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In Psalm 23 David blogs about how great it is to be a sheep in God’s flock. I just spent the month of May combing through these 6 killer verses and here are some thoughts about the series and some resources that helped me along the way.

We also had some live sheep at both of our theatre’s for the launch weekend which made the messages come to life with the sounds and smells of livestock. And to send the message that it’s not just David that is apart of God’s flock–we are God’s sheep too–we had “sheep yourself” cutouts where people could take pictures of themselves as happy lambs before and after services. No end to the fun.

We just kicked off a five week study of Psalm 23 on the weekends at Fresh Life. This series will last for the month of May and will hopefully be a refreshing and invigorating time of growth and transformation. I know God has been quickening my heart and pruning back the unruly growth of winter as my soul has been steeping in these 6 familiar verses in preparation for the series launch.

What better way to experience the season of spring on the inside than exploring this beloved passage? Alexander Maclaren once said, “The world could get along without many a large book better than this sunny little psalm.” It is written from the perspective of a stoked sheep who is so pumped about his Shepherd that he takes to his blog, bragging about how awesome He really is.

As a whole, our art and graphics tend to have a dark and somewhat macabre feel to them (it’s kind of a part of our vibe–we do have a service called skull church…) And our series media, by and large, tends to be either very hard-hitting, in your face and explosive, or melancholy, mysterious and a little haunting. This isn’t a bad thing necessarily, it’s what we like and we are good at it. But an unguarded strength can become a double weakness.

In a creative planning meeting a while back we were talking about how any one style can be fatiguing and lose it’s impact if it is employed exclusively. We decided that we would go in the exact opposite direction for this series. (As much as I personally would have loved to see an emo sheep shuffling through the valley of the shadow of death to a song in a minor-key.) One important thing to remember in life and in art is to change it up every once in a while and not get stuck or defined by any one style.

So we declared a month-long moratorium on dark colors, war-drums, thundering anthems, and challenged ourselves to paint with a different atmospheric palette. I reassured my creative team that this wouldn’t be permanent, and that they could get back to producing media that depresses people and scares children soon. I begged for some sunshine, lollipops, and a few woodland creatures–just this one time. The end result was a happy “spoonful of sugar” type of a campaign that makes me smile every time I see it. Enjoy.

For the series launch we had live sheep, in pens, at the entrances to both of our theaters to set the pastoral mood as people arrived at church. It was a lot of fun.

What are some things you have done or could do to change the vibe up in your world?

Last week I wrote about fragile nature of movements, even powerful ones. Every vibrant work of God has an ever nearing expiration date, that date is the day the humans that make up the movement will expire themselves. We move closer to that “best by” date every day. That is why we must must always have the mindset of our need to pass the baton on to those who will be running when we have “spoiled.”  This mentality is a feature that can be found in some of the most prolific stories in scripture. What do Moses, Elijah, Mordechai, Naomi, Barnabas and Paul have in common? Besides a passion for the Lord they all focused time and attention on reaching and raising up young people. As a result, Joshua, Elisha, Esther, Ruth, John Mark and Timothy knew that they shouldn’t let anyone look down on their youth and so the movements continued. If we want what God has done in our lives and churches to continue we must have a similar focus.

I believe that the first step to take in effectively reaching young people (or any people) is simply having the desire to reach them. You have to have a burden from the Lord for them. It wasn’t until Paul was provoked within His spirit in Acts 17 that he went out and preached Christ in Athens. Similarly, we often read of Jesus being moved with compassion in the gospels and then speaking or ministering. If our actions flow from anywhere other than a genuine burden for lost people that comes from the Holy Spirit we will find the challenges to be too great. If on the other hand we ask the Lord to ignite a fire in our hearts and to give us His love for the lost then it won’t matter how challenging the road and how many obstacles are in our way.  If our hearts are set ablaze from on high, we will be unstoppable!

Once you have a burden for a particular group, audience or people, next you must take radical steps to target them. I am no fishermen but I know that if you have decided you want to fish for trout there are different things you will bring than if you want to fish for salmon, and that is an altogether different equipment list than will be needed if you are fishing for marlin. Companies realize this–that is why they are constantly addressing and readdressing the intangible attributes of their brands. From Cadillac to Nike to Nickelodeon–companies are never satisfied with how their brand is perceived right now, they know that in a few short years (or months) everything can change and they are constantly targeting youth.

Now in saying that, I know that many will immediately wonder, what we should be willing to change exactly? I suggest you tweak the Style not the Substance, your Methods not the Message. To use the fishing analogy–adjust the bait, chum and lures not the hook, the line or the net. We must not try so hard to be just like the world in order to reach the world and in the process give up what we had to offer to the world in the first place. The message is unchanging but the media delivery vehicles employed, graphic design, vibe, feel, sound and expression should be fluid and changing with the culture.
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