I hear it’s all the rage to redo your wedding photos (at least for those of us who were young when we initially had them taken and now realize how differently we would do things).

I don’t know about you, but if I were to go that route, the following sequence is what I’d want.

You can check out the photographer HERE.

A few years ago, (maybe more than a few; I can’t remember; plus what number exactly constitutes a “few”?) while I was still employed at Student Life I wrote a spoken word piece. It was my job to write and create lot of things. That particular year this piece just happened to be one of them. I wrote it. Drew Francis directed it. Taylor Robinson shot it. Eric Chapman recorded the audio and mastered it. Jason Poole added some sweet graphics to it. And the incomparable Erin Moon performed it. The piece is entitled “Woman of No Distinction” but it’s much more commonly known as “The Woman at the Well” since that’s the story from the Bible upon which it’s based and nowhere in the video is the title of the piece indicated. You can see the original below. (If you can’t see the piece below, it’s because your reader or device isn’t displaying videos and you should click through directly to my blog.)

Woman of No Distinction from Chris Kinsley on Vimeo.

This video went viral, I guess. I mean, I don’t know what are the precise criteria that have to be met in order for that to be true, but this video started floating around a lot of places and being seen and shared by a lot of people. Well, it wasn’t long before people were simply transcribing the video and using the piece in other venues, even to make videos of their own. Below, I offer to you a selection of those videos.

As you can see, there’s a decent amount of diversity other than all of the performers being women, but that’s understandable. Some of these videos are well produced. Others are amateur shots of amateur performances. Some give credit to me as the author. Some credit myself and Drew, which is also understandable since the credits at the end of the original video are misleading. Some give no credit to authorship. One credits authorship to someone else entirely, namely Amena Brown, who is an extremely gifted spoken-word artist and sister in the faith (frankly, it’s a little flattering to have people think she wrote it). However, none of these people own the copyright for this work. I don’t even own it. Student Life does. As far as I know, none of them obtained permission from Student Life to perform the piece or to make a video of it.

Student Life could have gone after all of these people. They could have attempted to control and “protect” their content. But they didn’t and they haven’t. Whether intentionally or not, they’ve given it away. They’ve allowed it to spread as it would.

I think this is great. On some level I even think this is right. Student Life is a business, yes, but it’s also a ministry. The original piece served it’s purpose, and SL is able to continue to utilize it for ministry. However, by giving it away they have allowed it to become even more valuable. As it has struck a cord with people, those people have been able to freely share it so that it might minister to others, many if not most of whom Student Life would never have the opportunity to come in contact with.

This isn’t an easy thing for creatives to do. But I wonder if it’s an essential lesson for those creatives who are also Christian to learn. God has made us stewards of the creativity with which He has gifted us.

What kind of steward will you be?

What are you currently holding on to that you need to give away?

Have you heard of Arc Light Stories? If you have then I’m sure that a smile just appeared on your face. If you haven’t, then, please, allow me a moment to introduce you to the one of the best, most unique night-out opportunities you can experience here in the Magic Steel Pittsburgh of the South (Birmingham, AL). I’ll start with “what”.

What is Arc Light Stories? Here’s what it says on the website.

Imagine sitting around the dinner table with your closest friends.  You’ve just cleared the dishes, and you’re moving on to coffee, or possibly a glass of wine.  Someone says: you’ll never believe what happened to me today.  Listen to this…

That’s Arc Light Stories.  Inspired by events like The Moth in NYC, Arc Light Stories features live storytelling.  No notes, no outlines.  Just great storytellers sharing great (true) stories.  Sometimes funny, sometimes moving, and always engaging, Arc Light Stories brings people together as only good stories can.

Ever been to see live stand-up comedy or a poetry slam. Well, it’s a lot like that actually. Only, instead of someone standing there and telling jokes for 10 or 15 minutes or performing a poem or two, a person gets up in front of everyone and tells a story. The stories are all true (at least as much as the way the storyteller remembers them is true). The storytellers have no helps of any kind. And the stories are usually all over the map with regards to humor, tension, emotion, and preparedness.

At each storytelling event there are usually around 5 or 6 storytellers, and each event has a unique theme. The theme for February’s event (as you can see on the poster pictured above) is “Love Is a Battlefield”. Now, that probably immediately brings to mind for you some expectations for what the stories might be about. But I encourage you to leave your expectations at the door. Some of them will be met. I guarantee you. But others will be shattered, and I promise you’ll be surprised and excited by what you hear.

Who is involved in Arc Light Stories? Well, I guess that depends. If you’re asking who started it and hosts it, well, that’d be Travis Hawkins and Taylor Robinson. If you’re wondering who else helps out, I could tell you that design and branding comes courtesy of Upper Air Creative. Then there are a lot of other people who might decorate (like Studio Flower) or bring snacks or help transport and set up chairs or donate the space for the venue (that’d be Jason Wallis). Then, of course, there are the storytellers themselves. That group is never exactly the same and covers a wide variety of experiences and backgrounds. As far as this one, I don’t want to give away who all will be there, mainly because I just want to promote myself (kidding… kinda).

I was lucky enough to get to tell a story at the very first Arc Light. Now, I’ll get to tell another one. The first time I told my chase story. If you’ve never heard it, ask me about it. It’s a good one. This time I’ll be telling Story’s story. Many of you have lived that story with us, but I’m not sure anyone has really heard Liza or me talk about it all at once. So, I’m excited for the opportunity to get to do that.

When are the Arc Light storytelling events? Well, there’s not a regular event right now. But, as you can see on the poster above, the next one is this Saturday night, February 12 at 7:00pm.

Where are the Arc Light storytelling events? The location could change one day, I guess. But as of now, they are held at Second Row Studios in downtown Birmingham. It’s located at 212 24th Street North.

Why would I want to sit around and listen to a bunch of stories? What do you mean? Why wouldn’t you? Everyone loves stories.

How can I tell a story at a future Arc Light event? I’m glad you asked. And Taylor and Travis are too, especially if you’re a female. Just email them and let them know.

At any rate, I hope to see you there.

What’s your greatest fear?

People are not just frightened, but genuinely fearful of the most amazing things.  Things like the following:

• Anglophobia- Fear of England or English culture.
• Deipnophobia- Fear of dining or dinner conversations.
• Ephebiphobia- Fear of teenagers.
• Hellenologophobia- Fear of Greek terms or complex scientific terminology.
• Metrophobia- Fear of poetry.
• Sinistrophobia- Fear of things to the left or left-handed.
• Zemmiphobia- Fear of the great mole rat.

I’m not making that last one up.  Google it.

Of course there are many, many, many more.  We all know (and possibly even share) some of the more common ones.  Fear of the dark.  Fear of loud noises.  Fear of enclosed spaces.  Fear of spiders.  Fear of clowns.  However, I don’t think we’d necessarily count these as the real biggies, those fears that, if we give any real consideration to, whatsoever, we’ll end up losing sleep over.

You know the ones I’m talking about.

Fear of ridicule.

Fear of pain.

Fear of death.

Fear of insanity.

Fear of insignificance.

You might even share what, up until recently, would have been my answer to this post’s leading question.

Fear of failure.

So, what happened recently that caused this to stop being my greatest fear? Well, I’m glad you asked.

The simple answer is that I read a book, specifically The War of Art by Steven Pressfield (he wrote The Legend of Bagger Vance).  It’s a book about winning your inner creative battles, of which I have many, most of which I seem to lose.  So, this book was helpful, helpful like a root canal or invasive surgery or a back-waxing is helpful.

In one particular chapter aptly entitled “Fear” Pressfield revealed to me the fact that failure was not my greatest fear.  He accomplished this by making me aware of a greater, deeper fear I’ve held for who-knows-how long without even realizing it. After listing out more of our very real, deep-seeded fears than I have here, he wrote the following on pp. 142-143.

These are serious fears.  But they’re not the real fear.  Not the Master Fear, the Mother of all Fears that’s so close to us that even when we verbalize it we don’t believe it.

Fear That We Will Succeed.

That we can access the powers we secretly know we possess.

That we can become the person we sense in our hearts we truly are.

This is the most terrifying prospect a human being can face, because it ejects him at one go (he imagines) from all the tribal inclusions his psyche is wired for and has been for fifty million years.

We fear discovering that we are more than we think we are.  More than our parents/children/teachers think we are.  We fear that we actually possess the talent that our still, small voice tells us.  That we actually have the guts, the perseverance, the capacity.  We fear that we truly can steer our ship, plant our flag, reach our Promised Land.  We fear this because, if it’s true, then we become estranged from all we know.  We pass through a membrane.  We become monsters and monstrous.

We know that if we embrace our ideals, we must prove worthy of them.

Pressfield closes out the chapter by asking the simple but loaded question, “Do you believe me?”

Now, if I’m honest, I have to admit that, in the time I’ve been mulling over this, I probably haven’t run it through all of the Biblical and theological filters that I should.  But, in answer to his question, I think I have to say, “Yes.  Yes I do.”

What about you?

A large part of my job at Student Life is contributing in varying degrees to our ideation efforts. Sounds fancy and important, doesn’t it? Basically I’m just saying that I and a few others are called on whenever we need to come up with some ideas. This means we attend a lot of meetings where said ideas are to be thought of and developed.

This is great for me. I remember as a kid saying to my parents that I wanted to find a job where someone paid me to sit around and come up with ideas. So, as far as I’m concerned, I win and I win big.

In order to develop good ideas we utilize a process called brainstorming. Some think that creatives should just be able to come up with ideas in an instant with no problem, that we never run out of ideas. Those people are wrong. As counterintuitive as it might seem, creatives often thrive in process when in the initial ideating phase of a project. Of course, we’d never admit that. Nor would we probably implement the process ourselves if we had a choice. But that’s another blog post.

Now, We’ve all heard of brainstorming and have probably been a part of a brainstorming process at one point or another. It became really big in business books about fifteen or twenty years ago, and is still used today.

However, not everyone does “brainstorming” the same way. And I guess that’s fine. Far be it from me to tell you the exact right way I think you should do it, (after all, there is no perfect spaghetti sauce; there are only perfect spaghetti sauces), but I’m going to anyway.

Well, not exactly. I don’t necessarily think this is the “right” or “only” way to do this. What I do think, though, is that through all of the brainstorming sessions I’ve been a part of, this is what I have found works best in those circumstances.

So, now, without further ado, let me present my 10 rules/guidelines/tips/strategies/concepts/techniques/methods for how to have an effective brainstorming session.

1. The problem is the question – Brainstorming is basically a technique for problem solving. It shouldn’t be uses if there isn’t a problem to solve. The problem can be big or small but should be made as simple as possible. Begin any brainstorming session with explaining clearly what the problem is. The end of this explaination should be in the form of a question that sums up the problem to be addressed. Something like, “what improvement to frying pans are people crying out for?” or “isn’t there some way settlement on Mars can be made both feasible and affordable?” If you can’t sum up the problem in a simple sentence, break it down into parts that can be.

2. There is no audience; there are only participants – Everyone in attendance at your brainstorming should be encouraged/expected/required to participate. It’s important for the facilitator to make this clear. If someone is dominating the conversation or conversely hiding in their silent shell, it is the responsibility of the meeting’s leader to shut them up or spur them on respectively.

3. Time is your frienemy – When brainstorming you want to allow ample time to come up with as many possible solutions to your problems (ideas) as possible. However, there will come a moment when ideas quickly cease to flow and participants become sluggish, irritable and easily distracted. There’s no magic time at which this happens. It’s different for every meeting and every group. Sometimes it’s 15 minutes. At other times it’s an hour. I find that it’s usually sometime around 28:47.

4. 2 is better than 1 but 10 isn’t necessarily better than 9 – When planning a brainstorming session it’s okay to not invite every single one of your friends, family members, co-workers, Twitter followers and fellow artists. In fact, you really shouldn’t. Brainstorming can be done on your own, but it’s better with a group simply because of the diversity of ideas that a group brings. However, too many people means that most ideas won’t get heard. Again, there’s not a magic number, but my personal opinion is that when attendance gets in the double digits productivity significantly decreases. A chart of this phenomenon might look like the following:

5. The more the merrier – The whole point of having a brainstorming session is to try to come up with as man ideas as possible. You don’t want to do anything to stifle the flow. The whole idea is that the more ideas you have the more likely you are to stumble upon that one incredible, earth-shattering, game-changing, billion-dollar-making solution you never really knew you were looking for in the first place.

6. Everyone’s a critic; so tell them all to shut up – Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, kills creativity in brainstorming quicker than for just one person to criticize just one idea. Sometimes it’s as simple as a would-be critic making a face or laughing at a particular idea not meant to be funny. If this happens, kick them out. Seriously. And, yes, do it even if it’s your boss. Make sure everyone understands the rules a head of time and then force them to abide by them.

7. “No idea is a bad idea” just isn’t true – It’s a fine slogan, and one to be embraced and utilized as much as possible, but it simply doesn’t hold up. There are bad ideas, lots of bad ideas, and if you’re brainstorming correctly, you’re going to have a lot of them thrown out there. And that’s the way it should be. You just can’t worry about it. Especially with regards to your own ideas. You might know you have a bad idea, but that bad idea might be standing in the way of ten good ideas. Get it out there and move on.

8. Cross-fertilization isn’t as dirty as it sounds – Listen to everyone’s ideas. Build on their ideas. Combine two ideas together to make one super awesome colossal idea. As the Beatles sang, “Come together. Right now.”

9. Think outside the box, literally – Where’s the place you normally have meetings? You know, that room with four walls, a floor and a ceiling? That’s your box, your normal, every-day, used-to-it, uninspiring box. Wanna have a good brainstorming meeting? Go somewhere else.

10. Write it down, all of it – This might sound obvious. If it is, good. There’s going to be a lot of ideas being tossed out. You don’t want to miss any of them. So write them down, every single one, preferably where everyone in the meeting can see them. This can be the responsibility of the person facilitating the meeting or someone else. Your call.

So, there you go. Follow these rules/guidelines/tips/strategies/concepts/techniques/methods and you’ll have an effective brainstorming session every time (or one that is at least more effective than it would have been if you hadn’t followed all of these). Trust me.

So, have fun and remember… process isn’t the enemy of creativity… Big Brother is.