I'm sober because it's different this time.  I'm not hovering on the edge of poverty (at the moment) this time around and that's hugely different from what life was like for us in 1999-2000 when we were getting ready to plant our 'first time' church.

I'm sober because I'm thinking about the people who might join us.  If I'm honest, I'm a little worried no one will come but I know that's not likely nonetheless I worry.

I'm sober because--if and when some measure of success comes--I realize, after being destroyed these past three and a half years, that staying broken and repentant is going to be so key and I know that that's hard to do and I know I must stay that way.

Plus, the perpetually grey clouds hovering over our city aren't helping.

But in the sobriety I'm full of hope.

Not silly 'airy fairy' hope.

Sober hope.

T

provision...

My wife and I often joke with each other that the only thing we find difficult about 'faith' is faith.

An event this week helped.

If you've been spending any time at all on this here blog lately you'll know that on my plate full of movie and TV business I also have this 'wee' little item titled 'plant a church'.

Yikes!

We've been working towards this for some time specifically and, you could say, my whole life has been building towards this point.  I've always been about living in two worlds at once--the world of mainstream show business and that of church planting/preaching.  In fact, this blog is dedicated to that idea from its header byline.  

I just took a three and half year hiatus.

(during which I learned a lot and got destroyed at the same time...)

So, that said, we've been working very hard to try and find a location in which to start Sunday services.  This, with the exception of fundraising, is the hardest part of getting started with a church.  Part of the toughness has to do with the fact that you've got no money when you start and real estate of a type suitable to this kind of application is scarce.  The other part of it is that, sometimes, they just don't want you.

No joke. 

I had two or three potential landlords shut me down cold the second I told them it was for a church.  If I'd lied and said 'TV studio with some mixed use' they would've been cool but the second you say the 'C word' they clam right up and close down.

In our day and age.

And I get that much of the reason people hate Christianity is because they hate christians but that's like saying you hate swimming cause some people poop in the pool or pee in the lake.

But I digress.

So I've been really grinding it for about a month now with my 'scouting a location' efforts reaching near 'frantic' pitch the past two weeks.  A nice part of it has been that I 'trust' the Lord in the process a bit more than I did when I was younger.  I realize now--in a new way--that there's really nothing I can do to 'make' anything happen so I just keep putting one foot in front of the other while waiting for the miracle to happen.

The point for you is this:

You must face a lot of rejection while you're waiting for the miracle.

And you and I both know that rejection is painful.  No way around it.  One thing (for you church planters) I've done differently this time from the way I did it last time is that I'm just 100% up front about it being for a church and about the fact that we're broke as all heck to start.

No posing.

That's useful for all of us as we seek to build a life, no?

1) embrace rejection 'cause through it you find the miracle

2) stop posing

Oh, the miracle.

Right.

So, yesterday I'm feeling a little stressed about the location as place after place comes back a 'no'.  I decide, during a lull in my day, to re-check our city site.  I hop on and look through every single potential option they've listed.  I'd already checked most of them but not all.

As part of that double-checking I found a spot that I'd missed the first time a month or so ago. Turns out it's the largest 'rehearsal hall' in Canada.  Seats 200.  Has three rooms we can use for kids.  

I call.

I'm honest.

There's a pause.

Then she says, "Oh yes, we've had churches start here before.  We'd love to have you."

What!?

I head right over.  Check the space. Not sexy but workable.  She quotes the price.

Almost TEN TIMES cheaper than the other option I'd been exploring and this spot has 40% the space of the super-expensive one.  40% to 10X .

That's good math.

So we get to documents, she tells me she'll get back to me in a week.  

She calls today.

It's done.

Or will be, this Friday, when I go sign the contract.

My wife has made me swear to TRY and not talk out of turn (as is my default) so I'll wait 'till after I sign them docs to tell you about a wee little church coming soon.

But for today I'm happy (very happy) to remind myself and you that...

Sometimes, while you're trudging your way along, a miracle up and bites you in the butt.

T

funny the way it is...

So before you read the rest of post click here then click back to see me okay?

...

Welcome back.

Great tune right?  The whole album is awesome.  Naturally I'm a Dave Matthews Band fan but I can't imagine how anyone who loves music could listen to DMG and not dig it.

Here's what's got me blogging.

Listening to the album the other day on my walk I found myself really excited to use some of the tracks as pre and post-service 'beds' for the church I'm getting ready to launch.  I find the songs deeply evocative, moving and spiritually tuned.

And they're profane.

In parts.

And I realized--listening to it--that it's only 'church kids' (people who grew up in the context of 'christian culture') who would have a problem with me using some of the most evocative tracks.  I dealt with this at my last church.  I'd use a song--one that had a huge internal message that connected to what I 'felt' was going to be going on in the service that night--and I'd get some church kid up in my face after the service fixated on the one 'off color' word that happened to be embedded in the bridge.

Yup, they missed all the glory, all the pain, all the beauty and instead fixated on one word that they've been conditioned to believe is a 'bad' word.

Even my kids (9, 7, 5, 2.5) know there's no such thing as a 'bad' word.  There are just words--physical things are spiritually neutral after all--it's how you use them, and the condition of the heart dictating the usage, that really matters.

So frustrating.

But I felt a renewed sense of freedom to be free.  I realized that someone whose christianity is more than skin-deep would recognize the glory and pain and beauty in the song and would understand--if only intuitively--why I chose to include it as part of their Sunday experience.  The other type of person, and the one I really care about, the pre or post-christian person, isn't going to have any sort of negative reaction to my slightly 'off color' choice.  In fact they're probably going to react in quite the opposite manner.  

See, they'll be tense to be 'in church' to begin with.  They'll be worried that we're going to brand them upon entry or something.  They'll be concerned that our lobotomy scars will be showing. Sure, a genuine spiritual hunger will have driven them to come visit us but they'll be pretty nervous about it right?  Heck, I'm nervous when visiting a new church and I'm supposedly someone who should be comfortable in that environment--how much more so someone who's new to the whole gig?

So, for them, to hear some DMB will be a comforting thing.  "Hey, that's 'Dave Matthews Band' they're listening to.  Wow.  He just said he'd rather lick her from her back to her belly.  These folk can't be that bad if they're down with DMB..."

And I realized, again, that my job is not typically christian-culture oriented.  I remembered why I always end up feeling compelled to produce for TV and film AND to preach and pastor and help see people find freedom in Jesus.

I was reminded again of the space in the church planting/media landscape my wife and kids and I are supposed to fill.

Then, Saturday night we had a great night with some new friends.  And they were hilarious and wonderful and uninhibited and awesome.  When we got home Nik said, "See,  church-kids would totally miss out on all that 'cause they'd be so busy being offended that they'd never get past it to the beauty of those people."

She's absolutely right.

And, if you're like me--an ex-church kid--you, like me, need to be in repentance.  You, like me, need to focus on the log in your own eye.  You, like me, need to get busy dancing with the people around you.  You, like me, need to relax and glory in His glory.  You, like me, need to remember that the loveliness on display in DMB's new album ultimately finds its root in Jesus and He came to set us free so that we would be free.

Free to love music and people and life and light and dancing and all the good things God has put into the world around us.

It is for freedom that Christ has made us free.

"Everybody get together, gonna' make love shine.  Do you know how it feels to have the light of love inside you?"

T

burnin' through it today...

Some days you end up getting a lot done.

Today's one of those days.

I remind myself--days like today--to be thankful on the good days and to resist depression on the days where I feel like I'm wasting my life.  I've found--in creative enterprise--that you can't 'force it' or make magic appear out of nowhere.

The Spirit (the muse) will do what it'll do when it's good and ready.

You can't rush it.

But when you feel the juices flowing you better put your head down and motor.

The above shot is from the 'one sheet' (a brief page describing a TV show or movie proposal) I just delivered (along with a production breakdown) for a televised special we'll be shooting later this year (probably in the fall) for delivery and airing winter 2009.

It'll be on the debate between straight evolution and intelligent design.

We're working on getting some pretty big names involved.

It's going to be fun.

Watch for it, all across Canada, later this year.

And watch for the Spirit inspiring you in your life friend.

Then (like me) get back to work.

Another 'local pastor meeting' coming up for me in forty minutes.

T

new thoughts...

You're looking at a shot of my computer screen.  Framed is a snippet of text from a proposal I just finished for a new TV series.

The series--if it gets the 'go'--would be five days a week all across America and in Canada as well in specific markets.  It'd be an entertainment show designed to connect pop culture and faith culture.

Dunno' what will come of it but I had fun writing it.  I'll keep you posted.

In 'church planting' news, I met with another pastor from our area yesterday and one the day before and one the day before.  I've got one in two hours and another tomorrow morning.

I've been learning a lot though listening to these men and their 'take' on what's happening in the city, what's not happening in the city, and what they think needs to happen in the city.

I'm very grateful for their time and humbled by their faithful service.

Here are some thoughts from one of them that were useful to me and might be interesting to you in terms of your local context.  Of course, if you're a church planter (or even just interested in church planting) my hope is that these 'inside views' I'll be posting as I work to plant THE WELL (a new church in Bulington Ontario Canada) will be of service to you.

Anway...

-His focus with his church currently (and they've just come out of a year and a half of pretty intense brokenness) is to 'strengthen the core'.  He's building on the idea from pilates that your core muscles (stomach etc) are the center and everything emanates from there.  He's going 'back to basics' with his teaching.

-He told me that one of the biggest churches in our area, a church that prides and markets itself on being a church for people who 'aren't into church' just did a survey and found out that 98% of their people are from other churches.  I get two things from this.  1) I rejoice that they have many people who are leaning to love Jesus, each other and the world around them.  2) I note that even our best-laid plans and strategies typically aren't anywhere near the actual plans God has for His ministry through us to the world.  I synthesize this from that; I must plan but be sure to not hold too dearly to my plans 'cause I'm probably wrong to some (greater or lesser) degree.

-He is focusing on obedience (to Jesus) worship (of Jesus) and prayer (with and to Jesus) as the key elements of his teaching in this new season.

-He reminded me how important it is to tell your people the truth.

-His take on our city is that it's full of broken families.  Because our town is middle to upper-middle class much of that pain is hidden.  He thinks a new church needs to be very mindful of this need.

-He feels there are very few example in the city for young families in terms of how to raise their kids, love their spouse and follow Jesus.

-The demographic of his church is mid to late forties folk who (in his words) are 're-discovering their faith'.  This is contrary to what he thought his demo would be.  I'm encouraged as the demo we're likely to hit is different than his.  That will help us not 'recreate the wheel'.

-He's going through a bit of a charismatic renewal which is cool 'cause wasn't typically oriented that way years ago.  He emphasized that grace and the spirit being poured out go hand in hand.

-He said that people in our town 'expect' more hands-on care or involvement from their pastors then he thought they would.  He seems to think that our town is a town of former blue collar families who've now attained white collar status (something they've striven for all their lives) so that has made them quite 'results oriented' in their outlook.  This informs how we'll do church at THE WELL in that we'll need to contextualize our outward ethic (service design, structure, marketing, brand etc.) with a sense of 'achievement' or 'flash' (God help us) or some degree of 'hey, this place feels like it's 'with it'...' so that we can engage people in a cultural language they understand.  That said I wrote in my notes, "How can you project a vibe of achievement while walking in a spirit of brokenness and humility all the while lifting Jesus high as the only answer, the only life, the only truth there is?"

-I asked him to speak into my life and he said what he 'heard' was 'Preserve the unity of the saints."  It'll be interesting to see what that means in terms of how I walk all this out.

-He said people in our town are looking for productivity.  That'll be interesting to work out.

-He said that our church--to be effective--must be a church that actually penetrates the community.  That dovetails with what another pastor emphasized re: the relative isolation of our town.

-He said a dominant theme in the culture of our town is a creeping cynicism with the veneer of suburbia ie: a 'is this all there is' sense that's growing in our peers.  As we grow up, start achieving things yet still find ourselves unfulfilled we can experience deep dissatisfaction.  This is a wonderful opportunity to talk about Jesus.

-He said he feels our town has a deep sense of spiritual poverty to it.

-He said we must be sure to not define ourselves by what we're 'not' but rather by what we 'are'.

-He felt there's nothing happening in the city currently like what we're hoping to do with THE WELL.

Here's hoping.

T