foolishnotions.net

…for my honey, the student.

[sigh]

i’m so happy for him.

so, this is my thursday creative chaos contribution.
go pay the ragamuffin a visit to see even more chaos!

for those of you who know me from a distance, my references to the work i do at glory academy of fine arts may be a little confusing. i work for the rock, right? yes. well, i also work for glory academy of fine arts. here you go – - in a nutshell…

• glory academy of fine arts (gafa) is a non-profit fine arts academy.
• gafa is an outreach of the rock. we share the same building and we share the same core vision, but we are technically separate…. it’s a fine line, really. basically, we have a fully functioning school in our church complete with it’s own staff (some of which also work for the rock).
• i work for the rock and for gafa, doing pretty much the same thing… graphic design, web, sound, lights, video – basically if it has a button or a chord i’m in charge of making sure it’s doing what it’s supposed to. i get two different paychecks… but if you look at my weekly task list it’s pretty much a mishmash of the two jobs.
• gafa’s largest division is dance, but they also provide instruction in music, creative writing and drama and have plans to expand into other divisions such as art, graphic design and so on.

so, does that make more sense?

ok – - it’s may. and every may is the glory academy of fine arts annual production. this is no dance recital. it is an original full length production complete with lights, haze, set design, costumes, make-up and bobby-pins. lots and lots of bobby-pins! it is the fruit of an entire season of praying, brainstorming, planning, rehearsing, meeting, writing, communicating with parents, coordinating volunteers, creating sets, choosing costumes, make-up and crazy eye-lashes [gasp]. our goal each year is to communicate God’s love for humanity through the arts. our goal each year is to reach the lost with God’s creative genius. it all starts in august and after the 3rd week in may, we all collapse in a heap of physically spent creative bliss. and on june 1st we all can’t resist thinking about what next year’s theme will be.

last year our theme was ‘seasons’. it was a powerful depiction of the season’s we go through in life and in our pursuit of God set against a backdrop of spring, summer, fall, winter…. and then spring again. leaving everyone expectant of another year of growth, excitement, harvest and strengthening. it was absolutely amazing.

this year our theme is ‘creation’. i have been feverishly cutting music, pulling together video elements and learning our new lighting system. the costumes have been coming in and alterations are underway. the backdrop was delivered early – so we get a little extra time to experiment.

i am excited every year but this year is different for me. i really think this one is going to be my favorite ever. i love the creativity of God. and nothing illustrates it better than this beautiful earth he fashioned out of the love of His heart in just 7 days. and this year God has blessed us with a brand new lights of our very own. no more renting!!!!

the rock and glory academy have a deep desire to redeem excellence in art back to the Creator and to equip people, young and old, physically and spiritually to use the talents God has blessed them with as a tool to spread God’s love. the installation of our new lights has been a difficult transition for some in our church. there has been concern about where we are headed with all of this new technology. are we trying to put on a show each sunday? are we exalting technology over worship? no, the heart and vision of the rock is the same as it has been for years… to make a difference in wilmington. to be effective in reaching this community teaming with such rich creativity, we need first and foremost to know our Father’s heart for his people; to reach this community of artists we need to speak their language; and, to be truly effective in our efforts we must add to our genuine worship – excellence. this is why, for us, these new lights are not only important – - but absolutely essential to accomplishing what God has set us here to do in wilmington. i am so excited to be right in the middle of it.

if you live within driving distance of the rock, don’t miss ‘creation’. friday, may 16th at 7pm, or saturday, may 17th at 3pm. go get your tickets today.

this past sunday was one of the most historic days in the history or the rock. if you don’t know what i’m talking about, you can read about it here, or listen to the podcast here. we have been getting a lot of supportive feedback from our church family, and pastor ron has been diligently sharing the encouraging words and emails with the rest of the staff. one particular response he forwarded to us made me wish he had a blog so everyone could read it. so i asked him if he would allow me to post it as a guest post on foolishnotions. he said yes .

i love the heart of my pastors. they are some of the most wise, genuine, compassionate, generous people i have ever met. it is an honor to serve them and i hope i grow up to be a lot like them. you could comment here but i would rather you email your encouraging words directly to…

pastor ron – ron [at] rockwilmington.com
pastor norma – norma [at] rockwilmington.com
pastor bryan – bryan [at] rockwilmington.com
jennifer – jennifer [at] rockwilmington.com

and now… pastor ron. enjoy.

Bold faith is not often easy or peaceful because it always stretches us far beyond our comfort zones and moves us from the realm of the known into the unknown. The announcement Sunday was a bold faith move for me filled with a lot of yet unknown things. In some ways it was scarier than moving my family to Wilmington 19 ½ years ago when we knew no one here.

These are the known components of this move for me:

1. It is the right thing to do
2. This is the right time to do it
3. It is the word of the Lord to me
4. It is necessary for this church to be relevant and effective in the 21st Century

These are the unknown components of this move for me:

1. I don’t know what the final picture will look like for me, my family or this church
2. I don’t know who or how many will embrace this bold step of faith and move forward with us to impact our city, nation and the world in the 21st Century
3. I don’t know who or how many will not choose or be able to go with us
4. I don’t know how the city God has called us to make a difference in will react

As I have compared the two lists and asked the Lord to help me put all of this in proper perspective, this is what He has shown me. The unknown components are scary, but the known components are powerful, awesome and incredible! Bold faith requires me to embrace the known and release the unknown back into the hands of the God who called us here almost 20 years ago. Then, the known list was about the same as it is now, but the unknown list was long and much more intimidating.

But God was faithful, has continued to be faithful and will be faithful yet again.

I love God too much to not do this. I love my family too much not to do this. I love this church and the wonderful people who call me pastor too much not to do this. I love the lost too much not to do this

Fasten your seatbelt. It’s going to be an exciting ride!

Make Every Day a Great Day!
Pastor Ron

my brain is mush from learning all this light stuff. and, 20 minutes ago i pulled out our super duper new portable recorder to hook up. that should be easy enough, right?

holy smokes! i think this thing could get up, lead us in worship and then preach our sunday message for us! it has a ton of really fun features. i know. i know. just hook the thing up and get it recording. learn the fun stuff later. but, what fun is that? i mean this thing even has p-h-a-n-t-o-m p-o-w-e-r.

oh, alright… just the basics.

you know the funny thing i have found out about myself while on this little learning binge? i have found that the rest of my brain goes into moron mode. seriously. i have asked some of the most obvious, easy questions e-ver. people have been looking at me like, did you seriously just ask that question?

lol. the path to humility is humbling.