BLAINEHOGAN

Year End Is Their Start

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:25:55 PST

My good friends, Jarrett and Jeanne Stevens, are starting something new.

Starting something new is almost always very scary and very expensive. Especially when the idea you’re hoping to grow has the potential to be so effective.

The very scary/very expensive idea? Transformation. They believe that if you can transform a soul, you can transform an entire community.

The idea is coming to the streets of Chicago in the form of Soul City Church in a matter of weeks and they need our help.

To help them close start-up costs they are asking everyone they know to donate $25 TODAY!

Check out their video below then please head to YearEndStart.com to donate.

Let’s help them start the year black.

Need Some Fresh Christmas Music?

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:12:00 PST

Me too.

On this lovely Christmas Eve, I wish you Season’s Greetings.

My gift to you this year is a pile of freshly-minted Christmas carols by some of my very good friends. I hope they will be a welcome breath of evergreen air from those stuffy songs you can’t seem to get away from this time of year.

Up first is Nate Yaccino, producer, musical genius, and general wunderkind. I’d send you to his website, but he’s too busy making music to create one. Every season he produces a couple of new arrangements of classic Christmas carols and here is this year’s offering: Let It Snow & Silver Bells

Up next is a great little community out of Seattle, Church of The Beloved. They just released an EP of Christmas favs called, Goodwill, and they want you to download it for free, here.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

The Day Has Finally Come

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:30:30 PST

In just a few short hours close to 6,000 people will be arriving at Willow Creek Community Church for the first of 12 Christmas services - God With Us. Friends, families, kids, co-workers. Some who do this church thing every week. Some who do this church thing once a year.

For nearly 7 months, a group of us have been praying, meeting, and hoping. We have fought, cried, and laughed, as we prepared for our community to walk through these doors. Our deepest hope is that that our community will sense God’s presence in the stories and faces of one another. If you are the praying kind please do so for our humble offering.

100 Words - Christopher Gurr

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:01:52 PST

Christopher Gurr, a laborer in the fields of theatre, spent the last three and three quarters years on the road with Monty Python’s Spamalot. He can’t wait to get back out there.

ON THE ROAD

Being on the road. I recommend it.

It is not the same thing as traveling (which I also recommend) or vacationing (with which I have little experience) or going on a retreat (which sounds lovely — someday I must try it). Most importantly, it is not the constraint of having to work somewhere other than near your home. The state of being on the road with which I have fallen so deeply in love requires that one not have a home. Other than the road. That’s my best advice. Also, set your GPS to avoid highways and u-turns. Trust me.

Artists Should Act Like Leaders

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:00:00 PST

Nearly all of my creative energy these days has been going into our Christmas Eve services starting at the end of this week. As such, this space has been hearing from a multitude of other voices that I hope are leaving you inspired and ready to get back to work full of vim and vigor.

Today is no different.

This morning I stumbled across a great article on Todd Henry’s Accidental Creative on how leaders should act more like artists and vice versa. The original article is by John Maeda and can be found here.

Mr. Henry pulled out a few nuggets from the larger piece that I think are worth sharing. As I read them I realize how many of them I don’t do as well as I would like. I’m taking the following to heart today and hope you will as well:

I speak my mind and fight for ideas but refuse to play the “victim” when my idea doesn’t win out.
I do what’s in the best interest of the team and the project, even when it costs me something.
I do the little things that matter even when I could feasibly cut corners.
I stretch myself to see things from new points of view.
I think strategically, even when I don’t have all the information I want.
I don’t point fingers, talk trash or assign blame behind closed doors.
I have something that guides my creating beyond comfort and preference.

What would you add to this list?

100 Words - Matt Knisely

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:05:00 PST

Matt Knisely is a multi Emmy® award-winning Photojournalist and Storyteller. He currently is the Director of Communications and Innovation at Lawton First in Lawton Oklahoma. You can view his work and blog at mattknisely.com and connect with him on twitter.

THE POWER OF A MOMENT

A picture is really worth a thousand words, it’s cliche but true. What we see, what the camera captures has a profound effect on who we are. In that moment an image can wield such tremendous power to stir up emotions, to change events, to break our hearts, and to inspire us. Through those moments, we get a better understanding of the world and how we are influenced by it. No matter how you look at it emotions influence the very mechanisms of rational thinking. The power of a moment, in a visual culture, communicates to the heart to get to the head to bring about change.

100 Words - The Welcome Wagon

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:59:33 PST

The Welcome Wagon is a married couple, the Reverend Thomas Vito Aiuto and his wife Monique, who execute a genre of gospel music that is refreshingly plain. Their hymns are modest and melodic takes on a vast history of sacred song traditions, delivered with the simple desire to know their Maker—and to know each other—more intimately.

CHRISTIAN MUSIC

I tend to think by way of that well-worn trope, ‘there no such thing as “Christian music”, but I’m a Christian who makes music.’ OK. But there are constraints. Desmos, even. Christians who make music are called to create art that, as David Foster Wallace put it, “locates and applies CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times’ darkness.”

I do not think religious or Biblical terminology is necessary to do that—although that’s generally what I have chosen to use—but a Christoform ethos, both in the music’s creation and content, is.

"Failure is the path to boundless confidence in God. Always remember you have a billion chances."

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:44:09 PST

“Failure is the path to boundless confidence in God. Always remember you have a billion chances.”

- Thomas Keating, Open Mind Open Heart

The War of Art - Book Giveaway

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:56:00 PST

As a ‘thank you’ to the readers of this blog for submitting questions for my Q&A session with him earlier this week, Steven Pressfield had 3 copies of his book, The War of Art, sent over today.

~~The first 3 people to comment with their address and a good reason why they need this book will get one!~~

All gone!

[Image via M-C]

100 Words - Seth Godin

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:08:00 PST

Seth Godin is the author of ten books, a blog with his name on it and some other stuff. His latest book is called Tribes and his next book is called Linchpin and it comes out in January.

Image via Bodoni Design

WHAT’S WRONG WITH MARKETING

Marketing is traditionally a selfish act, an act of taking. Taking time, attention or money, and giving little in return. Marketing was corrupted by television, which allowed anyone with a few bucks to generate a few more bucks. Not just soap or cars, but TV preachers too. Yell, lie, entertain and repeat.

This push mindset is fading, but slowly. The market has realized it far sooner than the marketers have. Marketing is now transparent storytelling, collaboration, and yes, art. Stop telling me what to do and start leading me somewhere I want to go.

Interview With Steven Pressfield

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:03:30 PST

A few weeks ago I got the chance to ask Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art, a number of questions regarding creativity and the creative process. I asked you all to send in your best your questions which I passed onto Steven. I hope you enjoy this little dialogue. I look forward to your thoughts.

Thank you for your questions and Steve, thank you so much for your thoughts!

You talk about fear quite a lot in TWOA, however what do you have to say to the nagging anxiety that tends to accompany the very beginnings of ideas? Personally, I often find this anxiety paralyzing. Could you speak to this and how you’d suggest to break through the specific fear that comes at the very beginning of a new project?

That fear is a good thing. It’s pure Resistance and what it means is that this particular project (the one that is eliciting so much fear) is the one you have to do, the one that your inner being is calling you to test yourself against. If you weren’t feeling any fear, THAT would be cause for worry—because it would mean that the project-you’re-about-to-tackle really didn’t mean anything to you.

As for breaking through the fear, I go with the Nike slogan: Just do it. Take a deep breath and plunge in. There’s no trick and no easy way.

Where there’s war, there’s hurt. How do we channel our past failures into something meaningful in order to create a brighter future with purpose?

Again, I’m from the hardcore school. Past failures mean nothing. If anything, they’re a positive because you’ve learned from them. Now is everything. Nothing counts, nothing exists except the job at hand. Fuck the past. Don’t give it a moment’s thought. Even if your past is full of successes, fuck it. They won’t help us on the project-at-hand, just as our past failures won’t hurt us.

I heard a great quote a while ago about defensive backs in football. Somebody said, “A good defensive back has to have a bad memory.” What he meant was that DBs, and anybody who defends against the forward pass, are gonna get burned a lot. Wide receivers are going to beat them on routes, they’re going catch passes on them and score touchdowns on them. If the defensive back lets himself dwell on those past failures, he’s finished. He has to have a bad memory. Forget the times you got beat and play the current down, the down that’s happening now.

And the converse of that - How do you go about creating when the skies aren’t so dark? Often some the best creative moments and seasons happen in times of loneliness and pain. How best should one create in a season of hopefulness and happiness?

Good question. Success has to be forgotten or put aside just the same as failure. When Stevie Wonder goes into the studio and sits down at the piano, he forgets “Fingertips, Part Two” completely. None of his hits even cross his mind, except to remind him that he has succeeded in the past and so he’s likely to succeed in the future.

The job at hand is everything. Resistance would love us to think about our past successes or failures. That’s one way it’ll beat us. We have to focus on the job in front of us and do it. Nothing else.

Do you think that it is art, or all initiative, or creativity that is opposed by whatever force you believe exists in the universe that makes it so difficult to create? And in that sense, what is it about beauty that causes the forces of darkness to turn against it and anyone who wishes to join the dance?

I think it’s all initiative and all creativity. I’m not sure why. The best explanation I can come up with is a form of Newton’s Law (I think it’s Newton) that says that for every action in nature, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. For every impulse that makes a green shoot sprout from the forest floor and seek to climb toward the sun (creation), there’s an opposite force that is making the leaves on the ground decay and return to the earth (entropy.) In a way, both are good. Without the rich soil created by the decomposition of fallen leaves, downed trees, etc., the fresh young shoot would have no medium in which to grow.

But that explanation leaves me unsatisfied. I guess I have to say I don’t really have an answer. Maybe that opposing force is “evil.” Maybe it’s just the jealousy of those beings/forces that have themselves failed to rise toward the light. Lucifer (“Light-bearer”) was an angel, remember, the brightest of them all.

If I get a flash on this answer, I’ll let you know!

Mars Hill Graduate School Ruined My Life

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 07:57:59 PST

*This is a sponsored post // Image via Joshua Longbrake

A few weeks ago my friend Josue who is now doing marketing for Mars Hill Graduate School asked if I would do a sponsored post about the Seattle grad school/seminary I attended for two years. I immediately accepted. Not because of the money, but because I desperately want every single one of you to stop everything you are doing, pack up all that you own, and take the next few years to have your lives completely ruined by the little red school teetering on the shore of Puget Sound.

To say that MHGS was life changing would be an understatement. A truer thing to say would be that Mars Hill Graduate School gave me my life back by giving me hope for a life I didn’t know was possible.

Yes, I got a Masters in Christian Studies. Yes, I learned how to be a better artist. If you go you too will learn to be a better theologian/pastor/therapist/artist. But let’s be honest, you can get these credentials and learn these things just about anywhere. What Mars Hill Graduate School gave me and can give you was much more deep.

As I was thinking about how to explain my experience, I started going through my notes from the first class I took taught by Dan Allender - Faith, Hope and Love. The following excerpt is from the very first session I sat in:

“The nature of hope transforms the heart because it increases our capacity to imagine. And what we desperately need is biblical imagination (not fantasy) which is a map (path) to creating what does not exist. Hope is meant to be the basis of creation. The difference between fantasy and dream is that fantasy is an escape from reality. A dream is what you are willing to bleed for to create.

What are you willing to bleed for?

What are you willing to die for?

Would you be willing to die to come to this class, or to be in this master’s program? Are you aware that there are consequences to being in this program? Things in your family, in your marriage, in the way you relate to people will change because of you being here.

There is a price to all creativity and that price is your blood.

Are you willing to die for your dreams? Or is fantasy a more comfortable place?

We see Mars Hill Graduate School as part of our transformation. So we hope for a new school for our redemption. Most schools do not offer this kind of hope because it is too hard.”

MHGS gave me a chance at my real life. The one I was born to live. Not the fantasy I was trying desperately to keep. In a word MHGS ruined the life I was pretending to live.

Just over a year later and I’m still processing. The floodgates have opened and they cannot be closed. My life will never be the same and yet believe me, I am mostly certainly not fixed or done. I have reverted. I have lost touch with dear ones. I have failed in bringing the philosophies of MHGS back into my context. However, the hope that MHGS gave me makes me actually believe there is grace. And it is with this grace that I live and create from.

If you are looking for a program that will just give you a degree, go somewhere else. But if you are looking for a place that will give you your life back, then maybe you’re ready for the gray skies of Seattle.

MHGS has three programs:

The deadline to apply is January 15, 2010 and if you’d like more insider information, check out their blog curated by Josue himself - experience.mhgs.edu.

Since a blog post cannot fully contain all that a feel about MHGS, please do me the honor of speaking with you if you’re at all interested in ruining your life. Shoot me an email and we can set something up on the phone. And if you’re still on the fence, have a look at a video I created for MHGS a couple of years ago about the faculty and the school’s call to love their neighbors.

100 Words - Brian D. McLaren

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:32:00 PST

Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, pastor, and networker among innovative Christian leaders, thinkers, and activists.

PEACE

The ancient Jewish benediction ends like this: “May the Lord … give you peace.” Blessing, in the end, means peace. Each language has its own word suggesting this ultimate blessing of personal, social, spiritual wholeness and well-being.

Saalam, pace (Arabic, Italian); Sidi, shanti (Tibetan,Hindi); Mir, tutkium, soksang (Russian, Inuit, Khmer); Rongo, amani (Maori, Swahili); Elohe, he ping (Cherokee, Chinese); Sula, pokoj, shalom, (Persian, Polish, Hebrew); Ukuthala, vrede (Zulu, Afrikaans/Dutch); Lumana, Irene (Hausa, Greek); Ashtee, Amniat (Farsi, Pashto); Wolakota, amahoro (Lakota, Kirundi/kiruanda); Runyara, santiphap (Shona, Lao); Heiwa, paix, Qasikay (Japanese, French, Quechua)

May God grant us peace.

100 Words - Ben Harms

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:32:29 PST

Hi. My name is Ben. When I read third person bios, I always wonder if people write them themselves. I’m working on a new business card for myself. So far it says that I’m a photographist, creator of awesome things, hopeful man and best parallel parker in Seattle. If I’m really honest, I hope you think I’m neat. I have few photos of myself, but I like this one. That beautiful women - her name is Whitney. I am her husband and she makes me happier than a lark. For me this photo seems to say just that.

CAPTURING A MOMENT

There are days when I feel like a thief. Like a fraud. As if I’ve taken this small piece of a beautiful story and robbed it from it’s full beauty. A click of a shutter to tell a story much larger than a moment. But I look at this moment later… this beautiful snapshot that points to something so magnificent and true and holy…

And this smile stretches across my face.

For I, a simple broken man, was given the opportunity to not only experience and hold a moment with others, but to help tell their story.

I am blessed.

An Ode To Ron Carucci

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:00:00 PST

A few months ago, Mars Hill Graduate School commissioned me to create going away gift for one of their beloved professors, Ron Carucci. Ron is an amazing mind, author, and mentor who marked me deeply. The photo was donated by Mr. Longbrake and the words I put in the room were collected from Ron’s former students and colleagues. The final graphic below was printed on a nice big canvas and should be arriving in Seattle shortly.

A Christmas Music Giveaway

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:57:00 PST

While it may seem a little early for Christmas music, (even though I’ve been listening to it since June) I wanted to share this new EP with you. My friend Jessica Sonner and her husband Dan Craig (aka Oh, Starling) have teamed up (as any good husband and wife would their first year of marriage) to create a lovely little collection of Christmas tunes.

For this new project, Oh, Starling, we (Dan Craig and Jessica Sonner) decided to take some traditional carols and spice em up a bit. Our goal is to share a piece of our ongoing creative process with you and put good music in your hands. We are excited about this Joy EP and hope you enjoy it.

In keeping with the true spirit of the season, they’re letting us download the EP for FREE between now and Thanksgiving. Go here to get yours and do please spread the word. And the joy.

100 Words - Todd Henry

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:14:52 PST

Todd Henry is the Founder and Managing Director of Accidental Creative, a boutique consultancy that frees creative people and teams to be brilliant when it counts most. Todd and his wife Rachel have three children and reside in Cincinnati, OH.

MAKING STUFF

I believe there are two aspirations that should sum up our time on earth: “love well” and “die empty.” To die empty we must engage in the continual practice of giving form to whatever thoughts, ideas, conversations and projects are simmering on the back burner. We must defiantly stare into the abyss of our doubt and fear and build a hedge against them through daily, purposeful making. As we do, we forge meaning out of the apparent randomness and begin to uncover our true selves. We don’t really know who we are until we know what we’re capable of making.

100 Words - Jake Harriman

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:00:00 PST

Yesterday I featured a new video about NURU International’s, Jake Harriman. Here he is telling us in 100 words why he does what he does.

Jake Harriman served over seven years as a platoon commander in both the Infantry and an elite unit of Marines called Force Recon. After completing two tours of duty in Iraq Jake came to the realization that the only chance we have of ending terrorism is to end extreme poverty.

WHY I DO WHAT I DO

I have seen too much. I have seen good souls stripped of all choices…leaving only desperation. In Iraq, I saw people commit desperate acts – not out of hatred – but out of love for their starving children. What would you do if your child hadn’t eaten in days…or if your daughter walked 5 hours to find clean water – only to be raped on the way. I’ve seen things. Part of me has died. But there’s another part…a part that now burns to give choices to millions. Join me and the revolution to help end terrorism by ending extreme poverty.

The End - NURU International

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:00:00 PST

My amazing friends over at NURU International just released a new video about their founder, Jake Harriman. It is incredible story about an incredible man who started an incredible organization. Take a few minutes to watch their new piece and then take action by visiting them here.

The Risk Of Staying

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:33:00 PST

A few weeks ago I got a call from a friend of mine asking if I’d consider applying for a creative leadership position at his church. The excitement of the opportunity was quickly overshadowed with a cloud questions.

Is this the right thing? Should we leave Chicago? What does my story have to say about all this?

I left home at 18 in search of risk and adventure. As such, I spent most of my life running around the country from one thing to the next. Some of it was circumstantial. Some you can chalk up to the “actor’s life.” But much of it was simply because I was afraid. Afraid that if I stayed anywhere too long people would find me out. And who wants that?

As Margaret and I contemplated the idea of leaving it became very clear we weren’t supposed to pursue the opportunity. At my most smug I triumphantly declared the reason for staying as: “I’m not done with this place!” And while some of that may be true, my smugness was wiped quickly from my face as the actual reality set in: this place isn’t done with me.

Something in me realized that staying would be far harder than going somewhere new where I could start over. Something in me realized that doing the harder thing would be the very best thing. Something in me realized I was to do a new thing that seemingly was not a new thing at all - stay.

Leaving is no longer the risky thing for me. The risky thing now is staying.

It is submitting to the painfully transforming process of community. It is doing a dumb thing at work and then having to show back up the next day to face those you’ve disappointed. It is telling the truth instead of protecting yourself. It is letting people love you in spite of your ugly and broken bits and then letting them gently guide you into the light. It is showing up to dinners instead of going home and feeling sorry for yourself. It is letting yourself go - in a good way.

For you the risky thing might be leaving. It might mean getting the hell out of dodge - and fast. But for others of you it might mean staying put…breathing…letting yourself go…and letting your community have its way with you.

Esther De Wall wrote about St. Benedict and his life as a monk. I’ll end with her words on staying put as she says it much better than I could:

“Instead of this bewildering and exhausting rushing from one thing to another, monastic stability means accepting this particular community, this place and these people, this and no other, as the way to God. The man or woman who voluntarily limits himself or herself to one building and a few acres of ground for the rest of life is saying that contentment and fulfillment do not consist in constant change, that true happiness cannot necessarily be found anywhere other than in the place and this time.” - Esther De Wall | Seeking God, The Way of St. Benedict