Wherever, whenever...

Sometimes, we write movies on airplanes.

I was headed to Nashville to speak at a big media conference, while juggling writing deadlines on our TV series' and a big documentary series (and feature) we're producing this year.

So I wrote on the plane.

I enjoy 'plane writing' because it's 100% isolated time. Nobody bugs you, nobody's calling on the phone or texting or emailing, it's just you, your ideas, and the smell of humanity.

(inside joke)

Ok, I'll explain it; mind you, you probably already figured it out, right? That smell that slowly creeps onto a plane as the minutes stretch into hours and the air keeps getting recycled and the people keep getting more and more 'moist'?

That smell.

Anyway, you ignore the smell as best you can and let the ideas flow. I think maybe the white noise of the plane helps you 'fly away' into the land of ideas but, for whatever reason, I find writing on the plane super-productive.

The reminder to me (and maybe to you) is this; wherever you find yourself, DO what it is you have to do, to the best of your ability, moment by moment, day by day, at all times.

I was reminded today (by a John Maxwell tweet) that success comes with just keeping at it. I know he's not the originator of that thought but, regardless of who thought it or said it first, it's a keeper.

Keeping doing your thing, even at 30,000 feet surrounded by the smell of human.

:)

T

Keep at it long enough...

And it'll happen.

Trust me. I know.

I've been married 19 years and, through keeping at it and keeping at it and keeping at it, my wife and I have ended up in this weird space where we're lovers AND friends.

I've walked with Jesus 30 years and, through no strength of my own, after time and joy and pain and mistakes and victories and suffering and disillusionment and encouragement and evils done and received; I've ended up old enough to see (for myself) that Faith really does make good sense.

I've been writing screenplays 14 years and that there picture above is proof that, eventually, if you do the work, and learn the lessons, and apply both to each new project you undertake (no matter how mundane) eventually somebody will pay YOU to write THEIR film.

And, no, it's not a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar commission (that'd be nice; but only happens to a famous few, and even then, more ten years ago then today) but it's real money for a real project that is gonna take real skill, and time and toil to execute.

Pretty fun.

And, listen, I'm not being triumphalist. I'm writing this because *I* need the reminder. *I* need the encouragement every day, sometimes multiple times a day because, as you well know, life is just that hard and the struggle never seems to cease and things just don't ever seem to get easier.

Which is why we keep working.

T

Out of touch...

This used to be a going concern.

The souvenir shop at the top of the stairs as you exit the 'pool of siloam'.

Only, turns out, it's not really the pool of siloam.

When I was a boy, the spot above was packed with tourists buying keepsakes from the famous pool where Jesus would have bathed on His way up to the temple and where he sent the blind man to be healed in John 9. I remember Christian groups worshipping there, getting all emotional and moved by the power of the place. I remember them buying vials of 'holy water' afterward to help them remember their experience in that sacred space.

Then it turned out to NOT be the place.

See, in 2004 they found the REAL pool of siloam (and how and why they found it will be explored in our new documentary) and, since then, no one cares to visit the old spot.

No more visitors, no more souvenir shop.

It lost its relevance because it was out of touch with reality.

Just like you and me, perhaps?

See I heard a preacher recently who was totally, completely, utterly, uselessly, grossly out of touch with reality, with where his audience was at, and--in my opinion--with what the text he was preaching from was all about.

I was so upset, it stayed with me for days.

Here's how it applies to me, and maybe to you.

It's very easy for us to get used to doing things the way we've always done them 'cause that's just how it is. Like the 'tourist site formerly known as the pool of siloam'; it was THE spot for years and years and years and nobody was really worried about it, or interested in digging deeper. You and I can fall into a rut of just doing what we do without really pushing ourselves to achieve greatness, moment by moment, as a hard-won habit.

Then, one day in Jerusalem, a freak snowstorm showed up (whoops, giving away the doc plot a bit there) and, in one fell swoop, everyone realized that the old spot for the pool of siloam was the 'wrong' spot and everything associated with it had been a sham.

Imagine a 'freak snowstorm', some random, un-planned-for event shows up in your life/work/ministry and it exposes the depths of what you're doing (in preparation, or lack thereof, in foresight or lack thereof, in honestly seeking feedback and wise counsel and applying it, or not) and you're found to have been selling holy water that 'aint really holy.

You'd be in deep.

And none of us want to end up there, shuttered and useless and yesterday's news.

I'm taking the warning. I'm determined to do better. I'm scared of making mock of what I've been called to do.

How 'bout you?

T

Everything is connected...

Epic.

In the cistern (a hundred feet from the Royal Davidic Palace) where Jeremiah was probably thrown in Jer 38:6.

Apparently there was no water, only mud. Well, all these years later, there was no water, only mud; and every step you took five or six spiders scurried out from under your feet.

Crazy.

And it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't gone alone with something I didn't want to do, at the time.

See, the connections we made to get our current (gigantic) documentary series off the ground, exploring 13 significant archaeological 'proofs' of the Bible, happened because I went along (kicking and screaming) with a plan my business partner had that, at the time, I was--shall we say--less than thrilled about.

We often argue, he and I, about what we should do, how we should do it, how we should set it up financially, and what that's going to mean for us, our firm, and our key staff, collaborators and partners. From what I've read (and heard) about successful creative partnership, there is often that kind of push/pull between primarily creative and primarily fiscally minded people.

Anyway, we found a way to agree, and lemme' say that the thing we did was taxing in exactly the ways I thought it would be taxing when I first objected, and it was really tough to do, almost soul-killing, in fact; and it made me bitter, AND...turned out great and made a big impact, all at the same time.

Also, it led to this project.

And that's the point that reverberates with me, in a sobering way. If I hadn't gone along with what my partner wanted, if I hadn't dug really deep to do something (well) that I didn't really want to do and for which I had no real tangible incentive at the time, our path probably wouldn't have led us to where we are today.

Scary, right?

So, I'm trying to be continuously mindful (especially when I'm feeling grumpy or 'put upon') of the fact that everything is connected. Every meeting, appointment, email, phone call, conversation, action, reaction; they're all working together to build a story.

A story in which you are a character and change agent. A story that might end up having you descend 60 feet into first temple era muck that used to be home to a real-live Biblical Prophet.

"I'm not worthy..." doesn't do it justice.

T

Back at it...

Well, it's been a while since I last wrote. 

Figured, it's a good time to start updating things. See, I'm working on a pretty cool project this year that blends the original purpose of this blog quite nicely. The big idea behind this here space was to explore the mesh point between Pastoring and Producing in my life; with the hope of inspiring YOU as you work out the tension between dust and Divinity in your life.

2016 has me working on a significant documentary series exploring 13 big archaeological discoveries that 'authenticate' specific sections of the Bible and, on a larger scale, give credence to some of the big ideas, or themes, we see in Scripture.

Simply put, if you, or someone you know has ever been ridiculed by someone because they think you're foolish for believing, and basing some--or all--of your life on the deep truths explored and revealed in the Bible, then the work I'm doing this year might encourage you.

The series we're shooting is designed to encourage people 'of faith' that their faith is, in fact, rooted in deep historical fact, and we're hoping that people who have no faith background to speak of might see the final product and at least consider that their outright dismissal of the Bible might be a little less grounded in sound, fact-based, history than they previously might have thought.

So, if those ideas interest you, watch this space as I'll be posting about the project as it progresses. It's by far the biggest filmmaking endeavour my business partner and I have ever undertaken and, if we can translate our ideas to the screen, it might end up being something pretty cool.

So, update:

 Walking off a ridge 100m from the Lebanon/Syria border. Yes, I was a little nervous about being that close to Syria. Among other things, a city gate that ABRAHAM would have visited was one of the key discoveries we explored here.

About to enter a section of the 1st Temple period tunnels underneath the Western Wall in Jerusalem, abutting the Temple Mount on my way to descending 40 feet (Indiana Jones style) into a cistern from the time of Solomon's Temple where a mysterious, out of place, wall leads deep into the unknown beneath where the Holy of Holies once stood.

Pretty gnarly.

Welcome back.

T

Big ideas...

Ok, so I normally don't really do 'critiques'. I don't critique movies and I don't critique preaching. I mean, I do A LOT of both in the privacy of my own mind and with my wife and maybe one or two close friends, but because I truly respect the amount of work/talent/perseverance/pain that goes into participating in both forms of communication, and work (in whatever reduced capacity) in both industries, I shudder to place myself in the position of judge.

That said, I had an interesting enough experience with two movies I saw recently that I thought I should share a couple things that occurred to me, as a warning to myself (as I work on constructing effective/redemptive story, and sermons that matter) and perhaps as an encouragement to you as you do your work.

'Chappie' and 'Jupiter Ascending'. Both in the Sci-Fi genre (probably my favourite of all genres) both by writer/director teams I admire and whose previous work I've enjoyed (District 9/Elysium and The Matrix Trilogy) both films whose development I tracked and whose trailer(s) I watched excitedly and repeatedly as their release dates drew near. I saw both opening week.

Of interest is that both films had received less than glowing reviews from online review sites whose opinion I have come to trust over time. That's a problem, right? When you're stoked to see a film and a reviewer you trust slags it? I usually go anyway and sometimes they're wrong; but sometimes they're right.

They were right on both of these.

Here's why.

The thing that jumped out to me about 'Chappie' was how overly 'strange attractor' it was in terms of its story design. The basic idea on 'strange attractor' is that a 'story' is more than an idea, it's an idea PLUS another idea that have never really been joined together until now, but now that you've mixed them, you've discovered storytelling dynamite. Stephen King in 'On Writing' and Steven Pressfield in 'The War of Art' really helped me with this one.

So take 'Carrie' for example. Telekinesis is not a story in and of itself, but a girl who discovers her telekinetic powers as a result of high school bullying and ends up using them to rock prom night; well, there you've got the beginnings of a story. Two previously unconnected ideas; telekinesis and teen angst. Put 'em together and you've got a story.

So, back to 'Chappie'. The idea of someone figuring out how to make AI happen is not a new idea. It's been done a thousand times in popular storytelling. That's often a good thing in film making as the 'industry' loves to do something 'familiar' yet different, fresh, or novel. A new 'take' on tried and tested material. So, I can imagine Neil Blomkamp (writer/director) doing some preliminary brainstorming on 'Chappie', wanting to do something with AI (he certainly seems drawn to telling stories of 'The Other', the fish out of water, the stranger in a strange land) and he's looking for that second idea to bring his AI story germ to life.

Often you can find your second idea by asking 'What if?' questions. Like, "What if a girl had telekinetic powers (part 1)...and used them to get back at her tormentors (part 2)?"  Or, "What if the daughter of a rich merchant was disenfranchised by her stepmother and step sisters (part 1--not a story yet) and ended up falling in love with the crown Prince almost by accident and getting everything she'd ever hoped for ultimately triumphing over her evil family? (part 2)" now it's 'Cinderella'.

Naturally, there's a lot of other 'storytelling stuff' you layer on top of the basic idea to get an actual film worthy story, but it all starts with the basic two ideas.

'Chappie'.

"What if a boy wonder computer genius invented AI (part 1--not a story yet) only to have that AI fall into the hands of (and be 'raised' by) a gang of low-life, jive-talking, Johannesburg criminals (part 2)?" Now it's a story.

Problem is, not a very BIG story.

It's essentially a family drama, contained in a big-buget sci-fi action film.

Even the posters for 'Chappie' sold it as a BIG film, see above...

"Humanity's last hope isn't Human..."

Great slogan, great premise. But the movie didn't deliver on that premise. At no point in the film was 'Humanity' ever in jeopardy. At worst, Johannesburg was gonna suffer some rioting and looting. Not exactly EPIC story stuff.

Now, make Chappie the lynchpin of 'World War Z'; you've got your very sympathetic character (as Chappie clearly was) facing an epic problem in a story with epic scale.

'Chappie' (as executed) was much smaller.

Now, let's be clear, there's nothing wrong with 'smaller' movies. All I've ever done (to be sure) is 'small' stuff. But, if you're going to bill something as BIG, it darn well better BE big, or your audience is going to leave the movie feeling ripped off, and your 'word of mouth' (which is a huge factor in a films' success and longevity) will sour.

'Chappie' had a simple story concept (AI gets raised by thugs) but got pushed as a BIG one and that's why it didn't ever seen to rise to its (promoted) potential.

Okay, on to 'Jupiter Ascending'.

I loved the scale. What an awe-inspiring film visually and in terms of it's GRAND premise. Coming up with BIG ideas, set in BIG worlds with BIG stakes is something the Wachowski's do very well.

So why didn't 'Jupiter Ascending' blow up the box office?

Because it lacked moral significance.

At the root of the film you have a set of all-powerful 'Human' families 'seeding' and then 'slaughtering' entire WORLDS in order to, effectively, put their humans into a big blender to turn their 'essence' into the river of life.

Pretty cool idea, right?

Interestingly, this is almost the same idea as 'The Matrix' except instead of a superior race of machines committing this heinous act, you have Humans doing this to other Humans.

Let's say it up front; this could have been a wicked, awesome, dynamic story.

But it fell short.

Why?

'Cause Jupiter is more interested in making out with her body guard (Channing Tatum) and playing 'Sky Surfer' with him (in the very disappointing final scene of the movie) then she is in saving The World (and every humanoid World in the Universe) from being turned into juice.

That makes her an unworthy 'hero'. That makes her story self-absorbed. That makes us not want to cheer for her and allows us to leave the theatre thinking, "Meh. Nice visuals and big premise, but it didn't really go anywhere..."

What a powerful warning to me, and maybe to you.

'Chappie' reminds us to not over-sell what we do. Make sure you're aware of what you can (or are planning to) do and only promise to deliver that; no more, no less.

'Jupiter Ascending' reminds us to do something noble, something that matters, something selfless with our lives and to tell stories (and preach sermons) that highlight these virtues and inspire then to life in our audience.

Anyway, my 'movie critic' thoughts for the day.

May I listen to my own advice.

T

Groundhog Day...

As a guy who's spent all of his adult life working hard to see the story of Jesus as recorded in the Bible communicated to my post-christian peers in as effective and non-culturally-stupid a way as possible, I have to share a troubling experience I had this past weekend.

I'm honestly not trying to pick a fight with anyone over this, just disturbed enough that I need to 'say something' in a somewhat public forum.

See, twenty (yes, twenty) years ago a friend and I used the entire living room wall of our bachelor pad as a 'white board' of sorts, outlining a strategy we felt (at the time) *might* be somewhat effective in helping to introduce our post-christian peers to life in Christ. At the time, we were very troubled by a trend we saw unfolding; our normal, everyday peers, people who hadn't been raised in Church, were showing zero inclination to engage with Church. Zero interest, zero drive, Church wasn't even on their radar.

It was twenty years ago that I started using the term 'post-christian.'

"My peers are post-christian..." I'd say to anyone who would listen, to anyone who was upset about the way in which we began going about 'doing' Christian ministry. If they felt our drums were too loud (or not needed), if they felt our outreach events (yes, I was a youth pastor at the time) were too 'secular' or not 'spiritual' enough I'd say it.

"Listen, our peers are POST-CHRISTIAN! All the stuff you're talking about, means NOTHING to them! You're arguing with me about stuff that's NOT EVEN ON THEIR RADAR!"

The complaining Christians arguing with me were so out of touch they had no idea they were out of touch.

Fast forward twenty years.

Nothing's changed.

If your hackles are up reading this, just pause for a second and do the math. Look at the picture above (I took it, myself, this past weekend, with my iPhone--it's not some stock photo I found to try and support an argument I just came up with). Count the grey/white haired/old people, then count the rest, then do the division to come up with your percentage.

Got it? Done yet?

THERE'S AN ENTIRE GENERATION MISSING FROM THIS CHURCH!!

An. Entire. Generation.

And I'm not even going to go into how absolutely LAME the worship service was or how absolutely archaic the order of service was or how old fashioned the whole approach was or how 'straight out of the 1950's' the building and its (non)decor was. Heck, you might like those things.

But, dude, lemme tell you, I have A LOT of post-christian friends who NEED to get to know Jesus, who NEED to be introduced to Him in a context where THE HOLY SPIRIT is manifestly working, and where all the 'externals' (like style, vibe, look, feel) don't get in the way and pop them 'out' of the 'the moment' but work seamlessly in a way that isn't even really noticed, to help put them at ease so they can just relax and be available when The Ghost drops into the room with their name in the crosshairs.

And I would NEVER take them to that church.

And I'm not even going to go INTO how lame most preaching is these days, or how saccharine and empty most worship services are (I've been in some worship services in the last five years that were so bad I wanted to either shout them down, run from the room screaming or just repeatedly punch myself in the face until I passed out) or how lame most theology has become ('cause we're afraid to preach the truth or just don't know what we believe the truth to be anymore) or how absolutely stupid (and outright non-Biblical) most of the cultural imperatives many 'Church-ey Churches' (or bleeding heart liberals) are clinging to have become.

I realize there's different strokes for different folks; I'm not talking about guitars vs organs here. I'm talking about CONTENT!

Holy Ghost filled, passionate, imperative, demanding, comforting, inspiring, Biblical, about-Jesus, life-changing preaching.

Where is it?

Holy Ghost filled, blow the roof off the joint, musically amazing, non-performance driven, prophetic, heart-broken, eyes to Heaven, heart-cutting, supernaturally actuated worship.

Where is it?

Honest about their sin (and the fact that they're NEVER going to get 'IT' right), not preoccupied with 'face-saving' morality, unattached to anything but Christ and Him Crucified, culturally aware, secure, wine drinking, pop music loving, vernacular using, quick thinking, hard working, secular-seeming, Jesus following Christians.

Where are they?

Dude, if we don't do something, we might not just lose a generation, we might lose CHRISTIANITY as a vibrant, culture shaping force in North America.

(I have a feeling we're right on the verge)

And my Jesus-needing friends with their broken lives? They can't afford that.

We need to wake up and smell the humous.

We need to get busy livin' 'cause, if the picture above is any kind of accurate portrayal of how things ARE in current Western Popular Culture, the Church of Jesus Christ (the hope of the World) is already busy dyin'.

OMG, we need to get to work.

T