At Seeds Conference, Andrew Tremonti of Church on the Move (Tulsa, OK), discussed teaching 4 and 5 year olds.

Sometimes the biggest challenge to teaching is kids’ imaginations.

However, you can use their imaginations to your advantage. Kids are going to use their imaginations. So rather than letting them daydream, ask them to imagine with you. Take them new places.

Further Reading:
2012 Church Conference Calendar

At Seeds Conference, Whitney George of Church on the Move (Tulsa, OK), Pace Hartfield of Fellowship Church (Grapevine, TX), and Marty Taylor of Northland, A Church Distributed (Orlando, FL) gave a behind the scenes discussion of how they lead their creative arts teams.

WG: It is not so much about what you do as who you are. What are the personalities like that make up your creative team? Those personalities will shape your art.

MT: Each week, we focus on some specific attribute of God and we connect that attribute to some type of call & response for the church to act on that week.

MT: We don’t ever buy anything just because it’s cool. We buy something because it will help the message.

WG: You don’t do all the lights for the sake of lights. You do it to create environments for worship. God did the same for us when He created a beautiful environment for us to worship in.

PH: And sometimes creating the environment means turning the technology off. Sometimes that is most powerful.

WG: It is about using it in the right way. You always want to keep at the heart of what you are doing, “What am I trying to say?”

WG: When we opened our new auditorium, we asked, “What is the appropriate response?” We thought up a lot of crazy ideas but decided that the appropriate response to launching a new auditorium is worship.

MT: We find out 6 weeks out what a weekend will be and start planning.

PH: We plan 10 weeks to a week out, and sometimes start planning 6 months in advance. We start with whomever will be teaching. Ed Young Jr. will do a mind dump and journaling, and the create planning team will read it all. Then we meet as a group to talk it out. We leave more on the cutting room floor then in the final sermon.

PH: To as best you can, match the leadership style of your pastor. When your pastor feels that support, he will trust you more.

WG: I have to remember that God didn’t call me to run Church on the Move. He called me to serve Church on the Move. You have to make sure that mindset is aligned if you want to be creative.

WG: One of the main things about collaboration is that when start going up, you will see the fruits of that, the disjointedness, showing up on stage. The tech guys and the media guys and the worship guys need to be able to speak into the lives and process of everyone around them.

WG: During rehearsals, we have someone always watching it who is not doing it. That kind of feedback in the time you are putting it together is critical to a great worship environment.

PH: We always have to keep one hand free to adjust for what God wants. You have to be careful to never spiritualize your laziness. Don’t do things on the fly. God is in the details.

MT: I think the approach is greatly affected by how you view the video and the lighting and everything. If you look at the lighting as just another tool, as another worship leader, then it helps to evaluate if it is working together.

WG: Stop thinking of worship as one thing and lighting as one thing and production guys as one thing. They are all one thing together. They are all communication.

WG: Honor and serve. Start honoring the sound man. He is as much of the process as the person on stage. Serving them means respecting their process and putting yourself in their shoes. That relationship is essential.

Further Reading:
2012 Church Conference Calendar

At Seeds Conference, Mark Rutland of Oral Roberts University (Tulsa, OK) discussed the language of God.

Communication is the right message to the right party in the right way at the right time. If you get any part of that wrong, and you get all of it wrong. Communication is a wonderland.

Did you know God has a communications problem? The problem is us.

There is nothing wrong with the transmitter just the receiver. We do not speak God’s native language. What is the native language of God? It is not Hebrew or Spanish or even tongues. God speaks God.

The communication problem of God is He is communicating His essential truth to a world of broken receivers.

What God sent into this world was His Word. His Word became flesh. The miracle was the incarnation. God in flesh. God with flesh. And the flesh was the problem because when God became a human, He looked human. In fact, the Bible says He was unattractive.

The divinity of Christ is very comforting to us, but the humanity of Christ sets us on edge. Unless Christ was a baby that cries and is human then how could He ever relate to mankind?

When Christ was born, He didn’t think cognitively as an infant. He did not think about being the preexisting coexistant second part of the trinity. Christ had to grow into that. The Bible says that Christ grew in favor with man and with God. And as Christ grew, He began to remember He is God. He began to think in the language of God.

When Christ uses human language to explain the complex concepts from the language of God, people have trouble understanding. “Let the dead bury the dead.”

What confuses people isn’t that Christ can do miracles but that He can sweat. Everybody knows that God can raise the dead, but can God sweat? That is what some struggle to believe.

After Jesus was resurrected, He frequently talked about the Kingdom (of God), but they thought He is talking about the Davidic kingdom. The communication problem was Christ was talking about Kingdom while they were thinking kingdom. Not kingdom but Kingdom. Human words are imperfect for communication ideas from the language of God.

We struggle for these words. We struggle to communicate.

Christ asked the disciples if they wanted power. They said, “Yes.” But Christ says, “No, you will not receive power. You will not receive power but power. You will receive power from the Holy Spirit.”

The church has struggled for 2,000 years to understand the difference between power and power. The church needs to operate in the right power. The church needs to understand the language of God.

Do not confuse your own ego with the mind of God.

God will give you power, but it will not be power to build your kingdom. God will give you power to yield, power to submit, and power to die to oneself.

Further Reading:
2012 Church Conference Calendar

At Seeds Conference, Gabe George of Church on the Move (Tulsa, OK) discussed 7 steps to great volunteers.

If you want to develop great volunteers, follow these steps.

1. What is your mission?
   For us, children’s ministry is about the kids. If any decision conflicts with that statement, the right answer is clear.
2. Get your systems in order.
   If you want people who are sharp and capable, you have to have your systems in order. If people come to serve and see gaping holes in how you do things, they may defect not because they don’t care but because it looks like you don’t. Volunteers like to know their place. Systems provide that. Church needs to be safe. Systems provide that. If you don’t have systems, you are asking for it.

Those are two things that I think must be done before you ever ask for volunteers. Here is what you do after you’ve got the basics covered.

1. Cast the vision.
   People don’t respond to needs. They respond to vision. Vision captures people. When you are dealing with volunteers, you must cast the vision often, often, often. A  lot of our vision is systems.
2. Have a code of ethics.
   A code of ethics is a list that covers anything that is a deal breaker about serving. And we have volunteers sign the code of ethics in front of a pastor. You determine what this is for you. Clear guidelines make it easy to enforce expectations.
3. Deal with problems.
   You can not be afraid to deal with problems. And problems come from people. It is difficult to look at someone and say, “I’m sorry. This isn’t working.” As Joyce Meyer says, “Do it afraid!” if necessary. You need to realize that you are part of something that is bigger than you. You have to be bold.
4. Put them in the right spot.
   Volunteers all have different kinds of gifts. You have the ones who want to stay behind the scenes and the ones who want the microphone. The funny thing is not all of the people who want the microphone should have the microphone. Our kids are not lab rats for you to develop yourself as a speaker.
5. Be followable.
   There is one thing I’ve seen a lot of in children’s ministry, and it is the guy in the room that others can’t relate to and say, “Well, he is the kids guy.” You don’t have to be corny. You can teach with authority. Just because you teach kids, doesn’t mean that you have to act like you are a child. There is a place for that, but more importantly, you need to be followable. Children’s ministry needs leaders. Children’s ministry needs men (and I think the women agree). And if you want men to volunteer, you need to act like a man. I’ve learned that you can reach kids better if you just act like a man. So ask if you are someone who can be followed. You can’t just be a friend.

That is how we do it at Church on the Move.

Further Reading:
2012 Church Conference Calendar

At Seeds Conference, Whitney George of Church on the Move (Tulsa, OK) discussed building a culture of creativity.

When most people think of creativity, they think of artists. But really that is an incomplete definition because you can be creative at anything – mathematics, engineering, parenting.

Creativity at its core is really nothing than solving a problem of some sort. We all have the capacity to be a creative person.

But creativity for artists comes with unique challenges.

As artists, our challenge, our problem, is one of communication. If you think about it, all art is communication. Often, it communicates feeling.

The power of the arts is it can take you places that you didn’t know you can go. It can communicate things that you otherwise cannot.

When you think about the Great Commission, our responsibility is to communicate the gospel. And as artists, we communicate the gospel through the arts.

So how do you build a culture of creativity? Ask yourself these four questions:

QUESTION #1 – Have you given the right people a voice?

If you want young people to buy into your church, give them a voice.

That doesn’t mean ask anyone. Find a young person who has a relationship with your church and genuinely cares. You don’t have to take every single suggestion. But it matters to listen. When you show that you care about what they think, then they will go to town to work for you.

If you want to build a culture of creativity, you must continually find new people, give them a voice, and give them an opportunity to serve. Like attracts like, so get great people.

QUESTION #2 – Have you got the right people on the team?

The idea of the lone genius is actually a myth (research proven). Creativity always works best in groups. Where people often have pitfalls is not willingness to do something but rather choosing the right people for their team.

Avoid These People

• Avoid people who cause tension.
  Tension is the biggest enemy to the creative process because tension makes our guard go up. Sometimes the senior pastor creates tension because of his position of authority.
• Avoid people who dominate the conversation.
• Avoid people who don’t participate.
  If you aren’t going to engage the conversation, there is no point in you being in the room.
• Avoid people who always agree.
  You need people who will ask the tough questions.

Get These People

• Get people who have a selfless heart for the church.
  They may not have the best ideas at first, but they give themselves. You want people who use their talents and gifts to build the church and not people who use the church to build their talents and gifts.
• Get people who have familiarity with each other.
  Familiarity breeds comfort with each other.
• Get people who move the conversation forward.

QUESTION #3 – Have you put in the time?

There is nothing sexy about creativity and the creative process. There are hundreds of decisions to come up with a result that looks like a genius idea. Creativity works in really small sparks.

Creativity is horribly inefficient. That’s okay. It is like that for everyone. When people do anything very well, they make it look easy.

QUESTION #4 – Are you ready to just do it?

Don’t get hung up wondering “How?” Just do something. Take the first step.

What God has called you to do, He has also given you the grace to do.

Further Reading:
2012 Church Conference Calendar

At Seeds Conference, Ed Young Jr. of Fellowship Church (Grapevine, TX) discussed 11 statements for creative change.

Anytime there is change, there is creativity. Creativity and change are inseparably linked. When you change, often it is an innovation or something different.

I believe that God is cheering to us, “You’ve got it! Now use it!”

Some of us deny having the ability to be creative, but that is not true. God made us unique. And He wants us to be who He planned for us to be individually and collectively.

Here are some creative statements that God has brought forward in Ed Young Jr’s life and in the leadership culture at Fellowship Church.

#1 – You be you.

In every area, be yourself. Do not try to be like any other minister. Do not try to be like any other church.

#2 – Work for the weekend.

The weekend is the most important thing we do in the church. So goes the week, so goes the weekend. So goes the weekend, so goes the week. If you make the weekend the thing, most people show up on the weekend, and you can connect with them there. Creativity is stopping something and starting something else. Why should the church be boring? It shouldn’t. So the weekend is where you can be creative. So often the small tweaks will take you to the giant peaks.

#3 – Have a seat at the table.

At the head of the table is the pastor with the food. The first chair is for people who do not know Christ. If your church is doing what it is supposed to do, then 1/3 of the church should be lost. Chair 2 is baby Christians (another 1/3). The third chair should be mature followers of Christ who share and serve (the last 1/3).

#4 – Sign up for group therapy.

Creativity is best done in a group. Everyone is a creative genius, so in a group, there is no telling what creative thing will come up. Critique while you are planning. Critique while you create. Play idea ping pong. You will not believe the ideas that go back and forth.

#5 – Get your “ask” in gear.

Always seek knowledge. Some are afraid to ask questions because of insecurity. Don’t be afraid. When you talk, there is a rhythm. You need to talk then ask then listen. We ask two questions in our creative process: (1) What if? and (2) What is? Delegation without investigation is an abomination. What if? plans the thing. But What is? investigates the thing. Also ask, “Who am I reaching?”

#6 – Hire “yes” men and “yes” women.

“Y” stands for yielded to God. “E” stands for encouraging. “S” stands for strong. The with you’s help you. The for you’s cheer for you. And the use you’s make you think they are with you, but they really use you and abuse you. When you let God take care of haters, He will take you to a whole ‘nutha level.

#7 – Get on the stairmaster.

Everytime you ask the right people the right questions to get the right answers, you will ask a lot of the wrong people, too. So you are always climbing. You are always moving.

#8 – Become a creative criminal.

Steal ideas unashamedly. Rip them off. Of course, make them your own. God gave you eyes… plagiarize.

#9 – Surf the wave.

Fade awaves are the waves that hit the coastline of our conscious and then fade away. Try to harness your creative ideas. Build in rest periods during the day.

#10 – Go through labor and delivery.

You’ve got conception (getting the idea). You’ve got pregnancy (incubate the idea). You’ve got to give birth. The reason many churches die and lose their creativity is they forget about the lost person.

#11 – Join the comedy club.

The majority of our creative ideas come out of laughter. You have to build in blocks of time to laugh and create. And if laughter doesn’t work, argue! Debate it out if necessary.

You’ve got creativity. Now use it!

Further Reading:
2012 Church Conference Calendar

Tonight I am driving to Tulsa, OK to live blog Church on the Move’s Seeds Conference over the next few days.

Church on the Move originally earned a reputation for practical yet creative children’s ministry then did the same in youth ministry and now is turning a lot of heads with their creative arts department.

To get an idea of the type of transformation that Church on the Move has undergone, look at the stark contrast between their worship services in 2002 versus today.

CHURCH ON THE MOVE in 2002

Watch a video of Church on the Move in 2002.

CHURCH ON THE MOVE in 2010/2011

CWF 2010 :: The Story of Christmas + The Father’s Heart + O Holy Night

IWANM – The Wedding

CWF 2010 :: The Grinch + Thriller

KOTM Live!

CWF 2010 :: Drummer Boy + Deck The Halls + The Grinch + Thriller

To learn about the principles and practical how-to’s behind Church on the Move’s approach to ministry, stay tuned for my live blogging notes from the Seeds Conference over the next few days.

Further Reading:
2012 Church Conference Calendar

The creators of Q Conference have released 4 small group studies called Q Society Room.

This is my favorite small group curriculum thus far. It is a good balance of compelling content, beautiful graphics, user friendly length. It is also quite versatile and can stand alone as just a DVD curriculum or be extended with participant guides that help engage the small group around the topic. Each DVD lesson uses  If I had to nitpick, the conversations among a small group of experts at the beginning of each DVD lesson occasionally come across as staged and unnatural. But reality is these small group studies really are close to perfect.

THE WHOLE GOSPEL’s lessons include:
Get the DVD
Get the Participant’s Guide

1. Reframing the Gospel by Tim Keel
   Tim Keel of Laidlaw College’s School of Mission and  Ministry (Auckland, New Zealand) discusses the nature of the gospel message and challenges us to get a better picture of the gospel by returning to the Bible and, specifically, the Old Testament that shaped Jesus’ worldview.
2. Spiritual Conversations by Ron Martoia
   Author Ron Martoia discusses the ways we view God and how that influences the conversations we have.
3. Cultural Commission by Charles Colson
   Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries discusses the Bible’s holistic worldview and how it addresses God’s redemption of entire systems and cultures in the world.
4. To Write Love on Her Arms by Jamie Tworkowski
   What is love and its role in the church? Discuss this and hear Jamie Tworkowski’s about To Write Love on Her Arms.
5. Culture Shaping Project and Debrief
   Go on an outreach project with your small group. Ideas include helping widows, mentoring and tutoring, or visiting a prison.

THE SPIRITUALITY OF SCIENCE’s lessons include:
Get the DVD
Get the Participant’s Guide

1. The Language of God by Dr. Francis Collins
   Dr. Francis Collins of the Human Genome Project discusses the relationship between our two sources of knowledge – nature and the Bible.
2. Science and Faith at Odds? by Alister McGrath
   Theologian Alistar McGrath discusses if the natural sciences challenge the Christian faith and how our interpretation of Scripture affects this.
3. What Every Christian Could Learn from a Scientist by Catharine  Crouch
   Catharine  Crouch of Swarthmore College shares what the principles about understanding the world and faith in God that she learned from studying light emissions from individual tiny semiconductor particles known as nanocrystals.
4. Indescribable Wonder by Louie Giglio
   Louie Giglio discusses why he believes that Christians should be proponents of scientific discovery.
5. Culture Shaping Project and Debrief
   Take on a project with your small group. Ideas include meeting a professor, hosting a screening, or volunteer to care for creation.

WHERE YOU LIVE MATTERS’ lessons include:
Get the DVD
Get the Participant’s Guide

1. Grace of the City by Tim Keller
   Tim Keller of  Redeemer Presbyterian Church (New York, NY) suggests that every Christian who desires to be a culture-shaper should consider living in an urban context.
2. From the Garden to the City by Mel McGowan
   Urban designer Mel McGowan discusses how the meaning of community has been lost as well as how what we create and do today brings goodness and restoration to our cities that will endure in eternity.
3. The Future of the Suburbs by Joel Kotkin
   Joel Kotkin of Chapman University discusses the growth, future growth, and influence of the suburbs in American life.
4. Grace in and for the City by Tim Keller
   Tim Keller of  Redeemer Presbyterian Church (New York, NY) distinguishes the differences between cities and suburbs and why Christians should consider the benefits of living, working, and ministering in the city.
5. Culture Shaping Project and Debrief
   Go on a project with your small group. Ideas include supporting local businesses, police car ride-alongs or meet with the mayor.

ENGAGING POST-CHRISTIAN CULTURE’s lessons include:
Get the DVD
Get the Participant’s Guide

1. A New Mission to the West by Os Guinness
   Philosopher Os Guinness discusses the colossal changes that have taken place and how they threaten our faith.
2. Renewing Cities Through Missional Tribes by Jon Tyson
   Jon Tyson questions if attempts to program community inside the church (i.e, small groups) are disconnected from the norms, values, and networks of our everyday lives.
3. Post-Christendom Mission by Alan Hirsch
   Alan Hirsch challenges us t reconsider our mission within the post-Christian West.
4. Why We Can’t Change the World by Andy Crouch
   What if we have gotten it wrong when it comes to how the world is changed? Andy Crouch offers a different perspective that tests our assumptions.
5. Culture Shaping Project and Debrief
   Conduct a project with your small group. Ideas include volunteer in your community, host a film screening, or throw a party that includes non-Christians.

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