Trying something a little different

So, every church I have ever work for always struggles with announcements. How many to have each week, live or video, do you let people walk up right before service and add announcements? These are just a few of the issues I have seen over the years.

We try to consistently try to do Video announcements because of the control of the messaging and time. Since I have been at Park we have been through several versions of announcements. The first format was to have the staff that was over the events to do them... that did not work. We have many events that are volunteer driven so scheduling became a nightmare to deal with.

We have done Graphical driven video announcements. And have tried a couple of times with a "host" type delivery video. Continuing to be frustrated with the process I decided to contact a local actress that attends our church to play the role of host for the video, she will do them every week. Here is our first one, I am excited to see how this evolves for us.

Cultivate

So I am feeling uninspired to write any content about anything this week. Maybe it's because I am still recovering from going non stop. Anyway here are some photos form the Cultivate Conference we hosted at Park Community Church. Anthony Barlich of Barlich Photography was the event photographer and did an amazing job, I love his eye.

Fall Set

When I started thinking about what the set was going to be this fall, I had a certain criteria that I wanted to meet.

1 - The set needed to feel like it encompassed the whole stage. We have a 30' section of solid wall in the center of our stage. The sides of the stage is covered in windows 40' in each direction. This creates certain challenges when designing sets. We open the curtains at the end of each service and are sensitive to blocking the view.

2 - I wanted it to be versatile in it's looks. I wanted to be able to go from a polished saturated color look to a raw industrial look.

3 - It needs to be versatile in its location. This set will take us all the way to Christmas so I wanted something that can change from week to week if we want it to.

I knew from the beginning that I wanted 4 towers that would be constructed from steel studs and covered in Coroplast. The exact design of these towers was up in the air until the last minute. The design evolved from having multiple opacities of Coroplast to having a 58" plasma in each one. The structural design changed as well through several generations of drawings.

We landed on the simple cross beam design. This felt simple and elegant, although it was difficult to actually build. So we decided that two sides of the towers would have the cross beam pattern and the other two sides would have a simple horizontal beam pattern. This became the plan until we ran out of time. So the center two towers have 2 sides with the cross beam and 2 sides with the horizontal pattern and the two outside towers only have the horizontal pattern. They ended up being 16' X 4'.

In the end, I do wish they were all the same but they still look great. I am excited to see what we do the next couple months with these. We already have some really cool plans for the upcoming week, so be sure and check back for pictures and videos.

10 years

10 years ago I married my best friend. For better or worse, the richer the poorer, till death... I'm sure Simone has felt like making that last one happen a couple of times over the years.

We have changed dramatically over the years home ownership, car purchases, dogs, infertility, adoption, birth families, loss of loved ones, layoffs, moving across the country, and much much more continue to reshape us.

When I look back at this video we had no idea what life would hold, looking back God's faithfulness is evident above all. It's easy to see when you are looking from the other side, not always when you are walking through it.

The Loop

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been working very hard to make Park’s very first children’s summer camp,VBS, a fun exciting experience for the kids. The week was themed “The Loop”. We are a city-centric church and we love to celebrate the urban life experience. We built “L” tracks around the ceiling of our children’s area by cutting forms out of 1” thick styrofoam with a hot knife. We built a version of the great hall of Chicago’s Field Museum on our main stage. The main teaching segments happened there. It was themed Night at the Museum where the Bible characters, the t-rex skeleton and the statues came alive to teach. This included a night guard to guide us through the story. We created the museum out of 2” thick styrofoam and added some faux painting. The effort of many volunteers and staff has paid off with a great week of seeing children impacted for the glory of God.

This video is a brief look at the construction of the L.

This is the initial test of the crude animation.

Fix My Picture

Since moving to Chicago a year ago I have not done any portrait photography, other than my kids. A friend ask me to do some head shots a couple of weeks ago. This is Billy, the host of Fix My Recipe. It was nice to get the strobes back out.

The Cross

We have spent the first part of the summer with a black stage. A couple of weeks ago I added a 20' X 10' cross made out of light bulbs. The original concept was to use standard 100 watt bulbs. After thinking about it, I decided to go with a 12"X 1" showcase bulb (I only paid $3.25 per bulb from a local supplier). The showcase bulbs added a very sculptural effect to the cross. The sockets, purchased from Ikea, come with a 15' long cord on them. I laid a 10' section of Unistrut on the stage floor, measured out the cross and attached the cords with black zip ties.

A or B?

A couple of week ago we asked our church to text in a vote for what topic we would teach on next. We used a texting poll via Jarbyco. The series for the life of David got the most votes. We had to do a quick turn around on the artwork and thought we would put it up for a vote as well.

So which one would you choose: A or B?

Dead Dreams

I am getting ready to start a creative coaching program this week. When Carlos sent around the assignments for the first session one of them was to read Ezekiel 37:1-14. This is a passage I was very familiar with. Below is an article that was written by my wife for our adoption agency newsletter back in spring of 2003.

Jason has attended our church, Grace Fellowship, since he was a child. Now on staff, Jason came up with the new name, “Grace Kids”, for our children's building because he was a Grace Kid. Jason also designed the new children's logo and he spent literally months working on special lighting for the children's building before it opened. When the doctors told us we would probably never have children we were devastated. We made ourselves go to work and keep going even though we wanted to just close ourselves away from everyone. At least twice a

week Jason had to walk those children's building halls, knowing he would never have a child who would benefit from the fruit of his labor. Late one night, Jason went to Wal-Mart and purchased baby stuff. He arranged it in a big basket and set it in our bedroom as a faith statement. Soon after, Jennifer Hatch, a teacher at our Christian school gave an interpretation of Ezekiel 37:1-10 during staff devotions. We held on to this scripture. Simone even taped it to her computer monitor. “So I prophesied to my dead dreams like God told me to. And I commanded

life to come into my heart's desire. And that inner dream God gave me lived and rose up fully manifested.” When Simone took Jazz to the nursery the first time, she was given a new mom's gift pack that contains a bib, bottle, rattle, and fridge magnet all with the Grace Kids logo that Jason designed!! After Jason took this picture he realized the sleeper Jazz is wearing was one of the ones he purchased that night. Our once empty sleeper, purchased as a faith statement, now is filled with a beautiful baby boy. What a testament to God's never ending mercy and faithfulness. Now the “inner dream God gave us lives and has risen up, fully manifested.” His name is Jazz David Paul.

Sometimes, in the chaos which is life, you lose sight of the amazing things God has done. When we lose sight of these things is when we start to think that we can do it ourselves.

God, never let us forget your amazing power at work in our lives. Let us continuously reflect on the love you have shown to us.

beneath a velvet canopy

My status was: "Chicago. Summer. Night. Exhale."

Dave Pingel, a friend of mine and awesome man of God, wrote this in response. Dave is one of the best examples of a loving and tender father that I have ever seen.

"In the calm and quiet solitude of the middle of the night
beneath a velvet canopy bespeckeled with star light,
when the hurried, worried pace of life is at a rest
and the hustle and the bustle await the next day yet;
when the air is cool and clean, soothing to the soul
and time is somewhere sleeping, all by itself, alone -
the voice of God resounds in noiseless quietude
proclaiming ageless mysteries to the listening, chosen few.

God's voice is like the night - of peace, tranquility;
like a sea of silent sound whispering eternally.
He speaks not to the ear but softly to the heart
with words worth more than gold His ways He does impart.
Yet, God is not like man, nor are His methods mortal;
He needs no helping hands, no earthly wreaths of laurel.
God needs not the MIND of man to receive the gifts of heaven -
but it's to man's HEART that the heavenly gifts are given.

--dave pingel"

Nice to hear

As a tech/creative guy it's nice to know what you do with technology in a service is having a deeper impact on people and not just entertaining them. Jackson just sent this excerpt from a email he received this week.

"You can share though to whomever is correct person(s) that you all do a great job with the media, different ways to keep our interest via texting, scripture finding, photos, short video clips, music, lighting changes, decoration changes ... I have been coming to Park for about 4 years and just in the last year - through small group and a mission trip, I think I am finally getting closer to "accepting or authentically living" with Jesus (words feel a little uncomfortable for me to say. The media, attention you all give to service - keeps my interest (which is what I actually still need) ... something that pulls me to service as it just isn't something i know that I like/need until I get there - sometimes still kinda dragging myself there."

Create with purpose!

Texting

At Park, we are using texting to better connect with our people. We use many features of our provider, Jarbyco, to keep people informed and to find out what they are thinking. Tim Schraeder, Park’s communication director, manages all the texting options. I manage the implementation into our projection system.

A couple of weeks ago, we did a texting poll. It was very useful for Jackson Crum to understand where our people stood on the issue of speaking in tongues. We did this live during our service with results in real time on our screens.

Click here to try the poll for yourself. After the flash app opens, text your answer to the number and watch it change in real time. The poll will reset itself when reloaded or refreshed.

We have some fun ways we are going to implement texting in the near future. I will let you know how it goes.

ink it

l

Ragamuffin Soul // Coaching For Creatives

A Guy. A Camera. A City

I am going to start a new series to show the photos I take. Living in a City like Chicago I am always surrounded by amazing inspiration for the art I create. I often have my camera with me and will snap photos of things I find interesting. 

Reflections at Millennium Park

Train tracks at the Art Institute 

In the gardens surrounding the Art Institute 

Found this in a garden at the Art Institute 

Love the contrast

The entrance of the Roosevelt Theater

Iconic Chicago Summer

Love the texture

Just a fun picture

Again love the texture

Cool Toys

I am always loosing my USB thumb drives. I saw this on the key chain of a friend I was having lunch with the other day and asked where he got it. I ordered a couple for our team. We got the 8GB version. It is water proof and very light weight. You can order them from the LaCie web site.

RAW

This morning at park I went with a very raw look for the music segment of our service. The rest of the service had our usual look. I side lit the coroplast shapes with 3 source four par cans from either side of the stage. I also aimed 1 source four par can up into the structure from both sides. In the house I turned up the bare bulb fixtures higher than normal to provide an very ambient feel. All of this together provided a very raw warehouse feel. My favorite part of the day were the cues that took us back to a theatrical feel, it was really cool to watch the room transform it's self.

Balance

Balance. Life is filled with always having to balance priorities, this is an area that I have always struggled with. Historically I will get busy with a project and things start falling off the end of the table. In my mid 20’s I was forced to start balancing this aspect of my life. For me it’s like an addiction, you are never over it you just have to learn to deal with it.

The introduction of a wife brought one more aspect of balance in my life. Although we flowed pretty well. She would spend time and help with projects. This continued until I was 29. That year brought the birth of our son, yet another element to have to balance. All of a sudden my table was getting fuller of things that could not fall off, the price was to high. This kept Simone from hanging out and helping as much.

The next couple of years were pretty smooth. When our son was three we introduced another element to balance. Our daughter was born when I was 32, at the same time my work load increased. I literally felt like I was spinning plates - just going from plate to plate just spending enough time to make sure it did not fall. I missed simple things like playing in the snow, I look at those pictures and still regret it.

I am 35 now and don’t feel like I have made much progress. I am convinced that this is not something that ever gets easier you just have to make daily decisions about where your time is going to go. Maybe by 40 I can get a handle on it...

I wrote this on the plane on my way to be a part of the the Worship Facilities Expo Tech Talk. One of the questions that was asked from the audience was about how we balance work and the rest of our lives. Jill Gille one of the panelist said “I wish I had been brave enough to end the meeting, or just leave” It made me think how many times thing have been rearranged in our personal life because a meeting ran long.

Piper|Carson Event

Last week the Gospel Collation held their annual conference just outside Chicago. For the last evening of the conference everyone was invited to join John Piper and Don Carson at Park Community Church for a discussion titled "the Pastor as a Scholar, and the Scholar as a Pastor".

Due to the fact that we were just hosting the event we had to put the sponsors logos on the stage behind the speakers so that they were visible on the video. I used our three screen setup from our christmas set except this time I lined up 3 58" plasmas and used them to display the logos. I moved the computer for the three screens on stage right behind the plasmas, we then covered it with black fabric. Our video room is on the second floor so this kept us from having to add two additional cable runs. I often use remote desktop to control computers so it worked out great.

I added 6 columns three on each side of the stage. I used Coroplast left over from easter. I scored the 4 X 8 sheets every foot and folded into a square then taped the connection corner with white gaff tape. I then cut a slot in the bottom for the cables and placed them over our LED par cans.

This event maxed our our facility, It was fun to see the building overflowing with people. We set up every classroom and public area as overflow and they were all full.

Remember

For Good Friday this year we did a short theater piece where a man beat a cross on stage. While he was beating the cross a figure representing Jesus was hanging from a rope on the other side of the stage responding to every blow. During this scene a sin would flash on the wall with every hit.

For Easter Sunday, we took one of the crosses he beat on stage and hung it in a stair case that connects our two main lobbies. The Good Friday theater piece was very moving for a lot of people and they are reminded of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us every time they enter the building.