The Making of Freedom

Our July Message series was called "Freedom." For our opening video we chose to use a different format than we have ever utilized before: Shadow Puppets. We have had a lot of complements and inquiries into the making of the video, so I am posting this behind-the-scenes mini-documentary along with the video itself. Hats off to Marshall Hunter, Aaron Thomas and Chris Deville who created and performed the puppetry, filmed and edited the piece. The song is an old spiritual I grew up singing as a boy. It features Glenn Lancon on vocals. The piece was arranged and recorded by Coy Watson and Aaron Thomas who really captured the feel we were after. I'm so blessed to get to work with these amazing artists every day! Enjoy.

Christmas Shenanigans at the Office

I've got some GREAT employees at Crossroads. They are all partners in the ministry God has given us. One of the things I love most about our team is how fun they are! This past Thursday our Team Building Committee put together a day of Christmas Shenanigans. It began with biscuits and jelly from Cracker Barrel and a game called Christmas Carol Remix where we had to rewrite traditional Christmas carols using the words Georgia, Sasquatch, congress, Netflix and puppies. Here's how my team's version of Frosty the Snowman went:

Georgia the Sasquatch went to congress the other day

He wanted congress to fix his bill at Netflix

But Obama said he had to pay.

Georgia the Sasquatch had some puppies known for attacks

He sicked them on congress, the whole doggone mess

Ended up in a higher tax! 

We won second place. 

Throughout the day, when you heard the song "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" over the intercom, it meant a trivia game was coming. You had to be the third one to dial the right extension to make your guess and possibly win a prize.

We had a great Chicken and Sausage Gumbo for lunch. (Thanks Yvette Melancon!) Then we awarded our monthly "High Five Award" to Quylana Moore who put hours and hours of volunteer time in above her regular work schedule last week to help make the Christmas Production happen this year! Our High Five Award is given out each month in recognition of an employee who goes above and beyond the call of duty here at Crossroads! 

Another challenge we were given was to reenact a favorite scene from a Christmas movie. My team chose the tongue to the flagpole dare from "A Christmas Story." Holane Davidson and Debbie Welch stuck their tongues on a very unfrozen canopy post. (As you can see above - I was completely grossed out!) 

Mid-afternoon, we gathered in the lobby to engage in Reindeer games - A crazy race involving departments in their desk chairs racing the clock. (I've included a video to demonstrate!) 

It was a great day and reminded me of how blessed I am to be surrounded by an incredible team of people that make life not only productive, but fun! Thanks to Adam Hoffman and the entire Team Building Committee for a great time! 

Light Bulb

I think our new Message Series opener is one of the best we've ever created!

The (Church) Office

I'm doing a series this month at Crossroads called Sitcom. A sitcom is a situation comedy - And we thought it would be a good idea to learn how to find the laughter in every situation. The Bible says it does good like a medicine. 

Our creative team came up with the concept of actually producing a running sitcom for the month of July while we share the series. It's a spoof on the highly successful sitcom The Office. We call it The Church Office. Here's the first episode!

How well do the kids in your life know the story?

Brave

Our newest Message series is called "Brave." Here's the video roll-in. Hope you enjoy it! 

The Porcelain Unicorn

The power of film as a medium for story telling is one of my greatest interests. I've always been drawn to stories, but never so much as when I became a Christ follower. It's then I discovered the greatest story of all time and the main character of the story was an avid story teller Himself.

Matthew 13:34 declares that Jesus never addressed a crowd without using a parable (a story) to illustrate what He was teaching. I have attempted to practice the same through my years of ministry. One of my great passions is turning those stories into mini-movies. I love using them to illustrate God's truth. I find they're so effective. The following short film demonstrates my point.

Legendary film director Sir Ridley Scott launched a global film contest for aspiring directors titled "Tell It Your Way." The film could be only three minutes, contain only six lines of narrative and be a compelling story. There were six hundred entries. The winner was "The Porcelain Unicorn" by American director Keegan Wilcox. The story is of the lifetimes of two people who are totally oppisite yet very much the same - All told in less than three minutes.  I think you'll see why it won! Enjoy.


 

This is what it's going to take!

My Rap Music Debut!

No excuses!

An Ax and Two .38s!

You gotta love this guy! Reminds me of the joke where the old lady tells the robber to repent according to Acts 2:38! He gives himself up and when the cops ask why he tells them she claimed to have an ax and two .38s! (Only this pastor was actually ready to cap 'em!)

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