the mind of the skeptic…

I am almost hesitant to share my not so random thoughts this morning…

I spend about equal amounts of time hanging out with skeptics, as I do with the “churched”.
I am constantly amazed that God has placed me in this position.
I am over 50.
Fluffy (nice way to say I’m not thin)
And a grandmother of four.
I am madly and passionately in love with God and an extremely grateful follower of Christ.


For some astonishing reason the skeptics actually like to hang out with me.

I believe…

Everyone who knows me understands that I am a follower of Christ, but they also know I don’t beat them over the head with the Bible, I pray that I am always very real and non-judgmental.
I love sharing frank discussions about their life journey.

It’s actually kind of cute sometimes. Monday-one of my peeps was bashing Christians (and rightly so), then turned to me and said “I’m sorry”, acknowledging my faith journey. But, she was right and I totally agreed with her. She has a mad hate on with Christians. And I understand why.

We work at Starbucks and she was sharing how the “Christians” stopping off at Starbucks on their way home from being so holy are rude and disrespectful to the barista’s, often cursing; after blithely dropping Christian tracks into the tip jar. That is the “witness” my dear skeptics see every week.
I’d actually prefer that Ned Flanders would come by for his latte…

What I know from the skeptics p.o.v.:
They want authentic relationships -they want to be able to be real…
Do not want to be judged - they want to be safe…
Have huge stereotypes of Christians. Which are most often based in realities. They don't want their lives to be changed, because they don't want to become like what they perceive "us" to be.
They are having real time spiritual conversations, just not with “Christians”.

Sort of related, sort of not….

Fast forward to Tuesday: When I am with our creative team I constantly viewing everything we do through the eyes of the skeptic.

I am continually bewildered when our creative team (comprised mostly of 25-35 something’s) get locked into designing from their point of view.
Can’t they see how locked into their own post-modern, Christian world view they are?
Completely missing what is now culturally relevant for the next up and coming generation? Or even people their age, but that are unchurched.
This isn’t the 80’s, or the 90’s, this is 2008.
They used to be cutting edge, when they were a fledgling young adult ministry. They were impacting lives.

But, now it seems to be that they are designing from memory instead of imagination…

Please understand that any discussion like this we need agree on the premise that we all are seeking to glorify God and we are uncompromising in sharing Word. And know that God is able to work through anything.
But I believe in giving God a fighting chance…

How many “skeptics” do you hang out with?
Are you designing from memory or imagination?

I apologise if this doesn't make sense, but it makes sense in my mind...

new vocabulary...

changing my vocabulary from "traditional songs (hymns)" to "vintage songs".
Like it.
Thanks HL!

90% grown-up?

Found this through Brent (in worship)

You Are 90% Grown Up, 10% Kid

Your emotional maturity is fully developed, and you have an excellent grasp on your emotions. You're honest, direct, and compassionate. You don't let a bad mood get the best of you. People know that they can turn to you in times of trouble. You are stable and smart. In fact, you are so emotionally mature - you should consider being a therapist!

How Emotionally Mature Are You?

I'm not sure I am happy my results. But, I guess it's based on emotional maturity. Un-like my insane child-like personality.

hmmmm....

How mature are you?

they went out to the Mount of Olives...

I came from a traditional denominational background. I served in many capacities from deacon, elder to licensed minister. Without a doubt the most meaningful was serving the elements of the Last Supper and praying over the individuals.
I’m now a member of a non-traditional, non-denominational church. Because of the constraints of our current location, we are just starting to have communion more often. We meet in an auditorium of a middle school.
At first the school wouldn’t allow us to have any “food” in the school. There was a point where we actually filed out of the auditorium, out the front door of the school to be able to partake at the Lord’s Table outside of the school.
We now do it more often.
I grew up celebrating communion every Sunday. It has always touched my heart. Join with me...

"On the night that Jesus was betrayed...
Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to His disciples,
saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."
Then He took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom."
When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives."

I miss it…

130 feet of material...

Stage design for Jesus' Kingdom: you want in?
We had a drama, based on the story of the rich young ruler. (Luke 18: 18-23). What it must have felt like when he arrived back home...

We do our set-up on Saturday mornings.
We arrive at the middle school at 8:00 a.m. and have bags packed and be out the door at 11:45 a.m.
Our team arrives at 8:00 with an idea, a sketch and materials. Sometimes we have 3 people working, other times it just me. I liken it to throwing spaghetti on the wall to see if it will stick. When we get there we have no idea if it will work or not. We have 3 hrs. and 45 minutes to throw it on the wall. Crawling over and around the band, and other teams (like drama this weekend).

We’ve started utilizing a lot of cloth. We use a 20 ft. ladder to throw fishing line over the various rods on the stage and attach gaffer’s hooks. The hanging materials are hung. This weekend alone we used approximately 130 feet of material. Gotta love the $1 a yard table at Walmart.
We have it measured and wrapped up on bolts.

I started on this team in January this year. I came with zero experience with stage design. Sometimes I feel like I am sharing meaningless details here; but each detail is a lesson learned the hard way in this designing process. If I have ever responded to one of your posting on set/stage design, and pestered you for details and more photos…that’s why.

I am always searching for set/stage designing elements. That is why I started a flickr creative elements design WAREHOUSE lab group. If you design (or you have a team that designs) set/stage design elements for your worship space, please encourage them to post pictures and details.

One of the things I am learning is that I try to take pictures on Saturday and look at them at home. This week for example, I noticed several things: The draping was really off, we forgot to add the candles, material was not covering the legs of the bar stool (on the left), the material wrapped around the papa-san wasn’t tucked in properly.
Things we were able to rectify this morning, when we got in. We ran out of time on Saturday and didn’t get to hang the plant (with fishing wire)

Sunday we arrived at 7:30. Finish up details, do full dress rehearsal run through. Practice transitions.
We have a pre-service mini-worship gathering at 9:15 for the leadership and teams (children’s ministry, connections team, etc) that are serving that weekend.
We have a breakfast bar at 10:00.
Then the auditorium doors open at 10:20 for our regular service.
Service ends at 12:00 and we break everything down, load it on the truck and out of the school by 1:00.

We are working towards having just general set/stage design packages. But, mostly we are designing something fresh each week.

Are you a mobile church? Give me your details and photos?

This is being submitted to the Creative Chaos on Thursdays at Ragamuffin Soul.

Jesus' Kingdom; you want in?

10/05/08 Jesus' Kingdom Pt. 1: You Want In?

Personally, I feel we are so blessed. I know for a fact one of the hardest things to do, is pull off a blended (ugh!) service. Been there, done that, have multiple t-shirts.

But, I am learning that it is more difficult to add "new" to the "old". Rather than the other way around. Or is that just in churches I have been in?

I think because we are predominately a rock worship style church, we are able to blend in traditional and contemporary along with our rock. We also add appropriate secular music.

Particularly since we focus on the reaching skeptic and unchurched. They don't have any idea when we slip in a traditional song like "I Stand Amazed". It's just like any other song we sing. And when we add secular music, it is such a connecting piece with the unchurched.
About six weeks out, we are actually going to be doing a dramatic movement piece using Flobots "handlebars".

The other thing I noticed, the unchurched never starts a sentence with "Back at my old church...".

Worship Set 1
All We Need

Welcome & Greet / Announcements
BABY DEDICATION
Promo for: "Card Board Testimonies”

Worship Set 2
I Stand Amazed
Hungry

Creative Element
Drama - "Rich Young Ruler"
The stage set was designed for the drama we did today. Very simple, yet dramatic visually.
The stage design was fun and used 130 feet of material.

Message: Jesus' Kingdom Pt. 1: You Want In?

Worship Set 3
'Till I See You

Do you think it is easier to blend in the old with the new vs. the new with the old?

This is submitted as part of "Sunday Set List #11" blog carnival at Fred McKinnon's blog. Check it out and see what worship leaders are planning from all over.

life with four doggies...

Wednesday was a wild day.

A nasty cold finally caught me. Ugh! Went to Walmart to get o.j., cold meds., and Airborne...

Then I had to take one of my younger pups to the vets.

She evidently ripped the pad on her dew claw. ouch and ewww!

Poor thing, she looked so pathetic. But, she was a good girl, even when they removed her entire dew claw and pad.

When we left the vet's, she had on one of those plastic cones on her head and her paw was all bandaged up and she cowered and limped. She couldn't figure out how to raise her head with the cone thingie, so would would just stand in the middle of the floor with her head bent down and the cone flush to the carpet. It was pathetic.

I felt so sorry for her, I finally took the cone off and vowed to watch her so she wouldn't lick the bandaged paw.

I'm so proud of her. She hasn't bothered the paw at all. all evening all night and today...


You know sometimes it would be nice if God put a big plastic cone on our heads to help us stay on track. Keeping us away from the temptation of nibbling and licking our sin spots.

But, amazingly He trusts us with out the cone on our head.

Here's to another day of not being tempted to nibble and lick.


Sit, Ubu, sit. (Arf) Good dog.

pool noodles, a hula hoop and a chipmunk...

That's right pool noodles and a hula hoop...

It's hard to describe how my mind works. Before I started working on our fuZe (creative) team nine months ago, I had zero experience in creating stage/set designs.

These pool noodles and the hula hoop were actually purchased for another design several months ago (a giant faux mirror), but not used. So I carried the noodles and hula hoop in the back seat of my Thunderbird for months. It's kind of my traveling storage unit.

Anyway when we came up with this "heart" element for this week, I instantly thought of my pool noodles and hula hoop. We created two halves of a heart. They were perfect. We cut the hula hoop in half and inserted each half into a pool noodle. Then duct-taped the remaining noodles into a heart sharp and covered the frame with red cloth attached with safety pins. We duct taped fishing line to bow the rest of the shape. It was about 6 feet tall.

We attached each half of the heart to each side of the back stage curtain (with safety pins).
The service started with the curtains closed and during the second worship set, the curtains were slowly opened to reveal "the reality behind the scene", which was white chiffon, hung with gaffer clips in the shape of a cross. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture after we completed the lighting.

We used to photographer's lights. One positioned at the bottom of of the cross shooting up, and one positioned on the right crossbeam shooting to the left. The effect was awesome.


It was one of "those" weekend, with tons of technical difficulties, from our truck getting trapped in the compound where we store it - to our Media-Shout program crashing - to a chipmunk that got in the auditorium and was running amuck around the media team's table...(the reality behind the scene).

Oh, along with some of the nice comments we got from people - we had a couple people say it reminded them of the opening for the old "I Love Lucy" show. LOL. Our creative team never even thought about that.

I love God's sense of humor!

This is part of the insanity of Creative Chaos//29 on Ragemuffin Soul. I look forward to this all week...

the reality behind the scene…

Sunday Set List
What an interesting weekend. Tons of "issues" happened this weekend.
The reality is we are a mobile church. Behind the scene can often be hectic.
Yesterday our truck got locked in the compound; something to do with the storm, clouds a solar powered key pad lock and the pass code changing. In fact-the logistics team got locked inside the compound with the truck.
The logistics team literally wound up having to unload what we needed off the truck and pass it out through a pedestrian gate, load it up in their cars and caravan over.
Very little rehearsal time, for the band.
Our Media Shout program crashed completely and had to throw everything into PowerPoint, literally this morning.
And ½ of the church was at a retreat this weekend. Our pastor was one of the teachers and got home really late last night. His wife (they have been married 12 weeks) was violently ill this weekend. And honestly shared he didn’t have as much time to prepare for the message as he would have liked.
We were fully prepared to do the service entirely unplugged. Because we fully know that God will always show up. That’s one of the reasons I love serving with all our various teams that support the weekend experience.. They are amazing!
The worship was amazing. The message was very emotional and real. It was a wonderful worship experience this morning and God truly was glorified. Because we know it was all about HIM!

Jesus I.D. Pt. 3: The Reality Behind The Scenes

Worship Set 1
Unchanging
Let Everything that Has Breath

Welcome & Greet / Announcements

Worship Set 2
Lead me to the Cross
Jesus Paid it All













(sorry really bad pictures)

Creative Element: was a stage set design, during the second worships set. Of a simply large red heart hung on the very back stage curtain. During “Jesus Paid it All”, (the transition that leads to the big crescendo of “Praise the One Who paid our debt. And raised this life up from the dead) the curtain opened to reveal a large chiffon cross.














(this picture was during rehersal, not with all the lighting and such)

Message: Jesus I.D. Pt. 3: The Reality Behind The Scenes

Worship Set 3
Breathe (an oldie but a goodie) - this was the most incredible closing song for this service today.

We feel so blessed to have the technology we do. But, in the end-none of that matters.
The reality is; it is nice to live in a country where we are free to worship God.
What matters is that we worship our God!

This a submitted as part of Sunday Setlist #10, at Fred McKinnon's blog carnival. A gathering where worship leaders and simple worshipers (like me) share each Sunday. Check it out!

Origins...

Origins01
Originally uploaded by Andrew Hunt

4 Week Series on creation and evolution - Andrew Hunt
Created w/ a team of 7. Leaves are wooden cutouts suspended by wooden dowels, painted by hand by artist and lit w/ single Source 4 Jr. Zoom and a homemade gobo from pie pan. 2 Jr Zooms used for blue back ground of ORIGINS and a custom Apollo gel for the word itself. We used hay bales stacked and burlap to build the dirt pile. For the dirt we used peat moss.
in the case of this design we used the back wall of our stage as a bracing point. at the top of the big brown wall (which is actually white spandex stretched over a wooden wall) are 2 wooden braces (2 2x4 per brace). on others that aren't near the back wall we build wooden "L" brackets and screw directly into the stage. We've also provided additional support from the lighting truss when needed. hope it helps!

For more photo's

staging area set-up for XC...

Specific suggestions on future staging for unloading and loading the truck for Cross Current Minstires.

Coldplay...

Of course we should cover Coldplay...

Viva la Vida from Truitt on Vimeo

Thanks to Truitt for this sweeeet vid. Found it @ Creative Chaos.

(flickr) vicar of vibe...

My name is Dorothy; I am the (vicar of vibe).

Nine months ago, I was invited to join our worship creative design team.

Six months ago, I was prodded into blogging, by my friend Viqui.

I am a broken vessel used by G-d to entice skeptics, challenge the lukewarm, and spark passion in the believer to have a heart for those He has a heart for.

I am an extrapolator.
Ideas explode in my head, when I am in the will of God.

Which all of this has finally led me to the decision to start flickr creative elements design WAREHOUSE lab.

ware·house
-noun
a building, or a part of one, for the storage of goods, merchandise, etc.
-verb
1. to place, deposit, or store in a warehouse.
2. to set aside or accumulate, as for future use.

The ware-house is a place to glean ideas for designing worship elements. A central location to find tons of ideas, with details on set designs and other experiential design elements. Kind of a one stop shopping warehouse.

You are encouraged to share photos of your church set/stage designs, and any type of experiential worship design. Elements that utilize all five senses in the worship experience. Anything that is with-in the four walls of your worship space.
You are highly encouraged to link to your blog, where you hopefully will share details on how you (your team, your church) created the worship element.

Maybe I should change my name to flickr vicar of vibe.

Add your design to the shelves or just come check out the designs at the WAREHOUSE...

This post is part of Watercooler Wednesday over on Randy Elrod's site, Ethos.

-click-> down the rabbit hole...

I love finding new design thoughts and ideas.

I was reading: Los Whittacker @ Ragamuffin Soul, which led to -click-> Ben Arment-click-> at Colide Magazine--> which -click-> Visual Worshiper and this:

and silly me, I thought my cloud images where cool. Hey, a least I am on the right path.

anatomy of a set design for a mobile church on a tight budget…

We have been looking at trying to create some general set (stage) designs to utilize for worship on stage.
We started out by reusing two pieces of 8’ x 4’ plywood used in a previous set (not your parent flannel graph). And cut the pieces on a curved angle to create a 12’ curved screen. Painted it true blue enamel. Added hinges and voila!

We also have cabinets and drawers on rolling casters to store equipment. We use them as stage elements also.
The two Jesus images on the left are sitting on top of the rolling drawers covering with black cloth.
The portion of the stage flat on the right is actually the back side a 6 foot storage cabinet, painted. We attached molding across the back to set the third Jesus image on.

Added some purple cloth draping at an opposite angle. Gotta love Walmart’s $1 (a yard) table in the sewing department.
A couple Walmart shopping tips:
1. Keep a running list of colors and know the general size of you stage area.
2. I now know, if I am looking for something specific (like camouflage), I may buy only a limited amount.
3. But there are certain ubiquitous colors that I know I will always have a use for. Black, white chiffon, liturgical colors, (purple, red). And shiny stuff and satiny materials like gold, bronze and silver. Then I buy the whole bolt.
4. Remember to think out of the box. I found this unique bolt of cloth. It actually has the word Millennium and 2000 written on it in black. I figured out people wouldn’t be able to read it from where they are sitting in the auditorium and it really was a hot choice. Look what we did with it…











5. It you seem really drawn to it, buy it. It may not be there the next time you go. I should have bought the purple featured in this set when I first saw it. I wound up only being able to get 4 yards, would love more now I bought it.
Last, but not least, go by on a regular basis.
Seriously, if you haven’t checked out this resource you are only hurting your budget. Swing by Walmart this week, you will not be disappointed.
Next week, a six foot heart made out of pool noodles and a hula hoop! Seriously!

This is part of Creative Chaos 28 at Ragamuffin Soul's blog. A place where creatives gather to share their design elements and their hearts.

Do you have any secret tips on stage/set design?

paint-by-numbers...

My grandfather was always seeking creative outlets. He did things like create a blue flocked nail polish, he read the entire Bible onto audio cassette tapes (twice, because he didn't like some of his pronunciations the first time around) and made keys.

He painted numerous paint-by-number kits.

One thing he did really well, is he hand-made some of the most awesome candles I have ever seen. I think that was when he found his true creative outlet.

I was reminded today of a story I once heard. It was about how God has a very specific picture that He wants each person to paint. He calls you to paint a picture that only YOU are able to paint.

If you don't, it will NEVER be painted.

So, you need to choose if you are going to create the picture that God intends to see, or are you going to paint-by-numbers?

Grandpa made candles. I design experiential elements and stage/set designs for my church.

What picture is God calling you to "paint"?

This is part of Watercooler Wednesday blog carnival!

WAREHOUSE Wednesday: gotta love Walmart

Jim Drake is one of those special people that reached out to me when I started blogging.

When you are a new blogger that means a lot. At least it did to me.

And I like his set (stage) designs . He is the Worship Arts Pastor at FBC Snyder.

And he is also a fan of the Walmart $1 table in the fabric department. I love that table. I go by every two weeks or so to see what they have gotten in that is new.

I am writing more on the joy of Walmart's $1 (a yard) table tomorrow.

This is probably my favorite of Jim's posted church set designs. Look at how he drapes the cloth all the way down on the floor.

Go visit his blog. He has lots of neat stuff.

serious as a heart attack...

Today and the upcoming weeks are going to be tough for me.

My baby brother (37), is going in for a heart cath this morning. This is in preparation for open heart surgery in a few weeks to repair a prolapsed heart valve. I do trust in God and know Brice is in His hands and I praise God that they even found this problem, with him being so young. I mostly thank God that He is in my life. I can't even begin to imagine not having God in my life during this season.

But, I am still fearful. I certainly didn't get a lot of sleep last night. We just lost my dad this past Christmas, after years of heart complications. His first massive heart attack occurred on the table during a heart cath. This lead to a quintuple-by-pass, a MRSA (very serious), 80% congestive heart failure, deafness and much, much more over the last 12 years. I praise God he is no longer suffering and I am thankful for the years we did have to reconcile our relationship.

We also lost my mom-in-law to the very same complication of a heart cath a couple years ago. It was a very short six month journey from heart cath, MRSA, which was what eventually killed her.

I know a lot of this fear I am feeling is related to my dad's and mom-in law's history. I realize as I write this, it is the MRSA that concerns me the most. I know that the procedure is fairly safe, I just have had some very bad personal experiences with the heart cath. Two, too close to home.

I am also worried about my mom who isn't handling this well at all. She has been through so much.

Honestly, I really wish I was Indianapolis today. Instead I will be slinging drinks at Starbucks.

God is good, all the time...
Thanks for letting me share...

assignments for radical growth...

I never liked homework assignments in school.

Thankfully since I have grown up (ha, ha) I like homework.
As you may know, we have started a 52 week super-series at church, entitled:

"The Jesus Experiment"

We just finished our third week, and our pastor, Chris Eads is giving out homework each week. He is calling it

"Assignments for Radical Growth".

Here are our assignments for the last three weeks.

* Get a "red-lettered" edition of the Bible, where the words of Jesus are printed in red. begin a process of several times a week, reading ONLY the red letters., letting the black words (the context) fade into the background. This is not because we want to take the words of Jesus out of context; but rather allow His words to life off the pages and into your context. Ask God to apply these words to your present circumstances and see what He does!

*Give God one "blank check" day, where you commit 90 minutes to approach God in quietness and ask Him to speak to you on whatever topic HE chooses. Don't go in with an agenda. Don't ask God for something. but, ask Him to speak to you about whatever He wants and see what He says to you!

*Practical Examples of Pro-active Grace:
-Look for a person at school or work that is socially isolated. Intentionally plan a space to invite them into something relational...a meal, friends hanging, etc.
-Invite someone who is unsaved/unchurched over to dinner; invite them to lunch. just be normal and cool.
-Find a single mom down on her luck, and give her $100 or more anonymously.
-Call someone you have been personally alienated from and asked their forgiveness.
-Ask someone you know who is embroiled in great spiritual difficulty to sit down and talk; present them with the clear gospel message.

*And in our small group last night:
We got talking about grace (the topic of the sermon that morning)
We decided as a group (was completely unplanned) that we are going to each prepare a three minute testimony to share with the group.
We are planning to do a cardboard testimony element.
Then we were challenged to think about using that testimony to present to the congregation at large in a couple weeks in that context.

Are you willing to take on a homework assignment? Just pick even one for this week...

Sunday set list #9

Pictures of our band (at the beginning) and our stage set design details (after the first dozen) today.

We intro'd Exalted (Yahweh) (by Chris Tomlin )last week and I found it amazing how quickly the song caught fire. It was just released September 2, 2008. I'm telling you, this song is amazing. Seriously.

Worship Set 1
Our Love is Loud

Welcome & Greet

Worship Set 2
Sing To the King
Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)
Exalted (Yahweh)

Video-Parable of the Weeds (in house)

Message: Jesus I.D. Pt. 2: The Message, The Ministry, The Mission

Worship Set 3
Mighty to Save

This is part of Sunday Set List, at Fred McKinnon's blog; where worship leaders (and others) share their song set list each week. I have been privaliged to hear new songs, and also see more of what goes on in the mind of a worship leader.

drawing with crayons...

Today our producers asked if I could draw out sketches of my stage designs for worship. I laughed.

That is a tall order. I reminded them that for me to translate what goes on in my brain onto paper is not going to be pretty. In no way am I able to draw.

So I went and bought some crayons...

The nice thing is the pPod team (the group that helps implement all our crazy stage/set design ideas) is able to listen to me and watch my eyes and who I move my arms and somehow figure out what I am seeing. To a degree.

They listen to my wild and crazy ideas, like how we are going to make a giant heart out of pool noodles and a hula hoop. Seriously.
They never even flinch when I say we are going to paint the back of our storage cabinets to create sets from. And for some wonderful reason, they choose to walk with and all my insanity. I am truly blessed. I so appreciate my found friends. I love each of them to life!

I read an interesting question today. What do you do to connect with God?

Recently for me, it is simply waking up. I am so grateful for having God in my life. I can't even begin to explain how thankful I am. I think it is why I pour so much into what I design. I truly wish that someday my meager offerings will help connect one more heart to God. That my lost friends might be able to feel this explosion of love I feel from having a personal relationship with God.

So how to I like to connect?
Singing, prayer, creating the elements that God puts in my brain, hanging out with lost and found friends...

So, I ask you...
What do you do to connect with God?

ode to joy...

This just made me laugh. laughter is good!

Ode To Joy from Beaker on Vimeo

What makes you laugh?

prolapse in judgement...

Well, I see snowballs melting, my youngest brother just started blogging @ prolapse in judgement. He is a copywriter and Associate Creative Director in advertising. Hence the cool blog name.

Sadly, he started to blog to post updates on his up and coming heart surgery.

He is in that flurry of doctor consults.

We are not very excited about the prospect, particular since our father died this last December after years of complications from his heart.

We have been praying that he wouldn't need open heart surgery, but they would op for the less invasive procedure. Looks like it will be open heart.

But, God is good and we are going into this knowing the great healer will heal.

Take time to be thankful today for you health and remember to tell the ones you love, that you love them. Trust me, you never know.

poop...

God, dogs and leadership…

Have patience, this will make sense I hope.
I have four dogs. Two old Jack Russell Terriers and two young mixed rescues.
The terriers are mother and son (18 and 15 years old respectively), the rescues are siblings (almost 4 years old).
The 15 year old terrier is old and very chubby, so he moves slowly. He wanted to go out. So, I go to the back door and wait for him to slowly waddle his way to the door…
I unbolted the door, click…
He pauses in the doorway…
The two younger dogs (who had been sound asleep, with my husband in the back bedroom), heard the click, leaped up out of bed, scrambled frantically through the house and literally created a V formation as they flew through the doorway and PUSHED the chubby dog; propelling him gently through the threshold, like this \o/.
It was God moment.
I have been struggling some with motivating my team. I couple of the people have been dealing with some tough situations and questions and haven’t been actively participating in our design element group. I was concerned for them and their struggles but also I was putting tons of extra time to compensate for the lack of hands over the last two months.
God suggested that I reach out to them and asked them. But, specifically if they are feeling called to be involved. I truly believe that the believers in this group really need to feel called to serve in this capacity and not because they feel they “have to”. I don’t want serving to be a burden.
Especially since I am making a push to start involving some dechurched/unchurched people I have met.
I (in my limited earthly comprehension) was worried that if I asked direct questions, I would hear they were no longer interested in serving on the team.
But, I did ask each one where there heart was.
The answers were awesome.
Despite the trials in their lives, they still feel called to serve.
So when I let the dogs out this morning I saw in that moment, a visual representation of what had just happened this week.
Ahhh, a gentle V formation that gently propelled them over the threshold…
Cool…
Then I stepped in dog poop. I wonder what that means.

caught up in the creative chaos…

I really look forward to Creative Chaos each Thursday. A gathering of creative artists serving God from all over the nation and world. Topics range from music, and videos to set designs and random thoughts, and everything in between.
This week there was lots of thought provoking posts.
Here are some of my responses:

@Christopher (Caught Up in the Creative Chaos)
Creativity is not a linear process; it’s more like the finale of a fireworks display.
Hundreds of individual fireworks exploding all over, entwining with each other.
Rainbows of colors bursting and raining down across the sky; accompanied by a cacophony of noise.
And how do you explain that to someone who someone who is looking at a picture of an unlit firework?
I’ve tried to explain it by saying that I know when I am in God’s will, because ideas just explode in my brain.
And that is one of the reasons why I love Creative Chaos. Though we design in different medium, we understand each other because of the thought process.
I’m glad to see God exploding in your brain!


@Tyler (Silence and Solitude)
This is one I struggle with often.
I struggled with trying to carve out time to spend time with Him. I truly had the desire in my heart, I in my earthly flesh just couldn’t seem to make it happen read: I was trying to do it in my power).
I am ashamed to say, there have been times in my life when God is trying to tell me ‘Be still and know that I AM…” and I have ignored Him.
So, I finally just sincerely asked God to help me find the time.
Now I know that when I wake up inexplicably in the early morning (or middle of the night) I know it’s time to praise God and then wait on Him.
Today was one of those moments.
It is so amazing to me that the God of the universe would want to spend time alone with me. More importantly, why wouldn’t I want to spend time alone with God?
Thank you Tyler, for being so open and honest about your faith journey. I know you will be blessed.

funniest vid this week...

Dialogue Church is thinking about doing something like this...

Very creative and very funny. That is one of the reason I like hanging out at Creative Chaos.

Ameriquest Add--Hospital from Ryan Schaefer on Vimeo.

call + response...

My call in this life is to interact with the lost and disenfranchised.

But these are my top causes, things that tear my heart apart. The holy discontent in my heart.

1. Modern day slavery, particularly children sold into sexual slavery.

2. TWLOHA (To Write Love on Her Arms)

Because I have felt that pain.

3. XXXchurch The secret sin that need to be honestly exposed. Particularly the stories of women. We need to be real and create a space where people are able to safely share and be honest.

A womens battle with pornography.

What are your causes, what causes holy discontent in your heart?

Tyler' church and the Chronicles of Narnia...

Man this is a sweet worship set (stage) designs!
Tyler Braun at man. of .depravity shared this sweet set last week at Creative Chaos.

I love it, talk about thinking out of the box.

Here is what he said:
In the beginning of the Chronicles of Narnia the kids walk through a coat closet and eventually run into a tree that they walk through to enter into Narnia. Right now Sunset is a little bit like that.

When I walk from the green room to the stage I pass through a forest on the way.
We started a new series at Sunset titled “Growing Wise” to kick off the fall. Trees are a symbol for what it means to grow wise. So to exemplify that idea we brought in a bunch of trees that are now the back drop on our platform. Here are some pictures that I took.

Vicar of Vibe: What are the details?
Tyler: We bought the trees from someone that runs a nursery and are selling the trees after a month to recoup the costs. It took about 5 hours to bring them in and then takes time daily to take care of them. Then obviously we have lights around them to bring the colors out.

fuZe...

It's hard to describe the creative environment at our fuze (creative team) meeting on Tuesday. I'm sure most creative teams are off the wall. Certainly we can't be the only ones...
I have mentioned it is like herding cats, literally.
Last week, I shared a video that Carlos Whittaker posted on his blog. Lots of moaning...
Then this week, we had to show those who didn't make it to the meeting last week the video. A lot more moaning...
Then we found this on youtube. So here you go, this weeks funniest video.

Then you have videos like Evolution of Dance (with 98,874,714 views on youtube) and Charlie the Unicorn (with 28,624,711 views)
So now I am curious, what makes viral happen?

it's all in how you say it...

I am always conscious of what is being said or written, especially at church. And very sensitive about using "churchy" words. These words often have meaning that no one understands.

We use words like "seeker" which I have found, from non-churched people I hang out with, is offensive to them. They don't consider themselves "seekers". I much prefer the word "skeptic". It true and self explanatory.

We use confusing words like post-modern and emergent.

I just wish we would consider what we say and how it sounds to those who are churched.

Words are important, it's all in how you say it.

How important is this to you?

This is my first submission to (WCW) Watercooler Wenesday over at Randy Elrod's blog, Ethos.

pPod bag...

This is what I call my pPod bag.













It has items that I have found it helpful to have with me all the time to finish off set designs while setting them up.
Sort of left to right.
1. Camera
2. Tacky Glue
3. Various types of tape (including gaffers)
4. Box of various sizes of safety pins
5. Stuff to write notes
6. Sharpie
7. Screwdriver
8. Scissors
9. Stapler
10. Staples
I almost forgot the gaffer (grip) clips.








pPod is what we call ourselves. We do set design and experiential worship design elelments.
Do you carry a bag like this? If so, what do you carry?

YHWH...

"Exalted (Yahweh)" from Chris Tomlin's newest cd.

First heard it Tuesday, bought it Wednesday, had it on repeat on my itunes since.

Amazing.

In fact, I was setting up the stage set this morning, while the band was rehearsing and they got to "Exalted (Yahweh)", and I fell to my knees to worship. It's that good.

We intro'd and sang it this morning at church and it rocked the house in worship.

It is a flat out anointed song! People were belting it out by the second verse. And by the end chorus "Yahweh, Holy is Your Name", praise was resounding all around us...Awesome!

Sunday set list #8...

(sorry blogspot giving me problems today)

I'm pretty excited!

We had two of the young people from the youth team working with the "grown-ups". One was playing with the worship team, the other was working on the light board.I strongly believe in incorporating the youthlings into the full body. Utilizing their gifts during weekend experience, along with what they do for the youth worship.

We also intro'd a new song from Chris Tomlin's newest album. Exalted (Yahweh). A flat out anointed song! People were belting it out by the second verse. And by the end chorus
"Yahweh, Holy is Your Name", praise was resounding all around us...
Awesome!

Worship Set 1

Marvelous Light
Holy is the Lord
(reprised) Marvelous Light

Welcome & Greet
Group Highlight - Russia Report

Creative Element: "Names of Jesus" video

Worship Set 2
All Hail the Power of Jesus Name (Raise up the Crown)
(Congregational Reading)
Exalted (Yahweh) Chris Tomlin' new album "Hello Love"
(reprised All Hail the Power of Jesus Name)

Message: Jesus I.D. Pt. 1: The Man, the Meaning

Worship Set 3
Center (cut)

We've been going a little ancient modern since we've started the "Jesus Experiment" series.
This is part of Sunday Set List #8 over at Fred McKinnon' blog.

feed me...

Funniest video this week! From Jeffrey Gibson's blog
Man does this remind me of certain people who think it is all about them...
Worship and small groups, rotfl...



He said: Here's a video our small group team produced for our leader's meeting to emphasize how we need to teach people to feed themselves! It has Corey Bullock as the son, Eric Henley as the dad, and Poinciena Valle as mama. I filmed and edited it.

WAREHOUSE Wednesday: pink inc. inspired set design

I really look forward to Thursday for Creative Chaos. Carlos from Buckhead gathers a bunch of creatives who share their creative design musings for the week.
This week, I started a new feature. WAREHOUSE Wednesday. A place to share worship set (stage) designs . Thanks for stopping by.

ware-house*
Spotlight: Courtney and Kendall Feia of High Point Church, Minneapolis, MN.

VIcar of Vibe: Tell me a little about you and your husband. What is your position at your church? Are you paid or is this your Jesus job?

Courney: I’m the Creative Arts Pastor at High Point Church in Minneapolis, MN. I’m a graduate of North Central University with a degree in Church Music. With worship as my first priority, I also create our graphics, media, and staging, and my heart/mission is to cultivate a creative arts department encompassing all of these things and then oversee it. I am currently paid part time, with my hours and salary increasing as we grow. I work with the best team on the planet. I do work another part time job outside of the church as my husband, Kendall is in his 4th year of medical school here at the University of MN. He will be starting a residency in Urology in less than a year.


VIcar of Vibe: Do you have your own church building or are you mobile?

Courney: We are a 2 year old church plant that meets in a movie theater. We are portable/mobile.

VIcar of Vibe: Tell me a little about your design team?

Courney: Right now our staging design team is my husband and I. He keeps me on planet earth and helps the pieces to actually function. (And to fit in our SUV)

VIcar of Vibe: I love that it has to fit in your SUV. What inspired you to design this worship set design?

Courney: Summer 08 set:

I came across pink inc by googling “tension fabric structures” and other words that might pull up some visual images of what I had in mind. My plan was to make some kind of white fabric stretched structure. (Once I figured out it wasn’t in our budget to buy one) Then I attended the 2008 ARC conference down at Church of the Highlands in Birmingham and they just happened to have a set built from stretched fabric structures. The shapes were really close to what I had envisioned so I took a close look and some pictures and just tried to reproduce it on a smaller scale.

VIcar of Vibe: What was the series message?

Courney: Actually, no particular sermon series. This year we made a decision to not change our set for every series other than bringing in an occasional large prop. Instead of spending a little money 12-15 times a year for each series, we spend more money about 4 times a year for a season. It works better for us to streamline these things as a portable church for our set up teams, and more importantly for the quality of design we can produce.

VIcar of Vibe: I really like that thought process. How long did it take to create this set?

Courney: From conceptualizing to final product it took about 30 - 40 hours for each of these designs. Including shopping for materials.

VIcar of Vibe: Give us details on how you created this, what types of materials, etc.?

Courney: Summer set:
The shapes were made from 3/4” CVC piping (Flexible waterline piping - next to the PVC – not the white stuff, the cream colored stuff)
Various CVC elbow connectorsConnectors secured to the pipe with PVC cement.
Once we had made the structure we laid it on the floor OVER a large strip of fabric and then pulled the fabric up over the sides.Fabric – spandex stretchy almost shiny fabric.
I splurged for nice fabric I think it was 10 bucks a yard.
Stretched over and attached to structures using heavy duty double sided carpet tape.
7 or 8 par 38 can lights @ $25 eachTotal cost: around $325 with the par lights.
















(double click on this photo to see all the great details!)

VIcar of Vibe: Another quick question. What did you use to stand the structures up in (the floor stand)?

Courney: On the summer set (as you'll see in this pic), we used the same posts we had built from the previous set to balance them upright. I was surprised it worked as well as it did.

VIcar of Vibe: What is your favorite set design you have done?

Courney: My favorite by far was our summer staging set (this one). It just worked. It will be hard to top that one.

Vicar of Vibe: Courtney, thank you so much for taking time from your busy schedule to share all these details.

Courney: Wow, thanks so much for putting all this together.

Show me (tell me about) your most creative set design.
___________________________________________________
This is being submitted to Creative Chaos//26 over at Ragamuffin Soul. A place to share all things creative. Thank Los, for all you do!__________________________________________________
There you have it folks! The first set in now in the warehouse for everyone to see.

WAREHOUSE Wednesday

ware·house
-noun
a building, or a part of one, for the storage of goods, merchandise, etc.
-verb
1. to place, deposit, or store in a warehouse.
2. to set aside or accumulate, as for future use.

One of my biggest desires is to glean ideas and have a central location to find tons of ideas, with details on set designs. Kind of a one stop shopping warehouse. With interviews and details, to share with others.

So join us Wednesday as we spotlight various creative designers from all over.
And share your designs with us.

Intro to the Jesus Experiment....

Wow! This was the worship set (stage) design that was totally dependant on God.
Yesterday, we were left hanging (or not) when Kinko's dropped the ball on printing our 2' x 3' images of Christ. So when we set up we thought we would only have the hanging cloth. Not too bad really. White chiffon and red velvety material hung by gaffer clips and safety pins (in that order).
Didn't look bad, with the changing light show for our drama- the Jesus Montage.

Then we got the call that we could pick up four of the images at 6:15 a.m. this morning. So dear worship leader drove to Kinko's and loaded up the images into her little SUV.

Then as you are able to see, we set up the large photos (printed on foam core:which is very fragile and expensive) at various heights and depths on stage and just off stage.

We initially thought we were going to hang them, but because of the time crunch this morning, we set them on music stands and it worked out perfectly. The vertical one in back was a music stand set on one off our rolling cabinets, draped in black.

Overall the set was breathtaking. I love when God helps us see past our limited vision.
Worship sets and the message was off the charts today!

What a big opening for our 52 week "super series" on "The Jesus Experiment".
This is part of Creative Chaos over at Ragemuffin Soul. All sorts of creatives share what they have been doing.

Sunday set list #7

This is a very exciting week. It is the intro to our Jesus Experiment.

A year long "super series" exploring in depth the life, teachings, identity and reality of Jesus Christ.

Worship was out of the park today! I love when the congregation gets fired up for God! God was glorified today!

Intro:
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
(that was way cool)
Set 1
Instrumental
All Bow Down
Sing to the King
Welcome and Greet
Set 2
Fire Fall Down
Be The Center
(Reprise of Fire Fall Down)
Creative Element:
Jesus Montage (hope to post this later)
Message: Intro to the Jesus Experiment...
Set 3
I Stand Amazed
Closing song: Jesus is My Friend (SonSeed)...

(Just kidding, thanks Carlos)
Our worship set design rocked too!
This is submitted as part of the crazy gang Sunday set list carnival @ Fred McKinnon's blog.
__________________________________________________________
Join us Wednesday for WAREHOUSE:
ware·house
-noun
a building, or a part of one, for the storage of goods, merchandise, etc.
-verb
1. to place, deposit, or store in a warehouse.
2. to set aside or accumulate, as for future use.

One of my biggest desires is to glean ideas and have a central location to find tons of ideas, with details on set designs. Kind of a one stop shopping warehouse. With interviews and details, to share with others.

So join us each Wednesday as we spotlight various creative designers from all over.

Announcing: WAREHOUSE Wednesday

WAREHOUSE Wednesday










ware·house
-noun
a building, or a part of one, for the storage of goods, merchandise, etc.
-verb
1. to place, deposit, or store in a warehouse.
2. to set aside or accumulate, as for future use.

One of my biggest desires is to glean ideas and have a central location to find tons of ideas, with details on worship set design designs. Kind of a one stop shopping warehouse. With interviews and details, to share with others.

So join us each Wednesday as we spotlight various creative designers from all over.
And share your designs with us.

tuna...

The Jesus Experiment..

Miracle of the fish and loaves.

Being Jesus in the world.

A bunch of cans of tuna stacked on stage or on the communion tables: tagged with thejesusexperiment.com label a sheet with instructions.

People pick up a can of tuna. Take it home and follow the instructions:

Either, buy a package of cans of tuna, mayonaise and a couple of loaves of bread. Take to the shelter. Or give it to someone you know is in financial difficulty.

Buy a couple cans of tuna with pop top lids, packets of mayonaise and a loaf of bread and give it to a homeless person. Pop top lids are important because they don't have a can opener.

Believe it or not the mayonaise is the important part. I've often heard from people that they don't have the money for the extras and that often means mayonaise.


But, the original can of tuna with the label on it; pass it on to someone else and hand them the instruction sheet to Sort of a "pay it forward" type of concept.


Nothing about this being a church project, the only connection is thejesusexperiment.com label on the can and on the sheet. Where people are encouraged to write about what they chose to do.


That's it...