Sunday Set List//32// imageo...

The youthlings (called imageo) lead the worship today. Yippee! That is always fun! We are actually blessed to have two complete youth bands and growing.

HUGE band today 3 on vocals, two keyboards, two electric & one acoustic guitar, bass, viola and drums.

They particularly rocked "Fields of Grace". Love when the youthlings lead worship!

This is what the stage looked like... oh, but wait that is from behind!

Actually pretty fun stage design; but I need some time to put all the pics together. It will be up for creative fuZion this week. For some reason I was more excited about this one than normal.

Instrumental Opener - Fire

Worship Set 1

Fields of Grace

Famous One

W&G (Announcements) Evidently our staff is now having a competition of who is able to keep the announcements under 3 minutes. What a riot. Maybe we will be able to get rid of them soon...

Video: Worship - A New Day

Worship Set 2

Beauty of the Lord

Till I See You

Message: Lordship of Jesus: Tough Truth

The message today was on John 14: 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. " And submission.

Tough truth, tough message, taken well.

Worship Set 3

God of This City

The Wonderful Cross

How do you feel about announcements?

Come on over and hang out with worship leaders

(and those who worship with them) at Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set List blog carnival. Everyone is invited! This is being posted at the carnival.

gifting the called...

I never would have guessed a year ago that this is the place I would be. People often think that God "calls the gifted". While that may be true, I find He often "gifts the called".

Now that I have the beginnings of the ENHANCE team and someone to mostly take over the week-to-week that is focusing on “styling the stage”; one of the projects I am working on is building and developing a stage construction team. I guarantee you this is WAY out of my gifting.
Over the last 4 months or so, I have been talking to various people that have shown aptitude and interest in construction. One friend I talk to at Starbucks all the time, and a couple people who have helped on a building project at church.
Also working on writing interesting blurbs to post on our new website under opportunities to volunteer (along with blurbs for styling the stage, experiential elements, etc).
Going to start contacting the people that expressed some interest, set up an interest meeting.

Here are three of the projects I’d like to see implemented over the next 6 months.

Trusses:
Here is where one of my other projects comes into play. Back when I was talking about creating online communities that share ideas and help each other out…
I've been researching the concept of using trusses as a stage design for awhile. Then Josh Parrish posted a new set of photos on flickr creative elements design WAREHOUSE lab.
Clicked, read, communicated, researched
Asked him questions, he helped me out. Got some ideas how to start researching radio tower trusses.
Have my gal who loves to research stuff going on trying to find a local supplier for us to start pricing.
Started communication with the lighting crew. Working on joint team efforts for funding and implementation.


Trestles and Table:














A nice wooden table that could be used as an alter that fits together sort of like a puzzle. That would store flat.

Platforms:
Had the thought, multilevel staging. Started out as boxes, then moved to smaller platforms that would interlocking pieces for a base, and a hinged top. Since we are a mobile church we need to be able to set up and break down flat to load in and out each week.
Again, somewhere along the line I meet sparky and invited him to post on flickr creative elements design WAREHOUSE lab and creative fuZion lab and he submitted this idea.













For some reason when I saw his sketch, I was finally able to come up with this idea…
So, we will be working on this also.












Now do you see how all these pieces are starting to fall into place? What is God calling you to, will you trust that He will gift you for that calling?

PANIC!!!

Maybe not really, but...

I was out shopping at Wal-Mart this morning, checking out the fabric on the bargain table (used to be $1, now $1.50 a yard) and I got some really disturbing news.

Walmart's are getting rid of their fabric departments. Not just the bargain table, but the entire department. We use a tremendous amount of cloth when styling our stage.

So my dear Beth ( ENHANCE team member extraordinaire) and I are going on roads trips over the next two weekends. I figure there are about 17-20 stores within an hour and a half (each direction) from my house. Hitting all the Wal-Marts, depleting their (appropriate) remaining supplies of inexpensive fabric.

So, not really panicking, but have to roll out and stock up.

Now a shout out to one of fav friends...

Jim Drake, what are we going to do?

visioning the future...

Simultaneously I have been developing contacts with other people doing stage/set designs in various churches, both on the web and locally. This started because I simply wanted to connect with other people who were designing stage/set elements.
I researched blogs and flickr and started meeting people.
Looking, connecting, learning, sharing.
I started throwing up more details of what we have been creating and some people have been interested.
I haven’t really been able to find any groups that focused on this area (one sort of used to exist as a sub-group), but nothing that existed solely for the purposes of designing stage/set designs and other experiential elements.
So I created two groups.

One of them, flickr creative elements design WAREHOUSE lab is a group that shares pictures of their stage designs. I spend time searching and inviting people to join in this group.

I also created creative fuZion blog carnival on Thursdays. Again, I spend time researching and inviting people to share in this group. It's just getting started, but I truly believe it will explode someday as people share what they know with others who are just starting out. I have met some incredibly great people on this journey.

I have been trying to educate myself in various areas from EPS, holograms to radio power trusses.
Increasing my knowledge of various aspects of design elements so that I am able to at least share step by step instructions along with visuals of each project.
Also still trying to find other people willing to teach what they do. It’s why I ask people loads of questions when I see an element I am interested in.
I really want to create collaborative group of people with the technical knowledge to teach each other and to encourage other people to try their hands at styling their stages.

Also have a future concept of WAREHOUSE’ing actual set/stage designs, sort of where you are finished with a project and you are willing to give/share it with another church. That is still way down the road at this moment.

In addition to all of that, I am working on creative movement pieces (that interact with
Percussion elements, that reach out into the auditorium).
And coordinating with the lighting and media teams to plan future purchases with the focus on visioning future capabilities vs. just buying what we need to support or replace what we already have in place.
Visioning the future is a whole other ball of wax that I will have to manage downloading from my brain to paper.
I see our future, where it is leading and try really hard to work behind the scenes to encourage our people to work on designing from imagination instead of designing from memory. Marketing ideas, website design and more.
As I am writing this, I now understand why my brain is on overload. There are way too many things I dream about. I seriously need to find a way to be able to spend all my time working on this and hanging out at Starbucks.

Anybody know of a position that is available?

Come back tomorrow and see how all this chaos actually starts to fall into place...

great ad for church...

from a friend on facebook...


What say you?

creative fuZion lab //9// the leper's story...

Welcome to "fuZion lab" at designing for Philistines (on Thursdays)...
Once upon a time there was a blog kingdom where freaky creative’s could share the chaos created in their minds for THE Kingdom. Sadly, it went away.
Yet the creative minds keep blogging. Now there is a place to share all those creative elements again at the fuZion lab on Thursdays. So here’s what you do…
1. Each Thursday YOU post on your blog on whatever creative church element sparks your passion.
2. In your blog, link back to this weeks specific creative fuZion lab.
3. Then post the link to your particular post at the Mr. Linky below. (It will pop up in a separate window)
4. Then come back and comment. If you don’t blog yet, still feel free to share your idea in the comments.
5. Then off you go. Go back to the pop up window 'Mr. Linky" and visit other people’s ideas, comment and share. 6. Ready to begin? Here we go. Let the creative fuZion begin.
Spread the Word.
Dorothy (vicar of vibe)
_____________________________________




Message: People Jesus Met (Human Rejection)
This creative element was a video interpretation of the leper's story from Max Lucado's "The Touch of God", that our media team created.


A Leper's Story from CrossCurrent Ministries on Vimeo
Words can not explain how much respect I have for the creative minds I serve with. Particularly Bill Hombach. Not only is he freaky creative, he is an incredible artist, does awesome videos, writies amazing poetry and he also plays drums (and many things percussive) in the worship band. And he "gets me". Which means the world to me.He read this and drew the charcoal pictures.You are able to see more of his great videos on YouTube. Almost everything he has done is for church. One of the video's he did is a cult fav called "Barbie's House" with over 712,000 hits!

superfuZedtivty...

Andrew Hunt coined a great word...

"superfuZedtivty"

He rocks!

team building: engage and instruct…

My over arching plan for team development is…
These are the stages:
Invite, engage, instruct, empower and edify…
1. Do stage designs
2. Develop a team to implement stage designs
3. Train, grow leaders (duplicate myself)
4. Get styling the stage group up and running
5. Develop contacts of people interested in sewing, construction and 5S
6. Working on data base
7. Rinse and repeat…
After I get to know the person and extended the invite and they have taken that leap of faith to come try us out…
I find out if they have any interest in learning more, what kind of time commitment they are able to offer and then try to work around that.
Instruct…
A year ago, I was feeling so frustrated. I had offered to teach at our creative arts retreat.
I thought it would be neat to have a cool name for our group…
I designed a fuZe logo for a promo for the retreat…
I had thought about having tracks for people to follow to learn about various teams they could serve on…
But, I was the new kid on the block, they didn’t know what I was thinking,
This year they were ready…
Our team actually is using the cool team name, someone else came up with the idea and I got on board….
We are actually using the fuZion logo I designed last year…
It’s up and running on our new website (need to tweak, not enough info)…
This year at our fuZion retreat are doing track learning sessions…
I couldn’t be more excited. I don’t care how things get implemented. I am just happy when they are implemented.
I have a fun creative track designed for the ENHANCE team (new name, used to be pPod)
We are going to be learning about our personality types and how it works when we interact as a team.
Everyone who has expressed interest in the ENHANCE team is going to actually go through the design process up to and including preparing all the experiential and stage design elements at the retreat. We will be creating an experiential Passover Seder for 250-300 people.
The best part…the participants get to implement their element "hands on" that Sunday. I pray that they will feel the excitement of actually seeing the fruits of their labor and want to do more…

team building: the intentional invite (part 2)...

More importantly for me: As I meet people in life who are unchurched or dechurched simply get to know them and their stories. Then I find out if they have any interest in creative ideas (usually people like this are drawn to me). I call it Starbucks evangelism...
Various people I have met at Starbucks:

Woodwork artist (jewelry-furniture): Unchurched gal. Have a thought of a 7 foot tao cross I would like to pay her to create as a stage prop. Just waiting for the money, the right element to introduce the cross.
Metal artist (welding, etc): Dechurched. Same idea. I have some ideas of nice metal sculptures to grace the stage.
Construction: Two guys: one (Dechurched) does commercial housing and retail construction and the second guy (Unchurched) around does home improvement helping others, decks, etc. I have several projects on the burners. Looking to ask them to help in building storage cabinets, stage platform (that piece together like a puzzle and folds flat for easy storage), and stage flats. I am inviting this guy to the fuZion retreat. Either by scholarship or I will pay for him.
Musician (piano): Dechurched Jehovah’s Witness. Prodigy pianist. Plays everything by ear. Waiting for the right elements to include him in.
Animae artist (2): Dechurched. Haven’t figured out how to use them, except maybe designing some graphics for series. Hey, we just got a graffiti artist for our church involved in graphics.
Crafty (needlework): Churched, but very unhappy at her fairly traditional church. Does amazing needle work and really needs people to connect with. If I had had time, I would have asked her to needlework covers for the Seder plates for the Passover element coming up. Still working on getting way more lead time for designing elements. We are only designing 4-6 weeks out currently.
Drama, little theater: Young, dechurched woman I worked with at Starbucks. Loves little theater, particularly stage managing. Still working on getting her involved. Working on creating a volunteer stage manager for behind the scenes. As we do larger productions, there needs to be someone to control what is happening backstage. And someone to direct random volunteers that pop up on stage after church who want to lend a hand.
Costuming: Unchurched. Just haven’t found the right project yet. But, will somehow be involved with dancing and future dramas.
Dance instructor: Dechurched. Working on getting the right elements approved to get her involved.

Have you ever considered looking to invite the unchurched to become part of your team?

how God explodes...

When I started blogging, less than a year ago, I simply needed a place to download all the freaky creative ideas that thrash around in my head.
Then God goes and explodes in my brain...
It is an understatement to say I now spend 20-40 hours a week focusing on research and future visioning along with actual week to week implementation of stage design and experiential elements for our services, working with my team and creating new teams.
The thing about designing worship elements is that they keep showing up regularly, like clock work, every seven days and it’s Sunday again.
As I started to download my ideas, I realized there were three primary areas I thought about.
Styling the stage: stage/set designs
Experiential elements that involved all the senses in the worship experience (5S).
Marketing
So much has changed over the last year. I thought I’d share thoughts today on how this initial little thought about downloading my freaky ideas that were rumbling around in my brain into a blog; has exploded…

_________________________________________________

Team Building

I started on our creative team a little over a year ago. With no experience except participation in drama productions in high school and college, and a mind full of strange ideas. Some ideas just happen in my brain. Other ideas, I simply see during my web surfing and extrapolate out how to apply them to what we are doing. I find people who are doing it and then try to teach myself how to do it. I started alone and grew to four people fairly quickly. (Leigh Anne, Me, Genny and Beth)
Team building: the intentional invite (part 1)….
When people approach me at church with comments about liking some element they have just experienced. I immediately stop what I am doing and focus on getting to know them, asking them questions about what they like, gently see if they are interested and invite them to check it out.
People I have invited this way:
Sewing: This lady was drawn in because of the tabernacle experience. Her comment was, “when the curtains opened all I could think was that is a lot of yardage”. LOL. She was ready. She really wanted a way to connect and uses her talent of sewing. She has now completed two projects (a skirt for our on stage screen and a cover for the media cart where our monitors sit on in the lobby).
Sewing banners: This gal created this Judah banner. Want to use it for our upcoming Passover Seder element.
Graffiti artist: Simply been waiting for him to have the time. We finally got a graphic project for him to be involved with. Have several ideas as he has the time.
Experiential: Commented on our dances and the bread element. Just working on the timing.
New empty nester: working on the timing now.
There are several more that I am tracking.
Each of these people is being personally invited to our upcoming fuZion retreat.

I've been tallking to various people through out the year. Keeping track of them and have several new people that appear to be ready to start helping.

I sent them an e-mail inviting them to our big blow out fuZion retreat coming up in March.
I am printing out postcards and attaching a small gift to give to each person this week with a face-to-face invite.

I'm also working on a little thank-you gift for my peeps that have served so faithfully this year.

How do you meet new people for your team? Do you look for them or wait till they show up and ask to be on the team?

Sunday Set List//31//...

(major props to our graffiti artist GuelONE)

Worship Set 1
All Bow Down

W&G

Video: Obedience Referee (from the XC archives). Really goofy, starring one of our homegrown characters, Chuckie Swindler.

Highlight: Appalachia mission Trip

Message: Chris Campbell
The Lordship of Jesus (part 1)

Worship Set 2
Refuse To Be Denied
Give Me Jesus
Sweetly Broken
Mighty to Save

Stage set (more on creative fuZion Thursday)

I love when we mix up the OOS (order of service). Today we got four songs altogether at the end. We everyone was in the worship groove. Must say “Mighty to Save”, is one of our churches favs. By this time, people were really worshipping.
Great worship, great day and what a great God we worship!

Hello to all my friends that hang out on Sundays Set List Carnival Blog at Fred McKinnon's. Everyone come on over and visit...

Our new website (deux)…

Here I am with hat in hand…
I have a tendency to write exactly like I talk, I am apologizing publicly that I may not have expressed as much excitement for our new website as I am feeling…
So here goes:
I was actually first intro’d to SiteOrganic back in June of last year; I immediately fell in love and was on the band wagon. Even before we were in the market for a new company.
PTB (powers that be), is a process. It took awhile to work through all the various people, committees, but that is life in a church or any organization. The entire time, I was praying for us to be able to use SiteOrganic specifically.
They are an amazing company and IMHO, EVERYONE has been over the top helpful; I would highly recommend them to anyone out there.
I will always be completely honest here. But, you know the standard disclaimer: this is my personal opinion, not in anyway a reflection of my awesome church…
Also, simply know that if I didn’t like it, I never would have even mentioned it, and certainly wouldn’t have linked to. I would just continue to do as I have done for the last year
I am proud to say our website does now reflect who we are…
Thank you to all the dedicated people who worked so hard to make this happen. I’ll say it yet again, I am so blessed to serve with such incredibly talented and committed team.
So, here goes again…
(drum roll please)Our new website for CrossCurrent Ministries…
Powered by SiteOrganic.

what is ENHANCE...

Up until now, the team that implements the creative element staging and experiential designs has been called pPod. It just sort of named itself in the beginning. But, I’ve been trying to think of a more descriptive term, that people would better understand. Trust me, it is hard to explain the whole idea behind how we got the name pPod.

So the name has changed. But, the concept of what we do hasn’t changed.

ENHANCE (vision)…entice the skeptic, challenge the lukewarm and ignite passion in the believer (to go into the world)…

ENHANCE gathers together to express a common desire to create 5S (5 senses) experiential worship design. To ENGAGE all the senses into the worship experience. Visual, sound, touch, smell, emotions, movement, interactive. Everything is designed to glorify God and heighten the worship experience. We also just have flat out fun!

We welcome people that may be interested in helping with any type of experiential worship design. From creative design, execution and logistical set up. Can you laugh, sew, draw, do animae (yes, animae), woodwork, paint, do graphic design, hammer, operate a safety pin, stand there and cheer for others...then we want you to come check out ENHANCE.

picture is from sparky

This week I am going into some details how I got from starting a simply blog to what God has exploded into something beyond my comprehension...

Does your team have a name?

crying over Martha...

This morning...
I am up getting ready, running around, running in and out of the garage where everything is stored for stage set up for church, putting blots of cloth in a suitcase, getting my camera, grab the box of chiffon and the pPod bag and gathering all the other things to load up in my Escape, getting ready to run out the door head to the middle school to set up yet another stage set for Sunday. Need to remember to bring my laptop for the three meetings I have scheduled after the logistics set up.
One meeting on the new stage design items, we are looking at purchasing...
One on the Tennebrae service coming up...
Another on the Passover Seder we are designing...
Almost forgot to load my Bible.
Again, no one is going to be able to help do the stage styling. Just me...again...
Someone showed up unexpectedly. Her scheduled changed. Bonus!
Another Saturday, just like every other single Saturday...
Thank goodness I have a Starbucks doubleshot in the fridge (one less stop on the way to the school)
Checking my e-mail quickly before I head out...HL: Popstars and Prophets

Then I saw this...

Man did I needed this.
It made me cry...
I'm going to be a little late, but I need to go pray now...

What are you focusing on today?
_________________________
HL: Popstars and Prophets

this is absolutely sick...

Today, I've just been doing some blog posts for a series next week. I talk about team building, visioning for the future, all the crazy things I have been doing over the last year. Like starting creative fuZion lab blog carnival on Thursdays. Then lookie, lookie...


2nd 2009 Design from Andrew Hunt on Vimeo

I found Andrew one day while cruising through some pictures of stage/set designs on flickr. Encouraged him to blog. His designs are totally sick. Also invited him to join creative fuZion, and flickr creative elements deisgn WAREHOUSE lab.
Well, he just posted his submission for creative fuZion this week.

Check out the rest of his post. "Shift" stage design (and lighting). Me likey!

I dream about this day in XC's future...
This is exactly why I do what I do...

javalujah!

How in the world did I miss this?

What if Starbucks marketed like a church? - a parable...

HL: Tim Schraeder

rocking series graphics...

I tend to be very honest and straight forward. But, if I don't like something, I will not post it.
That is why you don't see me post very many of our series logo's. FORGIV3N3SS (David Spicer)was the last one I posted.
Here is our logo for the next part of our year long series "The Jesus Experiment". The background is a stock photo, the graffiti graphic overlay was done by the sick talented Guel Preston, graffiti artist extraordinaire.



















And just recently, this one created by the mad (multi) talented Bill Hombach. It so simply and clean.

I can't say it enough, I am blessed to serve with the best of the best!

Do you love your team as much as I do?

creative fuZion lab //8//Christmas Crescendo video...

Welcome to "fuZion lab" at designing for Philistines (on Thursdays)...
Once upon a time there was a blog kingdom where freaky creative’s could share the chaos created in their minds for THE Kingdom.
Sadly, it went away. Yet the creative minds keep blogging.
Now there is a place to share all those creative elements again at the fuZion lab on Thursdays.
So here’s what you do…
1. Each Thursday YOU post on your blog on whatever creative church element sparks your passion.
2. In your blog, link back to this weeks specific creative fuZion lab.
3. Then post the link to your particular post at the Mr. Linky below. (It will pop up in a separate window)
4. Then come back and comment. If you don’t blog yet, still feel free to share your idea in the comments.
5. Then off you go. Go back to the pop up window 'Mr. Linky" and visit other people’s ideas, comment and share.
6. Ready to begin? Here we go. Let the creative fuZion begin.
Spread the Word.
Dorothy (vicar of vibe)
________________________________________________________



XC Christmas Crescendo Element.

Finally the video of our Christmas Crescendo...



(Or you may link to a smaller version @ our new XC website: Christmas Crescendo.)
Here are the pictures of the stage design elements:


Here are the details of the action on stage.

Thank you for letting me share...

leper's video...

Message: People Jesus Met (Human Rejection)
The creative element was a video interpretation of the leper's story from Max Lucado's "The Touch of God", that our media team created.


A Leper's Story from CrossCurrent Ministries on Vimeo

Words can not explain how much respect I have for the creative minds I serve with. Particularly Bill Hombach. Not only is he freaky creative, he is an incredible artist, does awesome videos, writies amazing poetry and he also plays drums (and many things percussive) in the worship band. And he "gets me". Which means the world to me.
He read this and drew the charcoal pictures.
You are able to see more of his great videos on YouTube. Almost everything he has done is for church. One of the video's he did is a cult fav called "Barbie's House" with over 712,000 hits!

our new website...

You have never seen a link to our churches website in my blog until today. It has been very intentional.

Why? Because our previous website was “sucktacular”. Personally I was very embarrassed. Mostly because it didn't match up with who we really are at XC.

One of my main missions in life is to hang out with young pieced, tattooed, unchurched, disenfranchised skeptics. Who mostly tend to be GEND. A non-generational demographic tag I created that groups people by digitally enhanced/enabled media. There was no way I was going to send people to a website that screamed "early 90's and out of touch".

First, let me explain, it has taken us from start to finish about 8 months to final convinced the PTB (process that be) that our old website was completely outdated.

We just went live on our new website powered by SiteOrganic.
Disclaimer: Our people picked the template. The liaison from SiteOrganic has been so incredibly wonderful.
But, we now have a website and it is infinitely better than what we had. There is still a LOT of work to be done.

So, here goes…
Our new website for CrossCurrent Ministries…

(edited 2/22/09)

big butter Jesus...

Today's message is brought to you by Land O' Lakes.

I can't believe I haven't posted this before. O.k. I finally found it, I posted it in March 2008 on my first blog.
Terrible video. Still one of the funniest songs I've heard.


In southern Ohio, just north of Cincinnati
I beheld a vision, next to the expressway.
Was a 60 foot Jesus, with his hands in the air
looks like he’s carved out of butter, just like at the state fair.

Big butter Jesus
Sweet cream Jesus
Oh country fresh Jesus
Unsalted Jesus
Oh Promise Jesus
Imperial Jesus
Can’t believe it’s not Jesus
Oleo Lord

Well you see him from the chest up, like he’s about to do a back flip,
like he scored a touchdown, or maybe melting or about to drown.
Well I’ve been to the state fair, seen a cow made out of corn cobs
Garth Brooks made of string cheese and the virgin out of olives.

Big butter Jesus
Sweet cream Jesus
Oh country fresh Jesus
Unsalted Jesus
Oh Promise Jesus
Imperial Jesus
Can’t believe it’s not Jesus
Oleo Lord

Shipped in pieces on a flatbed, staring backwards was his big head
Driver stuck in traffic backups, desperately avoiding eye contact
Well don’t make no graven images.That’s one of the 10 commandments
I hope the grading curve is kindly, You get to heaven with a 90

Big butter Jesus
Sweet cream Jesus
Oh country fresh Jesus
Unsalted Jesus
Oh Promise Jesus
Imperial Jesus
Can’t believe it’s not Jesus
Oleo Lord

Can’t believe it’s not Jesus,
Oh spread the word

fuZion, the process...

I love the way God works.

We've been working on a series coming up in March, which is going over various areas of our lives that we need to submit to Christ.

I vaguely remembered a video I had seen about some sort of non-marriage commitment in bed which I thought was funny. Two of us searched diligently all over the place, for two weeks to try to find it.

Then tonight I was participating in Sunday Set List blog carnival at Fred McKinno's blog like I do every week, and one of the first links I followed Chris Moncus was sharing about attending lifechurch.tv (online) today. I just 'happened' to see another video he posted from lifechurch.tv ( a very funny series on Satan) which I had seen before, then I thought wait...that's where I saw it on lifechurch.tv.

Well, here is the video. Jus tposted it on our basecamp. Whew! Yippee!

Thanks guys. Thank you God!

people Jesus met (part 3)...

Worship Set 1
Holy is the Lord

Welcome & Greet/ Announcements

Worship Set 2
From the Inside Out
Exalted (Yahwah)

Message: People Jesus Met (Human Rejection)
The creative element was a video interpretation of the leper's story from Max Lucado's "The Touch of God", that our media team created. The leader of the media team is a very talented artist (as well as having mad skilz with percussion). He read it and drew charcoal pictures.
We then spent a lot of time focusing on one of the orphanages we sponsor in Russia and offered people the opportunity to sponsor the remaining children who do not have sponsors at this time. Two years ago we sponsored 60 children (all the children at the orphanage at that time). Today about 30 additional children were sponsored. Man, I love my church family!

Leper Video (have to post later, hopefully by creative fuZion on Thursday.)

HopeChest
Orphan Video

Russia Missions - Arbazh Orphanage from CrossCurrent Ministries on Vimeo

Worship Set 3 (time of reflection while people prayed over the sponsor packages and registered.) Amazing Love
Holy is the King

This is part of the awesome sharing from worship leaders and others at Fred McKinnon's totally blitzed out Sunday Set List blog carnival.

fuZion/the process...

We are trying a new concept for our fuZion team; where we are taking the synopsis from our pastor for the week we are designing and creating a devotional to work through, the week prior to our design meeting on Tuesday evenings. Hopefully this will spark creative thoughts and ideas for the elements.
We are trying to prayfully prepare our hearts and minds around the concept before we walk in.
I won't normally do this, but I have wanted to create an experiential Tennebrae service for several years, so I volunteered to write the devotion for this and thought I'd share it with you. Here goes...

Tenebrae
fuZe devotional

The Experience:
The word ‘tenebrae’ is Latin for shadows.
The Tenebrae service is an ancient/modern element whose purpose is to recreate the emotional aspects of the passion story; so this is not supposed to be a joyful service, because this particular moment in time was not happy.
The purpose of the service is to recreate the betrayal, abandonment, and agony of the events and it is left unfinished, because the story isn’t over until the Resurrection on Easter.
Traditionally it is designed around the seven last sayings of Christ as recording in the Gospels and ends in darkness and silence.
It is truly intended for people to experience the darkness before the light of the Resurrection.

Let’s take time to experience that emotion and remember…
Please click and watch “Why” (Nichole Nordeman)
At least through 5:51, through the moment when God’s very own tear falls to the earth.



The Word:
Particularly since the seven last words of Christ are spread out through all four Gospels, please take time, read and pray through these scriptures: Matthew 27:45-55, Mark 15:33-38, Luke 23:33-46 and John 19:16-21, 25-30. Pay particular attention to the words Jesus spoke on the cross and reflect on what they may have meant.

Lette(RED)

"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Suggestion: Forgiveness)
"I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." (Suggestion: Hope)
"Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." (Suggestion: Care)
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Suggestion: Loneliness)
"I am thirsty." (Suggestion: Suffering)
"It is finished." (Suggestion: Triumph)
"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." (Suggestion: Reunion)

The Why?
One of the hardest concepts for skeptics to comprehend is “what was the purpose of the crucifixion”. How do we reconcile that thought ourselves?


How do we design an element that helps the skeptics (and seeker and believer) understand why it had to happen?

fuZion retreat...

Come experience the "fuZion"...

There are hundreds of pieces that fuZe together to create the worship experience on Sunday morning. This weekend you will explore how you personally can be involved in the design of these elements. From the worship team, lights and sound to the set design team called ENTICE you can step in and experience what is like to serve on one of our creative teams.

ENTICE Hands-on Breakout Sessions:
ENTICE team creates the experiential elements and stage designs.

During ENTICE you will craft an authentic experiential (interactive) worship element. This element is a fuZion of ancient/modern worship. We will create the entire experience from the design of the element - all the way through the implementation on Sunday morning.

Friday evening: Worship and Intro

Saturday morning: How We Design
Saturday afternoon: Hands on Creation
Saturday evenig: Go home and rest

Sunday morning (early): Putting it All Together

The cost is $75.00 (which includes lodging, breakfast and lunch on Saturday).

We will be staying at the cottages at Meadowkirk Retreat Center in Middleburg, VA. (about 20 mins. from Leesburg, VA).

Please RSVP to melaniemoore@crosscurrent.org.

creative fuZion lab //7// simple packaged - homeless man

Welcome to "fuZion lab" at designing for Philistines (on Thursdays)...
Once upon a time there was a blog kingdom where freaky creative’s could share the chaos created in their minds for THE Kingdom.
Sadly, it went away. Yet the creative minds keep blogging.
Now there is a place to share all those creative elements again at the fuZion lab on Thursdays.
So here’s what you do…
1. Each Thursday YOU post on your blog on whatever creative church element sparks your passion.
2. In your blog, link back to this weeks specific creative fuZion lab.
3. Then post the link to your particular post at the Mr. Linky below. (It will pop up in a separate window)
4. Then come back and comment. If you don’t blog yet, still feel free to share your idea in the comments.
5. Then off you go. Go back to the pop up window 'Mr. Linky" and visit other people’s ideas, comment and share.
6. Ready to begin? Here we go. Let the creative fuZion begin.
Spread the Word.
Dorothy (vicar of vibe)
________________________________________________________




Creative Elements this week at XC:

This creative package should be fairly easy to recreate.

Focus: People Jesus met: in pain; compassion healing; how should we (how did Jesus) meet people with compassion.

The seed of this element was sown out of a real life person named Steve, who hangs out in front of my Starbucks. I have always wondered how people would react if Steve showed up in a church. He sleeps in the park, is dirty, smelly and his hands are beet red and swollen to double in size due to being in the last stages of severe kidney failure. We contantly have to kick him out of the store bathroom, where he shoots up and leaves his needles.
Yet we try to treat him with dignity and respect.

We used an actor (from another church) to portray a homeless man. Grubby faced, scraggly beard and wild, unkempt hair, he sat on the bench with his shopping cart outside the front door of church (we meet in a middle school) as people entered today. He purposefully wouldn’t interact with people.

We had a "handler". Like the "handlers" that work with Disney characters. He would intercept people at points, as needed.

Very interesting to see peoples reactions. It was one of those elements that would either fly or fall flat on it’s face. It flew. People where talking to him, praying for him, bringing him food, offering help; one man wouldn’t even go into the service, he didn’t want to leave him.

Our pastor, Chris Eads started his message standing in the middle of the auditorium, reading a passage from "In His Steps (What Would Jesus Do)" by Charles Sheldon, written in 1898. This is really a classic must read. The "homeless man" was sitting near him. As our pastor made his way down to the front of the auditorium; the homeless man followed with his shopping cart.

Big impact.

Later in the message Chris had a interview Of two men in our congregation who used to be homeless. Two incredible stories.

We have an amazing congregation.

How do you think you would have reacted to a homeless man sitting in front of your church?

write love on your arm...

I don't do facebook aps anymore (who has time). But I have to say I support this effort.
To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA) is a great rescue organization aimed at increasing awareness and connecting people who suffer from self injury, drug addiction and depression with help and support.
It is an amazing group that developed around the real life story of Renee Yohe.

They are simply asking you to write the word "love" on one of your arms on Friday, February 13th- Saturday, February 14th, in support of this cause.
Read about it and then make up your mind.
Me, I am writing "love" of my arm this week.

the Deep...

Once a month we have started a new evening service called the Deep.
No message, just deep worship, prayer, reading of scripture (as people feel led) communion, very unscripted...
Here is the set list from this weeks service.
Mighty to Save
Breathe
You Are
Indescribable
Be the Center
Isaiah 43
Be Thou My Vision
Mighty to Save
Amazing prayer this week...

people Jesus met...

Creative Elements this week: The focus was on People Jesus Met. We had an actor (from another church) portraying a homeless man, who sat on the bench with his shopping cart outside the front door of church as people entered today. He purposefully wouldn’t interact with people.
Very interesting to see peoples reactions. It was one of those elements that would either fly or fall flat on it’s face. It flew. People where talking to him, praying for him, bringing him food, offering help; one man wouldn’t even go into the service, he didn’t want to leave him.
We have an amazing congregation.

Worship Set 1
O Praise Him
Sing to the King

Welcome & Greet
Video: He Is Here (Amena Brown)
If you have never experienced Amena Brown, you really should take a few moments to check her out. She is amazing with spoken word.

Worship Set 2
How Great Is Our God
(chorus) How Great Thou Art
From the Inside Out

Testimonies: Of two men in our congregation who used to be homeless.
Message: People Jesus Met. How do we respond like Jesus.

Worship Set 2
Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)

Heading out to "the Deep" this evening.

This is a small part of the bog carnival, Sunday Set List over at Fred McKinnon's blog. Check it out...

creative fuZion lab //6//the process...

Welcome to "fuZion lab" at designing for Philistines (on Thursdays)...
Once upon a time there was a blog kingdom where freaky creative’s could share the chaos created in their minds for THE Kingdom.
Sadly, it went away. Yet the creative minds keep blogging.
Now there is a place to share all those creative elements again at the fuZion lab on Thursdays.
So here’s what you do…
1. Each Thursday YOU post on your blog on whatever creative church element sparks your passion.
2. In your blog, link back to this weeks specific creative fuZion lab.
3. Then link your particular post at the Mr. Linky below. (I'm working on the Mr. Linky's)
4. Then come back and comment. If you don’t blog yet, still feel free to share your idea in the comments.
5. Then off you go. Visit other people’s ideas, comment and share.
6. Ready to begin? Here we go.
Let the creative fuZion begin.
Spread the Word.
Dorothy (vicar of vibe)
________________________________________________________

Taking this one from the ground up.
And I mean very literally.
The brainstorming is around a 5 weeks series. Beginning the last weekend in February.
The working title is "Lordship of Jesus Christ"
Stage set is building up to a wall of boxes with photos on it; sort of think of one side of a Rubik's cube.
Each week we will add box(es) to the stage design.

The final week there will be a total of 9 boxes in the design stacked into a wall.











Week 1: Surrender/submission.
tug of war...
possible dramatic sketch of two people tugging against each other. Writing team working on this with the youth possibly acting it out.
This week will simply be one image.
Which we will attach on a box (24" x 18")














Week 2: Tough Love
Going to finally use a dance piece done to secular song "Bleeding Love". It will be done in the same hip-hop style (not as sensual obviously) as this clip from the show "So You Think You Can Dance" which was the inspiration for this element. The whole "heartbeat" feeling will be emphasized and linked to the tagline "You cut me open and I keep bleeding..love."
This is an element that I have had in the hopper since June, since I saw it on "So You Think You Can Dance".


Adding one new box and using a different side of the first box.
These two images.

This image was found at Flickr: Shared Worship Background Graphics group. You have to weed through a lot of stuff, but there is some really nice work that is open for sharing. These images were created by kennylovesbetsy's.

This week the images will be put in a computer program that will "cut up" the image and then blow it up and we'll printed out. Then we will attach the image it to the boxes.

Each week the appropriate boxes will be on stage for the pastor to interact with.

Hope this makes sense.

What elements are you creating or dreaming about this week?

this is why..

Excerpt from an e-mail from our worship leader about this past Sunday...

"There was a 20 yr old girl in the service and today was her first day ever in church.
She has never been to church before in her life.
Well, she was so moved by the creative element that she has started asking questions about God to the family that she came to XC with.
This is why we do what we do..."

we hold loosely...

I am being really honest here.One of the keys of designing creative elements is that we hold loosely our ideas...
But I am also recognizing that there are times that we must forge ahead, despite what other people say. This week was one of them.
I often struggle with what other people say and their reactions.
One comment this weekend was "when 5% of the business negatively impacts the other 90% of my business...I eliminate that 5%."
It was directly related to the fact that we were again changing the location of our projection screen. Placing it in the middle of the stage, which causes major issues with the band and the lighting.
Well, it feels like that 5% always seems to come down to the creative element.
Please don't get me wrong. Worship is extremely important to me.
The series is People that Jesus Met...
Our creative element for this week was People that Jesus met in train wrecks...
The idea was to highlight TWLOHA (To Write Love On Her Arms). The seeds of this organization was sown around the rescue of 19-year-old Renee Yohe, who struggled with addiction, depression, self-injury, and attempted suicide.
The team appeared to be lukewarm about the idea. But we went with it.
Most people didn't know what I was talking about. Only the very youngest on the creative team.
The element was a short dramatic reading of an edited version of Renee Yohe's story. Then an interpretive dance of the song "Theme for Yohe".
I often struggle with this. I never know when I go into these uncharted waters of design...
I simply trust God...try to humbly lay the ideas back at the feet of God
Trusting Him to work in peoples lives. If I never know the impact, I'm o.k. with that. But it is really nice to occasionally hear affirmation that an element really impacted people's lives.
You see, it's not what we like or don't like.
It's not what we understand or don't understand.
It's lives that are changed.
Again I strongly believe that our "job" it to usher people into the presence of God.
We should be designing to entice the skeptic, challenge the lukewarm and to spark passion in the believer...
This week it worked.

literally empty...

I decided to have a digital fast this week. Trying to refocus...


Then I got hit with a virus. It completely wiped out everything on my computer.


Many lessons learned...


I am not a very organized person, so I hadn't saved anything.





I am slowly realizing just how much of my world is on my computer.


Thankfully I started blogging to download ideas. Though there are many thoughts that were in documents and not posted...


All my photos, though some are on the web in various places. That one was tough. A least until a year ago, I was faithful about having my photo's printed in hardcopies. So, I am really just missing a years worth.


What I am missing are key. My dad's funeral, the last year of my grandbabies. Both of those I will mostly be able to recreate.





What I can't recreate is the last year photos of my dog who just died. No one cares about those phots except me.





E-mail isn't working just yet. I really hope that I don't have to start over getting e-mail addresses.


itunes...are all those songs gone or am I able to download them again?



Starting over with an empty computer...


Just like when we turn our lives


our life is an emplty slate


the empty slate, my life...


remembering what is important





when we create ideas for God's kingdom, we have to hold them loosely in our hands. For they are not really ours. it is something that we talk about a lot in our creative team.

vibe...

vibe...

gut reaction...
physical...
distinctively emotional,
experienced instinctively...
yet intangible...

so difficult to define
yet it is a it's a very specific moment in time...

that catch in the throat

that moment of connection between what is happening on stage and the the breaking down of the forth wall...

Do you feel it?

TWLOHA...

Worship Set 1
Blessed Be Your Name

Welcome and Greet

Worship Set 2
Lead Me To The Cross
Hosanna


Her name is Renee...this is her story
(dramatic reading)
Dance: A Time For Yohee (Between the Trees) lyrics
silouetted dancer behind the projection screen. Superimposed over a red'ish motion loop.
To Write Love On Her Arms

Message: People Jesus Met
Christ's demonstration of mercy to people He met who were train wrecks by personal choice.

Worship Set 3
From the Inside Out
into
Be Lifted High

This is one small contribution to the Sunday Set list blog carnival at Fred McKinnon's blog. Check out what other people are singing in worship this week.