Collide Magazine

What happens when pastor and author Francis Chan teams up with the talented artists behind the NOOMA series? BASIC happens. If you haven’t heard about BASIC yet, be sure to check out that official link. Now, on with the contest.

I’ve got three copies of the first installment in the BASIC DVD series, Fear God, to give away. To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post by 12pm CST on Friday, August 20. Any ol’ comment will do, but if you want to share your favorite Francis Chan book, NOOMA video, or David C. Cook book, you’re welcome to do so. I’ll pick three commenters at random on Friday afternoon and I’ll send each of them a DVD.

Go ahead and enter — what have you got to lose?

UPDATE: The contest is now over and the winners have been chosen. Thanks to everyone who entered!

In partnership with Christianity Today and the Lausanne Movement, Fourth Line Films has produced a series of excellent short films that address a number of important issues in evangelicalism.  You can view the films at the links below:

• The Prosperity Gospel
• Family
• Neighbors
• Uncommon Environmentalists

Upon clicking the link you’ll find a description of the issue each video addresses, as well as a brief introduction to the story that is told.

These videos are an example of the power film has to inspire conversation and fuel ideas for further action in the world.  Feel free to share.

We featured this little contest/initiative in the July/August issue of COLLIDE (hitting mailboxes any day now), but I wanted to feature it here, too. Check it out:

As we were rearranging and cleaning out our offices not long ago, we found ourselves thinking a lot about environments. Specifically, we began wondering about your environments—where you work and where you worship. Our guess is that some of you have creative and cool work environments—offices, studios, production booths, conference rooms—and we want to see them. We believe creative environments are conducive to creative work, so we’d love to see where you do your creative work, and then we’d like to share those spaces with others.

Along those same lines, some of you have creative worship environments and we’d like to see those, too. Environments have an undeniable influence on our worship moods, attitudes, and experiences, so it would be interesting to see the different environments you guys are working with. When you have a chance, snap some pictures or go through your archives. Then, send your best pictures to info@collidemagazine.com. We’ll compile the best and most interesting pictures of work spaces and worship spaces into a future article. So come on and send in those pictures! (It’ll be fun, like America’s Funniest Home Videos, except without the funny or the home videos or the prize money.)

Now, send in those pictures!

Designer Jim LePage is in the middle of a really interesting project called “Word Designs.” Basically, he’s reading through the Bible and creating poster-style for each book. That’s his image for Job above, and you can see his take on 1 Samuel below. I think it’s quality stuff!

I like the way Jim is using this project to deepen his spiritual journey, and I wondered if it might inspire some of us to do something similar. If you’re not a designer, perhaps you could write essays or make short films. Maybe prepare some haikus … you know, whatever.

I also thought Jim’s work might inspire you the next time you have a teaching series to promote at your church, so take a look at the project here.

Keep up the good work, Jim!

Mother’s Day is just around the corner so we picked out a few excellent videos for your Sunday service. Maybe one of them will be just what you need for this weekend.

“I’m Sorry Mom” by The Skit Guys:

“Mother’s Day – Looking Back” by Floodgate Productions:

“I’m A Mom” by Centerline New Media:

And finally, “Why We Love Mom” by Igniter Media:

If you have any Mother’s Day video recommendations, be sure to share them in the comments. And have a happy Mother’s Day!