Hey guys, I just got back from the willow arts conference in Chicago. Since I can't take all of you there, I'm bringing it here to you. Here are some highlights. What are your favorite quotes? What do you agree with with? Disagree with? What makes you excited?
Wednesday, Session One: Nancy Beach "We are called to be faithful, not to produce results.
True worship should always result in a fresh surrender to God.
We need to stay so atuned to the holy spirit that we come away with a new song. We aren't creating enough new songs these days.
Don't paint a partial picture of who God is. Are you telling the whole story?
God loves the church more than we do, and he wants his bride to be beautiful."
Nancy Beach
"If we are not careful, you and I will begin to do ministry out of memory than imagination." Mark Batterson
Session Two: Cirque Du Soleil, Giles Ste-Croix"Sometimes it's our job is to slow you down and sometimes to put a fire under your butt, so be prepared.
It's a very fragile process that depends on people working together . . . also a very organic process, a milestrom of ideas. After 25 years, we kind of know what doesn't work, but it's fun to discover what does."
Fighting gravity is a form of art." Giles Ste.-Croix
Session Three: Brian McLaren"The gospel just comes bubbling up when good art happens." Robbie Seay
"Where you live should not determine whether you live." Bono
"Religious leaders love to use religion to legitimize the status quo. The church was not meant to steal people away from the world to play our own intramural sports like some game of theological football. I line up my verses. You line up yours. We say 'hut!' and watch to see who wins. We need to be careful not to let our theology be held captive to anyone's ideology." Brian McLaren
"We vote every single day by how we use our wallets." Trade as One and Paralta reps.
"I don't think we'll make poverty history until we make poverty personal . . . so we seek ways to stir human emotion that leads to inconvenient thought that leads to stirring action. You've all made the church better because of your art. Maybe it's time for the church to realize its reponsibility for a better world because of your church." Brian McLaren
Thursday: Theatre Breakouts
"In drama, there's more than one right answer, so just try the next one." Rod Armentrout
"We're not here to get a message across, it's to connect to eachother so the audience connects to Christ." Mark Demmel
Friday: Session One: Richard Allen Farmer"I've been everybody else but now I want to be something closer to myself." Kendall Payne
"I've never had to pray for clarity, what I pray for is trust." Mother Theresa
"What I love about us artists is our insatiable curiosity. We won't take 'yes' for an answer. If curiosity is a disease, I'm not interested in being cured. If you look inside the heads of artists, you'll find questions that hang like tapestries.
Welcome the friction. Pair odd bedfellows until they work. Friction is not merely tolerated; it's encouraged. It's invited to take off its shoes and sit a spell.
I see the pen and the lips. Artists should know how to use them well. Empty speech is vain repetition. It's time to ask ourselves if we draw away from the truth of God's word by the laziness of our own. God's word itself is a work of art. We are not religious! It's better than that! We are lovers of God in Christ!"
Richard Allen Farmer
Friday: Final Session: Francis Chan"It's sin if we don't give God something excellent by the end of the day.
After every service I have to ask myself was it really God showing up or just manipulation? I don't want people to walk away in awe of me; they need to be in awe of Him. I'm bored with what I know I can do. Do you think everyone walked away from Pentecost saying 'Man, that John guy is awesome!' I'm not up here by myself right now. Don't you want people to leave your church and say 'there's no way that was them!'?
Do you ever see butterflies rolling around in the mud like their caterpillar days? Me either, because they don't. You're a different person now because of God's holy spirit living inside you. Don't be a butterfly crawling in the mud."
