(A)utomatic Mode

Everyone goes through a photography phase. Who doesn't put down "photography" as a hobby on "about yourself" questions? Who hasn't feared the (m)anual mode on your shiny new digital camera and opted to play it safe in the (a)utomatic setting?

So, I'm sheepish to say I'm a photographer because everyone "is" these days.

Needless to say, it's been a tremendous tool over here, opening up doors and creating relationships through the medium I would never have normally been able to establish myself.

For example, I'll be heading back to Jerusalem at the end of February to help assist in a long-term documentary. My role will be limited, but there are some serious film-makers getting involved in this project.

There are some exciting opportunities that are opening up in the field and have found it's a great way to minister and build bridges to others.

Anyways, here is a Portfolio of some photographs I've taken outside of the wedding biz.

Enjoy





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hello liz

Awesome to have Liz Davidson in Edinburgh!

Leaving behind a good job as an accountant, Liz has moved here for 11 months to serve this ministry. She came over on a missions trip a few months after Kate and I arrived and walked away impacted by what she felt and saw. She came over for a few weeks this past May just to check it out, and it only took a few days for her to say she was feeling called to come over.

Liz is a testament to stepping out in faith. It cannot be an easy decision to give up financial and occupational security and move half-way around the world. I get this feeling a lot of people debate doing something like this, but life gets complicated. Pretty soon, you're bogged down and never get around to it.

If you're at that stage or have thought about it in the past, start praying about it again. Something happened when Kate and I decided to suit up and jump into the game It's as if the Lord was saying, “If you’ll hook up with me, I’ll involve you in effecting some much-needed change around here.” I've heard this many times, but playing it safe is risky.

welcome to Eikon

A video we recently did to welcome people to Eikon

The end has a nice little touch for our podcasting

shades of green

The colors are amazing here in Scotland when the average rainfall is 120 inches/year. Got this a few days ago.

memory vs. imagination

Mark Batterson is the pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC. He’s also the author of the popular book “In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day." He is bringing his staff to Eikon this may to launch a "Buzz Europe Conference." So amped about it.

He recently wrote this and it is worth a read:

"Neuroimagining has shown that brain stimulation depends on task familiarization. Novelty stimulates the right-brain. Familiarity stimulates the left-brain. And longitudinal studies have shown that the center of cognitive gravity tends to shift from right-to-left as we age. In other words, memory overtakes imagination.

One of the great dangers leaders face is learning how and forgetting why. At some point, most of us stop creating the future and start repeating the past. We stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing ministry out of memory. We stop building momentum and start going through the motions. And when that happens, ministry become monotonous.

One of the ways we’ve tried to counteract imagination atrophy at National Community Church (www.theaterchurch.com) is by creating a culture of experimentation. We have a core value: everything is an experiment. And that experimental approach to ministry gives us the freedom to fail. We’re not afraid of making mistakes. We’re afraid of not making mistakes because that means we aren’t taking enough risks.

Every sermon series is a teaching experiment. Every outreach is an evangelism experiment. Every small group is a discipleship experiment. Even our long-term vision of meeting in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the metro DC area is an experiment in doing church in the middle of the marketplace.

An experimental approach to ministry gives you leadership latitude by diffusing resistance. After all, it’s just an experiment! It focuses you on finding better ways and different ways of accomplishing the mission. And, finally, an experimental approach to ministry gives you permission to stop doing what isn’t working!"

beam me up scotty

Anyone use ichat or aim? Send me your screen name and I'll connect with you sometime. It's another way we can and should use technology to bridge the gap between our partners.

Had a startreck-like moment the other day when I virtually sat with my brother-in-law and my dad and watched Obama give a speech. Mind-blowing if you really stop to think about it.

on guard

Checked out the castle they used to film scenes from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". It was this very small yet beautiful castle in this tiny village in the highlands.

Boys will be boys: a sword fight was necessary.

Glen Coe

Kate and I rented a car for the first time and headed up to Glen Coe, a beautiful wee town in the Highlands. I got this shot overlooking one of the many lakes.

We're starting to take a Sabath once a week. For us, that usually revolves around avoiding mobile phones, emails, internet, lists, or creating anything new.

Sabath is full-scale rebellion against western culture which says, "get it done." Sabath says, "don't get it done." Sabath is our gift for leaving Egypt, where our worth came from the amount of bricks we produced. The slavemaster says your worth comes from how many bricks you produce. If you don't produce enough bricks for Pharoah, you're killed because you have no worth apart from the bricks.

Sabath was a day a week to learn to live simply for who you are and not what you produce.

Doing the Right Things

I'm often asked, "So what do you do at Eikon?" My response usually is, "Just about everything." That's obviously said tongue and cheek, but it really is all about filling in the gaps, doing whatever you can in the beginning to make it work.

As Eikon continues to grow, those governing laws of church-planting are slowly wearing thin. In Acts, as the Twelve are defining and growing the body of Christ, there was this subtle moment and decision that had to be made that had a significant impact. As the church grew, it became impossible for the apostles to keep all the plates spinning. This created tension and the need for broader leadership.

So the Twelve gathered everyone together and said this, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose even men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."

The Apostles essentially came to terms early on with the notion that they had to do what ONLY THEY could do. They were the only men on the planet who were equipped to recommunicate the teachings of Christ. It was time to delegate both responsibility and authority so they could continue doing the two things they were best equipped to do: teach and pray.

They weren't skirting their responsibility. They were choosing in such a way as to ensure that the job would be done better than before.

As a result of this seemingly insignificant decision, 3 things happpened:
-the word of God spread
-the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly
-key influencers in the city were converted

As leaders, gifted by God to do a few things well, it is not right for us to attempt to do everything. I know that's a DUH! statement, but a simple and overlooked truth.

John Maxwell said, "You are most valuable where you add the most value." It is vital to the health and success that we as leaders discover the task, that narrow arena of responsibility where we add the most value.

I've been continually thinking about how I prioritize; what areas of my life need to be delegated for the benefit of the body and myself. It's easy to try and do everything. It's difficult to narrow the focus.

This is the season for even more central focus.

rinse and repeat

I read an aweful lot. I didn't used to. In fact, I remember as a child, my mom purchased the Bible on audio just so I would read it. One day though, it clicked and I became an avid reader.

I have certain friends who can read a book without underlining or note-taking and be able to recite phrases verbatum months later. I don't like people with that uncanny ability. Retension is a challenge for me, so over the years, I've devised a very particular note-taking method. It's tedious, but I'd like to think it works.

For each book, I circle words that I don't know and I footnote the definitions. Underlines are good thoughts. Squigly lines are essential thoughts that additionally get hand-written on the side of the page. I also organize each paragraph or chapter into an outline format, complete with numbers and letters. Following that, I copy all the key thoughts into a word document and organize them into folders on my computer. Admittedly, that has proved helpful.

What I've more recently gotten into the habit of doing is following a reading session, I factor in time to write a brief summary of what I've read, whether it's for personal study or reading scripture. If I immediately take time to meditate and organize it in my head and heart, it's amazing how much more I'm able to retain.

I found comfort in discovering that Mark Batterson has decided to do something similar this year. He's decided to write and meditate on scripture.


There patterns with common threads in many areas of my life. It's so easy to assume as a pastor that the body automatically knows and remembers what the core convictions and values are of your Church. We've been "rinsing and repeating" our values continually this past year and will continue to do so until the team senses the values are truly becoming engrained and lived throughout the body.
It's exactly the same in our prayer and scripture reading habits as well. There is nothing more important than repeating and reflecting on what is being put into your head and heart.

December Newsletter just sent out!

Unfortunately my hard drive crashed in early December and I lost my record of new subscribers.

If you were expecting to receive it and didn't, or have never received it and would like to, please re-subscribe HERE.

If you'd like to view it before subscribing, go here: http://www.schmidgalls.com/newsletter

Enjoy!

Eikon: what does it even mean

I flipped through past posts and don't think I've ever explained what "Eikon" even means and why we, well Tony, chose it.

There is a verse in the Bible that says that once we turn our lives over to God, we begin the process of becoming "transformed into his image." What does that even mean?

It's a long-term project to be sure, but over time, Christ-followers should in fact begin to look less like themselves and more like Christ.

On an ever-increasing basis, Christ-followers should be abandoning their self-seeking viewpoints and taking on heaven's perspective. They should be loosening the grip on self-centerdness that plagues this culture and instead looking for ways to serve others. They should be resisting the temptation to judge and seizing more and more opportunities to give grace instead.

That is what Eikon literally means in Greek. "Made in the image, or likeness of God."

This flies in the face of what our culture subliminally communicates every day. In an image-driven culture, why not reflect the only true image, that of Christ.

let it snow

Oh the weather outside is frightful - let's revise that to beautiful. We arrived in Edinburgh on wednesday looking out at this. Snow doesn't happen often in Edinburgh, so we savored it.

It was so nice to be picked up at the airport by our landlord, Sir Maxwell. How many landlord's pick up their tenants from the airport? We really love this guy.

Trying to adjust to the jet-lag when you're really sick is brutal. We laid in bed, wide awake, coughing and blowing our nose(s) until 6:30 this morning.

Despite the sickness, it's so good to be back. Both our emotions were mixed as we flew across the ocean. When you have so many close friends and family back home, leaving is never easy.

Within a few days of being here, we've been easily reminded why we love living in Scotland and serving this ministry.

Good to be home.

schmidgall party of two

My sister is a flight attendent for United Airlines, so we took our chances on flying stand-by. The only thing that's guaranteed when you fly stand-by is that it's always entertaining.

We waited until every passenger piled into the 777 headed towards Heathrow when we finally heard "Schmidgall, party of 2". I walked to the counter rather shocked that we got onto to a really full flight only to find out that there was only one more seat available in the entire airplane.

Reluctantly, Kate took it. I told her I'd see her on the other side, at some point.
As the gate was closing, they discovered they had miscounted seats and there was one available. They announced my name. When they announce you, it's the same feeling you get if you won something. My surname never sounded so good.

As I passed by my wife, who was sipping coffee with her legs stretched out in business class, I squeezed into a middle seat in economy next to a women who threw up 4 times. Not only that, the women next to her saw her spew projectile and it caused a chain reaction in my row. I held strong though.

Almost home.