BlakeAtwood.com

Georgetown was once a small town, and they’re trying to keep it that way. But progress progresses progressively. To wit, we now have the very large Wolf Ranch shopping center, with Best Buy, Petsmart, and Target, to name a few of the places I visit. We seldom travel outside of Georgetown anymore because we can finally get most of what we need in town. (Now if we could just get a Barnes & Noble).

Now there’s news of a new conference center/hotel near the same area. I think it’s great, and a necessity, as there’s no large meeting place in Georgetown. Not that I throw that many parties. Or any. Or that I have that many friends. Or any. But I’m sure there’s a need, so it’ll be met. And, judging by the pictures, it looks like it will be a nice place. Georgetown does do very well in its facades and keeping green space a priority.

All of this growth is occurring very close to the church I attend and work at. We’ve been experiencing good growth lately, even despite the lack of a Senior Pastor. But with all the surrounding growth, it makes me think I need to “up my game.” But I need to figure out what game is.

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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’ve been given the opportunity to attend the Willow Creek Arts Conference in Chicago in a few weeks. I’m excited about the trip for more than a few reasons. I’ve never been to Chicago, and, although there won’t be much time to explore the city, I always enjoy seeing new places. I’ve never been to Willow Creek, so I’ll be anxious to see that church. The David Crowder Band will be leading worship, which, after their last album, I can’t wait for. To think that they started and are still from Waco cracks me up. Featured speakers include Nancy Beach, Erwin McManus, Dewitt Jones, Donald Miller, and Dan Kimball. I’ll be doing breakout sessions on video editing, as I’m trying to get something along those lines implemented at my church, be it ever so slowly. It’ll be a quick trip, but I’m very glad for the opportunity.

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I’d heard of Meebo a few months ago, and, like most web services of interest, I sign up, only to use the service for a few weeks to try it out, and only to forego using it continually either for something a little different, or because it really doesn’t serve a need I have. Meebo was like that at the beginning. Essentially, it’s a web-based Instant Messenger that interfaces with a variety of other IM clients, like MSN, Google, Yahoo, etc. It is useful, but I’d gotten away from IM’ing, so I hadn’t used it much.

Enter Meebo Rooms. Meebo Rooms are easily embeddable, public or private, chat rooms. There’s a variety of public rooms to pick from, or you can just add an “I’m Awesome” chat room to your own site. As for me, I created one for my church website for visitors to ask questions. Of course, one of the staff members this morning created a role in the chat room, pretended to be a visitor interested in the church, and played me for awhile, but I eventually caught on, even though he did do a good job of covering his tracks. He’s forever lost the engraved pens I was going to get him for Christmas. Or receiving any Photoshop help. Or promotion of his events.

Pastor Bryson Butts catches flak for "Church Doesn’t Suck" billboard
Pastor Butts? Really? And they’re upset about the billboard?

Moment of Silence for Church Turkey Greeter
Most faithful attendee tries to be like chicken, crosses road, doesn’t make it. Seriously.

Techno Churches, on "snagging aspects of the wider culture"
QOTD: "Martin Luther is said to have written a few hymns borrowing music from drinking songs."
99 bottles of communion wine on the wall, 99 bottles of wine, take one down, pass it around, 98 tiny cups of grape juice on the wall…"

All links found via Christianity Today’s Weblog