DarrenCalhoun.com

This has been a busy week for me — busier than usual in fact!

I was booked by the United Congress of Religious and Community Organizations to do a day trip to Springfield, Illinois and photograph the convergence of several community organizations at the state capitol pushing for human rights bills that are now in the house.  It was also neat because the cover of the policy guide they produced featured my photography.

I was also able to buy a new lens this week, the Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8.  I’ve only been shooting with it for a week now, but I must say I really enjoy having something other than my 50mm f/1.8 available for low-light shooting.  I’m still editing photos from the Springfield trip, but I’ll post a few shots from that trip soon.  I also got a smaller, sling-style camera bag – this should make it easier for me to carry my camera for events or just for random photowalks – now if I could only fit my netbook into the bag I’d be unstoppable! lol.

I also spent a good deal of time over the last few weeks making arrangements for an Arts Ministry Volunteer Celebration at my church. It’s the first annual event for the newly forming umbrella of the Arts Ministry.  One of the first things that attracted me to my church was the arts – I was inspired to no end from day one! I often tell people that I came home and re-branded my business after my first visit to the church!  Anyway, the Celebration was a hit! Over 100 people came, ate what seemed like an endless supply of Pizza,  and got to know interesting facts about one another through an ice breaker my mom helped create for the event. We had more planned (like a video, presentations, etc…) but as with many things with life, not everything worked out the way we planned.  I was happy that I was able to slow-down and enjoy the moment not continually running around trying to pull things together.  It just worked I’m thankful for that!

This weekend also served as the Launch of our B-1 campaign.  B-1 is the rallying cry of our Arts Ministry.  Jesus prays in John 17:11(b) says “… so that they may all BE ONE as we are one”.  It’s our prayer and endeavor to take this to heart in how we grow in our intentional efforts to include more people and empower them to serve with their arts gifts.  I almost had a misty eyed moment as I saw more than 50 people standing on stage this Sunday wearing the tee-shirts I designed to promote this campaign.  I don’t know, it’s just something that started off as a small and fun idea and now has grown into something with limitless possibilities and outcomes.  I’m just excited.

Some stories have to be told and retold when the goal is authentic understanding. We must have understanding to make action effective.

In many ways I feel like I’ve told my “same old sad story” about the challenges I’ve faced in life and specifically in church.  Because I hear myself tell it so much, I feel like I’m going to be that old guy who is always reliving war stories and never really doing much else.  Today in part helped me realize that that’s not the case for me.  The reality is that I’m meeting new people and building brand-new relationships.  These new people don’t instantly get a complete picture of me so I have to over time share more of myself with them.  The beauty about that is that we grow closer in the process and I gain a bit more understanding each time.  Also, the purpose of sharing my story isn’t to relive it, but rather to learn more about my process and to take action in writing a new ending.

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” James 5:16 (NIV)

Today I had a long over-due meeting with my church.  I was able to share some very personal and raw areas of my life and get a renewal of their commitment to walk with me through it all.  Because of some very negative experiences in similar situations in the past, events like these stir apprehension and fear. What’s amazing is to go into a situation that has turned out so terribly in the past and to discover that there are other healthy people out there who have the same goals and aspirations as you do.  It’s so affirming to be in a healthy church even though it’s not a perfect church.  I underlined “to each other” and “for each other” in the above scripture because the events of today underscored the two-way  relationship of accountability and healing in relationships. Each party must be able to own their part of what’s wrong, but also pray and support the other.

*Sigh* this is all vague now, but I hope to begin to retell this story with clarity soon. Thanks for listening.

–Darren

I’m in a challenging time right now. I’m requesting prayers for wisdom, peace, and a pure heart as I pursue the goals that God has for me. There is so much that I need to share and record here. What I know is that a new season is beginning in my world.

Updates coming soon. I’m writing this from the new iPhone app Wordpress 2 – so maybe I’ll write more frequently.

So long status quo
I think I just let go
You make me want to be brave
The way it always was
Is no longer good enough
You make me want to be brave
–Nichole Nordeman

Brave (Acoustic Special Edition version) – Nichole Nordeman

October 28, 2009 will mark 11 years since my born-again Christian experience began and in some ways I feel like I’m still where I started back then.  Let’s be clear, God has done some miraculous things during this time – I have a LONG list of what God has done in and through me and life certainly wouldn’t have just ‘happened’ this way.  Where I’m challenged right now is in that I am still the same – I struggle with my own humanity and all the messy things that come with it.  I want the issues and struggles that have been brewing and stirring my whole life to be purely memories from before I “got saved”.  I want to be fully living out all the wonderful ideas in my head about life in Godliness.  But the reality is that I’m just as much a wretch in need of a savior as I was that night that I screamed out to the Lord in 1998.

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Lexi interviews Tonex about his Gospel music career and sexuality.

A few days ago I got a phone call from a friend insisting that I dropped whatever I was doing to jump on YouTube to see this interview.  As a little background to this story, I’ve been a fan of Tonex (pronounced Toe-nay) for about 10 years now.  Tonex’s music – both vocally and instrumentally is unique and raw in many ways.  He is a Christian, but his creations often ruffled the feathers of ‘traditional’ believers.  His music has a strong ‘cross-over’ appeal and often would be found in stores outside of the Christian music section.  Tonex often writes songs in first-hand perspective of a person struggling with addiction, sexuality, mourning, or other topics that are part of life, but not often part of ‘church talk’.  I was draw to this music because I felt “finally, another believer who is using this struggles of his past to bring glory to God and expose the darkness of these situations”.

Tonex has been a magnet for controversy not just because of his writing, but also his physical appearance.  He’s been known to wear hair and clothes in range from a suit and tie, to hip-hop street culture, to goth (including long purple bangs and black painted nails).  The latter often has called his sexuality into question.  In addition to all this, in recent years he ‘retired’ from the music industry citing the unfairness of how he was financially struggling yet his music was selling well.  He also was hit with the difficult transitions of being divorced, his Father and Pastor suddenly dieing, and having to assume his father’s position as Pastor of their church.

Tonex has been out of the spotlight for some months, other than releasing the occasional ‘underground’ music release online.  This interview was the first major news about Tonex in a while.  If there’s one thing Tonex has always done well it’s address topics that too often go unmentioned in the church.  While the theological views expressed in this interview may not be agreeable to everyone – I think it’s important that we all really hear what his thoughts and perspectives are.  Check out the interview (3 parts) below. Read the rest of this entry »