For a period of my life, I got to travel extensively with my bands Audio Adrenaline and Abandon. As I looked around at the horizon so many times, while the lane markers were whizzing by on the highway, I would imagine myself running along the mountain tops or go back to my childhood fantasy of jumping each peak on a dirt bike. The things that you do to keep from going stir crazy in a van for hours on end.
I have also met people in different walks of life and after these experiences, I can now appreciate a variety of thoughts about life and happiness and the pursuits therein. Through these experiences, there have been a variety of elaborate production setups and creative elements that I have seen while out on the road with my former bands.
Creativity is a beautiful thing. Well, executed creativity is a beautiful thing. A great thought stays suspended in time and space without ever breathing the air of life unless the right variables come together to take it from concept to reality.
I believe creativity excites God. He likes to see his children dream and think, draw and build.[quote]I believe creativity excites God. He likes to see his children dream and think, draw and build.[/quote]
If I had to put into words what has impressed me about one particular creative feat, I would have to say I was in awe when I first saw the tour production design for the U2 360 Tour. What an incredible thing to behold! If you think about the amount of time, energy, pre-planning, engineering, strategy, and manpower it took to make this monster come alive at every concert, your head will swell to a bursting point.
They spent in the ballpark of $750,000 each day, used 120 trucks and a crew of 300 people to erect what was nicknamed ?The Claw? at each of the 110 dates on the 360 Tour. The Claw weighed in at 200 tons. It took 8 hours just to put the LED Screens together each time.
If we put this effort into the context of the Church? What could possibly be accomplished with all that energy, creativity, and resources?
I am challenged to be more proactive in my approach to planning and executing. I?m challenged to build bigger and better. To build teams of people that understand the big picture and fully know the goal and the ?why? behind the ?what? of their functions in the Church.
Our communities could be radically different if we pinpointed the issues around us and executed at this level of precision.
I think about another aspect of this scenario?when it comes to the church production world?a point of reckoning for me as I served as a worship pastor and creative director for a few years. Do we give enough credit to the guys and girls that tighten the nuts and bolts, climb the trussing, run the sound, or setup the green room? I want to celebrate every member of my team equally. Yes, the worship leader might be the one that gets paid, or at least the one with the vision and direction, but if there weren?t anyone to turn on the microphone or hit the lighting cues, the 360 Tour would have been way less cool. Bono would have been standing on a stage that he had to build for himself. The band would have been all alone in a giant stadium with no one to play for because no one would have been able to buy tickets.[quote]Do we give enough credit to those that tighten the nuts and bolts, climb the trussing, run the sound, or setup the green room?[/quote]
The team element is the ingredient for execution. Dreams are good?everything has to start with a dream?but the dream takes a team to get the job done.
My point is that strategy and team really are the most creative thing that I have been impressed by as I look out over the vast landscape of church and concert productions.
Some questions I ask myself these days are: Do I have enough strategy? Do I have enough team?
They did it. They dreamed it, they built it, they toured it, and a lot of people were impacted by it.
What is the most creative thing that you have ever seen? Does it inspire you to reach higher and think bigger? I know that is what I am challenged to do.
