LORD SPICE, the video we made a while ago for our Big Idea at Community Christian, got a little bump in the youtube viewings when it was found and "tweeted", and "retweeted", and then posted on Matthew Paul Turner's blog, "Jesus Needs New PR." Here's his post. Pretty cool, though I don't understand why so many Christians get bent out of shape when it comes to parody.

Parody is one of the best ways to engage an audience that doesn't trust you. Now, of course, it goes without saying that bad parody is worse than no parody, so you have to strive to do it well. But let's face it: most pre-Christians walking into our environments don't think that we can relate - they don't trust us. When they see something like Lord Spice, something that takes a water cooler topic and spins it, then there is a chance that they would think, "hey, I guess they're not as square and outdated as I imagined before I walked in here."

And of course, they might not like it at all. But that's the risk you take. And all art creation is a risk - even parody. Check out Lord Spice below, in case you haven't yet. And thanks for reading the blog!

Context is everything. If you saw the video below, for this movie called "Serenity Now", you might think that it was another thriller in the long line of attempts to shock us with stories of murder, secrecy, villainy, etc. But since most of you know that the source material is from one of the great situation comedies of all time, it instead makes you laugh.

Well, at least it makes me laugh. When you force a change, a point of view reversal, there is potential for comedy. This idea takes two things that are familiar, and reverses their context, for comedic effect. There are a few other mashups in this series, all are very funny. Check em out. Enjoy!

"Let Go, Luke..."

That has been my parting word in conference opportunities, usually talking to church staffers who are wanting to go (or have already gone) multisite, and are looking to us for guidance.

Most of the time, I am talking about control. The biggest learning for anyone who is looking to reproduce anything exponentially (and for us, seeking to Help People Find Their Way Back to God and reproduce leaders and campuses to get us there) is that you have to let go of what you think you have the ability to control.

And boy do I have to learn that one now. It seems like every jar o'stuff that I'm "in charge of" over here at Community is being prodded, kicked, investigated, and lots and lots of changes are being proposed.

The problem is, that it's not me who is recommending the changes. It's other people. And that is my current lesson with control. I need to "Let Go, Luke" and give others the opportunity to shape the conversation, to make the decisions.

Why? Because true reproducing involves trust, and letting go. Otherwise, you're not really letting go - you're pretending. I don't want to be a pretender. I want to let go.

So I guess what I'm saying is, I've got to start taking my own advice.

And by my own advice, of course, I mean Obi-Wan Kenobi's.

I'm very excited about the STORY conference this year. I met Ben Arment a few years ago and loved his passion for the creative class. Last year my brother Elic and I had an opportunity to be a part of many brainstorming sessions leading up to the event, and participated onstage through some comedic bits that helped pay tribute to the sponsors who made the thing happen. In addition, our church's theatre company (Epic Theatre) provided actors who strolled the downtown Aurora area as conference-goers were entering and getting registered. (in fact, a great photo was taken of our boys last year, and it was used in this year's promotional packet - I'll post it here at the end of my post)
This year, the conference moves from Aurora to Chicago - at Park Community Church's fantastic (and relatively new) space. It's going to be great! The speakers are incredible, and very inspiring to the creatives out there trying to tell the one great story in imaginative ways. Here's the list of Speakers:

Dan Allender - best-selling author, professor at Mars Hill Graduate School
Charlie Todd - creator of Improv Everywhere in New York City
Princess Zulu - AIDS victim from infancy, advocate for the oppressed
Jason Fried - founder of 37Signals, creator of Basecamp, author of Rework
John Sowers - president of Donald Miller's The Mentoring Project
Shauna Niequist - former creative director at Mars Hill, author of Bittersweet
David Hodges - formerly of the band Evanescence, award-winning songwriter
Leonard Sweet - futurist, author of 40 books, professor at Drew University
David McFadzean - creator of Home Improvement, producer of Roseanne
Richard Walter - accomplished screenwriter and professor of film at UCLA
Sean Gladding - member of Communality, a new monastic community
Andrew Klavan - author of True Crime (Clint Eastwood) and numerous novels
Gary Dorsey - founder of Pixel Peach Studio in Austin, TX
Chuck Swindoll - best-selling author, pastor (appearing via hologram)
Music by Vicky Beeching, Kari Jobe and Carlos Whittaker

And... I just finished a phone call with Ben, and Elic and I are in the process of figuring out a really cool way to contribute to the theme through a performance piece. I'm hoping it will all come together - would hate to not do something creative at a creatives conference!

Sign up today, while there's still early bird pricing! You can do that by clicking here.