Film Team Blog

10/24/05

It has been one of those long days that seems to just have no real ending where you realize your life did not have quick clean borders to take you from work to family and then to home. It began with a couple of hours of email and phone calls and all the communication necessary now to keep up with the pace of change. Fortunately, when working at home most of that can happen in my boxers. We moved on to staff meetings at the daily grind where Taylor and Womer and I continued to prepare for all things Terra Nova. It was a good meeting, especially when Taylor picked up the tab.

Womer and I spent a lot of time then talking through the services upcoming trying to make it clearer to everyone where we are going in terms of the teaching times (we are focusing on the Gospel of Luke, we have talked about the back story and the red letters “the words of Christ” and are heading to the actions of Christ; after that we move in to discipleship and conflicts of the Kingdom). We also spent some time talking about Advent. By the way, we want to issue the call again but within the guide page for all artists who are interested in putting on display some art that will be part of the Advent services to contact us. We are not going for Charlie Brown Christmas and literalism. We are looking for people who can reflect the themes of hope, love, joy and peace which are the four themes represented in the four consecutive Sundays of Advent leading up to Christmas Eve. Look in the guide page, Womer and I will soon be scheduling a get together to sit down probably @ the Daily Grind in Troy to talk with artists about that.

After watching one of my kids play soccer and having a great time seeing that and actually connecting with Diane for a little while, I ran home to collect another kid late from football practice, had five quick bites of dinner with the family (pasta in meat sauce) and then headed out to the Dunkin’ Doughnuts on Lark and Madison to meet Roman Jaquez and Senator [honorary] Chris Leary to do some film work. At this point, we kind of make up the film arts team (FAT…yeah, that’s right FAT). We were out to do some filming from individual point of view (POV) on the street. {btw, interested FAT people can contact me]

The evening ended up being much more than we had thought as it always it when you are trying to walk with Jesus. Chasing after the Spirit seems to take us places that we would never had imagined on our own. As we were waiting outside of the Dunkin’ Doughnuts for one of the people whom I will not name who was late, Roman and I met a guy named Jason. Jason was picking up a miniature zip lock baggy that was on the ground. He was telling us how disgusted he was that the drug bags were out there and that little kids could put them in their mouth and it made him think of his daughter. He threw it out, I just told him thanks that someone was doing something decent. He then asked us for directions to Ravenna, at least I thought that was what he was asking for. Ultimately, he wanted money for a cab ride. I did not have any money on me and really I am not very good at giving money out to people because I am cynical from what has happened when I have done that and am not interested in the United Sates of Ed subsidizes habits. Roman had been saved from being stranded in the Albany Bus Station one winter by a stranger who gave him money to get back to the city so he pulled out his roll of money and offered the guy the cab fare. At that point, I realized this is more than just a filming event going on, this is the body of Christ actually living out what we had heard on Sunday night. Giving. There were a couple of key moments for me even speaking and preparing I still feel massive amounts of conviction of the Holy Spirit reading of the scriptures that at the beginning of the service was exactly what my wife said probably the most convicting part of the whole thing. [For me, that and seeing Matthew, the Levite, instead of serving to relieve the people as their priest was instead serving as the tool of oppression from government over the people were the two big teaching time moments for me] and here was Roman being the body living it out. That is really what the question we would be asking people would focus on. We wanted to know and record what action people thought of when they talked about and thought about Jesus of Nazareth; wanted to know how people felt the church could better reflect that as actions speak louder than words and was the church really living to reflect what it should be, the body of Christ. As we head from Luke to Acts, that is the bias I think that the Bible shares is that we live rightly as the body of Christ when our life conforms to the life of Christ Himself. Through the Book of Acts, it presents that cycle again and again. More on that in January.

So Chris, Roman and I headed down Lark Street with two cameras to start interviewing people with these questions. We ran into a woman who wanted money for a bagel, and a cup of coffee, and cream cheese. She declined the interview at first and I told her she could have the coffee, bagel and cream cheese but really should answer three questions for us if we were giving her those things. She wanted to answer only two and I suggested then she probably would not get the cream cheese and she took it all well and answered four questions by the time she was done talking. She did a wonderful job sharing from her heart about her responses to Christ. We then headed down Lark passed Bombers and Lark Tattoo and ran into Monica. Monica agreed to answer our questions. After she was done speaking to the camera, she started talking to me about Christ and her life and where that was leading her now. She was heading to rehab and felt that it was just a God thing that she was able to connect with the people of Terra. I told her about our community, how it is, and how to connect. I let her know we were trying to be real that the way she was dressed would be fine at Terra, that nobody really thought about how they are dressed that I literally wore what I wear pretty much every day, black and blue jeans. We talked about the music but especially about what people do and the actions people live out to connect to the body of Christ. As we knelt on the sidewalk, she fished out her address book, a tattered paperback pocket-sized book. I turned the back page and wrote in big splashy purple letters from the fat tip on the Prisma Art Marker Terra’s name, web page, my phone number, name and email. She was grateful and said she may be gone for like 30 days but was looking forward to connecting when she got out. She told me at times Church had left her empty from the high church background she had grown up with to the church that was so eager to send her to serve others when she had just gotten off the street. The actions of the body of Christ were getting real. We were not just living on tape.

We then rousted Laurel by cell phone, Chris’s girlfriend, and had her sit on the steps outside her apartment as we interviewed her. She was talking with us about her dad and mom who had met at art school and these incredible paintings that she had in her apartment were ones that her dad was throwing away from his studio and she retrieved to decorate her walls. She showed us some sculpture that she wanted to have displayed and was not sure what was going to happen that there was not, in her words, “enough art yet at Terra”. It is always a little hard to cure those kind of things after two weeks but I reminded her it is not the Phil, Scott and Ed Show, we wanted to give invitation an opportunity for those who did not see it. In the guide page there is a call for Advent art. She stated she was not sure if what she wanted to do would fit. She did not want to do angels and shepherds. I assured her that we were not just trying to do Christmas art that we were talking like the themes of hope, joy, peace and love. She then got excited and started showing me some sculpture that she had and was looking for a photographer who might be able to get a picture of it so it could be presented (are you out there?). We were living as the community of Christ talking about our art now. Everyone was excited about what was going on and so there we were living out life behind the lens and yet seeing the POV of Christ as being bigger and more important than we could have imagined that night. It is early, but it is happening. Artists are getting it. We want to express Truth and Beauty and that does not have to be literal or limiting.

We wound down the street and stopped in to the shop behind the old 1950’s bicycle – Shining Star. You could smell the incense. The room was covered in tapestries and Bob Marley posters, pipes, bongs and high times littered shelves, but Russ, the guitar-playing musician from New Jersey, was more than happy to answer our questions. He actually thought it was cool that we were giving people on the street a voice about religion and spirituality. Russ comes from a Jewish background and probably has a different take, especially on the importance of Jesus Christ than a lot of other people who have grown up and a Christianized background. It was great to be able to talk to him [and Russ thanks for the deal on the incense] . Even though he lost his train of thought a few times, it was a great interview.

Back on the street, we ended up talking to Jamel. He was unsure about stopping. Cities can be funny places where people cradle their fears with distance. I think complimenting his timbs was the first connect. Once he go on can, Jamel was a natural. He took the mic from my hand and began preaching on the street about how much Jesus meant to him. It was encouraging to see this young man who was just so in love with the Lord and yet so clearly just as much a part of his urban culture. I wish him well and pray for him even at this moment.

When the rains came, we did a couple more quick interviews and then headed back up the street to run into the woman who wanted the bagel, coffee and cream cheese. She was in need of more help than that and we were trying to connect her with some sort of shelter but there was nothing that we could find that would work out for what her needs were. Roman ended up taking her for pizza and the night ended with the fragrance of Christ again. Chris and I hung out in my expertly parallel-parked car. Chris noted how nice it was that I had SUV since half the vehicle was over the curb and in Washington Park. We sat and talked and prayed. The night ended with comments that I hope are true for Terra Always. It is not about the coolness. It is not about the art or artists. It is about revealing Christ, of being who we really are and just trying to reflect that Person.

I am loving this community that He is building. I am eager to see where we will go…..where He leads.