Packaging is Important

One of the elements of a Sermon Series that I think gets overlooked is the staging.  Staging is an important part of the packaging.  Taking the brand onto the stage puts the icing on the cake.

And you don’t have to spend tons of money either.  There are simple and creative ways to provide a great look to the stage.  Understanding that the worship and sermon elements are the focus, design a stage that enhances the brand yet provides a punch to the stage.

We are currently in the Summer Sermon Series yet we on purpose made sure the faithful summer attenders get a nice looking stage.  Again — a stage that enhances the brand.  In this instance we are creating a ongoing summer series that will be a book study.  This summer :: Hebrews.  The summer brand is “By the Book” that carries with it a neo-classic, stained glass, artsy feel.  A very beautiful stage.

Would love to hear your staging ideas for the summer.  Remember that packaging is important.

Stained GlassCenter Screen

Time is and Artist’s Friend

My job as the Executive Pastor // Creative Arts is to resource my team.  Resources can range from the obvious :: equipment, money, etc.  But have you thought about giving them more time.  That’s a resource and no, you can’t increase the hours in a day.  And no, I’m not talking about asking them to give you more work hours.  They’re week is full enough — I’m sure.

What you can do is stay ahead on creative resourcing.  By having creative meetings well in advance of an event or sermon series, you, in theory, give your artists more time to produce.

When my son was young, I noticed when he played with blocks he would build and tear down — build, reconstruct, re-build, etc.  It was a true creative process.  One the of the best resources I can give my team is the flexibility and the room to build, tear down and rebuild.  They take pride in their work.  And you need a good, useful and impactful product.  Everyone is happy.

This week we had our final creative meeting of the year — for the regular sermon series.  The creative target has been set for the final five series.  All that remains is Christmas plans.

Now it’s time for the fun to begin!!

Teams needed for your Creative Process

Everyone has a creative process.  It’s gonna be a good one or a bad one — effective or ineffective.  But for discussion purposes :: let’s assume it’s good and effective.  In other words — it gets the job done for your church.

My question:  what teams do you have in place to make sure the creative process is good and effective?  I’d like to know.  List each team with a short description.  I’ll list mine here to get the conversations started:

Teaching Team :: determines the teaching series and fine tunes the “take-away” for each sermon.

Creative Team :: provides 100′s of ideas for each teaching series and provides smaller target for Creative Arts team.

Creative Arts Team :: professionals who complete the creative process and produces deliverables for weekend worship.

Chime in with your ideas.  I’d love to learn from you.

Church Billboards?

Posted a new billboard on the 202 just a couple of weeks ago.  It advertises a new End of Days sermon series that we’ve begun.  The billboard was created to look like a new, blockbuster movie.  EndOfDays.TV  — and we’re getting a good number of hits to the website.

Do you have any ideas about billboard advertising and the church?

2011 Easter Campaign

At Cornerstone this Easter we are egging our city.  It’s really just a fun way for our community to invite their friend, family and co-workers to the Easter Weekend.  It’s a big game of tag — anonymous tag.

The Cornerstone community will be handing out 30,000 clings that look like a fried egg :: 30,000 plastic eggs containing an invite.

But more importantly, we are inviting our friends to join us in reaching around the world :: our goal is to provide clothes and sandals for 2500 orphans in India.

Get the info at :: EggYourCity.com

Time is an Artist’s Friend

It’s a simple adage, but so true.  Time is a resource.  We only have so much of it.  The more, however, we can stack away through planning ahead, the more ultimate freedom will be experienced.

That’s what we are in the process of doing on the Creative Arts Team @CSChandler.  We are all buckling down and getting ahead.  Yes, it has been a tough 4 weeks and we have about 4 more to go.  What’s on the other side of this hard work?  Freedom — margin — oxygen.

The video and graphics teams will be a full 3 series ahead.  Yep.  You read that correctly.  That translates into about 9 weeks in front of the curve.  The worship team is posting worship cues 4 weeks out.  The magazine by summer will be working 2 magazines ahead.  This also aids our tech team and all our volunteers.

In the coming months, I’ll be talking about the amazing things my guys and gals will be producing.  They will have more time to create.  More time to create quality.  More time produce impactful media.  For the Kingdom.

I’m excited!!

Stressed // A New Series coming to CSChandler

New Teaching Series beginning April 11

STRESSED?

Life can be hectic, demanding, overwhelming!  Is there an answer or is this just how it is — your busy and stressed out and then you die?  Jesus said, “Come learn from me for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Is it possible that if life is burning us out that we’ve missed part of the conversation?

[Vimeo 10194224]