Christian Center for the Media and Arts
It isn’t much but everything I need is at my fingertips! There are the televisions in a row with the news channels, there’s a few laptop PCs with news alerts from around the world. There is a telephone bank and the ever present mobile unit to take with me when rushing out to cover a story. Our news room is mission control with a dub-bay rack for every kind of video and audio device. A library of books on Systematic Theology to Christian Worldview, books by Barna, Colson, and Dobson line the shelves. In between the dictionary and the AP Style Book are the NIV Study Bible, The Message Remix, and Encountering the Old Testament, and New Testament. There is a large assignment board that we look at on the key issues, Marriage, Abortion, Euthanasia, and Freedom of speech, religion, and data on creationism versus evolution. Then there are the daily stories and a correspondent, David Dolan covers Israel and the Middle East, Michael Barrick covers missions work, and Raul Reyes covers Life Culture. Randall Niles writes on philosophy, Dr. Walt Larimore writes about medical issues, and I write on media, arts, and culture. The Worldview News Room has a photojournalist, an ad sales person, and a graphic artist who collaborates on cartoons, and illustrations.
Adjoining our news room is the website area, on one side, and on the other our broadcasting studio where the creative, and newsmaker interviews take place. Our friend Greg Outlaw runs the technical side and adds the content, podcasts, and all the other stuff I don’t understand. I glaze over when he explains the lefty brain stuff to me anyhow. Upstairs from the newsroom, the internet room, and the studio is a theatre which hosts concerts, lectures, plays, and film series. Lining the sides are classrooms, and workshop lab areas for music, writing, a drop-cam television studio, and editing studios. There is a backroom where the Chronicle Newspaper is composed and finished and then a green room and musical recording studio where new music is created daily. Then the next room is my favorite-it has coffeehouse appeal. The Envoy Creative Media Advertising room is big and open and can be converted in many different themes. It is a place where clients, and the writers, artists, composers, and the creative team, gather together and design products, resources, and advertising campaigns. There is a full Mission Coffee Roasters Bar that serves Envoy Worldview Blend and box lunch, a creative happy meal is often served. Beside it is an exercise room with treadmills, weights, and a view of Pikes Peak. On the other side is a resource center where there are materials for the classes on journalism, internet, music, television, and radio production. There are materials on art, writing, songwriting, and web design. There are areas designed to talk about the issues and public policy, The Christian Right Brain and Advertising.
This building that houses the Christian Media and Arts Center is not officially bricks and mortar. It is the next step in my own calling and the calling of my colleagues who everyday virtually partake in these activities. They wake up every morning and serve God through the media. They are forwarding the Cultural Commission in their own ways in the galleries, studios, theatres and newsrooms in Colorado, Texas, Kansas, and Arkansas. God has put these people in each others path with similar visions and roles to fill in the body. With technology every one of these roles are being filled and collaborating together. The description that is laid out is one that you may have seen in your dreams and the calling that you have within this body. I walk the halls of it every time I log on to All About God.com, or produce a radio commercial, or write Radio Envoy. Every time I lead worship, or write a song, conduct and interview or cover a news event-I walk the halls. For every brainstorm with a client and every time I look at the boldness of Kata Billup’s art I walk the halls of the center. And then every time I see a film by Dallas Jenkins or Gary Wheeler, I enter that theater. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t wonder why we haven’t put it all together. We still create within our own little vacuums and cubicles. Yet God has a bigger view of what we can do that instead of imitating the best of the world’s media and arts he is calling us to something bigger and better. I wonder if my description even touches the parameter of His blueprint.
