C.S. Lewis on Fiction

I just wanted to share this quote from C.S. Lewis with my fellow creatives today ....

“Reason is the natural organ of truth, but imagination is the organ of meaning.”

Think about it. Story takes the facts and makes them live. Being a writer of fiction, a painter of art, or whatever creative pursuit to which you aspire, you can bring life to mere truth.


I've read that with all the great and thoughtful contributions in the area of apologetics, C.S. Lewis valued his fiction the most. I can tell you as a fan of his, the fiction expanded on the prose in ways the prose alone could not have. I aspire to do the same.

Thank you, Mr. Lewis!

3rdDay Rocker—Making A Ministry From A Passion

If you’ve ever searched for a Third Day song on Youtube you may have come across the name “3rdDayRocker.” I know I have. I always wondered about this guy who gave me so many hours of great Third Day video viewing pleasure before I ever had a chance to see the band live.

Then I became a Third Day Gomer … and got to e-meet, not only him (Dean Radloff), but his wonderful wife, Dodie—the people who turned their passion for great music into a ministry for Christ. I know many who’ve been blessed by Christian music in times of trouble. Dean and Dodie Radloff have made it a point to expand the reach of this art form. So glad they did.

Now, let me introduce them to you …

Connie: Dean and Dodie, tell us about this ministry to bring Christian music to the masses?

Dean: God gifted me with videography skills; a passion for video recording and a very steady hand to obtain high quality concert videos. Dodie and I love attending Christian concerts. I usually video record several songs at each concert we attend, and post them on YouTube. My 3rdDayRocker YouTube channel has blessed countless people with the ability to view a large variety of Christian artists performing live.

Connie: Oh, yes!

How long have you done this, and what prompted you to start?

Dean: I've been video recording at concerts since 2004, albeit with low grade pocket cameras. I began using better quality cameras in 2008. Videos make a great, memorable keepsake of concerts. I felt God was prompting me to share my work with the world, so I decided to open a YouTube account and started posting my videos in January 2009.

Connie: Thank you, Jesus!

Did it start out as a ministry? What happened?

Dean: Originally, the whole video recording hobby was just that; a hobby and a personal keepsake. When I felt God prompting me to start sharing via YouTube, I guess you could say it then developed into a ministry of sorts. A wide variety of positive comments on my videos is a testimony that God is reaching people through them. God's love, joy, peace, healing, and overall blessings received through the Christian artists' music have been conveyed through numerous comments and messages on my YouTube channel.

Connie: Can you describe how it's evolved over the years?

Dean: As anticipated, viewership was fairly small at first. As more and more videos from more and more Christian artists were added, viewership and the number of subscribers grew rapidly. My channel currently has 3,200+ subscribers and has over 3.6 million views. I refuse to monetize my channel (allowing pop-up ads). It blesses me to know others are blessed by great Christian music too. That is very rewarding.

Connie: Wow! I love that!

Dodie: It really blesses us when we are at a concert, out of town, and someone comes up to Dean and says "Are you 3rddayrocker?" It happens at almost every show we go to, and it just reinforces in our hearts that what Dean does is valuable. 

Connie: Yes it is!

Connie: Do you have future plans for your ministry?

I simply plan to keep doing what God has gifted me to do; video record and share with the masses via YouTube and facebook.

Connie: Thank you.

How many concerts do you think you've gone to over the years?

Dean: Way too many to count or even estimate accurately. I became an avid concertgoer as a teenager. Probably at least 500 so far. Since May 2011, Dodie and I have been to 20 Third Day concerts, with 4 more scheduled for this year, and 41 non-Third Day concerts. No wonder we're semi-broke at times. For us, I guess you'd say it's not just a pastime, it's a lifestyle. ;)

Connie: Yep! I remind my husband of the expense of his golf whenever he questions the cost of my concert-going.

Ahem, back to you …

Do you know how many videos you have uploaded?

Dean: So far, 1,200+. The great majority of them are videos I personally recorded at concerts.

Connie: What goes into the process?

Dean: The process of uploading to YouTube? Depends upon the source material and video quality. The larger the video file, the longer it takes time-wise for each upload. As previously stated, the majority are concert videos I recorded. Some are album tracks (songs), some from TV broadcasts, a few from radio interviews. Some videos require some editing prior to uploading, so they take a bit longer to complete. Dodie and I store the original files on hard drives, so they can be viewed and enjoyed on our 55 inch HDTV and Surround Sound system. I've also burned videos to DVD, to share them with others.

Connie: Oh, cool!!!

Do you have a favorite story about a concert you've attended or a video you've shared (or both)?

Dean: A few favorite moments come to mind. Once, we burned 90+ DVDs of a large Gomer gathering and Third Day concert, to share the memorable event with several of our Gomer friends. (For those who don't know what a Gomer is …

Connie: Ahem, they should if they’ve read much of this blog …

… we are a community of ultra-fanatical Third Day fans.) Aside from having a large library of concert and music videos as personal keepsakes, our favorite part is simply sharing and blessing countless people everywhere. Neither of us have musical talent, but we do have the pleasure of sharing live Christian music with the world. We know God touches people in a variety of ways through the great Christian artists we promote via YouTube.

A favorite concert moment was a time when Third Day lead singer Mac Powell grabbed my camera and got some video from the stage.

If you can’t view the video imbed, check out this link.

Dodie: The most meaningful moments we have are the Third Day shows that we get to attend with some of our closest friends from other states. Dean's job blesses us with free flight benefits, so we get to spend quite a bit of time with some friends we dearly love, who live several hundred miles away. One of the most memorable experiences I can think of, though, was a Third Day show that we attended in Detroit, right after we got married, and Mac Powell dedicated a song to Dean and me during the show. That was very exciting, and very unexpected. 

Connie: Awwwww! I soooo love that! I don’t have that video on here, but I have one close to it. This one was recorded only a few days ago.

Thank you, Dean and Dodie, for visiting LBOC today. You guys are like Gomer royalty ;o).

Visit the 3rdDayRocker YouTube channel here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/3rdDayRocker

Other posts you might like:

March of the Minions

When It Rains, He’s There

Where Did You First Meet God in the Bible?

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

 

If you can't see the video imbed above, click this link.


I love this commercial. It says it all.

Every store we’ve gone to over the last few weeks has walls of displays of Back-to-School this and Back-to-School that. Each time my daughter spies one of these she groans and calculates the number of remaining days—3 as of this writing.

And I grin.

Don’t get me wrong I LOOOOOVVVVE my daughter!!!! We have so many special memories of this summer. So many special hugs. So many special girly bonding moments.

It’s just that I want to complete one whole thought without the interruption of … “And you know what else …”

It seems my daughter is in the middle of one continuous conversation with me all day long and just as I think I’m going to have a moment to think on my own, she remembers more of the conversation to impart to me. Then I need to roll back my memory—which is hard enough to do these days—and pull up what we’d been talking about earlier (be it a moment ago, an hour ago, or a week ago) so I can understand this new expansion of thought.

My brain hurts.

I now appreciate my parents so much more than I used to.

Why am I writing this? It sounds awful to wish my daughter away at school, especially after she made me breakfast this morning—just cuz. (She’s very sweet!)

I’m writing this because it’s not mean, it’s normal. Not that we parents hate our children or want to see them less. We sometimes just want a moment when a full sentence can be thought inside our own heads without interruption. Like Jesus, we need time to ourselves to be with OUR loving Father in heaven. We need time to hear His calling on our lives.

We need time.

Next week, I’ll be lamenting the lack of time I have with my girl. I know this. But for now--

Oops, I forgot what I was going to write as my daughter interrupted me to tell me about a TV show—for real!

Other posts you might like:

Am I An Autism Mom Or the Mother of a Boy with Autism

Our Daily Bread

God's Amazing Kleenex

A Summer Concert

 

It's August. The Back-to-School commercials and sales are starting (which means my daughter is panicking about her last days of summer), and I am out of town ... AGAIN. So rather than drum up some words that may or may not inspire you, I thought I'd pass along this video. Hope you enjoy Andrew Ripp, Savior.

 

 

Posts you might like:

When It Rains, He's There

Will You Soar on Wings Like Eagles Or Be Runnin' Against The Wind

I Need A Miracle

Archie Bunker on Shoes and Socks

If you can't see the imbed below, check out this link to a Classic clip from the show All in the Family before reading on.

Every time I put on my shoes and socks I think of this scene from All in the Family. It’s amazing how today, if you want to get a glimpse of a show from the past, all you have to do is Youtube it. For this one, I typed in “Archie Bunker shoes and socks” and there it was.

How awesome is that!

But before I ramble on about the virtues of Youtube—though it is uber-cool to pull up the past in living color so easily—I really wanted to talk about how people were made to think differently.

Okay, I admit it. I’m still not as progressive as Meat-head (that’s the brown-haired dude to those too young to remember this show). In fact, I still clothe my feet, socks on both first, then shoes. But I have often wondered if it would be more efficient to complete one whole foot before moving on to the other? That way I wouldn’t have to move each foot back and forth as much.

Anyone else wonder this?

<crickets chirping …>

Anyone?

<crickets chirping louder>

Bueller—I mean—Anyone?

<bullfrog croaks>

Okay, I’m the only one pondering the order of how to put on shoes, but this got me thinking about a lot of things. Why do most people put socks on both feet before moving on to shoes? And why does Meat-head’s way, though possibly more efficient, seem so odd.

Maybe because Archie’s method is how it’s always been done.

There are lots of ruts we get into like this one. Kind of like the Pharisaical laws. First, there were God’s laws, but then the teachers of the law threw in a few extra to help the sinners in obeying the first. But instead of being suggestions to help, they became laws themselves, proscribing judgment and punishment for not following them. I’m sure many of us can think of church rules and mores (pronounced morays) in some of our congregations today that have been elevated beyond their due. That is not to say some are not helpful suggestions, but we should not call it sin when these new things are not adhered to.

I remember seeing a video years ago based on a classic novel where a congregation protested the addition of the new-fangled organ replacing hand-held instruments used for worship. The argument was that the organ, being different, was “devil’s music.” I was floored that such a thing could be true considering some churches today have protested the organ giving way to worship bands (using hand-held instruments).

As Christians, it’s always important to consult the Bible in order that we act according to His Will. We need to do it for two reasons. Not only that we ensure what we DO honors God. But also that we don’t stifle our creativity in using all our gifts simply because what is being suggested has never been done before, or looks different from what we're used to. By knowing the whole book, what is and is not proscribed, we can’t allow it to be used in such a way.

God is an amazing, creative God. He is boundless. We should not keep Him in a box—nor His creations—that He did not design.

Another good reason to study that big-ole Book yourself. You never know how freeing that knowledge can be.

Other posts you might like:

Jake, The Encourager

When A Christian Music Artist Loses His Voice

What Did Moses Do Anyway?