Wall Street Response Video

Preview/download the video now.

On Tuesday morning, September 30, I woke up early with a message on my heart. I’ve become really good at dismissing these messages as stupid ideas that will never work. I tried to do this, but God kept pushing me with ideas, scripting, and even camera shot movement. I knew that we’d need to write, shoot, edit, and upload the video all in one day. Good luck with that. We couldn’t get an actor at such short notice, so I decided to do it.

I showed this video to a friend (Scott McClellan), who’s the Editor of Collide Magazine. His quote is perfect: “…it seems as though a lot of Christians put their trust in their 401k’s and mutual funds to take care of them while they live, and put their trust in Jesus to take care of them when they die.” How true is that?

The result is a video we’re proud to offer you. Check it out here. Download it and show it in your church this week. Then please come back to this post and comment on how you used it in your unique church. What were the elements surrounding the video? Did you have anyone respond as a result of the worship service?

When it all comes down, it’s all about God’s love for us, and our trust in that love. It really doesn’t get any deeper than that. May we trust in God, when the (blue) chips are up, and when they’re down. The events of Wall Street over the past two weeks have not caught God by surprise. It’s not like God thought, “Crap. Never saw that one coming.” May we learn to trust His love for us, and respond in worship more than ever, during this crazy period.

One final important note:  For the initial two weeks following the creation of this video, we offered it for free.  As of Monday morning October 13, the video is available for $10 - still half the price we normally charge for our mini-movies.

Rock & Roll Is Not Dead

My Morning Jacket Concert - Berkley, CA 09/19/08

It was shaping up to be a wet, drizzly night, as people continued to pour into Berkely’s Greek Theatre open-air venue. Not even the wet weather seemed to deter this eclectic crowd of people, determined to have a good time, and see a great performance. The gentleman from Atlanta in front of me, with his teenage son, informed me that while he was in California for a bat mitzvah, he learned that MMJ was playing and left the temple early to catch the show. He had seen them in his home state and said that indeed they were one of the hottest live shows around. He was right.

As if rewarded for our faithfulness in waiting through the heavy mist, the sky opened up to a beautiful bay area night, moments before the first notes of “Evil Urges” rang out to an excited audience. No opening band was needed. Just MMJ doing a ton of music. 27 songs in all.

As the fog rolled in, it enveloped the crowd, so that we all seemed to be one with the band, and their dry ice and lighting spectacle.There was little banter from the stage, but there was a definite connection through the music, as Jim James and company went all out, dancing spastically, jumping around, and shaking their long hair, without regard to perceived coolness.

They were very tight in their playing, and playful in their arrangements and soloing. There was a great balance between all-out rockers, mid-tempo, and their mellow songs, where guitarist Carl Broemel, sat down at the pedal steel and took us back to an era before super-slick production stripped away the wonderful organic tones of the instruments themselves.

I am always hesitant to see one of my favorite bands in person for the first time. Worried that somehow, they will disappoint and leave a bad taste for their music in my mouth. This was definitely not the case with this show. Quite the opposite. It will be a beautiful memory of a wonderful night of great music and great friends.

The Great Heresy of American Christianity

The term “heresy” is a harsh one, and reserved only for belief systems that directly contradict the clear teachings of Scripture. I’ve been encountering a modern-day heresy lately, and had to post. The heresy is a subtle, and can best be described by looking at the life of Bill.

Bill is a Christian. He attends church regularly, serves in the Children’s Ministry every other month, loves his family, and prays every night. He is kind, and likable. He is normal. Bill works hard at his job, complains every now and then, but is never disrespectful to his authority figures. Bill is a good guy. And he will definitely be in heaven one day.

But Bill’s core belief about life is where the heresy lies. Simply put, Bill “gets through” every day, and asks God to help him do that. Bill’s life is in the driver’s seat, and God is his Assistant. With “God’s help”, Bill makes it through every day.

It is subtle. It is popular. And it is heresy.

And our churches are filled with people who function and believe just like Bill does.

The Bible paints a completely different picture of our lives. The Bible paints a picture of a Sovereign and Loving God who is not only in the driver’s seat, but One who also created the road He’s driving on. He is the Driver. He is the fuel. He is the destination. He is the starting point. He is the journey. The truth is that we are assistants. We are speaking His words, and we are explaining and displaying His character to the world, because It ALL points to Him.

God’s goal is not to help us get through our days (although He does this every day). God’s goal is to get us to see the world the way He does, and then to respond with the mind of Christ in appropriate, and sometimes irresponsible ways.

Galatians 2:20 explains it best: “For I have been crucified with Christ, and it is NO LONGER I WHO LIVES, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live, I live BY FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.”

Christianity does not offer anyone a God who becomes our Assistant. Christianity offers an EXCHANGED life - His life for ours. And it does so with an entirely new purpose - to make known the majestic name of the Most High God. Before Christ, it was all about us. The Great Heresy of North American Christianity has figured out a way to continue to make it all about us, but with God’s help.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Music Video: Janice Stain

One of the most fulfilling and exciting projects we’ve ever been involved with comes from a gospel recording artist named Janice Stain. In short, the entire team at Floodgate is involved in creating a music video for a song written by Janice called “At My End”. It’s a beautiful song about the joys and challenges of being a mother. The chorus continually echoes, “When I am weak, then I am strong…”, a more-than realistic heart cry for any mother on the face of the planet!

Once the music track was completed (Janice used some amazing studio players and vocalists), we all sat around a table and brainstormed the shape and the feel of the video. Janice is involved, but not controlling. She has set us free to be artists.

For the shots, Lorrie (the video Project Manager) contacted real moms in Janice’s life. She asked them if we could bring cameras to their homes and simply film them doing whatever they do as moms. We filmed a mom with triplets (2 years old), a mom who lost her husband in a tragic home invasion robbery, a mom with a special needs daughter, and a sports mom with six children. We filmed other moms/actors as needed for fill-in shots. The results have been amazing.

This morning, we finished shooting Janice singing through the lyrics. We were able to secure a beautiful park with a lake (thank you Wolf Lakes), and get some incredible shots there.

The plan for editing is to use cool coloring for all of the mom shots, while contrasting the “live” singing shots colored using warm, heavily saturated, vibrant colors. The mom shots are also slowed to 70% speed, while the singing shots are shot at full speed. Finally, most of the mom shots were shot using a 35mm lens, while most of the singing shots were shot using an 85mm lens, creating a far more shallow depth of field.

We think it’s gonna turn out to be a very special music video. And most of all, the whole Floodgate team is extremely excited to see what God’s gonna do with this film once it’s done!

Shared Leadership

We’ve created a unique situation at Floodgate. And unless you dig deeper, you probably won’t know it. There are three owners of the company - three coequals - all steering the ship, together. There is no boss, and no one has more influence than the others.

When we launched in the Winter of 2006, I was personally counseled by Christian business leaders to NOT establish a business this way. “The buck needs to stop with one person”, they said. “Leading in a committee of three will hinder progress”, another friend told me. But almost three years later, things are expanding and moving forward, with no hint of slowing down.

As I reflect on what’s making this all work, there are several answers. But the answer at the top of my list is a simple one. It’s a certain permission - an unspoken blessing the three of us give each other every day. And honestly, I’ve never seen it played out in any business I’ve experienced.

Except here.

The reason the shared leadership model is working for us is because we give each other the constant permission and blessing to say “no”. When a job comes in, we all have the ability to respectfully decline our personal involvement. There doesn’t need to be a reason, because we trust that our “no’s” have legitimate reasons, sometimes shared, and sometimes not. When life gets too busy for us to function at peak professional levels, we simply say, “I’m sorry. I can’t do that right now.” And the other two respect and honor that.

I wonder what this would look like in a church setting? Can you imagine a staff environment where you’re given permission and blessing to say “no”, and have it honored, even trusted? Maybe you work in that setting. Maybe you dream of it.

Could it ever really work?

Play it out in your imagination and, if God leads, work toward making it happen.