I am fascinated by the art of making. Whether it be the art of making a guitar, or bread, or whatever, I think our creative capacity is one of those things God had in mind when in the Genesis story God declares, “Let us make humankind in our image” (Gen. 1:26). God creates. From the very first verses in the Bible God is creating, calling the world and universe into being. And in the very last verses, God is still creating, this time making all things new. So whenever we make something – whether it be a piece of art or dinner tonight, a project for work or a card for a friend – we are joining God in the creative task that connects us...

After the post on the origins of the “It’s Pentecost” video went up, my creative partner-in-crime Ben Cieslik directed me to the actual Pete Rollins quote that inspired our work. I’m pretty sure this was the first time I’d seen this video, so I’ve probably been misquoting him second-hand for years! In any event, I thought I’d post the video below. As is often the case when I listen to Pete, I have two reactions. The dominant one is a sense of gratitude and appreciation for how he regularly frames the message of the gospel in a compelling and surprising way that therefore not only gets my attention and but stays with me. Often...

There are few people I enjoy listening to more than Ken Robinson. An educator and expert on creativity, he is the author of the excellent book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, and his TED Talk on schools and creativity has been watched by more people than any other Talk. In this presentation, he offers both a candid description of why our current education is failing us as well as clear suggestions for making it better. The reason education is such an important topic, of course, is that it doesn’t just affect children and their parents, but all of us. Education shapes the emerging generation, the generation we will...

True story. About a week after our “Easter is Coming” video went sort of viral – or perhaps I should say, “viral” for us 🙂 – the President of the seminary said to me, “So what are you going to do next?” Truth be told, we had no “next” in mind. But prompted by the implicit challenge in the question, Ben Cieslik and I went back to the drawing board and decided to experiment with how we might bring out a new dimension of Pentecost. This time we found inspiration from something Pete Rollins said: “We all have holes we want filled, but more times than not, God doesn’t just fill those holes, God makes them bigger.”...

Pentecost is almost upon us, falling this Sunday, May 19th. Celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter, Pentecost is the day when the Holy Spirit was poured out onto the disciples and they were emboldened to go and proclaim the good news that Jesus was the Christ, the sure sign of God’s love for all people and the redemption of the world. For this reason, Pentecost is often described as the “birthday” of the Church. The Apostles first shared this message in Jerusalem, the location of the Temple and the city where Jesus had been crucified and raised again. They preached their first sermons as Jews gathered from all over the known world...