Designing the Series My Dad Always Said
I started in my role as Communications Pastor here at Willow Creek this past May and while I had the opportunity to design the branding for the previous two sermon series I had not developed an entire creative package for a sermon series.
My first opportunity to do that was this last summer when we went through the book of Proverbs. Inspired by the Sunday Mag in which they describe in a series of posts one church's creative process in designing their Christmas service, I'm going to attempt to give you an idea of how we produced and designed the sermon series My Dad Always Said.
The Series/Service
The series My Dad Always Said was intended to be a short series during the summer that looked at various topics in the book of Proverbs. As most of the Proverbs were written by Solomon to his son the big idea was fatherly advice on how to live skillfully.
The Title
Our lead pastor came up with the basic idea for the title and with a little bit of tweaking and talking we came to settle on "My Dad Always Said."
We wanted to focus on the theme of fatherly advice since it is the perspective that most of the book of Proverbs is written from and it seems that whenever someone dispenses fatherly advice, normally the person says: "Well you know, my dad always said..."
The title also points us to our heavenly father who is the perfect father and who's advice and commands we should always follow.
The Feel
As soon as I heard the title, my first thought was 1950's, Father Knows Best.
I wanted us to harken back to an era where dad was taken more seriously than the bumbling idiot of sitcoms today so a vintage look and feel felt very appropriate.
And while I wanted the role of fatherly advice to be taken seriously I also wanted to keep it light, fun and a little tongue-in-cheek since this was a summer series.
The Visuals
For all the series I've designed here at Willow Creek I've started not necessarily with a logo for the series but with a main graphic that has primarily come in the form of a poster. To create this main graphic I typically search stock photo sites and Dribbble and gather images for an idea board. This was the board I created for this series.
Since the feel of the graphics were vintage, all american and fun I went with a faded color palette of red, blue and cream from the vote republican image.
I really liked the idea of the 50's man in the ad but wanted him to be in more of a conversation dispensing wisdom. This image had to be perfect. It had to have that vintage look while still coming off as whimsical and fun.
Thousands of images later I found the one I ultimately ended up using. It has the classic 50's mad men look while still raising an eyebrow in fun.
The fonts came from the brilliant people at Lost Type Co-op. For this project I selected Fairview and Mission Script.
And then putting it all together I designed one large format poster for the stage.
The second part of the visual strategy was to place "dad quotes" all over the church building. I asked our people to write in with bits of wisdom and fatherly advice they remembered from their dad's or someone influential in their life. We then printed these out and posted them everywhere in the building.
Fun and Reinforcement
One of my main goals for this series was to get people to interact with it in a way that would be enjoyable and also reinforce the idea of fatherly wisdom and living skillfully.
We did this in two different ways.
The first was to create a social media campaign that revolved around the hashtag #myDadsaid. We asked our people to tweet and post on Facebook quotes from their fathers. We would then run these pre-service on our video boards. To encourage people to post we would give away random gift cards to the first person who tweeted with the hashtag or replied to a Facebook post.
The second way we got people to interact with the series was to build a giant mural of a dad sitting in an easy chair reading the paper. One of our talented artists, Abby Charlton, painted the mural, cut out the face so people could pose with their faces as the dad and stuck a whiteboard quote symbol pointing to the face where people could write in their own quotes while posing.
We encouraged people to take pictures and then post them to Instagram or other social media sites. The kids especially loved this and wrote in all sorts of things they heard from their dads.
Stage Design (lights and sets)
There wasn't a lot of stage design involved this time around. This was due to the fact that it was a shorter series and this was the first time we've tried to create a complete package for the series. Less was better.
We ended up hanging the poster on the stage and spotting it with a single led light that had the ability to gradually shift the colors.
The only other set piece was the photo booth I mentioned before which was probably the highlight of everyone we designed.
The Challenges
We had really wanted to use and promote the social media campaign during the services even having live tweets and pictures show up pre-service. I've been to conferences before where this is done and this has been a huge draw to get people interacting with the campaign.
This didn't happen primarily because the software required was way too expensive. There were some cheaper workarounds but there was always a key feature that wasn't included like being able to moderate what was posted.
It was also a challenge to get people to interact in general with the social media campaign. This was something brand new for us so hopefully in the future we'll learn how to engage people better.
Takeaway
It was very exciting to see all the elements come together and a ton of fun to have almost complete creative freedom to try anything out. I have a ton of support from the staff and people to be creative and take risks like the photo booth and social media campaign.
While the photo booth was a hit there are a lot of things we can do better and I can't wait to jump into the next project.
Asking for Fake Forgiveness
I often stop and pause after reading posts on Facebook. Most of the time its to shake my head at the utter ridiculousness of it all. Very rarely do I ponder for long what was written. But this morning a particular short bit caught my attention and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it all morning.
Maybe its because my morning was a little rough.
Either I didn't set my alarm or I shut it off in a groggy stupor but we all woke up late. I assume its like this in most houses but anytime we wake up late its a recipe for a lot of grumpiness.
In the all excitement words were exchanged between father and daughter, some of which were not pleasant, and in the end the daughter asked for forgiveness and the father didn't want to grant it because he wasn't sure if it was genuine.
A couple things my wife and I have tried to be very conscious of is to first ask forgiveness ourselves from our kids when we sin (which is a lot...) and we stress in our house is that "we don't do sorry," meaning that when we wrong someone we don't say a quick "I'm sorry" but rather we ask the offended person for forgiveness about the specific sin that was committed.
This does a couple things. First it makes the offender think about what they did specifically and it helps them identify where they were wrong and what needs to change. Most of the time a heart attitude is identified, and yes sometimes it takes a little coaching from mom or dad to get there, but in the end we try and reach the deep level of where the problem is at.
The second thing it does is it brings the offended person in relationship again with the offender. Even if they are mad they must acknowledge the request for forgiveness and in that way a small bridge is built to begin repairing the relationship.
The biggest problem I have personally, is granting forgiveness to my kids when I suspect they are not genuine. Sometimes I take my involvement too far and try and replace the Holy Spirit by trying to make my kids feel the conviction and depth of their sin. While I think I need to help them understand what true repentance is, its not my place judge the nature of their repentance.
And this is where a timely reminder from friend and pastor Pat Nemmers hit me hard.
He asked the the question "should I forgive when I doubt that someone is sincere?"
The answer according the Bible is absolutely yes. Jesus instructed his disciples in Luke 17:4 to forgive even if someone returns with the same sin over and over and over.
The reason we forgive over and over is not because we want to or even feel like it. We forgive because we have been forgiven by Jesus for everything we've done.
Pat then wrote "the ultimate test in forgiveness is whether I can trust the God Who sees hearts to deal with the sincerity of the one seeking forgiveness."
I need to trust God to work on the hearts of myself and my kids. I need to model Jesus for them and forgive even if they don't deserve it or act like they're sorry.
Halloween, Tradition and our New Neighbors
Here in Iowa we're a little weird and celebrate Halloween on the 30th of October in a tradition known as Beggar's Night. For whatever reason this year more articles, blogs and Facebook posts have been published on why or why not one should participate in this odd little Holiday. Now it's not my purpose to forcefully defend one view or the other but rather explain what I've chosen for my family and why we do it. But first a little background...
Tradition and Family
I grew up in Colorado and like most normal states celebrated Halloween on October 31st. From as far back as I can remember we had multiple traditions around the Fall and Halloween.
When the weather started to cool my mom would start to make things including chili and blubbery muffins and our costumes. Probably the best costume ever was a shark costume I wore that conveniently doubled as "Jonah in the whale" for church related activities though a close second was the "pirate" costume I made that consisted of jeans and a Raiders sweatshirt...
Closer to the actual holiday we would pick pumpkins from my dad's garden and carve them. This was the best because I got to use the "sharp" knives and I was always very responsible. In fact I would never stab my pumpkin repeatedly and throw pumpkin guts all over.
On Halloween night it was all about the candy and when it was all said and done me and my siblings would empty our haul on the kitchen table and compare. This usually ended up with my little brother and sister crying because they didn't get as much as me and mom putting all the candy into one big bowl.
As I think back my parents made this holiday about family and tradition. I have no memories about anything sinister, evil or weird. I only have memories about a time when my family came together to do a ton of fun things that ended up in me eatings massive amounts of candy. In short those are some of the best memories I have.
For that reason alone I wanted to pass it on to my kids in the hopes that they would also remember some very precious times as family.
We've carved fun pumpkins almost every year and we help our kids with their costumes. This year I made Mia's official id badge so she could be just like mom.
We also dump our candy out, compare and sometimes meticulously arrange it and mix it all together in a big bowl.
But as we've done all these things its always been about us coming together as a family.
New Opportunities
This year is a little different as we are in a brand new community, and from a conversation I had with a friend realized what a great opportunity it is to actually meet your neighbors.
In our culture with the rise of technology we don't often feel the need to step outside as much. Everything we could possibly want is offered to us within our homes so it takes some actual effort to get outside. And even if you do not many of your neighbors will have chosen to do the same at the same time. So the conversations you might have once had aren't happening as often. I saw this first hand up in our previous community where I barely knew some of our neighbors.
But on Halloween its different. Nearly every door in the community is open to strangers. Your whole neighbored is walking around and most everyone is in a good mood (well except the die hard Cardinals fan who was missing the World Series...). But the point is that there is not another night during the year where your neighborhood is more accessible to meet and talk to people as it is on Halloween.
So last night as I took my daughter out into our new neighborhood I introduced myself to as many people as possible.
It was incredible.
I met some very nice folks, had wonderful conversations with them, made connections with other people we had in common and in general felt a part of the community. As a pastor looking to love my neighbors I couldn't dream of a better opportunity.
So whatever your view on Halloween is and whatever your level of participation might be, I would encourage you to take the opportunity to get out and meet your neighbors. Be a blessing to your community. Show love to the kids that live around you and be a light in a world filled with darkness.
Unite - Remembering A Thief in the the Night
This past week a legendary Christian filmmaker, Russell S. Doughten Jr. passed away. He is most famous for his Thief in the Night series which portrayed the Rapture and subsequent events in the biblical chronology of the end times.
I personally only remember seeing bits and pieces of the films but several scenes (like the guillotine ones) stuck with me growing up.
While the films used more of a "scare people to Jesus" tactic they were effective in getting the message out and have been viewed by millions of people.
I recently sat down at re-watched the first film with a couple friends. While we had a good time poking fun at the dated references and identifying local landmarks (including a few in Carlisle where I'm moving) we appreciated what the film was trying to do. The editing and cinematography was well done for the genre and helped to pave the way for the modern Christian film.
In memory of the film series I created a propaganda poster for the evil organization UNITE portrayed in the films as the vehicle the Anti-Christ uses to dominate the world.
Download a small version here for free.
Super Mario Bros. Cupcake Toppers
One of the things I want to do more of is to share the content I create. I'll be doing this with the things I make for my family (like these cupcake toppers) and for creative content I'm making for church.
So with that said my son was turning five and we gave him the choice of theme for his party. Now when I was five I was all about the Dukes of Hazzard - in fact for my fifth birthday I got the mother of all birthday gifts - a Dukes of Hazzard Big Wheel (complete with spin-out lever!)
Jace however did not choose The Dukes of Hazzard for his theme but rather Super Mario Bros. As part of the theme I created some Mario character cupcake toppers which I have conveniently placed in a print friendly pdf for you to use any way you see fit. Enjoy!
The Calling
A couple months ago I faced one of the hardest decisions of my life.
If I followed through I would leave a church that I helped start with some amazing friends. I would have to say goodbye to a youth group full of the best students in the world that my wife and I led for almost 5 years. We would need move out of a small town community that we had involved ourselves in. I would need to tell my daughter she was going to a new school and would be leaving her friends. And I would be leaving full time job that I loved with awesome coworkers, paid well and had every opportunity for advancement.
I left all of this to be a pastor at Willow Creek Baptist Church.
Most would say I was crazy. But in that moment while being insanely difficult, the decision was also easy.
Why?
Because I know this is what I was meant to do.
I was called.
Traditionally throughout church history pastors have been identified in two ways. First through an internal call, which is the person's own desire to be a pastor and secondly through an external call which is the affirmation of those around him.
The apostle Paul in a letter to Timothy told him, "If someone aspires to be an elder, he desires an honorable position."
This inward call was described by Martin Luther as “God’s voice heard by faith.” Charles Spurgeon described it as “an intense, all-absorbing desire for the work.” Basically those called sense a growing compulsion to preach and teach the Bible, and to minister to the people of God.
This is a compulsion I've had for a long time and while I've been able to dedicate part of my life and work to satisfy this desire I've always wanted to have the opportunity to take my passions, talents, and gifts and use them full time to work in a church.
Spurgeon famously warned those who asked his advice to avoid working in the ministry at all costs and to only continue if they could do nothing else. “If he cannot help it, and he must preach or die, then he is the man.”
I love to teach and preach and I desire nothing more than to communicate the Bible in ways that people can understand.
So with that the people at Willow Creek recognized my desire and affirmed the qualities for a pastor and asked me to join them.
I am so grateful for my brothers and sisters at Lakeside and you all have done so much to help me grow. I'm also grateful for the people at Copyblogger. You gave me an amazing gift of being able to do things I loved, have a ton of fun doing them all while being at home with my family.
I can't wait to see how this next chapter in my life unfolds.
Moments to Live For
Its the small things really that matter. As a dad a lot of "those" moments come when I'm playing with my kids. Sometimes I can recognize them as they happen and for a second its as if the world stops and everything seems right.
Today was an anomaly this Spring which is to say we could play outside without coats and the fear of runny noses. After sessions of catch and keep-away soccer I found myself giving both the older kids surprise underdogs on the swings. I say surprise because I wouldn't let them look back and when they would least expect it I rushed forward and accelerated them high in the sunny sky. To them it was a rush of terror and excitement to which they both screamed in delight.
As I came around to face them I closed in on my four year old son and allowed him to swing his legs right into me. I immediately flew backward and feigned tripping over the slide. The laughter that exploded from both kids was so joyful I had to repeat my Academy Award winning performance each time coming up with some new "three-stooge" way of getting hurt.
I'm not exactly sure what's so hilarious about a kid swinging into someone but I remember doing the same with my brother who is six years younger. The grass at our house growing up was a bit thicker so it didn't hurt to go down in a heap but he loved every minute of it and would beg me not to quit.
These are the moments I need to tuck away and remember. Each time they come and ask to play and I answer with, "in a bit daddy's working," I need to hear their laughter and joy.
It's these moments I need to live for, not the next perfect pixel.
Why The Bible on the History Channel Is So Popular
The History channel's mini-series The Bible has been immensely popular despite receiving generally poor reviews and has confounded the establishment as to why this is happening. I have a theory as to why the The Bible is so popular.
People love hidden details and the use of "sanctified imagination."
I can't remember where I first heard the term "sanctified imagination", but growing up going to church I heard the stories of the Bible countless times and during many of those Sunday school lessons and sermons the teacher would give an educated guess as to some of the details left out of the stories. These imagined details were always tasty morsels of information because it seemed to give you an insiders point of view and it would often unlock the story as it let you see it in whole context as opposed to bits and pieces.
The Bible doesn't give us all the details. It doesn't tell us exactly what life was like on the ark for Noah and his family and doesn't tell us how God's angels interacted with the people of Sodom and Gomorra. So when someone else fills in these details it makes an already compelling story even better because who doesn't want to think that one of God's angels is a ninja?
When you have great stories re-told through cinema to our visual culture and you imagine in all the bits and pieces that are "missing" in the original text you have the formula for a great drama and ratings smash.
Like most things this can be good and bad and I believe we need to be careful when using "sanctified imagination."
Certainly there are details we can add into the Biblical accounts that we have learned from history and archeology. These are often insights into the culture which help us understand the author's intent thousands of years after the events happend. For example, when Paul is writing to the Philippian church about citizenship in heaven we can talk about how important Roman citizenship was and when we understand the importance of Roman citizenship to those people we understand God's grace in a deeper way when Paul says that his citizenship is in heaven.
But when we add in details and "imagine" up part of the story we run the risk of the imagined part capturing our attention more than the actual text. One example in particular stands out in my mind.
In John 8:1-11 religious leaders confront Jesus with a women who has been caught in adultery. They demand to know what Jesus thinks of this and if he will condemn her to death. Jesus doesn't say anything but instead stoops down and writes in the dirt. When he is finished he stands up and utters the famous phrase "let those of you without sin cast the first stone." And while the main message of the text is compassion and forgiveness that seemed to be lost on me because I remember the teacher telling us that he thought Jesus was writing down the sins those religious leaders had committed and that bit of information fascinated me. It fascinated me so much that all I could think of was that little detail and how cool it was that the teacher had brought that out.
So while I don't think using "sanctified imagination" is necessarily a bad thing as The Bible series has sparked many discussions in our family, we need to be careful to not add to Scripture in a way that draws our attention from it.
The Passion Week - Infographic
This week's infographic, The Passion Week, is a chronological timeline of the major events that happened during Jesus' last week before he died and rose again. Each event is cross-referenced with the gospel(s) it is found in. I have also included major location changes as well as the relative possible timing of the Last Supper, Trial and Crucifixion.
For updates on future graphics follow me on Twitter
Click here, or on the graphic for a free large version.
Click here to purchase a high resolution pdf suitable for printing – $10.99
Click here to purchase a physical print – $19-$59
Revelation - Views on the End Times Infographic
For this weeks release of the Project 66 graphic I chose to go a bit out of order - or a lot out of order... There were many requests for this graphic depicting the differing views on the end times. The goal for this end times infographic was to summarize the major positions that Christianity has held over the years in regards to the timing of last things. The three major views are premillennialism, postmillennialism and amillennialism.
I've summarized the positions below the graphic. Hopefully that will help trying to decipher where you are at.
There are many differing views held within each of those individual camp so for simplicity only major points are illustrated. You can check the links to each for more information or search the terms and you'll no doubt find hundreds and thousands of websites claiming point and counterpoint why they are right and the other position wrong.
An interesting concept that the graphic portrays is that each view agrees on the beginning and end. Every view believes that the kingdom was promised in the Old Testament, presented by Jesus and will culminate in the eternal state.
If you have suggestions for future graphics let me know in the comments.
A high resolution pdf is available for purchase.
Follow me on Twitter for the latest updates.
Premillennialism
Premillennialism is the belief that the Second Coming of Christ occurs before the millennium, which is a literal 1000 years.
Dispensational Premillennialists believe that believers will be caught up into heaven at the end of the church age before a time of great tribulation on the earth. They will then return with Christ to rule with Him for a literal 1000 years after which unbelievers are judged and the eternal kingdom is set up.
Historic Premillennialists believe that the rapture occurs at the end of the Tribulation and will immediately return with Christ to set up His kingdom.
Postmillennialism
Postmillennialismis the belief that the Second Coming of Christ occurs after the millennium.
Some that take this position believe the millennium is a literal 1000 years while others believe it is a figurative concept referring to the entire New Testament age.
Postmillennialism teaches that the forces of Satan will gradually be defeated by the expansion of the Kingdom of God throughout history up until the Second Coming of Christ.
The view that the tribulation has already taken place is the Preterist postion. The view that the entire church age is in tribulation is the historist view. These can also be applied to the amillennial postion.
Amillennialism
Amillennialism is the belief that there is not a literal 1000 year reign of Christ on the earth but that His Second Coming occurs at the end of history.
The millennium is purely spiritual in nature and at the end of the church age, Christ will return in final judgment and establish a permanent physical reign.
In the classical view the tribulation and anti-christ are looked at as symbolic in the book of Revelation. Like Postmillennialism, the Preterist view believes that almost all end-times prophecy was fulfilled before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.