TMC Creative Spotlight #1

As Easter weekend approaches, we sat down with our Media Director, Danny Bligh, to talk about his inspiration for creativity at The Market Church. Danny comes to The Market Church from Sioux City, Iowa where he grew up playing guitar in local bands and studying creative arts, communications, and media. 

How did you get in to graphic design, photography, and media?

I’ve been into art in some form or another as far back into my life as I can remember. It started when I was a kid in grade school, I used to draw little pictures of things for my classmates and charge them a premium of a quarter or fifty cents I think. That naturally progressed into graphic design when I was a teenager and Photoshop started hitting the mainstream. I wanted to make logos for the bands I was in - so that started happening in Photoshop. I got into photography as a hobby when I was around 22 or so - but never took it really seriously at all up until about 5 years ago or so.

How does what you do creatively incorporate into a church? 

I think it’s important not to separate general creative work with “church” creative work. I like to design things for the church exactly as I would for anything else. I think it becomes an issue when you get into the mindset of “oh it’s just for the church, so it doesn’t matter all that much” - I totally disagree with that statement. I think we’re called to always offer our very best - so a website or poster for the church shouldn’t be any different. As far as the actual creative process, it’s made pretty easy at The Market Church because our pastors (Greg and Adam) really just let me go with whatever I think is right for any given project. Having that level of creative control really allows me to play and come up with some stuff that we’re really happy with!

Where do you get your inspiration when creating a design like "PHENOM” ?

As far as designing for TMC, I’ve kind of taken a different approach with each year, going back to when I started creating all of their media a few years ago. The first year was the year of really minimal, simple lines and type. The 2nd year was the year of big, bold text and images. I think 2014 is going to be (from a creative standpoint) the year of very bold colors. So I knew right away that I wanted it to have really strong pastels. I started with a design that was heavy on Photoshop paintbrushes that I found, and incorporated big colors and paint splatters all over the place. The concept was right but I just couldn’t get there with these digital brushes (they always looked just a little too digital and not “rough” enough to me) so I ended up just throwing some water color paints down on a canvas and it turned out to be just right! Once I had that painting the rest came really easy!

Imagery for The Market Church Phenom Easter Service

What is your advice for someone who might want to pursue a career in graphic design or other Creative Arts? 

Great question! As far as simple pointers - I would say learn as much as you possibly can about all of the design and creative software that’s out there like Photoshop, InDesign, Lightroom, etc. Just mess around in those programs! Take a poster or album cover or something you like and try to make it yourself in Photoshop for fun. See how close you can get. That’s a great way to learn the tools and software that are available.  One potential issue is that Photoshop is so big, it can be approached in completely different ways as a photographer, designer or illustrator - so it might help to focus in on your one key area as you’re just getting started. I’d say this is similar for photography. It’s really crucial to know what the key components of your camera will do. ISO, shutter speed and f-stop. Learn those settings at a minimum and learn how they interact with each other. Just practice a ton! I feel like “practice” is the boring answer but it’s really true!

Marketing

"Marketing is too important to be left to he marketing department" - David Packard

“Marketing.” Or, “the sweet science,” as I like to call it. This wonderful world of research, and trial, and error, and error, and success…and error! However, what does this word mean to the vast world of “normals?”{Otherwise known as, “the consumer” [suckers] (kidding)} Is it Guy Fieri, telling us we will be “Rock Star” (not “Rock Stars.” Rock Star…) if we purchase his new line of flip-flop shaped, hot rod colored spatulas? Is it a cardboard cutout of Oscar the Grouch eating Miracle Whip, by itself? Is it your cousin Carl telling you that you really should try Taco Bell’s new BACON BLASTED Doritos Locos Tacos with Cotton Candy Fire sauze (the way Taco Bell imagines “sauce” is spelled in Spanish)? AH! It must be killing you to know the truth!
And the truth is…it’s all of those things. And So. Much. More.
This stuff is great for getting college students, and “post-teens” to buy your food…at four o’clock in the morning. However, how does “marketing” apply to the Market Church?
This is the best thing about our TMC marketing…IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU! (The way marketing should be)
Our leaders, our pastor, our congregation – are our marketers! And this has essentially been our “marketing strategy,” for a lack of better term. We are not looking for people to simply buy what we are selling, to invest in us. We want you to “proverbially” buy into what we are selling, and in turn, invest in you!

We are not concerning ourselves with spreadsheets, or perfect formulas, or test groups. It is all about human capital! Making it known, to everyone, that if you are willing to invest your time in us, we will invest our time and love in you. We will grow you, and grow with you, in hopes that you will spread the love around. Marketing! The sweetest science! And what an adventure to share it with our awesome Old Market community? Right?!
Right.

So, I hope this helps to show that you are more than just consumers to us on the Marketing Team (and to TMC, in general). We need all of you. Thank you for being the “sauze” to our BACON BLASTED Tacos. You are family, and you are awesome, and that’s not the “marketing” talking.

If you're interested in helping with with the Marketing Team or monthly fliering at TMC, please e-mail Zach at zachisshort@gmail.com

Love,
Zach Short
TMC Marketing Team

"Believe"

One Christmas, when I was a boy, my twin brother and I got a hot wheels play set. IT WAS AMAZING! This thing looped, it curved, and it even went backwards. As a child I couldn’t think of anything better to get. It was THE thing I wanted, which solidified that I believed Santa was real. It also confirmed that I must have been a good boy that year to receive such an amazing gift for him.

Later in the afternoon, as my brother and I were playing in the basement, we came across a very large box in the storage closet. Strangely, it was the box to our hot wheels track. “Why would Santa leave the box here?”, we wondered.  As we tried to understand Old St. Nick’s odd decision, it dawned on my brother first: “Aeric”, he said, ”I think mom and Dad bought this for us.” I was stunned for a second. How could this be? There were no presents under the tree Christmas Eve, and then the presents appeared! When would my parents have had the time to not only wrap up all of our presents, but stuff the stockings AND put together a race car track? There must be a logical explanation. 

We ran upstairs to confront our parents about the mystery of the hot wheels box.  I think it’s safe to say that we all know what happened next. That day, we had the fateful Santa talk. Now, from what I remember, we took the truth pretty well. Heck, we still had the race cars! But despite my happiness with the presents, I think this experience created a slight shift for me as a kid. That day, an idea began to form: you have to see something to believe in it. 

Ironically, in the middle of the word “believe” is the word “lie.” Many of us approach the idea of belief with this kind of a mentality. We have this suspicion that a lie may be the center of the things we can’t see, instead of centering our belief in truth which is sometimes unseen. To complicate things further, we are bombarded with lies like, “God doesn’t love you”, “God doesn’t have a purpose for you”, “you are alone”, when the truth is that God loves you unconditionally. God in fact made you for a very special purpose. This season I choose to remember that God believes in me so much, that he gave THE ultimate gift. 

Aeric Wallace

Production Director – The Market Church

Join us December 22^nd, 2013 for Christmas at The Market Church: “Believe”.  

More information at www.TheMarketChurch.com

Life is Best Done Together: A Look at this Fall at TMC

Summer is a really busy time of year with vacations and family activities. Then, after a few blissful months of traveling, camping, and swimming pools, Fall rolls around, school starts, and everyone generally gets into a routine through the end of the year. 

Just like you, we here at The Market Church have been busy this Summer, planning for an amazing end to the 2013 year, as well as an even greater 2014.  Here are a couple of examples of the opportunities that we have coming up:

Fall Life Groups

If you’re new to TMC within the last few months or have only hung out with us on a Sunday, the easiest way to get to know more people is to join a Life Group. 

This fall, The Market Church is taking the challenge to read the entire New Testament in 63 days! Sound impossible? It’s not! By reading less than 15 minutes a day, you can read all 27 books in the New Testament and gain a greater understanding of who Jesus is and how His Word gives us purpose and direction in our daily lives. Our 3 Life Groups will meet on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights through the Fall semester.

Volunteer

So maybe you meet with us regularly on Sundays and you are planning to attend a Life Group, but you’re looking for that next step? This Fall, there are going to be some amazing opportunities to serve at TMC as a volunteer.  Whether your gift is a friendly smile, musical ability, or even leading a Life Group, we want you to have the opportunity to get involved. 

E-mail us for more details: info@themarketchurch.com

Life is Best Done Together

These are just a few of the ways that you can take your experience at TMC to the next level. Why should you sign up for a Life Group or serve as a volunteer? Because, at The Market Church, we believe that life is best done together! We look forward to all that God has for TMC this Fall and we hope you want to be a part of it with us!

Did you like our blog? Don’t forget to “like” TMC on Facebook!

A Love of Books

I love books. I’d say that I love to read but its more that I love books. I think its that I love information and new experiences. I absolutely love encountering new ideas and ways of approaching life. I am enthralled by what is pretentiously called “the human experience.” The fictional descriptions of how life rises and falls for the characters of Hemingway, Potok, Steinbeck, King, etc just mesmerize me. Set these along side the true retellings of life by Weisel, Durant, Frankl, Capote, etc. where I find myself learning about the choices that have been made and the propensity for those choices to be repeated. Add in the mass of literature that aims to help, encourage, and challenge by such writers as Chapman, Lewis, Yancey, etc that has done more for my personal growth than I can even describe. This isn’t even counting the numerous “children’s books” by Seuss, Sendak, Silverstein, Bloom, etc that make my heart just happy. I love books and what they have done for me.

Let me try to encourage you some here because someone is saying that they don’t like to read. Honestly and truly, I understand. The reason I understand is that I have two obstacles to reading; first is that I am a VERY slow reader, second is that I am or have ADD (a therapist once told me that I could be the poster child for adult ADD). These two issues work together to make it VERY difficult for me to actually sit down to read. My brain is running much, much faster than the speed at which I am able to read (scientifically this is true for everyone, its why you can be reading and suddenly realize that you’ve gone through paragraphs or even pages and not know what you’ve “read”). Now include the ADD, which for me, results in everything being a distraction and reading is VERY difficult. Why then do I love to read? Because it is where I can get everything that my manic brain wants to know. In the end, I want or need whatever is in the books and the only way to get it is to read. Therefore I have come up with strategies that help me read. Here are some that make it possible with my challenges:

1.      I read alone.

I have to. No choice. No music, nothing. For me its home, alone, very few interruptions.

2.      I typically read a chapter and no more

I am so hyper that I have to set a goal or I will quit when I get bored, and I ALWAYS get bored or at least distracted. (Video games and TV are the only things I can really do without distraction)

3.      I very often read multiple books at the same time.

This allows me to read more with less boredom

Now, should you do these steps? Probably not, unless you deal with ADD. My main point is if you will choose that reading is important and then think about what your challenges are, you can come up with solutions also.

Here are some random examples of possible solutions:

1.      Read a fiction series            Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, etc

2.      Read blogs in an area that you are interested           Guarantee that there are thousands no matter what you like

3.      Read something with a friend

4.      Read for a time period        30 minutes

5.      Listen to audiobooks on your way to work and back

www.audible.com                     THE BEST!!!  Subscription based. I pay like $22 a month for two books. I download them and I own them.

www.omahapubliclibrary.org    FREE FREE FREE FREEEEEE!!!!!!  You can borrow library books and download them!!!  I just listened to a retelling of Robin Hood and then to Stephen Colbert’s book for FREE!

All that said, I want to encourage you to read. Read something. Read anything. Read. Read. Read.

Read something about leadership by John Maxwell and think about how you can influence others.

Read The Velveteen Rabbit and reconnect with what it is to feel and to be real.

Read The Hobbit and realize that the movie is different and figure out if you like the changes.

Read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and then read Mere Christianity and be amazed that they came from the same person.

My Favorite Books:

            Anything by CS Lewis

            The Chosen – Chaim Potok

            All of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

            What’s So Amazing About Grace – Phillip Yancey

            The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell

            Where the Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak

Feedback:

What are your favorites?

What are your reading strategies?         

 -Pastor Greg

God Hardening Pharaoh's Heart

I said that I would write a blog about the idea of God “hardening” Pharaoh’s heart in the biblical story of the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, so here ya go.

The question that I can see is why? Why harden his heart?

Honest answer—I don’t know

I will give you my thoughts about it though. My goal then is not to answer the question but rather just cause an opening of thought about the situation.

First the situation of Pharaoh and the Israelites in slavery.

Pharaoh was more than king. He was THE god-king. He was raised knowing that he would be THE god-king and now was living as THE god-king. I write THE because this was not a relativistic culture that had discussions and opinions about this situation. It was a fact of facts. What Pharaoh said was and what Pharaoh willed happened.

The Israelites on the other hand were the lowest of Egyptian society. They had been invited into Egypt about 400 years prior to Moses birth by the Pharaoh whom a hero named Joseph served. They had been invited with hospitality and honor, but over the centuries their acceptance had completely eroded. Their refusal to integrate into Egyptian society and especially the Egyptian religious life had kept them isolated from any form of potential acceptance. In addition to these factors the Israelites were essentially shepherds. This doesn’t mean much to us but for Egyptian society, shepherds were absolutely one of the lower rungs on the societal ladder. As with many powerless outcasts the Israelites were seen as scarcely more than livestock. They were forced into forced labor and slavery. Essentially, what the Pharaoh willed, happened by the sweat of the Israelites.

So, here we are. THE god-king being confronted by the slaves, the outcasts, the livestock.

There is literally no reason at all that Pharaoh should ever in any way even consider the wants, desires, much less rights of the things that were demanding to have the freedom to stop slaving and go to worship some God that he did not know or acknowledge.

All that to say, I am not sure that God needed to do much work in the “heart hardening” area.

It still remains though, that God hardened Pharaohs heart.

My opinion is that Pharaoh became the instrument of God’s deliverance. As I said during a Sunday message, it is very easy to remove a person or group from captivity, but it is almost impossible to remove captivity from the person or group. The entire nation of Israel had been in this slavery for hundreds of years. They were born into it. They were raised in it. They built their lives around and within its constrictions. They were not simply nominally (being named) slaves. They were slaves. It wasn’t just the Egyptians that thought they were slaves. The Israelites thought they were slaves.

Now I ask, what kind of radical therapy is needed to change the identity of a person or especially a people?

What kind of aggressive treatment is necessary to rename and reclaim the soul of people?

Could the plagues make sense?

What is the only thing that could mess up this plan?

From this point of view, only Pharaoh not quite being stubborn enough to make it through the literal destruction of all his gods could mess this up.

God might have needed Pharaoh to be more Pharaoh. More arrogant. More stubborn.

Just an opinion though.

What do you think?

A Question - Why Does TMC Exist?

So I’ve been battling with a question.

Why does TMC exist?

We’ve been working as a church for 4 years now and I think I mostly know the answer to this, but I want it clear.

Our purpose statement says: “The Market Church (TMC) exists to connect people in a growing relationship with Jesus and into community with other followers of Jesus"

I have to be honest here though, while I think we are actually doing that, it doesn’t inspire me to get up and go. I think it is something that we weren’t doing and now we are in fact doing, but it really is more a statement of what we do rather than why we do it.

SOOOO…Why does TMC exist?

Here is where I want some help. Can we make this a conversation?

If so, here is the question again:  Why does TMC exist?

Now let me clarify the question. Lets move past what churches do or should do. Lets ignore what you and I might think ideally all churches should do. What about TMC actually makes you want to not just come, but be a part? What is important about TMC that must get out? Why do we do the things we do? Why are we TMC?

I genuinely think that there is something that is TMC and I have some ideas about what that is, but I am asking for some input so that I can really, really clarify it. See, if we are just another church then we are siphoning resources away from other churches that are probably doing the “church” part of church better and I desperately do not want to be another church. Honestly I don’t believe in another church and there is no need for another church.

Somewhere deep inside though I think and feel that there is a need for TMC.

So why?

Tell me your thoughts.

What is TMC to you?

-Pastor Greg