Friday's class

I was really encouraged by our discussion on Friday regarding creative methods we can use in our teaching. Compiling a list of ideas to have in one place of creative methods and elements was a really great idea. The young adult worship service I used to lead incorporated creative methods every week, and rather than consistently listing these and updating the response and positives and negatives, I simply moved on each week to the next idea. Yesterdays discussion helped me to consider the power of listing these ideas to maintain them, as well as taking myself through an evaluation method of their effectiveness, strengths, and weaknesses. I've decided to add to the list of 28 ideas we were given yesterday. One of the ideas I want to post here that was especialy cool for everyone involved and that any of my classmates leading churches may want to use is: We had a couple of very talented artists in our group and so one week when we were teaching on the power of redemption, we decided to use their talents. We had a few colors of paint, a paintbrush, and a large blank canvas. Everyone in the group was allowed to place a mark anywhere, and any shape on the canvas. When they were finished we gave the canvas to our artist and proceded to engage in other activites for the next 40 minutes. The artist then wove all of these stray marks into a beautiful picture. At the end of the nght the picture was displayed and we had a visible reminder of the truth we were just studying, that God can make the mistakes of our life beautiful through Jesus. We were able to hang that picture in our meeting space and it was always a reminder that our lives are a masterpiece made from all of the mistakes being redeemed.

This is the portion of the blog where I post webstes that fuel me creatively or are great Christian websites to explore and learn. these are the most common websites I use and why I like them. By the way, I dont really use a lot. Most ideas I have come from art, literature, or music. Guess I could've just said art.
1. desiringgod.org- John Piper's webste- a wealth for solid Biblical preaching, and tons of free tools.
2. thebricktestament.com- this is a website done by a guy who is not a believer and antagonistic toward God. He illustrates the Bible using legos. it is a great way to understand how someone outside the Church interprets the Bible when they read it and are frustrated with God. He is extremely creative, and it is really well done.
3. explodingdog.com- just some art a guy makes when people e-mail him random phrases. I really like it and enjoy the work he does.

Thats about it. As I said I don't really stay connected to a ton of websites. I listen to Piper's podcast, Mars Hill Bible Church's, and This American Life. I find these all very engaging. I try to be exposed to alternate viewpoints and ideas often, that is probably the most fueling impetus for me creatively.