The Super Bowl

I know what does this have to do with art and ministry, well not a lot but these folks sure know how to put on a spectacle. None of my teams are playing, so I can just enjoy the game whoever wins which is kind of nice. Beyonce is doing the halftime show and I’m sure there will be spectacle there as well, and while she is really talented, it’s not my style. So all in all, it’s a nice evening at home with the family.

In a game like this, where the outcome is not too important to me, like many other Americans, I appreciate the game, but I watch for the commercials.

What strikes me is the amount of money these companies were willing to spend and the creativity invested in getting their message out.

I know none of you have that kind of budget, (if you do, please contact me, I could really use someone to underwrite my speaking ministry ) but it occurs to me that we have a better message than any of these companies and a command from God to get it out. We may not have the budget (though our Father does own the cattle on a thousand hills) but we do have the creativity. This year how will you invest your creativity in getting his message out.

Here’s a challenge. Make a 30 second video that tells people about Jesus. Be creative, put it on Youtube, and promote it. Tell the story.

By the way the Doritos commercial with the dad and his little girl is a classic.

By the way, here’s a Superbowl ad made by a church.

This Year, How Will You Tell His Story?

As we approach a new year, especially as we look back over 2012, one thing should be abundantly clear. This world needs the Gospel. God has called uas and gifted us for a reason. We creatives need to be using everything God has given us to introduce the world to its savior.

You just watched one artist’s effort to share the Gospel. In 2013, How will you use your gift to tell His story?

Winning the Story Wars

Not long ago I downloaded a book onto my kindle called Winning the Story Wars by Jonah Sachs. I have not yet read the book so I realize I am going out on a bit of a limb here. In this marketing book he relates marketing to stories and creating myths. It appears from one of the videos in this series that he regards our faith as a myth and if that is the case, I strenuously disagree. Nonetheless, one of my passions for this blog is helping Christians to tell a better story. If we were to apply some of the principles espoused in these videos to the true, totally unmythic story of the Gospel and more importantly the way we share it and tell our stories, I can’t help thinking we might be a bit more successful.

This may be one of those cases where we have to baptize a worldly principle, but there is something to be learned here. Check it out and let me know what you think.

A really cool piece of worship art

Done with glow paint and a black light, this presentation is extremely cool.

How could you adapt this to your situation?

IllustrationFriday.com challenge, Post 500 and Merry Christmas

Messenger

Thanks to the folks at IllustrationFriday.com for making the challenge word “Messenger” this week. After all the word Angel means messenger and with tomorrow being Christmas what a great time to key in on the message of the angels, “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:9-12)

The angels were the first to bring the good news, Jesus has come! And so I want to bring some even better news. In this time of great joy, not everyone is joyful. Some are hurting and some are alone. To you, I want to say, that baby in the manger came for you. He came because He loves you. You were worth everything to Him. If you already know that, if you already follow Him., Seek out someone who is alone or hurting and be good news of great joy for them.

That baby in the manger was God incarnate, God in the flesh, come to love us, show us the way to God and die in our place to pave the way. No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done He will meet you right where you are and change your life for the better. I know this for a fact because He did it for me. He took me from being a suicidal drunk to where I am today. His grace and His love are amazing and they know no bounds. Trusting Him has changed everything for me. I didn’t become a preacher because I think I’m good, I’m a preacher because He is good and I want to help as many people as possible to experience the love He has for each of us. I’ll say it again, He loves you and with help, so do I.

I hope you have the greatest Christmas of your life. (If you have questions about Jesus, contact me at amokarts@aol.com. I’d love to tell you more.

One other thing, this is my 500th post to the “tribe” and to each of you who faithfully follows this, I want to thank you so much for all you do. You have no idea how much your support means to me. I really love my tribe. Merry Christmas!

My New Presentation

Defeating the 20/80 Rule with Be the Body
• Does your church have enough people to get everything done?
• Does your church have a small group of people who do most of the work?
• Does your church have a large group of people on the fringes and barely connected?
When you call upon your congregation to do the kinds of service Jesus commanded do they look back at you with a look that says, “Isn’t that what we pay you for?”
There’s a rule in most human organizations including, unfortunately, the church, which states that on average about 20 percent of the people do 80% of the work. This leaves your most faithful servants doing many things for which they are neither called nor gifted and nearing burnout while the rest of the congregation is only slightly invested in the work of the Kingdom. This is not the church that God intended.
I was in danger of becoming one of those 80 percent people and then something amazing happened. I went from struggling new believer who could barely read scripture aloud with a profound fear of public speaking to ordained minister, pastor and speaker. It wasn’t all a smooth ride and it didn’t happen overnight but it happened and I can trace it all back to one event. My pastor found a Kingdom use for my unusual gift and it changed my life. I’m convinced that there are thousands (maybe millions) of people in the church of Jesus Christ who are in the same boat. They have tremendous, God-given potential to do great things—things that will tremendously expand the Kingdom and they’re just waiting for someone to find their gift, ignite their passion and show them how to be what they were created to be to the glory of God. We are all “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do!”
That’s what my new presentation “Be the Body” is all about. Through the use of my story, artistic gifts, interactive projects and preaching the Word of God, I will challenge the “many parts” in your congregation to become fully invested members of the “one body” of Christ. Topics covered include:
• What it means to be the body of Christ? 

• How to do and be your part.

• What to lay down and what to take up.

• Maintaining unity and more.


This can be anywhere from a single message, a series of revival/Spiritual renewal services even a weekend retreat. I really feel a strong leading to go out into the church and call people into their God given calling. The guiding verse of this ministry is 1 Peter 4:10, Each one should use WHATEVER GIFTS he has received to serve others. I would love to come to your church or event and share with your congregation. Contact me, Dave Weiss at AMOKArts@aol.com
God bless,
Dave Weiss

www.amokarts.com

Anyone need a speaker/painter?

Dave Weiss Speaking Ministry Flyer

AMOKArts.com founder looking for opportunities to speak and/or paint, paint and/or speak in worship, conferences, etc. See my booking page or contact amokarts@aol.com for more information.

Offense

Sometimes one needs to reassess one’s purpose. The purpose of this blog has always been to help creatives to use their gifts in ministry as well as their Spiritual lives in general. For that purpose, a few days ago, I posted my cartoon reflections from our recent church conference. I sketched the cartoons as I listened to some very difficult business sessions. They expressed my emotions in the moment and posting it was sort of like sharing my diary with the world. These were honest impressions of the things I was feeling, a sort of journal, if you will. My hope in sharing this was that the folks who regularly read this blog would see ways to use their gift to deal with their internal struggles in a positive outlet. That was the purpose. Now here’s what happened.

The cartoons were posted to at least one website for my denomination. That’s okay with me, I post these ideas in the hopes that they will spread. The good news is the previous record number of hits in one day for this blog was tripled and we had some really good interaction as a result. The bad news is several people were offended by my cartoons. Offense was not my intent but it happened.

So what can we do about offense? Well the first most honest answer is almost nothing. Nearly anything we do in this world is going to offend someone and the only way an artist can be completely inoffensive is to do work that will please everyone. I doubt it’s possible and if we tried the work would probably be completely bland and say nothing. When it comes to creative self expression, with few exceptions, everything you do will offend someone. Add a faith component to your work and the potential for offense goes up exponentially.

Perhaps the best advice I can give is to avoid being intentionally offensive for the purpose of being offensive. Don’t be hurtful. Adhere to the golden rule and love others. Speak the truth in love. From that point on, realize almost everything will upset someone. Listen to your detractors with an open heart and make a decision. If you’ve been wrong, take it down (I did that with one of my cartoons) but if you feel you’re right, sign your name to it, own it and stand by it. We can’t always be inoffensive but we must always be loving. Sometimes speaking the truth in love is offensive. Neither truth nor love can be omitted. Truth without love is mean and love without truth is a lie.

Offend as rarely as possible but sooner or later if you are true to your calling, you will offend. Jesus couldn’t avoid it, neither can we.

The Passion of the Christ(ian)

Wow, what a day! First of all, I want to thank whoever posted the link to my conference cartoons on your site. Please tell me who you are and about your site so I can share it. When I awoke this morning at 5:00 I was amazed to see that we had passed 150 hits for the day and at this moment we have surpassed the record number of hits for the day. What’s funny is I almost didn’t post those cartoons. It was sort of like posting my diary for the world to see. The conversation it has caused thus far has convinced me it was the right move and I thank all those who have joined the conversation. The conversation has led me to a topic I have been thinking of for some time. That topic is passion.

The denomination I am a part of is called a “traditional peace church” and to be really honest, the peace position always drove me a little crazy. It’s still a struggle of mine. My passion is evangelism and in this world it just kind of seemed that there were too many people who had to be reached to deal with an “unattainable goal” like world peace. I used to say things like “lay down your peace sign and take up your cross” and “World peace? We don’t have peace in our families and in our pews and you want to talk world peace?. The pacifists really drove me crazy. Why were they so emphatic about peace? There are more important things to be done.

Lately though I’ve been seeing something that has helped. It’s called passion. I’m coming to believe that passion is something God puts in us—something that fires us up and motivates us—something that causes us to need to act. Maybe God has made me passionate about evangelism and them passionate about peace and someone else passionate about something else and on and on and on. What if instead of being frustrated by one another, instead of wondering why they can’t be passionate about what we are passionate about, we cheered each other on? What if we realized we’re all on the same team with the same ultimate goal? What would happen if we all gave our best to our God given passions and loved each other? What would happen if diversely passionate people worked together for the good of the Kingdom of God? Seems to me we might just have a better functioning body of Christ. After all a body is not made up of one part but of many.

Don’t follow your passions, follow Christ, then let Him use your passions to further His Kingdom.

The Conference Art Videos

While I am recapping things, I wanted to share the videos I made for the conference. I posted these individually as they were finished but I thought I would put them all together in one post in case anyone missed them. For those who don’t know, I was asked to paint some paintings for the arts association booth. These were then silent auctioned and the money was given to a charity to help the hungry. I did six paintings, five of which were based on the texts for the speakers’ messages and the sixth was just my thoughts on the things that divide us over what unites us. I call it the tie that binds. I decided to make videos of each of the paintings in progress so they could be shown at the booth to increase interest in the pieces (and money raised at the auction) but there was really no room to set up my personal DVD player there, so they went unseen. I hope these bless you and show you another way to use your gifts to communicate the truth of the Gospel. Please feel free to share them if you like in any way you like. If you’d like a DVD containing all six of these videos, I can send you one, the cost is ten dollars which includes shipping and handling. Contact me at amokarts@aol.com to order.





A sixth video based on the resurrected Jesus meeting his disciples on the sea shore is also included.