Lots of talk about Jesus vs. Religion after this video made the rounds on the internet.  I get the critiques.  I get the idea.  Lecrae tweeted a link to this one.  Just my 2 cents:

  1. Sometimes its OK to let art be art.  Even within the church.  In other words, not every piece of art needs to fully articulate every theological implication of each and every word.  If that were the requirement, our songs would really start to suck.  Maybe sometimes there’s a little bit of room for grace and interpretation.
  2. Turns out, “religion” is a really loaded word.  It means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.  For most of the people in the city where I live, “religion” refers to the heavy burdensome guilt that people have been made to feel because of the hoops they’ve been told they have to jump through in order to get to Jesus.  For others, “religion” refers to the loving discipline we submit ourselves to in order to grow our relationship with Christ.  Both people are right.  Hence the grace.  And the room for interpretation.

At the end of the day, 15 million people are engaging in the conversation about Jesus because of this video.  Not a bad return on investment for a kid and a couple of cameras.

Posted on January 19, 2012 In Art, Faith permalink 2 Comments

We’re Hiring

November 25, 2011 — 0 Comments

Four years ago I moved back home to St. Louis to help lead the creative arts world at Windsor Crossing Community Church.  Since then, our church has grown exponentially.  We opened a campus in Fenton.  And then we opened another campus in Mid Rivers.  We started calling our one church with many different locations “The Crossing.”  We launched (or are in the process of launching) youth ministries at each of those campuses.  One church, many locations.  One youth ministry, many locations.  Not necessarily all in that order.

The point is… we’ve grown.  A lot.  I’m really excited about the future.  I’m excited about what God is doing here.  I’m not going anywhere.  God is blessing this church, and He is blessing me by letting me be a part of what He is doing here.  Only now, with 3 campuses and a much larger ministry, we get the opportunity to invite someone else to jump into the story He is writing here.  We’re looking for a youth creative arts coordinator to help lead youthcrossing.

It’s an entry level position (translation: you won’t get rich working here) but you’ll get to be a part of a healthy and growing church where God is doing big things.  Get to be very creative and resourced with all of the tools you need to see your ideas come to life.  Get to work with not just students, but an emerging generation of leaders.  I might be a bit partial here… but to be honest… its somebody’s dream job.

SO… if you think you might be interested, or if you know of someone who might be interested, would you mind passing this blog post along?  Thanks.

Click here for the job description and application info.

In Uncategorized

How To Find New Music

October 25, 2011 — 0 Comments

Got the same question from a few different people this week.  ”How do you find new music?”  Mostly comes from people looking for church music that doesn’t suck.  Takes a few more minutes, but instead of listing off  albums I’ve been listening to recently, I usually try to help people find ways to discover new music on their own.  Because odds are you, your friends, and your church probably aren’t going to like the same music that I happen to like.  Teach a man to fish…

Ways to discover new music:

Find people with proven good taste in music and then follow them.
Twitter.  Facebook.  Tumblr.  Rdio.  Spotify.  Blogs (like this one.)  Social media is by far the biggest source of new music for me.  Find artists or people in the industry with good taste (according to you) and follow them.  One step further, look at who THEY follow.  Who’s influencing the influencers.  One guy who I’m constantly gleaning new music from isn’t even a musician.  He’s a web designer.  But he specializes in designing websites for bands.  You get the idea.

Rdio and Spotify are streaming music services.  Personally, I use Rdio, but Spotify offers a free ad-supported version.  Probably the easiest and cheapest way to discover new music.  Definitely check them out.

iTunes
Now that I use Rdio, I don’t really buy music on iTunes anymore.  However, iTunes is a great way to discover new artists.  In my opinion, the iTunes charts are a more effective than Billboard charts at gauging what’s currently popular.  Find artists you like, and then click on the “similar artists” tabs.  And then start drilling down those lists.  You may have to go 3 or 4 artists deep to start really finding good new stuff.

Rudimentary for some I’m sure, but hope that helps a few people.

In Music

Music Tuesday: Seryn

October 11, 2011 — 0 Comments

Artist: Seryn
Album: This Is Where We Are

So good.

In Uncategorized

Love By Numbers

September 21, 2011 — 0 Comments

Love being a part of this church.

Chesterfield (KSDK)–Months after a deadly tornado hit Joplin, St. Louisans are still trying to help.

When members of Windsor Crossing Community Church heard about the need at two elementary schools, they came up with a solution.

“They said, ‘You know what we really need? To give our kids hope,’ said Tony Biaggne, Creative Director of The Crossing. “One of the ways we want to do this is we want to fill our walls with artwork.’”

They decided the best way to get everyone involved, might be one of the simplest — and “Love By Numbers” was born. It’s a large scale paint-by-numbers project.

Church members hope they’ll have an opportunity to do this again, for other Joplin schools. Several of the pieces are being sent unpainted, so students can finish the design.

Along with the paint by numbers, work from several other artists at the church is going to the schools as well.

 

In Creativity, Faith , , , ,

Backstage at Chaifetz

September 14, 2011 — 0 Comments

from the vault.  some pics from backstage during our Uncommon service at the Chaifetz arena a few months ago.

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In Uncategorized

Good Conversations.

September 12, 2011 — 0 Comments

I get to work with a lot of brilliant people.  VERY brilliant people.  Like… “other people ask them to come speak at their conference/event/meeting” kind of brilliant.

Its pretty humbling.  But it works out well, because I like to learn.

A strong concentration of those brilliant people is on our tech staff.

I had a great conversation with Michael, one of our tech/production guys, a few weeks ago about worship.  Amongst other things, Michael is in charge of preparing the main auditorium in our Chesterfield campus for worship services each weekend.  In that sense, he’s kind of like a modern day version of the Temple priests in the Old Testament.  Less incense, more lighting cues… but the responsibility is the same: prepare the room for worship.

Anyway… I had a fascinating conversation with him about all of the thought and detail that goes into preparing for services.  He turned that conversation into a really good blog post.  If you’re interested in that sort of thing, go check it out.

In Faith , , , ,

Labor Day at The Lake

September 9, 2011 — 0 Comments

Busy weekend last week.  Drove to Birmingham for Adam and Alison’s wedding.  Stopped in Nashville for lunch with this guy.  Then headed out to to Table Rock Lake near Branson, MO to spend a couple of days on the water with some of my best friends. (Like this guy.  And her.)

Lots of driving.  A little over 1,400 miles in 4 days.  But absolutely worth it.  I have the best group of friends in the world.

Here are some pics from the lake.

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In Misc. , , ,

The Gospel according to Friday Night Lights

August 19, 2011 — 2 Comments

Nobody likes practice.  I don’t care how much you like football, nobody likes two-a-days in July when its 100 degrees out.  Its not the practice we like, its the process of becoming great.  We like practice not because of the heat or the exhaustion, but because of the idea that, if we work hard enough and stay committed, we could go to state.

We don’t like two-a-days.  We like winning state championships.

We embrace the two-a-days because of the goal set before us, and because practice is the way to get there.  The two go hand in hand.  You can’t have state championships without preseason workouts.

I meet a lot of people who say they want to become great.  Especially young leaders in and around the church (of which I consider myself to be one of them).  The problem is that not everyone wants to put out the hard work to get there.  I don’t have this whole thing figured out.  Most of the time, I have no idea why God does things the way He does.  But I know this:  God is in the business of wrestling with us.  You see it all over scripture.  One of my favorite examples is God literally wrestling with Jacob.

God isn’t interested in some cold religion where you show up at some building once a week and blindly follow a bunch of rules.  He wants relationship.  He wants to wrestle with us. A lot of times, He’s less like some distant foreign deity, and more like that high school coach… right there on the 100 degree field along with us, spurring us on because He knows there’s greatness inside of us that needs to be developed and strengthened.

Not all the time, but sometimes… the pain, sadness, and hardship we go through in life are two-a-days for our souls.  Its the process by which God makes us stronger.

In Faith

Backpack Attack 2011

August 8, 2011 — 0 Comments

Some lobby pics from the Backpack Attack collection this afternoon.  Lots of backpacks.  All of them stuffed full of school supplies for area kids.  Crossing folks sure know how to bring it.  I’ll see if I can’t track down the total numbers tomorrow…

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In Misc., Photography
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