You can catch all the fun and more Shoe Stories from Echo 2010 at blowingupecho.posterous.com or follow along via twitter @blowingupecho
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Hey Folks, Tim Schraeder (pronounced like “Darth Vader)” of timschraeder.com had some great notes from this mornings session. Here’s a sweet little nugget dipped in honey BBQ Sauce:

Jonathan Acuff is the founder of the stuffchristianslike.net blog and the author of the book, Stuff Christians Like. In the last 12 years he’s written branding for clients such as North Point Community Church, the Home Depot, Chick-fil-A, Bose, Staples and many others. He lives outside of Atlanta with his wife and two daughters.

Surprise

• We live in the most overloeaded, content heavy culture that’s ever been alive.
• People see over 35,000 marketing messages a day.
• How do we break through that clutter?
• This generation gets marketing and messages and they are tired.
• We can break through that with surprise.
• In Accidental Magic by Roy Williams talks about the broca.
• The broca is our brain’s filter.
• When we hear a new idea we default to taking it and relating it to something we already know.
• When we communicate people try to grab it and organize what we say and put it in an organized order.
• When you can surprise people you can expose them to new ideas.
• Jon shared the idea of Booty, God, Booty.

Go check out the entirety here! YOU WILL NOT REGRET!!

// Art happens in DARK PLACES. Movies, plays, concert venues, and the sort. And it is in DARK PLACES where God wants to enter, and work on peoples hearts.  Now, I'm not sure if I heard something that wasn't implied, but with that opening from Blain Hogan I KNEW that I hadn't chosen the right break out to come to, God had guided me here.
 
"Most Christian Art feels more like Propaganda than Art." (#drool) – Blain said.

Then he emphatically went on, "If you (I) want more out of your (my) art …you (I) must work on yourself (myself)!"

So here's the gist: As an artist, I make art, every week, that asks my audience to reflect on their own pasts, their own stories, and yet … I can't remember that last time I reflected on my own. …. (insert bombshell here)

Blaine quoted a famous person, and I'm paraphrasing [we are a society that is over-informed and under-reflective]

And by ignoring myself, my story, what God is sojourning along with me through, I am stumbling into the beginnings of my "art" becoming mere propaganda (a story I have not passion or belief in).  Because I will never take my audience any further than I, myself, have journeyed.

In creating my or other's story:
step 1. CUT a hole in the box

step 2. LISTEN – What's going on in my community?
-be sure to inside and outside the church.
-find the themes that move me the most.
-if you find resistance with your pastor or producer, sit down and ask for the trust to lead creatively every 6 wks. …otherwise, contact Blaine, and he'll apologize.

step 3. SCRATCH, even when I don't Itch.
-always capture what you experience, always! Every song, movie, every experience, capture it for your creative ideas.
-and when you're stuck, go analog. Drop the iPod, the laptop, even the iPhone and grab a pad of paper and pen …just not at the Westin ($40 charges paper)

step 4. CREATIVITY and disorganization are NOT badges of honor!
-chaos actually undermines creativity

step 5. #FAIL! and #fail often!
-okay, just go read "Art & Fear"

So a few tools in understanding yourself, in order to create better art that tells the stories of those around us:
1. Therapy
2. Mars Hill Graduate School
3. Prayer
4. Journaling
5. Read
6. Ask

// So I wish I could do Blaine's lecture justice, but  he ended it so well …"Our Sacred Spaces were not meant to be occupied by propaganda. They were meant for our stories!"
All of his notes and content later on his blog.

// Now I can explain why this is "#echo09 redeemed". If you saw my post on thunkt.com about last year's walk-away from #ECHO09, then you know I was at discord with the lack of "WHY?" in conversation. And Blaine hit my issue directly on the head with his focus on propaganda. That was the tension I had been feeling. So much of the "C"hurch's focus seems to be on "shocking & awing" (as Vince Antonucci describes in his book Guerilla Lovers) our audiences back into a solace of comfort. As if to say, "This service is so high, so energetic, aren't you glad you're a Christian today? Come see us in 7, when you need reassurance! Peace!" (propaganda much?) I desire in my core to make Art that reaches not just my friends, but my culture as well! And hearing Blaine talk …well, I thanked him after the session, and told him I felt so much tension about my church, your church, our big-C "C"hurch blasting propaganda instead of art, and Blaine completely validated me! (again, see my post, it'll explain my need for validation on this topic) "I felt the same way last year, so when I was asked to speak this year, I thought, 'What can I add to the ECHO conversation?'" Well Blaine, I'm so glad you did sir!

// Can't wait to continue dialoguing online!
@just_g ]]> http://thunkt.com/2010/07/28/session-2-highlights-from-ideas-hopes-the-creative-process-a-k-a-echo09-redeemed/feed/ 0 http://thunkt.com/2010/07/28/session-2-highlights-from-ideas-hopes-the-creative-process-a-k-a-echo09-redeemed/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Thunkt/~3/oXnGJU92I4A/ http://thunkt.com/2010/07/28/breakout-session-1-highlights-from-visual-worship-environment-and-content-curation-3/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:15:27 +0000 justing http://thunkt.com/2010/07/28/breakout-session-1-highlights-from-visual-worship-environment-and-content-curation-3/

Just got to hear @worshipVJ & @visualworshiper, it was a great session and opened up my mind to what one can accomplish with an application I have all-too-often overlooked …PowerPoint. "I get paid professionally to use PowerPoint!" @woshipVJ exclaimed. They then dove into "Curation" and "Context" of creative elements to a service. They opened up ideas of Curation and Content, explaining them: