Creativity never existed.

Quote from C.S. Lewis: “Creation” as applied to human authorship seems to me an entirely misleading term. We make, we re-arrange elements He has provided. There is not a vestige of real creativity in us.Try to imagine a new primary colour, a third sex, a fourth dimension, or even a monster which does not consist of bits of existing animals stuck together. Nothing happens. And that surely is why our works never mean to others quite what we intended: because we are re-combining elements made by Him and already containing His meanings. Because of those divine meanings in our materials it is impossible we should ever know the whole meaning of our own works, and this meaning we never intended may be the best and truest one.”

Read More About Lewis Here

From our hommie: Ben Bender

Photoshop 2.0?

One day everyone will have access to a complete desktop publishing suite for almost no cash. Welcome, Aviary. A huge set of online media applications that are already looking pretty suite sweet. This system is built on Flash, they store your data, and add a social element to your design. The tools still feel a bit stone age compared to CS3, but they remind me of Photoshop 4 or 5.

I have 5 invites available to the first 5 people willing to interview a pastor they know about using design in church. I want to get a broad range of interviews. Drop me a line and let me know.

Screen Shots of Aviary

Christian Creativity

He is the Creator, You are his creation, and he has made you creative. Last Sunday I preached a sermon at our church, Oikos Fellowship, It was inspired by some of the conversations that have started in the comments section of this blog.

Listen Here.

___________________________

Also check out Reid’s sermon here, he is preaching on Nehemiah. In the ‘Love Your Enemy’ comments, Reid brought up the question of ‘how do love and justice work together?’ About half way through his sermon he talks about loving our enemies versus justice.

 I’d love to see some someone show a Christian’s right/responsibility to impose justice, using scripture.

Week in Review

Why I Hate Religion
Religion and Faith are not synonyms. Mark Driscoll explains…

Happy Saturday
Designers need to vent. Check out this video if you know what kern means.

1 Innovative and 1 Effective Video
The first video is something I love. I really want to try to raise the money to buy one of these wells. I got in touch with the group, and they said it would cost $14,000 to install one. If anyone is interested in helping us raise that much $ I’d love to work with you.

Recent Interview
After our first poster we got interviewed by an alternate lifestyle newsletter.

Can You Love Your Enemies?
We know that Jesus’ message was so much more potent than how we read it in the Bible. We’ve been told Bible stories as a kid and expect that they don’t go any deeper than that. We designed this poster to slap you in the face with Jesus’ call yo love your enemies.
______________________

Flickr

______________________

Next Week

I’m preaching at Oikos Fellowship this weekend about the Theology of Creativity. We have a great creator, and we’ve been made in his image. To what degree are we to be creative?

Also a week from Monday I will be at the Text and Context Conference in Seattle.  Matt Chandler, C.J. Mahaney, John Piper, and Mark Driscoll will all be preaching on the centrality of scripture in context. If anyone else is going, let me know, and we can get together for a pint.

______________________

Shout Out

Great discussion with Fred from Old Truth
Collide Magazine—We just ordered a subscription… So should you.
CataBlog—Had a good phone conversation with Jesse from Catalyst. Seems like a great guy. Check out the blog he’s running.
Trevor—We work with him and EastLake Church all the time. Really appreciated this blog post.

Can you love your enemies?

We’re giving away 20 sets of the posters, printed, and shipped to you.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

What Are You Feeling When You Look at These?

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Luke 5:43-44

These Images Floor Me.

I have so much anger in my heart at the very sight of a swastika. And I had to draw one to make these posters. It infuriated me. I’ve been trained to hate Hitler and Osama. Yet, Christ tells me to love these people—how? why? what? These people deserve justice and death! Look at what they’ve done. Look at these atrocities.

Our Modern American Minds are Callous to the Revolutionary Message Jesus is Telling.

We can’t understand Jesus words because we have it so easy. Let’s take a minute to remember who he was talking to. Jesus was talking to a group of Jews under the iron fist of the Roman Empire. Many of these people had their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters slaughtered, killed, and murdered by the powers that be. Jesus is telling them to pray for those who persecute them? This message just took on a whole different level of depth. Jesus is calling us to love those who don’t deserve it, because we don’t deserve it.

It’s Valentine’s Day… Everyone loves those who love them. So love your husband or your wife.

But realize that the freedom in Christ is so profound it allows you to love the worst, most vile people ever… Because He first loved you, and nothing else matters.

We’re Giving Away 20 Sets of These Posters

The first 20 people to blog about this or share it on a social network, and send us your info will get a free poster set. After that we’re brainstorming how we could use these posters to help love our enemies better. Perhaps raising money to help some of the citizens of war torn countries. Give us your thoughts in the comments.

Download the Printable PDF Here

We would love to talk to some churches that are willing to take chances like this to communicate the gospel through designs like this.

Recent Interview

I love to see how God works. Here I am, a young husband and father living in a small dutch, conservative town—and God opens a door for me to share his grace with the gay and lesbian community. I was recently interviewed by a southern newsletter called “The Letter”. The interview was brought on by the design of the “Love” poster, and had mixed reactions from it’s editor Dave. Dave and I have had some great conversations and feel blessed for the opportunity to speak with him on his thoughts on homosexuals and Christianity. Please pray that God will use this to show his Grace to the those who need it and soften hearts to repentance.

From “The Letter”
————————————————————————————

VanderPol: Does the above information fairly present the background as to why you created the poster? Did I leave anything out that you would like to add?…Anything you would like to clarify based on what I wrote?

Jamison: No, that all seems right. When I first heard about the Heath Ledger protest I got really angry. How can we as Christians stand in judgment of others when we are full of sin ourselves, (Matthew 7:3).

I know my life and the sin that I have, to God I deserve condemnation, but I have been saved and loved by Christ. I need to try my best to obey the commandments that Christ gave us, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40).

I must love and obey God, but I must also love all those who God has placed near me.

VanderPol: Do you think that Rev. Phelps “GOD HATES FAGS” sentiments express how most evangelical Christians feel about homosexuals?

Jamison: No, I would not go that far. I would say that Christians tend to mistakenly place homosexual sin over other sins. Most people feel shame about their sin, but the “homosexual lifestyle” as seen by most Christians “celebrates” it.

I don’t know if Christians know what to do with homosexual sin. It is something most cannot relate to, so they tend to ignore or condemn the sinner.

VanderPol: Do you believe that most evangelical churches REALLY want to have openly gay members in their midst? By “openly gay” I don’t mean that gay folks would be acting out in a sexual manner in a church setting (anymore than heterosexuals do). What I’m speaking of when I use the phrase “openly gay” is lesbian and gay persons who are honest about their sexual orientation if directly or indirectly asked.

Jamison: To answer the question fairly I need to define two groups of people. The first is a self-proclaimed Christian at the church, and the second is a newcomer who is just checking it out.

Lets start out with the newcomer. The church should have no more problem with a homosexual person coming to their church than any other person. As Christians we need to view all sin the same, lets take my lust. Me lusting after a woman is the same as committing adultery, yet the church would welcome me. The church NEEDS to welcome all to the free grace that Christ offers.

OK, now for the self-proclaimed Christian. Lets start out by looking at what the Church should be, a body of believers dedicated to following the teachings of Jesus Christ and dedicated to helping each other grow in faith and understanding. Now if any sin, homosexual or heterosexual, is taking hold of a member of the church it needs to be addressed. As members of Christ’s body we need to confront sin in love as shown in Matthew 18:15-17.

VanderPol: What is your vision of how the Christian community should treat homosexual persons?

Jamison: Our view should be the same as Christ’s: love your neighbor. We need to see all people as people who need Christ’s grace, not just the pretty ones. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God—Romans 3:23.

1 Innovative & 1 Effective Video

INNOVATIVE

What the church calls innovative is often a rip off. If you want to see something innovative, watch this video. AMAZING. From: Guy Kawasaki.

EFFECTIVE

This video is a great way to get people engaged before preaching the Word of God. From: Ryan Hartsock.

OPEN UP and SAY AHH :: Message Intro from Ryan Hartsock on Vimeo.

Happy Saturday

I’m getting a sermon ready for next weekend at Oikos Fellowship (check out the new site we’re building here). So I thought I could give all the designers out there a smile. Check this out.

Why I Hate Religion

The Bible only speaks of religion in a positive way in one place. Religion is generally a bad thing, which is why on my facebook my religion sections says: Jesus warned me about religion. This is a great list from Mark Driscoll, though many of these seem to be inspired from a Tim Keller series called Preaching from the Heart. Check them out.

From Dustin From Irish Calvinist.

• Religion says, if I obey, God will love me. Gospel says, because God loves me, I can obey.
• Religion has good people & bad people. Gospel has only repentant and unrepentant people.
• Religion values a birth family. Gospel values a new birth.
• Religion depends on what I do. Gospel depends on what Jesus has done.
• Religion claims that sanctification justifies me. Gospel claims that justification enables sanctification.
• Religion has the goal to get from God. Gospel has the goal to get God.

You get the gist… Read the whole thing at Irish Calvinist. You won’t be dissapointed and I don’t want to jack his from him—so read it there.

Week in Review

What the Heck is RSS?
You need to start using a feed reader. Make the internet surf you.

Magazine-mania
I love magazines, check out some of these Christian mags.

Beware of Marketing

Is this where we are heading?
Churches copying popular culture can sometimes feel like going to a flea market. Cheap knock offs that have almost not definitely paid to use those trademarks.

Download “Are You Asleep?”
Mike just put together an eBook. Download it here.

What We Won’t
We define ourselves by what we are, but sometimes it helps to clarify what we aren’t

______________________________

Flickr

______________________________

Next Week:
Be on the look out for some seriously hard hitting art next Thursday. We (Corey and Mike) have been working on some art that will knock the wind out of you.

______________________________

Some New Friends

It’s been great to get to start a ton of conversation here at the plow. Here are some blogs of people contributing to this commuity. Thank you all.

Brad Ruggles

Aaron Alexander 

Mudpuppy

Samuel Febres 

Worship City

If you feel like you’ve been left out, don’t worry… God willing, there are plenty of weeks ahead. We want to see this community grow, and Christians step up to the plate to communicate the Truth of the Gospel.