• The book will debut atop the New York Times Best Seller list!*
• Bono has endorsed the book saying, “Every person on Earth needs to read this life-changing work!”**
• I am now filthy rich from the combination of my advance and the pre-order profits.***
• I have quit my day job, and will now be touring the world giving lectures.****
• Creative Theology will now be required reading for all seminary students, regardless of denomination. *****
• My agent just booked my appearance on the Oprah show. They are bringing it back for one prime time special to interview me.******

*Ok, so the book won’t debut as a #1 best seller. But you know what? That. Is. Okay. My two goals for this book are to not lose money (more on that with #3) and to be open to opportunities that may come out of this experience. I am not bent on getting the book into everyone’s hands, but rather the right people’s hands. I remind myself this when I start to stress out about book sales.

**Everyone loves a celebrity endorsement, right? Unfortunately, Bono hasn’t yet reached out to endorse the book. Bono, since I’m sure you’re reading this, you can email me directly and I’ll get a review copy out to you so you don’t miss this opportunity. Even though I don’t have Bono, I actually do have some pretty amazing endorsements. From worship leaders to pastors to conference creators. I am truly thrilled at the folks who have said very kind things about the book. To be clear, I would not turn away Bono. Bono, call me! 

***Remember, my goal is to not lose money. I’m not opposed to making money, but the goal here was/is not to get rich. It was to write about something I felt I needed to write, and hope that it resonates with folks. Hopefully, more doors will open and I will be writing more in the future and getting paid to do it. But no, I am not typing this as the tide tickles my toes.

****Although I will be making some appearances in churches, coffee shops and houses to discuss the book, I am not currently engaged in a world tour. When I say that I hope doors will open, I mean, at least in part, that one such door would allow me to leave my cubicle behind. The logical next step is a world tour where I finally show Rob Bell how a live talk is really done.

*****Fun fact, I had a professor tell our class once that we were the only reason one of the books we were required to read was still in print. He actually had to call the publisher and request that they keep it in print so that he could continue using it in his classes. That my friends, is how you obtain immortality. On a side note…

Dear seminary professors, I would highly encourage you to make my book required reading for your students. It’s short, full-color and has drawings. Your students will love you for it.

******Okay, Oprah has been a big fan of mine for a long time. It is only natural that she would come back for an epic one-night-only special to interview me. Of course, my book is now her all-time favorite, so you better believe that those in attendance will each be given <spoiler alert!> signed (by Oprah and Gail, not me) copies of my book in a surprise Oprah’s Favorite Things segment.

By the way…if you want to be a part of the in crowd, you can order a copy of the book here!

The theme of space and silence were prevalent at Luminous which had an incredible impact on me, especially in these areas. I had never been to a conference that effectively made space for people to commune, and carved out times of intentional, communal silence.

It was beautiful and stirring.

As I continue to unpack how to facilitate space and silence in my life, I wonder…

What do you do to be intentional about making room for silence?

Or if you are new to this journey like me, what ideas do you have?

I’d love to hear.

There is a literary term, ekphrasis, which is made up of the Greek words ek and phrasis, which are literally translated “out” and “to speak” respectively. When combined, they form the verb ekphrazien, which means to speak out, or proclaim.

In literature, ekphrasis poetry is writing in response to art.

Beyond literature, we know this conceptually in our own lives.

It’s why musicians are compelled to make music after hearing a great song, a writer picks up their pen after reading an epic tale and a painter picks up their brush after witnessing beauty.

In Genesis 2:23, we see man’s first word after being introduced to the newly formed woman.

this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, she will be called woman for she was taken out of man.

The man responded to the creation set before him in a poem acknowledging both the creation as well as the creator.

I experienced this in what I can only imagine as a far less intense way during a writing exercise at the University of Iowa, where I studied English. We were instructed to observe an art piece at the University’s Art Museum, and create a poem in response.

I chose to sit down in front of Jackson Pollock’s painting entitled Mural. As I observed the detail in the chaos, and the intricacies in the grandness of the piece, I began to experience a deep appreciation for the painting. But perhaps more importantly, I began to experience an appreciation of the artist.

Of course, responding to creation ultimately leads to us responding to the creator.

And this holds true in our lives. We encounter creation all the time, which means we are constantly presented with the opportunity to respond.

The questions we are faced with are: Will we take notice?
Will we respond?

We are invited into the Kingdom life and Kingdom work by the one who is making all things new. And we don’t wait to join God in the renewal of all things until we’ve honed our craft or attained a certain status.

We begin by taking notice.
We begin by responding.

The creative life force at work in us and around us, God’s good work, begs a response.

My prayer is this:
May we be a people who take notice, may we create the space needed in our hearts and lives to respond to his work, and may we do that by living lives full of awe, wonder, grace and mercy.

It’s much easier to blast updates to the masses, hoping people are listening. Rather than pretend to be Seth Godin here, I’ll move on to an example of this playing out as it relates to books, which I happen to be interested in at the moment, and a question about solicited word of mouth online. (I’d love your opinion)

My wife, Amanda, was looking at books 2 and 3 of a trilogy of which she’d just finished the first. The question she was debating was whether or not she should stick with the series. As she was looking, a woman (complete stranger) said her friend had read them all and loved them all the way through. It was the tipping point for Amanda. She wanted to buy the book, but wasn’t entirely sold yet. She was part of the author’s warm audience. She was already interested just not yet convinced. And a suggestion to a warm audience is incredibly effective. She bought the book.

This concept is why I sought out endorsements for my book. So that you could see what others were saying about the book, in case you found (or still find) yourself debating whether or not to pull the trigger.

Can I ask…do you think endorsements are helpful online? Does seeing people’s reaction impact your decision making? This whole self-publishing exploration has been a huge series of experiments for me, so I’m genuinely asking. Let me know in the comments, if you wouldn’t mind.

A great story will draw an audience. Everything else is just dressing up.

The everything else is just dressing up bit reminds me of the great modern American writer Ernest Hemingway’s style. He was famous for his terse writing which was the result of his voracious editing. He was known to say that he would edit until only the absolutely necessary words remained.

For writers, there is no better advice. Great writing is only a result of even better editing.

Even the best editing, however, doesn’t produce a compelling story. In fact, the worst writing is a poorly crafted story, dressed up.

So dear writers, start with a great story, and refuse to dress it up.

As I’ve learned throughout the process, not everything (including the printing schedule) goes as planned. Chalk it up to another learning experience for me.

In fact, there have been so many learning experiences (read, mistakes) during this process that I am putting together a free ebook for those of you who are interested in self-publishing. It will be distributed to my newsletter. If you aren’t signed up already, you can subscribe here.

The ebook will share 10 mistakes I made in the writing, editing, designing, fundraising, and printing parts of the self-publishing process. More to come. If you would like to get it as soon as it drops, remember to subscribe to the newsletter.

One of the foundation beliefs of Gateway is that we are joining God in the renewal of all things. And one way this is expressed, perhaps the best way to express this, is through art. So Gateway has launched the Restoration Artist Series, featuring artists within the congregation to display their work on Sunday morning.

It is a great concept. It enforces something that I believe to be true in the church, and that it that the artist’s role is to create redemptive art, and the pastor’s job is to curate art within the local church community.

Both men left the churches they founded, stepping down from their pastoral role. Both men did so after writing bestsellers and speaking at the nation’s largest church conferences. I’m not making a judgement here, just pointing out observations regarding their similarity. I was at the Catalyst conference three years ago when both Bell and Chan spoke at the event. Both can hold a crowd of 30,000 in the palm of their hands.

So both men left their posts in their respective churches, one for television after becoming a Christian celebrity and one citing the need for obscurity after becoming a Christian celebrity.

I don’t doubt that these transitions are part of what God has in store for each man.

However, many have loudly and publicly doubted and questioned their intentions.

We don’t much worry ourselves with the pastors leaving ministry each year from burnout. You don’t read many blog posts or news stories about the pastors leaving ministry each year from moral failure. We don’t pay much, if any, attention to the pastors outside of the Evangelical speaking circuit and besteller lists.

Just a thought…Maybe we are fueling the burnout with our obsession over famous pastors. Maybe we are fueling the ministry burnout epidemic by the unnecessary pressure we place on pastors as a result of our misguided concern with celebrity pastors.

I also have a theory on the unnecessary pressures for pastors to become producers rather than shepherds, but that’s another post for another time.

Have any thoughts to share about this?

I absolutely belive this quote. Sure books inspire, challenge, and motivate. But the beauty of a book is that it can trigger a thought and spark a conversation that ends in a good idea.  And a good idea, when acted upon, can change your life.

Now, I’m not quite saying that reading my book will change your life, but I’m certainly not not saying it

Hear this: the book, is not designed to give you all the answers about creativity and faith, but rather begin a conversation. I am sure that if you wrestle with the content, preferably in a community, you will walk away with at least one new idea. And that one idea is well worth more than the $20 you spent on the book. Consider that my guarantee.

You can order the book here.