I originally saw this cool tutorial from Harry Frank over at GrayMachine.com that he used Trapcode Form to make. I wanted to see if i could do it using built in tools in AE. This is the result…
If it interests you, take a run at the tutorial and post a link of what you produce.
I (Gary) was having lunch with my brother last week, and we were talking about how hard it was to be a pastor (I was a full-time pastor for a really long time, and my story is here). Halfway through our conversation, he told me that, years ago he began to see signs that I was becoming someone very different than who he knew me to be. I was starting to act like someone I wasn’t, and it wasn’t a good thing.
I was becoming someone who wouldn’t let other people in.
I would pride myself in having all the answers to every big question.
I was critical of other pastors who weren’t doing church the way I was.
My brother said that he was beginning to see things in me that I was blinded to. I had become more judgmental, more self-righteous, and frankly more plastic.
I was losing me.
As I reflect back on that, I realize that it all started when I was 23. At that point, I was asked to be a youth pastor at a local church, and I wanted to jump at the chance. But as I looked at the beautiful potential of that ministry, I also stood at the top of a slippery slope – a slope I would soon cascade down.
In that exact moment, I remember the Elders of this church grilling me about my personal holiness, in the middle of my interview weekend. And over coffee at a Perko’s restaurant, I remember answering them with several lines of complete crap, then thinking this on the drive home -
IF I DON’T HAVE IT ALL TOGETHER, I’M DEAD.
I took the job, but I also began to live with this consistent belief that, in order to be an effective and well-liked pastor, I had to have it all together.
And that evening, I began my acting career.
Seventeen years later, I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognize the guy staring back at me. So I repented, and cried, and confessed, then repented some more. I vowed never to fake anything anymore – with my wife, my daughters, my friends, or with any group that would listen to me speak publicly.
And at 47, I think I’ve found me. Again.
So if you’ve lost yourself in the demanding and deceiving voices that accompany all who enter into pastoral ministry, please know this one simple truth.
PEOPLE DON’T NEED YOU TO HAVE IT ALL TOGETHER.
You may want to read that again. Maybe aloud. Maybe to your spouse. Definitely to your Adversary.
From the deepest part of my finally-understanding-this-stuff heart, please know this…
People don’t need you to have it all together. They need you to be broken, and offer them Jesus anyway.
In this second post, I want to ask you the same question I asked in the first post – the same question I wish I would have asked myself during the seventeen Advent seasons of my pastoral tenure.
You’re already working hard so that everyone ELSE will experience Christmas. But when will YOU experience it?
My short answer is simple: If you want to experience the wonder of Christmas, you must be intentional about it. It’s not like magic fairy dust, ready to fall at some random moment. It actually takes intention on our part.
Intention means a couple things. First, we need to read the Christmas narrative. Second, we need to look at gift-giving. In this series, I’m offering both a reading and a gift, It’s quick. It’s all online. And it takes intentionality.
READ THE STORY
Read Luke 1:39-56. I can’t believe how easy this is to skip over. It’s even easier to say, “I already know the story.” As you read this portion of the Christmas story, listen to Mary’s response of total surrender. Seems like it’s mixed with beauty, but also with the painful realization that this whole “baby thing” might be extremely difficult.
GIVE A GIFT
For this post, the gift you give is to yourself. The spirit of Advent is all about anticipation. Expectation. That’s what the word “advent” means. So I’m going to ask you to do something that’s beautiful, but difficult.
Enter into a place in your life where you’re currently experiencing great expectation – great desire and hope – but where you haven’t experienced true fulfillment yet. It could have something to do with your job, your place in your church, a close relationship, a physical or emotional issue, or the hope of finding the right person to spend the rest of your life with.
Wherever that place is, I invite you to enter into it with holy reverence, and with courage. Name it, identify it. Call is something. Anything.
Once there, invite Jesus into that exact place. This year, I’ve found myself praying this prayer a lot:
“Jesus. I invite you into this deep place in my heart – this place that houses the blessed unfulfilled. I don’t ask you to fix it, or to provide some formulaic means of escape. I simply give you permission to reside there, and to do whatever you want.”
Advent has a unique purpose far beyond pretending we live in the first century – beyond trying to feel what “they” felt. And it means so much more than a family standing in front of church with a red butane lighter that no one tested beforehand.
The spirit of Advent moves ALL OF US into a reality that EVERYTHING in our lives will one day be fully redeemed – a redemption that all creation groans toward – a redemption that you and I need to connect with more deeply than we can possibly ever imagine.
God keeps His promises, and invites us to experience their fulfillment. But much of the time, He doesn’t give us a timetable that’s very workable for us.
Regardless, we enter in. We touch our deepest hopes and desires. We name them. And somewhere in that mystery, we meet the same God who took on flesh in a Bethlehem cave.
So peace to you as you enter in.
And merry (intentional) Christmas.
When I was in pastoral ministry, my holiday season began on Christmas Eve, once the church services were finally over. Until then, I made sure that everything was in place for a month of special services, all culminating with a few blowout Christmas Eve services. It was life in the fast lane, to be sure.
And while I don’t regret serving people in this manner, I discovered that I will never experience all the joy the season offers unless I’m intentional.
Resolutely intentional.
The beauty of the Christmas season doesn’t just show up magically. We have to posture ourselves to receive it.
In this blog series, I’ll offer some intentional actions that won’t require anything more than a few minutes of your time. They’re crafted so that you can make them happen online, right now.
Take a moment and breathe in the the story of Christmas. Read the first part here (Luke 1:26-38). It’s so simple, but reading the Christmas narrative while NOT producing a church service is so important to do. Don’t hurry. Let it seep into you. Drop yourself into the story, and don’t be in a hurry to climb out.
Second, give a piece of yourself away. Do this by finding someone who follows you on Twitter or Facebook – someone whom YOU DON’T KNOW, or you barely know. Send them a DM or a direct email. Simply say, “Thanks for following me. I’m honored. Hope you have a great Christmas.” Or something like that. And if you think that’s a stupid idea, and are prone to glossing over it, then please at least take the time to ask yourself, “Why am I pushing back against this?”
The truth is simple: We’ll never experience Christmas without these two things: The Story, and a gift that’s given. But when you work in a church, those are the first two things that can take a back seat.
I’ll continue to write these posts, each with a tweak on the Story, and the gift you give. And it’s my deepest hope and prayer that you won’t get to December 26th and think, “What just happened?”
Merry (intentional) Christmas!
When you stick people in a tube that flies through the sky, things can get weird.
I’m sitting in that tube right now. Two rows of seats, divided by a row for the flight attendant to walk up and down, offering us something to drink.
As we taxi toward take off, the captain makes a proclamation over the loud speaker system that none of us want to hear. He’s just been told that “…the airport in New York has ordered a ground stop.” I have no idea what that means. But the net result is that we’re stuck in that tube, sitting on the tarmac for at least an hour.
And as my family sits here, and as I listen to the conversations begin around us, I discover that there are three reactions to this news.
There’s a guy in the front of the plane who immediately stands up and starts engaging in conversations with people around him. He’s the guy who is telling stories and laughing. He wishes this wasn’t happening, but sees this stoppage as an opportunity to start. I wish I was more like him.
There’s me. I heard the news of our delay, and was really disappointed. My entire family has a hotel suite waiting in Times Square, and I really wish we were there. But we’re sitting here, waiting for New York to let us know what’s going on. I don’t say anything out loud about my disappointment because I don’t want to add to the verbose opinions of the woman sitting in the back of the plane.
There’s the woman sitting in the back of the plane. She’s complaining about everything. She speaks with a condescending tone toward the United Airlines staff (two twenty-something women). In her mind, she has every divine right to speak like this, probably because she purchased a ticket. She’s expressing how much she is, above all, entitled.
Entitlement.
What’s the opposite of grateful? It could be anger, or selfishness, or distrust. But I think the opposite of gratefulness is entitlement. I think I’m more sure of it now than ever.
Entitlement is seen in the rolling eyes of that teenage daughter when her parents tell her not to text at the dinner table.
Entitlement is heard in the voice of that husband who expects dinner from his wife every night, and who spews verbal abuse on her when it’s not hot, and on the table.
Entitlement is seen at every shopping mall, at every register, every year on Black Friday.
Entitlement is seen at churches across North America. Drums. Hymns. Topical. Verse by verse. You fill in the illustrative blanks.
And it crescendos from the back of our plane, as a woman who paid for a ticket now feels that she has the privilege to blast one of the staff girls to pieces.
This Thanksgiving, what if we all did something different? Instead of searching for things to be thankful for, what if we simply thanked God for His goodness?
I wonder how much more grateful we’d become? I wonder how different this Thanksgiving would be? I wonder how much gratefulness might well up in our hearts for our country, our God, and our relationships?
The plane is taking off now. We ended up sitting fifty-two minutes.
Fifty-two minutes.
And while I write this post, the woman in the back of the plane is writing a letter to United Airline’s Customer Service.
This year, may we recognize the entitled Princess in all of us. And may we take her out back, and put a bullet in her head.
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Written by Gary A. Molander (co-owner Floodgate Productions)
We recently created our first tutorial for After Effects.
It’s a pretty simple tutorial but covers a couple of useful and time saving expressions we use to create “3D text” inside of After Effects. Because lets face it… Cinema 4d or 3D Studio Max isn’t in all of our budgets and we just don’t always have the time to monkey around in Blender.
We’d love to discuss it further with you if you have any questions about it! Just leave a comment below.
It’s weird, but sometimes the best creative ideas start with a point of frustration. During a recent Floodgate Christmas brainstorm meeting, the Team came up with several things that either discourage or frustrate us about Christmas. No one’s throwing stones or anything; we’re just trying to find some jumping-off points to introduce real redemption into the mix of our modern Christmas celebrations.
When we looked at the whiteboard at the end of the meeting, we thought the list of frustrations and concerns might provide pastors with some launch-points as they plan their Advent services.
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There is an expectation of gift-giving. We buy gifts for people because we’re scared of hurting their feelings if we don’t. For many of us, fear has become our motivation, not generosity.
We overindulge. Gifts. Food. Credit.
We’ve Americanized Jesus, making Him white, with blonde hair, and blue-eyes.
We don’t include Jesus in the mix at all. We hear people say, “Christmas is all about family.” Actually, that’s not true.
We’re too busy to see Jesus, because the Christmas season is so chaotic. We pray for an “injection” of Jesus at the Christmas Eve service, but even that’s clouded by what’s next on our agenda.
Christmas has been commercialized. The concept of Black Friday is huge, and is nothing if you remove Christmas.
People get really depressed around Christmas.
We invite people to worship a baby. How does that play out in our church? What does it mean? What does it not mean?
We don’t have enough money, so we go into more debt.
The family scheduling thing is insane. Go here, go there, then go home and collapse. And why is that the young moms and dads with small children always need to travel?
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As we’ve already noted, we’re not being critical or divisive with these observations. It’s simply a mostly-unedited list, designed to serve as a starting point for some intriguing pulpit discussions. And for every observation, there’s a signpost that points toward redemption. It’s the church’s job to discover those signposts, and to inspire people to move in their direction.
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Floodgate has a ton of great Christmas resources that will help launch your message.
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At Floodgate, we think being a part of a mailing list should be a win-win. Every month, we offer great sales and gifts ONLY for the good folks on our mailing list. Register here.
Michael Buckingham is a friend and a Christ-follower who really gets it, and who isn’t afraid to say what needs to be said, always in love. Michael is the owner and founder of Holy Cow! Creative & Center for Church Communications, and one of the best Twitter follows we know.
Recently, Michael recorded this short video. We saw the video, and knew we needed to make it available to the pastors and artists who partner with Floodgate Productions.
If you lead artists and creatives in your church, please allow his words to soak in. And if you’re really brave, start having some conversations with the blessed people in your care about how this concept might be best implemented in your unique setting.
Is there some way you can further explore leading artists and creatives?
Artists and Creatives in the church have fresh ideas for just about everything. Recently, I (Gary) taught a Breakout Session at the Echo Church Media Conference. In that session, I highlighted five movements in a creative process I normally use. These stages will help artists bring an idea into reality.
In order to generate an idea, we need to pay close attention to our passions, our frustrations, our brokenness, and our Savior. When we seek creativity, much of the time there is none. But when we seek Jesus (the Creative Source), creativity is given to us never as an end, but as a gift of the relationship.
THE GOAL - TO GENERATE A GREAT IDEA
Once you’ve got a great idea, you need to make it bigger. For many of us, that means inviting 2-3 people into your idea. The goal at this stage is not to make the idea better. The goal is to make it bigger. The people you invite into your idea at this stage MUST be dreamers. Please keep the Squashers at bay.
THE GOAL - TO MAKE THE IDEA BIGGER
Now that you’ve exploded the idea, it’s time to refine it. During this season of the idea, you invite in people who will help you go from dream to realism. Key leaders, money people, and committee chairs are all asked to weigh in. While this stage may seem very negative to artists and media creators, it’s much needed and vital to the life of the project.
THE GOAL - TO MAKE THE IDEA REALISTIC
You’ve got the idea. You’ve made it bigger. And you’ve made it realistic. Now, it’s time to do the work of creating it. At this stage, many artists don’t push forward. This is where I can stall very easily. I can buy into the lie that any fulfilling task should be fun and easy. In my book Pursuing Christ. Creating Art., my friend Rob Thomas (Igniter Media) makes the following bold statement about this:
“Until we force ourselves to do the things we don’t want to do, we’ll never get what we want to get.”
This is where we sweat. This is where we experience stress and anxiety. This is where we work our best, and our hardest. This is where we do things we’d rather not be doing. And unfortunately, this is where most creative projects get put on the shelf.
THE GOAL - TO BRING THE IDEA INTO REALITY
The time final comes when we finish our creative project, and make it public. It becomes art ONLY when other people see or experience it. Until then, it’s only an idea. If fear is a barrier for you, this is where it will do its work. I implore church creatives constantly to NOT stop after Phase Four. Push on. Let others see what you’ve created. It won’t meet your own expectations. It never does. But don’t that stop you from displaying your art to the world.
THE GOAL - TO DISPLAY YOUR ART TO THE LARGEST GROUP OF RIGHT PEOPLE.
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At Floodgate, we think being a part of a mailing list should be a win-win. Every month, we offer great sales and gifts ONLY for the good folks on our mailing list. Register here.
