Explination

I stress the the creative team at church the importance of being original. I am in love with the idea of "creating culture". Therein lies my problem. I think sometimes I get so caught up in the trying to create something new that I forget that truly there is only one reason I am doing this, to help lead people to Christ and to help them grow in that relationship. God has been working on me lately about the reasons I do what I do. Why do I create graphics and websites? Why do make videos? The answer is because people need Jesus and if what I do helps just one person come to Christ then I have done my job. My job is not to put together the most creative, spectacular , audacious worship service possible. That said, I think we should always be creative and we try to be original but that should not be our focus. It's okay to copy what another church does as long as you adapt it to your culture. It is okay to use a sermon series from life church. Tim Stevens from Granger wrote a great piece on this in the most recent Collide Magazine. In it he simply says become a recycling expert. In other words learn to use other people stuff in different ways. I think he is absolutely right! Now I not going to go steal someones idea that doesn't want me to that's not what I am saying at all. I just think it is a great idea to adapt good ideas of others creatively to fit the needs in your church.We are a small church with a small budget. Everyone on staff works a full time job outside of their church work. We all have families. Its okay to recycle creatively. Am I crazy to get away from the idea of original thinking? What do you think?

Relevant vs Copying

I read an article the other day in Collide Magazine (A great Mag if you have never read it) about bad church design practices. In the last segment Cameron Smith rants about how annoying it is when the church copies popular TV Shows as the title of their sermon series and chalk it up to relevance.  The truth is it's lame. I believe as alot of others do that the church should be on the forefront of innovation. It is important to leverage the culture and to know the culture but copying is not nececary. I have a passion to be on the forefront of innovation for the sake of communicating the greatest story ever told. I worship God through my art and videos. I just wanted my first blog to give everyone a good idea why I do what I do. More Later!