Guest Blogger: Creative Pastor, Larry Hubatka

Guest blogging for Pastor is like being invited to have dinner with a bunch of people you’ve never met. You really don’t know what to wear, how to act, or even what would be appropriate to say. So you end up working especially hard to make a great first impression and hope they invite you back when they all get together to watch 24 next week… or you just completely blow it, get blacklisted and become the story they all tell when they get together to watch 24 next week. We’ll see…

We recently posted “Open Source Christmas” on Pastor’s blog hoping the open call for Christmas series ideas would bring us something we could run with. Well, it did, and in true fashion, God went Ephesians 3:20 on us and delivered much more than just a great idea.

We received so many suggestions that I’d say the experiment was a success. And here are a few notables and the actual series we decided to go with (if you don’t see your series idea listed here, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t great–in fact, lots of great ideas didn’t make the cut–it just means I’ve only got so much space before Pastor bans me from guest blogging because my posts are 8,000 words long):

Most Thought-Out Series >>> Jerry Christmas
This series would be a spin-off of the Jerry Springer Show and the guest on the show would be people from the Christmas story. The first episode guests would be Mary and Joseph and Mary is about to tell her fiancé Joseph that he is not the father of her baby.

Best Series I Don’t Think We’ll Ever Do >>> Madonna Christmas
This series would be built around Madonna songs (yes, that Madonna): Like a Virgin, Holiday, Like a Prayer and Open Your Heart.

Series That Made a Strong Run >>> Re-Gift, Chosen, A Christmas Carol
Re-Gift-a series on “re-gifting” Jesus
Chosen-a series on finding significance as someone chosen by God, just like Mary was chosen by God to bring Jesus into the world
A Christmas Carol-a creative spin on Christmas past, present and future

And the Winner Is >>> Presence
A giant thanks to Tonda Solomon from Ridgeview Church in Franklin, TN. I realize this series has been done before, but the timing of it works well for us. We could go a lot of places with this as a starting point and we think it’s going to be a perfect series for Christmas.

As a closing note, we thought the experiment of having an “Open Source Christmas” turned out very well. So well in fact, that we’re planning on putting all of our identity elements for the series online when they’re available making them available to anyone that would find it helpful.

So as soon as they’re ready, you’ll be able to download all the print pieces, motion graphics, bumpers, lower thirds and anything else we come up with for the series… making it a true “open source” Christmas for everyone.

Thanks again, we’re already looking forward to doing it again.