2007's Gone...

Well, this is it:  the last day of 2007.  I remember being a kid and thinking about the "Year 2000" and all I thought would happen. Shouldn't we have our flying cars by now?

Here's a brief summary of the things my department helped accomplish at Crossroads this year:

Installed our new digital PA console, a Yamaha LS9.

Stepped up our Easter and Christmas services, integrating video, dance, and music.

Fully changed over my ENTIRE department (editor, graphic artist, & admin. assistant).

Launched Crossroads Creative, our resource ministry.

Created, from scratch, all content for the church's stewardship campaign, DRIVE.

This is in addition to our 52 closed-captioned TV shows, 15 sermon series (with customized artwork, video support, and DVD production, several pieces for NTENSE, our youth ministry, Christmas and Easter post-mixing/editing, and "all other duties as assigned."

I've got an amazing staff of incredibly talented creative professionals, who work tirelessly to pull it all together.  Special thanks go out to:

 

Adam Hofmann, Video Editor

Tiffany Wyatt, Graphic Designer

Daphne Gaspard, Administrative and Production Assistant

We also employ a great team of camera operators, grips, audio engineers, and transcriptionists who faithfully serve each week, and I'm grateful to each and every one of them.

I have several goals for 2008, and in the coming weeks, I'll line them out. Have a great one!

The Stupidest Thing I've Ever Seen...

Did anyone catch "Clash of the Choirs" tonight?  OK, ok, I know...they're competing for charities in their own respective home towns, but I BEGGED my wife not to leave it on that channel. When we saw the Jersey group (directed by Michael Bolton) sing "Living on a Prayer" she had to concede and agree that this is truly the stupidest (yes, I know it's not a word) thing ever.  Is the network brass really that out of ideas? They should call me. I have a few.

And they don't include amateur choirs competing for charity cash.

To Blog or Not to Blog...

Well, you haven't heard from me in a while, because I've just been pretty darn busy. I'm getting ready for Crossroads Church's annual Christmas production, plus three new sermon series, plus trying to keep a little family time alive during the Christmas Season. Sometimes it's hard to keep all of the balls in the air.

So, let me hear from you guys. Have you been reading my blog? Are you getting anything out of it? Should I keep this up? If no one is reading my blog, I'll probably stop.

Show me some love.

Let's Say Thanks

Well, another Thanksgiving is upon us. We think of all the usual things we're thankful for:  family, friends, this great country, etc. But I want to direct you to two different posts. One is by Anthony Coppedge and the other is by Greg Atkinson, two of my new-found blog friends.

Greg's is about thanking those who volunteer for our ministries, and he offers suggestions of things we can do to honor and appreciate them.  You can find his post here:

Anthony's post is about thanking our troops. I can't think of a nobler cause. You can find his post here:

I probably won't be back for a while, so enjoy your Thanksgiving.

OK, So I'll Lighten Up!

All right, enough heavy stuff for awhile...

The current series we're in at Crossroads Church (www.mycrossroads.org) is called "Muchas Gracias." It's our Thanksgiving series. The media department of the church is named Crossroads Creative (www.crossroads-creative.com) which produces videos resources for churches.

One of our product lines is called On Ramps, which are sermon openers. For this series' On Ramp, I had the privilege of using my own daughter in the piece. I hope I'm not being just a doting father, but I thought she did a really good job (although she tried to direct from her position a couple of times!).

Anyway, check out the video on the mycrossroads.org site. Once you're on the site, go to the WEST page and click the play button. Drop me a line, and let me know what you think!

On another note, it was good to be reunited with an old friend yesterday, Mark Keefer, who I worked with at Church on the Move and Oneighty in Tulsa, OK. Mark's a great drummer and audio engineer. I worked with him in the Oneighty band and his home studio (when I say "worked with," not only do I mean that I played on his projects, but I actually helped frame up the walls - good times). Anyway, he's a bigshot Hollywood guy now, with four Emmys to his credit, plus he mixed "Hoodwinked!"  Awesome.

So the past couple of days have been great. Hope yours have been too.

By now you've certainly noticed (unless you live under a rock) that Christianity isn't looking so good lately. The ORU scandal, the Grassley investigation, Randy and Paula White, the Conan-obsessed priest. These are just a few of the instances where Christians are giving the world an excuse to not serve God.

I think that at the heart of all of these scandals is a real (or perceived) lack of genuineness. And that's what I'd like to open a discussion on today. There are some in this world that have the perception that Christians are gay-bashing Limbaugh listeners in the hip pocket of the GOP, and I can't say I blame them.

Which brings me my point.  We often hear the phrase "We've got to love them into the Kingdom." I see the thinking behind that statement, but I feel that the statement is, at it's core, completely in err. It should read more like this: "We've got to love them." That's it. No result needed - or expected.

Too often, we give love just so we can give the religious platitude. We want them to come to know Christ (an admirable goal, and one we hope to achieve in every one we know), but sometimes we show concern for people FOR THE EXPRESS purpose of sharing our faith, and that comes off as insincere, with ulterior motives. We have got to love people, no matter what. We've got to decide that we will love the lost, even if they choose to stay lost, and never put their faith in Christ.

Jesus didn't love people until they made a decision to accept Him or not. As He was being beaten, He loved. Spat upon. He loved. Mocked. He loved. Nailed to the cross. He loved. Denied thrice. He loved. Most of these men died without knowing the saving grace of God. Jesus still loved them.

That, my friends, is true love. That, my friends, will love them into the Kingdom.

The Relevant Answer to Relevance

OK, so I've kept you waiting long enough...

Picture this:  there's Joe Sinner, just going about his day, thinking everything is going fine. All of a sudden he gets a phone call from his teenage son's school. He's in trouble...again.  This time, they've found a bag of pot in his locker.

He's totally beaten down, ready to throw in the towel, and along comes his Chrimetrotisexualian friend (BTW, his name is Trevor, or Simeon, or something like that). Joe lets him know of his child's situation, and all Trevor/Simeon can come up with is how cool the video was this past week at church. He gives Joe some sort of irrelevant platitude. But wait...his presentation is pretty slick, and he compares Joe's situation to the time he found that the leather on his Fossil watchband was all stinky from his sweat (he calls it "glistening"), and he had such a terrible time of it, until he had to (gasp) wear the Armitron his sister bought for him last Christmas.

Of course, I'm being way over-the-top facetious, but do you get the picture?  What does Joe Sinner need?  He needs someone to help him get his son off drugs. He needs practical steps he can take to ensure his son's safety, his recovery and ultimately, his salvation. 

Trevor/Simeon's Aeropostale shirt, his Seven for All Mankind jeans, and his Vans (or Steve Maddens) don't add up to the proverbial hill of beans. Joe doesn't care about his faux-hawk or the leather choker necklace around Trevor/Simeon's beautifully tanned nape.  But the Christ-follower who helps Joe Sinner's son get off the ganja will be deemed relevant, even if said Christ-follower is wearing Wal-Mart jeans with a Yosemite Sam wallet tucked in the back pocket.

It's all about love, and being there for people, being "instant in-season and out," being REAL. If you happen to adopt the Trevor/Simeon style, that's OK, but PLEASE have some substance in your walk with Christ to at least put all that stuff away in order to meet the needs of those around you.

Tomorrow, I'll discuss the the fallacies of the phrase "Love them into the Kingdom."  I hope you return.