A Psalm 22 Year

2009 ends today….and I’m glad to see it go.  I’ve got to be honest.  It’s been a Psalm 22 year.  I was reading through the Psalm 20’s or so and came across the 22nd.  For me personally and so many others that I know, it has been that type of year.  Would definitely encourage you to check Psalm 22 on your own when you have time, but here are the first two verses that kind of give a glimpse into that chapter:

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help?
Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief. (NLT)

Now, please don’t misunderstand, there have been a number of positive and good times, this past year, and there are so many things that I look at in my life and know that I am a blessed man.  And when considering the plight of others and what they have been through/going through, my junk seems trivial at times.

If you know me, then you know that I am horrible at hiding what’s going on in the inside.  In fact, that’s probably part of why I’m writing this post…that and it is somewhat therapeutic for me.  Had a friend last night even comment to me “it’s good to see you smile” which is code for “what’s your problem been?”   Life is like that during seasons of our life…that’s true for everyone.  When those times are prolonged for months and years, it weighs on you.  From unrealized dreams to illness and disease, life is tough.

Last January, I wrote down some goals and some dreams….in fact I wrote down 10 specific thoughts under the heading of where I saw us/myself within a year (that would be now).  How many of those dreams were realized? …. 1

So, on to a new year.  I probably will write down some more dreams and goals for the new year.  Some will be the same as last year, some will be new I’m sure.  I don’t have any new answers, insights, resolutions to make or 10 steps to a new and improved me….or you.  I do have some thoughts for any that have had a Psalm 22 year.  Some of these I’ve been processing, some that I’m still trying to “get there”.  These won’t be terribly deep, just real:

1. You’re not alone…there are others that have been and are going through what you are. I think for me, that has been huge.  Partly because I can look at where they are now and realize that they made it through.  That gives me hope.
2. My time vs God’s time. My timing is not His timing.  His timing is not my timing.  This is probably the hardest truth to live and work through.  The Bible is full of stories where God would make a promise, a realization of a dream, and the fulfillment of that promise or dream would take years.  His time is not our time.  It doesn’t mean that God’s not at work, it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care, it just means….His timing is not my timing..rinse and repeat.
3. In the meantime…. If you’re in the area between “the promise and the payoff” of your dream (to quote Furtick), find a place to serve and do that.  Not a place that is your “job” or in your area of core competency necessarily…just a place where you can help meet a need.
4. Mumble a lot of prayers.  This is a goal, a hope and a need of mine that I’m experiencing and need more of through my day.

Anyway, I really do hope that you have a very happy new year, a great and memorable new year.  Perhaps a Psalm 20 year:

May he grant your heart’s desires and make all your plans succeed.
May we shout for joy when we hear of your victory and raise a victory banner in the name of our God.
May the Lord answer all your prayers. (vv. 5-6, NLT)

Little or no budget? Innovate.

Love stuff like this.  With everyone it seems experiencing cutbacks in budgets, including creative media budgets, it pushes us to a couple of options.  One option is to sit back, and say what we can’t do.  The other is to ask “what can we do?”.  Innovation is often limited by leadership that is 1. focused on what we can’t do and 2. doesn’t give permission to experiment and fail.  I love what Craig Groeschel says about LifeChurch and their culture: “Failure isn’t just expected, it’s required.”  Here’s a church that built a very cool LED-esque wall with existing equipment and $1000.  Check it out:

outdoor projection

Thanks Ken for the heads up on this.  Love how they utilize projection on a building (check it out here).  Thinking through applications for message series, advertising, etc.  If you have a structure in an area with a decent amount of traffic, what a great use of space.

Some recent work

Don’t think I’ve posted this yet.  It’s a bumper I did for Pine Ridge Church a month or so ago.  Check it:

http://www.vimeo.com/7038606

130 Million Dollars: Something Feels Wrong

I was reading over on Monday Morning Insight and they were discussing in one of their blog posts First Baptist Church of Dallas’ campaign to raise 130 Million Dollars to build a new complex in downtown Dallas.  FBC Dallas has an information page that has an extensive video collection which covers their history, and gives an explanation of the project.  You can tell they spent some serious change on these videos.  Take a minute to check the videos out when you can.  As I was watching the videos, I was just flooded with several thoughts on this.  Here are mine, would love to hear yours.

• I’ve got to admit, while watching it, I felt like I was watching something from Disney.  Very well, done mind you.  I don’t know if you’ve seen any reruns of the wonderful world of disney from the 60’s where Walt Disney is describing the layout of disney world before it was constructed.  Kinda felt like that.
• 130 million is alot of dough.  Yeah, I have a problem with that.  I understand that construction costs in the US are what they are.  I just think that there are way better solutions than that.
• How many of the families that come to FBC Dallas are driving into the downtown area for church.  You could take half of that, and fully fund 3 to 4 multi site campuses all over the city and suburbs, including full time staff.
• The project is based on a broken paradigm.  It is the “come and see” vs the “take the church” to where the people are.
• Is this about building the Kingdom or preserving our historical and geographical heritage in downtown Dallas?
• I’m sure that there are people from their pastor to the leadership that have wrestled with some of those questions.  I don’t doubt their sincerity to reach people for Christ.  Just think their methodology here is busted.
• I’m sitting here today editing a video of one of our folks who is just broken and blown away over seeing the FIRST converts in a previously unreached people group in a language where not even the whole Bible is translated as of yet, and I’m thinking to myself “What if we took just half of that 130 million and used it to reach more unreached people?
• Those arguments could be made about a lot of things that we spend our money on, and there are people on both sides that have legitimate points.  I mean, I’ve stood in some incredible cathedrals and was led to worship just from the architecture.  Just incredible.  Would love to hear your thoughts on your reaction to the videos.

the c word

We had my parents over for dinner tonight and we were discussing how many people that we know that have been impacted by cancer.  Kim had thyroid cancer back several years ago and now two incredible friends of ours (Tom and Angie) are waging their own battles.  Would you take a minute to pray for both Tom and Angie right now and any others around you that are fighting to battle cancer? Here is a quick synopsis of their stories and links to check out:

Tom Lowry – Tom was my youth pastor growing up, gave me my first opportunity in ministry by letting me intern under him in student ministry (what was he thinking? ….) and has remained a great friend and encourager to me through the years.  He discipled me and help see me through the “yeah, it’s okay God, I’ve got this on my own” years.  He has always been like a second dad to me.  He had mentioned several weeks ago to me that he would be going through some tests and then this week revealed that the tests would be to test for cancer.  He shared the video below tonight at Curtis Baptist Church in Augusta where he is on staff still (church/place I grew up at).  You can follow Tom on his blog as well as he will be giving updates there:

Tom’s Blog: http://tomsthoughtsonstuff.blogspot.com

Angie Sanders – I first met Bobby and Angie at Lighthouse Baptist Church here in Aiken where I was on staff as the youth pastor.  I suckered them in asked them to become volunteers in our student ministry and later had the privilege to officiate at their wedding.  It has been incredible for me to watch them grow in their faith and how they have become leaders at their church in ministry.  They are a great example of Jesus with skin on: they just love Jesus and love people.  Angie has recently been diagnosed with cancer and has had surgery to remove it and is about to undergo additional chemotherapy.

Angie’s Group on Facebook

Be The Church Photo Montage

Here’s the photo/video montage that we showed this morning at the Banks Mill and West Campuses.  It was a part of the Be The Church celebrations.

Be The Church Bless Back

Today we did something at Cedar Creek that we have never done before.  As a part of our Be The Church series, we gave away a total of $50,000 across our three campuses.  As people walked in to each of our worship experiences, they were given a sealed envelope.  Inside each envelope were various amounts: $5, $20, $50, and $100.

Phillip taught on how we are blessed by God to be a blessing to others.  It doesn’t take a huge amount of time, money or resources to bless someone.  In fact, the focus of today’s message was to begin with the “little things”.

Here are the only stipulations on how the money is to be used: 1. Don’t bless yourself.  Use it to help someone outside of your immediate family and 2. Don’t put the money back in the offering basket.

Kim and I have been talking about some ideas of how we’re going to bless back someone.  Looking forward to see the ripple effect in our community.  If you go to Cedar Creek and want to share your story about how you used the money to help someone, you can do so here.

ccc baptism video

This summer we broke up our baptisms into three different times.  This was intentional in the hopes of making it less of a baptismal service and more of a baptism party.  I had planned to get some interviews with some of the baptizees before but was having some mic issues.  Next time.  Just never gets old seeing people going public with their faith.  Teared up seeing all of them, but I about lost it when I saw Logan being baptized.  His baptism is at about 1:05.  You can watch some of Logan’s story on an earlier video on the blog.  The guy helping Phillip baptize is the “Mr. Chuck” from that earlier video.  Good times.

http://www.vimeo.com/6629632

Pine Ridge Church Bumper

wow, I have been such a blogging slacker lately.  I apologize.  I think i have been working on more projects over the last few months than I have in quite a while.  Looking forward to a little break.  Here’s a bumper I created for Pine Ridge Church in Graham, NC.  I designed the sermon series artwork and then provided them with this bumper, promos and a countdown.

http://www.vimeo.com/6612895