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Posts tagged ‘re:create’

Feb 3

4 Comments

Journey to re:create ’09

Last year I had the opportunity to go to a worship arts conference called ‘re:create‘.  It was a great experience; it was the best thing I’ve attended during my 9 years of in worship ministry.  Read about that experience here.  

I knew I had to go back this year, and I knew Neil had to go with me. So we’re spending the week in Nashville with a group of 150 or so other worship arts leaders.  It made the most sense for us to drive, so we’ve made our way across several states over the past couple of days.  We missed the Super Bowl to do this.  I know. There were zero little smokies for us. I briefly considered a small crockpot in the back seat.

As Neil said, there are about 12 layers of goodness around this week.   He’s on vacation from work for a week.  He and I get to spend the week together.  We get to spend the week learning to know some great people.  In a great city.  Eating great food.  And all of that is in addition to the actual content of the conference, some of which we know about, and some of which is a surprise.  It’s part of the magic of re:create. It’s part think-tank, part rest, part resourcing, part inspiration, all creative.  Hopefully I will be able to write about it a bit throughout the week.  Many others will be writing as well.  If you follow me on twitter or facebook, you’ll see a flurry of updates I’m sure.

I’m thankful for a church leadership that values these kinds of experiences for staff. I’m grateful for Neil’s week of vacation.  And I’m in awe of the fact that my mom is living in our house this week to take care of our kids.   Oh, and I’m grateful you all got to eat your little smokies.  Really.

Feb 3

4 Comments

Journey to re:create ’09

Last year I had the opportunity to go to a worship arts conference called ‘re:create‘. 

It was a great experience; it was the best thing I’ve attended during my 9 years of in worship ministry.  Read about that experience here.  I knew I had to go back this year, and I knew Neil had to go with me.

So we’re spending the week in Nashville with a group of 150 or so other worship arts leaders.  It made the most sense for us to drive, so we’ve made our way across several states over the past couple of days.  We missed the Super Bowl to do this.  

I know. There were zero little smokies for us.

I briefly considered a small crockpot in the back seat.

As Neil said, there are about 12 layers of goodness around this week.   He’s on vacation from work for a week.  He and I get to spend the week together.  We get to spend the week learning to know some great people.  In a great city.  Eating great food.  And all of that is in addition to the actual content of the conference, some of which we know about, and some of which is a surprise.  It’s part of the magic of re:create.  It’s part think-tank, part rest, part resourcing, part inspiration, all creative. 

Hopefully I will be able to write about it a bit throughout the week.  Many others will be writing as well.  If you follow me on twitter or facebook, you’ll see a flurry of updates I’m sure.  

I’m thankful for a church leadership that values these kinds of experiences for staff. I’m grateful for Neil’s week of vacation.  And I’m in awe of the fact that my mom is living in our house this week to take care of our kids.  

Oh, and I’m grateful you all got to eat your little smokies.  Really.

Feb 27

3 Comments

Change or create?

At the re:create conference a few weeks ago, a brilliant pastor named Jon Tyson spoke these words: “As Christians, we’re not called to change the world, we are called to create culture.”

This sentence became a center around which many conversations were built that week. And I totally got it.

Back at home, I shared this idea with a few people and I was met with blank stares and mumbled forms of ‘what does THAT mean?’ Hmmmm….. I could recreate Tyson’s supporting ideas, but I couldn’t tell you what it really would look like to ‘create culture’. Carlos posted this quote on his blog, and a lively comment conversation has ensued. Go there if you’re up for some heady ‘purpose’ discussion.

After thinking it over, here’s where I’ve landed:
‘changing the world‘ looks, to me, like going out into our communities and saying ‘no’. No… don’t live like that….don’t think that way….. don’t vote/dance/eat/sing/parent/spend money that way…. you’re wrong, wrong, wrong (and sometimes we’ll throw things like tantrums and grenades to try to get our way).
‘creating culture’ looks like saying ‘yes’. Yes… I’m going to try living like this…. try thinking about life this way… do you want to join me in using money like this? what if art means something like this?

What do you think?

Feb 12

4 Comments

re:create day four, part 2

So, possibly I’m a bit behind with the updating.

The final full day of the re:create conference included a profound communion experience led by Mike Lewis, aka the jesus painter, and worship leader Mark Roach, who participated in the conference alongside us. Beautiful. Some of the things about this week that moved me were not surprising. Some were. The sound of 100 worship leaders singing together continually wrecked me. There were not egos in the way…. there was nothing flashy, ever. There were, instead, open conversations about struggling with self-worth…. struggling with giving quality time to our families…. struggling in our relationships with God. This allowed for immediate, heartfelt responses when we sang songs that exalted God while acknowledging the paradoxical nature of our willing brokenness.

We heard from Ken Davis, a hilarious communicator who very humbly advised us to pay attention three huge things in our journeys in ministry. Three things, by the way, that cleared up some of the main questions I had written for myself while traveling to the conference:
- the opportunity to be the best [mom, dad, husband, wife] God calls us to be (a window of opportunity, by the way, that is only open for a while)
- the opportunity to really see the ministry/career God has put right in front of you (as opposed to always striving for the next…. the bigger… the better)
- the opportunity to cultivate the relationship God wants to have with you (honesty, openness, and dependence)

So. Where are you in those three opportunities?
More later….

Feb 8

3 Comments

re:create day four, part 1


Summary?
Mark Roach Mark Stuart Jesus Painter Ken Davis wild Tennessee landscapes horses and a llama

Need more? Perspective posted a really great description of the events of the day.

I’ll submit part 2 tomorrow….

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