This morning Nancy Beach and Gilles Ste-Croix spoke. I also witnessed the fun that was a Rock Band competition and the excellence of a drumline (video to come on this). It is a pretty big place, Willow Creek that is, and I’ve been pretty impressed not only with their resources but their ability to use them well and use them to glorify God. Here are some of my notes from the morning sessions.
Nancy Beach spoke on Psalm 40:1-10. She is one of the key people in the arts department at Willow.
- Ministry can feel like an uphill battle a lot of the time. Even in my short time in paid ministry, I can relate. I can also relate as a PK whose dad was never fully welcomed at his previous church.
- Think about the times God has rescued you that you don’t even know about. Nancy started her talk on how easy it is to fall into temptation, how easy it is for us to lose sight of the most important reason we are in ministry.
- After she started I had this thought: “Everything big (meaning outward sins) starts with something smaller than small that no one can see.” I have to constantly be fighting the worldly desires that my heart has every minute it seems.
- Nancy outlined a 3 fold process for success: solitude, then community, then ministry. And then back again. Those words really stuck for me.
- The best part of her talk was how she tied in solitude and confession of sins into creativity. In a room full of creative minds it was something that I’m sure stuck for a lot of people. Out of solitude we come away ready to express fresh things about God. If we aren’t careful we can begin doing ministry out of memory instead of imagination. Solitude changes all that.
- Here is a picture of Nancy Beach with Gilles Ste Croix the creative programmer for Cirque de Soleil. Their interview was the 2nd half of the morning. It was somewhat uneventful for me so I won’t provide any thoughts on what he had to say, other than that he came up with the idea for Cirque’s production with The Beatles which is freakin awesome.
