In 2009 I wrote a series of posts on the “10 Commandments of a Weekend Experience”. As we draw near to Easter Weekend I thought that we could revisit these to make sure we are ready for guests…

See all 10 Commandments Here: http://bit.ly/aJ4OOA

@bartondamer is a household name in Graphics and motion art. I have had the pleasure to work with Barton on a couple of occassion as well as using alot of his work in his previous gig at RT Creative. In March 2010 Barton made the leap into full-time freelance work. You should use him (so says @shawnwood). Here is some #planningeaster advice from my friend Barton.

I really like the idea of taking your audience through the entire
Easter experience – Good Friday through resurrection. After all, the
celebration will mean a lot more if you’ve reflected on the sacrifice.
Not everyone is going to have a Good Friday service so here’s my
suggestion. Start out the worship service in a darker more
contemplative mood (choosing songs to match that mood). Focus on the
blood of Christ and his sacrifice. Here are the visuals I suggest for
that portion of the service:
Crimson Stains 1
Crimson Stains 2

Then, transition your service from dark and contemplative into
celebration using the click track visuals to the worship song, Jesus
Paid It All. The song transitions into an amazing moment of
celebration at the end:
Jesus Paid it all

At this point, your service is brighter and more vibrant. Use songs
that are more celebratory and here are some more visuals to help
communicate the mood:
Back Packs Easter

All this media will help you take your audience on a journey to the
cross and through the resurrection. The look of everything matches as
well so it will feel as if you have an enormous media team working for
you.
To top off the service. Celebrate with That’s My King Remix:
That’s My King

@dcschwarz and @nickjones created Prolifik Films to provide visual storytelling for ministries, churches, and non-profit organizations who are serious about having impact and creating change. A noteworthy Prolifik Films project was the documentary “Only Love” featuring U2 frontman Bono which aired at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit last year. Dave lives in Saint Charles, IL with Robin, Brandon and Kaylee.

We’re all familiar with the tired phrase “the cobbler’s children have no shoes”. In fact, in some circles it’s so overused that it’s been rendered meaningless. But if we peel back the cliché, we typically conclude that the cobbler spends so much time at the shop earning a living that his family isn’t a priority. And this is why it gets repeated over and over by designers, printers, marketers and a host of other service providers who can’t make the time to help themselves .

But the possibility that what the cobbler does at work is the last thing he wants to do for his family is troublesome, too. And sadly, we all hear this sort of thing all the time. What’s the creative equivalent of this phrase?
“The musician’s baby has no songs written about her?”
“The photographer’s family has no portraits?”
“The designer’s house is all white—just as the builder left it.”
If that’s ever true—especially amongst creatives in the kingdom—then something is broken. In fact, I believe that the demands of the busy Easter season are all the more reason to blur the lines between those things that you love . . . from friends & family to the artistic or technical passions that you’ve been entrusted with.
This isn’t about taking your work home. This is about combining the things that you love to fuel, to inspire, and to challenge yourself creatively.
Nick and I were testing some equipment a while back and shot this one-minute sample of my family:

Let’s Go Bowling Spec/Sample from ProlifikFilms on Vimeo.

Now, I love that video for what it is. But practically speaking, I’ve found myself playing it in a handful of settings to illustrate one thing or the other. One potential client was expressing frustration about a casting agency & how their spots never came across as authentic, but after seeing the bowing spec, their perspective changed forever. They said that they’d trade the film crews, grip trucks, location fees and catering tables for something that felt that real. It led to some great conversations and a complete re-invention of their expectations—all from a simple little film that we put together just to test some new equipment & have some fun.

At a recent brainstorming meeting we were having trouble pulling all of the resources together to tell a handful of stories from start-to-finish. So, to explore the idea of combining simple visuals with live narration (or teaching) I played this one-minute video that I put together after a recent family trip to Washington DC:

Vietnam Memorial Wall Spec/Sample from ProlifikFilms on Vimeo.

As the video was playing, I talked about how a volunteer had chosen to spend some extra time with my seven year-old daughter. He honored us by telling her the story of the one female solider killed in action in Vietnam. He took Kaylee to a spot on the wall where he helped her make a rubbing of the soldier’s name—Sharon Lane. As we were getting ready to leave, this war-hardened volunteer veteran turned to us & with red, teary eyes, he said “Thank you. You guys just made my day.” I was speechless. A draftee, thrust into an unpopular, loosing war, and now volunteering nearly all his time in his last chapter of life—and we made his day. It wrecked me.

And after showing these simple visuals, and choking my way through the story, it clicked with the team. The series of illustrations didn’t need to resolve themselves on film. And our plans started going in a whole new direction.

I think that if we truly love what we do, and we live with enough margin to practice our skills and passion outside of our livelihood, that it’ll fuel and inspire us creatively.

Incidentally, I’ve also got a number of personal projects that failed—shots that didn’t work, moments that weren’t captured as I would have liked. And I learned from every single one of those, too.
The ability to tell stories, create moments, and explain, inspire or illustrate through drama and art . . . these are precious, noble gifts & passions. Some of us (myself included) need to be reminded that this aspect of being created in the image of God is way too important to use just to earn a salary. It’s not just what we do. It’s a big part of who we are.

@Jamiruth @kemmeyer (www.kemmeyer.com) and the team from Granger Community Church have graciously shared some of their upcoming Easter promo material.

@JasonCurlee blogs at JasonCurlee.com and is all about influencing and developing others to make a difference in their world. He is currently a Campus Pastor for Bay Area Fellowship in Corpus Christi, Texas. His blogs are about creating content that ministry leaders can find practical and inspirational as well as sharing the ministry principles and experiences accumulated since 1995. It’s about being innovative, unique, and creating content that can help you make a difference.

Being a multi-site campus at Bay Area Fellowship presents a unique opportunity at Easter Planning.  Due to the scale size and technology level of our “original” campus it is very hard to present a morning like they can pull off.  We have to think through our own planning on a campus/mulit-site level.  This is from the perspective of a multi-site campus averaging around 300 people in a 5,000 sq. ft. building.

Last year our campuses all sang one song that was exactly the same that had a video I created from the Passion.  This year going in we have not yet set down to plan it out as we are in the middle of potentially launching a new campus on Easter.

I thought I’d give you a perspective of how we are going to approach planning as a campus:

Leading Into Easter – The week before we are planning a 20,000 Easter EGGstravaganza.  We are trying something a little unique in that we will be doing this over all our Sunday services.  We are planning four services and will be looking to do 5,000 eggs at each time.  To spread the word we will be getting fliers into three different school districts.

The Whole Weekend – We are thinking outside of Sunday and what could be done on Good Friday or Saturday.  We are going to be doing a Good Friday service that will be geared around leading into the weekend.  We will be doing some video elements with slower worship as we reflect on what Christ has done for us through communion.  As the night goes it will turn into a celebration as we do baptisms.  Another thing you could do is have a prayer meeting leading into the weekend.

Easter Sunday – Sunday Morning will consist of some special music geared around the message of Easter.  With our style of doing ministry some of that will be high energy and slow worship.  We will add in some graphical and video touches.  I’m thinking of trying to find some video elements that will be creative for the Sunday presentation.  We will also choose a special song that will possibly be done at all our multi-site campuses.  Also at this point we will most likely switch from a week behind to using the Saturday night message from Pastor Bil Cornelius.

Size should not be an option…really nothing should stand in the way of you adding a little extra to Easter.

Recycling Easter

Easter is the most sacred, most poignant and pivotal event of the Christian calendar. Easter celebrates the core message of the Gospel. That Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected.

Like most churches, it’s a very strategic time as we use our Good Friday Easter service as an outreach service. We all invite our friends, co workers, families to church (and they actually say yes. WOOT! Sorry. Just excited.) It is also one of the most resource intensive times of our year at Crossway. We go all out, no creative stone is left unturned to present the timeless Easter message in a timely way.

However this year, we are doing something even more radical, untried, untested.

We are recycling Easter.

No, we aren’t doing some Easter/Global Warming mash up.

We are recycling a previous Easter production. The branding. The songs. The drama. Every. Little. Bit.

Now, before you say bor-ring. Who would want to do the same production again? Think again. Here are just four reasons why you might want to reconsider:

1) Your recycled Easter service has the potential to be way better than the original service - Have you ever sat in a post Easter review and reviewed what worked and didn’t work? Imagine this unique opportunity. You have the chance make a previous Easter production even better. Haven’t you ever wanted to do that?

2) You would be stewarding your resources well – Times are tough for most churches. The global financial crisis has crunched church staff’s and slashed budgets around the world. Everyone is feeling the pinch. Imagine being able to re use the same props, the same lighting gear/setup. The same branding/marketing collateral that has already been created. All you may have to do is tweak a few colours to freshen it up, change dates and times and bingo, you’ve got a campaign done.

3) Free up creative resources for other series – Your video guy/girl, producers, preachers, singers, musicians all now have a little bit more margin to put more time and energy into another series. You’ve just maximised your creativity for another month.

4) Your congregation is more likely to invite someone who doesn’t go to church to the service – Think about it. Your congregation knows what to expect. Hopefully they will have even more confidence to invite their friends, families, work mates this time around because they know all about the service/presentation.

So how about it? Are you convinced? Concerned? Is your Easter production/service too much of a sacred space for you to recycle some or all of it?

Steve Fogg, our guest blogger, is the communications guy for Crossway Church in Melbourne, Australia. He’s a stealth super hero dad and father of 3. He’s the husband of 1 incredible woman, a son, and loved by God beyond what he could ever comprehend. He blogs at Clear and Simple. You can follow him @Stevefogg.

You can follow Evan here on twitter: www.twitter.com/evancourtney

At The Fields Church we feel that Easter, is an opportunity for us to tell the greatest story of humanity.
I don’t think anybody would disagree. Easter is when churches have the largest crowds.

Our question each year has been, “Are we reaching new people? Or is it just a Sunday when everybody ’shows up’?”
The greatest marketing tool that the church has, it peer 2 peer.
Yet, only 2% of attenders people invite someone to church in a given year.
That means 98% of attenders never invite anyone to the greatest story of humanity. – Thom Rainer – The Unchurched Next Door

Is it because they don’t care others?
No, I genuinely believe they do, they just don’t know how to invite.
So, as a church, we looked at how we could help our attenders to invite others.
What can we do as a church to help them invite their family and friends?
82% of the unchurched are at least somewhat likely to attend church if invited.

Our theme for Easter this year is “Rescue.” We’ve created “Medic Kits”.
Cute right.
Two weeks before Easter our families will receive these “Medic Kits,” which are an envelope that will include items to promote Easter, and to provide offline tools for them to invite their family and friends.

Front

Back

6 x9 Folded Envelopes (VistaPrint)
Invite Cards (GotPrint)
3 Pack Crayon Boxes Bulk (Ebay)
Bulk Lifesavers (Ebay)

I was able to purchase all of these Bing and got cashback.

You can follow Matt at www.twitter.com/mattknisely

There are two times a year where we at Lawton First take it to a whole nutha level, to steal a phrase from Ed Young, Easter is one of those times.  Over the last few years, I have been asked about how we plan and how our creative process happens.  Its hard to quantify our creative planning and structure it into a blog post, but for all our series planning everything hinges on two key areas consisting of  “the creative planning/process” and “the experience.”

For us creative planning process consists of four stages we call, “the 4D’s”: Dream, Design, Develop, and Do.   For this instance Easter starts for us in early December with weekly one-hour dream sessions, where the creative team brainstorms ideas off key points from our teaching pastors.  This year after 13 series titles and roughly 12 hours of meetings we settled on the series name “OVERCOME.”  The series keys off of hurts and pains our people are experiencing and how they’ve overcame them through Christ.  By the end of January, we started the design phase where we outline key service elements from music to media and go as far as what an individual will experience as soon as they enter out building.  This stage also includes set design, many different graphical layouts and illustrations.  Just for Easter alone we have two highly detailed click tracks choreographed to dramatic video elements which took a month to create in addition to support media for our architectural projection which we have been working on for the last month and a half.  The fun for us begins in our development stage which we just finished and where we try to poke holes into our designs, artwork, set layout, programing and music.  The development stage is not for the faint of heart and usually a step most creative teams skip.

In the experience area of our planning we make sure that all elements from design, media, music, illustration, to message meet four key criteria: Diversity, Energy, Flow, and Connection.  These are unique to our house and because we are not only cross denominational and ethnic we need to be diverse on all fronts.  We know that energy of our worship and message need to be in unison or our people will disengage.  Which really makes the flow of our services really count.  We work really hard to make sure there is no dead space, because nothing kills an experience more than start stops.

No matter if you are a musician, technical operator, or production we strive to rehearse at-least one-hour for each minute of service; that may seem like a lot but we believe in excellence.  Finally our core value is being a relational body and connecting with one another and to god, so we work really hard to bring a laid back and welcoming feel to everything we do.

Once we have done all of that all we need to do is execute and do what we set out to do.

So what have you done on Easter before that just worked?
Share it with the world, and if you are willing to give it away (video, chart etc) let us know where we can get to it.

Share away in the comments!

You probably are not 100% yet, but I hope you are starting to get some thoughts together.

Put your music set ideas in the comments section of this post.  I am going to draw one blessed (christianese for lucky) winner and they will receive some free music from Carlos Whittaker on Itunes – Jesus Saves should be on your Easter list BTW.