I Am Enough the Video

I’m about two months out from one of my favorite ministry activities. Each year I do a week long came for adults with developmental disabilities. The first couple years I just did the live paintings and then one year I took one of my clips along as an illustration, and they loved it. They also happen to love music and so I thought maybe there’s a way to get them to key in on the topic of the week with a rap-like chant. Well I recorded one, it’s very basic, but it’s something that they and probably every one else needs to know: In Christ, no matter what anyone else has to say about us, we are enough.” I had fun with this, the audio is not the best, but once the campers learn the chant, it won’t matter, it won’t be heard over them anyway.

I can’t wait to put this thing to work.

Spreading the Word

I have started on a project to encourage my congregation to see our local area as our mission field. The purpose of this project is really simple. It’s all about encouragement. I want each person to see himself or herself as gifted with something to offer and a story to tell. I want each one to realize that the great commission is for us all. At the end of the day I have a wonderful congregation of godly people who are genuinely loving and caring. We just need to find a way that other people can see it. We need to bring them in and we need to go to where they are. Most churches are in the same boat. This is one way am using my gifts to encourage my congregation. How might you use your gift to help people get the word out?

Making Friends

Man if only I had known how to animate back in the day… If I didn’t have friends, I could have made my own. I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say if all goes according to plan these two guys are about to take on a life of their own. Stay tuned.


I first proposed this idea to friend of mine, but decided to do it myself first to make sure it actually works. This could really make my speaking ministry even more interesting.

The Amazing Art of Lotte Reininger

Lotte Reininger was an artist and animator who worked in the medium of cut paper. Her work is remarkable. Here is her take on Cinderella from 1922. This is great stuff that once again demonstrates that we are only limited by our own imagination.

What can you do with what you do?

Culmination of Efforts

Today was the District Conference where they showed the animated videos I made for our church board reports. They seemed to be well received and I had a good time watching them. That’s a little rare for me. I usually end up being an armchair quarterback over my own work, which can be quite an unpleasant experience. Today I decided to be different. I decided to view the time as a culmination of a lot of work. I decided to enjoy it and realize the editing time was done. The time to tweak it has long since passed. I decided to see it as finished and feel the joy of a job well done.

I can always find a problem with anything I create, and I bet you might be the same. This is really nothing more than self-defeating perfectionism. Better to finish a piece, ship it, enjoy being done and then move on to what’s next. It’s strange, viewing it this way, I felt alive and ready to take on what is next.

Species

My great-niece Eliza Good made this video, wrote and performed the music, the story, etc. She won second place in the PA state computer competition with it and I think it is pretty awesome, so I wanted to share it with you here. She’s amazingly gifted and I look forward to seeing what else she comes up with.

Not Quite Happy…

I know I often talk about finishing something and shipping it, rather than tweaking and tweaking and tweaking. There are times though where you just know a piece you’ve been working on just isn’t working. This was one of those times. I’ve been working on short lead-in videos for my pastor’s upcoming Lent series. It’s called Jesus Through Isaiah’s Eyes. While I was pretty happy with the first one, I struggled with the look of the face, I didn’t like the way the animation was working and the conclusion image wasn’t quite right for the message. I was not quite happy so I reworked it. What do you think?

Experimental Clip

Lately I’ve been playing with some simple animation. I don’t have the really sophisticated animation software, but I decided to work with what I have and see what I can come up with. It’s for an upcoming series at my church. It wasn’t commissioned and it may or may not be used but I did it to see if I could do it. What do you think?

Foolish Arguments

I saw this video from Birdbox Studio and I knew I had to share it. You know at AMOKArts, we are all about telling a better story and this short little clip illustrates a point wonderfully.

2 Timothy 2:23 says, “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.”

Picture those two wildebeests. One knows the danger, the other refuses to believe. They start to argue and eventually the informed one puts himself into danger (and his own demise) while trying to prove his point. It’s a silly little video, but how often do we do that? We start to argue and after a while we are so stuck on winning the argument that we do something stupid. When you know you’re right, you don’t have to argue/ You just state your point and stand on it. Arguments often put us on shaky ground and occasionally, on crocodiles.

Our culture needs more of this. They don’t need us to win arguments. They need us to speak truth (in love) and stand on it.

How could you use your gift to illustrate a truth you would stand on today?

Side point: This video is also a great illustration about learning from your mistakes. I don’t know how many times I have had people tell me, “I just have to learn it for myself.” No you don’t. Smart people learn from their mistakes. Really smart people learn from other people’s mistakes.

Missing Christmas…

Okay this is a beautiful video. Yes it’s a commercial but it’s beautiful.
Talk about telling a better story…

And they were kind enough to show us how they did it. This is a cutting edge approach to stop motion animation.

This is how they told the story. How would you tell a story that shows the Spirit of Christmas.