Publisher’s Book Description:

Whether you are an artist whose talents are an untapped source of energy for your church or a ministry leader wanting to involve artists and the creative arts in your outreach efforts, Outreach and the Artist will renew your vision. Musician and biblical scholar Con Campbell offers encouragement, wisdom, and practical tips for evangelism with, through, and to the arts:

Evangelism with the Arts - While the abilities of Christian artists may serve the church internally, artists within the church usually have enormous untapped potential for outreach.

Evangelism through the Arts - People’s natural love for various artistic mediums provides a connection-point to exploring life’s big questions with unbelievers in non-threatening and engaging ways.

Evangelism to the Arts - Christian artists are uniquely positioned to make an impact in artistic networks, which often have no Christian witness or presence and tend to be shut off from conventional methods of outreach.

Spreading the gospel is a task worth every God-given resource we have, and artists and their creative gifts are no exception.

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When I saw the title of this book, I jumped at the chance to review it. Being a Worship Pastor and working heavily with the arts in the church I always look for new thoughts on and forms of expressing the gospel of Jesus through the arts. It’s my believe that the church should be the most creative place on the planet. As we grow in our understanding of God our expressions of Him should grow as well. 

I wore a shirt for quite some time that I picked up from a #SEEDS conference in Oklahoma that read “Make Art Not Gimmicks”. The church struggles with this. It’s easy to rip off the creative of someone else. It’s easy to pull something from YouTube and replicate it. Art is work. It’s hard and messy, but it’s rewarding. 

Christ-followers have the beautiful command to take the gospel into all the world. The gospel being the love and truth of Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. The gospel is the good news of sins forgiven. I’m reminded of the quote “Go out into the world and preach the gospel, and if you must, use words.” This quote is often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. What else can we use besides the spoken or written word? We use our actions and art. 

A recent project by Bethel Music called Without Words is an entirely instrumental album. Their teams hoped to capture what an instrumental “worship” record could be. It’s a beautiful expression of art to God. 

Constantine Campbell writes on what this expression could look like in the book Outreach And The Artist. Focusing on real life experiences birth from his Jazz Band playing at church outreach events, Campbell lays out the do’s and don’ts of how to use the arts in outreach. It’s vital to the understanding of this book that Campbell is clear on outreach as evangelism to the lost. This is not an arts event for the edification of believers. It is a strategic plan to bring the lost to a place where they can hear the gospel. 

I did find myself having to dig through the veil of jazz band stories to find the nuggets of wisdom in the writing but overall I enjoyed the book. Here are some of my favorite quotes: 

“You gave up jazz for God, and he gave it right back to you.” So true. But when God gave it back to me, it was with a higher purpose than ever before. (on reclaiming the arts)

Lots of singer-songwriters, for example, can imagine themselves hitting the Christian music circuit, playing their Christian songs for churches, youth groups, and CHristian events. Christian actors and playwrights might likewise take their Christian dramas and skits on the church circuit, and so on. Of course that is a great thing, and it’s a wonderful way for believers to use their gifts for edification of the church. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about outreach. (on outreach)

A potential problem in recruiting an artist for outreach is that they may feel that their art form is a bit obscurantist, poorly understood, esoteric, and definitely not mainstream. The more “artistic” the artist, the more this will be true. (recruiting artists for outreach) 

The arts are about life. And because the arts are about life, they relate to Jesus, because Jesus is about life. 

In order to express the human condition, the artist draws on his or her creativity. I believe that creativity of human beings is part of what it means to be made in the image of God. Our God is a creating God, and those in his image are also creators. 

Artists care about quality. It’s part of what makes them an artist.

…maintain artistic integrity while choosing tunes that some listeners might now, tunes that were easy to listen to, and keeping solos short(ish)… think of it as artist education mode. Be an ambassador for your art. Help people to like it an appreciate it. Don’t leave them in the dark. (on bringing people with you in understanding your art)

Realizing who my audience is means that I can help set the sequence in motion. 

Aim to move someone one step along the way. Aim for a second date. 

I was assigned this book by our Creative Director at NewPointe Community Church, Derek Studt. After he encouraged me to read it for whatever reason it took me many months to actually get to the book. I’m sad it did. What I’ve learned from this book is so very valuable. They way that I lead my teams and how I assemble “creatives” to work together will never be the same. 

The premise of Group Genius is that there is never an original idea. No one every comes up with a creative solution on their own. There are loads of influences that have consciously or subconsciously infiltrated our minds to help bring us to a solution. This solution could be one of many as there are others within our spheres of influence that also have their own influencers and ideas that could come to the table. 

This type of thinking expels the myth of the “lone wolf” genius and it should change how we put together and approach problems. When approaching a problem the pursuit of solution should be assigned to multiple individuals. They could work together or separately to then combine probable solutions. It would also be good to have multiple personality types working on a similar solution. 

Overall Group Genius has helped me reshape some of my creative processes and approaches. 

Saying goodbye is such sweet sorrow. Even though we didn’t really say goodbye… 
It’s true. It was our last “coaching” session but the friendships formed in this group were amazing. The last day was a “show and tell” of sorts as we all gave an exposé of our final projects and explained how we grew because of them. 

My magic act when over well. I think I mystified everyone… but I don’t think I have a future in magic. We learned about caring for bonsai trees and found inspiration in some artwork provided by the other members of our team.

The best part about the #CreativeCoaching is the community that formed among a group. It’s a community that will continue to grow and sharpen each other. Something about that last meeting felt like it needed a boombox held high or “Don’t Your Forget About Me” by Simple Minds playing in the background, but with the way our world works we know that there will always be a sequel. : ) 

Today marks the second session of #CreativeCoaching with Carlos Whittaker and my new set of friends! If you have no idea what I’m talking about check out my introductory blog.  I actually ended up in the meeting a few minutes late (Outlook>iCal>iCloud>iPhone>Sync Failure). I realized I was late when I got this tweet from Carlos:

As soon as I saw it, I thought “WHAT THE WHAT!?!?!” and ran down the staircase to my #DenOfZen threw on my #beatsbyDRE and bounced on into Adobe Connect. 

Luckily I wasn’t shunned or stoned (I mean this in the biblical sense), but instead welcomed with smiled and open digital arms into the conversation on #Innovation. As part of our assignments from the last class we were to read #TheMythsOfInnovation by Scott Berkun. You can check out my review here.

We talked about ways we strengthen our innovation/creative skills. Carlos shared one where he sets a #ConsumeAlarm. It’s a daily alarm that will randomly go off on his phone that says “consume”. He at that point takes note of something that is around him and writes it in an Evernote folder entitled “Consume.” This could be anything from “White room with white furniture.” to “kids playing kickball.” It’s just a way to constantly be observant of what’s around and a file to pull from for later creative inspiration. 

After sharing some of our insights from the book and thoughts on personal innovation we began talking about innovation and it’s place in the church. 

We began by diving into scripture and looking at Isaiah 26:8 - In the path of your justice, Lord, we wait for you; with all our being, we long for your name and your acclaim. (CEB) 

We talked about the innovative word “wait”. What that implies for us as we create weekly to “wait for you, with our whole being”. We move so fast. We are a people of multi-taskers. We are high quantity and low quality. This morning, while GPS tracking my pace and distance, I ran 4.2 miles while listening to Elevation Worship, read my YouVersion plan for the day, updated Path with the music I was listening to while running - my location and thoughts on my run - and answered 3 emails and set up a lunch appointment with a volunteer for next week… it’s hard to innovate/create for the church without slowing down and “waiting” to hear from God. Our best ideas will pour from us when we are most filled with the Holy Spirit.

Along with our desire to push forward and seek after innovation and relevance, the church must learn to have a healthy balance of understand it’s culture and challenging it’s culture. If a local church community is not ready for the next innovative/creative thing you have planned then a few things to think about: 

• You need a better understanding of your church culture. 
• You shouldn’t roll out the new innovation without any regard to the culture. 
• You should roll out the new innovation slowly. 
• It’s ok to push your people. 
• It’s not ok to force your people.
• Worship is willing. 
• Worship is not forced. 
• Earn the trust of your church.  

Innovation for your church or wherever you create will happen most freely and authentically whenever you are innovating yourself. We must constantly be innovating ourselves and getting into the practices of stretching and growing if we are going to be able to lead our people in that direction as well. “There is your ethos, and your church’s ethos.” Having a clear understanding of who you are and who you are in your role at your church is key. 

Carlos challenged us to mix something up this week. He asked: “What is something that you have always done one way but can do in a new way this week? (e.g. drive a new route to work, order a different drink at Starbucks, change the color of your dry erase markers)” Something to cause some disruption in our day to day lives that will help us to view things differently. - I’m a t-shirt and jeans kinda guy. So this week (starting tomorrow until the wednesday our next coaching session on the 22nd) I’m going to wear a shirt and tie every day. I’m going to dress it up a bit. Let’s see if that causes some innovation. : ) 

He also challenged us to do something that we have been wanting to do, but haven’t had the time to do. For me this is definitely painting. I used to paint a lot but haven’t had the time to do it in quite some time. I’m gonna grab some canvases and give it a go. At least one this week. Maybe I can get Kristin and Rylee involved… 

Then the final creative challenge: “We are great at innovation in our particular creative sweet spots. Yet I (Carlos) think that this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to creative ability. This month we are going to become innovative in our creativity. We are going to master a new creative skill set in order to unleash creativity in the rest of our lives.” - Carlos gave each of us a creative skill to master that we don’t currently work with. My assignment is to learn put on a #5MinuteMagicShow with at least 3 tricks for a group of 5 or more kids (or adults). So I have 14 days to become an amateur Criss Angel… this should be fun! 

As leaders I believe we have a responsibility to be good stewards of the skills and talents that God has put in our wheel house. I believe that part of good stewardship of our skills means that we should constantly be growing and stretching ourselves within those skills and talents and outside of those skills and talents. 

One of the resources I’ve found extremely useful in helping stretch myself has been the blog of fellow worship leader and creative, Carlos Whittaker.

One of the ways that Carlos helps other leaders to grow and stretch is through offering a #CreativeCoaching workshop. You can learn more about it here.

The long and short of it is that I am currently locked in creative collaborative craziness with some awesome peeps! Check us out! (I tried to find a flattering screenshot). 

One of our first exercises was to give a seven word bio of ourselves. One sentence describing a bit of who we are and what our passions are.

#MY7WordBIO: Teacher of worship in and beyond church.  

It was awesome to hear some of the stories that surround those guys and dig into our passions about God as our Creator and that it’s only when we are in Him we are the most creative. 

One of the ways that I grow closer to God as my “creator” is when I immerse myself in His creation. One of my favorite things ever is to go to an aquarium or a zoo. I love the detail and beauty and care that God takes in creating each and every animal. It drives me to a sense of wonder about who He is. 

Oddly enough Carlos shared a story of how once his son, Losiah, called him outside so they could both examine a Rolly Poly bug together. We’ve all seen Rolly Poly’s. We know as adults that they roll into a perfect little ball when you poke them, yet through the eyes of his 2 year old son, God revealed something new of His creation to Carlos. 

We looked at Ezekiel 37:1-14 where God brings “death to life” in the account of dry bones. 

One of my big take aways was how: 
My creativity flows from an expression of my life and my life is an expression of God’s creativity. 

We are impacted by stories, expressions of God’s creativity, and so when we share our stories and expressions of our stories we are sharing expressions of God’s creativity. 

In living our lives with the understanding that every breath is a creative expression of God we can point others toward LIFE. After all, He’s the only one who can point us to true LIFE anyway. 

I’m excited about what God is going to teach me and how He’s going to stretch me through these sessions. I hope I can help you get a better picture of God through my own story and my relationship with Him as I grow through these sessions. 

Also, we prayed at the end and I snuck a screen shot again… I may have lost a crown in heaven because of it. : ) 

If you haven’t already been overrun by my non-stop twitter flow of #seedsconf material from breakout sessions and speakers I thought I’d give an overview on some of what I learned from SEEDS CONFERENCE 2012. 

The conference for me began in a rental van from enterprise with many from our creative and production teams at NewPointe Community Church. We strapped in for a 15 hour drive, hooked an XBOX up in the van for some dual wielding action and set the iPod to 90’s girl rock and ska shuffle; then off we went. 



Getting to know some of our staff on this trip was a true joy for me. One of the downsides to a multisite church is that I don’t get to spend a lot of time with our other campus pastors and leaders. There is a trust that has developed and is still developing among our staff that I believe to be a beautiful and necessary thing when it comes to serving on a staff with people and hour away from your campus. Regardless, the time spent together was awesome. We drove through the night, stopped at Chipotle for dinner and made it safely with the help of our #AustrallianDashboardJesus (GPS) to Tulsa, Oklahoma early the next morning. 

Waking up around noon, we grabbed some PeiWei for lunch and made our way to Guitar Center to fiddle with some gear before heading to our first session at Church On The Move (#COTM). 



Upon arriving at #COTM I drove up in our van to a guy I thought was a greeter. I rolled my window down and he approached the van. He made eye-contact with me said, “Hey.” and started walking away. To which I responded “Hey.” and drove off. As I drove away he shouted “Welcome To Church On The Move!” 

Lessons From #SEEDSConf Numero Uno: If you’re not a greeter don’t pretend to be one.

We parked the van and were greeted by some amazing electronic/dance music playing through the outdoor sound system at the church. Friendly faces greeted us with maroon wrist bands, free copies of RELEVANT Magazine, and directions to the free coffee spot (of which I frequented often). 

Lessons From #SEEDSConf Numero Dos: Good music and good people make everything more pleasant. Have lots of both at your first connection point to those attending your church. Don’t wait for them to come in the door. Be awesome from the moment they drive in the parking lot. Also, free stuff is wicked fun (especially if it’s coffee). 

We checked out their facilities and store. It was an awesome place. Everything was really open and clean. Very simple to find your way around with more smiling faces strategically placed to answer questions and help you along your way. They were sort of like our #AustralliaDashboardJesus but really they were #TulsaHallwayNotJesusButCoolPeople. There were also some really cool chalkboard paint sections where every day had a new bit of chalk art talking about the schedule for the day or welcoming us to SEEDS. The main artist was a guy they just saw doodling on the chalkboard one night. He was so good they asked him to do it more often. He loves it. They love it. Win, win. 

Lessons From #SEEDSConf Numero Tres: There are people all around us wanting to be involved. God has given everyone an amazing gift and most people are looking for ways to express that gift and use it for him. Where are there people drawing on our chalkboards that we’re “erasing” by not noticing their talents? 

After sitting down and resting up (trying to catch up from the van lag) we made our way into our first session. There were loads of tech notes here. Their sessions was so professionally done, that when they faked a mistake at the beginning I thought: “Ha, that’s clever they are faking a mistake… Oh, dang this is really a mess up… Wow, they acted out that mistake perfectly.” 

The “quality bar” is set high for #COTM. The creative director Whitney George, raises that standard for the entire time and has a say-so in everything that happens in their main event environment. He speaks into everything from when lights cue to the guitar tones and what gear the instrumentalists use. 

The time in worship through song was phenomenal and it pointed our hearts to our Savior as we opened with “Go”. As we sang that chorus (We’re giving it all away, away. We’re giving it all to go Your way. We are sold out for Your calling… everything that we are for Your glory.) I felt a holy discontent stir in my soul. I thought, that’s exactly what I’m called to. That’s exactly what my role at NewPointe it is. My role is to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus and that can only happen if I’m 100% sold out to His calling on my heart and I’m giving it all for Him.

Lessons From #SEEDSConf Numero Quatro: I’ve I’m not giving everything for His glory then I am cheating not only myself, but my family, my team, and everyone I have the privilege to lead on a Sunday morning of truly experiencing freedom in Christ. I can only lead people to a place in worship where I have been. If I cannot lead in freedom from giving everything then others won’t be able to worship by giving everything. 

Steven Furtick was the opening night’s speaker. He brought an amazing message on putting in the hard work or “digging ditches” in anticipation for God to move. Some times God tells us to “go”, but never to where or how far. He’s waiting for us to take the first steps in faith toward Him and put in the pre-work, anticipating His move. Check out my session notes here. It was inspiring and challenging. There were many inspiring talks throughout the conference (duh). I’ve posted links to my notes from each session and breakout below. 

Check out the rest of my session notes: 
Willie George
Lee Cockerell
Ed Young
Judah Smith

Check out my breakout notes: 
Make Art Not Gimmicks
Creating A Worship Experience That Matters
Building A Worship Culture

Beyond the sessions, we got to meet some really cool people. We had dinner with many from other churches and organizations who were on similar missions. It was remarkable to stand in a room and sit across the table to be reminded, we’re not alone in this.

On a practical level, there was much I learned about excellence. There are some little things that myself and our Canton team are working on to up our game in the areas of organization, production, energy, and overall service flow. 

I love working at a church that’s willing to change if it will help lead people closer to Jesus. I’m thankful for opportunities to go to events like SEEDS and learn how to do what we do better some we can lift the name of Jesus higher. 

Oh… did I mention there was an afterparty? 

And there was (baptists cover your ears) dancing…. 

God has blessed me with an amazing family. I have a beautiful and wise wife.
She challenges me as a husband, leader, and follower of Jesus.

Recently she challenged me with something I had picked up a long time ago from Carlos Whittaker’s blog post “12 THoughts For and From A Worship Leader”. - Paraphrased it’s basically the idea that, as a worship leader, what I say on stage between the songs I lead on Sunday is equally if not more important than the actual songs we sing. 

Kristin challenged me to be more intentional about what I say. I fall into ruts. I think most worship leaders do. One of my ruts is to say “Isn’t it great that we get to do this?”

Now it is great that we get to sing songs about God, to God, for who He is and what He has done for us. That is a great thing. It’s awesome, cool, amazing, “insert your favorite adjective here”. The problem is when that become my default. When it becomes my default, I’m on auto-pilot. When I’m on auto-pilot I’m not intentionally listening through or planning through what I need to say or what God wants to teach us.

When I’m on auto-pilot I’m relying on my own strength.
I do things out of habit instead of out of humility.  

So I’m starting a new practice. 
I’m calendaring time to literally script out / pray through the songs we’re doing each week and what I will say before / after / during them.

My goal as a worship leader is to give people the opportunity to respond to Jesus because of who He is and what He has done for them. That means that I have to be there already. If I’m helping people take steps, then I need to be some steps ahead on the path beckoning them onward and closer to Jesus.

I’m hoping through this new practice that I’ll get better at listening to the Holy Spirit’s leading. I’m hoping I’ll become a better leader. I’m hoping I lead people to Jesus.