What is School For? Brilliant Thoughts from Seth Godin on Art, Creativity and Education

This is an amazingly challenging video from one of the great minds of our day, Seth Godin. If you’re at all interested in art, creativity and/or education, you must watch this video.

The Dangers of Religion

I often say I am not a big fan of religion and when a minister says something like that people give me strange looks as if I am being cute or playing word games. That is not the case.

I’ll give you an example using one of my favorite examples, the Amish. Now let me first state that I believe the Amish love Jesus and we could all use a lot more simplicity in out lives, but yesterday my wife and I were heading through Lancaster county Pennsylvania when we got behind the people in this photo. You may or may not know this but the Amish are not allowed to have rubber tires except in certain circumstances. This tractor had huge rubber tires, (many Amish folks will replace them with steel wheels) An Amish farmer and two small children were in the cab while an older man and an Amish child were riding in the wagon with steel wheels. It is so confusing. For the most part they avoid vehicles in favor of buggies, they also often use horse drawn farm equipment. Further they ride bicycles and scooters with rubber tires. Why can certain things have tires, other things can’t? Why can some have tractors but not cars and why can they not have cars, but they can let other people drive them around? Why s it wrong to have a phone in your house but okay to have one in your barn? It’s all so confusing but then so is religion.

The Bible has nothing to say about rubber tires, of course. Rubber was still just tree sap when the canon was closed. Where did they get the idea that rubber was wrong, but in some cases permissible and in other cases forbidden. It’s pretty simple really. It started as tradition, likely when the first cars showed up and people decided they didn’t like it so they started making rules.

Before you think I am picking on the Amish alone, it goes far beyond the Amish. I love creativity, and I think the church needs to embrace creativity so much more than we do, but we can’t get creative with the rules and the Word. The Bible is our guide book (among other things) it needs to be followed without taking anything away or, and this is important, adding anything to it. The answer to society’s problems is not tacking more onto God’s law. The Pharisees did that and it didn’t go well. That’s because law can’t save. The answer to society’s problems is what it’s always been.

Jesus.
We don’t need more religion or more laws, we need Jesus.

Create ways to share His truth and trust that He will bring the changes we need.

Creation Station: The Aye Aye and God’s Love

The latest video from my new VBS Curriculum Creation Station. This one is about God’s love. I’d love to bring Creation Station to your church in 2014. For more information contact me at AMOKArts@aol.com.

Starving Artists?

I’ve heard it, so have you, the phrase starving artist. Most people feel it’s a necessity some wear it as a badge of honor. I remember being 17 years old looking at my parents, telling them I wanted to go to art school, and hearing “No son of mine is going to starve in an attic.” For the record, I did become an artist (without the benefit of art school) and I just signed up for a weight loss program. Starving and artist do not necessarily belong together and I’m not the only one who thinks so.

My family and I sponsor three Compassion children. One of them, Estephania Bertrand, lives in Haiti and attends the Anse-a-Galet Church of God Child Development Center. Every year, I receive a letter from her pastor, Joseph Louis Roosevelt, that tells how things are going there. Here’s a portion of his letter:

“Children and parents are learning many things in the project (what they call the Child Development Center). We make some non-formal classes for them such as: sewing, cooking, floral art, painting, music, computing, embroidery and more. I have to tell you that all the artwork on the walls of the church and school are made by our registered children. These courses help them to make money to respond to their needs…”

It seems Pastor Joseph and his staff see creativity as a path to a better life for the children and their parents, which is kind of the opposite of “starving artists.” Reading this letter really touched my heart. They are in the process of raising funds to make the church larger as the project is outgrowing the size of their current facility. It makes me wonder if there is a way we can help them???

In the mean time there are things I know you can do to help a child somewhere.
1. Pray
2. Sponsor a child through Compassion or the ministry of your choice. $38 a month can really change a life.

You don’t have to be a starving artist and there should be no such thing as a starving child. You can make a difference today.

Just Cause I Love This…

I know I have shared this before, but it bears repeating.

How would you introduce Jesus?
‘Cause that is a big part of what we’re called to do, thanks Steve Harvey!

Don’t Forget to Check Out BewareofArtists.org

I’d love for you to check out my other site BewareofArtists.org. It’s all about art and creativity. Make Something Monday, Technique Tuesday, Wild Card Wednesday, Thought of the Day Thursday, Philanthropic Friday and “One Liners” seven days a week. If you want to build your skills and creativity, this is the site for you. Watch the video and then go check it out.

FTC Challenge… Are You In?

My friend, Artist’s Suitcase Founder, Kent Sanders posted what I consider to be a very worthwhile challenge: The FTC (Fit to Create) Challenge. It’s not a diet plan or anything like that, it’s encouragement to meet your fitness goals which should give you more energy to create. As a person who has always struggled with weight and who has used the excuse that I am too busy working to exercise, this is something I really need, so I am signing up. My total goal is to lose 50 pounds. This is only a 40 day challenge so I know I won’t lose over a pound a day without doing something crazy or stupid, but for the term of the challenge I am setting the goal of losing 15 pounds. That might be aggressive but that’s what I’m working toward.

Are you in?
You can sign up at http://www.artistssuitcase.com/are-you-ready-for-the-ftc-challenge/

By the way, you should really check out Kent’s site. He is doing some great stuff and his podcast is really well done. http://www.artistssuitcase.com/

Turning Liabilities Into Assets

Some of you have seen Phil Hansen’s story on this blog before but since he is one of my favorite artists and he recently appeared on Last Call with Carson Daly, I thought I’d tell you again. Phil always dreamed of being an artist but doing massive amounts of pointillism caused him to have permanent nerve damage in his drawing hand, which caused his hand to shake. It could have been the end of his art career but instead he decided to “embrace the shake.” In the process, he became (in my opinion) one of the most inventive artists of our time.

What in your life feels like a liability? How can you turn it into an asset?
For more on Phil Hansen go to Philinthecircle.com
To be a part of his latest project, click here.

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.