Genesis 11: 6
“Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set their mind out to do will be impossible for them!”

This scripture is in the middle of the story of the tower of babel in the Bible. It was not long after the Flood that the people of the Earth were all gathered together in one place, speaking the same language. They set out to build a tower to the heavens. A crazy task, but one that even God thought they could complete because of one reason.

They were united in speaking the same language. And speaking the same language made it so that nothing was impossible for them.

So…. It gets me thinking that if we (by we, I am referring to our teams, organizations, groups, etc.) are facing the impossible and not getting anywhere, then it is possible that we are not unified in speaking the same language.

At the Oasis, our language is a huge consideration. Being here just shy a year now,  our Pastor has rarely “corrected” me. But I have realized that every time a corrective conversation or comment has been had, it has has been around the language I have used.

Our language is vital to our organization. How we say things has at times been more important then what we were saying. At every creative meeting, a large chunk of time has been spent on the words we use. And once the team buy’s into the language, the task we set out to accomplish seems to transition from impossible to possible, from difficult to easy.

For me, it becomes obvious that if the team is all talking about the same thing the same way, execution becomes easy.

That is all.

]]> http://epic252.com/2011/11/14/its-how-you-say-it/feed/ 0 Christian babel http://epic252.com/2011/10/15/looks-without-seeing/ http://epic252.com/2011/10/15/looks-without-seeing/#comments Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:29:30 +0000 Christian Hage http://epic252.com/?p=377 ]]>

“the average human looks without seeing, listens without hearing,
touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness,
inhales without awareness of odor or fragrance, and talks without thinking.”
― Leonardo da Vinci

As a church creative, I am often moving through projects at a rapid fire pace. In order to stay ahead of the curve I am usually working on what is coming next while the people of my church are experiencing what I did last.  Today I am rereading Primal by Mark Batterson (getting ready for our series based on the book that starts this weekend) and Mark quotes da Vinci. The thought occurred to me…

“How often do I do this when it comes to experiencing God for myself?”

This morning I realized that I continually fall into the “Martha” trap. Spending so much time preparing for people to come to our church and experience God  that I myself fail to SEE God in the experience, HEAR what He is saying, FEEL His presence, TASTE His goodness, be AWARE of His movement, SMELL His fragrance, and THINK about what He has done.

Just the other day I was talking about when designing a worship experience, we want to stimulate as many senses as we can. We want our stage, lights, graphics, video, lobby all to look good to stimulate the eyes. We want the music, the speaker’s tone & the mix to all sound good to the ears. We want the lobby, the bathrooms, the sanctuary and the kids areas to all smell good to the olfactory. We want the coffee and the food in the cafe to taste good. And, as a church creative, I spend much of my time working to make sure that when a person walks into our church their senses are stimulated in the hope that this will somehow move them toward God.

As if good smelling bathrooms are the key to a person’s salvation.  

This is an easy trap to fall into.. After all, the worship experience is important, but if the experience design becomes more important then who it is ultimately designed for…  well #epicfail.

This morning is a gut check for me. I realize again, (I have had this realization before, but needed to be reminded) that I must intentionally create out of SEEING the Creator, HEARING His Word, FEELING His Presence, TASTING His Goodness, BEING AWARE of His Moves, SMELLING His Fragrance  and THINKING about what HE has done and is doing.

Practically this means I have to make the time to experience our worship experiences and ignore the voices calling to me from the production suite for at least one service a week. I think, in this season, with this one discipline I can be in the position to LOOK and SEE.

I would like to hear if this is a place you find yourself often and what practical disciplines you put in place to prevent it or if in it, get out of it? Leave me some comments..

]]> http://epic252.com/2011/10/15/looks-without-seeing/feed/ 0 Christian ginevra http://epic252.com/2011/10/10/my-wife-got-her-belly-painted/ http://epic252.com/2011/10/10/my-wife-got-her-belly-painted/#comments Tue, 11 Oct 2011 03:43:41 +0000 Christian Hage http://epic252.com/?p=367 ]]> So we have an artist friend (Kate) from Chicago who tells us that Belly Painting for Pregnancy is all the rage. So she came to Nashville to Paint Danielle’s Belly. I happend to be hanging out and to memorialize Steve Jobs recent passing and just cuz I’m a geek— well this is what we did.

The other  morning I woke up at 4:30am and felt like Jesus wanted to show me something. So I pulled my iPhone from under my pillow… (its a habit that carries over from when my wife and I were dating and I was in California and she was in Chicago – different time zones and you don’t want to miss THAT call.)

I felt God lead me to John’s Good News (read: Gospel of John) and read Chaper 1:1-5. Then it was time to pull out the laptop, open Evernote and start writing stuff down.  These are the thoughts that came out of that moment. I considered editing them into a more presentable format, but I thought I would share the raw version directly from Evernote.

Creation brings illumination. 

John 1

1 In the beginning the Word already existed.

The Word was with God, and the Word was God.2 He existed in the beginning with God.3 God created everything through him,and nothing was created except through him.4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,t and his life brought light to everyone. 5 The light shines in the darkness,and the darkness can never extinguish it.

 Extinguish = overcome, comprehend or understand..

The goal of creation is to bring life to the world. Life occurs in the light and darkness can’t understand it. Therefore in order have life, there must first be light.

Our goal as the church is to create in order to bring light. (enlighten, illuminate, shed light upon)

We know that Jesus is the light of the world.

We know that Jesus is the Word of God.

We know that Jesus is gives life.

We know there is no life, except through Jesus. 

Darkness is uncreated space. 

Darkness is the absence of life.

Darkness is the absence of light.

Darkness is the with out understanding. 

Darkness is before understanding – before we understand, we are in the dark. But once we understand, we can never go back to not understanding. Once we overcome, we can not go back to not overcoming.

Creation was created to bring light and life. Everything that is created has a responsibility to be a creator. Therefore it is our responsibility as creators to shed light, bring light, create light, and therefore create life.

If the goal of every creation is to in the end give life – and we know that life only comes through Jesus, then the goal of every creation should be Jesus. (The Word is with and is) He gives life and life gives light (the once known, can never be unknown, never extinguishable, never again un-understandable Salvation of Jesus.)

_____

After reviewing these thoughts I remembered a video I saw a while back that I think is cool and somewhat fitting…

-That is all

*Video by Hidetsugu Murakami

Recently I had this thought -

“In the beginning, God CREATED the heavens and the earth.”

That thought lead me to think for a minute about what God’s creative process is, so I cracked my Bible – well actually I pulled up youversion on my iPad – and re-read Genesis 1.

Here are some things I noticed about what God did in the process of creation and what that creation process produced. – At this moment, these are cursory thoughts on the subject and as I examine my creative process and continue to connect with the Creator, there is opportunity to explore deeper into the creativity of God.

> God started without form.  

The first thing I notice about the creation account is that God gets right in the middle of the void -  the place without any form – and lets His Spirit fill the space from close proximity. He approached the blank page and hovered there for a while.

> God put it into words

 After hovering in the formless void, God spoke. He initiated creation by saying what he wanted to see.

> Words brought illumination 

What God spoke lit up the world in which he was creating. God could now see the canvas, see what could be there. God used words to start to shape what could be, even though nothing was there yet.

> God separated and categorized  - day from night, waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens

Early in the process God begins to put a structure in place for the rest of creation. He starts to give names to the pieces and places boundaries on different parts. Lines begin to appear.

> God made space 

What structure produces in this process is space. Space for detail, space for personality, space, really, to create. As if all the work of creation up until this point is really just preparing to create.

> God landed on solid ground

And then God lands on solid ground. Form has appeared and the earth is ready for plants and animals and humans. The idea has some traction, momentum is rolling, what is accomplished in the third day is far more detailed and fruitful then the previous two days combined.

> Solid ground brings growth

The momentum continues, and things begin to grow on there own.

> God put measures in place- seasons, days & years

Seeing that growth is occurring, God starts to define measurables for His creation. What are  healthy cycles for His creation? How much should be produced from it and when? How can growth be maintained? At this point in the process God answers these questions.

> Creation is fruitful & multiplies

Healthy cycles and measurable growth produce fruitfulness and multiplication. Life begins happen.

> God creates other creators in His image

Once the system is in place and the processes defined, God replicates himself. He creates man in His image, with the ability to recreate and manage His creation.

> Then the Creator rested

> At each stage of creation God evaluates His progress – and He saw that it was good. 

- That is all.

About ten days ago my wife and I found out that we are having a daughter. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about this. I was hoping that we would have a girl. I can’t wait for that first Princess Leia Halloween Costume and to put a golf club in her hand. The best thing is that I will get to take her on dates, show her how to be treated by a boy.

We have decided to name her Matalyne Knight after Danielle’s Great Grandmother. (I like Knight as in Jedi Knight, and for D, it might be Jordan Knight. Either way, it sounds cool) We will call her Mattie.

I am really excited to be a dad.

Today I am sitting in the hospital room with my wife, Danielle. She has severe morning sickness & the doctor wanted to admit her for a couple days.

It has been an interesting emotional experience for me. I generally keep a good sense of humor about these things & I have continued to throughout this experience. What is interesting to me is how easy it has been for fear to creep in in the least expected places. It’s a different kind of fear.. It’s not a hyper-sensory experience like you might expect. It’s the small worries like.. Did they get all the air out of the IV line? Is my insurance going to cover the nasal spray? Is my wife gonna be scared?

So many people have offered to help, have communicated love & all in all been very supportive with thoughts & prayers. And I am very appreciative of that. But herein lies another place for fear to show up. We are here in a new place with new relationships & have had little time to build close friendships. Are people really concerned? Is it just southern hospitality? Are we gonna owe them for their kindness?

I know its a dark way to think. And I know the answer most of those fears is that yes people care, yes the doctors are doing their job, yes we can pay for the nasal spray & actually, if Danielle is scared she is certainly not showing it.  I know these things, but the fear can still bring questions.

So.. That brings me to this morning. I saw my good friend Marcus Mecum tweet about the Hillsong United Song Aftermath. I decided to play the album here in the hospital room & the first song I played is Take Heart. What amazing timing.

I felt the presence of God fill the hospital room. The words of the song reminded me that God is God. That He has overcome. All our troubles, all our tears, God our Hope, He Has Overcome.

It seems like in this season God keeps reminding me that He is in control. That I can continue to trust Him. Not just for a little while, but forever and always. That He brought us here to this this place for His kingdom. I can trust him to provide enough for the nasal spray & in that, this morning I am Taking Heart.

BTW, here are the lyrics to the song.

Take Heart lyrics

There is a light
It burns brighter than the sun
He steals the night
And casts no shadow
There is hope
Should oceans rise and mountains fall
He never fails

So take heart
Let His love lead us through the night
Hold on to hope
And take courage again

In death by love
The fallen world was overcome
He wears the scars of our freedom
In His Name
All our fears are swept away
He never fails

All our troubles
And all our tears
God our hope
He has overcome

All our failure
And all our fear
God our love
He has overcome
All our heartache
And all our pain
God our healer
He has overcome

All our burdens
And all our shame
God our freedom
He has overcome

All our troubles
And all our tears
God our hope
He has overcome

All our failures
And all our fear
God our love
He has overcome

God our justice
God our grace
God our freedom
He has overcome

God our refuge
God our strength
God is with us
He has overcome

So.

Here’s an update on what’s been going on…

Sometime in the middle of March, I came on staff at Oasis Church with Pastors Danny & Jill Chambers. Since then it has been a whirlwind of activity. I have been working tirelessly on learning new post production techniques, building a team and establishing a solid workflow.

It has been a really great experience working with the team here at Oasis. I think the thing that is most impressive about this team is the healthy balance that exists. (its all but demanded) I was in a meeting with Pastor Danny the other day discussing workload priorities and in the middle he stops and asked me when was the last time I played golf? I replied that it had been a while and he responded “Why? You need to be golfing.”  He reminded me that balance is a very important part of their culture.

I feel like I am in the right place.

The other BIG HUGE EXCITING NEWS is that MY WIFE IS PREGNANT. I am so excited! I am going to be a dad. We had our first ultrasound and I got to see the heartbeat of my child. So cool!

I don’t even know how to express my feelings about this – just to say, I am sure if you have children, you know.

Well, that’s the latest. Below is a picture of the ultrasound & some of the more recent projects I have done for the Oasis.

It has been an incredible experience volunteering at Oasis Church to produce THE VISION 2011 Short Film. What made this such and incredible experience was the people that were involved it making it happen. So here is the story of how this came to be.

February 8, 2011 – It Starts…

Pastor Danny Scheduled a meeting with the Oasis Creative Team. I had just recently been invited to be apart of this team so I was very excited to have a chance to jump into the mix. At that meeting Pastor Danny started to discuss that the next series he wanted to do was The Vision Campaign 2011.

Sitting around the table, the team began to talk about the ways the Vision had been presented in previous years. Video had always been used to help illustrate the message and we wanted to continue to head that direction. We tossed around several different ideas of how we might want to communicate this year.

Then Pastor Danny began to tell a story of an email he received of a story of a soldier in Afghanistan that watched the Oasis On Demand and listened to Pastor Danny’s CDs and that they helped him get through his time there. Everyone around the table was moved by the story. Then Pastor Adonis began to tell a story of a woman who was about to commit suicide until she received a call from her Life Group Leader.

At that point it was decided that we definitely needed to include stories of how people’s lives where being changed by the Vision of Oasis Church. That choice brought us to look at the past couple years of Hillsong Church’s Vision Videos. After watching those, we were inspired. We saw that we could utilize video to communicate the Vision in a way we never had before. Not only could we tell stories, we could show them. Not only could we talk about the Vision but we could invite the church into the process of discussing, clarifying and communicating it with the Executive Team. – Note: It was amazing to see this team in action.

At the end of the meeting we had vision of how to communicate the vision.

February 9-21, 2011 – Production

These 12 days are somewhat of a blur. What I can remember is that I became aggressive with asking people I had never met to help out. I quickly connected with Terry Wyatt and we spent hours walking around the city capturing the people of Nashville. I connected with Paul Daniels and we begun to plan the Live Interview shoot that was going to happen on Monday, Feb 21. I met Lynn Jackson and started to hear her story. I was emailing with the Executive Team everyday, constantly asking questions to ensure that THE VISION was being communicated clearly. Terry Wyatt & I went to shoot the section with Lynn, we shot footage of Oasis Church Services, Campuses & People. I negotiated equipment rentals, shooting schedules & asked old friends and new friends for footage of Nashville. I emailed Kelsey Wynns on Vimeo and asked him if I could buy him lunch in trade for some time-lapse footage of Nashville he shot. I talked with Jim Lockhart A LOT about the post production plan. Finally, Monday, Feb 21 we were ready to shoot the interview with Pastors Danny & Jill.

On interview night, the original plan was to have some individual interviews of Pastor Danny & Pastor Jill & we did that, and it was good. The Vision was coming across & we were hearing the heart of our pastors. But then something cool happened. We had the idea that we should have the whole team sit around and chat about the Vision. It was at this moment that I saw a even clearer picture of who Pastor Danny & Pastor Jill really are. When they sat there in a circle with their team that THE VISION became crystal clear. To hear them talk about all that Oasis Church was about – Loving God, Loving People, & Serving the World –  was nothing short of electrifying. In that moment we shifted gears and The Vision Presentation was going to center around this team. And now it was off to post…

February 22 – March 5, 2011 – Post-Production

Tuesday Morning Jim Lockhart & I started editing. The first two days we spent organizing & coverting footage into all the proper formats & codecs. Next was figuring out how to edit using Final Cut Pro’s Multi-Clip. The next four days, I lived in the post suite 9am to 2 0r 3am every day. On Friday we had our first preview for the Executive Team. They were pleased with the progress, gave notes and we went back to work. Sunday, Feb 27 I went to the 8:30 Service at Oasis Church then back into the post suite. At around 4pm I started to render. While waiting for that to complete I watched the Oscars, made fun of them on twitter & started taking random picture. Render time is brutal.

Monday, Feb 28 We had picture lock.

Now the fun part started. Jim started testing “looks” for the film & for I first time I had a change to really use color to enhance the story. It was amazing. I have to say, getting to work with Jim has been one of the greatest learning experiences of my life. I have learned about a whole ‘nother level of post production that I have never experienced before. I really thank God for him & his contribution. It wouldn’t have happened without him.

Saturday, March 5 – One day to go.

we did a preview in the auditorium at Oasis. Everything looked really good. We had a few changes that needed to be made, a final sound mix to do & some title cards to create. After completing all that, we started the export process. And Finally at 4am we were done & ready to share THE VISION 2011 with the world.

I would encourage you to watch the video & message on demand. (Click Here)

Here are the Credits of Everyone that was involved in making THE VISION 2011 possible.

Interview Director
Paul Daniels

Camera Operators
Zak Kingrea, Sid Smith, Carter Ranson, Terry Wyatt

Gaffer
Carter Ranson

Grip
Tom Wooldridge

Jib Operator
Brandon Tait

Behind the Scenes Camera
Ryan Roberts

Sound Recording/Sound Editing/Sound Mixing
Seth Tovey

Voice Overs
Sydni Chambers, Dr. Mark Williams

Craft Services
Danielle Hage, Rebecca Smith

Post Production
Jim Lockhart

Special Thanks to:
Pastor Danny Chambers
Pastor Jill Chambers
Pastor Randy Blue
Pastor Adonis Lenzy
Pastor Jennifer Ranson
Jason Lyons
Meghan Moore
Chelsey Fuller
Dan Grimes
Lynn Jackson
Kelsey Wynns
emagination media
DR&A