A Kingdom Imagination

Believe it or not, there was a time when the church set the standard for art and culture. During the age of the Renaissance, there were no movie theatres, concert venues, or art galleries. Instead there were cathedrals, beautiful depictions of God’s glory bursting at the corners with original music, visual art, and the latest technology.  People actually looked to the church for culture. Now, many seem to avoid it.

Take a step closer in history to the age of rhythm and blues. It’s likely you’d discover an uproar of unhappy Christians frustrated with “secular” artists who stole sounds and themes originally conceived by gospel churches and transported them into the worldly bars and night clubs of the 40’s and 50’s.

What once was a birthing place for culture now often settles to copy it. There are marketing firms, organizations, and consultants all over the country trying to make church look more appealing by dressing it up with what’s “mainstream.”

It’s our deep desire, however, to see the church become a place that once again fosters creativity, ingenuity, and originality, a space that invites people boldly into the knowledge that we serve a creative God, the world’s greatest storyteller.  We want to see a new generation of artisans, pioneers, and communicators develop a “kingdom imagination,” a longing to both tell and be God’s story to a world in desperate need of it.

Where do you see kingdom imaginations forming? How are God’s people telling his story uniquely and creatively?

What is your part to play?

When Creativity Meets Community (or a New Old Idea)

Ever since moving to Calfornia in the Summer of 2004, I  began this journey that would lead me over and over again to the same conviction - that blending music, art, and creative causes in the midst of authentic community is simply a good idea.

So to make a 5-year-long story  short, a few months ago I had a BBQ (because ideas are always better when ketchup, mustard, and relish are present), told some friends about this concept I’d been brewing, had a couple more meetings, and decided to launch an organization called
SOUNDS LIKE A MOVEMENT.

You can read more about it in the one-sheet on the post below this one (please excuse the “founder street-cred” part. It’s just my sad attempt to sound legit).

Regardless of whether you’re an artist, non-profit entrepreneur, or just a friend, my team and I  at SOUNDS LIKE A MOVEMENT would like to invite you to share this organization with us (don’t worry, that doesn’t mean we’re looking for your money…don’t you hate that?).

We want you to be a part of these events
part of the fabric of this community we’re developing
part of a collective of next-generation creators with a passion to see community change for the better.

Our launch event will be on Friday, March 26th with Invisible Children, TOMS Shoes,and Krochet Kids representing along with some of our talented artists (we can’t say just yet but trust us..it’s gonna be good). It would be a HUGE honor to have you as our guest for this free event. Mark it down!

There’s a TON more info to come on this stuff as we continue to develop it. We’re working on the website as we speak and pulling together the next couple of months of events.

Looking forward to creating culture with you.

with much gratitude,
cj casciotta
lead communicator

e. cj@soundslikeamovement.com
m. 562.298.8128
t. twitter.com/cjcasciotta
f. facebook.com/cjcasciotta
w. soundslikeamovement.com

SOUNDS LIKE A MOVEMENT overview

Can Your Toilet Brush Slay Giants?

The Bible is full of reluctant heroes, an endless procession of people saying “who me? How about someone else?”

…And then there’s David.

David exhibits this bizarre combination of being chosen to lead and choosing to be a leader. On the one hand, David was the least likely candidate chosen to be king (the youngest of seven other brothers whose daily highlight consisted of watching sheep think.) On the other hand, this is the same youth who rose up to face Goliath when an entire army of trained soldiers stood motionless, who lived the life of a warrior poet that wrote and led and conquered and influenced with confidence, skill, and determination.

I wonder how much of my life is God leading me or me choosing to lead.  American culture tells me alluring tales of the self-made man and all that comes with his hard work, ambition, and determination. Church culture has upheld a different picture, the portrait of the hesitant everyman, the kind of person God prefers to use, the kind that asks “Who me? You must be thinking of someone more qualified.”

But what about the Davids of planet earth? The restless warriors convicted they hold something profound from God stitched into their marrow, who see giants, and believe they can slay them?

For so long I was convinced that God wouldn’t use me to my full potential unless I somehow became ok with taking a job void of nobility likes scrubbing toilets or “watching sheep think.” I thought, “I need to love God so much that even if he took everything I find worth and significance in away from me, I wouldn’t care.” This became an impossible task to wrap my mind around. I began thinking God was pretty unfair for putting all this passion and potential in me just to tell me that if He decided to take it all away, I’d have to be happy about it and love Him anyway. Weary and bitter, I wondered if I could ever live up to His expectations.

Then someone asked me a question: Do you believe God would still love you if all you did was scrub toilets?

Would you have value?
Would you have worth?
Would you have significance?

I realized I had been putting the weight on me to strive, to change, to suppress my strengths and aspirations. Never once did I turn the equation around and ask whether God could still favor me even if I couldn’t bring myself to favor his will for my life.  In fact, I was convinced He couldn’t.

I figured God couldn’t love me if I became a toilet scrubber because I don’t love people who scrub toilets.  After all, what do they contribute to society? What do they have to offer humanity besides a clean bathroom experience?

The beautiful part about the love of God though is that it not only changes us, but also changes the way we see the people around us.  It makes us better leaders, better caretakers, gives us purer eyes and wider hearts. By wrestling with these questions I’m learning that to lead people effectively, my love for others must spill out of God’s unrestricted love for me.

I wonder, where was God while David was watching sheep think? Staring down at him from heaven, waiting for him to fake the fact that he knew he was destined for things God put inside of him… or was God pursuing him, training him, embracing his strength and character, preparing him for giants he would soon face?

Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!