Bizarre Bible Tales

A ton of geeks like me use a service called del.icio.us. One of the most popular bookmarks today is an article called “Top Ten Bizarre Biblical Tales“. It’s written in an exremely pejorative way, however it is good for us Christians to see and know how people see the scriptures. I often think that the internet community is one of the least reached people groups around. I would be interested if anyone has any ideas how to reach some of the different internet communities. Some answers I will not accept are:

1. GodTube
2. Posting Christian art on strangers MySpaces (see below)
3. Any Christian Parody Video 1 2
4. Send out hateful press releases.

Come Alive Poster

We just finished the poster for Area 32 and wanted to share it with everyone. We designed this as a take home for the students, it corrilates with their current series “Come Alive.” We have posted a good amount on Area 32 so far and if you are tired of only hearing about them call us up and let us partner with your church. It’s shameless plug I know, but I had to do it.

Here is the text from the poster so you can read it. They did a great job gathering these verses, very powerful.

I am God’s child  John 1:12 I am Christ’s friend  John 15:5 I have been justified  Romans 5:1 I am united with the Lord, and I am one spirit with Him  1 Corinthians 6:17 I have been bought with a price. I belong to God  1 Corinthians 6:19-20 I am a member of Christ’s Body  1 Corinthians 12:27 I am a saint, a holy one  Ephesians 1:1 I have been adopted as God’s child  Ephesians 1:5 I have direct access to God through thE Holy Spirit  Ephesians 2:18 I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins  Colossians 1:14 I am complete in Christ  Colossians 2:10 I am assured that all things work together for good  Romans 8:28 I am free from any condemning charges against me  Romans 8:31-34 I cannot be separated from the love of God  Romans 8:35-39 I have been established, anointed and sealed by  God  2 Corinthians 1:21-22 I am hidden with Christ in God  Colossians 3:3 I can find grace and mercy to help in time of need  Hebrews 4:16 I am born of God and the evil one cannot touch me  1 John 5:18 I renounce the lie that I am worthless, inadequate, helpless or hopeless. In Christ I am significant. God says: I am the salt of the earth and the light of the world  Matthew 5:13-14 I am a branch of the true vine, Jesus, a channel of His life  John 15:1,5 I have been chosen and appointed by God to bear fruit  John 15:16 I am a personal, Spirit-empowered witness of Christ’s  Acts 1:8 I am a temple of God  1 Corinthians 3:16 I am a minister of reconciliation for God  2 Corinthians 5:17-21 I am God’s coworker  2 Corinthians 6:1 I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realm  Ephesians 2:6 I am God’s workmanship, created for good works  Ephesians 2:10 I may approach God with freedom and confidence  Ephesians 3:12 I am not the great “I AM” but by the grace of God I am who I am. 

Are You Awake?

There is a crack team of bloggers at work, reading, and reviewing “Are You Awake?”. It’s an eBook that I designed and illustrated using a sermon from this amazing pastor named J.C. Ryle, who died over one hundred years ago. I’ve been reading his sermons and books lately, and have been loving them. I’m working on the website, and it should be ready to go in the next week. If I get enough of a good response, I plan on making follow up books.

I first wrote about it a week ago, which seems like a long time because the blog has grown in size by 10 times in the last week. We love that people are joining the conversation, and helping us think about how to glorify God through art. We want to see churches change the way they think about design. It’s generally just wrapping paper on the rest of their production. We want to see people intentionally using every part of their skills and passions to point to our great God.

The Power of Numbers (or lack of)

I hear statistics and numbers regarding growing problems all the time. Aids, war, genocide and starvation fill the news with huge numbers of people suffering and dying, but for some reason it does not impact me as it should. I think the problem is that I am so callus to big numbers. What is 8 million today? Nothing to me—just a number. I saw these ads that successfully put gigantic numbers in perspective. Hiroshima x 40. The Titanic and World Trace Center x 2000. That imagery speaks to me, it places a face on a number. This is how I need to think.

Building the Bible

 
Keeping with the theme of great ways to illustrate the bible, check out The Brick Testament. The Brick Testament is the largest, most comprehensive illustrated Bible in the world with over 3,600 illustrations that retell more than 300 stories from The Bible.

I friend of ours used this to tell the Exodus story for his youth group, and it had to be one of the coolest things I have seen. Go to the site and look how many stories they have done and all the detail that has been put into this. Innovative, Relevant and Radical! 

Genesis 7:7,10 

 
Exodus 34:4 

Acts 14:8, 19 

God’s Eye View

An amazing way to tell Bible Stories, from satellite view…

I got this at the Creative Review.

At the Foot of the Cross

The Ark on Dry Land

Israel Crossing the Red Sea

You Can’t Spell Catechism Without ‘Tech’

Rick Warren is driven with purpose in this interview by Robert Scoble, who is a huge tech blogger. Let me tell you about Rick Warren’s design driven thinking.

Problem: Children in some countries of Africa can’t get an education because they have to spend all day collecting water, and firewood.

Solution: Give kids mp3 players that have lessons for them to learn downloaded on them.

Lesson: If they can’t or won’t come to you, you can go to them. Technology may be a good tool for that.

Ministry Growers has it’s deepest roots developing the early stages of the Purpose Drivn Life and 40 Days of Purpose back in 2000. We wanted to help more churches, but do to bureaucracy in churches it was super hard to make it cost effective. Then we started Ministry Growers with a system that works very smoothly. Our heart is to see God glorified through art!

via < Collide Magazine Blog < via < Dustin Dekoekkoek

The Revised Poster (of love)

First off, thank you all for the comments about this poster. I myself am truly encouraged by the response that it got and the discussions that it started. One thing that was pointed out is that it was too one sided, seemed like a hate list and could be read like that. When I created it that was not my intent nor did I see that. But in retrospect I can see how it could easy be read as such, so I revised the poster some. I did not change much, but what was changed I think solves that problem. I added “Televangelists” and “Republicans”. I want to point out that we are ALL SINNERS in need of Gods perfect grace. And we are called to LOVE ALL people, not just the ones that look good. The homosexual and republican should be treated with the same grace as God has given us.

Here is the link for the new poster. Pass this around, print it out, and start change now! 

Download the Revised Poster Here. 

You’re probably very curious.

I hear the word innovative being thrown around so much these days. Everyone wants to be innovative. Yet, it seems churches rarely do anything that hasn’t already been done elsewhere. I think what these pastors mean is that the are curious. A small bit of A.D.D and an internet connection has them looking for the newest and best way to spread the Gospel. Don’t get me wrong, curiosity mixed with deep solid roots in the Bible is a great thing. I am an incredibly curious person. It is my curiosity that pushes me to know more about God, who He is, how great he is!I wrote about Seth Godin this week, and I’d like to share a video interview of him. Godin discusses what it means to be curious. He has an interesting definition of the word ‘fundamentalist’, but look past that to the message he is conveying.

Some Thoughts After Watching:
_____________________________

1. Think before deciding.
2. Traditional ads are dead… YOU MUST GIVE PEOPLE (GODLY) ANSWERS TO THEIR CURIOSITY.
3. People are taught to not be curious in school… How can you teach people in your church to be curious, to stand in wonder of God?

_______________________

Abraham Piper on the Desiring God blog writes about this too.

Read Scott asked Godin about Marketing for churches. Seth is an expert on marketing, but we should be discerning what advice to use. There is a fine line between grace/acceptance and theological liberalism. We have to be very discerning about when to proclaim the truth—though it may hurt.

You’re a Failure.

But don’t be too worried. Look at Apple.Whenever you try something new you may fail, but learn from your failures. Wired has a photo gallery of Apples failure. Apple is the diamond in the crown of modern industrial design, yet they’ve failed many times before they got it right. But the learned.I recommend paying close attention to the things that cause your failures, but don’t give up. Try something new.If you’re trying to do something to glorify God—whether it is leading a small group, writing a blog, or planting a church. You may not get it right at first. Or the world may not be ready for what you have to say. What can change your Newton into an iPhone? I don’t know, but I would suggest going to God in prayer, and asking him how you can most faithfully serve him. Going to scripture to make sure your being faithful. Talking to someone you respect about what you can do better.