Artist Reformation Development

We are in the process of filing for official 501c3 status (non-profit organization).  We have legal representation from Andy Shawber, and we have some new executive board members. Dave Carter is our financial manager (not sure of his official title).  Joel Fariss is our second in command (also not sure of his official title) He has alot of experience in working with non-profits and is a freelance brand consultant.  Natalie St. Martin has also agreed to be a part of our executive board.  She is an amazingly gifted artist who is teaching art classes at Seattle Pacific University.  I am so excited to have all of these amazing gifted leaders on board.

As far as Arts center goes, We still don't have a name, however the team is growing. David Lawrence expressed interest in helping out.  I am planning on have a meeting with everyone interested sometime around the middle of may.  This will give me time to have something to present, and an organized structure to communicate.  I am really encouraged by the amount of vision, focus, and patience that God has been giving me in regards to this arts center.  We are pretty far out from having a space, but I am still really excited to get to work on building something like this.  

Just thought I'd drop a quick update.  There will definetly be much more to come. stay tuned! as always feel free to drop me an email or leave a comment if you have any feedback, questions, encouragement, or advice.  samueldavidhatch@gmail.com

moving forward

So things have been pretty busy lately at Mars Hill Church Downtown Seattle.

We did a showing of Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians.  It's a documentary about a team (community group) of christians that went to casinos around the country and took tons of money from a casino.  There was a Q&A afterwards with some of the guys on the team that help make the film, and a few pastors.  It was a great event, and I'm glad that it went off well.  

Coming up soon we are having easter at Benaroya Hall (an amazingly beautiful venue that seats 2500 people, it's where the Seattle Symphony plays) and there are a TON of logistics being worked out.  It's easy for more to get bogged down in the nitty gritty details of stuff and feel overwhelmed because of either lack of information, lack of volunteers to help, or lack of know-how in whatever it is that I am being asked to do.  Then I realize that God put me in the middle of a vast community of believers and ultimately it's his mission that we are all on, so we get to work together to get things done.  

Artist Reformation is moving and shaking as well.  Our current Executive board consist of: 

Jeff Bettger

Joel Fariss

Dave Carter

Andy Shawber

Natalie St. Martin

The lawfirm that Andy Shawber works for agreed to take us on as a pro-bono client, so we have legal representation which is awesome.  Jeff just signed all the paperwork in order for us to file as a 501-c3 (non-profit organization).  Once that clears, then we can officially start fund raising.  If you know any grant writers, I would love some help with getting some grants written for the city of Seatlle and state of Washington.  I got to touch base with someone involved in the Artist House aspect of our group, and I am excited to see the new direction that is possibly heading down.  

Please pray for the Arts Center, I only have a month left on my internship, and after that I will be a full-time server at Tutta-Bella, which will give me more time to devote to building the team, looking for a space, and just general direction and vision for it.  

As always feel free to hit the "donate" button on this page and give towards Artist Reformation.  At this stage we really need all the help we can get.  Also, if you have any advice or suggestions to offer me, feel free to either comment on this post or email me at samueldavidhatch@gmail.com.  

The ball is starting to roll!

two weeks ago a group of people gathered.  This group of people are artists who want to help other artists in a variety of ways.  

Cole and Luz Bratcher have rented a large house.  They have invited other artists (mostly those who are still in art school)  to live at their house.  They are building a community in which artists can live and be continually encouraged and challenged to create.  

Miguel and Whitney Aguirre (along with Brittany Swarthout) have started a women's dance class called 'Surrender Dance'.  "Surrender Dance strives to foster community among women in Seattle and support women throughout our city by promoting healthy living and freedom from bondage"(Surrenderdance.org) One of the things they spoke about was challenging our cultures concepts of beauty and encouraging woman to not look to societies ideas of beauty and self-worth.  

I joined forces with Jeff Bettger (who is now a Mars Hill Pastor!!) in his vision to open a post-college arts center so that up and coming artists would have a place to continue to work on their craft, learn, create, have a place to showcase their work, and feel welcome.  I know tons of musicians and artists who, because of the business of life after college, let their creative abilities and works slip into the realm of mere hobby.  Most become miserably complacent and accept the grayness of life.  We want to encourage people to continue to express themselves and grow creatively by offering a space, workshops, and shows to foster continual artistic expression.  

It was incredibly encouraging to be surrounded by people who are passionate about caring for creatives.  We are working with Joel Fariss who has worked with non-profits before and knows all of us.  Joel is schooling us on how non-profits are built and function.  

Basically we are applying for a group 501c3 and we will all function under the large umbrella non-profit.  Our next meeting is this saturday (2/11).  We will be discussing who we want to ask to serve on our board of directors as officers, and what we our name should be.

  I am really excited about what God is doing through all of our organizations and I would invite you to fervently pray for all of us as we move forward.  Everything that we are doing are things that God laid on our hearts, so pray that we would steward that well and that through these secular ventures that we would develop relationships with the people we are serving, and they come to know Christ through how we love and serve them, and not by shoving scripture down their throats.  

I'd also like to note that any donations that are made via Paypal from this blog will go towards opening the arts center.  so please pray and donate!  We also need a name.  So far I'm calling it the Fine Arts Center and abbreviating it like this:  F. Arts Center.  haha we need a better name.  and we need money, so if you could help with either or have any questions or encouragement please email me at Samueldavidhatch@gmail.com. Thanks again! 

put the lights on the tree.

God is good.  The weekend that I mentioned in my last post was INSANE!! All of the events were amazing, and God was glorified.

Throughout the process of building a giant tree out of PVC pipe and a hodge podge of christmas lights, I was incredibly anxious, frustrated, and full of stress and despair.  The tree was suposed to be done by tuesday of that week;  I didn't put the final touches on the tree until 1pm on Friday and the party started at 5.  Things just continually went wrong,  wrong materials, missing tools/materials, not enough guys to help.  I went to at least 5 different hardware stores throughout the span of that week.  As the ridiculousness of this project was becoming more and more apparent (a 30' tree on a roof built by volunteers....)  the more bitter I became towards leadership.  I finally realized that the reason that I was having such a horrible week wasn't anyone's fault but my own.  I was the one who was doubting that God would get glory through this, I was the one who was frustrated with my own lack of construction knowledge, I was the one who once again waited to close to the last minute to get the right people to sign on to this project.  In the end God led me to repentance and I got to light the tree with Dana Jill and just rest in the fact that God works despite our lack of trust in him.  200+ people came out to the Belltown Christmas tree lighting ceremony, a friend of mine proposed to his girlfriend on stage, and hopefully some people got to feel Christ love for them.

Thanks for the prayers and please continue to pray and if you feel led to give, Please click on the donate button!

quick update

So lots is going on, Just thought i'd swing by and give everyone an update.

 1st off:  There are big things happenin at Mars Hill Church Downtown this weekend,
              Dec. 1- Pastor Mark is preaching at the last Rainier Valley core group gathering before they launch on January 15th.
              Dec. 2-  We are hosting the Christmas tree lighting ceremony for all of one of the downtown area of Seattle.  and I am the head of a few of the teams that are working on stuff for this event.  I'm in charge of the team of guys that are building a 30' tall tree built on the roof.  I get to help make a backdrop for the stage that the musicians are going to be playing from, and make backdrops for the santa pictures.  and apparently I'm dressing up like an elf, go figure....
               Dec 3.-  The 3rd Annual Christmas Coat Lunch is today.  We will be giving away free coats, and lunches to the homeless, marginalized and downtrodden in Seattle.

Please pray that all these events would go off smoothly and that people would meet Jesus and experience his glory for the first time.

and in other news.......

I have a girlfriend, her name is Dana Jill.  She's is pretty great.  Loves Jesus, serves the church humbly, is adorable and awesome.  It's been alot of fun getting to know her, and I am so thankful that God put her in my life.

You can pray that God be glorified through our relationship and that God enable and equip me to lead us well.  that's all for now.  hope all is well.  I am so thankful for everyone that reads this or prays for me and I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

DONATE!

Hey everyone! So if you are very observent then, you have noticed a "donate" button on the right, underneath my picture.  I set it up through Paypal.  I just thought that if the Holy Spirit is moving you to help me out financially then that would be an easy way to give.  This is pretty crucial for me right now because as I look forward (which I've been doing alot of today) there are some things on the horizon that I am definitely trusting God with because it's apparent that I can't figure them out on my own and financial stability is one of them.  So I humbly ask you to pray for me, and if you are curious about any of my financial needs right now I'd love to talk to you more about where God is leading me, and how you can share in that mission.  I would be incredibly thankful.  Even if you aren't able to give financial I would still ask you to continue to have Mars Hill Church Downtown, Artist Reformation, Jeff Bettger, and me in your prayers.

Here's an update on the artwall.  IT'S UP!! It's 52 feet long (25 cubits) and 13 feet high (7 cubits).  The lettering on the wall is 2 1/4 feet tall.  Kacie Grice (my roommate) Dana Jill (more on her later) and I spent all day saturday putting this up and finished about 20 minutes before the saturday service started.  It was incredible getting to showcase just a small part of what God is doing here in Downtown Seattle.  I will write a more detailed entry about this later, I've got to run to my new community group.  Thank you for praying.  Also, if you read this blog feel free to comment on any of these entries.  I have a sneaking suspicion that it's only my parents that actually read this.  Love you Mom and Dad!!!

When it rains it pours

 So Seattle is done teasing me with amazing weather.  In the past few days I've gotten to know 'real' Seattle weather.  I took these photos about 10 minutes ago, and now there's sunshine outside.  When I get ready to leave Wheelhouse Coffee in about an hour it will more than likely be raining again.  To make it even more appropriate, Jon is playing Portishead in here, and it matches the weather all to well.  It was raining pretty nasty earlier, and as soon as I got to church it started raining in a different way.

My last post was about current projects that are going on at Mars Hill Church: Downtown.  The Art Wall project has been pretty much stalled for a while, and I found out today that the leadership wants this to go up this week.  I initially freaked out, because I am helping plan a party our community group is throwing on Friday, and there is still ALOT of work that needs to be done for the Harvest Party. So I am fairly low on bandwidth for other things.

So my initial response was stress and pressure.  I thought there would be NO WAY to make this happen by Saturday.  Then in an instant God reminded me that it's not about me and my abilities to get things done.  He reminded me that I'm not the one being glorified by any of this, it's him.

So what did I do with this refocusing? He put me in a community of people who have a heart to serve him in various different ways.   So, I reached out to the people around me, still expecting to get push back against helping me out because everyone is crazy busy right now, and despite my doubts, I have 3-4 guys that are going to help me paint the wall tomorrow, the photographer that I needed to resize and crop the photos is willing to labor pretty intensely today and tonight in order to get the photos ready, and the company that is printing the pictures said they can get them to me by Friday.  Please continue to pray that I remember who I'm working for and the fact that because God acted first we get to respond, not the other way around.

I am so relieved and comforted that the King of kings cares enough about me to remind me of how prideful I am daily.  I freaked out about this project because I knew that in my own abilities, time, and strength I couldn't get it done.  I fail time after time after time, but it seems like I so often forget these failures and the fact that on my own I can't do anything good, and through Him all things are possible.  (Philippians 4:13).