Difficult things to swallow

The first week of July we're going to address some of the things that Jesus said that are "difficult to swallow".

What things do you find in the Gospels that fall into that category? What art elements come to mind that raise this question or address it?

Jesus Uncensored to Continue Through July

We've been humbled and amazed at what God has chosen to do in our services over the last several weeks in our series Jesus Uncensored. Highlights have been our service, "Be healed" where we got to share the story of a couple here at Cypress and how they have experienced first hand God's grace and healing power; our service "Remember Me" where we took an entire service to look closely at Christ's statement to remember Him through communion; and services like "Let's go to the other side" and "Follow me". In all of these we were able to implement ideas that were submitted by people who were previously outside of the service planning circle.

It is so awesome to get to see more and more people participate in our service planning by submitting ideas.

This has motivated me to give new attention and focus to Muse.

I hope you will join me as we grow this creative community even larger and dialogue with more ideas and creative input.

In July, we are going to continue in our Jesus Uncensored series and will address the following topics:

July 5 - Difficult statements to swallow
July 12 - Pray this way
July 19 - The Holy Spirit will lead you
July 26 - Who Touched Me?

I'll be posting more specific explanations of these shortly. But for now, what elements in a service help you connect with God?

Jesus Uncensored

When you sit down and read the Gospels it doesn't take a lot of in-depth study to discover that Jesus made a lot of statements during His ministry. Some that are bold, loving, grace-filled, strong, and many just plain confusing.

We're going to spend some time discussing many of these statements Jesus made, understand what He was saying and also figure out how they apply to our lives today.

2009 Destinations

OK, here we go!

All of you who have taken on my challenge to stretch your artistic muscles and create, here are the topics we're addressing over the next several weeks.

If you have photos, essays, scripts, journal entries, drawings, dances, or songs that you want to submit for these topics either post a comment here or email the ideas to me at: Cypress Arts

Destinations

Money Town
Money Management
Giving to honor God

Lovers Leap
Relationships
Marriage
Sex

Angerville
Two weeks on handling and mishandling our anger

City of God
Two weeks on our relationship with God

Fools Paradise
What Proverbs has to say about foolish behavior

That should give you lots of food for thought as you create.

I'm really looking forward to your thoughts and creations!

New Year - New Direction

I was so overwhelmed and excited to work side by side with artists this past Christmas to create, edit and write the program for Wonder! What a fun creative process!

And it got me thinking... rather than have this blog/conversation just be about generating ideas... what I would REALLY LOVE to see is to see this blog generate new original art.

The reality is that, here at Cypress, we are surrounded by phenomenal artists. Writers, photographers, musicians, dancers, etc.

And I have been wondering for some time... what could happen if we unleashed the massive amounts of creativity hiding in the seats on Sunday mornings?

So, let's do just that!

Here on "Muse" I will be posting the series and topics that we will be covering over the next several weeks. If you have, or feel inspired to create, original art that relates to the topic, please send it my way or post it here as a comment. I will bring the art to the planning process and we will consider it for possible use in a service.

As always, we as a team of artists will need to hold our gifts loosely understanding that our art may or may not be used. But I do feel strongly that if we all participate and "spur each other on" we will not only improve what we offer to God and to Cypress on Sunday mornings, but we will improve as individual artists as well.

So, I'm in. Are you?

October 5 - God of This City

Clearwater FL. Tampa Bay.

Hundreds of thousands of people moving in millions of directions at once.

Everyone moving at the speed of life not stopping to breath, to think. All just keeping pace.

What does God want to do in that person's life? The person in the next office? The mom you sit next to at the ball field? How about the family down the street?

What does God want to accomplish in your child's class in school? In the company you work for? In your neighborhood association?

What does God want to accomplish in Clearwater and Tampa Bay?

And how does He want to use us to accomplish it?

Letters to the Next President Series

It's an election year. Conversation about politics, policy and political parties seems to be everywhere between almost everyone. But, what if you had the opportunity to talk with the next President of the United States? What would you say?

In, Letters to the Next President, we're going to take that opportunity. You'll have a chance to write your thoughts to our next president on our web site.  In our weekend services, we'll be addressing conversations such as, Stand up for what is right, Keep your promises, Lead us into a better future and Our Commitment to You.  As we'll see, it's not just about the tough issues of the economy or the war or health care, but also about other tough issues like leadership and character. And none of these issues are just about presidents, they're about all of us.