Back in the summer of 2014, we introduced a concept we dubbed, The Art Effect, in which each weekend an artist-in-residence was featured as part of our weekend worship gatherings. From a wide spectrum, we introduced artists to our church and expanded the way it was used within our worship.

This fall…we decided to bring it back.

As a part of our Transformed fall series, we are weaving in art each week alongside a featured Psalm. We opened our first week with one of our staff worship leaders, Matt Biel, who wrote an original song inspired by the series.

We made the decision to have Matt do a short video intro of the song giving some context to the lyrics and the inspiration behind the tune. This would then transition directly to a presentation of the song. It created a strong kickoff to the series.

Here’s our Art Effect trailer package, “Transformed” song intro, and the song done in an acoustic version by Matt, Tanner Balch (cajon) Emily Balch (keys/background vocal) and Aaron Borgess (electric guitar).

In addition we tweaked our stage just a bit for the new series. This involved adding a second identical screen (these were donated from a trade show to us), attached it to a scenic truss with motors and gives us the ability to bring it in and out for elements.  There was some drama around it (for another blog post), but it worked flawlessly in execution and provided a “transformation”.  You can see the bottom screen here.

Learnings:

• Lean into multiple small elements to create a bigger ones. We had a bunch of moving parts for the weekend, but the cumulative effect was strong.
• It takes a village. This was one of those week where we stretched our team fully to make everything happen.
• Active and ongoing creativity is hard. Few should truly attempt to go there. It is not for the faint of heart

Run Sheet: