a night worth remembering

After all the preparation, memorization, praying, planning and carrying - Tuesday night came.  The night we invited the community, our community to join us for worship.  And worship they did.

The Lord was present in our worship and I pray He was honored.  Here are some of the sights and sounds from our Night of Worship!

everyone worked really hard to get it just right - 4 churches
represented just in this song!

Fellowship is an important part of this whole event - plus we were waiting
for sound!

The theatre is still breathtaking!  A great icon of our community!

So so good to be lead by multiple gifted leaders!

Praise team members from various churches made up our little choir - beautiful!

I have to comment on our fearless musical director, Dan Fleming
on the left.  He has lead every special musical service at
Crossroads for the past 20 years!  So thankful!

The Dotson brothers completed the band.

Everyone so ready to worship the King!

Brittany got us off to an amazing - exciting start!

Pastor Dave's vision to have it at the Ren was definitely
the right decision!

The local pastors were welcomed to the stage for prayer!

There is hardly anything I love doing more than
encouraging young artists and musicians!  Nick
lead us in worship as he created a beautiful mosaic
supporting our theme of "One Church...One Mission"!

On a personal note, I was honored and so thankful
that my mom was able to attend!

Rachel Justice created a beautiful painting which beautifully depicted
our theme for the night "One Church...One Mission"

Some of our male worship leaders pictured here - so much gifted talent in the area - we are blessed!

To help create the Night of Worship the past several years is a responsibility I don't take lightly, but the opportunity to take ideas and lay them at Jesus' feet asking for His guidance and will to be done, is what I love to be part of, and this year was no different.

As the worshippers came and the voices began to fill the room I was nearly overwhelmed knowing God was clearly in this place! He blessed the night - He completed our efforts.

None of us can ever thank you enough for coming, but I'll just say it again, thank you all!  You helped make it a night to remember!

creating Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you still reading my blog!  I haven't been writing, again!

This morning I've had time to think back over Christmas@Crossroads and realized again that creating involves layers of work, an idea doesn't just happen - first the concept;

Amazing CREATIVE TEAM: Dan Fleming - Head Worship Leader; Jocelyn Nicolas - Asst. Worship leader/
Asst. Creative Arts Leader; Lori Biddle -  Creative Arts Director; Aaron Nicolas - Young Adult Pastor
& Front of House Sound Engineer; Lead Pastor Dave Vance; Eric Biddle - Creative Arts Specialist;
Arnie Clawson - Technical Director;
(not pictured)  Milo Sgambellone - Asst. Worship Leader and Brandon Magers - Multi-Media Coordinator

after the concept, second is developing the idea into music that supports the movement through the story; working on every single transition between songs and videos; storyboarding video shoots; meeting on locations with all the supplies to shoot; experimenting this year with lit steel wool spinning and sparklers to create one of the videos; editing videos...re-editing videos; creating a stage layout so the team can set the stage; creating the icon for advertising; multiple rehearsals; organizing meals for rehearsals and performances; choosing clothing for the singers/musicians; recruiting the Crossroads Artist Group to help hang everything in our lobby and asking a close friend to create the picture taking backgrounds, everything making sure that we flow toward Pastor Dave's messages; advertising; and now, major clean-up!

Re-aiming lights and setting up platforms - step #1 on the stage

I cannot remember the last day I got to wake up and read and think without a current deadline looming over me!  That's just the nature of my job - to create and finish well so everyone else can do their job. I was very stressed at one point the week leading up to the performances and realized it was the point in the process when I no longer had ANY control - the process had physically begun, so I finally just released it to the Lord and fell back in love with it again!

Pastor Dave and I are already discussing next Christmas and we may have the theme, I'll know for sure after we develop the concept just a little bit further.  That would allow us to plan a summer shoot that would resemble the climate Jesus was born in.  Making the service as true to the story as possible.

This year's Christmas@Crossroads was the most original video work we've ever done, and I loved every minute of it!  In fact I'm pretty sure that the moving background on the worship songs clear at the end of the service, was the only thing we purchased!  So we're making progress!!

One of our favorite concepts was shooting forward moving video and then using a treadmill to make it look like 'Ruth' was walking!

A big shout-out to all the videos in which
Mya Taylor portrayed Ruth!

Even though creating Christmas is a whole lot of work, perhaps the most difficult thing about creating is to release that concept to others.

When you own an idea and have 'stewed' over it for so long, you form a tight concept for what everything should look like and sound like.  But, as you invite others into the process you have to consider their ideas and play to their strengths.  That's where covering everything with prayer and trust comes into play.

As I stood back and watched what the worship staff, musicians, technical staff and Pastor Dave's messages' brought to Christmas, I praised the Lord for such talent and dedication!  I watched as their ideas brought more depth and creative expression to the services and was so thankful to be at Crossroads where we have such creative freedom!

I'm pretty pumped that IKEA is coming to Columbus -
the stars were a hit!

I talked to several staff members who got to minister to those who stayed after the services to pray and I rejoiced as they had this honor.  These decisions or prayers to the Lord, and the richness that the service brought to families that just want to keep Christ first,  paid huge dividends and reminded us once again - this is why we do our jobs!

My on-going prayer is that our work brings additional dimension to the services we create, not changing the message, but adding visual and technical support that helps you remember what's being taught!

Hide God's word deeply in your souls - and thank you for allowing us to be part of your lives!

what I learned today

Perhaps a more fitting title would be, What I Accepted Today…

During my time with the Lord this morning, I was distracted by all the tiny, fuzzy seeds caught in the moving air - taking them to a new destination.  I was immediately disappointed in myself that once again such a small thing distracted me.  I found it nearly impossible to get my attention back to the scriptures as I became mesmerized by their floating dance.  

Sitting a little longer a huge hawk flew high above the tree tops - with a more intentional dance then the seedlings.

It all caused me to raise my face to the heavens, with tear filled eyes worshiping a Savior who loves beautiful details and created each one.

The maticulous system of reproduction among plants is fascinating . Over and over again for the length of their life they produce seeds that either drop, get carried away by animals and birds, or blow high in the sky like the ones I watched earlier.  This evokes praise, and awe and thankfulness for a creation that calls me to look, even when I should be doing something else.

So once again, God confirmed that my soul is fed by watching what He created, and that's ok.  That's what also causes me to be fascinated by artists and musicians that everyone else considers different.  I LOVE them and have accepted that's just how God created me too.  (Hopefully not the different part so much).

Can you accept how God made you?

Can you see that if we were all the same creation wouldn't work?  The church could not work and it's ok to be who God created you to be - embrace it, own it and rejoice in it!!

a special event

I've already spoken about the fact that it takes an entire team - working together cohesively to create a production like we enjoyed this past weekend.  Now I am ready to show you more of the results.  You may watch the service in it's entirety by going to www.crossroadswired.com click beside Last Week:  Watch Service

I am still getting feedback and tons of questions about different elements of the services, exciting when conversation continues after the lights go off!  Exactly what we hoped for - thoughtful consideration of the message and in God's timing - life change!  THAT is what we all prayed for !!

Sickness hit one team member after another.  But they pushed through!  Even tonight's rehearsal for this coming weekend got canceled until Saturday because Dan is ill. 

Everyone involved in this past weekend worked diligently  - to allow the Lord to use them and I will always be very, very grateful.  It was such an amazing experience, I am anxious to begin planning next year's soon!

Please enjoy some of the images that I will always remember as one of the greatest team efforts in Crossroads' history.  (some are taken at rehearsal, some right before the service)

Panoramic of the whole stage

Drummer Boy

One of the marching images a team member created

Our vintage accordion!

a far off shot from the sound booth - I LOVE this EP!

strings rehearsing in front of an original EP video background

My personal favorite!  The electric cello!

Bass playing under 'the' star

A shot through the mic holder!  Hi Scott!

Austin on guitar and Brian on percussion - amazing!

A hammer dulcimer that my son-in-law carried home from Cambodia!  Played by my daughter!

Chrystie's beautiful voice!

Happy to have Brian with us this year!

I couldn't help peeking through the drum cage for a shot!

Steve Feazel...just an amazing voice!

I was privileged indeed to lead this effort - bringing together amazingly talented musicians, singers and a brilliant technical team!  It was so beyond us that it was clearly God who was here - God who anointed these services and blessed those who attended. It was indeed a very special event!