love God, love others...

Our current series is "love God, love others, serve the world" We are trying to brand this purpose statement in people's minds. Last week we were focused on "love God"...

An advantage to being mobile, is that you don't feel locked into a stage design once it is set up. Since the stage has to be struck each and every week, you feel more freedom in tweeking the design.

We want to keep the purpose statement in order, and each week bring to the forefront the portion being discussed.
This week we are focused on "love others"...
So that banner was rasied higher.
And I utilize whatever I am able to find to work with.
For example last week and this week, I used the tech carts to lift the banners higher. I also used the containers that the drums are stored in. LOL. Then I have to furiously take everything down so the techs and band are able to reach their carts.

love others...

Well, our worship and tech team were fired up this morning. We spent Saturday night listening to Russell Fragar (of Hillsong fame). This week we had two worship leaders on stage. Each worship leader sort of has a niche. I categorize them into mostly “current”. “retro” and “vintage”. This week is a some current songs & vintage (hymns). We also had our violinist playing.

Worship Set 1
One Thing

Worship Set 2
You Are Good
Beauty of the Lord
Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow


Message: “love others...”

Worship Set 3
In Christ Alone

How would you define your worship set lists?

This week for the stage design we obviously wanted to highlight the "love others" banner.

All this and more being posted over at the Sunday Set List @ worshipcommunity.com.

are you having a great time serving...

Saturday evening, we were so blessed to have Russell Fragar come and share with our worship(both adult and youth) and tech team. It was such a wonderful evening of food, friends, worship and encouragement.Russell served as Music Pastor for the Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia from 1989-2001, back in the days of "Shout to the Lord" and Darlene Zschech. He now lives in Northern Virginia and is personal friends with one of our worship leaders.
He shared a lot of stories and tips, then answered questions.
Just one of his comments: “if you aren’t having a great time in the praise and worship ministry, you’re doing it wrong”.
There were about 30 of us gathered and we were really glad we went out.
Needless to say, those of us who attended woke up at our normal 5:00 a.m. to get ready for worship set up were fired up. It was such fun to be able to serve and it spread to those who hadn't attended.

redemption....

Possible thought for Redemption Sunday 5 minute countdown...

some "free" stuff for worship media...

For those of you who remember...PowerPoint in worship or are just getting started using projected media in worship: we need to remember that there are churches all along the spectrum.

So I have been thinking of in the beginning; of being in transition from hymnals to projections.

Here are just a few great resources for various types of media. Both free and for purchase. If you sign-up for e-mails, some of the paid sites will occasionally send "free" media to use. There is a lot out there that people are willing to share.

Red Ferris Wheel

Motion Share

Worship Media

Igniter Media

Image Vine

Skit Guys

Muddy River Media

We have had amazing results recently with simply asking creators/designers of various videos that are posted on You Tube and Vimeo, if we could use their work in our worship service. They have been very accommodating. Remember to always ask for permission, for it is their work.

Here are just a few basic Graphic and Font Guidelines for media

So from static graphics to loops and videos, there is a plethora of media available to you.

silent servers...

It takes a lot of people to prepare for the Sunday morning worship experience. There are some who are creating during the week and then there are those who come in at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday to prepare the worship space.
Here are just a few that helped serve for this week. This doesn't included the person who got the ladder, helped me climb the ladder and put up the banners, took it all down and much, much more.
And that is just the beginning.
Thank you for serving!

love God, not kidney stones...

I love our worship leaders! This week was part 2 in our series of “love God, love others, serve the world”... The message today was “love God” and our worship sets really highlighted the message.

Worship Set 1
Our Love is Loud

Worship Set 2
Our God
Revelation Song
Only You
Message: love God...

Worship Set 3
Awakening

We will be focusing a lot on this series, which is also our purpose statement at XC. Our banners arrived this week. Printed on foam core. Looked really nice.

O.k. Got the love God; but kidney stones? Yup! I have been battling kidney stones for awhile. Got the stage all set up, but then I had to leave because of the stones. (sadness).

This is being posted as part of Sunday Set Lists @ the Worship Community. See what people are singing today across the nation.

worship wars...

I believe there is an inherent struggle for people to want to remain the same.

The people say: “What “we did” in the day is still current and relevant. “We want new people to come, yet just fit in and become just like us.”

The lines get drawn based on person's preferences.

What I struggle with is I see people pushing the remain in the past; which for us means late 80's and early 90's. It is ironic that these 30-40 somethings are becoming a graying congregation and they don't see it. I read a book in 2002, entitled “2020 Vision”, by Richard Hamm. It was very enlightening. It talks about how congregations are able to appear to be surviving well (a lot of it is based on the tithing habits of the founding members). Then those members start to die off and all of the sudden they realize there is no one left. What has happened was they didn't have a forward thinking vision to stay relevant enough to remain healthy in the future.

I keep saying that is it is God's will to remain stuck in the past (for this body of Christ), then that is what we are supposed to do. But if it is simply based on what “we want” or “we like”, then we've got it wrong. If you are passionate about following God, I believe you have to constantly step out of your comfort zone to pursue the higher ideal of serving God's vision. It all boils down to what God wants.

There is nothing inherently wrong with either traditional or modern worship styles.

If we listen to Him, we will continue to impact the world. But if we don't listen to Him, based on human nature, this “worship style” battle will continue to rage through the Body of Christ.

the video that went around the world (literally)....

So, this is the story of how a vid literally went around to world to finally wind up back home...We have a missionary named Jessica, who is now serving in South Africa. She has been a member of our community for many, many years.
She posted this video on fb a couple of weeks back. I clicked and loved it!
Passed it on to our teaching pastor for that week. He loved it!
Someone on our team got permission for the creators to use the video. They downloaded it and prepped our ProPresenter. Used it that very same Sunday.
This all happened in less than a week.


Later, I went to write a thank you note to Kelly and Niki Tshibaka, the people who created the video;
  and found out they they live here in Northen Virginia!
How about that!

inventory in a truck...

Resolved...to get a handle on what inventory, props, cloth, etc we have (for XC creative arts) and where it is located! Not so easy.First, some of the cloth.
Need to update the newer cloth purchases; schedule a fun, exciting day to roll out, measure, mark and re-roll and document all the cloth. Yippee!
Next, these are the random items that are in a truck at CFC's property.

Then, I need to get the the XC storage facility and document what is there...

we will see what happens...

Starting a new series. love God, love others, serve the world...
(smiling) Due to last minute planning (not on my part), the new logo (our purpose statement) have been created and made into banners and printed.
Didn't have any input. (still smiling)
They were not ready for this set design, so the pastor requested a simple living room set.
So this week it was our standard couch, end table, a light from Ikea and a little cloth.
Since the band was rather large this week, wound up hanging the cloth in the corner, safety pinned it around the school's American flag pole. Seriously.

Last picture: several times since we have been meeting in this middle school auditorium, the electric room divider has gotten stuck partway. makes for an interesting Sunday.
Thankfully I always have some sort of cloth in my car, so we roped off that section. LOL.
So, the banners are supposed to be here this week. I'll be really interested to see what they look like. They were described to me a little. We will see.
Still smiling!