This week we kicked off a new series post-Easter centered around relationships and the family. This is actually a topic we haven’t touched on for over two years which is odd, but reality. So we were excited to begin diving into these truths. These series present a challenge in that we want to embrace biblical perspectives on these topics, not Dr. Phil perspectives.  So from our creative to our communication, this was our intent.

Also, this week we wanted to spend a moment celebrating our Easter weekend. It was a huge highlight with almost 9000 in attendance and 231 baptisms. When we cast vision on a regular basis, ask our church community to come alongside us in living that out, we have to be certain to celebrate appropriately. Our video team had been tasked to capture footage during Easter weekend of everything taking place in preparation. Note: Make this a part of your big days. It is footage you can never go back and capture so always have a team tasked to capture the moments.

Here is that highlight video:

We inserted an up-front Host Moment which is out of our normal template. The reason for this was we needed to separate the Easter celebration from the content of the day around our series. It would be too jarring otherwise. There is always a risk to switch up your normal  template, but with some forethought it is crucial.

As we kicked off the series we had limited time for an element to set up both the message and the series. We choose the obscure Toby Mac song, “Family” to bring some tension not only to the day but the entire six weeks. Early in the week we decided to add a stock video produced by COTM. The idea was to lay it under the song with no dialogue. The way the video was put together it established tension and also followed a solid narrative with no dialogue necessary.

At the last minute (Sunday AM), we re-rendered out the video loop adding 30 seconds to the front end that included some dialogue . The feeling was this allowed an establishment of the moment and grabbed everyone’s attention as we transitioned. Even though it was last minute, our video team made it happen quickly.  With our current stage set up including a center shark tooth scrim we were able to integrate the video with our IMAG throughout the song and it definitely got the point across. It was a song and video that left things unresolved.

Shane, our Senior Pastor, did a great job of transitioning from song w/video to message. A common mistake is to not think through this moment and it becomes either awkward or it appears the speaker is ignoring what just happened. We are grateful that Shane is aware of this and works hard to make things flow.

Here is the video with song:

Learnings:

1. Look for creative and innovative ways to use material that is stock. There is always ways to flex and maneuver to bring new life to any material.
   

2. Pay attention to your service flow transitions. Don’t take people on a roller coaster ride unless you intend to. Let them absorb.

3. There are appropriate moments to celebrate. Part of effectively casting vision is to include them when there are huge wins.
   

Set List:

Furious

Here For You

Good Good Father

Special Song: Family

Defender

Weekend Run Sheet: