Writings on the Wall

the full update + pics are up from our chicago trip! head over here to check it out!!

so the last day of the 2007 WCA Arts Conference was by far the best for me. donald miller and erwin mcmanus. money baby. so money. donald miller’s talk was called ‘on truth and meaning’ and i suggest you go grab that thing. i will not be able to communicate all that was there. the biggest idea that stuck with me is that we have lost a holistic understanding of truth. before the enlightenment and the printing press - the arts were used to communicate the truth, the art taught theology. in the enlightenment truth became limited - it became only scientific - only what we can ‘know’ and deduce. the printing press changed the way we knew truth - from holistic to only through words. and we took the part of our brain that experiences emotion and put it in our heart. we dont feel anything we our hearts, its all in the brain. man so good.

from there he talked about the mystery of love - how we really can’t explain it in a factual way - is mysterious and we are all ok with that. so the truth and meaning of love walk hand in hand. the reality of God is WAY BIGGER that we can explain with words - and that is beautiful and inspiring along with frustrating and hard. then he walked us through an explanation of the gospel through the eyes of romeo and juliet. holy crap. mind blowing - if you have read searching for God knows what then you know what i am talking about. i had read it and even heard him speak about it at south county united a while ago - but man, mr miller has really developed his voice and round 3 of this idea really blew me away. more on that later.

erwin and the mosaic team did a presentation of scribble and it was so good. a big thank you to them and it was a true gift to experience it!! the call to live our lives outside society’s lines of life was so powerful. good stuff. i would have loved to have erwin dive deeper and talk longer on some theological implications but oh well - maybe next year.

as we were leaving walking to our car, we all agreed that this year’s conference was so great. big ups to the arts conference staff - great great great job! looking foward to next year….

so we sucessfully made it to my aunt and uncle’s place this afternoon from the burbs and it has been a wonderful evening. i love these people. so real and so alive and so inspiring. not to mention we got invited to denia, spain tonight. oh yea - cant wait for that trip….

the last day of the arts conference was so great. i will post more details tomorrow - but it was amazing. i mean donald miller and erwin mcmanus - bound to make you think and blow your mind at the same time.

must say a quick ‘CONGRATS!’ to allie and matt. both got jobs and are settling in to portland. so stoked for you guys!

til next time…

so it was an early start and we all made an executive decision to for-go the earliest breakout and grub down at good ol apple villa. yum. nothing wrong with kona coffee and crabcake benedict. did i say yum?

then we headed to our second break out - got blog - which offered some good thought but was pretty basic. hindsight wish i wouldve gone to a weekend at wrigleyville. oh well - we will go there anyways on sat, the town that is…

after got blog it was lunch time, a little borders run where i swear i saw don miller - we shall see as he is speaking tomorrow - wonderful, yes. some pick ups this trip are as follows:

the jesus of suburbia

peppermint filled pinatas

soul cravings

the last breakout of the day was a behind the scenes look at how the delirious project from last year was put together and edited. pretty sweet i must say. took us right back to last year and made us want to go and watch the whole thing again. if you havent seen the dvd of delirious:live at willow you need to. great stuff.

after delirious it was dinner time at fridays then back to willow for the first ever film festival. good stuff - i think radkey could have held is own for sure, maybe even won some stuff. the man is gifted. maybe next year he can submit something, this year just a few churches were chosen. all in all great material - mostly announcement/sermon support/story stuff - not really any short films - hopefully they can expand to some other stuff - i’m sure they will.

i must say the conference this year has been so great. after last year i swore never to return - but man - this year is great - from the schedule to the line-up. tomorrow is the last day and we will hear don miller in the morning and erwin right before lunch. oh yes.

btw - saw nathan today wandering the halls! whooo hooo! so so great to see him - cant wait to see what he has to offer with the mosaic arts team tomorrow.

shalom friends.

so after our horrible night last night with the hotel (see below) we got up and headed out to willow to register and get the party started. our first session was with dewitt jones and he spoke on creativity, finding new perspectives, giving ourselves away and celebrating what is right with the world. man i need more of that. actually both of them - giving myself away and celebrating what is right with the world instead of wallowing in what is wrong. he also talked about the one breath meditation - take it all in, then give it all back. man - that resonated with me big time. oh yea - also before him was a little dc*b and it was so great. i had heard bits and pieces of ‘oh the glory of it all’ - but experiencing it live was so great. what a great tune.

session two was nancy beach and she talked about hope. more great stuff. encouraging us to be human - and to tell the truth through human experiences. also, we got to hear some more stuff from the bono interview from leadership summit and it was so great. bono said that we must write songs that make attempts to wrestle truth to the ground. to be honest and not fake. he said that most gospel music seemed fake to him - without much tension. great words. inspired me to want to write more out of that tension and continue to be honest and human and not some ‘fake’ user of words that aren’t real. also - for all of us cynics out there - here is this nugget: cynicism lacks courage. ouch. good words. but tough to hear. then she ended with talking about how we tend to play judge and not just love. emphasizing that jesus said he came to save the world, not condemn it. so should we. be part of saving this planet - all of God’s creation - celebrating what is right with the world. to not get so caught up in the bubble and not have any real connection with those ‘not of the way’. so so good.

session 3 was dan kimball and a panel and it was boring. also, hard to be the session after lunch as well. anyways - he talked about his newest book - how people love jesus but not the church. gave a bunch of stats and realities of what people think of ‘christians’. stuff that is fresh in my mind and good reminders - but nothing of too much substance.

dinner followed - always great to hang and talk about the day. then a pre-screening of evan almighty which was freaking hilarious. seriously steve carell is the man.

now - bedtime. shalom.

so we made it. picked up radkey and heather and we are here at the WORST HOTEL IN THE UNIVERSE!!! NEVER STAY at the hilton garden inn in hoffman estates. i repeat NEVER STAY at the hilton garden inn hoffman estates. take that suckas.
off to register and be in a better mood than last night…

so we are back in cary - hanging out at mom and pops after a wonderful time at ocean isle beach. seriously amazing. pics coming soon. so at the beach i was able to tear through 2 books - a thousand splendid suns and the children of hurin. a thousand splendid suns was amazing - if you have read kite runner than you know. the book was a great read - incredibly hard to read at times - but so so great. the tolkien novel was ok - somewhat predictable - and at times really didnt feel like him. but also a good story none-the-less. now i am on to my name is asher lev. man, i love fiction.

we are heading to visio dei tomorrow morning - cant wait. give some lovin to gore and jeff. i am pumped to  see visio dei and its progress from the hungry days. should be awesome! then on tues we head out to chi-town for a little arts conference loving and hanging with fam. hoping to mix in a cubs game as well - we shall see.

shalom.

yep - we are heading on vacation for 2 and 1/2 weeks!! woo hoo! this couldnt come at a better time for amanda and i - lots to think about. we are heading to NC for a week at the beach. i CANNOT wait. we are heading here :

for a week. oh yea.
then from there we are hitting up chicago for a few days for the willow creek arts conference - don miller, erwin mcmanus, david crowder - good times.

cant wait for this time away - i will keep the updates coming as much as possible. til then…