Life Update

I know that It has been a while. I figure I will give you all a post
on what has been happening in the world of Trey.

Lauren and I have been getting our new house into order. It has been
a crazy mess of boxes and randomness. Our house is so much fun, and
we have already painted our room! Come by anytime!

I have finished my first video for Grace! You can check it out at my
YouTube site here. It was pretty fun coming up with the concept.
The college pastor, Matt Reynolds, is so stoked about Jesus'
revolution that's happening here at Grace. Check out the video!

Currently I am working on a video for the new vision for houses
churches at Grace. I am really excited about this because of how
house church in Clemson affected me. Be looking for that soon.

Pretty much life is going really quick right now. We are 30 days out
until the wedding. I cannot wait! Really I can't....

Hope all is going well. I promise to update more regularly.

Wanting to Know

"As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things." -Solomon

I got an email this morning from a friend who just recently headed out to Africa for two weeks.  He is on the last leg of his journey adn will be arriving back state side on Saturday.  In his email he said this:

"So, for now, I can say: there are relatively few things I know; many things I simply do not know; some things I thought I knew; and a few things I am perhaps on the way toward knowing."

What is it inside us that makes us think that we know everything?  I have been watching, near obsessing, over the show Heroes.  There is a devious villain known as Sylar who is an excellent example of our necessity to know.  The producers allude to his obsession for knowledge and greed by using the sound of clocks every time he is around.  His mind craves to know what makes the other characters he meets tick.  He also will do anything thing to obtain that knowledge, including murder.  I can't tell you how many times in my life I have told God, "I just want to know why, God!  And I will do anything to know your reason."  I too haev a necessity to know.

There is something inside us that needs to know everything, but this week I have realized as Solomon realized: The things of God are meant to be a mystery.  We, His people, should find beauty in the complex God that He is.  For in his complexity we find Glory.

I want to learn to just be caught in the Flood.  The overwhelming and calm waters of Christ.

The Beginning

I am writing once again. It has been a long while I know, but I am
now back into a sort of rhythm. I have begun my new life in
Snellville, GA. I am now working in full time ministry at Grace
Fellowship. At this moment I am sitting at my computer getting ready
to leave for staff meeting downtown at Midtown. I am currently
living in the basement of Buddy Hoffman my lead pastor. He is an
awesome guy. I live with 5 other guys in one room. He runs a
discipleship house out of his basement.

My first day was yesterday. It was awesome to think I am in the
position I am in. I am so blessed to be there. I just can't believe
God has placed me in such an awesome church, with an amazing outward
focused heart for the Middle East and the community around them.

Last night I ate with Buddy and the president of OM International.
OM is an organization that focuses on bringing the gospel to Muslims
in the Middle East. It was a really cool opportunity

I am so excited to see what the next week is going to bring. Send me
some love people!

Hey Guys!!!

The bond fire is on us again!!! You can find more information here!! Or you can sign up right now by clicking here. FOr more events check our our calender.

Giving in to the calm

Yesterday was a big day for me.  I decided to finally get baptized.  I have been wrestling over the whole concept for about two years now.  When I told people that I had not been baptized, most would gasp as if i had committed a carnal sin.  How could you be in you vocation and never be baptized?  Do you realy understand the weight of following Christ?  I was even confronted about stepping down from an intern position I held at a church one summer.  I couldn't understand how a simple act of immersion could be so crucial to the decision to follow the way of Christ.  I think I understood in the brief second I was starring at the flicker of the sun on the water's surface.  Baptism is about the moment we stop breathing.

They say that drowning is one of the most painful ways to die.  As your body gives in to the natural tendency to keep water out, the water rushes into your lungs.  At this moment you begin to suffocate.  Your body convulses and pain rips through every appendage.  Your brain shuts down, because of a lack of oxygen, and you pass into the next life in the calm, quiet of water.

Baptism is an act of intentional drowning. It is learning how to quit breathing.  It is a door way into death.

Yesterday, I gave into my theological stances.  I let myself pass into the calm.  I cannot afford to let myself breath any longer.  My hope is that Jesus breathes for me and through me.  I have been spiritually baptized for 8 years now; saved by the grace of the one who is and was and will always be.  I have tried to follow the way of Jesus to the best of my ability.  But yesterday marked a day for me to show to the world, as Jesus did, that I am going into the vocation of loving people.  I welcome the calm and willingly submit my life to it.  Giving the old life to death and start a new chapter closely following the way of Jesus

God vs Google

God vs Google, originally uploaded by dcancel.

Wow... too funny...

Film Festival Results!!!

Nathan Elmore and myself debuted our short film, Visibility, this weekend at the DCF Film Festival.  There was plenty of competition.  Ten films total were submitted.  Brandon Loi's Everyday I Prayed for Katie, walked away with the well earned awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Actress, Best Screen Play, and Best Supporting Actress.  BreitMeichael Productions received awards for Best Comedy and Best Supporting Actor in their film Four The Love.  Hats off to Jon Breitmeier to his stunning role as Dr. Mungolo.  Justin and Erin Scott and Drew Norris won Best Music Video for Robot Cat .  Absolutely fantastic!!!

Visibility was awarded for Best Editor and Best Soundtrack.  Nathan and I were absolutely honored to receive such awards.  Thanks to all those who helped!

6 Different Worlds

I am currently living in 6 different worlds

1. College World - Soon to be ending... Sad but true. I will rejoice however when I am finally through. Two more classes via internet. I will celebrate appropriately when my speech class is over. Please let it come soon!
   
2. Married World - By far my favorite. I have loved this journey toward marriage. Engaged life is what you make of it. Lauren and I have had a lot of fun. Its a whole lot better than dating.
   
3. Church World - I have been working on researching a lighting rig for Grace. Its really awesome, but I hate the distance I have with the church. Its so far way. It will be nice to be back in Snellville working along side of them.
   
4. Teaching World - GET ME OUT OF HERE!!! Not really, but I am anxious to get into my real job. Teaching has been an amazing experience. I honestly could do it for the rest of my life, but its just no what I am made to do. I will miss my cooperating teacher. I will not miss my college's education program. Don't get me started.
   
5. Film World - My first short film will be making its debut next weekend. I am sworn to secrecy to not leak any information... Punctuation is the key to everything. I hope you all can come out next weekend to DCF's Film Festival. I will sure be a great time.
   
6. Home Owner World - I am in the throws of buying a house. There are a lot of 'big boy' stuff I got to be doing. I can't believe I own a house! Wow.
   

Six worlds.. I want half as much. Soon this will be possible, but until then pray for my sanity.

And Here She Is

3074 Cooper Woods Lane

The Misses, soon to be Mrs., and I are quite excited. Just thought I would let you all know!

House Hunting

Probably the most fun part about getting engaged so far has been the house hunt.  Lauren and I have spent countless hours pouring over picture upon picture of houses in the Snellville area.  We have been out three times to look in houses we like.  I wish there was a house that had everything we liked... but only in a perfect world will you find something like that.

It has been an amazing Spring Break.  Just to sit and spend time with Lauren and I doing grown-up things has be fantastic.  I have gotten the chance to hang out with my closest boys and just have fun.  It has been quite relaxing.

Tomorrow its back to the grind.  I am heading to Bishopville later today and I have a boat load of work to do for Monday.  Lauren and her mom are going out to shop tomorrow, so I will be at home writing a persuasive speech that will attempt to get students involved in social justice movements to prevent the use of child soldiers.   Quite exciting....

Hope you all are doing great out there!  Send me an email sometime!

I Got A Job

As many of you may know, I now have a job!!! I know I am super
stoked about it. I am now officially the Arts Director of Midtown
Community Church and Video Director for Grace Fellowship Church.

Tonight, Lauren and I went to Midtown for their gathering. It was so
much fun. The church is in downtown Atlanta @ 10th and State. Its
in a church that was built in the 1910s. The building has been
completely renovated and is home to about 200 college students and
another mix of about 100 of all sorts of people, cultures and
ethnicities. I am excited to get down there an begin investing into
the volunteers. There is so much potential with SCAD and Georgia
State near by.

Grace in Snellville is pretty amazing too. It is the church that
originally planted Midtown. It is about 2,000 large. They are in
the process of adding on to their existing building. The people are
absolutely fantastic!

I'm going to staff meeting on Tuesday where I am going to be
introduced to the rest of the gang. I cannot wait!!!

New Blog URL!!!

Hey guys... I just wanted to let you know that you should unbookmark
this URL and head over to:

www.porchandaltar.com

This is my new page that is much prettier. Now for you Type A
people The links on the side are being update with content. Be
patient it is coming!!!

Bookmark it! Subscribe to the feed! Get to reading!

Camden and I

I Laughed When I Saw This

Students give up social networks for Lent

Resurrecting

I have been reading a book recently titled, The Irresistible Revolution.  It is by a guy named Shane Claireborne.  He is just a regular guy who wanted to write a book about being an ordinary radical.  He started a small community of Jesus followers called The Simple Way in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  In his book he has a chapter entitled Resurrecting the Church.  I won't spoil it for you, but I will tell you about this principle.

Shane goes in depth to show how Christianity is about resurrecting the culture around it.  Jesus was famous for this.  He would take everyday normal situations and bring them to meet theological realities.  He constantly makes the humanity of people much more important than the everyday dredge of life.  Rob Bell says in his book Velvet Elvis that it is out job to call out the truth in the world around us.

I am currently looking into the business of resurrecting the things around me.  How can I make a difference in little ways by claiming the truth of Gospel inside all parts of culture?  I think a lot of just being intentional about thinking.  I am so often completely thoughtless... blowing in the wind.  I want to try and turn on my brain so I am aware of the things around me.

Here is a list of things I am currently resurrecting:

Environmental Awareness

I want to be more conscious about how I destroy the environment.  How can I be better at conserving energy?  How can I travel less or more efficiently?  How can I single handedly stop the encroachment of the apartments in Clemson?  More on this coming soon!!!

The Boy Scout "Do a Good Turn Daily"

How can I do this without being a cheese ball and/or responding like a TV evangelist?  I want to be more in tune about helping out people in little ways.  Wether it be a couple bucks here or returning the plastic baskets to the counter at a popular Clemson restaurant, I want to make a small difference in people's lives everyday.

Its a small list, but I'm working on it.

I what ways can you resurrect the culture around you? Leave a comment!

See

I would say that the majority of people come to church because of the music they hear on Sundays. Growing up, music was a constant battle in my church. I remember the struggle of power between the pastor and the Staff-Parish Relations board. My mom would come home and vent about the ‘old fogies’ that thought that hymns should never be replaced, and that drums were not an acceptable form of worship. Music, among other superficial disagreement, has divided and ended countless churches.

Churches want to be identified for some reason. The first thing you see on church signs, despite the incredibly effective evangelistic messages, are the times for ‘traditional’ and ‘contemporary’ services. Some churches have taken it a step further and completely let go of the conservative traditions that defined ‘church’ in our parent’s generation. I have been in both situations, and I find myself in one word: disappointed.


Too many times I hear churches and parachurch ministries attempting to do something amazing in their weekly gathering to bring people in. I cannot ignore the fact the humans are inherently curious, but curiosity only goes so far without action. Not to be cliché, I believe that seeing is believing. I think much of the world works this way.

What would it look like if we decided to present ourselves as the Church to the people we are called to minister to? Advertising, videos, and skits are great and all, but what is the point if the church isn’t moving? I know with my bout in creative meetings, I have spent far too many hours thinking about how to bring people in instead of thinking about how to send people out.

My challenge to all those who work, or lead, creativity teams is to spend more time thinking about the how your faith community can meet the needs of the community that surrounds you. How can the Church be present? How can you communicate this mission to those who normally attend your gatherings? How can you provide a way to meet the needs of the people who filter in from the community to your gathering? I think these question have much more important answers than, “Which announcements do we announce?”

One of my good friends tells this story:

“I was thinking while sitting in my mom’s church in Pennsylvania during communion, ‘What if a homeless man was here taking this with me?’ He would pass the plate as he received a small wafer. He would take a small cup of juice as the silver-plated tray is passed around. On cue he would take part in the most holy sacrament in Christianity. In the end he would leave with nothing, but a bad taste in his mouth and a dissatisfied hunger for something more.”

Is this all the church has to offer? Stale crackers and a small cup of grape juice?
I believe that it is true: Seeing is believing. If we want to people to believe in Jesus, and his Church, we must show them the Jesus that’s in our everyday lives and ministry. I think it is time to give people more than tasteless crackers and bland grape juice. It is time to bring people the saving body and redeeming blood of Jesus.

Come

I have been apart of way too many church meetings where we tried to brainstorm how to get people to come to our event/gathering. We would sit and rack our brains for hours on end trying to find that one thing that will burst the dam. A creative spark that result in the salvation for hundreds. Most of the time we came up with some pretty clever marketing campaign.

My roommate thought of this idea: In a few weeks FCA at Clemson will be in a series called Fight Club. People were tying their hardest to think of a clever way to get students from all over campus to come. Dan, who is always off in some distant island in his imagination, suddenly had an amazing idea. The idea was to stage a fight on campus in between class changes. The fight would last for about 2 minutes and then it would spontaneously break up. Those involved would then pass out cards to invite students to the gathering. I liked the idea and its creativity.

Do we have to sell the gospel in this way? Why is that we feel like we need to create a teaser for people to come to our event? Isn’t the gospel enough?

I am beginning to realize that people are not going to come unless we give them something they want. Do our creative ideas resemble that fact? Would most people come to a known ‘Christian’ event because of a comedic fight broke out in front of them? Some would… but I think many are going to laugh, put the card in their pocket, and never think twice about changing their Thursday night plans. The meeting isn’t meeting their needs, but it sure is funny to watch them try.

What do people need? I think this is a more suitable place to find how to creatively bring people into the doors to hear the gospel. College students are desperately in need of acceptance. They deal with loneliness and singleness. Often, students are blind to the cultures around them.

How do we solve this? I think in the creative arts realm we need to be more keen to ask the question, “What do they need?” Obviously people need Jesus, but even Jesus didn’t just give himself. He gave the blind eyes to see. He made the lame walk. He provided the party with wine. Jesus met the needs of people, and in response they found him as their Lord.

What are the needs of our communities? Maybe we even need to ask this question: Who and where is our community? These questions will answer our longing for people to come and know Christ. We should structure our planning around how to meet the needs of others. By doing this we will take the first step into creating meaningful environment. It will create a place that is simply irresistible.

Simply Irresistible

The first time I heard this combination of words was last summer as I was preparing to work with the middle school of a massive church in Atlanta.

(Aside: Yes its me back from a weeks worth of craziness in the teaching world of US History)

I was taught last summer that it is our role to make the church seem irresistible. Students, singles, and married folk of all kinds should step into church and feel welcomed. They should see a church that is more appealing than going to a grand opening of an Ikea on a Sunday morning. As someone who was specializing in creative arts, my part of making things irresistible is providing videos, a setting, or lighting that will engage the audience. Provide mediums for people to feel safe and focused in on what the topic for the week has chosen to be.

Since my internship, I have learned quite a lot. That church is reaching thousands of middle to upper class white people. This is the culture that this church, and its campuses, are surrounded by. They are doing what they set out to do, and they are doing it well.

I am, however, starting to question if making things irresistible in this way is the way I see how church should be communicated to the cultures around us. Rob Bell, a pastor and teacher from Grand Rapids, Michigan, said that the church should be so ingrained with community around them that if they decided to leave the community will beg them to stay. I am starting to wonder if the church's "Presence" should be found less within a confined meeting space, but living, moving, and breathing among those around us.

During the week I am going to focus on three words: Come, See, Find. I think this is how I am going to start to wrap my mind around creating a gathering that is simply irresistible. The goal is to work out through this blog how a church's large gathering can be community oriented and focused while also providing a creative environment that is engaging to the culture at large. In the fourth post I will attempt to show how a church's gathering can be involved in the process of restoration that the Kingdom, thats us, has been called to do.

Quote of the evening...

"Dude, do you wanna hear something nasty?" -KB 3:00AM

Props to Kyle, Tripppppp, Kev, Nathan, Austin, Ed, Larry, Austin, Brandon, Jim, Beach, and Barry... Thanks for the great night! Kyle is the man when it comes to performing with a particular 'box'. He and Trip's 'gift' stole the show...

Yet Another Rabbit Trail

Mike Soltys... my long lost Aboriginal friend... wrote the following as a comment from yesterday:

a) I miss heatherwood

b) I know God is good because why else would he create watermellon?

Now, Mr. Soltys is in the Outback right now. Doing some amazing things. You can check out his blog here. And I would have to agree, God's goodness is most definitely found in the creation of the watermelon. This fantastic fruit is the staple of summer. It is most surely the messiest fruit to eat. It makes me feel like a kid. I would put it on my top ten fruit list.

1. Pineapple
2. Strawberries
3. Watermelon
4. Peaches
   
5. Cantaloupe
   
6. Apples
7. Grapes
8. Plums
9. Oranges
10. Tangerines

Mike I applaud your findings. I do believe that the watermelon in fact is one of the most perfect examples of God's goodness. Within it we find color and imagination. I mean pink and green don't even come close to matching. Thanks Mike for sharing such profound theological rhetoric with us at tboden's blog. We raise our glasses to you: May your journey be safe, and your experience be abounding. Sincerely, much love to all...

PS... I have still yet to receive a schematic on my Treo...