Fall is definitely a time where churches (our included) often spend a few weeks re-establishing our unique vision and moving people towards connecting with that. We see the Weekend Experience as our primary initial connection point and growth engine, but it fails if it does not both communicate and illuminate our bigger vision towards discipleship and connection.
In other words…if you are just producing a Sunday “show”, you are missing a bigger and more lasting objective. This is especially true in an environment like Vegas where there are plenty of more entertaining and astounding opportunities. We will lose if we try to compete with just flash and thrill. The tension for us is to constantly combine fresh, heart grabbing moments that move towards a purpose.
In August, we re-visited some of these themes around a series we called, Hills To Die On. Each weekend focused on our non-negotiable’s. Here’s each weekend’s focus:
- Purpose Over Preference
- Relationships Over Isolation
- Others Over Self
- The 1 Over the 99
The next few posts will highlight our emphasis each week. Keep in mind that we wanted the message to be surrounded with complimentary content that would drive not just emotion, but a specific action.
Week one we kicked it off by focusing on our weekend gathering objectives. We pushed a bit on people especially in the area of what we “prefer” vs. what actually connects in moving people towards Christ. It was a needed and important reminder.
Our video concept that day included a brief look at the various “touches” that people experience on their journey towards Christ and specifically towards baptism publicly. We had a short amount of time to execute the idea, but our team was able to get the basic concept. This was also used as part of our “IT Matters” Team Conference the day before. (see details here)
The service concluded musically by combining the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” with the song “What a Beautiful Name.” It was a subtle mixture of the old and new highlighting purpose.
The Crossing Creative 