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How You Lost Your Story…And How To Get It Back

April 25, 2013 in Bible, creativity with 0 Comments

As I launch a BeachBody Challenge Group and look ahead to all the summer has in store, I’m reminded of the importance of remembering your story, your why? I’m constantly amazed by people who want to change their circumstances without changing themselves. Equally interesting is the thought that our own decisions landed us in a place we didn’t want to be, only to be offered assistance and then choose to opt for the same decision making strategies that landed us in an undesirable circumstance to begin with.

Essentially we lose our “why,” our reason, if we ever spent time discovering what it was in the first place. Today, I’m brought back to this post about James Bond and losing our ambition.

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Did you see the newest James Bond movie, Skyfall.

Acting like a 25-year-old, I took in a late showing of the film a few months ago. And even though it’s been out a few weeks, the movie is still charting at the top of the box office. There’s a reason, too. It’s good, classic James Bond. With all due respect to my namesake and the original 007, I think Daniel Craig is the best James Bond ever. (And, yes, my mother did name me after Sean Connery…seriously.)

As good as it is, there is one crucial problem with the film. It’s the same problem many of us have; the story loses itself.

Apologies to those who haven’t seen it, but the tale begins in a quest to recover a hard drive containing a list of names of covert NATO agents. Yet by the end of the movie, the plot centers on a personal vendetta against M. Admittedly, the combination of my getting older, drinking a large Diet Coke, and the length of the movie resulted in multiple trips to the restroom, so I may have missed it, but I left the theater wondering, “What happened to the list?”

Leaving aside the mind-boggling idea that a list of covert NATO agents resides on an outdated PC laptop somewhere in Istanbul, the story ignites one way but once the action gets going forgets about its own raison d’etre.

People are like that, too. We lose our reason for existence.

On January 1, many Americans will commit to a resolution, maybe multiple ones – losing weight, reading more, etc… – just like last year. Remember those promises we made to ourselves last year? To get off the couch because we know it’d be better for us. But so many of us lost the story.

We free fell into skyfall. We lost our reasons.

Continue Reading…

Let’s Quit

March 26, 2013 in artistry, create, creativity with 4 Comments

We should quit.

  • We should quit letting other, less artful and creative people give us their opinions all the time.
  • We should quit not offering our best out of fear that if our best is criticized we’ll have no more emotional excuses.
  • We should quit being cogs in someone else’s wheel.
  • We should quit telling ourselves our dreams are unreachable, silly, or unattainable.
  • We should quit acting like our gifts don’t matter.
  • We should quit acting like the name brands, celebrities, spotlight hogs, and household names are authorities.
  • We should quit allowing the least thoughtful and most venomous people hijack the conversation.

Instead.

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Tools and Apps To Make My (And Your) Life Easier

February 22, 2013 in creativity, productivity with 3 Comments

My life is busy. I don’t wear this as a badge of honor. It’s a weakness, a flaw. Over time, though, I’ve managed to discover some tools (programs and apps) that help my life run more smoothly. I use these programs and apps every day. Maybe they’ll help you too.

Byword – I write almost everything in ByWord. It’s sleek and minimalist. Using Markdown language, it’s only me and the text. I can worry about formatting later. When I get brainstorm, I have to get the words out quickly or risk losing them. ByWord let’s me do that. Plus, I can save a document to Dropbox and have access to it on my MacBookPro and/or iPad.

Scrivener – Well, I do almost all my writing in ByWord. Big projects – those with lots of references, resources, and chapters – get worked out in Scrivener. It’s great for keeping it all together in one place.

Google Drive – I’ve only recently started using Google Drive. It’s perfect for collaborating and – in my case – when you’re writing for someone else. The interface is smooth and you can upload and download all kinds of documents – graphics, powerpoint, and text. moving forward I can see Google Drive becoming more and more useful for me.

Workflowy – Worflowy is my brain. Everything is in it – ideas, to-do’s, projects, everything. Like ByWord it’s cloud based, so I have access to it everywhere

Reeder - I subscribe to 100′s of blogs and newspapers. Reeder feeds them to one place (syncing with my Google Reader).

Flipboard – If you have an iPad or iPad Mini, you MUST have Flipboard. Just downoad it now and thank me later.

Buffer App - I schedule my tweets through Buffer. It looks like I’m using Twitter and Facebook all day. I’m not. My Tweets and status changes are all in the que and ready for the day by 6:00am with a few exceptions.

Hootsuite – Facebook updates, LinkedIn post, and tweets for my personal and The Vine Church account goes through Hootsuite. It’s a wonderful company. I use them so much and rave about them so much they sent me a t-shirt and some stickers a while back. That cemented my loyalty.

Readability – Articles and blog post I want to spend more time with find their way to Readability. It just makes reading comfortable.

Evernote – Evernote serves, mainly, as my repository for brainstorming and electronic filing. Each of my sermons and writing projects for the next 4 months are stored in Evernote. As I find things that I might need, use, or find interesting, I file them away in Evernote. However, Worflowy (should I one day move to a paid account) will likely take it’s place.

Evernote Clearly – Web articles are too busy (ads, comments, etc…). Evernote Clearly is a web extension that “clears” away the gunk and junk and provides a clear reading experience. You can also clip articles directly in Evernote.

Spotify – Spotify is a music app that allows you to make your own playlist and keep them. In addition, you can listen to playlist created by others. This is A LOT of fun. Spotify has a free function (with commercials) or you can pay for a membership ($9.99 / months) which allows you to download playlist and listen on your smartphone or tablet.

Dropbox – This is essentially a hard drive in the sky. At The Vine this is the primary way we store information. Simple and easy.

Day One - As part of my daily spiritual formation, I’m reading The One Year Bible Compact Edition NIV .Each day, after reading, I quickly jot down some thoughts, ideas, and prayer using Day One. It’s a little pricey for me ($9.99), but I’ve found it worth it. The reminders are great and I’ve never journaled this regularly before.

My Fitness Pal – I LOVE this app. I’ve not found a better way to track my daily calorie intake as well as keep a diary of exercise and fitness goals. You should be using this. Nearly every food, whether from a restaurant or grocery store is logged in. You’ll know exactly what you’re eating all the time. Plus, it syncs with the iPhone app, so there’s no excuse. The next time you’re at Whataburger about to download a #6 into your gut, you’ll know that’s more than half the calories you’ll need that day.

Go ahead and give some or all of these apps a try. With a wife, two kids, a blog, a church to love, book reviews, and writing projects, I’ve found these helpful.

What other great Apps are out there? What have I missed? Share in the comments section below.

 

Killing Becky #2: What Makes “Christian” Art Christian?

January 15, 2013 in create, creativity with 14 Comments

Becky is one problem. The church has to deal with our fear of Becky, but her existence reveals a much deeper problem: We don’t know what makes Christian art Christian.

A Quick Story:

April 1, 2012 was the launch of my congregation, The Vine. A friend of mine once told me, “If you ever start or re-launch a church do everything you may do someday on the first day.” That’s precisely what we did.

We had women speak and pray, used lots of multimedia, and our band, 31st and Vine, played a feature song, U2’s “Where The Streets Have No Name.” In our view, the message is central in every worship service. Everything we do is focused on that week’s big idea. The particular elements of a service are simply illustrations and we’ll do whatever we need to – or can think of – in order to connect. If a preacher can speak words from a song as a sermon illustration, how much better is the actual song?

Our philosophy notwithstanding, some folks were upset that we played a U2 song. We haven’t seen them at worship since. I expected that and it’s fine. There are plenty of churches in central Texas and no one’s soul is in jeopardy.

The objection was that the music wasn’t Christian. I disagreed. Again, that’s okay. I disagree with many people I love and respect and they disagree with me. But the existence of the disagreement highlights an emerging issue in Christian culture: We don’t know what makes Christian art Christian – if anything, in fact does.

Our instinct is to say, “Yes we do.” And I get that. Because we have Christian radio and musicians, Christian painters, comedians, sand artists, speakers, jugglers, wrestlers, and bookstores; it’s easy to believe their existence means we have a definition of it.

But we really don’t know what makes Christian art Christian. Continue Reading…

Killing Becky (On Creating in A ‘Safe’ Church)

January 8, 2013 in church, create, creativity with 21 Comments

This spring I’ll be sharing some thoughts about creativity and the church at the Pepperdine Bible Lectures. In advance of my time there, I’ve been thinking and praying a good deal about creativity and it’s use – or lack thereof – in the local church.

Truthfully, churches aren’t all that creative. We don’t do creative things. When we do, we mostly copy popular-culture (Anyone remember this slogan? “Jesus: He’s The Real Thing”). When we’re not ripping off pop-culture, we are stealing from one another. We’re glad to do what other churches have already done. The bottom-line remains the same: Churches are not known as centers of creativity.

Have you ever wondered why? Do you want your congregation to be more creative? Why do people who claim to worship the Creator lack creativity? I think I have some ideas. Reason #1: BECKY!

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