Pine Ridge Church Bumper

wow, I have been such a blogging slacker lately.  I apologize.  I think i have been working on more projects over the last few months than I have in quite a while.  Looking forward to a little break.  Here’s a bumper I created for Pine Ridge Church in Graham, NC.  I designed the sermon series artwork and then provided them with this bumper, promos and a countdown.

freebie resources for sermon series

Elevation has thrown its hat in to the ring lately along with other churches that have begun to offer their sermon series resources for free.  You can check it out here.  Some of the things I’ve always admired about Elevation is their creativity, attention to detail and design.

some monday morning perspective

1. be thankful for where you are and what you have 2. don’t just stay there.  move to help those in need.  I needed this.  Thanks Newspring for posting this.  There is a little graphic content so just know that before watching.

Prentice Story Video

This morning Phillip concluded his message with a video about the Prentice family.  This was a video that I shot last Sunday afternoon and edited this week.  Going into the video, we thought it was going to be primarily a video to promote Grace Kidz, the special needs ministry at Cedar Creek Church.  However, like what happens much of the time, the video ended up telling a bigger story.

We wrapped up our vision series this week and this video ended up painting a picture of what it looks like when the body of is working toward the same result and the church is fulfilling its vision.  Christian was invited by a friend in our student ministry.  Jamie and Logan ended up getting plugged in to our special needs ministry in several areas.  That’s not to mention all the other areas (care ministry, home groups, greeters, worship, media, etc.) that all played a part in helping them to feel welcome but also communicating God’s grace.  Now, they’re investing in people’s lives, too.

couple of On The Ridge Campus photos

Here are a couple of photos (compliments of Nick – Ridge Campus Pastor) of the worship center at Cedar Creek On the Ridge in Ridge Spring.  For those that don’t know, this is our second multi-site campus about to launch within the next few weeks.  It was very cool to see the reaction of those who had not seen the set completed (for the most part) this past week.  Tomorrow we’re having small worship gathering for the volunteers at the campus.  Just a few notes and comments from the production side of things.

• As you can see, the house lights are on full…as we found out from our electricians on Wednesday, these particular lights have to be on (per the manufacturer) for 100 hours straight before dimming them.  They actually use a fluorescent bulb (not a fan) vs an incandescent bulb but are dimmable.  Not ideal for tomorrow morning but should be good to go for the first public worship service.  Once that 100 hours is up, we can really set the lighting the way we want.
• Table at the front in the photos is for communion tomorrow.  Normally that is where Nick will be to greet, announce, speak, pray, etc.
• We utilized a combination of LED washes, par cans and ellipsoidals in our theatrical lighting.  We also have a large spot mounted in the back (not pictured).
• Ceiling was blacked out.  I was hoping that the back wall would be as well, but that was a no go.  I’m thinking perhaps some black fabric/curtain may be a good call to go behind the transformants and trusses on the back wall down the road.
• Lighting is controlled by some free Chauvet computer-based software.  It actually is pretty cool in that you can setup 2d and 3d renderings of your stage setup, create scenes on your computer anywhere, bring them in and load them up..nice for volunteers.
• Total of 4 screens, 2 on the sides, one on the rear wall (not pictured) and then the motorized screen that drops down from the center for the message.
• 2 analog way switcher/scalers for the screens.  One for the side and rear screens, one for the center screen.
• Imac using propresenter for media.
• Small behringer board for media mix before sending it to house sound.
• Right now we’re going week delay and using dvd’s for the ridge campus.  Quality is okay on the dvd, but we may quickly change over to using captured video from either p2 cards or from dvcpro deck.  We’ll see…still a work in progress.

to reach people that no one is reaching….

…you have to do things that no one is doing.  The message doesn’t change but the methods MUST.  Check out this clip from Craig Groeschel.

its former glory…..

I had a meeting with the Augusta Symphony about a website so I met with them a few weeks ago.  They are housed at Sacred Heart Cultural center in downtown Augusta.  Sacred Heart was a church that closed in 1971 and was renovated and restored in 1987 as a cultural center for the community to rent.  It also houses several organizations.  I have looked at this building a lot in my days as it is right beside Curtis Baptist Church and School, two places where I spend A LOT of time growing up.  My older brothers use to sneak across the street during church into the old abandoned building and would often explore through it.

I wasn’t sure where exactly their offices were located so I slipped in through a door I saw open.  Straight ahead of me I saw a sign that said “Auditorium Entrance”.  I hadn’t been in Sacred Heart since shortly after it reopened in the late 80′s and just had to see it.  So, I snuck in through the auditorium door and when I walked through a small corridor, there I was on the stage at Sacred Heart.  If you have never been inside this building, you must see it (here’s a photographer’s site that I came across that had some great shots of the interior – Shawna Herring & here is a photo gallery on the sacred heart site).  As I looked around, it literally took my breath away…I was just blown away!  Just an incredible sight.  The summer sun was pouring in through the stain glass windows and the architecture, paint, the craftsmanship…just unbelievable.  I just stood there for a while taking it in.

As I stood there, all of the sudden this thought hit me:

This use to be a place where people came expecting God to move, expecting to worship, encountering Jesus.

My mood changed.  I felt crushed as I began to think about that.  I was reminded that this church was like so many others that I’ve seen and know: Churches that at one time were thriving with life and were impacting the community around them.  Over time they had lost that focus on Jesus, lost what it meant to present and be the Gospel in the context of their community at that time.  So many churches are just dying…just empty buildings.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I am thrilled that this beautiful building is being used so effectively in the community.  But as I was driving back to Aiken I thought a lot about those two extremes of emotion that I had just experienced.  It made me wonder about Cedar Creek, and other churches that right now are making an impact in their community and the world.  Here are some questions:

• What will our church/churches look like in 40 years?  In 5 years?  Will these churches keep their focus on Jesus or will they cease to exist?
• Will we hold to our styles and methodologies as sacred and become culturally irrelevant?
• As the “contemporary churches” become the new traditional churches (by the way, that is happening all over in churches that were birthed out of the Saddleback and Willow Creek models), will they be willing to ask the hard questions and make the even tougher decisions that it takes to change their methods (not the message) as needed over time?

CCC Baptism Video

Twitter in Ministry

Had a chance earlier this week to speak with Kelly Jasper with the Augusta Chronicle for an article in today’s paper.  The article was on the use of social media in ministry, in particular Twitter.  You can check it out here.  At the bottom of the article, they give a listing of local pastors and notables that are on twitter, too.

the right fit

I was reading Steven Furtick’s blog earlier this week, and he had a post on how growth happens at Elevation Church.  As soon as I read it I thought “If I had to describe what I would perceive as the perfect fit for me in ministry, it would be to help make what he describes here happen on a Sunday morning.”  Here’s the content of that post:

How Church Growth Happens:

We enable experiences and interactions that leave our people saying:
I love my church

So they’ll tell their friends:
You’ve got to come check out my church

The friends come.
We worship Jesus and preach the Gospel with excellence.

The friends leave saying:
I really like this church

Inspiring them to come back again and again until they say:
I love my church

And tell their friends:
You’ve got to come check out my church…