glow sticks…

LIGHT

Sometime in 2008 I ran across this video from GCC wired. And while I have shared these vid’s before, I haven’t traced how my mind has been working to use these ideas.

(http://vimeo.com/1300196 - If you link over you won’t be disappointed)


Very cool experiential element to emphasize viral communication.
It was interactive and fun!
While we have discussed it a few times at our creative meetings, we never have used the idea. I love the idea of the interactivity of the element.
While I would love to use glow sticks in a similar way as GCC did:

One possibility I thought of was using glow sticks in a dance piece. Where the dancer is covered with glow sticks and dances in the dark. This was before I realized that this was very popular at raves. Still like the idea. (smiles)

Or something as simple as hanging glow sticks all around the stage. Using various sizes and shapes.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Maybe creating a video of the traces made from glow sticks.

There are so many innovative concepts that could be utilized with glow sticks. One recent concepts is team iLuminate which garnered a lot of attention fro America’s Got Talent. (link: http://www.youtube.com/watchv=XRwX9oCaE9Q&feature=player_embedded )

I have taken the idea as far a purchasing several types of glow sticks and even trying them out.
So now it is a matter of simple finding the appropriate message to link them with. That hasn’t happened yet. But it will…

thankful…

I am grateful for being who I am…
Through out my life I have often faced the fact that most people don’t understand me or how I think; which is fine with me.
The older I get the more I am thankful for how God created me. Completely unique.
One of those things is the creativity that lives in me.
I see things like these…

(http://youtu.be/Ov_iJQGq6DI)
…and my mind simply explodes with ideas. My mind extrapolates and blows the original idea up into something entirely different. It’s fun and exciting…
I have been dreaming about utilizing holograms for several years now.

(http://youtu.be/JMSBihWsuBc)
I don’t see the world the way most people see it. It is more alive and vibrant.

(http://youtu.be/XRwX9oCaE9Q)
I wonder how to translate things like these, into an experiential experience...
What I do know; is that I am doing what I am supposed to do, at this point in my life.
I have people who appreciate what I do; and for that I am extremely grateful.

pushing pause, con't...

Being creative requires constant evaluation.

That is where the creative team is at this moment...

What is really in our toolbox at this point in time? We have been in a place where the gifts and talents of the people on the team are shifting.

Stage design, drama, dance, vids, experiential elements are all tools we have had for several years. We are going through an actually time of mourning (what has been) and need to start focusing on what we currently have. Tough place to be.

We are still able to focus on the 5S (5 senses). Which are taste, smell, hearing, sight and kinesthetic (touch). We are in a place of being un(limited). Recognizing that we still can be unlimited in our creation; yet understanding we ARE limited in our actually production.

While we still have tools like dance/movement, interactive/experiential elements, spoken words and much more. We have to face the reality that at this moment in time we do not have the bandwidth to do true dramas and major in-house videos.

Several team members are in a different season of their lives, which doesn't give the time they were able to give before; for writing, direction, production and such.

But this is not a bad thing. This is just the reality of where we are.

So, this is a time of experimentation. What new things are we able to do? Who wants to learn more about owning elements? Who is willing to try to learn new skills? Who have skills that are being used currently? Or are we even supposed to being doing this at all?
I believe we are supposed to continue...but doing what? I am not sure at this point.
One other point...while I personally still finding it easy to create the stage designs each and every week; I have intentionally pushed pause on that also.
This is truly a time to reflect and pray about where we are heading as a team.

this is a ball...

This is a ball…

It is a bouncy multi-colored ball that lights up when you drop it…
I found this bouncy ball at work one day…
It sparked a creative idea in my head…
I often wonder about creativity and how creativity happens.
I keep track of ideas I have that are inspired by the world around me. Sometimes I know exactly what the idea will lead to, other times I do not.
Specifically I deal with stage designing and experiential elements.

For example: one idea that I knew where I was going with it came from a quick simply question from my brother. Which was, “what do you think about QR codes?” This is what happened with that thought.

 

Another idea I had was from a rubber mat at a library. I have no clue when or where I will use the idea (it has to do with the “feel” of walking across the mat). Super bouncy.
This is my reminder of that mat. It's an actual picture of that inspirational mat.

Who knows…it will find a way into some sort of design or experiential element. I just don’t know when or what.
That is the way it is with creative ideas.

 

These are just a few things which have inspired creative ideas for staging & experiential elements:

1. A ceiling (at the Cheesecake Factory)
2. From retail establishments
3. Pony-tails
4. Scrabble board
5. TV
6. Simply exploring on the internet
7. A bouncy ball (which lit up)
8. Watching SYTYCD
9. Reading other creative’s blogs
10. Starbucks
11. Brainstorming with our team
12. Ikea
13. Talking with my brother (several ideas)
14. On top of a ladder
15. Doughnuts
16. Iconography
17. Reading the Bible
18. Old dilapidated church
19. Driving (this one is hard, because I either have to remember or stop and write the idea down)
20. Home Depot (amazing place)
21. The “Lion King” (the stage play)
22. Reading (in general)
23. S.T.O.M.P.
24. Various types of material
25. The stars in the sky

For me, this is the way the creativity happens, or the cookie crumbles, or the ball bounces...

 

why designing for Philistines...

why designing for Philistines?

I thought I had explained my thought process behind designing for Philistines and I didn't. Doh!

This is a repost from June 2008, about why I blog here at "designing for Philistines".
What happened I started blogging when it occured to me couple major running themes going on in my blog…

1. The biggest one being that:
I am a freaky designer of cutting edge and culturally relevant (read something relevant to people after Jimmy Hendrix, Prince, the Spice Girls and after 9/11)
5S (using all 5 senses)
experiential worship elements...
I am obsessed with this concept. I spend hours and hours research, searching youtube and such.

2. AND I REALLY dislike terms like “seeker” and “lost”, unless you are referring to the t.v. show. I find them extremely condescending and churchy sounding and actually so do they.

Why Philistines? It’s all Jon - of scl fame’s fault…he’s one of my fav (and prolific) bloggers. In his post "Calling People Seekers" – he discusses what “we” Christians call “people who do not go to church”. It really resonated with what I have been feeling for a long time AND from what I hear from those wonderful “people who do not go to church”.

3. I spend a lot of time with those who hang out at the well (read: people who do not go to church), and I love them to pieces. Those are the people who I feel compelled to design for. I want them to get a chance to know this guy named Jesus.

I have tried to find an online community that is like minded and have not been able to find one, so I decided to start one.
This blog is geared to researching, designing and implementing culturally relevant elements for worship. I may be blogging for myself, then again there may be 17 more people like me out there in the blogsphere who are “seeking” this type of information.

We will see. So welcome...
this is designing for Philistines...

little cloud of bounciness...

One day I was simply walking into a local library for a meeting. As I was walking in I stepped on a really cool mat in the entryway.
"Wow"! It was like stepping on a little cloud of bounciness. The feeling was very cool and fun. My instant thought was how am I going to incorporate this into an experiential element for - you guessed it - church.

So, I pulled out my camera to "capture" a picture as a reminder of this moment.
Seriously, this is how is works in my mind. I haven't had a chance to use this concept yet. But is is there-in my memory, waiting for the right moment...

QR codes…

Was going to make a larger QR code for this week, went to Kinko’s (second time in two weeks) and ran into a snare. The printer we were using @Kinko’s only did 3’x3’ images, and then we’d have to go to a photo printing machine that cost a lot more (double or triple). Honestly, considering that all of this comes out of my pocket-I went with the least expensive option. Oh, well. Needed to adjust on the fly. So dropped the idea of the 4’x4’ image and went with a 2’x2’ image and simply added and rearranged the images on the stage accordingly.
So, got the images printed, cut, glued onto the coroplast, cut again, holes punched, fishing line threaded through and hung with safety pins.


The pastor introduced the idea and explained QR codes: sort of understanding often comes through the type of "lens" you use to interpret things. He "snapped" a qr code (the first one in this slide show), which was simultaneously shown on the big screen. Then showed the picture that was associated with that QR code (the Ezekiel; "If you don't get it, you don't get it picture), which again was shown on the big screen.
Each QR code was self-generated and then populated somewhere on the internet.
We had QR code links to the following:
I converted and dedicated an old blogspot place I had for this message on Ezekiel. It was just so much easier to do myself than explain and ask people to populate images and txt in other locations. A lot of the images and txt where then simply added to the blogspot and QR code links created.
Like:
The Vision of The Valley of The Dry Bones by Gustave Doré (on Wikipedia), public domain image

Ezekiel by Michelangelo (on Wikipedia), public domain image
Ezekiel logo image with tag "If you don't get it..." blogspot
Image of New Jerusalem
Explanation of why we are doing the element.
The Most Important Story (from the Relevant Word)
So What (from the Relevant Word)
Smile God loves you (Easter egg, just a funny ha,ha)
Other locations: Think and Talk blog post for Ezekiel 25-48. A blog on our website about where we are in our year long study and pictures on the Creative Arts page on XC website
If you are reading on facebook, designing for philistines blogspot pictures of the stage this week.

if you don't get it, you don't get it...

What do QR codes have to do with church and particularly with Ezekiel?
The concept behind this stage design (follow link to the actual concept), was to populate and incorporate QR codes on the stage and through out the lobby and auditorium. This was to create an experiential element where people would use the QR code readers on their cell phones-to seek out more information about the subject of this weeks message on Ezekiel.
For example: I found images that were "public domain", like this painting of Ezekiel by Michelangelo, which was posted on Wikipedia.

For this picture, I simply captured the URL for the location of the jpeg and feed the URL into a QR code generator.
Then I downloaded the QR code into my files, changed it from bmp to a jpeg file.
Then I went to Kinko's and had it printed in a 12" x 12" format.
Took it home and pasted the image on coroplast with rubber cement.
Cut the coroplast, punched holes at the top, strung it with fishing line and used a safety pin to hang it on the curtains on the stage.

I also generated some copy on an old blogspot and dedicated it to images and posts about Ezekiel from our study book, "Revealing the Relevant Word". Repeated the process of translating the URL into a QR code, printing, etc.

This was what the results looked like on stage this week.



Lessons learned:
The stage QR codes needed to be larger, for overall appearance and for application.
This coming week, we will incorporate a few more QR codes (larger) and move some of the smaller ones closer to the front of the stage.
Also, we are working more closely with the teaching pastor to incorporate the explanation into the message.
Let's see how it goes this coming week.

EZEKIEL: “If You Don’t Get It-You Don’t Get It “

Fire up your QR app or download a QR reader app and get ready to interact with technology and learn more about Ezekiel’s prophecies.

It all started with a simple convo with my brother Brice Holland, an ad exec, asking me what I thought about QR codes.
Basically a QR (Quick Response) code is a matrix bar coded with information stated by a "link" that can be snapped and captured by a reader (eg. cell phone) to receive information.
How did we transform that into an interact/experiential element for our Sunday morning experience?

EZEKIEL: “If You Don’t Get It-You Don’t Get It “

First, the tagline is based on a Washington Post marketing campaign (for the white paper) from 2007. I always felt it was an interesting juxtaposition between trying to increase “white paper” (dead tree types) readership in a internet media obsessed world. They of course, were referring to peoples knowledge, based on the premise that those who ‘got it”-got it because they were reading the Post.

Since Ezekiel is full of prophetic imagery. It is often difficult to “get” what is being said, unless “you get it”. The main thought/bridge for this element is to utilize self-generated Quick Response Codes (QR codes) to convey the thought of “If you don’t get it- you don’t get it”. A QR code is a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) that is readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera telephones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded may be text, URL, picture or other data.

QR codes are currently being used as a marketing technique to engage technology savvy consumers, to interact to a concept through their QR apps and smart phones. People that “get it - get it”.

While brainstorming for creative elements for the Ezekiel messages it was decided that we would: Self-generate and post QR codes through out the lobby before service and possibly during the message.
Using a QR Code Generator: enables you to create and post: URL, text, phone number & SMS. We decided it would probably would be safest to post info on our website and self-generate the QR codes to lead people there.

Example: This self generated QR code:

When snapped and read by a QR code reader application would lead to this picture - posted on a dedicated blogspot:

Stage concept: populate and hang QR codes at the front door, through out the lobby at the breakfast bar, on the stage.

Pictures of the various locations and stage where we posted QR codes to follow.

"tweek three" Isaiah

Today was a lot of fun.  Walked into the middle school with a plan, within minutes I had changed the plan because of various items I saw when I walked in. So here goes, these pics show the progression from week one - this week.
week one

tweek two

tweek three

What changed was a few things. The school where we meet has a great arts program/teacher. One of the projects from last year, was painted benches. Well, for some reason these same benches were displayed in the lobby today when we walked into the school. I looked at them (I love these pieces) and started reading what the students has written on them.

On the Matisse piece was written:
"How can I be useful? of what service can I be?"
"Conscience is a man's compass"
"Happiness is in the joy of achievement"
On the Frank Lloyd Wright piece:
"The things always happens that you really believe in and the belief in a thing makes it happen"
So I decided in an instant to use the pieces on the stage today.
Also in the auditorium, there were two folding tables just leaning up against the stage. Cool. I set them up behind the drummer, covered them in black and started stacking the red tables and lights on them.
That was it.
So this is the overall look achieved this week.

Oh and the message: was on seeking justice. Actually doing something. Greg talked about the human trafficking issue again and we now have a starting plan of action for XC. We challenged people to pray about the issue (dedicated time during the service for that) and to sign-up for further education/awareness on the topic. Which we are having an awareness session next Sunday evening.  We had a lot of people sign-up the week of March 13th. We had many more sign-up today.
That same week in March -  we had people signed cards of petition to be hand carried to our Senators office petitioning to support changes to our state’s laws to criminalize trafficking. To give more teeth to our currents laws. We had about 30 more people sign today.
I am really excited about what happened today, both on stage and in the hearts of people today. A lot has happened in the last year when this topic was first brought up in a message.

stepping back into winter…

I got sidetracked with blogging stage designs earlier this year. So much going on, but now it’s time to back track and fill in the gaps.
The series was entitled “The Kingdom”. As the story goes: the Israelites wanted God to give them an earthly king. God said “O.k.” Always remember to be careful what you ask/pray for.
The story ambles through the prophet Samuel, King Saul, King David & Absalom and more.
First two weeks of 1st & 2nd Samuel, 1st & 2nd Kings, 1st & 2nd Chronicles stage design are captured here.
Now, the last two weeks.



Within a mini-series, I will often use the same materials. But, particularly since we are a mobile church and load in and out completely each week: I tend to tweak the stage design each week within a series.


The third week’s design focused on remembering to praise God. King David was a man of many faults. But one of the things that defined David as a great leader was he accepted responsibility and remembered to praise God.
For this week, the stage design was a continuation of the crown. We added in a interactive element, where we encouraged people to re-focus on praising God. It was simple. A large piece of foam-core, with sticky notes for people to write on. We also created a space for creative people to draw or write on a large piece of paper taped to the floor. The speaking pastor also used props during his message. I always enjoy that.

Fourth week: the destruction off the Kingdom. The nation of Israel was destroyed, divided.
There seemed to be no choice but the take the crown and literally cut it up into pieces and hung it up again. This set of designs was fun for me creatively. To be able to capture the rise and fall of the nation of Israel through coroplast & cloth was exciting.

Side note: I highly recommend reading “Tale of Three Kings”, A study on brokenness (Gene Edwards). It is an amazing book on brokenness. If you have ever been hurt, broken, shattered by church, you will learn a lot from reading this book.

if you don't get it, you don't get it...

Do you get it?

Fascinating discussion yesterday via facebook message and real time convo about QR (Quick Response) codes. Basically a QR code is a matrix bar coded with information stated by a "link" that can be snapped and captured by a reader (eg. cell phone) to receive information.
It fits right into a theory I developed several years ago. It's a demographic tag that crosses It isn’t defined by age/generation . It is defined by technology and mindset.

GEND Simply stated you either are digitally connected or not. You either get it or you don’t get it. This digitally enhanced/enabled media is re-defining the boundaries on how various social groups and generations interface with each other.
 
So how does play into what I do? The results of polling a multi-generational group (ages 24-54) of about 12 people:  the results showed age had NOTHING to do with who knew about QR codes. The interesting thing was, when it was explained almost everyone knew what we were talking about, they had "seen" it-then they got it.
So we started brainstorming and will are going to use a QR code linked to a message about Ezekiel. What was "seen" by Ezekiel didn't make a lot of sense until you understand what was in the message.
Looking forward to this one.

extrapolating experiential elements from extreme sheep herding....

While I've seen sheep herding with lights before; this is extreme sheep herding. And it reminds me of an experiential element I've thought about for church.
No, I am not going to rent a bunch of sheep; simply because that is really expensive. No seriously, renting animals is expensive and yes I have checked it out.
So see this...



...this combined with: we were talking about a previous designing for Philistines post this week at creative team-where GCC plays Simon Says (April 2008)

see this...

Camp Friendship Plays Simon from Grant Ferguson on Vimeo.

Obviously this would be for fun; but it could work when discussing communication, doing what God asks you to do. Actually that is why we were discussing it at our creative team meeting. We were planning for the 1 Chronicles message later this month. Thinking about what you are willing to do when God asks you to do something and/or where would you draw the line...
Thinking several things.
For example: Creative movement/percussive element
Lights out.
Dancers entering from the back, walking up the aisle creating movement light designs with glow sticks to a percussive beat. Maybe handing out glow sticks to people in the crowd. Lead into opening worship set. Band with glow sticks encircling their arms?
That's just one idea I was thinking about.
Just thinking...

worship & justice…

XC’s mission statement is: love God, love others, serve the world…
No bells & whistles. No flashing lights. For me, this is the most exciting pictures of the stage design this week. But these blank boards show you the heart of the people that make up XC Ministries.
We like to offer Missional challenges at XC.

While were we planning the details for our Missional Sunday - We were looking at various organizations that need help & then to challenge the members to serve. Then we received a last minute request from a local elementary school. They have 86+ children that don’t have coats, shoes, clothes, socks or underwear…can you imagine?

This is a big challenge for us. We usually run about 180 in attendance and there were about 300 cards for the various items need. One cool note: some of the members of our creative team are already purchasing items needed.

In addition, our older FLIPT kids (children’s ministry) is taking on the challenge of providing all the socks needed!

So the set design this week is various pieces of clothing for the children and four boards, with all of the requests cards attached (269 cards left). We started out by hanging some of the articles of clothing; nixed that - looked like invisible children hanging in the air. Oh, well.
Then we simply displayed the items on tables in front of the stage-with the request boards standing next to the tables.




11/21/10 – Deuteronomy (Part 2): "Missional Emphasis / Injustice"

Worship Set 1
Instrumental Opener (Call to Worship) Our Love is Loud
Everlasting God

W/G & Announcements – FLIPT Out

Worship Set 2 (challenge element package)
Precious Jesus
I Heart Revolution clips interwoven throughout second worship set
Tear Down the Walls

Message – Great message on Deuteronomy, talking about God’s heart and telling us to take care of the poor, the widowed and the orphaned.

Challenge Bridge: for Hutchinson Elementary – explaining the need at the school.We are giving the congregation two weeks to purchase items.
Challenge Bridge: w/ Beans & Rice Challenge
This is the standard challenge to see what most of the world eats for dinner. We have individual packages of beans and rice for people to take home and have for dinner that night.(Congregation to pick up cards off of the boards, at front of auditorium & collect their beans & rice at the back doors).

Worship Set 3
Mighty to Save
Closing-prayers

At the end-ALL the cards were taken. People took the cards off of the display (things that had already been purchased) Several came and offered money (which we will use for additional needs for Hutchison). And we handed out about an additional 50 cards for more underwear.
I tell you what-I love the people of this church!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Hutchinson Needs…
86 pairs of shoes
38 coats
17 sweat suits for girls
18 sweat suits for boys
55 pkgs of underwear for girls
55 pkgs of underwear for boys


This is one of the reason I love CrossCurrent!
Our last challenge was a backpack collection: The middle school where me meet, ask for help in collecting backpacks that were needed for children attending the school.
The challenge was issued at the end of the service. The drop off was 4:00 p.m. the same day. Here are the results and we met the goal!

quail coming out of your nose...

Normally we have a fine breakfast bar. Coffee from Starbucks or Dunkin' Doughnuts, bagels (from Panera's), other homemade goodies, nifty snacks on the kiddie table.

Well, this week...we had frosted flakes & water, frosted flakes & water and some more frosted flakes. That's grrrreat!

My favorite kind of experience to design is one that starts before you walk in the door or just as you enter. This was one of those weeks. With the message focusing on the book of Numbers and how the Israelites grumbled & complained about the fact all they had to eat was "manna", all we had on the breakfast bar was Frosted Flakes and water. It certainly got people's attention.

FUN FACT: manna actually means "what is it?"

Then we had a complaint box in the center of the table-with a fake hole, so you really couldn't put a complaint in the box. LOL!
This element really hit the mark of interaction with the people and was tied in perfectly by our teaching pastor; up to and including a point where he was eating the Frosted Flakes off of the floor. LOL!



We also had a visitor. A puppet named Mr. Curmudgeon. Who helped emphasize complaining. He was funny. My favorite part was when he talked about the fact we have a 'biker gang". Very witty. His video will be posted soon on XC website.

The stage was simple, created to invoke the tower of smoke (and fire) that hung over the tabernacle. If you will notice there are also white petals on the stage (again representing the manna). Really fun to put together. It was fun having Allison back with the team this week.

If you'd like to see all the pictures visit me at the "designing for Philistines" blog.
Now going to get ready for the children's lesson for Thursday....

guerrilla worship...

ONE flash mob in Liverpool...

playing...

just playing with some ideas for for this weeks service (logo, invites, etc.)...

moments...

Moments...
When I listen to people stressing out about the holidays, my heart goes out to them. When did Christmas become more about shopping, gift wrapping, parties rather than about the little baby Jesus?
Have we forgotten what it is about?
Last year at XC, we did a visual movement piece entitled "Christmas Crescendo" (you can see it here). Which simply started with Mary singing to baby Jesus. Then slowly the scenes built to a crescendo of Christmas madness. Decorating a tree, shaking presents, shopping and even Santa and elves with children lining up to have their picture taken with Santa...and the baby simply seems to disappear amid the glitz.
The madness of what we now consider normal Christmas traditions.
Then all the madness stopped.
All that remained center stage was Mary and the baby.

Each year I will deligently work towards keeping that same simple message.
It's really all about the little baby Jesus.

This year we planned a Christmas drama. Then we got snowed out with almost two feet of snow on Christmas Sunday.

Every Saturday our weekend crew rolls in and converts the junior high school auditorium into our worship space. After set-up and sound checks we gather for devotions. This week we simply focused on that moment in time, just after Christ was born. It was just Mary, Joseph and the baby. The angels hadn't appeared to the shepards yet, the wisemen were still traveling towards the star. Just the family wondering what all this was about. Trusting God's word.

So this week, the Sunday after Christmas. this is what our stage looked like. The stage was bare with only a simple wooden stable with a star.
During the prayer before service an idea surfaced. During that last song, "Silent Night", all the lights would fade out and one simple spot would illuminate the star over the stable. We scrambled around to get a ladder, move the stage lights around, re-set lighting cues...

Then during worship, the last verse was sung acapella, the worship leaders stepped backed and all eyes were focused on the star.

Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth

Now that is what Christmas is really about...

imperfect church nuances...

Welcome to the creative fuZIon lab. Where we share elements that enhance the weekend experience.

This is the last week in our series entitled the "imperfect church..."Continuing with the "progression of thought" in this multi-week series stage design. Adding, subtracting, changing the design subtly to invoke a feeling or thought. A tiny experiential element. For the last few weeks of this series we are wanting to add a few "signs of life" into our stage image of the imperfect church. We added some candles to the front stage left and a few candles by the window in the rear.

And for this last week we added ivy to one of the windows…

Again, the really cool thing about this is, there are people who actually "catch" the vision of what we are doing. People who notice the small changes each week. As soon as they walk into the auditorium. They "get it", they "feel" it. Which for me, is just an added bonus.

What do you think about experiential elements? Have you tried these types of things before?

Man, I LML and what I get to do…

So what did you do this week? It’s your turn to share…

creative fuZionlab //33// tweeking the design...

A major disadvantage of being a mobile church it that each week on Saturday we have to load everything in and put it all up, then on Sunday, break it all down and load it out...

But this "disadvantage" often is an advantage. Because we have to reset every week, it also gives us the opportunity to re-evaluate the stage design each week and "tweek" it.

We tend to take a lot of photos. I find that it is easier for me to "see" the stage in a photograph. It gives a different perspective.

We are in week three of our series "imperfect church". So I thought I'd show you how we utilize this process to "tweek" a stage design.

This is week one...After reviewing the photos we decided that everything (the windows and photos) were flown too low on the stage. So for week two, we flew everything higher. After reviewing week two photos...

We thought we should spend more time on spacing things vertically across the stage. Not necessarily to be perfectly spaced out, but to even it out some. So, for week three...

and we did just that.

Also we like to add "progression of thought" in a multi-week series stage design. Adding, subtracting, changing the design subtly to invoke a feeling or thought. A tiny experiential element. For the last few weeks of this series we are wanting to add a few "signs of life" into our stage image of the imperfect church. We added some candles to the front stage left and a few candles by the window in the rear. We have more thoughts for the next two weeks.

The really cool thing about this is, there are people who actually "catch" the vision of what we are doing. People who notice the small changes each week. They "get it", they "feel" it. Which for me, is just an added bonus.