I think Greg Wilbur is one of the best living composers of music for worship. That he happens also to be the Chief Musician at Parish Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee means I have the privilege of hearing his music each week. (You know his music is really wonderful when your 7-year-old daughter sings it to herself when she’s coloring.) Greg recently teamed up with Ligonier Ministries to create a new CD of his songs called My Cry Ascends. Last week, Parish Pres came together to sing a number of those songs, many of which have been sung by the church for years. I am quite sure Greg’s music brings great pleasure to the Lord, who, like 7-year-olds, takes special delight in wonderful songs. If you have a minute, go to Ligonier’s site and sample some of his music for yourself. [If you'd like to watch the video in HD, just click the button in the upper right corner.]
This is a little piece we did for our friends Dr. Chris Farrell (a biologist) and Jason Atkins (an ecologist) at Trevecca Nazarene University. The two of them have developed a great relationship with an inner city middle school down the street from the university and are helping teach them about sustainable urban agriculture. They asked us to cover some of the highlights from their lesson to show to the rest of the middle school. It was fun to see the young students interacting with all the neat stuff in their greenhouse. [click to continue…]
I always find it interesting to see what a good comic actor can do with a script. We shot a short film earlier this week in a dance studio here in Nashville. In previous posts, I talked about writing the script as well as working with actors. I can now show you how one of our lead actors, Matthew Carlton, had fun with the first scene and its slightly over-the-top dialogue. As a point of comparison, here is the page from the script that contains the dialogue itself. (You may want to read it first so you can know where he started; disregard any mention of inserted shots – those will come later in the edit.) Although the final film won’t look like this, the single take lets you focus on his acting in light of the original lines. Matt is one of the best actors in Nashville with a long history of work in the theater as well as independent film. It was a privilege to get to work with him again. (For those of you familiar with Modern Parables, Matt plays the part of the geologist in the short film Hidden Treasure.)
Curt Campbell works for the Men of Valor prison ministry as the Jericho Project Coordinator. He spends his days inside the prison overseeing the other staff members and working with the men themselves. When we did these interviews, I was extremely impressed with Curt’s insightfulness into the way we think about doing work for God and the way it can impact prisons in the US. More importantly, he talked about the idea of doing “just enough” versus really getting seriously involved (and thereby getting seriously inconvenienced) through serving others. It hit me between the eyes and I thought, ‘yep, I’m guilty of that.’ If you’d like to see the entire Seek Social Justice lesson that features Curt and the Men of Valor ministry, watch Working Toward Justice here.
Chuck Colson has exceptional insight into the way work is necessary to individuals in a healthy society. In this excerpt from Seek Social Justice, he talks about how God made us in His image in order to be creative and purposeful. He recounts an experiment with work that the Nazi’s did which sheds light on [...]
One of the highlights of producing Seek Social Justice was the opportunity to interview Dr. Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Mohler is one of the great intellects of modern Christendom and consistently pushes against the prevailing culture. In this excerpt from his longer interview, he discusses how we [...]
It was a listener’s delight to interview Dr. Charles Roesel for the Seek Social Justice series. He is one of the most straight-shooting, call-it-like-it-is, this-is-the-truth-whether-you-like-it-or-not pastors I’ve ever heard. Moreover, almost everything he says is packed down tight with Biblical insight and wisdom. In this selection from his longer interview (which contains countless gems), he [...]
I always felt that local sources were a better way to address problems of poverty than long-distance solutions, but Rudy Carrasco really helped me understand the why behind it. He provides the expert commentary for Seek Social Justice: Lesson 2 – “The Power of Family and Friends.” In another part of his interview, he talks [...]
As a followup to our post on Seek Social Justice Lesson 2: “The Power of Family and Friends,” I wanted to include some additional comments by Mike Fechner, the President and Founder of H.I.S. BridgeBuilders. In this segment, Mike talks about the kind of living that God wants from us in terms of building relationships with those who [...]
