Through Europe to the World
(Reprinted from http://everynationonelocation.com)
GEM’s vision is to see God expanding his kingdom through all peoples of Europe to the world.
In 2007, Ruth and I moved back to Ireland because I felt I could influence a growing number of young Irish people involved in visual media to learn ways they might leverage their skills for kingdom purposes. (more…)
Exponential Conference Speakers on Twitter.
Went through the speaker list for the Exponential Conference and picked out some folks I think have stuff to say for us as we are on mission with Jesus in Europe. I went to the trouble of finding their twitter feeds. Some are better tweeters than others but here are the links if you want to save some time and get some good input.
Before you do, here’s the link with all their bios on one page. Exponential Conference Speakers Page.
(BTW, you all owe me big time for this… but I can be bought for coffee.)
Louie Giglio
Mark Batterson
Noel Castellanos
Francis Chan
Steve Childers
Shane Claiborne
Neil Cole
Caleb Crider
Mark DeYmaz
Dave Gibbons
Hugh Halter
Bob Harrington
Alan Hirsch
Chris Hodges
Larry McCrary
Reggie McNeal
Scott Thomas
Matt Smay
Ed Stetzer
No time like the present
The way I see it, the next decade is probably the most important decade for the great commission in Europe.
Why? Because the world has come to Europe. About a decade ago, my host country of Ireland was invaded by the Poles. Nearly half a million strong, they came while jobs and money were plentiful. But when the economy shifted, they moved back to their home country in droves. In fact, currently over half have returned and more are leaving daily.
But when they returned to Poland, they brought with them increased job experience, better skills, a second language under their belt and money in their pockets. They are the reason that the Polish economy is growing while other European countries are shrinking. (Reuters)
I don’t know what happened to the Poles spiritually while they lived among us, but there was for a period of time a real potential for the Irish church to impact the spiritual future of Poland if significant ministry had been accomplished in the lives of those living among us.
What I’ve explained is a microcosm of the opportunity the church in Europe has to reach the world with the Gospel. The world has come to Europe. The economists tell us that the global economic domination will to shift to Asia in the next couple of decades. (Here’s a TED talk on the subject.)
The challenge of the church in Europe is to reach the world while it lives in their midst. And the challenge of the church world-wide is to partner with them to succeed.
Innovation part 1: Doing what no one else is doing.
Apple used to have a slogan that, while grammatically incorrect, made me feel understood. It simply said, “Think different.” My wife refers to it as my “random access memory”. I often wonder if something isn’t quite right with me because I never tend to process things like everyone else.
I tend to think about things others aren’t. I notice things others don’t. And I’m always associating or connecting things together in ways others wouldn’t. If I were still in junior high this might make sense, but I’m past that stage, at least for the most part. I was recently reassured that someone understands me as I read an article in the Harvard Business Review over the Christmas holidays.
According to an article entitled “The Innovator’s DNA” I have the makings or “DNA” common to innovators. Simply put, I enjoy and am obsessed with collecting things and linking them together to make new things. The authors Dyer, Gregersen and Christensen identify five skills common to innovators.
1. “ASSOCIATING helps innovators discover new directions by making connections among seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas.
2. QUESTIONING allows innovators to break out of the status quo and consider new ideas.
3. Through OBSERVING, innovators carefully and consistently look out for small behavioral details (in the activities of customers, suppliers and other companies) to gain insights about new ways of doing things.
4. In EXPERIMENTING, they relentlessly try on new experiences and explore the world.
5. And through NETWORKING with diverse individuals from an array of backgrounds, they gain radically new perspectives.”
-Source: The Innovator’s DNA, J.H. Dyer, H.B. Gregersen and C.M. Christensen, HBR, Dec. 2009, p. 128
We need innovation if we want to make a difference in the world for Jesus’ sake. Simply doing what we’ve been doing with the people we’ve been connecting with won’t give us significantly different results than we’ve been seeing. The only way we’re going to reach people no one is reaching is through innovation; to be doing what no one else is doing. (Listen to a great podcast on this by clicking on this link.)
I’m going to be exploring each of these skills separately in the next few posts and would love to get your feedback, stories, observations as I go along. Send me a message or leave a comment. I love collecting new ideas…
A White Christmas in Europe
I’m in Amsterdam over the holidays with more snow than they’ve seen since the early 80’s. The children in the neighborhood are in full construction mode with snow-forts going up like condos in a boom economy inhabited by snowball warriors and strange giants with carrot noses.
The adults however aren’t quite as amused. I was trying to work out why 3-4 inches of snow were causing major disruptions of train lines, traffic and people’s holiday plans.
Then I found out that since they don’t get much snow, people just aren’t prepared. The cities have no snowplows and people don’t even have snow shovels. They bank on the assumption of being without snow and they’re usually right. But not this Christmas.
Their unpreparedness has started me thinking of another assumption about Europe I have held for years. It’s the one that says Europe isn’t really responsive to the God of Christmas. Most of the time I’m not far off the mark, but I’m wondering just how prepared we as followers of Jesus living in Europe are for God to answer our prayers for friends and neighbors here. What if the Spirit of God ever really let loose here?
I get pleasantly surprised when a conversation turns to the eternal. Once in a while I get the chance to see hints of God’s grace in the midst of broken relationships, shattered hopes and destructive choices. Maybe not huge flakes, but small glimmers that settle on me long enough to notice them and make me wonder if a blizzard’s on the way.
I would love to see Emmanuel to show up so heavy and so deep that life will be interrupted… and rediscovered with child-like joy. And so like a child, I’m praying for a white Christmas in Europe and hoping I’ll be ready.
Merry Christmas,
Many hats make a busy cat.
This past year, I had the rare (for me) experience of concentrating 100% of my efforts in one direction in the establishing of Clear Media here in Ireland. Then in July, I pulled out of the company to make room for the owner of the company, along with some young Irish believers to take over the full responsibilities of the ministry/business.
I’ve not rushed into committing myself to new directions this fall. I’ve been able to try on some new responsibilities while asking God specifically how to focus my full attention. Here are a few of them.
•I’m still working to use my abilities in creative media production, by helping small ministries with big needs and no funds. And I’m writing scripts for several new television programs for children. (more…)
The Room
Many of our readers receive a regular postcard from us to help them support our work in prayer. But we realize that isn’t enough to encourage the kind of prayer we feel we need.
We’ve just created a special section of our web for our partners called “the room”. If you’re a regular supporter, either financially or in prayer for our work, you can be given access to updates that will energize your prayers and partnership with us.
Updated regularly throughout our week, you’ll find timely requests for prayer, photos, videos and our perspectives on what’s happening in the ministry of CreativeWorks like you’ve never had before.
Why is it different? It’s password protected. Things open to the general public are visible by everyone. Which means there are needs we’d love you to be praying for, but sharing them in public simply isn’t appropriate.
And by updating this space, we’ll save hours each week in personal correspondence and do a better job of keeping you, our partners, praying. Which means we can be more regular in updating you.
Nothing of eternal value is ever accomplished apart from consistent prayer. Will you join us in the prayer room? Click here to send us your request for a password.
Music anyone?
Just for fun, you can now listen to music from these and future albums with the player I’ve included on the bottom of the site. Have fun listening with Streampad. I’ve posted a bunch of mp3 versions of past albums on the site. The Rewind CD was done this year. Neat Beat America is used by kids around Europe in a children’s summer club activity called Imagin’Air. Carton Jaune is a CD I recorded 10 years ago with my buddy Russ Speiser (it’s half in French and half in English) and then the oldie but ever nostalgic Damascus album gone digital with two really important friends in my life, Ken Kipp and Chris Davis. Have a little browse through years of music.
Enabling others to serve
I love creating events that help the Gospel make sense to people who’ve either been burned by religion or just have no background or experience with Jesus. But they don’t just happen. I’d love nothing more than to show up to the events and see people connecting with Him.
But before all that, there’s connecting with people who have vision for making Him known in their area. It takes connecting with talented communicators that can be available for these events. And it takes helping them connect with others who’ll help provide the means to make it all happen, from supporters of the artists to venue choices and advertising, sound, lights and media… the list goes on.
Part of my role is to help others be able to serve. This past week I’ve been able to step in by serving them. (more…)
Little things…
Perspective influences the value we place on things. GEM ministry has encouraged us to “lead from behind” and I’ve embraced that value. And of course, “leading from behind” often means “serving from behind”. But working like this can often make it difficult to evaluate what you’re doing.
The past several weeks have been filled with lots of smaller ways to help ministries here in Europe. Friends were coming up on the opening of their coffee shop which is the new hub for connecting with students who need to hear about hope in Christ. But they were without a website, out of time and out of funds. So I built them one. No big deal really.
But at least in part because the site came online in time for reinforce newspaper ads, a thousand people came to their grand opening concert, which has led to a doubling of their visits and sales in a week. (more…)
New recording from George Vinson
Most people that know me will have heard music from my good friend George Vinson (like George Benson only “vetter”…)
He’s just come out with a recording of “I will trust in you”. Couldn’t resist snagging it from youtube and bringing it to you.
Enjoy and remember you can trust in Him.
Durand
Concert this weekend
I’ll be teaming up with Bridge Christian Community in Arklow this weekend to put on a dinner concert for the neighbors and friends of those from the community.
It’s called “Food for Thought”, held in a country club on the edge of town. I’m excited about it. Our friends, the Yeoman’s used to be up in Dublin at City Gates and have become part of this grace-based group of people.
Most of the songs will be from my CD Rewind. The title song says that we share something in common. We’ve never seen a person who hasn’t let someone down and needed to ask forgiveness. We don’t live up to our personal expectations on how to treat others. And we certainly don’t come close to God’s standards either. But I’ll be focusing on the amazing privilege it is to be able to be forgiven. Hoping to get to meet friends of friends and give lots of “food for thought” seasoned with enough salt to keep people talking. Can’t wait!
Essential Outsider
Several years ago, a friend of mine was trying to get a rental agent to help him find a house to rent for his family when they first moved to Belgium. The agent asked my friend how long he planned to be in the area, to which he responded, “Oh, at least five years or so.” The agent replied, “well, if you’re just passing through, I’m not interested in helping you find a place.”
That’s the nature of this pilgrim life we live. In our area, we are referred to as “blow-ins”. (more…)
Clear Media: Year 1 (Summer 2008-2009)
CreativeWorks is a GEM ministry helping churches leverage creativity in ministry through creative events, media and training. In my role with CreativeWorks, I continue to provide creative ideas and training for our workers across Europe. And through networking I seek to provide short term partners that can help European churches put on the special events and projects we’re known for… concerts, Imagin’Air childrens clubs and special events like dinner theaters and workshops.
This past year, though, I focused most of my time and attention on helping develop Clear Media, an Irish media ministry and business now helping ministries leverage the incredible power of media. My Irish partners Ron Barrington and Joseph von Meding lead the company and are committed to seeing ministries equipped with the powerful tool of media. (more…)
Clear Media now has a website
Thanks to Rob Browne, we’ve got a sweet new website for Clear Media, the Irish-based media ministry. Now is a good time to explain again… http://clearmedia.ie
CreativeWorks is a GEM ministry helping churches leverage creativity in ministry through creative events, media and training. In my role with CreativeWorks, I continue to provide creative ideas and training for our missionaries across Europe. And through networking I seek to provide short term partners that can help European churches put on the special events and projects we’re known for… concerts, Imagin’Air childrens clubs and special events like dinner theaters and workshops.
Clear Media is a specific part of our ministry now creating media for European churches, training European Christians in media production for ministry and helping other Christians create their own media projects. Joseph von Meding (an Irish believer) is actually employed by Clear Media and works with me full time. We do a certain amount of commercial work as well, providing additional resources to help give ministries professional media production at a fraction of what they’d pay elsewhere.
Clear Media was really formed around the objectives of CreativeWorks and set up by European believers to facilitate my work. While I’m responsible for directing Clear Media I am not paid by Clear. My salary currently comes uniquely from the support of individuals and churches that know us and want to see ministries like CreativeWorks serving in Europe.
Questions? Ask away!
Durand
Finally completed!
The Gospel and Culture multimedia resources for the Evangelical Alliance Ireland are completed! This course is designed to help people become better students of culture in order to be better communicatorts of the Gospel in their context.
And as an added bonus, today I get the chance to watch Sean Mullan train a dozen new facilitators how to use the materials so that workshops can be offered around the country. I’ll post pictures this evening!
Thanks to those who’ve had a hand in making the project; our biggest to date.
Durand
Teen Challenge Ireland
Two and a half weeks ago, as I was walking to the train station, I noticed a van from Teen Challenge drive by. I’d never seen it and didn’t realize they even had people in our area. As I approached the station, there was the van. The driver had parked in the bus stop to help his passenger with his bag and tickets.
From the looks of things, I could see this was a difficult goodbye. The driver had to leave quickly because buses were arriving, so I checked in on the younger man to make sure he had everything he needed. He smiled and thanked me as he went through the ticket gate and on to his train.
On my way home I had a strong sense that at some point the Lord wanted me to create something for Teen Challenge to help them in their ministry.
A day and a half later, I get a call from Teen Challenge to help them create a video for their annual charity banquet. A friend of a friend had heard about Clear Media and contacted us through Joey. Coincidence? I realized that the story needing to be told was God’s story, not mine or Teen Challenge’s. Each interview was begun by asking God to tell his own story through the people on camera.
With the assistance of George Griffin, the two of us began the kind of project we usually leave months for. This week we were shooting up until Tuesday evening. With Joey back from vacation, we put his editing skills into high gear. And now it’s Friday morning. We showed the Teen Challenge folks the video yesterday afternoon and were delighted by their response.
Pray with us that others will be moved tonight at the banquet to partner with this crucial ministry of restoring lives broken by addiction in Ireland.
Durand
Watch GEM London Video
Here’s the latest video we produced for GEM. Special thanks go to Joseph (Joey) von Meding. His camera work and editing really shine here. And special thanks to BlueTree for allowing us to use parts of their amazing song “God of This City”.
Important stories
We hardly speak without telling stories. They are the way people understand each other. Tell a story well and people can imagine themselves as part of it. Add images to the mix for even greater impact. Sometimes words aren’t even necessary.
The next two weeks I’ll be working with the folks at Clear Media to tell two important stories. The first begins today as we take a crew to film “Little Waves”, a 6 minute film on the way God uses small but consistent actions in our lives to shape us and refine us. The film is set on the beach around a group of young surfers.
We’ve seen rain as heavy as monsoons for the past week with flooding around Ireland. Yesterday had been rescheduled for the shooting, but the weather report on Friday indicated another rainy day. Since everyone in the crew is young and either in school or working during the week, we said we’d try for today, Sunday. And or the first time in months… I can’t see a single cloud.
Then Monday I begin work on a film for Teen Challenge Ireland. The economic boom of the last years has created a heavy increase in the amount of illegal drug use in this country. Teen challenge opened a new centre for men near where I live a few weeks ago and have been operating a women’s recovery centre for several years west of Dublin. We’ll be sharing two people’s journey from pain and addiction, through the assistance of the strong love of Teen Challenge toward freedom in Jesus.
The film will first be shown in less than two weeks at their annual fund raising dinner on Friday, September 19th and with two centres now, will need more people to get involved. Our prayer is that the 450 people in attendance will see the stories and be moved to join their efforts through financial involvement and as volunteers. The video will also be online for the attendees to share the Teen Challenge story with others.
We’re asking God to tell these stories through our cameras and interviews. Rescuing men and women from the destructive cycle of drug addiction is the kind of story only God can tell. He’s the only one who can do it. Pray with us these next two weeks.
Durand
August travels
This month we’ve been traveling quite a bit. Ruth and I were part of the GEM conference. For a week in Hungary we were inspired by some great Bible teaching and encouragement on following Christ and sharing him with others. I oversaw the music team and tech team for the meetings. My friends from Atlanta came for the 4th year and led worship. Amazing.
At the end of the conference Henry Deneen, our new president asked me if CreativeWorks could drop everything and film a team in London this week that is surveying an area of the city for a new church plant, with hopes that other teams like this could be recruited for other cities in Europe. Joey vonMeding, who’s now working with me full-time is here in London as well. I return to Dublin Monday.
One news flash… Ruth is finished with her Masters program, having handed in her thesis on Friday.
Robinson’s Update
Praise God for a dozen or so creative young people who’ve decided to work with me through Clear Media on ministry productions. To date, we’re providing the Evangelical Alliance with all the videos and visuals for their training workshop called “Gospel and Culture”, helping with the test stages for producing a weekly video podcast for Youth With a Mission Europe (the Netherlands) and creating our own series of short videos for use in sermons, classrooms and small groups.
We thank God as well for our growing relationship with the business partners behind the formation of Clear Media Ireland. This not-for-profit company provides the equipment and office space needed for CreativeWorks to function. Their generosity has provided the kind of production gear that any professional would be proud of. The most encouraging part about this has been that the huge investment in equipment was supplied entirely by Irish Christians who see the need this kind of ministry for their country.
We’re also thankful to God for openings into our local community around Greystones (a village at the end of the Dublin commuter line.) I’ve been invited to have regular concerts along with several Irish musicians at the local theatre and have entered and been let through to the local radio station’s talent competition. Pray God will use us as salt and light in the lives of those around us.
Praise to God is also due for the opportunity to coach Dublin church leaders integrating the use of media in their local ministries. St. Mark’s Church (Assemblies of God), Trinity Church and Crinken Church (Church of Ireland). I’m working to help them clarify their goals and then choose appropriate equipment for their ministries. I’ll also be part of helping train them as they get started this fall.
We’re thankful to God for our new place to live. With a second bedroom and space for our books and musical
instruments it’s been pretty easy to settle in. And the nicest part of all is that it’s an apartment in the same building as my studio. Talk about reducing commute time and cost! Especially with our current gas prices (a bit over $9/gallon at the moment) it’s a real help.
And we thank God for faithful partners. Some have already contacted us with stories of financial difficulties and the need to cut back on regular support. Praise that God is not hindered in meeting our needs when markets and economies weaken. with about 20 percent less pledged per month than required, we’ve taken a $1000 monthly reduction and are trusting God to move those we don’t expect to stand in the gap.
God has overwhelmed us with his faithfulness during our first year back in Ireland. We know he’s led us here and are now praying for him to open doors to keep us here. Pray as new legislation currently only allows people on our visa to stay for 3 years. Pray that either the legislation or our visa status will be able to change so that we can develop this ministry long term.
Serving the Lord with you,
Durand and Ruth
Oops… not my house!
A couple of weeks ago, just before leaving on a trip to the continent, I had friends ask me to take pictures of their new house. Instead of using my Flickr account I used the CreativeWorks account. Now I’ve been getting congratulations about our new place and was wondering how people saw our new bungalow since I hadn’t taken pictures of it yet…
Oh well. If you liked the house, send your complements to Scott and Tara Slate. They really do have a lovely place… Oh, and I’ve removed the photos from this site in case you’re curious.
Introducing Clear Media
For those wondering where I’ve been lately after over a month of silence… I’ve been living out a God-sized dream. Who else but God could have taken an artist and put him with several businessmen who together wanted to multiply media and media people for ministry in Ireland?
The idea is outlandish: set up a fully equipped media production company run by volunteers so that media would be affordable for ministries. You’d need someone whose ministry heart and full-time availability was matched with experience in creating media for ministry in every sector… video, graphics, audio and web.
Enter CreativeWorks, (a.k.a. me). CreativeWorks has partnered with Clear Media to provide dozens of creative people in media production and film schools the chance to leverage what they do for ministry. Each new project Clear Media takes on is paired up with a small crew of volunteers to produce it. Media people get ministry experience. Ministries get media without the cost of paying personnel to create it. And God equips both groups in the process.
Right now we’re in the middle of producing presentation media for a workshop called the Gospel and Culture. Last week we did film shots in a school, a theatre, a harbour, a cinema, a busy pedestrian street, a beach and at the National Aquatic Centre filming deep sea divers. The course is meant to teach Christians to be better students of culture in order to be more effective sharers of the Gospel. The visuals added to this excellent series of lectures really improves the learning experence. The workshop will soon be offered by facilitators across the country.
We’re also gearing up to create audio and video podcasts for one of the leaders of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Europe. The uniqueness is that we’ll be producing it in real time with people in the Netherlands from our studio in Ireland. Through the magic of Mac, we’ll be taking over their computer via high-speed broadband and running the recording software remotely. If only I could do the same thing with my lawnmower. There’s an added bonus in that I’m using one of our volunteers to do the production that has served with YWAM before. As a professionally trained sound man, his hearing was damaged in an accident keeping him from music projects. But his technical abilities are perfect for this weekly production series. YWAM gets a professionally produced audio and video podcast, and our Clear Media guy gets a weekly chance to invest his skills in the Kingdom.
Life’s getting back into a bit more balanced pace, so I’ll try keep you updated a bit more often.
Overwhelmed
I think this word describes me perfectly today in a lot of differet senses.
With the house move, new partners at work, new equipment and technologies to master it looks pretty daunting from where I stand. But the sheer momentum we sense is clearly an indication that God’s on the move and he’s taking us with us.
And then there are the open doors to ministry. We’re pulling together the shooting schedule for the Gospel and Culture course for the Evangelical Alliance here in Ireland, and a crew of folks to get it done. We’re being asked by several key churches to help them develop some projects this year as well as some of their people to be able to sustain the production of dynamic communication elements for their programs. The Irish Bible Institute is still working out details on how to proceed with an audio/visual department that I’ll help develop.
Our kids are growing and thriving. Emilie graduated with honors at Bethel in art and was offered an art asssitant job with some well known regional artists the day before graduation. Anna’s looking at job options in Denver while helping their church come up with a plan to purchase a ministry building in the heart of their “neighborhood”. And Laura’s in Wheaton with a full time summer job at the post office. We’re blessed.
Ruth and I are in a wonderful new home, a two-bedroom, one-story “bungalow” at the end of the commuter train south of Dublin in Greystones. It’s really perfect for us. And it’s next door to the studio/office of Clear Media. Clear Media is a newly opened media studio that was started by some Irish businessmen to give me a place to develop media and media people for ministry. It’s overwhelming. We’ve got brand new, state of the art video and audio production gear, top of the line computers and software, and now some of the most exciting young media professionals and students wanting to volunteer on projects that will make a difference for Ireland.
God, you can overwhelm me anytime. You’re amazing.
Keep praying for the right folks to include in the crews for this summer.
Durand