Sample Message from Story: Parables of Jesus

This convertible series will work in a variety of settings.

It can be anything from a single message to an evening program to a weekend retreat or revival, Spiritual renewal series.
The point of this series is to look at the lessons in the stories Jesus told and how to use them to live a better story.

Messages include:

• What Kind of Soil Are You? The Parable of the Sower
• The Older Brother: The Prodigal Son
• Who’s Your Samaritan? The Good Samaritan
• Hurried, Buried and Worried: The Parable of the Talents
• What’s Your Story? The Sheep and the Goats, The Parable of the Lost Sheep

Evening Programs Include:

• The Gifted: Parable of the soils, The Good Samaritan and The Parable of the Talents
• Relationships: Parable of the Soils, The Prodigal Son and The Sheep and Goats

I can also work to your themes and use other parables. I want to help your congregation to live a better story. For more information, contact me, Dave Weiss, at AMOKArts@aol.com.

Happy Mother’s Day!

I wanted to take the time to wish all the moms out there a Happy Mother’s Day, especially my mom Beatrice Weiss, my Mother-in-law Ruth Good and my lovely wife Dawn. This song is one of my favorite songs about moms. Grab a tissue and have a listen.

Happy Mother’s Day!

It’s Finally Here…

Last week I did the long version of this program as a series of revival/spiritual renewal services at the church where I came to Christ in 1986. This morning I will be doing the “A Night AMOK” version of my new presentation Story: Parables of Jesus at St. Thomas Independent Church of the Brethren in Mt. Pleasant Mills, PA. I’m excited to finally do this thing. Here’s the outline of the presentation.

This is the gifts and talents part of Story. There will also be another one that deals with our relationships with others and God that contains the prodigal son and The sheep and the goats/lost sheep.

Jesus gave these stories to help us “live a better story.”

I’d love to bring either presentation to your church. It comes in a variety of formats from a single message to a full presentation to a series perfect for a retreat/camp/revival/Spiritual renewal meeting format. The presentations contain live painting, story telling and the Word and sometimes even a little drama. I’ve built this one to fly so I can take it anywhere. If you’d like to bring me in, contact me and I’ll tell you how.

Creating Together

Last night I witnessed the beauty of collaboration.

Alpha Omega Players in Birdsboro are staging the revival version of the Stephen Schwartz classic Godspell. It was an amazing performance. This is sort of the ultimate “it’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you cry…” show and they did it incredibly well. It’s another great example of a way to communicate the greatest story ever told, combining the truth of the Gospel with humor and pop culture references and a fair amount of improv to create a truly touching experience.

As I watched the show, there were a few things that really struck me. A show like this is a true labor of love. No one gets paid, from the actors to the director to the pit band, every last one of these people is doing the show for the pure enjoyment of what they do. It’s a huge undertaking. Over three months of rehearsals plus countless hours of work on staging, costumes, publicity, ticketing, etc. In addition to all that, they raise funds to be able to put on the show and ticket sales go to the expenses of the show, running the theater and preparing for the next show.

I think that’s what I love about all this and why I am glad to be a small part of it. A whole lot of gifted people bring what they have to the table and work together for the good of the whole. In the process, we become this wonderful interdependent community that works together to do something bigger than any of us could do on our own. Seems to me there’s a message in there we need to pick up on. To me it’s kind of like what the subject of this show wanted from his followers.

Alpha Omega Players opened with Godspell 35 years ago and they’ve done it many times since, each time with a different group of people, all coming together to tell a great story. What could you do if you would get together with a group of talented people and all give your best for the good of the whole?

It’s worth considering…

My son Chris (center) singing Light of the World in Godspell with Alpha Omega Players.

The Bible Miniseries: Telling the Greatest Story Ever

Last night I watched the final installment of The Bible Miniseries. I have to say they did an incredible job. It can’t have been at all easy to cover all that material in the relatively short amount of time they had, which brought me to my thought of the day. This was a great piece of story telling. If Roma Downey and Mark Burnett do not win an Emmy my suspicions of bias against the material will be justified, but as I watched last night I saw them coming up on Pentecost and I really wanted to see Peter give his message to the people and the mass repentance and Salvation that occurred. It didn’t make the cut. Then we crept up on Revelation and I looked forward to seeing the imagery of the apocolyptic book but again that didn’t make it. I can’t say I was disappointed, they really covered a lot of ground and really hit the high points over all, but I wished I could have seen those things.

In this sense, it’s kind of like life. We believers are entrusted with the message of reconcilliation, on a mission to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. In most cases, with any given person, you don’t have enough time to tell the whole story. What are the high points you need to cover? How do you bring the story to people in the time you have? How do you get more time and how do you win the right to be heard? These are the questions we should be asking ourselves and matters of prayer we should take before our Lord.

Roma Downey and Mark Burnett took the time they had, combined it with their gifts talents and resources and used it to take the Gospel to the world. What will you do with your time, talents and resources? What will you do with His story?

I Don’t Want to Hear Someone Else’s Story…

Wow I know that sounds closed minded, but it’s not exactly what I mean. I love to hear the stories of other people, I can listen to them for hours. I also really love storytellers like Andy Andrews who tell us the great stories of people from history with vital lessons for our lives today. Of course I also love the stories of Jesus and the people from the Word of God, mixed with a good and biblical application for my day-to-day life. Having heard all this, you might be asking what it is I don’t want to hear and what is the point of this post.

Well I’ll tell you. Todd Henry from The Accidental Creative always signs off his podcast by saying, “Cover bands don’t change the world.” Now I’ve heard some great cover bands over the years. They are proficient, talented and can play the songs note for note, but no matter how good they are, something is missing. The one who wrote the song is the one who experienced the passion and the pain it took to create the song. Others can sing the song, but they have lived it. That’s what I want to hear. I want to hear the song writer, the one who paid his dues and paid the price. I want to hear the story and the passion and the pain behind it. I want you to tell me your story. I want to hear the joy, the revelation and the struggle, the triumph and the victory. Show me why it didn’t kill you and how it made you stronger. Tell me about what you’ve lived and make me feel it.

Nowhere is this more important than in sharing your faith. So many people are hesitant to share their faith. They often feel they don’t know enough or won’t have the right words and both of those things may be true. There is, however, one subject on which you are the world’s foremost expert. There is one thing you know better than anyone else, it’s your story and the story of Jesus in you. The story of what He has done in your life. Start there, tell your story, give your testimony. Honor God. Speak the truth and speak it in love.

Tell us your story. Chances are there is someone who really needs to hear it!

Oh and one last thing, if you think your story is boring, work to live a better one!

Decisions, Decisions

We’re in one of those places at the Weiss house. A time of decision. My faithful Chevy Trailblazer is getting up there in mileage and I have a decision to make. Do I stick some money into it and keep it or take that money and put it toward a newer vehicle? A van would work better for getting my presentations from place to place. On the other hand, not having a payment has been kind of nice. With a thousand mile weekend coming up, I’m leaning toward something new. We’re praying and would appreciate your prayers for this decision.

In other news, I am busily working on my new presentation, Story: Parables of Jesus. It will be ready to go in May. I am really liking where this is headed. The basic concept is to use the stories of Jesus to teach people to live a better story. This presentation should be about an hour long but I am also working it out into a five message series, perfect for retreats, revival/spiritual renewal series.

I’m also working on the vacation Bible School presentation Dr. Dave’s Creation Station. Which is all about God and His creation, His relationship with us and finding the purpose for which we were created.

I would love the opportunity to bring my ministry to your church. Please contact me at amokarts@aol.com I basically ask for a free will offering and a night’s lodging. For churches requiring extensive travel, please consider teaming up with a few churches in your community and make it a weekend “tour.”

Quite a Wonderful Speed Painting

Dan Dunn is one of the great speed painters. His paint jam presentations are really cool. This one is a tribute to the troops and I have to confess, I had no idea what he was doing til very near the end. I thought he was doing a flying eagle, then it appeared he wrecked it. One thing that makes this type of art work is keeping your audience guessing. Dunn did an excellent job on his piece.
Check it out.

Great thought on the Motivations of our HeARTs

My friend Jessie Nilo, who runs the amazing art ministry VineArts Boise posted this and I thought it was brilliant. I think we all need to check ourselves in this area, no matter what it is that we do. What’s your motivation?

“I have talked with a lot of artists lately about this: the things you do for God are fun and good and amazing, illuminating His love to others… but those things you do cannot possibly increase God’s love for you, and they don’t function at keeping God’s disapproval at bay. God’s love for you is already at full maximum, and he cannot disapprove of you when he looks at you and sees his son Jesus. Nothing you do or don’t do for God can change that. So make sure your motives for serving God are love and happiness: It’s a fun life to love God and love people.”

Amazing Inspirational Artist

I saw this Ted Talk called I Am An Artist and I had to check it out. It’s an amazing piece. Artist Gregg Visintainer shared his art and his story. If you think you can’t do something amazing with your art, if you’re frustrated or wondering is you have what it takes, you MUST watch this!

What’s holding you back? Are you going to let it?
NOOOOO!
Be an Artist!