As we head into a new series on parables, we are also hitting into the lean summer months.  You know the kind: everyone has a week off here, a day off there, and maybe a few Sundays scattered through summer break as well.  And for those of us in the creative arts world, we know that summer breaks for no one, because… SUNDAY’S COMING. It always is. So, how do you counter the hectic summer schedule and still stay on top of your creative content? You work hard at it. For us, our Parables series is no different.

For week one, we tackled the parable about the Visitor At Midnight (Luke 11:5-13) which is a parable about persistence in prayer.

We created a video that depicted someone going on a prayer walk. We took the time to head out of the desert to higher elevation on nearby Mt. Charleston for this shoot.  And though somewhat comical, this video also spoke to the struggle that many of us have with prayer.  Sometimes prayer can seem pointless, as if God is not listening at all. We build this tension before the message and went straight into the song “Pray” by Sanctus Real.

We also introduced a new song from Jesus Culture called “Fierce.”

So, how do we seek to handle summer’s creative needs?  Well, we try to wrestle it to the ground by doing a video from scratch, a special song, and a new worship tune. 🙂

 

Set List:

Alive

Fierce

The Stand

Special: Pray

Holy Spirit

Our final week of At The Movies series found us visiting the film Saving Mr. Banks. The theme centered around moving beyond the impact of our past towards what God desires us to become. Four clips were used including a different style bumper which included the trailer in which the actors discussed the movies deeper themes.

We concluded the message with the John Mayer song, Gravity which was a departure for us both in placement and song type. However, it resonated well with people and bumped us out of our normal box.  The entire series was a huge win as we kicked off the summer.

Set List:

He Is Faithful

This Is Amazing Grace

Ever Be

Love Came Down

Special Song: Gravity

 

 

 

 

 

For our third week for “At The Movies, ” Senior Pastor Shane Philip tackled the topic of emotions through Pixar’s “Inside Out.”

See the trailer here:

 

Set List:

Your Love Awakens Me

Defender

Give Me Faith

This I Believe

Our second week for “At The Movies” was special in two ways. First of all, we had guest speaker Mike Beaux… and second, our movie was “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.”

See the trailer here:

 

Mike used Star Wars and “The Force” as a way to describe the role of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life.

See the message here: https://vimeo.com/169632100

Set List:

Only King Forever

He Is Faithful

Great Are You Lord

Cannons

Everyone loves a good story.  From the time we were all kids and remember our parents reading us bedtime stories, to remembering the first time we saw Star Wars, stories have shaped our view of the world and made an impact on us in one way or another.  Jesus knew the power of story. He was a master storyteller.  Jesus shared stories through parables. Stories such as “A farmer went out to plant seed…” or “A man goes on a journey and fell into the hands of robbers …” or “A woman has ten coins and loses one.”  When Jesus talked about spiritual truths He used modern day stories to bring those truths to life.  Such stories helped eliminate the gap between spiritual truth and understanding for the average hearer.

This Sunday we kicked off a new series entitled “At The Movies.”  The idea behind this series is that movies are like modern day parables… and we are using these modern day stories to help us understand spiritual truths.

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MOVIES are like modern day PARABLES

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For our first week we covered the movie “Saving Private Ryan,” which was timely considering we started this series on Memorial Day weekend.  In Saving Private Ryan we see eight soldiers that are given the mission of finding one man that had lost three brothers in battle leaving him to be the last surviving son.  We used this story as a backdrop to explaining the calling of Saul – later known as The Apostle Paul.

As a bumper, we simply used the trailer as seen here (minus a couple of curse words):

And at the end of the message, we used the final scene from the movie as seen here:

For the most part, we kept the service simple allowing the clips to be our primary creative element. However, in the lobby, we created a photo booth with an “At The Movies” theme that included a poster of the movie, a director’s chair, pop corn machine, and old school movie lighting (which we also pulled on stage behind our speaker as props).

Worship Set List:

Open Up The Heavens

He is Faithful

Good Good Father

Trust it All