If you've ever felt like you were chained to the almighty dollar, then you might like Community Christian's new video all about the fact that for most of us, the almighty dollar has "really got a hold on us."

Enjoy the sweetness, and have a great day! This video kicked off our brand new series "The Ladder", where we as a church are spending three weeks to delve into what steps are needed to become a generous person, and how God wants to come alongside us to break the chains. You can check out the entire message at www.communitychristian.org, and the video short is available here or click below.

So I thought I would let my first post of October (eek) be a barrage of coolness: things I've seen/taken in this week that I think is/are awesome.

First up: my new episode of The Pop Culture Pulpit - for the first time I have a guest! My good friend and the "king of tv" Paul Goebel - he talks with me about the new fall tv season, and it was great to have him as a guest. Listen by clicking here.

Next up: Check out this "shadow artist" - his sculptures are crafted and shaped theough steel and shadows. Very creative.

Here's a trailer for a fascinating new movie called The Artist: a film made this past year that utilizes the craft of "silent movie making" to tell its story. What at first sounds cheesy and unnecessary sure does look cool and actually compelling.

Have you ever thought of Jerry Seinfeld as a prophet? You will after seeing this stand-up on the concept of answering machines and their functionality in our contemporary world of Facebook:

And finally, mashups seem to be all the rage, and this one combines the vocal stylings of Tom Waits with the visual impact of cookie monster, and, in many ways... it speaks for itself. Enjoy the clicking everyone!

I have to say that I am eagerly anticipating the final film installment of the Harry Potter series next week. Almost as much as I am the opening of Epic Theatre Company's production of The Mystery of Irma Vep... Almost.

Got excited today as I caught nine small clips that MTV has leaked from the film - check them out below if you simply can't wait until next week!

And get your tickets to Mystery of Irma Vep too!

Last weekend at Community we celebrated generosity through something we call "Celebration Generosity." It is the fourth such Sunday we have celebrated - where the giving for that one weekend goes to the four teams: the Village Team, the Barangay Team, the Reproducing Church Team, and the Neighborhood team.

And Community's people showed up in an awesome way. $529,000 was given to the four teams, and not only that, we also celebrated 141 brand new givers. For so many of our attenders, Celebration Generosity represents their first taste of what it means to put others first in their finances. It's awesome stuff.

If you don't know much about what we do and how we tell the story of Celebration Generosity, check out this playlist of Celebration Generosity videos from this weekend's services. They are all worth the time taken to experience them - I promise!

The Oscars were on tonight, so I figured I would get a little running commentary going, to get back into shape for when American Idol kicks off with the top 24 this week.

James Franco and Anne Hathaway get off to a great start with the film parodies as they enter the dream within a dream of Alec Baldwin. You can watch it below.

Kirk Douglas gets a standing ovation. And then it gets awkward. Makes me long for the clarity of Dick Clark.

Anne Hathaway sings a song about Hugh Jackman. Then James Franco enters as Marilyn Monroe. Weird. Not funny, as far as I could tell.

Fast forwarded through a ton of other stuff. The sound, the costumes, the science awards.

Kevin Spacey sings for a while and then says "Good Evening, I'm George Clooney."

I think Randy Newman is running out of ways to adjust and repackage the same three chords...

Funny bit involving auto-tune re-worked into movies, and the "year of the musicals" - My favorite fake song was "he doesn't own a shirt" from Twilight... check it out below...

Standing ovation for Billy Crystal - doesn't bode well for how James and Anne are doing... I like that they gave him some time to monologue, and the Bob Hope story was great.

The Bob Hope effect attempt of having him introduce Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, however, not so much...

Can Purple Rain get nominated again? Maybe that could be Randy's fifth...

Celine sings Charlie.

Kathryn Bigalow just swallowed up Hilary Swank. And King's Speech just shut down the Social Network. A best director usually leads to best picture...

Star Wars fans are vindicated as Queen Amidala wins Best Actress!

Colin Firth wins - he says a lot and I can't understand a word. Is it over yet?

And yet another unnecessary costume change for Anne Hathaway...

Spielberg is out there to announce best picture. Would love for Social Network to win, but it's gonna go to King's Speech I'm afraid. Don't get me wrong, it's a great movie. I just wish Social Network would win.

But it didn't. Oscar loves itself some British period pieces...
Hope you enjoyed the blogging! See you on Tuesday after American Idol!

Last week we crafted a couple of moments in our weekend service that seemed to work very well. We were pondering the ups and downs of a spiritual journey, and used our worship leaders at each campus to do a mini-sketch of sorts.

I wrote the script, and then set out to score it. I found some very cool ethereal music, and matched it up nicely with the text. If you want to follow my train of thought during this creative experiment, then watch the video below before reading more of my post...

If you want the full effect of the weekend service - you can watch the videocast here. Our teaching then explored the back and forth nature of spirituality - and how it isn’t about just what we get, it’s about what we give, and the paradox that when we give all, that’s when we get the most.

So we had planned to then move from the teaching into a "silent" communion time, where the simple instructions of taking the elements would be on the screen, and the meditation would be simple and quiet.

But then the bookend showed up in our creative brainstorm. Since we had already been using the screen as thoughts of someone, Tim Sutherland, our teaching team guru, suggested that the communion meditation be a creative interpretation of how Jesus might have encouraged us during communion.

And as I was working on that video, it became clear that rather than a silent communion experience, that we should bookend our moments with the same music. And so, what you see below is the net result of those brainstorms coming together...

There is a lot of power in bookends. You see them all the time - It's how the best beginnings get through the middles and to the best ends.

It really seemed to work at Community this weekend. I'm grateful to our team for its collaborative spirit and desire to tell the best story in the best of possible ways.

Hey y'all - Happy New Year! Happy Martin Luther King Day!

Excited about the last couple of original videos our media team has crafted for our weekend services. The first is Pew Haul: a parody of U-Haul that imagines what it might be like if there was a service that would get your friends to church when you really just aren't comfortable enough to invite them yourself. Watch it here:

The next clip is called "The Parable of the Sower" - and it's a short retelling of the parable of the sower from Matthew 13, with Slinkys in place of plants. It falls in line with our current series called "Slinky," where we are investigating how the 3 C's of Celebrating, Connecting and Contributing can be used to stretch us and how God is wanting to do that with us right now. We all fit into one of these categories illustrated in the parable - which one are you in? Which one do you want to be in?

Obviously, these videos are available for viewing and sharing on youtube, but if you want to purchase full-res files to be shown in your church's service, you can get them right here at our video store. And if you like 'em and want your church to use them, send your arts director the link as well! Enjoy!

Check out these three stories of lifechange we highlighted at the weekend services at Community this Christmas- It's exciting to think about what's in store for the three new campuses that will launch in March, and how God is already at work in those areas to prepare the way for those launches. Good stuff! Merry Christmas!

Last week Elic and I were asked to help out a new church plant here in Chicago with a video idea that they had. So, last Monday, we went to Soul City Church in the West Loop to film a video that pokes some fun at the idea of casting the perfect "Baby Jesus." Here is what they came up with - we had a great time doing it. Thanks Soul City!