Here are two projects HT Creative has put out this week.

Genesis Promo:

The 30 Day Challenge:

1. Hang Time – so many of us serve every week together but do not know each other
2. Vision Casting – giving a glimpse of our desired future
3. Call to Action – we need your help and if you are already serving, we need more!

In the vision casting I hit up 3 areas.

Our Calling:

There are 2 types of callings, “vocational” – getting paid to minister and “relational” – using our everyday lives, circumstances, relationships to share the Good News. Not every believer is called into vocational ministry, but all are called into relational. I don’t get paid to give my life to God…that’s a choice!

Our Gifting(s):

Will you use what God has given you to further the Kingdom? Your gifts, talents, arms, legs, and brains?

In life, lack of talent isn’t near as fatal as lack of desire.
Orrin Woodward

Gifting’s will not propel the church in their entirety, but our willingness to serve in and out of them, our desire to see God move, our heart for lost, our commitment to getting IT done.

What does it mean to serve in and out of your gifting?

• Serving in your gifting is easy. It’s what you were born to do, what’s natural, what you desire to do.
• Serving out of your gifting is work. It’s what comes out of passion, commitment, authenticity and desire to see the church succeed at any cost

Our Creativity:

The utilization of creativity in today’s church does NOT replace, help, or dictate the move of God.

Pastor Marty has said it best like this:
Harvest Time will never change the message of Christ, but the methods in which we present will always change!

Mission of North Point: To lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating environments where people are encouraged and equipped to pursue intimacy with God, community with insiders, and influence with outsiders.
– Andy Stanley

Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003.
– Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google

Our Team:

It currently takes about 9 people to run a LIVE Sunday AM service each week. If we had 15, we could do something as big as Man Month every week!

“None of us is as smart as all of us.”

We are not asking for you to sign up for a specific service, but rather say “I will do whatever it takes for the message of Christ to go forward.”

Being the leader of creativity has opened my eyes to “how I lead.” One of the things that is haunting me now is this: to lead creativity means you make final decisions on designs, videos, etc., which means the leader is actually the barrier or hindrance to creativity. If I am not careful, our team can start creating things that they know I will like versus what the organizations vision is looking for.

As leaders in creativity it is our responsibility to know the heart of the organization (church) and only use the boundaries necessary to keep the vision moving forward.

This is hard to swallow but sometimes there are better ways than yours/mine. Don’t get me wrong, specific designs and videos need the touch and direction of the leader…but not everything!

Lesson #1 to learn for Leading Creativity:

Create environments for your team to design/create beyond your expectations and creativity.

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” ~Antoine De Saint Exupery

There is one thing we implemented immediately when I moved into the new role as Creative Media Director. We started a creative submission process called the Creative Submission Form. This form is the lifeline, the backbone, the safety net of most everything creative at Harvest Time. Brian Spessard, our graphic/web design guy, put this form together. You can download it here.

This form has been great but one thing we have found out is that having a form makes it easier for ministry departments to request our services. Now, to get us to design something all you have to do is fill out the form with 3-5 weeks lead time and presto, a custom graphic or video. Obviously we can not exist this way long. We are now in the process of trying to figure out how to say NO to some of these request. The best way to say no is to have a filter. Filters do something very special and unique, they filter. It’s deep I know.

Here is the list of questions/filters I’ve come up with so far:

1. Is the quality of this piece going to determine someone’s decision on whether or not to attend here?
2. Is this necessary to print? Can it be social, viral, or web driven?
3. Does a leader need to spear head this for it be successful?
4. Is this a use of creativity or a cop-out from it? (making a flyer doesn’t make your event cool)
5. Will this affect 100+ people?
6. Does this require professional design? (can it be done on construction paper and a copier? I know you are cringing at this one but if it’s just flyer for leaders to remind them about a BBQ it doesn’t need my special attention: )
7. Is it going to inform, educate , create buzz or make a difference in a life?

Based on the answers, we will decide if it needs to be done by our department, to what degree, and how much to spend producing it, whether it be print or video.

Any questions/filters you use? I’d love to steal them from you : )

The thing about a tab, is it appears limitless. In ministry it’s so easy to put your emotions into everything that you do. Emotions can be disguised as passion, commitment, pursuit and beliefs. So many times we will take withdraws from our emotional tab on things that don’t make a lick of eternal difference. Let me give you some examples: carpet color, 90db or 92db, drum shield or not, last minute changes, this song or that, this font or that, and the list goes on and on.

I’ve found that if I allow every change or lack of change to be a withdrawal from my emotional tab, it is emptied before a whole day goes by. BUT if I choose to submit and listen instead of argue and speak, I smile a lot more. : ) I am the only person who can control my “emotional tab.” I choose what I spend my emotions on daily.

If you can control how much and when you withdraw from your emotional tab and then couple that with a consistent daily time with God; your passion for ministry and for God will never be diminished, destroyed or deterred.

Don’t confuse passion with emotion. Submit to leadership easily and quickly. Be passionate about your ministry and spend your emotions on loving people!

1. Steak (center cut filet)
2. Steak (ribeye)
3. Steak (NY Strip)
4. Beef Ribs (smoked)
5. Pork Ribs (smoked)
6. Stuffed Cheeseburger
7. Bratwurst
8. Sausage (breakfast, hot)
9. Bacon
10. Pork Chop (fried)

What’s in your top ten?

1. Understand that God is always there

Hebrews 13:5,6
5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. 6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

Isaiah 43:2
2When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up—the flames will not consume you.

2. Know where to find His Presence

John 14:15-17
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

God is always there and He abides in you.
Spend time with God and His Presence will invade your life.

Don’t get caught “engaging” the people, lead them.

As worship leaders and creatives we get sucked into the environments, elements and program of the services we participate in every week.  Our heart has to be consistently pointing toward Jesus Christ.  Celebrating His goodness and His mercies that are new everyday.  We can not afford to get caught focusing/pointing people toward the melody, riff or environmental elements.  We MUST lead worship, not engage it.  We MUST lead people to the foot of the cross, to the threshold of His presence, to where His voice is heard and His heart becomes ours.

*these are things I’m currently working on to be a better leader

• $98 for a ROAR shirt from the Buckle.
• $120 for a Rock and Republic Low Rise Bootcut pair of jeans from Nordstrom
• $140 for a Fossil leather band watch from Pac Sun.
• $45 for a pair of Chuck Taylor’s from Journeys.
• $198 for a blazer with the rock star print from the Buckle.
• $75 for highlights
• $550 for designer glasses
• $600 for an iPad to use to preach messages

Does all this look too familiar?  Is it possible to do ministry without observing all the latest fashions and trends?

Have you seen some of the latest ministry video podcasts on Itunes?   For the sake of anonymity, I will call the pastor, “Pastor Smith,” though these type of videos are very common among ministry leaders online.  In the video podcast, Pastor Smith never wears the same designer shirt; he always has on a seemingly new shirt or outfit.  The stage in these trendy podcasts always has a completely different look than what it did the week before.

I’m not condemning the recent trends or fashions; on the contrary, I love observing and occasionally partaking in trends and fashions and forward thinking.  I love chasing culture and being effective in reaching our generation.  I’m typing this article on my Macbook Pro in my low-lit office with the scent of a Bath and Body Works wallflower air freshener filling my room.  I’m comfortable with saying that I love to shop and I love watching HGTV.  Am I apart of the postmodern movement that has affected ministries and churches across the country? Absolutely.

Every morning when I wake up I ask myself, “What can I do today that will change the world?”  Then I begin to calculate the cost of all the resources I would need to do this: moving lights, brighter projectors, more portable stage pieces, a bigger office, flexible work hours, extra time to read books, more time to spend socializing with the “right” people, a better website, and more time to write.   After hours and hours of doing work, I look up at the top right corner of my laptop screen to glance at the time; the clock reads 6:30pm.  It’s time to go home; I have officially been here for 12 hours.

Did ministry happen today?  Were people changed because of my walk with God?  Did I change the world?  The answer can sometimes be a resounding NO.

Every once in a while after a busy day of modern ministry, I will think about my father-in-law.  He’s been working the same job for over 20 years, going to the same church for over 40 years, and teaching the same Sunday school class for over 15 years.  He teaches the 1^st and 2^nd grade class in his church using Sunday school curriculum that came out in the 1980’s; I’m pretty sure he is still using felt boards too.  I know for a fact they don’t have a video projector for his class; I also know that the room is painted with institutional white paint, and the room has no decorations except for a few cheesy posters from a local Bible bookstore.   He has on average 4-6 students on any given Sunday.  The only reason they have even that many is because the church sends a van to go across the street to pick up kids from an apartment complex.  For years I thought this was a waste of time and resources; why do something so minimal when there are more opportunities now than ever before to conduct “effective” ministry?  My thinking was seriously flawed.

After a few years of hard work in ministry, I began to realize where I was missing it: If I would spend more time on my face asking God to move and less time twittering, then my need for curb appeal would diminish. Participating in the simple, ancient practice of prayer on a daily basis will give us the influence, relevance and effectiveness our ministries desperately need.

So, am I completely contradicting and hypocritical?  Am I saying one thing and doing another?  Yes, I am doing just that; I am, somewhat, scorning postmodern ministry while partaking in it everyday. I am pursuing God and pursuing relevance simultaneously.  I’ve come to the realization that ministry can be a balance of a pursuit of relevance and an authentic pursuit of a personal, growing relationship with God.

We don’t have to compete with the latest Hillsong DVD every time we have a church service.  We don’t have to beat our heads into a wall trying to figure out how to get to the top, reach the potential we know we have, put our church on the map, and see our generation reached.  We must allow God to be the source of all creativity, relevance and effectiveness.  WE MUST DEPEND ON HIM!

The cost of effective ministry is obedience to God’s will in our lives.  Obedience is the key, not relevance.  What has God called you to do?