Shawn WoodLet me introduce you to Shawn Wood. Shawn is a friend of mine on staff at Seacoast Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. He’s their Experiences and Creative Communications Pastor. Shawn is one of those guys that I like to hang around because he knows his stuff yet he’s humble about it. His first book is about to come out in the next few weeks, so I thought I’d see if he’d be willing to respond to a few questions. Here’s our conversation:

TONY: What’s your story?

SHAWN: In a nutshell, I am a follower of Christ trying my hardest to become more like Him every day.  A husband who loves his high school sweet heart 17 years later more every day.  A father who has been blown away by how much you can love a little princess and an Artist who sees pastoring, leading, writing, my small group and just living life as an act of worship towards a God who saved me when He did not have to.

TONY: Why did you decide to write a book instead of releasing an album?

SHAWN: That is actually a funny question because for most of my life I would have wanted to release an album.  In fact if your peeps at Integrity are interested you can give them my digits.  But the book is simply an outpouring of my story.  Writing a book for me was a chance to share personal stuff that could help others that one recent reader reviewed like this:

“I laughed a lot. I cried a lot. Then I laughed and cried some more.” –Shawn’s Mom

TONY: What’s the book about and what do pomegranates have to do with anything?

SHAWN: You are an Artist.  That would be the one floor elevator pitch for what I hope people would gain from this book.  If I had a few more minutes my hope is that people will realize that God is not waiting on them to become something they are not so they can do things they were never called to do, but that instead they will be the artist God has created them to be and do the things that they were uniquely created to do.

As far as Pomegranates, I actually heard a message in the early 1990’s that taught about the “lily work” and “pomegranates” that were carved into the tops of the columns at Solomon’s temple. It was one of those messages that just stuck like a good bowl of cheese grits. I have always had a bent towards the arts through music, design and building - my dad is a metal artisan so it just seemed to resonate with me. Then one day it hit me. This guys carved this stuff not as “art” but as worship. Art is usually viewed by people, but this stuff was 30 something feet in the air and no one would see it. I realized at that moment that we all have something to carve towards an audience of one.  I also thought that the inside of the Pomegranate looked like corn and I really like corn.

TONY: Does Greg Surratt eat pomegranates?

SHAWN: I actually experienced my first pomegranate at a message planning meeting with Greg at Seacoast a couple of years ago. I thought it was an onion. We were looking at the symbolism behind the pomegranate in scripture and most of us around the table had never actually eaten one so we had one as a sample and I did see Greg eat some.  For some reason the old testament dudes really liked them…I think it’s because they did not have Starbucks.

TONY: If you could hire anyone to be on your staff, who would you hire and why?

SHAWN: Barton Damer.  The dude lives the essence of an artist who carves pomegranates to God with his motion graphics work.  He is sick (I think that’s what the kids would say).  I am so honored to be working with him on some stuff now for Seacoast and to meet him in a few weeks at the ECHO conference in Dallas.  I would also hire you of course, but then you would probably have to fire me or something and it would get weird.

Shawn’s book, 200 Pomegranates and an Audience of One, officially releases on September 1. Here’s a sample chapter of the book, but go ahead an pre-order your copy today.

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