Keeping the Dream Alive

Creativity is a never-ending process that requires devotion and determination. Today’s fresh idea is tomorrow’s discarded waste. We live in a generation that expects innovation instead of information; that wants to be visually stimulated instead of audibly convinced into what they purchase, spend their time on, or support. Today I had a conversation with Blaine Hogan, Experience Engineer at Willow Creek Community Church, that was inspiring and encouraging. After running through a list of questions and sharing with him the desire to expand our church’s creative reach and technical abilities, he helped me to see how my focus had gotten off tract.

While I was looking for new mediums of artistic ways to convey our messages and reach people in the church, Blaine helped me to see that the best place to look for creativity is in my own community–not my church community, but the community my Church wants to reach. The Church cannot make an impact in its community until it has listened to what story the community is telling. We must listen to them before we try changing them. So, rather than asking what new forms and artistic mediums should we try using now, the question I will be asking is, “What does redemption and salvation look like for Kirkland?”

Keeping the Dream Alive is not about my dream; it is not my message, or my production. By tapping into my community and listening to what is important to them, what is inflicting them, what is confusing to them or exciting them, then there will be that fresh idea, that perfect message, and clear medium for delivery.

This video was directed by Blaine for the Willow Creek Arts Conference, “Towards Wonder,” from 2009.
The message is as powerful as the production is.