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Hey Everyone,

Taking part in “Creative Chaos” today, a blog carnival of sorts birthed by Carlos @ Ragamuffin Soul. In this series, we discuss various “creative elements” we’ve used in the past week or coming week for our church services.

Since I’ve not done an Easter “Confessional”, I thought I’d include that here, along with some of the creative elements we incorporated into this celebration of life we call “Easter”.

1. C3

I love a good worship choir. I had a vision to have an occasional “feature choir”, appropriately named “Community Church Choice”, or C3. My boundary here was 30 people … if I couldn’t have a MINIMUM of 30 people, I wouldn’t proceed. Thankfully, more than 60 people signed up. This is good, as we had between 40-50 people actually participate due to scheduling conflicts. Since C3 doesn’t participate every Sunday, we only rehearse a few times prior to the event where we sing. So, for the 3 Thursdays prior to Easter Sunday, we rehearsed our opening 3 songs.

Walk in: Glory Hallelujah (no choir)
Walk in: For All You’ve Done (full choir)

Opening Set:
Happy Day (Tim Hughes) (full choir)
Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone), featuring Shannon Lewis, Todd Hendrix, and full choir.
(see this post with video of arrangement we did, taken from Hillsong’s Conference last summer)

Second Set:
In Christ Alone (Townsend)
Hosanna (Hillsong)

Closer: I Will Never Be the Same Again (Hillsong)
Walk-Out: Again, I Say Rejoice (Israel Houghton)

2. The Truth

After our worship sets, lights went black and we showed an awesome video called “This is the Truth”. It’s not an original creative element, we got it off Sermon Spice .. it’s the 3rd one down when searching with this link. It’s well worth the preview and purchase!

3. We Got Stoned

That’s right. David’s message was on removing the stones or hinderances that we have in receiving God’s love. He talked about our wrong-impressions of God, resentment, unforgiveness, among other things. All of these are big stones, rolled in front of us - hindering us from receiving God’s love. Well, Jennifer went on a mission to Jacksonville and purchased 2,000 stones …. and we put a stone under each seat, for each service. It was a simple, physical way to touch a stone, imagine putting your hindering issues upon it, and they were encouraged to take it with them and throw it in the ocean.

The best creative element? The ones only God can do … creating tender, receptive hearts … in each service, hands shot up across the auditorium for first time commitments to Christ. Praise God!

It was without question one of my most joyous and EFFORTLESS Easter Sundays in years. I would’ve thought it would be tough, being in a larger church with more logistics and people, but I feel that we prepared in advance and didn’t try to “over-produce” anything, and as a result, we just “had church” and it was wonderful!

How ’bout you?
Fred

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Hey Everyone -

Once again, Carlos @ RagamuffinSoul has pioneered a new blogging idea … this one is called “Creative Chaos”. He invites bloggers to take Thursdays to blog about “creative elements” they’ve used in their worship services, etc. Check out his site for the concept and rules.

I thought this was a cool idea, so I’m going to jump in with what I’d call “The Candle Moment” at SSCC.

As most of you who read this blog already know, we transitioned into our new facility this past weekend. It was a special time for us, yet at the same time, it was a “goodbye” to the old facility - multiple rooms, offices, and shops in a strip mall.

Two weeks ago in our final service in the “Shops at Demere”, we ended our final service with a single flame - a candle, burning. Larry, one of our elders, spoke about the transition - and how special our times in that facility had been. He ultimately presented the case that it’s not the building, the people, the staff, the music that really made the “changed lives” difference … ultimately, although those things were used .. it was God’s Presence with us. That’s what the single flame .. the candle represented. God’s ever-burning Presence with us. We closed that service with lights black and a single candle burning. As people reflected, we faded lights up and allowed them to be dismissed.

This past Sunday was our first Sunday in the new building. Once again Larry aluded to this special moment, and our need for Christ’s Presence. As he did, the lights begin to fade as Pastor David (the Senior Pastor) began walking from the back of the room to the stage, holding this candle. As he brought it to the stage and began to speak, all that could be seen was the candle. All that could be heard was David’s voice. Once again, reminding us of God’s Presence, with us.

The point was simply that the one thing we could bring from that old building to the new was God’s Presence. That’s what we need, that’s what we desire, and that’s what He offers.

It was simply, yet profound.

And that’s our creative moment from the halls of St. Simons Community Church.  How ’bout you?

For the Kingdom,
Fred

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