The Road

I’ve decided now that I am in the midst of what has been a rather long stretch of traveling, that it might be a good idea to share some thoughts and reflections for those of you who envision more of a traveling ministry. First of all let me say, I rejoice to have this calling, I get to live the best of both worlds. As a pastor, I have a strong church family to come along side me and support me both when I am with them and on the road. Case in point is my friend and brother in the Lord, Matt who actually made a three hour drive last night to support me as I ministered here at the beach after which he and his brother, Mike drove home in time to get a very short amount of sleep before going to work. I appreciated that so much.

Of course I am also blessed by all the people who take the risk to bring me in to speak to their congregations, audiences, etc. Any time a person in leadership puts someone new before the people with whom God has entrusted them, requires a certain degree of risk. I never want to take these opportunities lightly, and I pray that God will always allow me to bring my best.

Being away from home is an adventure. Going to new places and meeting new people is always wonderful, but that being said, it can also be hard at times. It only takes a few days on the road to make me realize how much I miss my family. There are times where I miss things to do this. This is not a complaint, but it is a reality to be considered that goes along with this calling.

The times that I get to minister are wonderful. I can really be in the moment and I can see God moving and let me stress again, I love what I do. Those in-between times are usually spent studying, cleaning up, loading and unloading, getting ready for church and getting ready to do it all over again. Again, you may get to go to cool places, but the road is work.

I think the biggest thing though about an extended run, is how hard it can be to concentrate, especially in prayer. I’ll start off trying to really get involved in prayer, but before long, my next travel route or the next message or something that is going on at home, or whatever starts running through my mind and before long I realize I’ve been side-tracked and I’m off course. Focus sometimes comes hard on the road.

I hope this doesn’t sound like whining. I know there are a lot of people who would love this life, and remember, I am one of them. This is more of a “count the cost” piece for those who are feeling the call to the “open road.” It can be a really great life, but you have to be ready.

The Ohio/PA Tour

Well this past week was a long bur wonderful one. In eight days I had the privilege of ministering the Gospel eight times. It started Sunday bringing a message on dealing with offense at my home church, Springfield Church of the Brethren. I’ve been working on a series on overcoming offense with love. On Monday I packed up all my supplies and headed for eastern Ohio early Tuesday morning, to minister with my friends Bill and Brenda Weiss at their amazing home also known as the Liberty Raymond Tavern. No I haven’t gone out to play the bar circuit. Their home was a stagecoach stop back in the 19th century as well as a stop on the Underground Railroad. They have a barn on the property where they have a weekly worship gathering. It is always a great time, always intimate and meaningful. They hosted me for the week and helped me to connect with my other stops.

Wednesday, I ministered at the church that first brought me to the area. I ministered at the closing night for the Spiritual renewal services at Bristolville Church of the Brethren. When i first went to Bristolville in 2014, they arranged for me to stay with “the other Weisses” and we’ve ministered together ever since. This time in Bristolville, I did my newest presentation Love Like Jesus, and we had a great night. Thanks to Fred Keener and the folks at Bristolville for having me back once again.

Thursday, Bill Weiss and I traveled to Erie, PA so that I could speak for a meeting of the Erie Chapter of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Association. I first spoke at a FGBA Dinner last year and I have come to really enjoy them. The FGBA usually asked that their speakers give a testimony rather than a sermon, and I was delighted to give mine, complete with a live painting from my presentation, Pictures of Jesus. On Friday I did a similar message at the Sharon, PA chapter’s dinner. I always enjoy challenging people to use what God has given to His glory and I thank both chapters for having me.

Before the meeting in Sharon on Friday, I was privileged to tape my first TV program. I was a guest on Crossing Paths with Don Reed Sr. and Ron Kosor. I did my lion and lamb painting called Dichotomy, which is also part of Pictures of Jesus and deals with what we can know about Jesus, just by knowing His name. It was really exciting to see how a TV show is done and I look forward to seeing the episode when it airs.

Early Saturday morning I bid the “other Weisses” farewell and drove the seven hours home only to get up early Sunday morning to drive to Quakertown to minister the two Harvest Home services at Quakertown Church of the Brethren. In the morning service I did Hurried, Buried and Worried, and in the afternoon, I did the full presentation of Pictures of Jesus. It was a really good day of ministry that I enjoyed thoroughly.

By the time I arrived home on Sunday afternoon, I was tired but feeling blessed. Ministering the Gospel through the arts is truly a wonderful blessing. I love what I get to do and I look forward to returning to my home church this Sunday and to my next adventures. God is good.

I believe it was St. Irenaus who said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Someone else once said, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. I love what I do, but it’s just one aspect of what makes me fully alive. My family and my relationship with God are a huge part of that as well. At the same time, I absolutely love what I do, but it is a lot of hard work and it’s in doing the work, as faithfully as I can, that God gets the glory.

If you’d like to see me bring my ministry to your church, please contact me.

2016 A Year in Art COMPLETE!

Well I just finished my last piece for the year. 365 pieces of art one for every day of the year. Now as you know I did many more than that, and there were days where I didn’t finish a piece. Represented in this collection are also pieces that took several days to finish. Nonetheless I have at least one creation complete for each day of the year. Any creative project counted as long as I was creating something.

The reason I did this was not just for me, I already create nearly every day. No, I did this for the reader or viewer who think’s he or she doesn’t have time to create, to show you that you do. There are those slack moments those little pieces of downtime and if you use some of the to create, you’ll be amazed at what you can create.

Not only that but the more you create, the more you improve upon your skills and let’s never forget, It’s supposed to be fun.

For next year, I am going to help this along. I am currently working on a book called The Daily Creative. Basically this book provides a creative challenge for every day of the year. I’ll be posting a page from this book every day over at DWeissCreative.com and over on The Daily Creative Facebook page starting tomorrow.

Additionally for 2017, one of the areas where I constantly fall short is in there area of marketing and promotion. I plan to work on rectifying that for this year, so rather than creating a piece of art every day, I plan on creating as many marketable products as I can in 2017, with a minimum of one a week. This will include books and lessons, speaking presentations, as well as things like t-shirts, art products, articles, etc.
I will post these here and on DWeissCreative.com. I hope you will join me for the journey. It’s going to be fun.

Here is the video I made of all of this year’s creations. 2016 was a year in art. 2017 is upon us…

Just Make Art!

November Is Up!

Well I’m eleven months into my a year in art challenge. I just completed posting the month of November. You can see it here. One more month to go. I have so enjoyed this project and I look forward to sharing what I will be doing in 2017.

A New Creation

Last Night I did my new presentation on what may be my favorite verse in all of Scripture, 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone and the news has come.” I was trying to think of a good painting to do with it. I’ve already done butterflies and frogs exploring the metamorphosis concept of complete change, but that wasn’t quite right, So I went at it a completely different way.

First off I did something I almost never do. I started with a white surface. I usually speed paint on black. I started off by doing a very simple line art self portrait. What the congregation may not have realized is I was really gobbing on the black paint. Then I added some sky blue around it. What they didn’t know. was it was my intent from the beginning to wreck the painting. Taking paper towels I smeared it into a cloudy mess and then quit. When I began to speak, I spoke of how we basically start as a clean slate, but then life happens and we sin and we get splattered by the effects of sin and it makes a mess of us. I then talked about what it means to be a new creation in Christ—the way He transforms and renews and redeems us.

At the end of the message I painted a picture of Jesus over the mess. The reason, when Christ redeems us, He allows us to put on His righteousness. The finished project was a little less successful than I like. For some reason my surface started to warp and it was falling out of the easel. Speed painting while holding your surface with the other hand is not easy. Nonetheless, the painting which took a total of about 8 minutes for both phases demonstrated what it was supposed to demonstrate and I was pleased.

Here’s the point, in Christ there is grace and forgiveness, but there is also transformation. Your past does not dictate your future. You can be redeemed. God can take your life and make it into something new. He can take the best of you and make it better. He can redeem the rest of you and turn it into a powerful testimony. God created you and He can also recreate you and when He does (and He will if you ask Him) you will be a new creation.

Whose Glory?

Well tonight I will minister again and I am so looking forward to it. Tonight’s venue is one of my favorite’s, the Liberty Raymond Tavern in North Bloomfield, OH. It’s not a bar. It’s a lovingly preserved stage coach stop and Underground Railroad station that is used for midweek worship experiences and it is a great place owned by great people. I love this place and these people and, as with every place I go, I want to give them my absolute best and that might well be wrong.

You see it’s not really about my best. Oh, I need to bring my best to everything I do and I have Scripture to back that up, but it needs to be more than that. I need to come humbly, ready to get out of the way, so that something greater than my best can happen. You see what I really desire is a move of God. I want to see the power of God come in and take over and transform lives. If I can be used in some small way to usher that in, it will be far better than my best.

It will be what my maker deserves and it will be so obvious that something beyond me happened and the One who deserves the glory will get it. God deserves all the glory. So I have a plan for tonight and my prayer is that God has a bigger plan. Show us your glory Lord!

There’s a little chalkboard just inside the door at the home where I am staying. It always has a message welcoming me we I get here. Today beside my name is 1 Cor. 2:9. I rushed to my Bible to look it up. Here’s what it said:

“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”
The things that God has prepared for those who love Him.

This lines up so well with what God has put on my heart tonight, and all I can say is “Lord, I love you, and I can’t wait to see what you have prepared.”

To God be the glory.

Ears to Hear? A Clip from My Presentation “Story: Parables of Jesus”

There’s a difference between having ears and having east to hear. In this message from Story: Parables of Jesus, The Parable of the Sower, we will look at the difference. The principle of Story is looking at the stories Jesus told to help us all to live a better story. To bring Dave in to preach and paint at your church, contact him at AMOKArts@aol.com

Here’s What I Am Hoping for… Soon

My goal is to speak to and meet as many people as possible this year. I want to encourage people to find and use their gifts to serve the Lord.

Working on a few new presentations for the Spring and Summer, but I have several that I believe will be a real blessing to your congregation. My presentations include high speed painting, storytelling, video and more all designed to draw people into the Word of God and His will for their lives.

Pictures of Jesus which talks about how all believers represent Jesus and our job is to represent Him well.

Forgiven which talks about sin, repentance, grace and forgiveness.

Story which uses the parables of Jesus to help everyone to live a better Story.

Be the Body which encourages congregations to combine their talents and abilities to work in unity representing Christ.

Of course, I will also create a presentation based on your needs. I’ve been in over 100 churches and venues in the last three years. If you want more information, go to my booking page, see what other people are saying, or contact me at AMOKArts@aol.com

 

 

My Latest Painting

Last night I was the speaker and I painted during the worship service or the District Conference of the Shenandoah District Church of the Brethren in Bridgewater Virginia. It was a great experience. The theme of the evening and of my message was The Return of the Word. The passages for the evening were Isaiah 55:11 and John 1:1-14 the idea being that Word of God is empowered by the one who is called the Word, Jesus Christ. It was the largest live painting I have done so far and I have to say, it took me a while to nail down the concept, but I was really happy with the results. This painting took about 15 minutes. My wife, Dawn was with me and shot a few pictures while the piece was in process. I hope you like it and if what I do looks like something you could use at any of your events, please feel free to contact me.

Inspiration and Expiration

One of the highlights of the Creative Church Conference for me was meeting potter Dave Blakeslee. Dave uses his art of Pottery to share the Gospel. I got into Boise a day early, so I helped with set up. One of the things I got to do was help Dave unload his equipment. In that moment, it was clear, I had met a kindred spirit. You see I have often noticed when most speakers show up to speak they don’t have to first unload about a ton of equipment, but guys like Dave Blakeslee and I do. This led into some pretty nice discussions, as I got pointers on the finer points of traveling ministry from a fellow artist who is a little further down the road than I am. It was a wonderful time and oddly enough it perfectly demonstrated Dave’s keynote.

He started off by having us breathe in. Not so unusual, a lot of speakers will calm their audiences by having them take a deep breath. The difference is Dave had us hold that breath for a pretty long time. Then he did the reverse, he had us empty our lungs and hold that for what seemed like an equally long time. The breathing is the most literal expression of what so many of we artists seek, inspiration. His point was, well, breathtaking. When we breathe in, when we’re inspired, we can’t just hold it in. We have to expire, to breathe out. Likewise when we expire, breathe out, sooner or later we have to inspire, breathe in, or we will, well, expire. Blakeslee’s point was we receive our inspiration from God, not so we can hold it in and keep it to ourselves but so we can let it out to the world around us.

Likewise we cannot keep breathing out, putting our work out without receiving God’s inspiration. We need to receive from God and release into the world, like inhalation and exhalation, breathing in, breathing out, inspiration, expiration. Dave then began to talk about the three people we need. People who are further down the road than us, who we can help, people who are our peers who can walk by our sides and people who are behind us in the journey that we can help along. In the same way, we must also be those people to others—Inspiring and being inspired—giving and receiving. It was a wonderful message, something I really needed and I believe something we all need if we are going to create God-inspired and God-empowered art.

Who inspires you? Who are you inspiring? Who walks beside you?

What are you expiring?

Here’s a clip of Dave sharing a message and making his art. I think you’ll find it inspiring!