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Magic of The Swell Season

Had the wonderful privilege of seeing The Swell Season in concert with Amanda a few days ago at the  Auditorium Theatre in Chicago.  In case you’re not familiar with TSS, they are made up of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (Film, Once) along with Hansard’s longtime band, The Frames. 

I could go on and on about the show, but let me just sum it up by saying that it was one of the best live  performances I have ever been to.  Seriously.  It was amazing.  In a way....almost magical.

Why?  Well here's a few things I was reminded of during the performance that may answer that.

People don’t want to simply hear the music; they want to feel it too.

I don’t even know why, but there was something really amazing about experiencing Glen Hansard standing at the edge of the stage, off-mic, singing....screaming....almost crying....from the depths of his soul. It was.....just wow.  You felt his journey.  His pain.  His joy.  His struggle.  And....his redemption.  It was beautiful. 

People love the unexpected.

Loved how Glen (in his “Where’s Waldo?” hat) and Marketa opened the show by sitting on the floor with an acoustic guitar and a cheap Casio keyboard performing the song, “Fallen From The Sky.”  Totally unexpected.  And everyone loved it.

Everybody loves a good story.

Glen is a great story teller.  He includes details that seem unnecessary until you realize that you've fallen in love with the character because of those details.  I’m 100% convinced that people love a good story.  Partly because we see ourselves in most of them. 

People want to participate. 

But you have to ask them to.  Bottom line is that people need to be led.  I think every church worship leader needs to see Glen Hansard perform.  He leads people well by performing with a ton of authenticity and by bringing depth to his audience. 

 Ireland has brought some pretty good stuff to our world.

Guinness, The Swell Season, The Commitments, The Cranberries, The Frames, Snow Patrol, Damien Rice, and of course....U2.

Go listen to The Swell Season.  See them in concert if you can.  I know I will.  Again.  And again.

I'm calling it SHOCKTOBER.

Ok, so there are around 2.4 billion things that I'm excited about right now.  And I seriously feel like I need to pinch myself just to make sure this is all real.  Here's a taste.

STORY - It happens next week!  Can't wait.  Around 1,700 pastors, communicators, church leaders, writers, speakers, etc will converge for two days to learn and be inspired by an amazing line up of storytellers -   people like Dave Gibbons, Ed Young, Donald Miller, Nancy Beach, Mike Foster, Stacy Spencer, Chris Seay, and others.  The first day happens on Wednesday, October 28th at the beautiful Paramount Theater in downtown Aurora.  The next day will be workshops (sold out!) happening at The Orchard.  Honored to host and be a part of STORY!

CULTIVATE - Seriously, Chicagoland is the place to be in October.  Cultivate is a highly interactive, conversational, collaborative un-conference that's all about church communication.  It's happening the day before STORY.  And the lineup of facilitators is just sick.  Wow.

DAVE GIBBONS - We are honored to have Dave speak at The Orchard's gatherings the weekend following STORY.  Not only is Dave a good friend, but he's someone God has used to impact my life in some pretty significant ways.  I'm thrilled that our church community gets to hear and learn from him!

THE NEW & IMPROVED....ORCHARD - The Orchard has had an extreme makeover!  Through the amazing "pro bono" generosity of fellow Orchard tribal members, Dawn & Keith Baldwin (Aspire One), we have a new logo and amazzzing new website that will go live later THIS WEEK.  I'll talk more about this in a later post...  STAY TUNED!

LOVE.SERVE.GIVE. - It's The Orchard's GLOCAL outreach opportunities this winter.  More about this later as well... But just know that we are going to have some amazing opportunities to bring beauty and hope to people locally in our city and globally in places like Uganda, Thailand, and El Salvador.  

ORCHARD ART INITIATIVE - Too much to type, but The Orchard is turning into an art gallery starting this month.  Our campus will be filled with art from local artists.  Huge dream come true, but only the beginning...

Ok, there's more, but I my fingers hurt and I need to study.  OUT.

Sometimes....Beauty Finds Us

Beauty.  Sometimes it's obvious, isn't it?

   
   

Other times...it's not.

This photo was taken a few months ago while on a visit to Uganda.  It's the home of a man named Moses.  He's the father of a young boy sponsored through Compassion.

Even looking back now, as I type this, it's hard to put into words what we saw and experienced that day as we walked through this urban neighborhood of Kampala.  Poverty, disease, suffering, unclean water....you name it.  I've spent time in other poverty stricken areas around the world, but on this day in particular, I realized that I had forgotten just how bad it really is. 

Which is why I think my mind struggled to make sense of what happened next.

As we were standing in the middle of this "mess" saying our goodbyes, my focus was immediately interrupted by the sound of a little girl giggling, laughing, and trying really hard to get our attention.  And as I turned around to see who the culprit was, I was completely taken back by the presence of this beautiful little girl.

 

It's hard to explain what I felt at that moment, but it was as though my mind immediately went TILT.  Not just because she looked like she had just walked out of a suburban mall somewhere in middle America. No, it was everything!  Her smile.  Her laughter.  Her silliness.  Her life!

It was almost like looking at a puzzle piece that had been placed on the wrong puzzle.  This piece didn't fit!

It was beauty...in the midst of utter brokenness. 

For the rest of the trip, I referred to this little girl as "Julia" in my conversations with people.  I called her that because she reminded me so much of my five year old daughter by the same name.  The way she made me smile and laugh was just like my little "Juju" makes me smile and laugh at home. 

I was reminded of something in regards to beauty that day. Something that I think is important as we become people who not only recognize obvious beauty, but who also learn to seek out beauty in this broken world.

Sometimes we find beauty.  And other times.....beauty finds us.  But either way, our eyes have to be open. 

Open our eyes Lord.  May we be more aware of Your beauty - even in the midst of brokenness.  Amen.

Driving Discussion About Story

Driving. Story Chicago from scotthodge on Vimeo.

StoryChicago.com

a short story about story

Story Chicago - Paramount Theater, Aurora from scotthodge on Vimeo.

Story Conference

Change.

It's happening again on Sunday, August 9th at The Orchard.  Want to be a part?

2008 Orchard Baptism Video from The Orchard on Vimeo.

Story

A few months ago, my friend Ben Arment called me with an idea about creating a first-of-its-kind experience for writers, communicators, artists, pastors, and church leaders.  The idea was to design a conference where people could learn from some of the most effective communicators of the Gospel today. 

But the best part was that Ben wanted the conference to happen in or around Chicago.  So we started talking venues...and one thing led to another.....which eventually landed the project called "Story" at two incredible venues in the Chicago area:

The Paramount Theatre and The Orchard - both in Aurora!  (For those of you who don't know, The Orchard is the church community where I serve as Lead Pastor.)

So of course, I'm excited!  But the thing that I'm most excited about is the idea and heart behind this 2 day event.  I believe that the greatest story - the story of the Gospel - is a story that deserves to be communicated in the most creative, engaging, and beautiful way possible.  And that's what Story is going to be all about.

Enough rambling...  Let me give you a few details:

Dates: October 28th & 29th

Where: Paramount Theatre (28th) and The Orchard (29th) - both in Aurora (40 miles west of Chicago).

Main Speakers (28th): Dave Gibbons, Don Miller, Ed Young, Nancy Beach, Stacy Spencer, Chris Seay, and Mike Foster

How's that for diversity!?  WOW.

That's a lot to digest and this post is getting too be long, so I'm going to save the workshop speakers for another post.  But it is definitely going to be an amazing group of people who are coming together in October. 

Go to the Story website now. 

And oh yeah - they are also giving away a trip to C.S. Lewis' home in Oxford, England!

Meet Shaun & Leta!

This past Easter weekend, Aurora's Beacon News ran a great story on people finding faith.  The article included an entire section and interview with a couple from The Orchard named Shaun and Leta Jacquet. 

The Jacquets are an awesome couple who showed up at The Orchard just a little less than a year ago.  Since then, they have both been baptized and have taken huge steps forward on their spiritual journey.  It's been amazing to watch God work in their lives...

For our Christmas Eve services this last December, we created a short video of Shaun and Leta sharing their story.  It's DEFINITELY worth a watch and extremely moving. 

Link to Beacon News article.

The Art of Spotting

How do you spot stories that have the potential to motivate, inspire and communicate something powerfully?

Dan and Chip Heath give three types of stories to be on the lookout for in their book, Made to Stick.  Here they are:

The Challenge Plot

• Ex/ David & Goliath
• The underdog story, rags to riches, triumph of sheer willpower over adversity...
• Key element: The obstacles seem daunting to the protagonist.
• They inspire us by appealing to our perseverance and courage.
• They make us want to work harder, take on new challenges, and overcome obstacles.
• Challenge plots inspire us to ACT.

The Connection Plot

• A story about people who develop a relationship that bridges a gap - racial, class, ethnic, religious, demographic, etc...
• Ex/ Good Samaritan story
• These inspire us in social ways - make us want to help others be more tolerant of others, work with others, love others.
• They are about relationships with other people.

The Creativity Plot

• Ex/ The apple falling on Newton's head inspiring his theory of gravity.
• Involves someone making a mental breakthrough, solving a long-standing puzzle, attacking a problem in an innovative way.  (Think MacGyver plot...)
• The creativity plot makes us want to do something different, to be creative, to experiment with new approaches.

Great, great book...  If you haven't read it, click here and buy it.