BlakeAtwood.com

Mark Batterson at Evotional.com and Pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C., a church that meets in a theater, says its

Pretty exciting to see the way the theater church movement has taken off in the past few years. I’m still believing for a church in every theater in America!

That’s an ambitious thought, but a worthwhile pursuit. What would it mean if something like that happened? No more building campaigns for one. No more struggling for the best A/V equipment, or even usable equipment. No more pews, just nice, comfortable theater seating. Of course, these are just behind-the-scenes concerns (which are my main concern, given my job).

But what would it mean for the world’s perception of the church? Does it become cooler? More hip? Attractive? Does it lose its otherness, its spirituality, its awe and reverence inducing factors? Or does the environment matter less than the content – the people, the relationships, the stories told and presented?

I was blessed to be involved with terranova from its early stages, but, unfortunately, could not be a part of its shift to becoming a theater church (now meeting on Sunday mornings at City Lights Theatres in Georgetown). I hear its going well, but I wonder what trade-offs they’ve seen, if any, or what feels different. I guess I just miss being "in the know" about the life of that church.

In reference to yesterday’s post about wanting to be a filmmaker of sorts, I just now remembered that my "work" has already appeared on at least 12 screens. I helped to create and edit the promos terranova gets to run before every movie appearing at City Lights. So I am famous, but only in my own eyes. Alas, Pride goes before a fall…

I’m in the early stages of starting a video ministry at the church. We’re looking at cameras. I have some great ideas from the Willow Creek Arts Conference. I’m talking video editing with one of the guys from Austin’s own eleven72 here in a few weeks. I bought In the Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch, a bible, of sorts, for video editors. I’m getting The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing via Netflix in a few days. Obviously, I’ve got the bug, the fever, and what can cure my fever? More cowbell. Or a nice camera. Or both. Also, a MacBook Pro, a few hard drives, new network cables, Final Cut Pro, and a book on how to use Final Cut Pro.

As such, I’ve taken to watching On the Lot. It’s an American Idol-type show, but for filmmakers. It’s not bad, but it’s not great. I read an article just yesterday detailing how the show could be better and I agreed with every suggestion. (Of course I can’t find the article at the moment). Right now, it’s just a short film festival show (you can see the contestants’ films on their site), with no behind-the-scenes on how the directors actually pulled off shooting a 3-minute comedy in a week, or showing the tensions and frustrations and confrontations that are sure to have happened; isn’t that reality programming at its core?

Sure, the films are entertaining, whether they’re truly good or good in the same way movies on Mystery Science Theater 3000 are. But you’d think it’d be better with Mark Burnett and Steven Spielberg’s names attached to it. Maybe Steve’s too busy trying to make Harrison Ford young. I’m glad the show is on. It’s showing me that it is difficult to be a filmmaker. Pointing a camera does not a filmmaker make.

I don’t want to make films, but I do want to tell stories. Stories that demand a reaction.

I’ve told a few people now that I feel close to that time that comes in every young man’s life – the time to buy a hi-def television. Why is that? I keep watching more and more Discovery shows. It began slowly with Dirty Jobs, which led to The Deadliest Catch, which snowballed into Man Vs. Wild.

The last show centers on Bear Grylls showing the audience how to survive in the harshest of environments. It’s enthralling, thrilling, and needs to be experienced in hi-def, but, even without that (as I’ll be for many moons), it’s a fascinating show. The scenery, the landscapes, the true reality of the show, the bravery of Bear, the knowledge he passes on…it’s fantastic.

So I had to find out more information and was pleased to read this Q&A with Bear, although this question is the last one on the last page of the show’s website. I guess I should be glad it’s there at all.

Q. What do you always take with you?

A. Flint and striker, so I can light a fire however tough it gets — lifts my spirit always and has often saved my bacon! My Christian faith: high mountains and my time in the military taught me that it takes a proud man to say he needs nothing, and I need my faith. And, finally, a laminated picture of my family tucked inside my shoe.

I’m still looking for more information on the camera crew. How in the world do they film this show?

And now for something completely different: Canvas on Demand is offering me a 16×20 photo enlargement canvas of my favorite photo. How could I resist? Maybe you should check them out too.

My family has apparently started a summer tradition of picking a concert at the Smirnoff Center in Dallas and all getting tickets. It began haphazardly last year with Chicago and Huey Lewis. You know, when the whole family goes (siblings, cousins, parents) you have to cater to all ages. Luckily, this year, and just this past weekend, we saw Ben Folds  and John Mayer. It was a good concert, not great, but good. Enjoyable at least. Ben Folds was a little more experimental than some of my family would have liked, and his cover of a Dr. Dre song was…interesting, to say the least. John Mayer’s a phenomenal guitar player, but should stick to playing, not talking. Too bad we couldn’t have all gotten Police tickets.

Possibly even more fun was the golf the next day at the Lake Park Golf Club in Lewisville. It’s a straight, short course, par 70, so I felt like I was doing a lot better than normal, which I was, at least for the front nine. I think I had 4 or 5 pars for the round, which is great for me. I also had the best shot of the day. I was two inches from the hole, a gimme, and I was goofing around, taking a large backswing with my putter and pretending I was going to launch the ball somewhere. I hit the top of the ball with the bottom of my putter, the ball spun high into the air, then dropped straight into the hole. I will never be able to do that again.

We ate at Babe’s that night, a restaurant in Sanger, TX. Great food, and the waitresses sing, and they’re actually good. Also, there’s a cutout of John Wayne that peers into the window of the women’s restroom. (I only know this because the Woman told me so – I don’t often visit women’s restrooms, what with their sofas and bathroom vanities). Going to Babe’s is almost as much a ritual as the family summer concerts are becoming.

It’s always interesting what kinds of rituals form as the newer generations grow up. To the loyal few, do you have family rituals?

Also, my grandmother made a point to say how much she appreciates the fact that our extended family gets along so well. It’s something I thought was absolutely normal growing up, but the older I get the more I realize how fortunate I am to have the family I have.

Although I could go into a long diatribe about how I sometimes and errantly view Jesus’ influence on my life as “tiny,” when, in fact, it’s much larger than I could ever comprehend, this post is not, in fact, about that. It’s about a Twitter mashup called MyTinyJesus.com. I don’t know if it’s sacrilegious or brilliant or just…what’s the word to use when you don’t know how to describe something? Oh right…postmodern.