BIG shout out to God...

This is a BIG shout out to God!!!!
God often gives me big visions. Things that are absolutely impossible to do in my own strength. I see it, I jot it down, dream about, I talk about it and pray. I've learned not to be impatient, I continue to pray and just simply wait on God to provide.

Some of the things I have been praying for this year:

Sewing: I don't sew at all. We use a LOT of cloth and there are so many projects that needed someone with sewing skills. God sent Emily. Just one of the projects she has done was to create a skirt to go around our media cart in the lobby. We used to safety pin two table clothes and it looked pretty tacky. She has worked on several project since, including some costumes for our drama team, and some little tubes, which I will be using in stage designs later in the year. Emily is our sewing miracle.

Experiential Elements: I love what I do. I love styling the stage, but one thing that really floats my boat is experiential elements. I dream of incorporating all the senses into the worship experience. Breaking down the "fourth wall". Adding more take-aways. Things that people are able to take home with them to illustrate the sermon or worship experience. I have managed to add some of these elements over the time I have been serving, but I'm often constrained by the week in week out stage design. I have been praying for someone that truly has a heart for stage design. And God sent me Allison. She is amazing. She loves this. And the coolest thing is, Allison also like the experiential elements, breaking down the fourth wall concepts. And she really, really wants to serve. Allison is my "heart" miracle! Next...

Construction: I have had these construction project ideas for awhile now. One idea is for a portable table. Another concept is to build portable risers to create different elevations on the stage for the band members. So really recently a guy named Gordan approached our worship and creative arts staff person and said he felt God was really calling him to offer his construction skills to our team. He came to our meeting last night. Yippee! We chatted last night and I shared my ideas and he is off and running. And he fits right into our crazy cretive team.

3 visions
3 prayers
3 answers

But you know what is even cooler? I know that these people aren't here simply implement little ideas I've had. I had little visions and my job was to pray these people into our team. I see in Emily, Allison and Gordan people who will bring so many of thier own "God ideas" to the team.

How cool is that?
One other vision I have is big and hairy. Just so you know, I have been praying for several years now for somebody(s) who write grants. I fully believe that this person is out there. In fact I believe they are already in place and God is working on their hearts. They are longing to find that perfect place for them to serve.

God simply ROCKS!!!

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

pub theology...

The tap is open, and the beer flows...Sunday Night Football and "Caddyshack" alternate on more than a dozen TV screens. And a jovial crowd of mostly 20-somethings laugh and talk over bottles of Bud Light.
It's not an unusual scene in Broad Ripple, epicenter of Indy's young adult club crowd. And when the band appears -- shaggy-haired, body-pierced and colored with assorted body art -- it's a safe bet that things are going to get loud and rowdy.
But by the chorus of the first song -- "What if God was one of us?" -- it becomes clear that this isn't your usual nightclub scene. read more...

innovate09

Often we think we can't recycle thoughts and ideas for worship, everything must be brand new... listen to these songs using the very same four chords


What used to be true...

and clap hands...

for just a couple...

creative fuZion lab //32// flying windows…

Who knew that flying things in the air could be so much fun? Think about it; you start with a completely empty stage, two hours later you have a slamming stage design. One day it goes up in about 2 hours, the next day it all comes down...six days later you do it all over again.

flying the windows: second week, same as the first with tweeking.

As mentioned before we used a heavy duty gauged wire with hooks and couplers to fly the windows. This week we needed to fly the windows higher. And we also noted that we needed to mark which window went on which side of the stage. LOL. We simply marked them with a sharpie on the bottom.

learning curve on flying the photos:

The pictures were printed on 3’ x 5’ foam core. Learning from previous experience; we added a piece of gaffers tape on the back of all the corners and then we gorilla glued the protective plastic corners (that came with the photos) onto the corners.

Then we drilled small holes on the top two corners to thread the fishing line through.

We threw the fishing line over the ceiling light trusses, threaded the fishing line through the photo itself, made loops then fastened the loops together with a safety pin on the back side.

This way we were able to adjust the photo’s angle by simply moving it back and forth on the fishing line, sort of like a clothesline.

See the last picture. This worked infinitely better.

Again, it all comes down on Sunday. Then six days later, we will do it again.

We also had a drama this week. That’s why there are trees and chairs on stage. Very funny. Written in house. You are able to view the drama here.

testosterone...

Sex is really big deal, especially for men...watch as Mark Gungor charts a man's testosterone levels through out life.

Very, very funny...
But, like with most things it makes me think about God. That may sound a bit sacrilegious to some but; hear me out.
Men are passionate about sex (a lot of women too)
People are passionate about sports, hobbies, t.v. shows, you name it...

I often wonder why aren't people as passionate about God?
Do you wake up, not thinking about anything but God?
Do you whisper those words God loves to hear "Hey God, are you awake?"
If you were to chart your passion level with God, what would it look like?
video HL: Prophets and Popstars

xtranormal is fun...

xtranormal.com is a text to video application. I thought I'd post one to invite people to come try out the ENHANCE team on my facebook page. I also made one for the lighting team...

creative fuZion lab //31// imperfect church...

Wow! flying decrepit windows, awesome flying pics that tell a story, all to illustrate the imperfect church- a story of hurt, pain and hope!
Here we go...a new series.
The series is imperfect church... hopeful story of redemption!
-We did our promos, marketing and creative element (still waiting for the video to be posted) based on a run down decrepit church. It is really cool looking. I was very excited because it was so well branded across the board. That has been one of my goals.
-Someone donated old windows (thanks Bill and fam). We drilled two sets of the windows together, broke out some of the glass and used heavy duty wire and couplers to fly the window sets from the trusses above the stage.
-We didn't used the colorful plexiglass that is pictured here. It didn't really fit in with the rest of the design. After spending several hours going to the storage locker, having to cut off the old lock, rumbling around in the messiness and going to go get my husband to bring his truck because it wouldn't fit in my Escape...ah, the things we do.
-The photos were printed at Kinkos, on 3' x 5' foam core. Very expensive.
-The last pic are some notes for next weeks set-up.
Notes:
-It's interesting to have the pastor sitting in on our brainstorming and selection process; we get to actually spend church money. Most of the time I am limited in stage designing to what my personal pocket can afford. Currently that is what I am able to gift above my tithe. I am not complaining, I choose to do this freely, but I find it interesting that people are all like Oooohhh! This is so great! (We need to do more like this.) Maybe I should start asking for donations... Of all the arts at our church; this is one (of a few) that changes almost every week.
-Interestingly enough we had lots of help (extra hands) last week with this intense stage design; now this week we are going to have to duplicate the same design with me (the fluffy grandmothers whose fam won't let me climb ladders anymore) and a really tiny gal. Maybe others will pitch in and help.
-I also got to produce this weekend. It was one of those days-every single element just flowed together in perfect harmony.
-There are more details in my last two blog posts on the worship sets, order of service and the really exciting news!!!

Great weekend!

the best thing...

Everything I do is geared to my life's mission

love God, love others, it's simple...

Why I do what I do (styling the stage, production, etc) is to

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

This young lady (in the picture above) is a friend I met four years ago while working at Starbucks. We became friends. She had walked away from the church of her youth and God. Completely dechurched. We lost everyday contact, but every now and again, we would touch base, have a cup of coffee and catch up.

She hit me up on fb about 2 months ago and said she wanted to talked about God. We met for lunch and chatted. I invited her to come play with me on Saturday doing a stage set and then come visit CrossCurrent. She has been running back to God ever since.

She loved stage designing (in fact this weeks design was hers); and over the course of two months she has become active and we've had many heart to heart conversations. It has been such a exciting adventure.

After a Core Community meeting last night (kind of like a congregation meeting), we sat in my car and talk for about two hours. The conversation turned to a point where she shared that she was unsure if she was a Christian, and what that really meant. Last Tuesday in her car, after her first creative team brainstorming she gave up her life to God. I simply confirmed what she now believed. In all of her years going to church, she had never been given the opportunity to confess her faith.

People have so many misconceptions about what is needed to become a follower of Christ. We forget to tell them how easy it is to step into salvation. We forget to offer them the opportunity to cross the line of faith.

THIS is why we all do what we do...we may never be able to see the fruit of what we do. But, this is why. I would do this with all of my heart even if I never saw a life changed personally. But God gave me a giant gift last night. He allowed me the honor and privilege of walking with a person into new life.

Sweetheart, welcome into the Kingdom of God. I love you so much, but God loves you even more...

Thank you God for allowing me to be Your instrument of love!

Now it's time to don my green apron and off to Starbucks again, maybe I'll make a new friend today...

imperfect church (part 1)

Did you ever have one of those really, really great Sundays?

This was one of those days from start to finish - every single element flowed together in perfect harmony.
People came ready to worship today.
And the worship team, knocked it out of the house!!!!

We are started a new series, and the creative element was one of the best I've seen us do in-house. I hope to have it posted a little later this week. But you can get an idea from the promo video here.

But, the very best thing that happened is a wonderful friend has became a new believer! This is why we do what we do...nothing else matters in the scheme of things.


Worship Set 1

Our Love is Loud

Not to Us

Welcome & Greet

Video (creative element)

imperfect church

Special Song

Bring On the Wonder - Susan Enon

Message

Testimony

Worship Set 2

Better is One Day (On Fire chorus- Switchfoot)

Holy, Holy, Holy

Join in and check what other wl's are doing across the world at Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set List blog carnival.

10 thousand doors…

One of my favorite things to do is think creatively, bounce ideas around with my brother who is in advertising. He is a professional; I am simply passionate about it.
So, my awesome brother sent me this link to 10 THOUSANDDOORS… on fb.
It’s a must go to…

The concept RETHINK CHURCH What if church wasn’t a building, but a thousand doors? In one word brilliant.

The site is easy to navigate. Using a twitter feed is culturally relevant, though I was thrown a bit when I clicked, because I wasn’t expecting a twitter feed.

I physically felt drawn to enter into the doors. I wanted to find out more about the random doors placed in the middle of a park across from the Capital, overseas, at a building site…

I particularly am fascinated with the concept of keeping the UMC logo small. It bothers me when anyone gets all “splashy”, including churches. It reminds me of “Make My Logo Bigger Cream”

“Splashy” no – branded yes. I saw it almost immediately.

IMHO the UMC denom is one of the very few denoms that has actually successfully re-branded themselves well in recent years. This website is proof.

In short, well thought out and skillfully executed.

The best part for me is this website gave me fodder to extrapolate a thought for our current series at XC. Don’t ask how this works, it’s just the way my mind works. The series is based on one of our taglines that has become central to our DNA.

“imperfect church. be safe, be real, be changed…”

Here is one of the pics we are using for print media…
We are also printing this (sans series title) and two more onto 4’ x 6’ foam core and going to fly them on stage along with old windows and a door.
So my initial thought was I need to buy a “No Trespassing” sign to hang on the door. Duh, not sure why I didn’t think about it before. What I’d love to see is during one of the messages, that the teaching pastor actually take the sign off the door and rip it apart.

Do you feel it?

imperfect church...

We are starting a new series this coming Sunday and this is the promo video for the series.

creative fuZion lab //30// simplest...

I have been on a "secret mission" for a couple of months.

I tried implementing scent before and got major push back.

I have been testing this concept out slowly in a section at a time in the auditorium over the last few months. What a difference a year makes...

I actually had to laugh, one of the major things previously brought up was scent sensitivity (duh!). I explained I really know what I was doing, I've researched a lot and just happen to be highly scent sensitive myself...

So this week our experiential element was some Hazelnut aroma plug-ins through out the venue. Gentle, unobtrusive...nice.
This time...no reactions, no complaints...
Secret mission accomplished!!!
What a cool experience this weekend. I was producing, so I asked the newest person on the ENHANCE team what she thought we should do with the stage. I really had no set ideas except for simplest...
Since this is the end of a year long series...
This is what she came up with...lots of candles (I went and bought some more flameless candles at Walmart)and (LED) tealights. We simply safety pinned the tealights into the curtains. We've done this a couple times, it particularly looks cool when the stage and house lights are off.
It looks like stars...
Great job Allison. She really has "it" I think.

Coming up...we are starting a new series emitled the "imperfect church". I don't thnk I have ever been this excited about a new series. From the creative element vid, the logo and stage design...I'm just flat out excited!!!! Stay tuned...

That's a wrap for this week...

change...

Intro:
Change -Taylor Swift

Worship Set 1
Let the Praises Ring

Welcome & Greet
Announcements & promo for "imperfect church" series

The Imperfect Church from CrossCurrent Ministries on Vimeo.

Message: was on freedom from fear through the gospel.

Worship Set 2
Only You
I Surrender
Be Thou My Vision
Overcome

Join other worship leaders who share worship sets on Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set List.

creative fuZion lab //29// simple, simpler

The set this week was very simple. For a lot of reasons but mostly because I got the weekend off...
We are excited:
A new church wide process...
We are gearing up for a new series...
And a new creative team process...
stay tuned....