I've recently had lots of opportunities to stretch my creative muscles in the design department. If you don't know me very well, design is really my first love - web and print design are really my bread and butter. Take a look at my most recent project below.

​Robbie Mackenzie, a youth minister at the Main Street Church of Christ in Springfield, Tennessee contacted me and wanted a logo designed for his new ministry: Missional Youth Ministry. I was more than happy to help him out. 

He wanted something that conveyed the idea of multiplying disciples, which was what MYM was going to be all about. He also wanted something simple and not complex and busy, and something he could use across a wide variety of formats from printed materials to web interfaces. ​

I played around with this idea intensely for almost a week. ​I did sketches, used 'MYM' in every configuration I could think of, and then, like it always, an idea hit me in the head with the simple stick. 

I was trying to evoke a symbol of multiplication and growing, and it was difficult. Then I go the idea to turn the two M's of MYM on their sides facing toward one another and use a complementary color scheme to overlap some slanted rectangles. So simple and so effective. 

​Robbie was very pleased. He now uses the logo on his website as well as on his Twitter account. You can follow him at @MIssionalYM. 

​If you have any design work you would like done, whether it be a website, logo design, flyers, or t-shirts, feel free to contact me at chad.landman@gmail.com. 

March is National Bible Haiku Month!

Not really. I just found all these in an old file and will be sharing them all month. ​

Enjoy!​

In the beginning

There was absolutely zilch

After six days? Loads

- Genesis 1

God made light and dark

Fish, animals and people

But why mosquitos?

- Genesis 1

Man made from the dirt

Woman made from the man’s bone

Gotta love spare ribs

- Genesis 2:20-22

​Michael Whitworth has written an excellent book entitled The Epic of God and it's all about God in the book of Genesis. I'm only halfway through the book and I think it's already fantastic (in fact, I'm working with Michael to use this book to develop a summer camp theme with his book!). ​Michael is a personal friend and college pal and I'm happy to support his great work. 

The big news today is that you can get The Epic of God FREE on Kindle today only. Just follow this link to buy it for $0! ​

Free is always good for anything, and it's even better when you're getting a quality book like The Epic of God. ​Go get it now and tell your friends!

Albert Mohler has an excellent post on his site about Christian leaders who may be ignoring modern technology in their ministries. Very telling. ​

Leaders who talk about the real world as opposed to the digital world are making a mistake, a category error. While we are right to prioritize real face-to-face conversations and to find comfort and grounding in stable authorities like the printed book, the digital world is itself a real world, just real in a different way.

Real communication is happening in the digital world, on the Web, and on the smart phone in your pocket. Real information is being shared and globally disseminated, faster than ever before. Real conversations are taking place, through voice, words and images, connecting people and conversations all over the world.

If the leader is not leading in the digital world, his leadership is, by definition, limited to those who also ignore or neglect that world, and that population is shrinking every minute. The clock is ticking.

Article link ​→

Over a billion people (I still shake my head in disillusion at that number) use the social networking site Facebook. Everybody is on it. Even your mother. 

So why did Facebook explode in popularity, and most importantly, how does it keep people coming back? 

It's all about connection. 

Some people will argue that social networks are about nothing more than getting attention, not connecting to people. I disagree. It is the connection aspect that has helped Facebook get 1 out of every 7 people in the world on their site. 

But is too much connection bad for us? Is being too connected end up being to our detriment? 

When I walk in my high school class on Sunday morning, I usually see two things: 1) Kids sleeping because they stayed up way too late on Saturday night and Sunday at 10AM is just too early (hope you're catching the sarcasm here), and 2) the ones who are not napping are glued to their cell phones. Kids literally sitting right next to one another are checking Twitter and Facebook and texts on their phone instead of talking to the person they see once a week. 

These devices connect us more than ever before. We get news, weather and status updates at the speed of light and at our fingertips. Yet, I think we're farther apart from connecting with those around us than ever before. 

Take the grandmother I talked to after Thanksgiving last year. 

"I had all my grandkids over and you know what, all they did all day was have their nose buried in those cell phones." 

Kids are easy to pick on in this example, but it hits adults badly too. How many people have you talked to that don't hear a word you say in a 5-minute one-way conversation because they're texting someone else?

Just walk down the road in a busy city or go to a coffee shop and you know what I'm talking about. 

So how can we solve this problem? How do we reconnect with those around us? 

1) Just put the phone down or turn it off. I've heard the new trend with a group of friends at a restaurant is putting all your phones in a pile in the middle of the table, and whoever grabs theirs first pays for everyone. If no one grabs theirs at the end of the meal, then everyone just pays for themselves. I've even heard of a coffee shop in New York who doesn't allow cell phones or any devices on certain nights in order to promote conversation. 

2) Make a conscious effort to pay attention. Most time we don't even realize how much we're looking at the tiny screens in our hands and not paying attention to those right in front of us. It's flat out rude. 

3) Place a priority on human interaction versus digital interaction. Can something be done in person? Then make it happen. Have a cup of coffee or lunch…in person. 

We can all retake our human interactions back if we can just place a priority over face-to-face and not faces in our phones.