Francis Chan: Luke Warm and Loving it.

Francis Chan is cool. Randomly found this on youtube:



OH... and part of his Catalyst message from 2007

Hero Movie: Skitz's Story.

Skitz was failing as a friend. For some reason he had changed and had not bothered to give his friends the memo. They looked in at his life and wanted to be part of it, but he did not know how to invite them in. Even his best friend was starting to wonder what his deal was, how could a kid with his whole life through college scheduled in his iPhone be so unavailable.



This is a rough cut, so there is still some work to be done on it.
Make sure to click on the "Watch in High Quality" link. It is in the lower right corner of the player

Hero Movie Preview

This clip is a montage from the upcoming Hero Movie that I shot with some friends last summer. It chronicles the life of Sarah, one of the main characters. While at school she seems to be falling further and further behind, her she has a secret that will explain it all.

This is a rough cut, so there is still some work to be done on it.
Make sure to click on the "Watch in High Quality" link. It is in the lower right corner of the player

Cohen's First Three Months...

For some reason, slide share cut out the last 5 pages...

Cohen M. Brown 3 Months

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

SlideShare: Cool way to share presentation

| Get your Presentation Pack

Creativity in the hands of a new generation of Creators.

I think that young people today have a huge advantage when it comes to creativity. They were born with a tool that makes creativity more easier to express: the personal computer.

Now, a computer is not the first thing that you think of when you think of creativity (unless you use a mac ;), but the personal computers we use today allow people to record their own movies and songs, write and publish their own books, create their own publications, businesses, websites, and more... all before they graduate high school.

It does not mean it is easier to produce good art, or to duplicate the professional quality of a CD or Hollywood movie. That level of "perfection" and production are hard to achieve, however, youtube has proven to us that most people are totally happy to watch user generated "real" content.

I don't know how old the dude in this video is, but he is a great example of using a personal computer and to create a fun and decent video which over a million people have watched on youtube.

Whats up with the Economy?

Recently i ran across some very helpful videos presenting metaphors explaining what is "wrong" with the economy right now. I thought they were very good, and found first heard about the people doing them on Presentation Zen.

I think that the biggest issues creating the economic crisis are greed, foolishness, and fear. But the things that are described in these videos by Marketplace Senior Editor Paddy Hirsch do a great job of quantifying at least the greed part. They are really simple to understand and put the crisis in terms that non economically gifted people can understand.

Gritty Hope

>In an election year, it is seems easier than normal to get discouraged; To feel like life is not getting better, but worse.Perhaps it has something to do with all the “uplifting” political commercials we have been watching for the last two years. While many tudents make it through middle school with out a care in the word, we are finding that and increasing amount of students feel stressed, worried, angry and alone.

As a Middle School Pastor, I run into discouraged students often. Some face the normal struggle of growing up, but not all. Increasingly many of their life stories are so overwhelming that they hit you like a punch in the gut when you hear them. Students in the suburbs who are starving themselves, cutting themselves, hating themselves, dreading the circumstances of their life, and, even wondering if anyone cares about their suffering. Quietly they ask in the dark, “does God see me... does he care... is he even there?”

Discouragement and disillusionment seem to be everywhere, yet for the Christian, we struggle to cling to hope. Not blind optimism that ignores the true struggle of life, nor pessimism which surrenders to the darkness of despair, but gritty hope that finds a way to believe that God will not abandon us in the dark.

The bible is full of this sort of hope. The Apostle Paul describes the reality of this hope in these terms:

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. (2 Cor. 4:8-9)“

Its hard to imagine a worse marketing tag line that that, but the Bible’s honesty rings true. Faith doesn’t promise life won’t be hard, but faith promises God is enough. God can get us through it.

The psalmist describes this faith when he states that

“even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; (Psalm 23:4).”

The valley will come, and it will be dark, but God is with us in the valley. This statement reminds of some of Jesus parting words words, when he tells us that he will be with us always (Matt 28:18). In the midst of our personal periods of darkness, Jesus is described as the light which shines into our depression, fear, abandonment, loneliness, and emptiness.

Hope of this sort can be found. Its authenticity rises above superficiality and platitudes. An authenticity born from the refusal to ignore the pain and struggle, while at the same time clinging to the belief that God hears our cries and he cares about our struggles.

This is the sort of hope so many students today need. Real hope that God’s light can reach the darkest corner of their soul, driving out their fears, and replacing them with love. A hope that God is making all things new, and that one day they will experience a city where there are no shadows of doubt no dark corners of despair. Where Jesus himself is our ever present and constant light.

The needs are great, but so are the opportunities. We have the chance to shine the light for those who need it most.

May we be the ones who carry the torch of grace and love into the darkness that so many face!

Steve Jobs Called me today...

Steve Jobs (Actually his office) called me today. A few days ago I emailed them about my ongoing struggle with MobileMe/.mac.

Over the last few years, I have had either .mac, or MobileMe delete all of my contacts, without asking, at least 5 times.

It is a chilling experience to go to email someone, only to have an empty address book staring you back in the face. Worse still, when you are on the go, with your super - iPhone, and need to make the timely important call... and every single contact you have is gone...

So... after taking it for a few years, I was done... I sent Steve the following email:

Steve,

I love your products, but am really frustrated. Today for the fifth time, my contacts were entirely erased. I went to send an email, and they were just gone. Gone on my iPhone, gone on my macbook pro, gone on Mobile me. Just gone.

I don't want to bother you, but could you please go down to the MobileMe department and look deep in their eyes and get them to make MobileMe "really great"?

I would really appreciate it.

Thinking different,
Brandon

So, my wife laughed at me when I sent my emails to steve@(mac; me; apple).com... but she just smiled when Steve Jobs himself (not really steve, but a very nice personal representative of Steve Jobs' office) in California gave me a call to let me know he (actually the representative) was concerned with my problem. Steve personally (actually his personal representative named nate) just wanted to make sure I was getting the type of care that my situation warranted.

Now... they have escalated my trouble to an engineering team..

So... His Steve-ness,
while I still want MobileMe to 'just work', thanks for the call. I suppose it makes me a rabid fanboy to be moved by your gesture, but your personal call (actually that of your rep nate) put my worries at ease. Thanks for personally (through your representative) putting apples resources to work on my little problem

The Future of Video Games... and possibly reality...

If you grew up with virtual graphics and interactions that looked just as real as the real world, would you be able to differentiate which world you were in?

This is a real question for kids growing up today. It is some ways is an old question. Decartes dealt with a derivative of this question in his paper world exploration. He was concerned about whether God was good, or an evil Genius manipulating us to our own detriment. He wondered if God could make an entire world out of paper that was so convincing that people would not know.

Perhaps if he was writing today, Decartes Evil Genius would us pixels instead of paper.

The question does provoke thought. In a world where video games are so "real" and even evoke feeling and emotion...

is it possible that the virtual world begins to feel more 'real' and 'significant' to people than the actual real world?

David Perry made an awesome presentation about this at TEDS... check it out

Where is Matt? Where he is he is dancing...

I found this video a little late... apparently it has been around since 2005 or so... but Matt... the squirrel salutes you... #1 for coming up with a great way to travel the world... and #2... for getting someone else to sponsor it...


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Cohen... the newest edition to the Squirrel Family

Cohen is fast approaching his third week of life...

Very cool presentation..

I was super impressed by how this presentation was put together...



What do you think of the Video style?

What do you think about the content?

Knowledge vs. Connection

A few months ago I was headed to Bozeman Montana for a weekend of white water rafting with some friends. On the way out, all the way to wyoming already we called ahead to check on the conditions, but what we heard was anything but good news. It was snowing and raining, and the river was nearly impassable (later we read in the news about a group who died trying to take on the rafting there that weekend!!!)

We had lots of knowledge about what and where we were going to do, but the conditions changed and all of that knowledge would not have done us any good....

Except that I also had my iPhone, and my laptop... So in Wyoming at some random gas station which happened to have free wifi I put my iPhone and Computer to great us... My hard drive had zero info about rafting in it, but once it was connected to the internet, it quickly was able to find great information about rafting 8 hours south of Bozeman, in Colorado's Brown Canyon. What it failed to "know" it was quickly able to learn once it was connected...

Here is my point... while often the church is very busy teaching people about God, and filling up sunday school classes to teach people about God... really all of that knowledge is not as helpful as a real connection to God.

We need to know truth about God, but that truth can become empty facts if we miss the key point. God wants us to know him, not just about him.

In life, this makes all the difference... a real connection to God allows us to always be able to find, through our constant connection with him, all that we need for life and God-like-ness. On the other hands, facts, without connection, can often lead us to an empty God-Box which fails to measure up to the complexity and richness of life...

I think I am really guilty of focusing to much on the facts and missing the connection God is really inviting me to... how about you?

Capacity.

According to the "all-knowing" wikipedia, "Capacity is the ability to hold, receive or absorb, or a measure thereof." It seems also fitting to apply to it a persons ability to deal with life (work, struggle, family, relationships, pain, etc.) I have many times contemplated my own capacity... How much life, can I handle... at what point would I feel like I was trying to live beyond my human frame.

A few random thoughts about capacity:

1. It is one of the tenants of humanity... we have a fixed ability which can only be multiplied, leveraged, and maximized to a fixed point. Different people having seemingly endless capacities, but this is really an illusion of comparison... they may have a higher capacity than some, but are not unlimited.

2. One of the chief differentiators about God's nature, is that he is without a limit in capacity. His limitless nature (power, wisdom, love, ability, holiness) is what makes him of a totally different kind than humans... In this way, we cannot truly understand even the concept of God... he is not a SUPER being who has a SUPER capacity in regard to strength or Power... he is an unlimited being who has limitless power and ability.

3. God understands human limits because he created them. We are dust he shaped with the ability to experience life, but only the life apportioned to us from Heaven. Even a concept like the Sabbath is a reflection of this... God made it for man, to ensure we did not exceed our capacity, and forget about him in the process. The title also helps us to reflect that we have limited resources which cannot sustain us. Giving back a portion of them allows us to remember that ultimately God's limitless resources are our true source of life.

4. I have a capacity which I cannot exceed no matter how hard I try. About economic capacity, Wikipedia makes a further point:

Capacity (economics), the point of production at which a firm or industry's average (or "per-unit") costs begin to rise, usually because some factor is fixed (often capital or land).

This is true with all who approach their max capacity. The close we get to our limit, it seems that out effectiveness begins to wane. Richard Swenson talks about this in his book Margins. His idea is that we need margins on our page, so that if life does not go exactly the way that we plan, that we have a little extra space to adjust. A no brainer, that I am sadly unable to apply in my life.

5. I have struggled with eyes that are bigger than my capacity all of my life. I am fascinated by too many things, and usually can figure out how to do almost anything to some degree. This has regularly led me to pursue more tasks and things, than I could maintain without starting to resent things like sleep and downtime. Through my life, I have generally been able to learn to leverage my skills and ambition in a way that leveraged my capacity enough to "up my game" when required. I have learned that my capacity is greater than I imagined, and rather than using my extra to create margin, have quite often filled it with more tasks, relationships, and other things which require maintenance.

6. As a high capacity person, people are always looking for you... they recognize your capacity, and want you to apply it to their tasks... It goes without saying that this adds to the capacity conundrum.

7. I have recently related my struggles with capacity to compound interest on a credit card. If you are not careful with your plastic, you may 'Discover' that you have spent so much money that your payments do not even cover the interest on what you owe... That even as you make payments on your credit, interest is accumulating against you that is being added to the principle of what you owe... You are on the wrong side of the exponential curve. Capacity too, when exceeded, can create an to-do list that doesn't reduce your load at all, but mere pays some interest as the load continues to increase.


I think I have been dwelling on this a lot recently because of three things in my life. I just bought a new house; Emily and I are having a baby crazy soon; my summer working at Elmbrook has been both Crazy awesome and Crazy busy.

By all trustworthy reckonings a Baby will change everything... so I am left wondering where I will find the capacity... I know I don't have any more as a human, which means the Baby will require me to transfer capacity from somewhere else. Perhaps I will be able to find great efficiency somewhere, but more likely I just need to make better decisions, and become more focused on few things.

Limiting decisions are always the hardest, but usually the most important that we make.

Presentation Series: Things we can learn from great comedians...

Saw this on Presentation Zen, as cool website on making good presentations... It makes some really true points. I think I am going to have to check out the documentary.

My experience is that it never does get easier to make a great presentation. My opinion is that the better you get, the harder it is to wing it...

Quotes & Lessons from "Comedian"

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: comedy garr)

Brooklife: The Murder and Betrayal of Uriah the Hittite.. otherwise known as the Affair of David and Bathsheba

Ok... so my message at Brooklife Church this weekend went pretty well.

If you are interested you can hear it in streaming audio here:

or download it from iTunes here:


This message is drawn from 2nd Sam 11-12, and takes a look at some lessons we learn from David's sin with Bathsheba.

Many people have preached good messages about it, but I really focused on one aspect of the text... David's handling of his own sinful behavior verse the way he responds to the sinful behavior of the "rich man" in the prophet Nathan's story...

The main point that I was trying to make is that when we sin we usually try to cover it up, compare it away (compared to so in so... its not so bad), minimize it (say it in a way that makes it sound not bad at all), claim grace (God loves me and will forgive me anyway), and make it all about me (No one else was hurt by this... it was just my little sin...). However, when we find someone else in a sin, our actions are totally different.

We tend to uncover it (publicize all the details, and look for more), compare (I would never.... like the did), Exaggerate it (Make it sound as bad as possible, even worse than it really it), Claim Judgement (Skip the grace... we want them to be punished and get what they deserve..), and finally make it all about me...(their sin is so huge it effects the entire world... and especially me...).

The Murder and betrayal of Uriah the Hittite...

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: brooklife)

Brooklife: Preaching this weekend.

Jason Webb talked me into preaching at Brooklife Church this weekend.

My topic: 2 Samuel 11 - 12. David and Bathsheba...

I have some good thoughts on it, but still am struggling to find a way to make it all work that doesn't get loaded down with details or just repeat a story that most everyone already knows...

Here are some questions I am trying to work through... if you have a few minutes, read the passage yourself and tell me what you think...

1. Do you think people are more lenient with their own sinful patterns than those of others?
2. Are Christians overly prone to write off others in Judgement?
3. Do you see people as less valuable because of their sinfulness?
4. Why is it easier to be offended at the sins of others, or to really deal with my own sin and temptation?
5. In what areas of my life and I:
“on the roof”;
“attempting a coverup”;
“killing another”;
“pretending it never happened”
6. Why do we tend to judge the actions of others, but justify our own actions? How do we stop doing both?

7. How do we learn to flee temptation without living in constant fear of our sin nature.

Brandon's Crazy Summer...

Ok... so what is keeping me from blogging regularly right now is my life....

I was working non-stop on projects, camps and trips until July 12th when I returned from mexico...

During that period of time, I bought a new house and sold my current one...

This buying and selling process has been greatly complicated because someone managed to open a Qwest account in Minnesota in my name. My mysterious doppelgänger has run up almost a $900 bill... which of course happened to turn up on my otherwise perfect credit score in the only 3 month period in the last, or next 10 years that it actually matters...

I have been on hold with multiple companies, collection agencies, and credit reporting companies enough that I now have all of their Musak, menu option, and infomercials memorized... it is the stuff of nightmares...

But... it seems like the house buying and selling is going to happen... We move into our new palace in Waukesha next saturday...

I have lots to write about from things I learned and have thought about this summer... hopefully I will be up and running again soon...

TECATE, MEXICO 2008

I am in Tecate Mexico right now. I am leading a team of around 75 people included middle school students and adult leaders who are here to build each of 5 impoverished families a house. I love this trip and have been having a great time taking pictures and video of students and helping out wherever I can.

My favorite part of trips like this is getting to know the people who live here. It is so cool to learn about their lives and realize that all people everywhere bear God's image whether they are poor or rich, mexican, american, or anything else.


I have taken almost 2000 pictures of the trip... check them out here if you want: