Bob

I'd like to tell you about the interview that changed my life. But first some background.  I grew up in a great home and I decided to be a "Christian" as a child.  My parents were Christians and their parents where Christians so it made perfect sense.  On top of that, I grew up in a great church.  It was a big part of my life.  Most of my friends were at that church.

I went on to college, grad school and a career.  My career had been successful.  I reached the point where I had made partner.  In that world, that was your only reason for living!  Achieving that took blood, sweat, and tears.  Thousands and thousands of hours of work.  It was success, however there was a price that came with it.  Lot's of time away from family and lots of time dedicated to things that quite honesty, did not mean much in the scope of eternity. That's when I met Bob.

Bob was president of a company about 10 minutes from where I sat. He was looking for someone to join the leadership team for a company he owned with some other partners. Bob had an incredibly successful career and invested in a start-up. It was company who's mission was big.  They were out to "change the moral fabric of our society" through art.  They made films that taught Judeo Christian values to kids. They did it really well. They spared no expense and did it right.  They made films that were well constructed; great story telling, beautifully made and cutting edge at the time.

I was intrigued, all though there was no way I could make the kind of money I would make if I just stayed where I was. From a financial point of view it didn't make a lot of sense.  I went to talk to Bob anyway.  I walked into to his office and we sat at a table.  He pulled out a pad of paper as he was saying: "I only have one thing to offer you."  He proceeded to draw 3 circles and put a letter in each.

He said 'Steve if you're like most men you are pretty good at compartmentalizing your life'. He then told me that what the 3 letters were.  They represent your Spiritual life, your Family life and your Career.  Many men (I suspect women too) have the capability of separating these 3 life areas.  Talking about your faith at work is intimidating, not to mention the fact that we are so busy that most of the time we just don't even think about it.  So it not unusual for your faith life to be separate from your career life.

Hopefully your spiritual life over laps with your family life.  But for many even that gets compartmentalized.  In fact many churches today separate the kids from the parents at the door.  You each have your own service tailored to your needs.  Church is not the same family experience it was a generation ago.

Family and career are sometimes diametrically opposed.  Both want more of your time. I lived in a high pressure world. "Important" people demanded my time. I worked for a great company. I loved it.  The company talked about the importance of  'work life balance', but honestly if you practiced that you would never make it to the top. It's probably a familiar story to some of you.

So there I was, staring at this piece of paper with 3 circles.  It had never occurred to me that I had been living more than one life, but Bob's simple diagram hit me hard.  Bob said "All I have to offer you is the chance to live one life. To make your Spiritual goals, your Career goals and your Family goals line up."

Bob's simple chart changed my life.  It is amazing how beautiful life becomes when you live one life.  When you have one set of goals for every area of your life. God did not design us to life compartmentalized lives. He designed us to live one life. This simple lesson led to my understanding that God's goal's, not mine should lead every area of my life.

Thanks Bob for teaching me one the most important lessons I have ever learned. I will always be grateful for your leadership, mentoring and friendship.

"If you don't go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don't deserve me.  If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me." 

- Jesus,  Matthew 10:38-39

Blessed

I am blessed.  I get to work with an amazing group of people on a daily basis.  I also have the pleasure of serving under a fantastic board of directors, each of whom provide an example of what it means to follow Jesus.

Working at Flannel is not always easy.  It seems as every year we have a unique set of challenges.  Over the past ten years some incredibly talented people have moved on and new ones have joined us.  Through it all we attempt to keep a laser focus on our mission: Telling the way of Jesus in new and creative ways.

We have some exciting things coming up in the year to come, Check it out!

New Projects for 2012 In 2012, we will be releasing 2 new series True Beauty This is a film series we are creating with Lisa Chan that focuses on lies women have been taught and the freedom that results when you replace the lie with truth as told to us through Scripture. Our culture has placed expectations on women that are, quite frankly, impossible to meet. To understand what I am talking about, all you have to do is walk through the check-out line at your local grocery store. You can learn anything you need to know about improving your looks, your career, your love life, and more. The only problem is, most of what is projected from magazine stands is the exact opposite of what Scripture tells us. While this series is meant for women, it has a lot to say to all of us. Check out this short film from Dove that inspires us in our quest to reveal true beauty. Dove clip Once you hear from Lisa, we think you will agree with us that she is a gifted communicator. While you have probably never heard her, she has taught women in her church for years. She has a passion to share with other women what God has put on her heart. And quite simply, that is what we need in order to get serious about following Jesus. Many of the struggles in our lives stem from the fact that we are chasing after the wrong dream. Lisa also has one of the traits that have become very important in Flannel's search for new speakers, and that is her life reflects her words! Lisa learned from her grandmother that following Jesus is worth more than anything the world can ever offer. It's how she lives her life, every day. Lisa will be sharing practical lessons on what it means to follow Jesus. In addition, the series will introduce us to women who have applied these lessons to their lives. We can't wait to show it to you this coming spring! Outside with Mike Foster: Unlikely Stories about the Good News of Grace

Mike Foster has been a friend of Flannel for many years. Mike Foster is the co-founder of People of the Second Chance, a movement that advocates for radical grace every day, in every moment, for everyone. He is the author of Gracenomics: Unleash the Power of Second Chance Living and lives in Southern California with his wife and two children. Mike has a passion to demonstrate grace. As followers of Jesus, we have been given the beautiful gift of grace. Mike has noticed over the years that while we have this gift, we can be pretty stingy about sharing it. We can be pretty quick to judge. One wrong comment, moment of weakness, or other slip can instantly leave you on the outside looking in. What would our world look like if we were able to extend the radical grace that Jesus has shown us? Well that's what we will be exploring with Mike in this project. We will be showing real-life stories of amazing grace! We are very excited to tell you that creative direction on this project will come from our co-founder Tom Rinks! Tom played a huge role in the creation of NOOMA, and he led Flannel for many years. He has gone on to create a number of successful consumer brands, and we could not be happier that he is lending his incredible creative mind to this series.

The past few months have been amazing as we have watched Ed's Story touch people's lives. We joined up with Ed a couple of years ago now in a desire to be a catalyst for the hope he wants to share with the world. Last month, we saw the hope spread a couple of million times on the Today Show!  In the month of December, his story will continue to spread on hundreds of radio stations as they air an in-depth interview with Ed about his journey. If you have not seen the newest films in the series, here is your chance to do so! We are very eager to finish filming this series and we really need your help. We have two films left with a combined production cost of $100,000. Thanks to one generous donor, $50,000 of this cost has been pledged if we can raise matching funds! We need your help right now. Please help us complete Ed's Story! We recently completed post-production on the seventh and final BASIC film, Communion. We are grateful for your support and encouragement. This series was put together in a desire to be a catalyst to Francis Chan as he inspires us to BE the church. Today we have a generation of people interested in the teachings of Jesus, but not necessarily the church. In this series, Francis shows us that the two truly go together. If we want to be followers of Jesus, we are the church! This series explores what the church is for, according to Acts 2:42. In BASIC, Francis often compares the early church to our modern church in American culture. However, we have found that people from around the world are interested in the BASIC message. So far it has been downloaded from flannel.org in the following languages: Spanish, German, Portuguese, French, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Korean, Russian, and Dutch.

Fellowship

The fourth film the in BASIC Series is called Fellowship.  It gets to the heart of Francis Chan's teaching in the series.  It's a beautiful picture of what it means to follow Jesus...together.

What is church?

I am church.

You are church.

WE ARE CHURCH.

Check it out.  You can watch it right here.

The launch of BASIC with Francis Chan

Our BASIC series with Francis Chan was launched July 1, 2010. We had a little get together to tell the world why we were doing this new series.  You can watch the whole even on youtube, but here is the best part. Francis speaking from the heart.

Miracles

A year ago my sister was diagnosed with cancer. Hearing that you have cancer is horrible. Hearing that your sister has it is worse. I will never forget when my brother-in-law called me, what he said, or where I was. I didn't know what to say (I still don't). When you receive news like this you are a changed person forever.  Just a few words that mean things will never be the same. 

We prayed for healing.

 

The news got worse.  After running a series of tests they discovered that the cancer was in her pancreas and liver.  It doesn't get a whole lot worse than that.  Not only did she have cancer, she had the type that is extremely difficult to beat. This news was devastating to everyone.  It was crushing. It hurt just to hear the diagnosis. The fact that Stevens’s sister had recently died from the same cancer made the situation very real and very clear to all of us.  Sue asked me if I thought she was going to die and I answered no.  I thought she would be healed.

We prayed for a miracle.

 

My niece started a blog to inform family and friends about Sue's condition.  Everyone was blessed as they read Katie's beautifully written updates.  I am still so grateful that Katie transparently shared her sorrows, pain, confusion and hope with all of us.  We all shared Katie's hope.  I'm not exactly sure how news of the blog spread so quickly, but it did. Thoughts and wishes came from across the country and around the world.

 

We prayed for a miracle.

In fact, hundreds of people prayed for a miracle.  We prayed for a miracle until her last breath.  We prayed everyday all day for a miracle.  For weeks we prayed and then she died.

Have you ever prayed for a miracle and not seen it arrive?  Did you pray for a miracle for Sue and wonder why it never arrived?  You might be encouraged to know that our prayers were answered! We actually witnessed many miralcles.  I would like to share some with you.

 

1. The Angel

 

Once Sue was diagnosed they set up a protocol for treatment.  They began chemotherapy.  I had a long planed trip for the day after her first treatment.  It was a quick trip to Florida and I debated whether or not to go.  Her first day of treatment went okay, so I went as planned.  A friend of mine had bought a car and we flew down to pick it up.  As we were picking up the car Grant called and told me that his Mom had taken a very sudden turn from bad to worse.  Things went from preparing for months of battling this thing, to we don't know if she will make it through the day.

I didn't know what to do.  I was in a car in the middle of nowhere Florida with my friend.  Another friend called and I told him what was going on.  He listened to me babble on about not knowing what to do and told me he would call back in 10 minutes. He called back in 5.  He found the nearest airport that could get me to Milwaukee and he booked the flight.

We arrived at the airport with time to spare.  We were sitting in the car outside the terminal talking when someone knocked on the window where I was sitting.  He startled us, as we never noticed him approaching.  He was a middle aged Africa-American guy in sweat pants and a baseball cap.  I lowered my window and he leaned and asked, "Do you guys know Jesus?" We were a little surprised by his question, but responded yes.  He then said "That's good because he just told me to come pray for you." He then looked directly at me and asked if I had a family concern he could pray for.  That's when I started crying.  He proceeded to pray the most beautiful prayer I have ever heard and walked away.

You may think I'm crazy, but I have no doubt that he was an angel. 

2. The "Last Goodbye"

I arrived in Milwaukee and my wife picked me up at the airport.  We went straight to the hospital.  It was about 10 pm when we arrived.  We went to her room where she was alone with Steven.  I was stunned by what I saw.  I could not comprehend how she had changed in just the few days from when I lost saw her.  She was not conscious and I was pretty sure I would never be able to communicate with her again.  Steven of course spent the night buy her side.  I returned early in the morning.  She was awake.  I was able to talk to her and she to me.  But it was as if she had gone from 55 to 95 in a couple of days.  Her voice was a whisper and she only spoke a few words at a time. 

After spending some time with her I talked with Steven.  He had spoken with the doctor and it was obvious her body was shutting down.  It was clear that the number of lucid moments she might have were few.  She had no strength, could not get up or even sit without help.  She would soon slip into a coma.  We decided that I should go back to the house and have her family come over for the last goodbye. 

I took the 5 minute drive back to their house and Steven stayed with her.  She new the family was coming.  She was concerned that she just couldn't do it. She felt she had neither the strength nor words. At the same time I was telling her children.  Grant of course, was his car before I even finished speaking.  We went to the hospital and her children went into her room.  She sat up and in a clear calm voice spoke to each of them.  She shared with them one a time what they meant to her, her hopes for thier future, scripture she had for each, and she prayed for them.  It lasted about 45 minutes.  Then she laid down and went to sleep.

3. The Fireside Chat

Unbelievably Sue came home a day after the "last goodbye".  She was thrilled to be home.  The short drive over was tough for her though.  She went straight to the bed we had ready for her and went to sleep.  It was a beautiful fall day.  We had a fire going in the fireplace.  We were sitting as a family talking when she walked, by herself, into the room.  Sat in a comfy chair with a blanket.  She had that familiar beautiful smile on her face and relished just sitting with her family.

4. Craig’s List

The people from Alliance Bible Church are amazing.  People would just show up and take care of every need. They didn't intrude; they would come and go without a word.  The yard was perfectly mown.  The leaves were raked.  Sue was able to sit and look at the beautiful setting.  People came and cleaned. Literally scrubbed every floor and cleaned every bathroom quietly and quickly.  But most of all they cooked.  The family had unbelievable amounts of food. All of it good. The fridge quickly filled.  Then the freezer. Then someone set up a folding table in the cold garage, which served as a walk in cooler.

Peter quietly watched all of this and decided to do something. All of this food was prepared with love for his mother.  He pulled out his laptop and went on Craig’s List.  He put up an ad for a full family dinner...delivered.  I thought how nice, but no one actually goes on Craig’s List looking for tonight's dinner. I was wrong. Within a half an hour he had several calls to his mobile phone.  He let them all go to voice mail and then listen to all the recordings.  He found what he was looking for.  A father called, he had been with out work for months.  He had a family and they had no food.  They lived in the city. He collected a huge salad, bread, a platter of lasagna and a cake.  He met the guy at a gas station.  Peter got out of his pickup truck with an armload of food.  Before he would hand over the food though he told the guy why he was getting the food.  The fact that his mother was dying.  That she followed Jesus and that she loved people. These people in turn loved her and they were loving on her in return.  The reason you are getting this meal is because of my mother’s love of Jesus.

The guy took the food back to his truck and was beyond thrilled.  Salad! Lasagna, chocolate cake! The family had not had that in months.

 5. Mercy

 We never stopped praying for healing: until that last day.  On that day everything was different.  The signs were obvious, right from the start of the day.  The pain was horrific and the drugs no longer helped.  In the late afternoon her pastor came over and he and his wife sat with Sue for a long time.  Then they came out by the fire where we were sitting.  It was silent.  You could see on Bill and Pamela's faces that they knew what we knew.  There were not going to be any more talks with their dear friend. There was nothing left but the pain.  Steven asked Bill if he had any words of wisdom.  Bill's response was perfect. He said "no".  There were no words.  He then said “but I can pray”.  He prayed for the family, for comfort, for our strength to get through the sorrow. Then he prayed for mercy instead of our elusive miracle.  Bill and Pamela left and with in a few minutes the prayer for mercy was answered with loved ones at her side.

6. The Song

 Sue loved to hear her daughter sing.  Tori has a style that is hers alone and it’s beautiful.  It's a gift and her mother loved it.  If you were at the memorial service, you know exactly what I am talking about.  I will never forget that song Tori.  I don't understand how you could sing it perfectly on that day.  I guess that's what miracles are all about.

We prayed for a miracle and received many. 

BASIC Prayer

Here's a clip of Francis Chan saying the Lord's Prayer in Chinese.

BASIC Follow Jesus

The second film in our BASIC Series is Follow Jesus.  It's probably simplest yet most powerful film we have made to date.  It starts out as a film about how to follow Jesus.  As Francis unpacks the story we get the point pretty quickly.  Figuring out how to follow Jesus is pretty easy.  Jesus was pretty clear on what to do - love your neighbor, turn the other cheek, give to the poor.....we know what he said.  The problem is, most of us don't actually do it.  We identify ourselves as "Christians" but we don't actually follow through.

Now that may sound a bit harsh, but I ought to know because I am one of those people.  I grew up a Christian. Went to some great churches all of my life. Attended every week and for most of my life more than once a week.  That did not mean however that I actually tried to live my life as Jesus instructed.  Why do I that?  Why do we do that?  Why do we think that we are following  Jesus  when we don't do what he said?

Francis goes on to point out the words of Jesus.  What did He mean when he told the disciples that follow Him would not be easy?  That they might be hated for doing so? What did it mean when He said there is a narrow road that leads to life?

Ultimately the question is not HOW to follow Jesus, the question is WHY.  What did Jesus mean when He said "not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven."  Jesus said that in order to find your life you have to lose it.  That's not always an easy message to learn in our American culture.  We have everything we need (compared to everyone else on the planet). Why would we want to lose our lives to follow Jesus? Because He is the way, the truth and the life and because He is worth it.

Making this film helped us remember that our goal here at Flannel is not to try to market Christianity as something cool, easy and fun.  It's simply to tell people the way of Jesus in a beautiful powerful way.

Frankie is a new friend of mine.  He is much like me.  He thought he was following Jesus, attending church, even helping others understand the teachings of Jesus.  After watching Follow Jesus however, he had to stop and ask himself if he was truly following or if he was going through the motions.  He had to confront a habit that plagues "Christians" as much as it does others; pornography.

Do yourself a favor and watch Frankie tell us his story.

Fear God

The first film in our BASIC series with Francis Chan - Fear God - was introduced a little over a year ago now.  It was an exciting time for us at Flannel.  We had set the bar pretty high with our NOOMA series and knew the expectations would be high.  We relish that. We want our films to have an impact and we want them to be beautiful.  We hate to see films that are labeled "Christian" and then poorly done.  We strive to make each of our films better than the one before.  So the launch of Fear God was important to us.

Fear God is the first of seven films about the Church.  Having started a church and watching it grow over the years, Francis found himself asking questions about what he and his church had built.  The Church in Western culture has changed dramatically over the past couple of decades.  In a broad sense, the Church has been shaped by our culture.  Many of us have become reluctant to speak about issues that are uncomfortable when it comes to Church. In many cases, church has become an event or a concert.  It's where we go once a week to recharge the batteries.  It's almost like a concert: highly produced, professional, prompt.

But when we look at the first century Church, we see something much different.  We see a group of people that is like family.  They live their lives together with a common purpose.  It wasn't a once a week event.  In talking through all of this with Francis, we realized we both shared the same observations. We both were noticing a trend were the church in some cases has drifted to the point where many people may be interested in Jesus, but not the Church.  Any yet He set up His church for us! How can we think that we want Jesus but not His church?

The problem is so endemic, that often we are almost embarrassed to talk about how scripture describes God. So for example, Solomon said that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom.  In fact, the fear of the Lord is discussed over and over in scripture.  Today many people feel like that is old school.  We can't say that anymore because it may turn people off.   So if we must talk about it, we water it down and decide it means respect, not fear.

So in making Fear God, we were looking for a metaphor, that would illustrate that fear actually means fear.  There is a beautiful thing that happens though, when one reaches this point of fear.  We gain a perspective of who God is.  We learn that once we fear Him, He then tells us to fear not.  This is why the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom.  He is God and we are not! This simply realization is transformative.  We are hopeful that the visual metaphor used in Fear God helps to show that the fear of the Lord actually leads to life.

   

Francis Chan - BASIC Series

Early in 2008 the board of directors of Flannel met to plan for the future.  For years we had talked about who we are as an organization.  Flannel has always been an organization dedicated to telling the world the way of Jesus in creative ways.  We wanted to serve as a catalyst to a number of speakers who were great communicators whose mission aligned with ours.

NOOMA was accomplishing our mission in a tremendous way, but that second offering just did not happen.  We got close several times, but never quite got there.  At the meeting in 2008, we decided to get very serious about making it happen.  We started with a list of individuals who we thought might work.  We met with A LOT of potential speakers, but nothing seemed to gel.  After months of this, we decided to take a completely different approach.

We began to think about the "what" as opposed to the "who".  We came up with about a page of criteria outlining the qualities the type of individual who would be well suited.  High on the list was authenticity.  We wanted to find someone who lived their life in such a way, that it was obvious that teachings of Jesus was so real to them that they actually lived their life in such a fashion that there could be no doubt.  Honest, real, committed 100% to Jesus.

A year into the search, I was talking to a friend about the "what" (as opposed to the who) and she said "Oh that's Francis Chan".  I had never Francis, but had seen a video he did a couple years earlier called Just Stop and Think.  I contacted  Francis and he agreed to meet.  We met a number of times and the result is what we now know as BASIC.

Francis tells more about how this came together here http://support.flannel.org/category/news/basic/

So here we are in 2011 and five of our BASIC films have been released.  God answered our prayers and we did find someone who loves Jesus with every fiber of his being.  We are honored to work with Francis on BASIC.

Ed's Story - It Ain't Over

A few years ago now, Ed Dobson came to visit us at Flannel.  He had an idea for a series of short films that  discussed his journey since being diagnosed with ALS.  The meeting was somewhat surreal for me.  A few years before meeting Ed, I was diagnosed with Leukemia.  Sometimes in life, an event comes along that forever changes your perspective on things.  Ed has an expression he uses: "All of our days are numbered, it just doesn't mean anything until you hear the number."

Ed is right.  Unfortunately, most of us forget about our own mortality.  We tend to worry about the things that don't really matter and forget about the things that do matter! When you "hear your number" everything changes.  Ed has a perspective on life that is sharpened by his own circumstances. Ed's perspective is one that all of us can benefit from.  Ed's Story is a story of hope.

Please watch this first short film in our new series with Ed.  If it speaks to you, please pass it along to a friend.  Help us spread some hope.