I absolutely love doing things like this…. creating time and space where people can encounter God. There’s no other explanation for what is experienced other than God meets us when we really show up.

I have been asked by several friends if I could share pics, video, descriptions of how we created this particular experience. So this post is all about the sharing. 

View pics of each station
View written descriptions of each station
Download the journey booklet
How we created instant walls
Other posts about this experience

Questions? Comments?  Let me know! (this post is a part of creative FuZion at Dorothy’s site.  Check it out!)

Recently, we created an interactive worship experience for the senior high students of our church.  We had a month to dream it up, three nights to set it up, and one night to experience it.  Check it out:  http://vimeo.com/3016005

Overall theme:  ’God is big.. what does that mean for me?’  The evening began with a time of worship in a separate area. As we took groups of students to begin the interactive experience, those who remained continued to worship together. 

Stage 1: front of our auditorium, chairs removed, dark. Students/leaders lay on cushions on floor. 3 projectors aimed at ceiling, effectively using all ceiling space: center = Louie Giglio ‘Indescribable’. Left & right = moving images of stars, etc.  This talk by Louie is incredibly effective at communicating the vastness of the universe, and the greater vastness of its Creator. We used the first 19 minutes, then added a few lines of text & pics of the students.  They left this room with this question in mind:  If God is that big, and I am that small, what does He think of me?

Stage 2: hallway outside auditorium. Tunnel effect created by hanging fabric ceiling to floor.  Three segments to tunnel: 

• 1- darkness. Black. Trashed.  Verses displayed stating our depravity apart from God
• 2- Jesus. Four TV’s showing ‘The Passion’, not synchronized. We didn’t anticipate the students’ response to this element because we didn’t think about the fact that most of them had never seen this film.  This element of the experience was incredibly gripping for many of them.
• 3- white. clean. Verses displayed stating who we are because of what Jesus did.

Stage 3: back of auditorium. inviting space w/ couches, tables, chairs. verses displayed everywhere stating who we are because of Christ. text loop on screen includes name of every student. students are invited to write, draw, pray in response to what they’ve seen and heard.  Also included the question ‘if all this is real, what should my life be about?’

Stage 4: outside front doors, covered drop-off area (altered plan because of rain). During the first all-together-worship time of the fall, students had been asked to write their biggest temptations down, and nail them to a cross.  That cross had been in the sr. high room all year.  At the end of this experience, they were invited to take a piece of paper off the cross, and lay it on hot coals where it would burn (original plan was a bonfire). Also were invited to think about how they could best bring glory to God this summer and write it on a glass tile.  There will be a mosaic made out of those tiles.

As has been true every time we’ve done something like this, we learned a lot about how an experience can be imiproved logistically. That said, overall, this worship opportunity seemed to be effective for students who took the time to sink into it.  Graduating seniors especially found it meaningful.  I love helping students connect with basic truths like this.  I love watching what happens for those who are usually disconnected and unaffected during corporate worship.  I am always interested to notice some who ‘bounce’ through an opportunity like this, not taking time to really think about it.  I am amazed at what happens every time we allow students to take time to be still, in relative silence, and ask God questions. They are not different than adults in that way… none of us are good at creating our own space and silence.   I trust the work that God began that night will continue.

Recently, we created an interactive worship experience for the senior high students of our church.  We had a month to dream it up, three nights to set it up, and one night to experience it.  Check it out:

Overall theme:  ’God is big.. what does that mean for me?’ 

The evening began with a time of worship in a separate area. As we took groups of students to begin the interactive experience, those who remained continued to worship together. 

Stage 1: front of our auditorium, chairs removed, dark. Students/leaders lay on cushions on floor. 3 projectors aimed at ceiling, effectively using all ceiling space: center = Louie Giglio ‘Indescribable’. Left & right = moving images of stars, etc.  This talk by Louie is incredibly effective at communicating the vastness of the universe, and the greater vastness of its Creator. We used the first 19 minutes, then added a few lines of text & pics of the students.  They left this room with this question in mind:  If God is that big, and I am that small, what does He think of me?

Stage 2: hallway outside auditorium. Tunnel effect created by hanging fabric ceiling to floor.  Three segments to tunnel: 

• 1- darkness. Black. Trashed.  Verses displayed stating our depravity apart from God
• 2- Jesus. Four TV’s showing ‘The Passion’, not synchronized. We didn’t anticipate the students’ response to this element because we didn’t think about the fact that most of them had never seen this film.  This element of the experience was incredibly gripping for many of them.
• 3- white. clean. Verses displayed stating who we are because of what Jesus did.

Stage 3: back of auditorium. inviting space w/ couches, tables, chairs. verses displayed everywhere stating who we are because of Christ. text loop on screen includes name of every student. students are invited to write, draw, pray in response to what they’ve seen and heard.  Also included the question ‘if all this is real, what should my life be about?’

Stage 4: outside front doors, covered drop-off area (altered plan because of rain). During the first all-together-worship time of the fall, students had been asked to write their biggest temptations down, and nail them to a cross.  That cross had been in the sr. high room all year.  At the end of this experience, they were invited to take a piece of paper off the cross, and lay it on hot coals where it would burn (original plan was a bonfire). Also were invited to think about how they could best bring glory to God this summer and write it on a glass tile.  There will be a mosaic made out of those tiles.

As has been true every time we’ve done something like this, we learned a lot about how an experience can be imiproved logistically. That said, overall, this worship opportunity seemed to be effective for students who took the time to sink into it.  Graduating seniors especially found it meaningful.  I love helping students connect with basic truths like this.  I love watching what happens for those who are usually disconnected and unaffected during corporate worship.  I am always interested to notice some who ‘bounce’ through an opportunity like this, not taking time to really think about it.  I am amazed at what happens every time we allow students to take time to be still, in relative silence, and ask God questions. They are not different than adults in that way… none of us are good at creating our own space and silence.  

I trust the work that God began that night will continue.

Bonus: 1 minute of youth ministry brilliance.

Station 1: the crowd (Jesus enters Jerusalem; worship)
Station 2: Mary Magdalene (acceptance of Jesus’ work in our lives)
Station 3: Judas (idolatry, betrayal, forgiveness)
Station 4: Peter (betrayal, forgiveness)
Station 5: Pilate (self-preservation, justice, righteousness)
Station 6: the crowd (the call for Jesus’ crucifixion; understanding who Jesus really is)
Station 7: the Lord’s Supper (Jesus’ sacrifice)
Station 8: the cross (invitation for all to come to the cross with thoughts, prayers, and confessions from the journey)

_We_Were_There_booklet_08_version.doc
Download this file

Station 1: the crowd (Jesus enters Jerusalem; worship)
Station 2: Mary Magdalene (acceptance of Jesus’ work in our lives)
Station 3: Judas (idolatry, betrayal, forgiveness)
Station 4: Peter (betrayal, forgiveness)
Station 5: Pilate (self-preservation, justice, righteousness)
Station 6: the crowd (the call for Jesus’ crucifixion; understanding who Jesus really is)
Station 7: the Lord’s Supper (Jesus’ sacrifice)
Station 8: the cross (invitation for all to come to the cross with thoughts, prayers, and confessions from the journey)

Instant_walls.mov
Watch on Posterous

This post is a part of watercooler wednesday, a blog gathering for creative people and their crazy ideas.

This post is a part of watercooler wednesday, a blog gathering for creative people and their crazy ideas.

This is what our auditorium looks like normally… this was our 11:15 service on Sunday. Our building is 20 years old. This room was intended to be only temporary worship space, so it is very much multi-purpose. There is a movable air wall (visible in this picture in it’s storage position: far left side, tall rectangular panel) that can be set in three different positions in the room, separating it front to back. The tracks are visible in this pic as the darker horizontal lines on the ceiling. This picture was taken from our tech booth in the back corner of the room.

This is a view of the same stage later Sunday afternoon. It is being set up for communion in a ‘last supper’ sort of configuration. This will be one of the final stations of the pathway. The purple platforms (with pillows on top) are large, movable pieces that can form a bottom tier of choir risers (the other tiers are built into the platform…can’t really see that in this pic). Here, they function as benches on either side of long tables in the middle. There is also a smaller table on the floor that will provide communion elements for those who can’t climb the steps to the stage.

This is now the view from the stage, looking toward the back of the room. This is the basic set-up for the station that is pictured here (final form in 2005). The air wall has been put in place (the wall behind the cross) so the auditorium has been cut in half. The tech booth is now about 30 feet beyond the air wall. But the main speakers are now in this part of the room. (Makes for interesting sound engineering, should anyone ever want the wall up and full audio support.) That’s only 2 of the 8 stations; there was much progress made on the others, I’m just going to hold off on the pics until it’s all completed. We will spend the next 3 days on things like lighting, audio, signage, and ‘dressing’ each station. I am SO grateful for the incredible volunteers who made this all happen on Sunday. When everyone else had left, we walked through each space to make a our punch list. While sitting in the Judas room (which is filled with photos of things that can distract us from following Jesus), I made this comment out loud with my husband in the room: “the next step for this room, the next time we do this, would be to bombard people with images & video using several flat-panels… sort of a visual noise thing” I don’t know what I was thinking . You don’t mention that kind of idea around my husband and the 2 other hyper-creatives who were there. Ten minutes later, our friends had decided to buy a flat panel TV (they had been thinking about it anyway) to be used in the Judas room, there was an idea afloat about some kind of truss to hold the tv, and my husband had already begun mapping out the video content. Sigh. For one brief afternoon, we were ahead of schedule. :) We’ll see what happens next!

A few pictures….

This is what our auditorium looks like normally… this was our 11:15 service on Sunday. Our building is 20 years old. This room was intended to be only temporary worship space, so it is very much multi-purpose. There is a movable air wall (visible in this picture in it’s storage position: far left side, tall rectangular panel) that can be set in three different positions in the room, separating it front to back. The tracks are visible in this pic as the darker horizontal lines on the ceiling. This picture was taken from our tech booth in the back corner of the room.

This is a view of the same stage later Sunday afternoon. It is being set up for communion in a ‘last supper’ sort of configuration. This will be one of the final stations of the pathway. The purple platforms (with pillows on top) are large, movable pieces that can form a bottom tier of choir risers (the other tiers are built into the platform…can’t really see that in this pic). Here, they function as benches on either side of long tables in the middle. There is also a smaller table on the floor that will provide communion elements for those who can’t climb the steps to the stage.

This is now the view from the stage, looking toward the back of the room. This is the basic set-up for the station that is pictured here (final form in 2005). The air wall has been put in place (the wall behind the cross) so the auditorium has been cut in half. The tech booth is now about 30 feet beyond the air wall. But the main speakers are now in this part of the room. (Makes for interesting sound engineering, should anyone ever want the wall up and full audio support.)

That’s only 2 of the 8 stations; there was much progress made on the others, I’m just going to hold off on the pics until it’s all completed. We will spend the next 3 days on things like lighting, audio, signage, and ‘dressing’ each station. I am SO grateful for the incredible volunteers who made this all happen on Sunday. When everyone else had left, we walked through each space to make a our punch list. While sitting in the Judas room (which is filled with photos of things that can distract us from following Jesus), I made this comment out loud with my husband in the room: “the next step for this room, the next time we do this, would be to bombard people with images & video using several flat-panels… sort of a visual noise thing”

I don’t know what I was thinking . You don’t mention that kind of idea around my husband and the 2 other hyper-creatives who were there.

Ten minutes later, our friends had decided to buy a flat panel TV (they had been thinking about it anyway) to be used in the Judas room, there was an idea afloat about some kind of truss to hold the tv, and my husband had already begun mapping out the video content.

Sigh. For one brief afternoon, we were ahead of schedule. :) We’ll see what happens next!