This is my post for Creative Chaos // 27 (see also guidelines) over at Ragamuffin Soul for this week (which isn’t published quite yet over there but will be soon). If you haven’t participated in Creative Chaos yet there is always time to jump in. It is a great tool to learn some of the new and innovative ways other churches and groups are being creative in their faith. Even if you don’t post, just reading through a few of them is a real eye opener of what is done around the country and world in worship.
I have skipped a few weeks for this post but wanted to pick it back up again, there are always so many great ways people worship, and this week, we have a unique opportunity to combine our faith with technology of Skpye. As much of a techno person as I am, this was my first experience using Skype.
As a full time eBay seller for many many years (a few years ago now) once eBay had purchased Skype, they started pushing it on their larger sellers (us being one of them) and at that point we were not interested in the slightest bit. I had put it off for as long as I possibly could, and the video baptism from Innovate08 pulled me into Skype. It has turned out to be a great tool and can be used for many different things, but this week we are using it for a baptism.
Skype Video Baptism from Innovate08 in Indiana
This week almost our entire church staff went to the Innovate08 conference in South Bend Indiana near Granger Community Church, leaving us lay people (gotroot and myself) back here to help with a baptism that, by necessity, had to take place this Friday while the staff was in Indiana. The church decided that we were going to do the Baptism anyway, and do it through a video conference method using Skype. We looked at doing the setup with Mogulus so we could capture the live video on both ends as it was happening but just couldn’t pull it off this time. So, Skype Video, here we go.
The Baptism will take place this Friday afternoon with a community group around the person being baptized and our head pastor, Rusty Hutson, will be on the big screen doing all the officiating from up in South Bend. This is certainly the first video baptism we have performed at this church, but somewhere, someone has had to have done this before. If so, we would love to hear from you and to learn from your experiences. If we ever do this again we would like to have some way to record the video exchange on both ends so we can later, at a minimum, publish it in house.
What’s Happening on Skype and Twitter This Weekend
Now that I am officially on skype I am sure I will find some other great uses for the service, but for today, it is Creative Chaos 27.
To follow the happenings at Innovate08 on Twitter just see a few of the headliners like @shawnwood, @timastevens, @innovate08 to name a few. Of course you can always follow me on Twitter as well at @scottfillmer. I will not be in South Bend this weekend but will post to twitter live from Jordan-Hare stadium for the Auburn vs LSU football game and of course ESPN GameDay (see ESPN College GameDay Comes to Auburn for Tigers vs LSU for details).
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This is my post for Creative Chaos // 22 (see also guidelines) over at Ragamuffin Soul for this week. I have skipped a few weeks for this post but wanted to pick it back up again, there are always so many great ways people worship, and this is one was so good, our church played it at least twice in one series.
There’s Something About Benjamin Video
This video has been floating around the internet for a while now but I still find not everyone runs in the same Internet circles, so this video call There’s Something About Benjamin is a hilarious look at how money controls us, and how we tend to work for it instead of the other way around.
If you haven’t seen the video before, it is not to long, but will get you rolling on the floor. I think I have watched it probably 5-10 times now and I get a kick out of it each time, and this week it is my post for creative chaos.
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This is my post for Creative Chaos // 21 (see also guidelines) over at Ragamuffin Soul for this week. I have skipped a few weeks for this post but wanted to pick it back up again, there are always so many great ways people worship, and this is one way to see what other churches are doing.
The Inevitable Money Series
For this week, I have a quick post about the current series at our church. If you spend enough time in church, inevitably you will run into a series on money. If you don’t, perhaps you should ask yourself why your church hasn’t visited the most talked about topic in the bible. It is a topic we don’t always like to hear preached about, but something that is important to hear. So for 4 weeks, our church is going the money series, but they wanted to keep it light and fun. So the series is called “Cha-ching” and the music worship leader (see his blog here) picked some great music.
The music is the creative chaos for this post. The first week, he started off with Pink Floyd’s Money, and for week two, the band opened with If I Had a Million Dollars by the Bare Naked Ladies (although they didn’t mention the group name in the service).
Music doesn’t always have to be a hymn to bring people into the mindset of the current series and to have the ability to play a culturally relevant song is something not all churches will allow their worship leaders to do, great job Brian… I still can’t get get that last song out of my head.
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This is my post for Creative Chaos // 16 (see also guidelines) over at Ragamuffin Soul for this week. This is a video that has circulated around the blogs but I had not posted about it yet and I wanted to use it for Creative Chaos this week.
Creative Chaos 16 // Volunteer Celebration
We all know that churches need volunteers to function. Safe to say that it would be a different type of atmosphere if we didn’t have those great church volunteers to setup the tables and chairs, direct traffic, teach the kids, adults, Sunday School, and so on, the list is endless.
This church had a celebration for their volunteers in a Broadway musical type of skit that was just great. Not only did it thank the people who did volunteer but it probably got some others interested as well. Thanks to Heath Spurlock and Jack Fisher (who actually saw this in person at the time) for sharing this video, it was great.
The singing by those who probably don’t sing normally (I just guessing) is great. The church, Granger Community Church in Indiana, had a great idea for this weeks creative chaos post, thanks.
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This is my post for Creative Chaos // 15 (see also guidelines) over at Ragamuffin Soul for this week. This is a video that has circulated around the blogs but I had not posted about it yet and I wanted to use it for Creative Chaos this week.
Oh How He Loves Us // Cardboard Testimony
This video was first brought to my attention from over at Worship Journey (see his post called same song). It is the song titled How He Loves Us (another GREAT rendition of this song (see video here) was done by Kim Walker with Jesus Culture Music on the album We Cry Out). A very powerful song all by itself, but this church used the song with other members displaying cardboard signs that read out in a few words, their testimony. Each person’s individual testimony in a few words, followed by how they were changed on the other side.
If you haven’t seen the video yet just hit the play button and see for yourself. I know I saw my testimony on more than one of the cardboard signs. Today it is my Creative Chaos post. Hope you enjoy the video as much as I did.
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This is my post for Creative Chaos // 14 (see also guidelines) over at Ragamuffin Soul for this week. This is an ongoing discussion on my blog about how we can actually be prepared and allow God to work in our lives (see We Choose Not to Be Blessed, Part 1), including the church.
Allowing God to Work in Your Church
These two points here are not just expressed as what the church body (the total body of Believers in Christ) can do, but also what the church as a building full of Believers can do collectively as well. The smaller local church can be obedient or disobedient, and at the same time, can be blessed or not. All the same principles that can be applied to the individual can be applied to the church. I am so glad I am a part of a church that will allow God to work. We look at problems, issues, or needs in our own earthly way, but God looks at them in a Godly way.
Don’t Put Limits on God’s Ability to Work
Two quick examples for Creative Chaos from my church over the past month. As a local church group, thinking from our perspective down here, we had a mission trip to Uganda where we needed $10,000 to build a well for water. We came together with purpose and we collectively prayed that God would provide. We were “hoping” for $10,000, and he provided $40,000.
Then not two weeks later another need for a playground for the kinds in our church came to $25,000. Once again as a church we prayed for God to provide. We had already had donations of about $15,000 and within a week needed the additional $25,000. God provided $50,000. This church allowed God to work. Both cases my thinking in particular was limiting God and low, but up to the basic minimum. I came in with expectations and they limited God in what he could do. I thank God that I am not in charge.
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This is my post for Creative Chaos // 14 (see also guidelines) over at Ragamuffin Soul for this week. This is from a past Easter service when I was visiting a small church in Alabama.
Christ Became Sin For Us
When you walked into the sanctuary there was a huge cross with a bunch of small holes in it, front and center, larger than life. As the service and message went on we realized it was going to be part of the service itself. As the ushers walked through they gave everyone a piece of paper, a pencil, and a large nail. As the sermon went on we listened to the normal Easter scriptures and the message of how Jesus was crucified. Then the pastor asked everyone to write down their sins on the paper provided, fold it up, and then walk up to the cross one at a time and nail the paper with our sins to the cross.
I was leery at first but went along like most everyone else. One at a time, each person came up to the cross (which was very large, far taller than any of us) and took a hammer and hit the nail into the cross with the piece of paper crushed in between the nail and the cross. One at a time the cross started filling up with nails and paper. Once every one was done and we all sat back down it was an incredible site. The pastor then said, “this is what Christ did for us, he became sin”. It was a powerful site, one I won’t forget. Never before had I seen an image like this of what Christ did for us.
He didn’t just die for my sins and no one else’s, he died for all our sins, and became sin. This was only a small church, I can’t image the weight of humanities sin that was placed on Christ at the time of his crucification, incredible. One of the more memorable Easter services I have been to over the past 10-20 years, and today, it is my Creative Chaos.
