scotthodge.org

The Orchard's Art Initiative!

“Art...can be a doxology in itself.” Francis Schaeffer

This coming weekend is the grand opening of The Orchard’s Community Art Initiative! 

Here’s the deal...  From now through January 2010, we are featuring over 60 paintings, original prints, and mixed media works by five local international and nationally acclaimed artists.  (Their work is already on display throughout The Orchard’s campus and let me tell you....it looks AMAZING! Will post photos after this weekend...)

This is a dream come true for us on so many levels.

For one, we believe that we must be people who recognize, create, and release beauty in our city and world.  And since we value the artful expression of people from all different backgrounds and who are at all different places in their spiritual journey, we believe that partnering with local artists is essential in seeing this happen.

We’re also joining together with these artists to create tangible expressions of love through existing partnerships both locally in Aurora and globally in Uganda, El Salvador, and Thailand. 

(And here’s the really cool part...  Not only are these works available for purchase, but all of the artists have agreed to donate a percentage of their proceeds back into one of our Glocal Partnerships.  How amazing is that?!)

Best of all, this is just the beginning.  We want to keep finding new and creative ways to be a supportive and empowering voice to our local artists as they continue to bring beauty to our world through their unique expressions of truth.

Can’t wait to see where this journey leads us in the weeks and months ahead!

Here are the details for this weekend:

Opening Reception & Food Drive
Sunday, November 15th, 2009 from 12:30pm - 2:00pm
The Orchard Community | 101 S. Barnes Rd., Aurora, IL 60506 | 630.897.8888

We're also encouraging everyone to bring non-perishable food items to benefit the Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry.

Here’s a link to a few of the artists:

Dorothea Bilder
Tim Burns
Maureen Gasek
Cheryl Holz

P.S. Attention Artists! Continuing Art Exhibitions are scheduled for 2010 and 2011. We are currently looking for artists to submit their work starting fall 2010 and continuing through 2011.  For more information on future exhibits or for information on how artists can submit work, please contact: Maureen Gasek, [email protected] or 630-898-3859.

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.

Redeemer's Renew Video

Beautiful city...  Beautiful Music...  Beautiful Call.

REN3W Vision Campaign from Redeemer Video on Vimeo.

Goin' to Uganda!

Chicago to Atlanta.
Atlanta to Amsterdam.
Amsterdam to Uganda.

The journey begins tomorrow!

Here's the 411 on the trip...

Received an exciting invitation a few months ago from our friends at Compassion International to go to Uganda and experience their work there first hand.  Since The Orchard already has a partnership started in Uganda, we felt like this would be a great opportunity to explore how we might be able to expand our global reach.

(Btw - if you're not familiar with Compassion, you need to be.  They are making a huge impact in places all over the world.  In fact, they're currently helping over a MILLION children in over 25 countries.  Amazing, isn't it?)

So....keep your eye out on the blog over the next several days.  I'm planning to post photos, maybe a video or two, and of course I'll probably Twitter now and then as well.  Also excited to have "the real" Mike Jones accompanying me on this trip! 

Uganda is eight hours ahead of Chicago time, so we should be arriving in Kampala (the capital city) sometime around noon (CST) on Friday, May 22.

LINKAGE:
Learn more about Uganda here.
See a map of Uganda here.
Learn more about Compassion International here.
Follow my Twitter updates here.
Follow Mike Jones Twitter updates here.

Over and out.

Interviewed by Cynthia Ware

While at The Idea Camp, I was honored to be interviewed by my new friend, Cynthia Ware from The Digital Sanctuary. We talked about Twittering, church leadership, transition, etc... 

Side note: the audio is a little bit off from the video - looks kinda like a cheap kung fu movie.  :)

The Idea Camp - Scott Hodge Interview from The Idea Camp on Vimeo.

Watch other videos from The Idea Camp here.

Meet Dave Gibbons!

I’ve gotta be honest... I am blown away at the caliber of people God has surrounded my life with.  I'm serious.  The leaders, pastors, entrepreneurs, creatives, artists, etc... who I've had the opportunity to get to know and become friends with over the years is something that I am so grateful for!

One of those people is a very new friend of mine by the name of Dave Gibbons.  Dave is....umm...let's  see.  Well let me just paste in what Zondervan says about him:

Last weekend I had the opportunity to meet and spend some time with Dave while at The Idea Camp in  Irvine, CA.  In fact, not only did I have the privilege of spending some time learning from Dave, but  SOMEHOW......I also found myself sitting between him and Eugene Cho during a Leadership Q&A  session at Idea Camp!  That was quite an honor... (even though he made me eat this.)

SO ANYWAY....with all that said, there’s two things I want to tell you about:

First...

DAVE'S BOOK.  The Monkey and the Fish.  I read a lot of books, but seldom do I read one twice.  I'm already half way through my second reading...

It’s hard to describe how much I have found myself resonating with Dave’s heart through his book.  Plus, watching how God is using him, not just in SoCal, but also in places like Bangkok, India, London, Mexico City, and multiple other cities, is stretching and challenging me in some unbelievable ways.  (You can read about my visit to NewSong Bangkok here.)

Second...

THE VIDEO.  The other thing I want you to know about is this video interview recorded last weekend by Eugune Cho (who you also need to get to know...).

On a side note, Dave will be speaking at this year’s Leadership Summit at Willowcreek. 

Lastly, here’s some linkage.

Dave’s Blog

Dave’s Twitter
NewSong Church
Buy the Book

Get to know Dave Gibbons folks.

Blown Away!

 

Ok, so here's how it worked:

We asked The Orchard Community to buy and donate brand new toys.

The toys were then taken to Bardwell Elementary School on the east side of Aurora for an event called The Christmas Gift Mart which is an amazing event put on by our friends at Community Christian Church in Naperville.

Now the cool part....

The gifts weren't donated to families in need.  They were sold.

For $2 each.

Why?  So that parents that would normally not be able to purchase gifts for their children would be able to do so without simply receiving a “hand-out.”

And the really, really cool part?

The money raised by the sale of the gifts was poured back into partner schools in two communities.

And get this....  The same exact thing happened in Joliet as well as Aurora! 

The results?

9,500 toys collected.

1,000+ volunteers.

3,500 community members blessed in Aurora & Joliet.

$11,500 raised for schools by the Aurora Gift Mart alone!

I'm telling you...  This was one of the most amazing things I have ever been a part of! 

And Orchard.....you guys are AMAZING!  Thank you, thank you, thank you for the 800+ toys you donated and to all of you who were a part of serving at the Gift Mart event!  What a beautiful way to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Advent Conspiracy.......again!

I'm excited about our community being a part of Advent Conspiracy again this year!  This was an awesome experience for us last year as we had the rewarding opportunity to give a significant amount towards clean water projects in some really thirsty areas around the world.  (Learn more about what we were a part of here.)

In case you're not familiar with Advent Conspiracy, here's a great video that communicates the idea behind it.

You Asked: Simplicity

Question: We've been talking a lot as a church about "simplifying" -- the most difficult question we wrestle with is when someone says, "we need X ministry - to single moms or new moms or alcoholics or divorce recovery etc etc" We feel like we're in a no-win situation because if we say, "no" we sound like we don't care about single moms or we don't love the poor or what have you. And if we say, we don't have the resources, the person pushes back with, "well, I can serve there and I can recruit people to help me etc etc"?? Any ways you could help us communicate with people - I'd love a phrase or two to use in addition to any thoughts you have on the subject???  Thanks!  Jason

Great question Jason!  A few years ago, we made the decision to simplify our entire approach to  ministry at The Orchard.  It was a tough decision, but one that we haven’t looked back on since!

Simplifying involves two things: 1) Making the decision to simplify and 2) Being committed to STAYING simple.  Both involve the need to be very, very clear about what God has called your church to be and do. 

Here are a few thoughts about simplicity....

1.  We are unapologetically focused on doing a few things we know we can be great at.
   
   I typically tell people that there are about five or six things that we are committed to doing very, very well and anything above that should probably be considered a “bonus.”   We try to be very clear about this with people from day one because we know that there are people who are looking for a church that can do a great job at meeting every need for every segment of every member of their family.  And the bottom line is......we’re just not going to do a very good job at that.  Which means, that The Orchard is not going to be the right church for everyone.  And that’s ok!
   
   
2.  I have never seen an unchurched woman get upset that we don’t have a women’s ministry.
   
   Selah.
   
   
3. Being simple is costly.....but in a good way.  

   
   We know that being “simple” has cost us.  But that’s ok.  Because in my opinion, the greater cost is ending up with a church full of consumers who think that church is all about them and meeting all of their needs.
   
   
4. Being simple provides a greater degree of equity - all the way around.  (Volunteer equity, giving equity, asking equity, etc....)
   
   Less truly is more!  When people aren’t being asked to give to “special projects” twelve times a year or be at the church three or four times a week, it builds equity!  And as a result, people end up being more committed to a few things instead of getting burned out and giving their half-arsed leftovers to a million things. 

   
   
5. Being simple is a lot easier when you talk openly about it and help people understand why it’s important! 
   
   The bottom line is that simplicity MAKES SENSE!  And when you take the time to explain and cast vision for WHY it’s important, people will respect that!  I constantly hear from people how much they appreciate and respect our commitment to simplicity!  In fact, there are people who use our “simplicity” as a “selling point” in inviting their unchurched friends to The Orchard.  It’s amazing!
   
   
6. It’s awfully hard to empower people to live missionally when they are expected to be in church four or five times a week. 

So.......instead of starting or joining a church softball league or some other church program, why not pop the bubble and get out in the community and be a part of one that already exists? 

Listen....a lot of ministry ideas that people have are actually awesome ideas that could turn into incredible opportunities to reach out and love our community! 

I recently had a woman in our church share her desire to start a reading program for disadvantaged children in our local community.  She didn’t share this with me hoping that the church would assume responsibility by starting it, funding it, promoting it, staffing it.  Instead, she shared the idea because she simply needed someone to empower and encourage her to go for it!  I love that!  And ultimately, that’s one of the ways that our churches can truly become irreplaceable in our communities.  


Do you have a question about transition/change/leadership/ministry?  Shoot 'em to me at scott (AT) orchardvalleyonline (DOT) com.

This weekend's teaching via Wordle

 
(Click for larger image)