But so much of the time, the online profile they’ve created for you to “experience” isn’t complete.

Sometimes, it isn’t even real.

We all do this.  We create a profile of the person we WANT others to see.  Then, we support that false self with our status updates throughout the day.

I know this is true for me.  It’s like Twitter and Facebook have given me the chance to reinvent myself for people who have never met me.

We could argue whether or not this reinvention of an online false self is healthy, or just normal, or just something we need to learn to accept.  But there’s one thing I can do that’s entirely unhealthy, and completely demeaning to the online community I’m a part of…

I can start to believe that I’m really that guy.

I can start to believe that I’m really the guy who always has a great leadership quote, or a consistent deep thought about our journey with Christ.  I can start to believe that I’m the guy who always makes my daughters laugh after a long day at work.  I can begin to imagine that I’m the guy who makes my wife swoon, simply from serving her breakfast in bed on our wedding anniversary.

But I’m not that guy.

Not even close.

It’s one thing to create an online profile of only the good stuff for you to see.  It’s another thing altogether to take that false profile, and imagine it into a false identity.

So to help combat this natural tendency, maybe today we could post something honest and risky about ourselves – about a struggle we’re having, or disappointment we’re experiencing, or about a therapist we’re seeing (or need to be seeing).  Maybe it’s more simple than that.  Maybe it’s just something like, “I’m scared of the future”, or “I don’t want to turn 40″, or “my kids are driving me crazy”.

I’ll start.  Here’s my Update…

Without the online protection of Covenant Eyes, I’d be dead in the water.

As I typed those words, I felt risk, and then joy.  And then fear.  And finally, boldness.

Your turn.

So to help infuse creativity into the chaos, here are five questions for worship leaders to ask as the songs are being chosen.  These are not meant to strap you in, but to set you free.  So if they don’t give you a feeling of freedom, toss them and stop reading this blog altogether.

WHAT AM I ASKING MY CONGREGATION TO RESPOND TO? In Scripture, our worship is always a response to something God has done, or is doing.  So much of the time, we hope people just respond to the music we prepare.  But there’s gotta be something more.  Pick a characteristic of God, and help people respond to that characteristic in their worship.  Become a Tour Guide, not just a Music Leader.

WHAT OLD SONG SHOULD WE PULL OUT AGAIN? So many people connect past God-moments with past lyrics.  Pick a song that you used to sing all the time.  Put a different dressing on it, and sing it loudly.

IS THERE A NEW SONG I WANT TO INTRODUCE? I always used to introduce no more than one new song per service.  Then, I’d always try to repeat that new song for three weeks straight.  If there’s a song that’s been ringing in your heart, make sure you’ve got the right band to introduce it well, and go for it.

WHAT SONG WILL PROVIDE A DOWN MOMENT OF QUIET? Our lives are so loud, so every set should include a down time when everything “bottoms out”.  Pastors shouldn’t be scared of these moments.  What song helps provide a moment like that?

WHAT WILL YOU INVITE PEOPLE INTO DURING THE QUIET? At the bottomed out moment, what will you invite people to think, pray, or do?  Make no mistake – these can be transcendent moments in the lives of worshippers, and worship leaders have the rare opportunity to help establish a spiritual marker in their hearts.  For so many people, this IS the service take-away.

So as you recreate this thing called “worship”, and as you do it over and over and over again, I pray that these questions launch you into creativity and inspiration.  And I pray that each week begins to look and feel differently on paper, in your services, and in your creative heart.

Create.

Our paintings, and our songs, and our web designs, and our short films, and our blogs, and our poems, and our public storytelling, and our motion loops, and our photography, and our script writing, and our editing, and our sketches, and our dancing, and our screenplays…

All are a response to something previously given to us.

“We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).  He did something first, and we are now able to go and do something that looks and smells a lot like what He’s already given to us.

We create art because He first created art.

And the art He first created is you.  It’s me.  It’s anyone who has been made alive with Christ (Eph. 2:5), anyone whose life has been “picked us up out of the pit” (Psalm 40:1-2).  He’s the One who has placed a new song in our mouths, and we simply sing it.

And once that redemptive act has taken place – once that grace has done its saving – we respond in “…good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10).

And for artists, our good works become the lives we live, which cannot help but include the art we create.

I love that song.

As we traveled through the verses and the chorus, we finally arrived at the bridge.  It’s such a powerful moment in that song.

“Take my life and let it be, all for You and for Your glory.  Take my life and let it be Yours.”

My open hands shot upward, my eyes closed tightly, and I sang louder than before.  In that moment, I was offering my entire life to God as an offering.  And I meant it from my heart.

But in the middle of this moment, something weird happened.  In this moment of surrender, I found myself wanting something in return.

Magic.

I became full aware that I was giving God surrender, and I was expecting magic in return.  I wanted God to magically transform my life into a life lived for His glory, and I was only willing to sing a song to get there.

While my surrendered heart was what He wanted, my expectation of a magical personal transformation was not.

In essence, I was saying, “Here I am God.  I’m raising my hands.  I’m singing loudly.  I’m reconnecting with you.  And because I’m doing this stuff, it’s Your turn.  Change me, right now, in this moment.  Make it magic.”

I wonder how many times we do this as we sing our worship songs?  We surrender our hearts to God, and then expect an instantaneous transformation of our lives.  We expect magic.

The problem with this is that God is not a magician.  He’s a lover.

So for me, in that moment of surrender, while God was very pleased, He also knew that a life lived for His glory will take a ton of work on my part.

Surrender in worship on Sunday means that on Monday, I’ll need to ask people for financial donations for community restoration projects in El Salvador.  It means I’ll need to be as kind to my wife as I am to my business associates.  It means I’ll continue to care for my Dad in these final years of his life, even though I need more margin than his needs can afford.

And while the Spirit of God will walk with me and empower me, it’s my decision to live a life for God’s glory.  It can and will include moments of transcendence and wonder, but it probably won’t include magic.

At first, the guys and I were going to go with a funny video idea called “Witnessia”.  But the more we talked about it, the more we felt like we wanted to say something really important.  While some Producers use humor to do that, it’s never been our forte.  For us, the answer was to create a short film called “The Least”.  For me personally, it’s the film that’s been haunting me for a couple of years.  I’ve felt like I was supposed to create it, but I kept putting it off.  The urgent kept winning out over the important.  Happens most days to me.

So we invited a few key people to participate.  Then, we invited everyone who follows us on Twitter and Facebook to participate as extras.  We had to create a church service dismissing, then walking to the parking lot, and then to cars. We shot from 10:00am – 1:00pm in the Fresno heat (106 degrees that day).

We also had to find the perfect church building.  We found it in a neighboring town.  Pastors Paul and Greg were extremely gracious to us, allowing us to use their more-than-perfect facility.

The short film debuted at the Echo Night of Film on July 29, 2010.  As hundreds of people watched it, I felt like my heart was gonna jump out of my chest.  The three of us were interviewed afterward (live).  I muddled something like, “Mama got dogface in the banana patch”.  I was too nervous to speak with any coherence, so Dave and Jason saved the day, speaking very plainly and confidently.

So that’s the back story.  Now you know.

As you watch this film, I’m wondering if you could answer just one question?  Below, could you please tell me and other readers who you believe the sign-holders are?  We’ve already had quite a few varying opinions.  I’d love to know how you interpret this film.

And whoever the sign-holders represent for you, our prayer is that we all make a decision to do something for them.

WHAT THEY’LL DO – The community leaders will create and maintain sustainable businesses in their communities.

WHAT I’LL DO – I’ll find the money to help launch these businesses, and then create a plan for them to pay back that money.  But they’ll pay it back to themselves, not to me.

RESTORATION PROJECTS

These projects will help you catch the vision that I’m caught up in…

COMMUNITY #1 – A CHICKEN FARM.   A beautiful woman named Guadalupe (who’s also a stronger leader than most men I know), has a plan to create and maintain a chicken farm.  The money we provide will give her everything she needs to begin selling fresh chicken to her community (and to those outside her community) 8-10 weeks after she’s funded.

Total Cost:  $3000.

COMMUNITY #2 – WROUGHT IRON.   A very humble pastor of a church wants to train young men to create wrought iron art for doors, windows, and gates.  I like the idea of the pastor investing spiritually and practically into the lives of the young men in his care.

Total Cost:  $4000.

COMMUNITY #3 – A FISH FARM.  This is the group that most impressed me with their organization and vision.  They want to create and maintain a fully functioning Tilapia Farm, selling this fish to outside communities, while providing a great food source to those inside the community.  This will also employ people from the village on a full-time basis.  The government of El Salvador is willing to be involved in this project, donating the land, and providing a tractor to dig all three lakes needed.  They’ll do this at no cost, and no expectation of repayment.

Total Cost:  $20,000.

COMMUNITY #4 – SURVIVAL.  This community is too poverty-stricken to possess any capacity to even think about a sustainable business plan.  They’re concerned with stopping the diarrhea among the 1100 people who live there, and with providing their family’s next meal.  While the other community leaders displayed hope in their eyes, the leaders from this community displayed weariness.  So we’re looking at getting them everything they need to beginning growing their own crops by the river (a pump, tools, seed, etc.).  They’ll also need clean water, but previous drilling attempts have failed.  The crops will be grown and consumed by their community.  No sales, no profit.  I hope a business will grow out of this, but these people simply need help, and they need it now.

Total Cost:  $3000 (apprx).

NEXT STEPS

I’m busy developing The Floodgate Foundation -  the non-profit organization through which donations will flow.  As the needs arise in El Salvador, we’ll wire money to an account we establish there.

I’ll also be working with Dave and Jason (my partners at Floodgate) to create The Floodgate Foundation website.  The site will feature pics/videos of each community restoration project, along with the opportunity to donate to each project individually.

Finally, I’m develping a standard for people who want to give financially.  I know this sounds weird (or perhaps even arrogant), but donors need to be doing this for the right reasons, and not for any sort of public acknowledgement.

So here’s the bottom line – If, at the end of your days, you want to stand together with me (and others) and be able to say that you helped restore an entire Third World Community, then please begin praying about getting involved financially.  And if not this, then please do something (anything) for “the least of these”.  If you need a little motivation, watch Floodgate’s latest video (a portion of every sale of this video will go to the El Salvador projects).

For me, I think art finds its truest center when its creator attempts to make visible the invisible.

Yeah.  That felt good to write – Making visible the invisible.

Love is an invisible concept.  So is patience.  So is forgiveness.  In its purest form, art enables people to taste love, to experience patience, and to see forgiveness.

Christian art takes that primary purpose, and adds one word to it.

God.

Making visible the invisible God.

The artist who also fears God expresses arts’ truest purpose when she attempts to make visible the invisible God.  And that’s really what we’re doing in our art.

Art is making visible the invisible God.

God’s beauty is something that’s difficult to define, but it’s something we can point to.  We can point to grace, and to love, and to forgiveness.  In our art, we can point to His wrath, or His discipline.  In art, we can proclaim, “There’s God.  Over there.  Take a look.”  His mystery isn’t stripped or lessened.

It’s proclaimed.

Art doesn’t claim to make comprehensible the incomprehensible God.  It doesn’t claim to shrink the mystery of God into a two-liter bottle.  It simply gives us eyes to see differently.  It creates a window frame that we’ve never looked through before.

God’s mercy is made visible in our stories.  His beauty is showboated in our watercolors.  His desire for brokenness is sung in our songs.

And something that was invisible is now made visible, even if it’s just a shot in the dark at such a vast and holy mystery.

Like launching a self-sustaining business in the middle of the community.

We struck water, finished the well, and were ready to fly home.  On our way back to the airport, I was talking to the El Salvadorian version of me.  His name is Carlos.

Carlos is my age, has a wonderful wife, and proudly shows off his three beautiful daughters.  He thinks Rob Bell is great, loves the global Church, and is 20 pounds heavier than he needs to be.  But unlike me, Carlos sports a mad mustache – the likes of which I can only dream of.

As Carlos and I talked, I shared my ideas for creating a business in that village.  He smiled graciously.  Then he said something that altered this season of my life.  He said:

“Americans always think they know what our villages need.  Rather than making that assumption, I wish there was an American who would ask a village what THEY think they need.”

“And then”, I added, “listen to that answer”.

275 days later, I’m on an airplane, trying my best to listen to their answer.  For the next three days, my friend Tony and I are traveling to El Salvador, asking three communities what they really need.  And because Carlos already has a tremendous awareness of this entire region, he’s narrowed the needy villages down to three, based on the group of leaders who already live there.

And our goal is to listen with no North American assumptions.

This trip is a response to Carlos’ challenging wish, and to God’s heart for the poor.  I’m overwhelmingly confident that this is the right plan, so I’m also overwhelmingly confident that God will speak our next step into existence (even though I don’t even pretend to know what that might be).

And this I know – Tony and I will fly back to Dallas on Wednesday of this week.  We will carry with us the hopes and dreams of three beautiful groups of people, written on scraps of note paper, and inscribed deeply onto our hearts.

I can’t think of any vision for the future that makes me feel more alive.

Freedom.

Any real artist needs freedom.  And our need for freedom is something we tend to express.

But when most artists express their overwhelming need for freedom, they’re not really talking about complete freedom.  They’re talking about creative freedom.  They’re talking about not being micro-managed, and about not having the scope or the vision of the project changed the night before its deadline.  They’re talking about being trusted by their boss, their pastor.

But that’s not complete freedom.

Complete freedom is the guy who moves to Paris with no money, just to paint.  Complete freedom is the woman who quits her job at the church, and makes a living doing freelance design work.  Complete freedom is someone who’s not only willing to take the risk – it’s someone who enjoys taking the risk.

I find it very rare to discover an artist who is able to manage the gift of complete freedom.  We don’t run into artists who literally have the ability to wake up every morning and creatively answer the question, “What am I gonna create today?”

Because in order for that to work in the real world, that same artist must also be wired as a self-starter, an initiator, or even a leader.

I personally know a couple of people like this.  Rob Thomas (RT Group) is an amazing artist who loves answering the “What am I gonna do today” question.  Pat Callahan (New Covenant Community Church) is an artist/worship pastor, and so much more.

You probably know other people who fall into this category.  They don’t exhibit an absence of fear – they just know how to push through it.  They create AND they initiate.  And the people around them are inspired.

So if you’re thinking about quitting your day job and going freelance, you’ll definitely experience freedom.  But it’s important to prayerfully and reflectively look in the mirror and discover whether or not you’re ALSO an initiative starter.

Because there will come a day when the freelance jobs disappear, but the bills don’t.  And in that moment, an artist with complete freedom needs to relish the opportunity that stands before him.

And that’s a rare thing.

********************

A weary artisan traveler has been wandering in the desert of creativity for days.  Her heart is dry, and her lungs are lined with sand.  She desperately needs to discover some notion of some idea that is, in some way, creative.  Her village elders are counting on her to create – to bring their ideas into emotional existence.

In the distance, she sees the beautiful image of a well. She drags her sand-caked feet toward the image, and reads the hand-carved sign on an old piece of wood, propped up against the well.

The sign reads, “Creativity”.

She places her wind-burned hands against the circular cobblestone wall that surrounds the hole in the ground.

She cups her hands, she leans down, and she fills her palms with…

Nothing.

The air from the empty well whisks upward, through her hands, through her hair, and into the sky.

The Well of Creativity is empty.

She’s desperate, so she continues her journey.  She discovers four, then five more wells.  All have a sign near them that promise “Creativity”.  And all are empty.

And only after severe disappointment and extreme thirst, there appears one well in the distance.  Any hope for finding the Creative Idea has been reduced to ashes, and she questions whether or not to even approach this well.  Her heart is weary, her lips are dry, and her village needs her to return with that sacred gift, soon.

She moves toward the well, and sees a wooden sign, propped up against the stones.  But the sign says something different at this well.  Rather than “Creativity”, this sign says…

“The Living God”.

She leans into the well, barely.   She cups her palms together, reaches down, and is immediately flooded with the cool waters of a Creative Idea.  She’s finally discovered what she’s been searching for all along.  And now, her fruitless searching has borne sweet fruit.

A Creative Concept that will benefit her entire village.

She arrives back in that village, and her elders question her about the creative idea she’s returned with. Her explanation is simple.

She respectfully speaks:  “I found The Well of Creativity to be empty – time and time again. While there were many people seeking to drink from it, there is nothing there.  It may have even been a mirage.”

But she continues…

“When after many days, however, I discovered The Well of the Living God, I was supplied with the Creative Idea I was searching for, and that our village needed.”

Two of the village Elders simply stared, but one smiled.  He had been on the same journey years before.

********************

Some of you actually have the privilege of making your living because you’re creative.  You are the media creators, the storytellers, and the musicians.  You write blogs, you lead people, and you challenge our hearts.

My motivation for writing this short story is simple.  I hope to remind both myself and the reader that we will create the most impacting art when that art is a byproduct of time spent with the Creative Source.   When we run to a well that promises creativity, many are empty.  When we seek creativity, sometimes there is none.  But when we run to deep and intimate interactions with the Living God, creativity is given to us, never as an end…

But as a gift of the relationship.