David George Montalvo | Communicate Christ

Please Don't Judge Me

An IT guy at Grace Community Church just sent me this Dilbert graphic. This post goes out to all my communications/advertising/marketing peeps on the world wide web who have come from or are currently in corporate America.

The above strip nails the burden creatives everywhere feel to...

1. wrap up projects yesterday
2. from people who give you little insight into what they really want
3. who don't know what purpose they are really after
4. or the response they want to illicit
5. yet they'll judge by the content of your production

What's a slice of heaven to a creative is when he's involved in the process of formulating the project. Right brained creatives can provide insight into areas typical corporate suits can wrap their left brained minds around.

Creatives can help define purpose by asking penetrating questions that stimulate debate and thought. They'll also help define what your end goals are.

1. what do you want to achieve
2. is there a call and response
3. does the creative get backed up by content
4. can you measure the results

What I Do Do

The Global Outreach Pastor at Grace Community Church just sent me this comic strip. I wonder if he's trying to send me a message wrapped in sarcasm and humor? I try to make it a rule, when designing, to understand the goals of success for a project. With that in mind, then I make a plan; thematic approach, creative, promotion & deadline schedule, and finally launch then review. Without careful consideration while planning, then follow thru working toward success becomes less purposeful and more hopeful on circumstance. Wrestle chance and circumstance into defeat with a staged plan. Otherwise this (see comic strip) maybe what you do do! Aside: "I said do do" taken from an email sent by Steve Rumpf, Global Outreach & Senior Adult Pastor.

 

Reduce The Noise - Wired Churches Regional One Day Workshop

I'm in Dallas right now, in the 3rd session of the Communications workshop at the Wired Churches Regional Conference. Kem Meyer is rocking through a ton of points we're all trying to wrap our collective mind around.

What I've noticed from her video clips and how she arranges info and data is that simplicity rules the day and it's all about "what's the point?" instead of "what's the truth."

Does that mean that truth doesn't matter? Not at all.

Rather, it's all about reaching people where they are. And rarely does the truth immediately reach people - rather the entry point is "what's the point?"

So how can we as churches stop adding communications junk into the pile?

Should we yell louder?

"Our responsibility as a church is to keep it simple, cut the cliches, and deliver on promises"

One thing I am going to do is create a set of questions that I will use with ministries to reduce clutter as we work together to get info out the door and into people's hands.

This is a great conference, and I am glad I've had the opportunity to attend. Most of all, I am glad that Kem Meyer is dedicated to sharing her insights with the greater goal is saving souls from a fiery hell into God's kingdom.

Aside: When I walked in, before the first session, from the stage she pointed at me and said, "I know you! I recognize you from your profile pic!" Todd, pictured below, thought that was pretty cool! Well, so did I, cuz I feel that Kem Meyer is 10 foot tall (in the church communications world, no one stands taller!

Todd Wright, pictured above, is the Worship Pastor of Bethel Bible Church. We're here together. This guy is the real McCoy. Fun, insightful, fun, creative, fun, talented; did I say he was fun? Before we left for the conference this morning, I was worried about hanging out with so many people I didn't know well. I knew Todd was cool, but how cool was he?

Todd helped keep people talking, interacting, and even helped signify our table as the tech bad boys of the conference. So here's a real shout out to my new bud Todd.

Visit his < blog >. You'll laugh yourself to a better mood and pick up something great along the way.

There's A Time To Get Confrontational

While reading Galatians 2:2-11 during my daily quiet time, I had a few thoughts jump out at me... One in particular is there is a time for Holy Confrontation, in love of course. Here are a few points that came to my attention...

Accountable In Faith – Careful Submission – Don’t Fear Men – Holy Confrontation

Accountable In Faith

Verse 2 - Paul held himself accountable to the Council of Apostles in Jerusalem to ensure he was heading in the right direction. Submitting to authority figures, older wiser men, fathers, mothers, or leaders in the church is a good thing. These people can provide you with insight from the Holy Spirit into whether your direction and your conviction fulfills the purposes of God or whether you are heading down a path to deception, error, trouble, etc… “Obedience is better than sacrifice.”

Careful Submission

Verse 4 – Do not submit to those who subvert the grace of God - the truth and purity and power of the Good News must be preserved. We are saved by grace through faith. We are not saved by any one deed or culmination of works. We cannot perform well enough to earn God’s favor. But we can accept the favor of God as a gift provided through his son Jesus who earned God’s favor through a perfect life. What Jesus did, he did that we may have the blessings he earned.

Don't Fear Men

Verse 6 – Paul didn’t cater to those whom were understood to be power brokers and key players in establishing the theology of the church… For all the influence these players had, Paul didn’t receive anything from them. We shouldn’t fear men but rather God who judges all men’s hearts and intents. We shouldn’t suck up to people in power but rather declare God’s grace.

Holy Confrontation

Verse 11 – Paul had no issues with confronting the head of the church, Peter (Cephas) when it became obvious he was in error. Not just any error though but a chief one on which rested the entire crux of what message non-Jews would hear; is the gospel one of grace or of works. That’s when Paul got all up in Peter’s face because “he stood condemned.” Peter condemned himself when he set aside God’s good and precious gift in exchange for a rule that could never, if abided to, save mankind. Paul saw it pretty simply, it’s either grace or nothing at all.

Commissioned

A few months ago, I was asked to work on a design project for the largest Christian private school in East Texas, Grace Community School. The project, for their upcoming hugely successful annual fund-raising auction has a missions theme this year. With that as their focus, the event chairpersons gave me the creative freedom to make giant sets meant to decorate the stale and boring Harvey Hall auditorium.

Their only requirement was that the sets be 10' tall and 15' wide (that's HUGE!) and include a scripture from the Bible translated into 6 foreign languages. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..." (Biblos.com)

After 20hrs of research into foreign languages and design time, here's the final product condensed for your viewing pleasure. Don't hold me to the translations below, I am sure I goofed... But the idea, which should come across clearly, is culture and color...

Side Note: The corporate church use to commission artists to design works that magnified God. From massive churches whose foundations seem unshakable, incredibly detailed statues reveling in the beauty of mankind, to paintings so remarkable that they are guarded today as marvels of the ancient world.

Wouldn't it be nice if churches commissioned artists again to create, to the glory of the Creator Himself?

Inspiration On A Wall

Today, my wife I and are heading over to Michael's and Hobby Lobby to do the unimaginable. We are buying frames for some of my artwork to help spruce up the living room. I've always resisted putting my stuff up because I have always considered my designs amateurish. But Jenny, my wife insisted.

Regrettably, I have no formal art training of any kind; if someone held a gun to my head and asked that I hand draw a cat, I'd be hard-pressed to save my life. But I've managed to create some pretty cool stuff as a graphic artist. I bet you could to with a little patience.

So what artwork from my collection did I pick to adorn my living room?

The following logowork was designed last summer for a sermon series at our University Blvd Campus titled Vintage Faith. The logowork makes use of fontography & line art drawings from a royalty-free stockart house.



At the foot of the cross, I placed an angel, behind which an iron accent bar is woven in and out of the lettering. And at the base of the design is a gargoyle. Why a gargoyle? The open-mouthed gargoyle is very symbolic of the astounding work completed at the cross. A resounding defeat of an old world order demanding justice replaced now with love and sacrifice.

To complete the logowork and create a more complete design, I added stock photography of stained glass... I choose three pics, Jesus as a boy, Christ on the cross, and finally a lamb being offered. These traditional and historic stained glass pics helped to establish the "vintage" feel needed and the logowork became a interesting bit of eye candy but not the central focus.

One of these pics or maybe a collage of the three will go up on my wall today! I'm even printing one at the request of a Thomas Thompson, the University Blvd Teaching Pastor, so that he can take it to his new church home in Colorado Springs CO.

It feels good to when someone, especially your wife, comes along and sincerely gives you some props for a piece well done. I wish this sort of inspiration would come more often, but most of the time, my work is dry and lacking depth, clarity, and focus.

Looking at these prints hanging on my living room wall will inspire me to be more artistic and to honor the man God who gave me faith to be a creator as He is.