It’s a part of the MidMichigan Innovation Center, an incubator that looks for companies that are pushing the limits and doing a new thing. This gives me not just an office but access to conference rooms, administrative staff, the whole works.

I am truly grateful and in awe as I see the favor of God. Scripture says that when we do the work He finishes the task. I never ever ever could do this without God’s provision. I am amazed and blessed that he’s given me the opportunity to equip ministries to tell His story and breath new creativity into the church.

Here is a glimpse of the new digs, including a picture from our first employee* meeting.

Our move in is Friday the 13th (hmmm) and our new address is 4520 E. Ashman Rd., Midland, MI 48642

*aka my wife, Carrie.

@daniellsuzanne: u should turn the back of ur business card into an iPhone wallpaper – i’d use it!

Made my day. How could I resist a request like that? So here they are for you to enjoy.

Feel free to spread the word, but will you please link to here so that I can see how many of you are downloading the wallpaper and see if I should make some more down the road?

“we’re putting your logo in lights”

As Dawn Nicole put it, “it was like watching my kids faces on Christmas.” I was thrilled and excited to see that come together. I was even more excited that my creativity led to someone else pouring out their creativity.

And it didn’t stop there…it was also drawn out in chalk in the cafe, and even given it’s own drink!

That’s how creativity works. It awakes areas of our brain as if to give it permission to explore and venture out. It opens up doors we never saw before. I see it all the time when a pastor allows us to speak creativity into a message; it’s not just about what we do creatively but it sparks new ideas for the pastor as well. I love the look on a pastor’s face as it hits them. They too have that Christmas morning look, ready to run and explore creative ways to bring the gospel.

It’s also a great example of how creativity builds momentum. It started when I poured out my creativity into the logo and continued as others poured out their creativity into bringing it to life in various forms.

And it comes in all shapes in sizes…it even finds its place in the men’s room.

What’s your story of creativity breeding creativity?

Microsoft launched a store. The store looks nice. In fact it even looks cool. People are talking about their store. Sounds like everything is a big win. All the requirements have been met.

But wait…they left out creative and original, and ended up creating a store that looks like they, like everyone else, wants to be just like Apple. The new commercial should be “Hi I’m a PC…and I want to be a Mac.”

The lesson: Don’t discount creativity and originality. Embrace creativity in your efforts to be effective.

Want to see creative + effective? Check out an unboxing of an Apple employee T-shirt.

I wrote awhile ago about the tone of the blog, what to write, balancing my writing here with my involvement at ChurchMarketingSucks…and I think this is a nice step in that direction. Of course, a name change alone doesn’t change things, but it gets the ball rolling. I also hope the new name will bring more people, and more importantly, more conversation.

I go through the many of the same things you go through. I wrestle with a new logo, have dry spells when all I can do is remind myself that I’m not in charge, and yes reorder business cards even though 1000 cards arrived less than a week ago. Don’t get me wrong, I love the cards, they look great but when I had them printed I didn’t know the response JesusHatesPapyrus was going to get.

It stuck with many of you, made its rounds on twitter and it stuck with me. The more I talked about it the more I fell in love with it…thus, a name change. With the name change comes a new order of business cards with the new domain name on it.

The next thing to wrestle with is whether or not to completely move the blog to a new host under the new domain. Right now the domain name is masked, which is fine until you try to forward a post as a link – it stays masked. See, I hit road bumps too.

Some things change, like a name…some things don’t, like challenges. I’d love to hear your comments, thoughts and yes, advice is always welcome.

* for those of you who’ve asked, I will talk about why Jesus Hates Papyrus at Cultivate (probably Story too) and will write a post after these two conferences.

And the list goes on and on for alternatives to “enjoy this season”.

Of course what it really mean is that you don’t believe in Halloween but want to celebrate it anyway. I hear the word alternative being used but an alternative of kids dressing up and getting candy by having kids dress up and come to your church for candy…not very “alternative.”

Who are we fooling? What kind of message are we sending?

If you don’t like Halloween, don’t celebrate it. You have a legitimate argument that could be made against it. Giving it a new name doesn’t change a thing and the only one you’re fooling is yourself.

Happy Holiday
How does it make you feel when someone says “Happy Holiday” during Christmas? Do they fool you? Do you realize they’re just being ignorant in their lame attempt to be “sensitive”? Does it just get under your skin? Do you even think of shopping somewhere else?

I wonder if people think the same way when we say “Fall Harvest” instead of Halloween?

Let’s talk about those costumes.
What about the criteria “no scary costumes, God honoring costumes, etc.”? I think it’s just silly. I’ve handed out the candy, I’ve seen the costumes and no one has ever come to the door that’s going to give anyone nightmares.

What message do you send when you put that criteria in place? You’re telling people they can come to your party – if they look and act like you. Why can’t we let people come into church as themselves? Aren’t “those people” the people you say you want to reach? Honestly, if a kid wants to come to church dressed up as dracula…knock yourself out, have some candy. And when they ask you “aren’t I scary” go ahead and be honest “Yes you are, but you know what? God still loves you.”

And let’s not forget, when you give the criteria “bible characters only” you open yourselves to demons, prostitutes, evil spirits – not to mention adam & eve. What about the Holy “Ghost” does that qualify? I’ve just always thought that was funny.

Political
I understand that a large reason for the renaming is that many people would be upset if you had a “Halloween” party in the house of God. No one likes angry letters. I get that. What if you used it as an opportunity for a conversation about reaching people, about being slow to judge and quick to have open arms.

If you think Halloween is evil don’t rename it, just skip it. But if you’re going to have a party, be the place to be. Knock it out of the park. Have the most fun, the best candy, the biggest games…make church the place to be on Halloween.

Use it as an opportunity, not a stumbling block.

a person who produces works in any of the arts that are primarily subject to aesthetic criteria.

It’s the last part that ties me up “primarily subject to aesthetic criteria.” Too often it is easy for creatives to focus on how something looks. Shoot, if I’m at a restaurant, 9 out of 10 times I will order something with a picture. The visual part of our brain is always hot. But if it only looks good it, like this Pepsi ad, falls flat.

The art was directed well and it’s funny but does it make you want to pick up that glass of Pepsi and drink it? Not so much. They focused on making a cool ad and not making people desire Pepsi. Your goal should be to communicate, engage and motivate. Your artistic ability absolutely plays a part in this, especially as we look at art as

the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.

but it can’t stop at looking pretty, push past focusing primarily on aesthetic and focus on creating communication that motivates and compels people to act and to change.

That’s my baby boy (and yes, his first kiss, Sydney)…wow, a year flies by. I’ll be honest, I thought I was ready for this. I had already gone through it once with my now 17 year old, I could do it again. I think what I may have forgotten in that equation was that I was 17 years younger then. He most certainly keeps me on my toes.

To say it was a difficult first month would be silly, it was hell. He cried for days and there was nothing we could do. Here we were, given a precious gift and we couldn’t comfort him. But today he’s a happy little boy, full of laughter and smiles. So now sit back as you get to know Parker:

His favorite character is Elmo. He waves to him even if it’s on an Ebay listing for his tickle me Elmo.
Second favorite is Curious George.
His girlfriend is Sydney, though I think she might think she’s actually his mother.
He loves praise and worship. It was the only thing that would quiet him in his tough days. I think that’ll stick.
His first word Oh Oh, followed by…Daddy.
He loves dogs. Hates cats. (that’s my boy)
He will smile at you, and scowl…we don’t know why he scowls, but it’s kinda cute.
He loves to eat, I’m pretty sure he came close to eating a whole pizza.
He’s also a big sleeper, thank you Jesus.
and last, but not least:

He has a terrific mommy. It’s not fair really. He always wants his daddy, his daddy gets all the giggles, he said daddy first…and yet she’s always there, first up in the morning, feeds him, cares for him…she doesn’t miss a beat. Parker, Ty and I are all blessed to have her in our lives. Thanks babe.

Have you been waiting for an invite, looking to starting using Google’s latest toy?

Reply below with why you want one and how you plan to use it in your church or ministry. I’ll reach into the hat and pull a few names out tomorrow and send you an invite.

I’ve always liked the designs I’ve used for the business cards, but this design really took it to a new level for me. It was as if now that I had really poured a lot of personality into the logo it freed me to let that come out in our own design. It’s encouraged me to really embrace our brand.

Business cards have always been more of a necessity, but I really look forward to handing these out and seeing people’s reaction. I really hope they connect and even end up on people’s desk, bulletin boards, etc. Who knows, maybe people will even hunt me down to get a Jesus Hates Papyrus card.

Looking for your advice:
I did secure JesusHatesPapyrus.com (and .org), but I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them yet. I’ve considered using it for this blog (and drop holycowablog), what do you think of that? Other ideas?

And yes, it’s true. Jesus does hate papyrus (the typeface, not the fruit)…I even have scripture to back it up, but that’s for another day.