Eat Art – Artfully Ending Hunger

I’m excited to introduce you to Eat Art. This is an incredible organization that was only officially launched in September of 2011 by a new Twitter/Facebook friend of mine in California. In addition to being an amazing artist and pastor at Discovery Church in Simi Valley, Todd Clark has a heart for those in need and the determination and dedication to do something about it. Eat Art is his dream and vision for “artfully ending hunger” one piece of artwork at a time, and I look forward to purchasing numerous items over the coming months.

"Surfer Girl" by Heather Brown

"A Portrait Of Christ" by Jeremy Cowart

"Sono Luminus" by Ed McGowan

"Joshua Tree Silhouette" by Steve Sears

"Lyquid" by Todd Clark

For every piece of artwork or apparel you purchase from Eat Art, a certain number of meals are sent to hungry kids around the world. How great is that! You get the art, and the kids get to eat. Eat Art researched extensively to find a group who would have the integrity, reputation, and global network to supply meals to hungry children and found their answer by partnering with the Children’s Hunger Fund who have sent almost $1 billion worth of food and other resources to over 10 million children in thirty-five US states and seventy-two countries around the world since their founding in 1991. Since CHF’s inception, an average of 99% of their total contributions have been used for programs serving the needs of children.

But an “art charity” would be nothing but a wild idea if not for the creativity and caring of the network of artists involved. Todd continues to seek out great artists like Heather Brown, Jeremy Cowart, Ed McGowan, Steve Sears, and many others, including his own amazing photography,to provide the “wow” that makes this act of generosity seem almost like a crime when you realize you get to walk away with this incredible artwork in return.

Don’t forget to check out the cool apparel featuring the Eat Art logo as well. You can help “spread the word” and help the hungry by sporting the arm bands, caps, or beanies. I certainly wouldn’t mind finding some of these items under the tree or in my stocking on Christmas morning (hint, hint, Santa).

Although I can’t imagine anyone not wanting a piece of the amazing artwork or an item of apparel, if you’d rather you can simply make a donation to send meals to hungry children through the Eat Art website. Hunger knows no season, so even though Christmas is a time when people are buying gifts and are more often in a charitable mindset, remember that you can help others and enjoy some beautiful artwork any time of the year.

A special thanks goes out to Todd for allowing me to share images of the artwork from his site in this blog post! His desire to help others through this venture is an inspiration to me and I hope you are inspired as well. If so feel free to share your thoughts and encouragements in the comments.

Spread Love, Not The Fruitcake

Couldn’t pass up sharing this hip hop holiday video thanks to the creative team at 12 Stone Church in Lawrenceville, GA. Enjoy!

What’s your favorite Christmas parody?

Advent Conspiracy – Christmas Can Still Change The World

It’s that time of year again…Christmas. Time to fight the crowds, deck the halls, and go in debt up to your eyeballs buying presents you can’t afford for people you don’t like so they can have something they don’t need. Okay, I hope that’s not the way you really feel. I know I don’t. I love this time of year, and all the elements surrounding Christmas. But I still struggle with keeping the “consumer” side of Christmas in check.

So with all the “baggage” that has been attached to Jesus’ birthday celebration, can Christmas really still change the world? There’s a movement underway called The Advent Conspiracy that is offering a challenging message of hope. The promo video below says it all. We can change ourselves and how we see Christmas, and help solve world water problems at the same time. It seems like an impossible problem, but with just a fraction of what is spent on Christmas every year we can impact millions of lives.

The Advent Conspiracy was started in 2006 by in Houston, who I had the pleasure to meet last year, and he is offering a challenge to us this Christmas to help bring a well to an orphanage in Haiti (see video below).

If you can contribute and help the Advent Conspiracy bring clean water to those in need around the world please go to the website and buy a gift card for the people on your Christmas list, and then pass this information on to your church and your network of friends and family so they can join you in the conspiracy!

If you have a story about how the Advent Conspiracy and other groups like it have helped “change Christmas for you” please share it by leaving a comment. Thanks and Merry Christmas!

Worship Fully. Spend Less. Give More. Love All.

Visioneering Studios – Best Church Architect…Again

Visioneering Studios kept its streak alive by being honored once again this year at the annual Worship Facilities Expo (WFX) conference held in Dallas. Today it was announced that we won multiple Solomon Awards including Best Church Architect for the fourth year in a row. Visioneering Studios also won the Solomon Award for Best Church Design Renovation (1-800 seats) for Stapleton Fellowship Church in Denver, CO, where we converted a unique and historic airplane hangar built in 1959 at the former Stapleton Airport into a church. There were some great church designs highlighted this year, and we feel proud to be playing a part nationally in launching the bar on church design by creating environments that are culturally relevant and exciting while developing community destinations that draw people.

The WFX conference is a great event for churches who are looking for information on design and construction projects, and for churches searching for the latest in audio, video, and lighting gear. I’d encourage anyone involved in church building or tech ministries to attend. In 2012 the WFX conference will be held in Atlanta and we are looking forward to being there again next year.

In addition to winning the Solomon Award for Best Church Architect four years in a row (2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011), Visioneering Studios has also won Best Overall Church Project in 2007, 2009, and 2010. Following up on wins in 2007 (Most Innovative Church Facility and Best Overall Church project for Crossroads Christian Church in Corona, CA) and 2008 (Best Church Architect for Central Christian Church in Beloit, WI), Visioneering swept the Solomon Awards in 2009. We took home awards for: Best Overall Church Project and Best Church Design (2,001+ seats) for Mariners Church in Irvine, CA; Best Church Architect and Best Church Design (801-2,000 seats) for Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC; and Best Church Design (301-800 seats) for Northside Christian Church in Spring, TX. In 2010 Visioneering Studios won awards for Best Overall Church Project for First Christian Church in Huntington Beach, CA, Best Church Design (Renovation Project, 800-2000+ Seats) for First Christian Church in Huntington Beach, CA, and Best Church Design (New Project, 1-800 Seats) for The Church at LifePark in Mt. Pleasant, SC.

If your church desires to impact your community through sites and facilities that engage the public in a culturally relevant way and you are having a hard time finding an architect that “gets you,” give us a call at Visioneering Studios and see if we are the right ministry partner for your project.

Where Is Your Home?

We just moved in to our newly constructed house in Tega Cay, SC this week (which is a suburb of Charlotte, NC), after spending the last four months living out of boxes in a rental property. Moving is never fun, but I’m telling you that we looked forward to this move with great anticipation because we really felt our life was “on hold” just waiting to get settled so we could unpack and “get back to normal.”

I won’t say that the last 4 months were like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, because they weren’t…but like the Israelites we were longing to get to our new home as quickly as possible. What has made the transition and the waiting bearable, and even enjoyable, was quickly finding our new church home. What a difference that makes.

Moving to a new city without close connections, friends, or family is a stressful experience, especially with kids (including a high school daughter who didn’t want to leave her friends). What we found was a church called Lifepointe Christian Church where we were able to jump right in, make connections and friends, join a Life Group, start volunteering, and basically begin to feel at home.

If you are new to Charlotte, Fort Mill, or Tega Cay, or if you are just church “homeless”, come by and check out Lifepointe on Sunday. But, you know what, homes are very personal. I love my new house…the style, the layout, the neighborhood, but maybe you wouldn’t. That’s the great thing about houses. There are all kinds out there and there’s one out there that is right for you. It’s the same with churches. But, you have to go looking. It probably won’t come find you. You have to make the effort, and once you find the right church home you have to jump in with both feet.

Just like you wouldn’t move from house to house every few weeks or months (because that’s just insane–really, does anyone look forward to the actual move???), you need to look at your church home the same way. Will you find the perfect church? No, it doesn’t exist, because it is made up of flawed humans. But like any family and any home, you need to work at it and give it a real effort and give it some significant time.

So, maybe Lifepointe is right for you, and maybe it’s not. So if you don’t come here, then find some church somewhere to come home to. Where is your home?

The World’s Smallest Airport – Knuffingen

Check out this video. Physical model building is a dying art form due to the rise of computer models capable of photorealistic 3D imagery. I’m not sure why, or who, decided it would be good to spend the equivalent of $4.7 million and 6 years to build a working scale model based on Hamburg’s airport in Germany (the model airport is called the Knuffingen Airport) but the result is truly amazing. The planes and vehicles all move, it lights up at night, and the attention to every detail inside and out is incredible. What do you think?

You Are Worth Way More Than That

As a father of two girls who are not yet at dating age (but getting uncomfortably close) I was extremely moved and disturbed by Donald Miller’s blog post about “How To Live A Great Love Story” or as one fan tweeted “A Letter To Girls About Hooking Up”.

I have a hard time understanding why so many young girls seem to care so little about themselves that they jump in the sack with every guy they meet. Movies like “No Strings Attached” and almost everything coming out of Hollywood in movies, music, and TV (“Jersey Shore” anyone) glamourize the “hooking up” lifestyle.

As a dad I worry about my daughters growing up in such an over-sexed culture. I want them to understand how special they are to God, to me, and to their future husbands. They are worth way more than just sex and they only hurt themselves in the long run when they don’t value themselves more than that. Donald Miller states it much clearer, more bluntly, and more completely in his post, so please read it. Share it with your daughter or your youth group. Read the comments on Donald’s post and hear the pain shared by people like “Annie”. It’s time to take a stand and reach out to our daughters so they understand the value they have and why true love is worth waiting for.

Guys you are not off the hook either. Grow up and stop treating women as objects for you to use and throw away. I’m looking forward to Donald’s post (directed at guys) tomorrow.

By the way, thanks to some amazing technology I typed and published this blog post on my iPad at 30,000 feet onboard a Delta flight from Atlanta to Omaha. First time…cool.

An Architect’s Secret Weapons: Weapon One – Color

What turns a building into a work of art? What makes good architecture stand out from the masses of boring buildings? These are all questions of opinion. Most people don’t know the answer to these questions, but they know a good building when they see it. They may not know why they like it, or what specifically makes them like it…they just know it’s good.

This next series of posts is going to discuss some of the secret weapons in the architect’s arsenal to pull off great designs. The exciting thing I’m going to share about each of these is also that they can all be done without busting the budget…in fact this first item probably gives a project more bang for the buck than anything else you can do. What is this ultimate secret weapon? Color. Yep, that’s it, simple color.

Central Christian Church - Beloit, WI. Photo by PlainJoe Studios.

Since my company, Visioneering Studios primarily works with churches, I’m going to aim most of this discussion in that direction. Your typical church architect faces a dilemma when it comes to color…the church building committee. There are usually two outcomes from this dilemma, neither of which is good. Result 1: the building committee doesn’t want to “offend” anyone with color so you get three shades of gray, white and beige throughout the building. Result 2: the building committee lets everyone have an opinion and they pick 325 colors that don’t match with anything.

Nothing changes a room, a building, or an environment as quickly as good color selections. Look at the ads in any magazine (especially architecture or interiors magazines), or just pay attention to the “rooms” shown on any TV show or commercial. You may have never noticed them before because they are usually the “backdrop” for the product being sold or the entertainment show you are watching. But if you pay attention you will find a carefully coordinated and selected color palette in every environment, not plain white, not wildly clashing colors, but complementary, well-orchestrated colors and textures.

Color can set moods. Color can create environments that can be bold and playful, elegant or rustic, comfortable and uplifting. Your project can have so much more impact if you find a good interiors person and allow them the freedom to infuse color into your building (inside and out!).

Northside Christian Church - Spring, TX. Photo by G. Lyon Photography.

On your next project, turn color loose and don’t be afraid to let your interiors person fill your building with a palette of perfection. After all you have to paint every surface or have some finish on it anyway. What other material could you select that doesn’t affect price? Maybe it costs you a few hundred dollars extra for a little more labor “cutting in” between the colors and having to buy smaller quantities of multiple colors instead of one big batch of “white”, but where else could you get more bang for your buck on your next project? Give it a try. You won’t regret it, but even if you do, you can always go buy that “white” paint and have a painting party.

Do you have a favorite building or room? I bet it’s not plain vanilla! Share a link to a picture of it with us by leaving a comment below.

ATL to CLT – Moving On Up

Moving your family consistently ranks as one of the most stressful things people experience in life, especially when you throw in selling and buying a house, packing up all of your belongings, moving kids to new schools, and finding a whole new network of friends, doctors, mechanics, and churches. But it can also lead to great new adventures. Seven years ago this born-and-raised Virginia boy moved his family south from the small, beautiful, and historic town of Charlottesville, Virginia to the big city of Atlanta, Georgia. That began a great adventure for us as a family and for me professionally with Visioneering Studios.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time living in Atlanta, and have become plugged in with friends, a church (NorthStar Church), and schools. We even added a Georgia born son to our family in that time, watched our oldest daughter grow from Elementary School “girl” to High School “young lady”, and saw our middle daughter blossom from a preschool toddler into an Elementary School social butterfly, so it is with mixed emotions that we are packing up this week and “moving on up” (northward) to Charlotte, NC.

Visioneering Studios opened a new east coast regional office in Charlotte last fall down in the Ballantyne area on the south side of town and I agreed to move up there to work with that team to help Visioneering provide more integrated services to our clients. I’m excited about the increased collaboration and synergy that will come with this office. Atlanta will still be a key city for Visioneering since there are so many great churches and there is such easy access from Charlotte, so for all my ATL friends, you’ll still see me around regularly.

Personally our family is also excited to see what doors God opens for us in our new community to get plugged in and grow roots with a new church, new neighbors, and new friends. So, if you’ve got any friendly advice on Charlotte, or places that all the locals love, leave us some comments. We’re looking forward to the journey wherever God leads us, and your prayers for us in this transition are always appreciated.

Architectural Evangelism – Part 3

Church utilizing Architectural Evangelism

Church Not Using Architectural Evangelism

Let’s start with a simple statement of fact…a church building can’t “save” anyone. I’m glad that is out of the way, so we don’t waste time arguing about something we all agree on. So what does Architectural Evangelism mean then? If building’s don’t “save” anyone, then isn’t the best option for a church to construct the cheapest building possible? Wouldn’t that be good stewardship?

I would never argue that a church should spend money frivolously on any building project, but I would also argue that building the cheapest building possible is not the best option for any church. Ask yourself a simple question. Why does any company spend “extra” money on their building? I mean why does even a restaurant like McDonalds spend an extra nickel on making their new restaurants look like a Starbucks instead of building a simple metal box? If building as cheaply as possible is good stewardship of financial resources then why isn’t every building everywhere in the world built exactly the same way…building the cheapest possible box money can buy?

Even closer to home, why did you buy (or rent) the place you are living? It’s nice isn’t it, or at least nicer than the “cheapest” place you could find. You chose to pay extra for a “nice” house. McDonalds chose to pay extra to design a “fancier” restaurant, and every other company or organization that deals with the general public chooses to spend extra on their buildings for one reason…to attract people into their buildings by providing a place people want to go to in order for people to feel comfortable…a place where people will want to: a) buy that meal; b) buy that product; c) buy that movie ticket; d) you get the picture.

For some reason though, many churches don’t see the value of good design. It’s not good stewardship to be cheap. The “extra” money you spend is an investment. For commercial companies it is an investment in making you want to come into their store and spend your money. For residential builders it is an investment in making you “love” the house so you buy it. For churches it is an investment in making you feel welcome, comfortable, and engaged so that you are willing to come in the doors and hear the Gospel.

Well if I don’t build the cheapest building possible then what should I build? Good design means it is site specific, contextual to the region, and serves the specific DNA of your church and your community’s needs. So I can’t tell you what you should build until you engage me to dig into those specific issues. I can guarantee you it will cost more than the “cheapest” building you could build, but it doesn’t have to be “expensive.” In fact, I would argue that either extreme defeats the church’s purpose. Being too “cheap” will most likely not attract the people you want to reach, and spending extravagantly will probably turn off just as many of the same people.

In my opinion the definition of Architectural Evangelism is designing a site in such a way that it lowers the drawbridge to the community, turning the building inside out. It is not designing a Christian Country Club for the “insiders”. It is designing a center for the community that will appeal to the needs of the “outsiders”. It is not a place people should be forced to go out of obligation (how many kids say, “my parents MAKE me go to church”). It should be a place kids are begging their parents to take them. It is not boring, old-fashioned, or culturally irrelevant. It is centered on the message of Christ in an engaging, exciting, and culturally relevant way.

Is it shallow to have to “put some bait on the hook” to get people to come into the church when the message being preached is so eternally important? Yes and no. “Yes”, because the message is so eternally important that it doesn’t require any help, and “No” because the message is so eternally important that we must help people who don’t feel the need for Christ have an opportunity to hear the message. Churches who have found a way to connect and provide what their community needs and have designed their sites and facilities as seven-day-a-week centers for community have created opportunities to reach people who would never step foot in the “cheapest possible box money can buy.” So, which church is being a better steward of their resources? The “cheapest” box or the one practicing Architectural Evangelism?

In the next few posts I’ll explore some of the “tools” in the architect’s arsenal for practicing Architectural Evangelism without breaking the bank. If you missed the earlier posts on Architectural Evangelism, here is Part 1 and Part 2. What do you think of Architectural Evangelism, and is culturally relevant design important for churches like it is for other projects?