Dream Home

So, we signed a contract today to buy our dream home. It doesn't have 10 bedrooms and over 5000 square feet (Becca doesn't ever want to have to clean that much) but if God let's us we will probably live in it when we retire. The following is a list of things we wanted that are now covered.

1. Character - Some people may not be as concerned about the looks of their home but to use it is important. Not so we can have the biggest and best, but so that there is space for your imagination. Walls that tell stories people want to hear.

2. Hardwood floors and mirrored closets. Dancing toes need a home to grow up in.

3. A kitchen. A nice kitchen. Without 4 walls.

4. Space for a table. A table for 2 or a table for 20. I once heard a preacher say a prayer of thanks to the God of Hospitality. We can now have a table where He can dine.

5. A bedroom for the whole family. At my parents house when we want to watch a movie we gather on their loveseat and bed. It's not theater seating but you can live there.

6. A space for conversation. Without distractions.

7. A space for distractions. Because distractions can be fun. Otherwise they wouldn't distract us.

8. A basin, towel and bed for travelers. That is not in the living room.

9. A backyard with a fence. So the kids can experience freedom while staying protected.

10. A hot tub. OK that isn't really a dream, but we won't complain if we have one.

My brand of church.

Why do we brand churches? I have thought for a long time about how do we brand churches, mostly because that has been part of my job for the majority of my working career. I don't think I have really thought much about "why?" do we brand churches.

Why do we give churches names? Is it to define the message that we preach? If that is the case shouldn't all churches be named something like "Jesus Saves Church." Is it to define what our mission is? If that is the case shouldn't all churches be named something like "Jesus Loves and So Do We Church."

Church branding is one of the hardest things I have ever done in all my creative work. How do you compress everything a church is about into a few simple shapes and colors? If you have to choose one image to convey who you are, what image do you choose?

Branding is about simplify something. The problem is that when branding you have to try and make yourself distinct and different than someone else. If you have 20 similar things trying to simplify, and they end up simplifying down to the same main point, you have to find something else to be your focus.

Do people become a part of our churches because they are attracted by our secondary focus, the thing that we brand so we can stick out from the other 3 churches on the street? Or, do people become a part of our churches because of relationship, because of calling?

What about the community? Do we brand our churches so that they will stand out on a Yellow Book page, or climb to the top of the Google search?

I don't think I know all the answers (obviously, because all I wrote were questions), but what if we could figure out a way to show who we are by what we live, not by what we look like?

Julia and the Land of Make Believe

So, I am working over this idea in my head for a Christmas production (not to be called Julia and the Land of Make Believe) and in doing so have been thinking - more often then normal - about the connection between imagination and faith (written about here).

I think I have a new phrase to use in the place of imagination - make-believe. As so often happens when something new pops into my head I surfed on over to the dictionary to see if what I was thinking lined up with the proper definition of the word (not really proper hermeneutics but not really the Bible either). Here was the definition for make-believe:

Make-believe: pretense, esp. of an innocent or playful kind; feigning; sham; a pretender; imaginary

Not really my idea of faith, and not really what I wanted the definition to be. So, as so often happens when something new pops into my head, I went and made up my own definition. Taking the word make and the word believe and looking at what they mean gives the desired affect.

Believe: to have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so.

Make: to produce; cause to exist or happen; bring about.

Make-believe is bringing something into reality that had before lived only in your mind. It is producing what you have confidence in. It is faith.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Hebrews 11:1&3

Julia and the Land of Make Believe is the story of a little girl who stumbles upon a place that she thinks is only in her imagination, but comes to find out that sometimes what is only in our imagination here - is real somewhere else.

1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Imagine if you were able to discern every sound that your ear can hear, continually bombarding you with information. We would have nothing to focus on. We would go insane. Our brains actually choose those sounds it thinks are the most important and shuts off what is “white noise”. In many ways our creative focus works the same way. We are continually seeking the next big thing or movement that is going to shake the world. We tire of what we have seen. Visual and aural stimulation becomes something common and our minds search for a new rush or creative high. We forget that our fresh idea is simply a reworking of something old, something common.

Take for example the things that we think of as creative.

Writing- When you break it down, all of our writing in English, (and in many other non-eastern languages) just rearranges 26 letters. The works of great authors, poets and orators, whose creations can fill vast volumes of books come from only 26 little shapes.

Art- The wonderful masterpieces of Renaissance art. The depth of detail in a Pixar movie. The colors that we see and bring such variety and vitality to our lives are only mixtures of 3 simple colors.

Music – Music is a language that can transcend culture, transform our lives and capture the spirit of a generation. But when you think about it and figure out how to get past all the majors and minors and diminished and suspended you find 12 notes.

These are important ideas to understand when thinking about the way the world looks at and approaches art. Especially Art with a capitol A. Art and creativity is not something that is so huge and vast that it is beyond the understanding of “normal” people. We just need to view it through a different lens. This is not to try and diminish the impact that art can have on people and the importance that it plays in our lives, you just need to see that creativity can live inside of you.

It's ORAN6E time!

Welcome back to the new improved ORAN6E.com. Well, I don't know how improved it will be - if you didn't like the old one, you probably won't really like the new one. The purpose of this little exercise is to help me build my self esteem and make sure the largest number of people all over the world get to hear the great things I have to say.

Probably not.

If you take a look at this post from early on in my blogging days, there is a good description of the original purpose of this bog. Not much has changed. A few things have though. My vision for what this could be has grown. Also, God has for some reason decided surround me with some of the most amazing, creative people in the world and placed me in a church that has taken hold of this vision. Here is a quick update on where ORAN6E is and will be in the near future.

Beginning in June we will be re-starting a life group within our church body to explore and build up the dreams of creatives on a weekly basis. In July we will be launching a city wide group that will meet once a month and bring together artists, musicians, performers, designers, dancers, etc from multiple churches throughout the city. I will let you know a little more about that later. After that, it's all up in the air. Also, I am finishing up a book "The Restoration of Creativity" that will hopefully be done by the end of the summer.

So, the blog is alive - so is my imagination.

ORAN6E Re-launch

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ORAN6E Re-launch

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