ORAN6E (the color of imagination)

Dream Home

2011-07-20T22:47:00.005-06:00

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.

2009-06-30T22:46:00.003-06:00

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

2009-05-07T14:58:00.004-06:00

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

2009-05-04T23:03:00.004-06:00

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!

2009-05-01T09:06:00.003-06:00

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

2009-04-30T13:54:00.001-06:00

ORAN6E Re-launch

2009-04-29T23:25:00.001-06:00

ORAN6E Re-launch

2009-04-28T17:22:00.001-06:00

ORAN6E Re-launch

2009-04-27T22:56:00.001-06:00

Way too long

2008-08-27T13:59:00.002-06:00

In understand it has been way to long since I posted a bog. I talked with my mom last night and she got after me for it. (Even though she thinks what I write is weird). OK, so what should I post about? Well, how about something creative. (Did you know I am writing a book on the subject? It is short. And not done. But someday.) Anyway, I started a new class in college yesterday, "Introduction to Drafting." I am very excited about it, but as I was looking over our book and what we are going to be learning it struck me that it is very much like Kindergarten Art class. This is a square. This is a circle. This is a rectangle. As a matter of fact my first assignment in my $250 tution plus $350 books college level education class was to write my letters and numbers 12 times each. We will be doing this 10 more times though out the remainder of the semester.

It doesn't bother me that I am having to write my letters and learn what a circle and square are. As a matter of fact it is a very enjoyable break from my regular work. What bothers me is that in a beginning level college class we are having to spend time re-learning what we were taught as children. I know we all know what a square is, but how long has it been since you sat down and tried to draw the most perfect square that you could, just for the sake of drawing a square? Probably in Kindergarten. How often do we do things because we "know" how to, without really giving any thought to what it is that we "know"?

I understand that if we broke everything that we do down and dissect all the pieces we would never get anything accomplished. But I also understand that without occasionally examining why we do what we do, slowly the purpose behind it begins to wane and soon our actions become rote. It works the same with creativity, it works the same with faith, with relationships, everything. Put this into context the next time you think about the mercies of God being new every morning. It is not just that our faith is renewed, but our whole lives can find renewed purpose.

That may not really have been about creativity, but hey it works.

Look! A flag!

2008-07-17T14:15:00.003-06:00

I have two year old son and he loves the American Flag. He notices every time we pass one and he really likes the big ones. It is not just any flag that he notices, it is specifically "Old Glory."

I like that.

He may be two years old and has no idea what the American Flag stands for but he realizes it is special and takes notice of it. How often do we pass a flag and forget that is even there? I realize this may have been a post better suited for the 4th of July, and I don't really want this blog to turn political, but this thought just struck me as we were driving down town to go to lunch. I am glad my son likes the American flag. I want him to grow up and realize what a privilege we have to live in America. When he gets older we are going to take him to Washington D.C. to see all the monuments and museums, and teach about what this country was founded on.

Which brings me to another thought. We are in the middle of a video series at our church by John Bevere, entitled "Honor's Reward." (it is a great book that I would highly recommend to anyone) In this last session he spoke about honor toward public officials and the difference between Democratic thinking and Kingdom thinking. As a democratic society I think we have lost almost all understanding of what it is to honor. I don't know what is going to happen in the upcoming election, but I do realize that I need to find and understand what it really means to honor, even when we would think someone is not worthy of it. I want to do it to honor God, but I also want to do it so that my son will grow up still loving the American Flag and knowing that because we live in a place with freedom, we are all the more responsible to honor, not because we are made to, but because we choose to.

From the Abundance

2008-07-10T21:35:00.003-06:00

I think people are sometimes adverse to thinking creatively, or to using their imaginations because we are scared. We are scared because we are not exactly sure what is going to come out. In many ways this is the essence of the creative process, because if we knew the ultimate out come, exactly as it would be, it would negate most of the aspects of creativity that make it...well... creative. We could all just write "Concertos for Dummies" books and everyone could be a masterful genius. But because uncertainty is at the heart of creativity, it can either become the catalyst for something great, or it can cause the downfall of both the art and the artist. And that scares lots of people. Especially Christians with creative inklings.

"What if my painting somehow ends up not being pleasing to God?" "If I make things that are relevant to the world, they won't have a place in the church." "How can I give myself to something that requires so much of me and not become self-consumed?"

The answer lies in the heart. The bible tells us that "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." I think too often we read this verse and think of all the movies with bad words that we have ever seen and just know that someday one of those words is going to slip out of my mouth and I am going to go to hell. Well, it probably does mean something like that, but I believe it works the opposite way as well. If we devote ourselves to continually desiring to please God and to be close to Him, filling our minds and hearts with His words, than what comes out of our mouths, or in our actions, or in what we create, will be birthed out of what we love. Instead of worrying so much about what is going to come out of our imaginations, we need to spend our time thinking about what is going into our imaginations.

Ultimate Creativity

2008-06-23T10:11:00.002-06:00

Do you remember how I have talked about us as humans being given the aspect of God that allows us all to be creative and imagine? Well, I think I have have discovered one of the greatest examples of how this is worked out every single day. And it makes me even more excited about the creative possibilities that God has in store for us.

In most situations our creative expression is simply a rearranging of something that has already been created, either by God or someone else, but when you think about it does that make anything we ever create truly original? Or have we only discovered how to be really good copycats, with just enough disparity between our creations that they trick our senses into seeing something different on the surface? I know this is a cynical way to think about it and there is more to it than I am throwing out, but it is something to think about.

Now think about this. Children. Children are the original creations of people. And the great thing about a child is that they cannot be created by one person, it is always a collaboration. A child is a distinct, totally original masterpiece every single time. And here is the amazing thing. As hard as we work to bring a child into existence there is never any life there outside of the breath of God. We create all the pieces and bring them together, but there is no breath, there is no imagination, there is no personality without God putting the final touch on our creativity. Wow.

I started thinking about all this and bring it up at this particular time because Becca and I are going to have another baby. Wahoo. I just thought you all would like to know. And if we were supposed to call you to let you know and you found out here first, I apologize, but you can always call us now.

Kuler

2008-06-02T11:41:00.002-06:00

OK, I work with Adobe products all day, and most of the time that work involves intricate color work (the fact that I am partially color blind has not seemed to come up as much of an issue and after having done things like this for almost 10 years I have developed super-secret methods of color-blindness concealment, which I may share at a later date). Being that as it may, I just got introduced to a great online tool for colors. You may be thinking, "Why, I don't design, what would I need a great online tool for colors for?" Believe me, you will want to check this out. Not only does it look really cool, but it makes very abstract color theories come alive and interactive. It can be used to make neat desktop images, blog backgrounds, etc, or you might just want to play around with it for its wonderful calming affects.

So go ahead, kuler your world (they should probably hire me for marketing)

Visit KULER here.

Telectroscope

2008-05-23T11:05:00.002-06:00

This is one of the coolest things ever.

Visit the Telectroscope

It is an art project that is going on now in London and New York, and the artist has done a brilliant job of creating a backstory to the project that really draws on your imagination and makes the actual device all the more mysterious.

Basically it is a fiber-optic video connection between New York and London, but it makes it look as though you are looking through a huge tunnel to the people on the other side.

If anyone wants to take a trip to London or New York in the next couple of weeks Becca and I would like to go with you.

Soda Pop

2008-05-18T16:32:00.002-06:00

I don't really know why people think that soda (or pop, or in some places just Coke, even if it's Dr. Pepper) is so unhealthy. A quick glance at the ingredients of can will reveal that the number one ingredient is the number one source of all life. Water. What's more healthy than that? Then if you delve a little deeper you will find that soda is actually one of those fancy health food store staples because it contains NATURAL flavors. All Pepsi Lime needs to do is make their can a nice earthy brown, put a big image of a fresh lime being soaked in water and write NATURAL Flavors in cursive letters across the top.

The problem with soda is all a matter of marketing.

superhumanism

2008-05-14T11:36:00.002-06:00

super- 1 a (1): over and above: higher in quantity, quality, or degree than: more than.

One of the issues that I always have to face when thinking or talking about creativity is the fine line between God given abilities and humanism. Creativity is a God created thing that He has instilled into every single person weather they believe in Him or not, and this can create some problems when we try and discover the root and source of our creativity. There are some terribly heathen people who can create awesome things. Do they do it out of their own human abilities? What separates the idea that "If it can be dreamed, it can be done." from total reliance on God for ideas and how to work them out?

I don't know that I have figured out all the answers to these questions and it is something that is always going to be a part of the creative dialogue, but here is a thought. As I have said several times before, I don't think we have seen the full measure of creative potential. Not really even close. Think about it. If a person with atheistic beliefs (or would that be non-beliefs) can come up with a medical breakthrough that changes the lives of people forever, or discover the tiniest specs of subatomic particles, what more is there. I have no idea. But I do know that it is something that is going to come from beyond ourselves. Remember that everything we create is simply a reflection of something that God has already created, and what He has created is only a miniscule portion of the ideas that He has.

He is limitless. We are not.

Kansas City

2008-05-05T14:03:00.007-06:00

I love Kansas City. I have had the wonderful privilege to travel to many cities throughout the United States (and some other countries for that matter) and Kansas City always seems to be my favorite. Especially now. If you are not from around there or don't care very much about cities and buildings and such you probably wouldn't notice, but the city, especially the downtown is getting an amazing make over.

With buildings like this:

And I just discovered the other day that construction has begun on one of the coolest performing arts buildings ever.
This multi theater building is going to be home to a 1600 seat concert hall AND an 1800 seat proscenium theatre. Both. In the same building. With one really cool glass lobby.

Now I don't know how excited other people get about things like this, but I love architecture and I love performing arts and I love when things are done with excellence and this appears to be one of those rare times.

So now I have one more new reason to keep my love of Kansas City growing.

Beauty

2008-04-29T16:16:00.004-06:00

Beauty is an interesting thing to get a conversation started, especially in the area of the arts, so here are a few of my thoughts recently on the subject.

Becca.

OK, maybe that is not exactly what I am talking about, but she does seem to pretty much sum up the word. Actually, what I have been thinking about is beauty in the aspect of being an attribute of God. First of all I think it is, but it is an interesting one. Most the attributes that are attributed to God (like how that works) are things that we commonly think of- love, goodness, just, righteous, etc, etc, etc. These are all wonderful things, but what to they look like? We can see the effects of them in how we live our lives, but they are a lot like the wind and as such are great ways of explaining God because we can't really see Him either, but we can see and touch the effects of Him. So what about beauty? Beauty is something that is usually defined as something that is seen, so how does God demonstrate His attribute of beauty?

He does it through us. He does it through His church.

I believe beauty is one of the most communicable attributes of God, because He has chosen to use His creation as the outlet of this piece of who He is. Just in case you don't believe me here are some really great scriptures that I have been mulling about in my head concerning beauty:

I have asked one thing from the LORD;
it is what I desire:
to dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
gazing on the beauty of the LORD
and seeking Him in His temple.
Psalm 27:7

Think about it, what does the psalmist mean when he is saying that in the house of the Lord he can gaze on God's beauty?

From Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God appears in radiance.
Psalm 50:2

The "perfection of beauty." For some reason God has chosen to use us, Zion, His church as the culmination of all that is beautiful. What I think that means for us now is that God desires that the things that are being created and coming forth from the church are not regurgitated leftovers of what has already been created. His desire is to show forth true beauty, both in form and action, in a way that has not been seen on the earth before.

In the beginning...

2008-04-21T14:27:00.002-06:00

God is really big. He can do lots and lots of things, and if I really had the time and ambition I am sure I could come up with blog after blog, year after year writing about all the great things God is and does, but today I want to write about an aspect of God that I think people sometimes forget about.

So lets start at the beginning.

"In the beginning..." (just in case someone has not picked up a bible lately this particular passage can be found toward the front of the book, usually shortly after the table of contents but before you get to the big number "2".) Isn't it novel that a book about so many great and wonderful things starts with "in the beginning." That basically means before anything else. And I think it leads nicely to the next part that simply states "...God..."

Before anything else. Before life, before sin, before all the things that we so often find our identity and purpose in, there was God. Before our brilliant piano concerto, before our best selling novel, before our brilliant stroke of original genius, there was God. He is the author. And here is why.

"...created..."

For some reason the first thing that an infinite God wants to reveal about Himself, before He tells us He is a just God, before He tells us He is a loving God, before He tells us He is a holy God, He tells us He is a creator. Now do not get me wrong. I am not trying to say that this is the most important aspect of who God is, or that it makes creativity something special that deserves a place of more honor than something else. I simply want to point out that I think God puts more emphasis on creativity in His kingdom than we do.

But this is not some open invitation to just start creating whatever fills our heads. Now we have to look at the last part of the sentence "...the heavens and the earth." God created with a purpose and what He created had a purpose. All the water, all the trees, all the animals, all the people were created for one purpose. To glorify Him. Because He deserves it.

We have been given the ability to create. We have been given the capacity to imagine. Why would we want to do it for any other reason than to glorify Him?

Friends are fun

2008-04-15T14:22:00.007-06:00

A couple of weeks ago we made the long, harrowing travel across the great chasm that is Nebraska to visit my long lost friends and family in Missouri. On our way Becca and I started talking about how long it had been since we had been there and realized it had been almost a year. Yikes - people grow around 365 days older in a year and that's a lot of growing. Needless to say it was great to see everyone we got to see, and sad to not see those that we missed, but it got me thinking about the amazing friends I have.

One of my friends, Serenity posted on her happy again blog about some things that are underrated. Well, I think friends are one of those things, especially when it comes to things like we talk about on this blog, creativity, imagination, art. Too often we look at these things the way we always have been taught. They are something that comes out of your own inner muse, they are a reflection of who you are, they are a piece of your soul for gosh sakes. What does that have to do with friends?

It should have everything to do with your friends.

Something that I think is greatly missing in the creative process, although some people are beginning to get a hold if it, is a little thing I like to call "collaboration." (No, I did not make that word up for those of you who have never heard it, it is in the dictionary.) It is in the spirit of friendships and collaboration that I am working on peeling off the newest slice of this delicacy called ORAN6E. It is called just that "ORAN6Eslices" I want people to be able to meet and hear from some of my friends and see what makes them tick. In the next couple of weeks I will begin periodically posting "ORAN6Eslices" videos both here and as podcasts available for download on iTunes. (I am providing the link to iTunes in case someone has just awakened from a 10 year comma and has no clue what great and glorious wonders await them.)
So if there are any imaginative people that you would like to hear from, let me know. And who knows, you might just find yourself projected on the wee silver screen.

Todays quote

2008-04-09T17:44:00.001-06:00

"I don't know why grownups don't believe what they did when they were younger? Aren't they supposed to be smarter?"
Eric- Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
Caleb

Sent from my BlackBerry

I have a dream...

2008-04-04T20:02:00.002-06:00

Today is the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. He had a dream.

We all have dreams. Some of us dream more than others, but we all dream. I'm not talking about that moment when we reach REM and we see little purple bunnies chasing hippos in the pond. I am talking about that moment when we realize there is something bigger than ourselves and know we want to be a part of it. We have a hope.

I have lots of dreams. I used to think that all the dreams that I had were just disconnected thoughts about something that would someday be cool to do. If I had 100 lifetimes I might be able to do some of them. Then I realized that the majority of my dreams were somehow connected. They all were a piece of something bigger than me. And it made me want them even more.

Then it seemed like nothing was ever going to happen. I even came to a point where I didn't want to be quiet with God because I knew I would get dreams that were never going to come true.

Who cares? Who cares if my dreams never come true? If they are my dreams they probably don't need to come true and if they are God's dreams, He will accomplish them. When He wants to. If we live with this idea in our minds we are free to dream as big as we can, as often as we can.

ORAN6E is a dream. It is something bigger than me, and it is part of something even bigger than itself, and I want to be a part of it. And I want you to be a part of it. I don't know how we are going to do it, but I think we need to give ourselves the permission to dream. Dream big.

It's Everywhere

2008-03-14T09:48:00.003-06:00

Since I began working on this blog is has been interesting to see how my mind has focused on little things that I probably would not have noticed before, and I think, "Wow, that's really cool I should blog about that." Well, I have had several of those instances lately and this is just one of them.

I think people can sometimes have this idea that creativity is something that is reserved for a select few "special" people, in "special" situations. I don't know that I have ever thought that word for word, but sometimes I miss just how important creativity is for everyone. Imagination is what makes life livable and so no matter what life may bring, you bring your imagination.

Ethan and I were at Wal-Mart the other day picking up the essentials, (chips, soda, milk, Lucky Charms, and oranges) and the way out of the parking lot we pulled up on one of those all to common drifters sitting on his bags by the curb, getting ready to pull up a sign that I assumed was going to say something like, "Will work for food", or "Denver", or "Homeless Veteran." But what happened next made my day. As we pulled up he flashed a huge grin and held up a cardboard sign with the words "SMILE."

Smile, not please feel sorry for me, please give me something, please help. Just smile. Ethan I turned around and went back to give him an orange, for which he was grateful, and I had a chance to talk with him a little while. But, what struck me most was his creativity. I again realized that creativity is something that God has put in each and every one of us, no matter who we are, and although we pervert it and try to make it our own, there is still a piece of it that has that glimpse of what He desires it to be.

Creativity 02

2008-03-07T11:15:00.005-07:00

Alright. I could probably write books about the things that are going through my head today after having sat through so many different discussions, from so many different (well, kind of different) viewpoints, but that would make a really long blog post and reading page after page of computer screen text is both taxing on the eyes and the head, so there will be plenty of thoughts for many blogs to come.

First off I want to respond to a question Serenity had about one of the points from William Downs that I posted yesterday. Towards the beginning of his talk he made the statement that the arts, in someways, are really the least creative thing we do. The point that he was making is that creativity is seeing things that other people do not see and being able to apply that creativity in new ways. He was also talking specifically about here in America, and about how institutions, or organizations, or governments, or anything like that have such a control on what gets widely seen by people, that the art being made today is tailored to an audience and can get watered down.

I'm just telling you what he said. "The interviews and commentaries contained on this blog are the opinion of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the view of ORAN6E, its employees, affiliates, relatives, neighbors, dogs, cats, or goldfish."

So, what are my thoughts?

Like I said, I don't really know where to start, but lets go with this. The title of the symposium that I went to was "Do Institutions Stifle Creative Thinking?" and like one of the last speakers, my immediate response was "Heck ya they do." But after listening to what people were saying and comments from people in the audience I came to realize something. People use the term "institutions" like they are empty buildings, or charters on pieces of paper, when in reality an institution is people and how we think. So what that means is that institutions do not stifle creativity, people stifle creativity. And no matter how hard we try, as humans we will always stifle creativity. It comes down to this. Sin stifles creativity. The falleness of man stifles creativity. The limitations on our human thinking stifles creativity.

But there is hope.

I believe that God wants desperately to pour out His endless, meaningful creativity on us. Well, not so much on us, because creativity is something that we do. I think what He wants to do is pour his creativity through us. And take off the limitations that our sinful nature impose. I am not saying that there have not been great, creative things in the past, but they come in pockets, in individuals. What would happen if a group of people, say the church, began living and breathing in a place of God centered creativity. Then, I think we would have to redefine our understanding of creativity, of art, of inspiration, of collaboration - of living.

Creativity 01

2008-03-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some points from a lecture that I just attended by a gentleman named William Missouri Downs. Like most things there is a lot of dirt to dig through to get to the gold, but here are some points that are applicable to this blog.

In no particular order.

The arts are probably the least creative thing in America.
Creativity is seeing things that other people do not see.
We don't teach creativity we teach techniques.
Students do not want questions they only want answers.
Once ideas are elemenated creativity is elemenated.
If failure is not an option creativity is not an option.

Most of these points are things that I will talk about in the future on this blog, but is was good here them from other angles. Check back later and I will give a rundown of the talk by Ken Robinson.
Caleb

Sent from my BlackBerry

Imagination (the real post)

2008-03-04T18:26:00.003-07:00

This is the post that was going to go with the picture below, but to type all this with my little blackberry buttons would get rather uncomfortable. So here's the real post.

When I was thinking of a title for this blog, I used my favorite tool of vocabulary expansion to try and find some great, meaningful substitution for the word "creativity". After reading through all the other wonderful synonyms - cleverness, genius, ingenuity, inspiration, inventiveness, originality, resourcefulness, talent, vision. - I realized that the word I wanted was "imagination".

Here is why.

Imagination is really what makes the world turn. It is our imaginations that take the fluid, broken thoughts in our minds, and make them shareable, meaningful words or actions. Faith is a wonderful thing but it is our imaginations that are able to bring faith into action. I believe this is why Jesus said the only way to enter the Kingdom of Heaven is like a child. You see a child lives in their imagination. I child can be anything they want to be, because they have not learned yet that they can't. As we grow we are "learned" out of our imaginations. It is the same way with faith. We used to believe that if someone did not have an arm or a leg, God could give them a new one. Then we met someone without an arm or leg and we "learned" to put our faith in a box. So I think we should all come to that place of being "born again" (maybe for a 4th or 5th time) so that our imaginations can shape our actions, and not let our imaginations be shaped by what we already know, or think we know.

Why ORAN6E?

2008-02-29T09:36:00.006-07:00

OK, before I get to far in this blogging thing I think I need to take some time to explain the blog title and a little bit about my theory of imagination. First of all, it is pronounced "orange", like the color or the sweet smelling fruit that my son ate for breakfast this morning. Second, yes there is a 6 in place of the "G" and I will explain that shortly.

You may be asking, "Why orange and why did you put that six there to make everything so confusing when I try to type it into my computer, or explain the blog to someone else?" The answers are simple. It sounds cool, it's short, and the domain name orange.com was already taken so I substituted the "g" for a 6 and tada!... ORAN6E.

It's almost as simple as that.

In reality, ORAN6E is an idea I had for creating a group of people interested in doing things creatively. It is a coming together, shall we say, of people from many different disciplines who share their ideas and dreams with people outside of their sphere of influence. The idea came from looking at how separated the arts are within the church, and how we compartmentalize learning and sharing our ideas. Take worship conferences for example. Most of the time at a worship conference there is one or two group meetings and the rest of the time you spend broken up into your little drummer, or song writer, or guitar player, or worship leader, or sound person, or etc, or etc, or etc group. Becoming almost inbred in our thinking. What if a song writer could sit down and learn about the way a dance choreographer comes up with her moves? What if a photographer could show a slideshow of images from Mongolia, causing a worship leader to discover a new way to lead congregational worship?

I have to tell you that some of these ideas are not completely original and I am stealing some of it from a movement that has been going on for 20 or so years, but with a somewhat different goal in mind. If you would like to see a model of what I am talking about visit TED.

I know I said I would explain the 6 and imagination and all that stuff, but this is a really long post already, so that stuff will have to wait for later. To end this post here is my quote for the day:

"Life is too short to keep cranking out mediocre crap. Ask any commerical designer, "Why did you get into design?" and none of them are going to answer, "I got into it so I could crank out mediocre crap." - Curt Cloninger