My Worship Revolution

Day two is over…here’s what it looked like:

Morning worship with Mark Roach

Dang it…i couldn’t get out of bed.  I’m sure it was great.

Dean Batali

Dean Batali hosted the first session this morning that lasted til lunch.  Dean is a writer in Hollywood who has worked on "That 70’s Show" and "Buffy" as well as some other shows.  Check out his bio to get more info.  As a Christian working on shows like these, you can see under his bio on the re:create blog that he catches some heat from Christians.  What was interesting is that he doesn’t fully disagree.  He says he doesn’t like these shows and in fact sees them as damaging to our culture, however he’d rather be there making some sort of difference rather than not. 

Dean is clearly very passionate about being a missionary in Hollywood as well as the need for us to reclaim the arts as Christians.  he points out that in order for us to make an impact in culture, we need to have somewhat of a voice in an industry that is responsible for shaping our culture.  We need to not throw out our televisions because there’s filth, rather we need to be knowledgeable about what others are watching.  And just about every story out there has a redeeming truth, although you may need to find your way past some of the crap to get to it.  The question becomes, "Where is the line of what is worth sifting through and what isn’t?"  (Great question, by the way.)

Before coming to Revolution I worked for a couple years in the entertainment industry.  Every time I have come to a crossroads in my life I have wrestled between a call to full time ministry and a passion to be a professional artist, rubbing shoulders with other artists who need Jesus, too.  I have several friends who work in Hollywood, many of who I now only have minimal My Space contact with.  Point it, I too have a strong desire to see Christ followers in the field more and nore, despite how difficult it can be, and much of what he had to say resonated deep with me.

Here’s a couple of good quotes from our conversation with Dean (keep in mind these are loose quotes cause I can only type so fast…and besides, I’m not a journalist.  You’ll get the point):

• Go to where the damage to the culture is being done and be a part of damaging that culture so that it may be redeemed or preserved.
• Salt is not meant to preserve or restore something, but rather to slow down the decay.
• “Compromise” is another word Christians need to reclaim.  It isn’t always such a dirty, horrible word.
• We seem to think that unless we’re getting these big victories we’re not being effective, but we can at least help to stop the decay.
• Where is the "Christian" Vagina monologues?  We need to go out into the culture and tell our stories in the arts.  (That one probably sounds a bit odd out of context, but I think you’ll get it.  If not, we can talk in the comments.)
• I like to ask groups, "How many people of you have watched something in the past month in TV or film that offended you?"  Then I’ll ask them, "How many of you prayed for Hollywood after seeing that?"

Good stuff.  Moving on.

Tim Hodge

Just in case you’re wondering, that isn’t him, it’s a picture he drew.  Tim Hodge is an illustrator who has worked with Disney and now with Big Idea.  He came to share with us the basics of storyboarding and how we could use that in our creative projects and meetings.

He had some interesting stuff and some good practical practices to share.  Unfortunately, he was right after lunch and a pretty mellow guy, and that combo made for a difficult time of sitting for a while.  Regardless though, i think I can come away with a couple of good rules to be thinking about in the future when we do video.

As a side note, I love modern technology!  Look at this picture and see how many computers you can find:

Correct answer is 6 (a few of them are tough to find, but they’re there.)  Of course, half of them are probably iChatting and e-mailing.

Dinner

Yup MORE food…and GOOD!!  We had dinner at a place called Saffire.  Cool vibe good food.

And here’s me and Bobby.  Yeah, B squared, Bobby to the second power, Boobbies, whatever.  (Partial credit for name ideas going to John Voelz.)

What’s even crazier?  He is the pastor of Revolution at The Crossing Church.  Coincidence?

Tonight there were two awesome worship artists that played.  Check out a quick clip of Bebo Norman:

After Bebo was Jon Abel.  Jon’s written some great stuff, at least one of which you may have heard Chris Tomlin play, Awesome Is The Lord.

One thing that listening to these guys worship has definitely done is once again inspired me to really want to try writing something again.  I’ve wanted to in the past, but never really written anything cause for some reason it scares me to death.  One way I know I’ve been listening to a great singer/songwriter is it makes me want to go home and pour my own heart out into a song.

Anyway…day two rocked!  now I’m gonna go iChat with my wife and kid, watch last nights episode of 24 online, and go to bed so I don’t miss out on Mac Powell tomorrow morning.