Creative Design Team

When we began the Embassy we decided to maintain a strong commitment to presenting timeless truths to modern minds in such a way that they would embrace and live out the principles of God's Word in every area of their life. The work of putting together all our creatives has usually fallen to the staff and this has worked well for a year, but if we are going to excel and broaden our creative elements then it is going to happen by broadening our team. So we put together a creative design team made up of artists, musicians, builders, thinkers and even a couple of pastors (Jared & Me) who are all passionate about reaching people for Christ and changing their lives forever. Our Easter experience & the series that follows is a result of this process.

We meet on the first Monday night of the month for dinner & design and the ideas just flow....I love it! We also have a google group that serves as an online studio for the exchange of ideas and progress between our monthly meeting. During our CDT meeting we have some structure as I lay out our up coming series title and take away. We also look at individual weeks for creative elements that God will use to ingrain the teaching into people's hearts. This is the form we work off of. I usually have the series title and weekly sermon subject ideas before we meet and I put them on the form below:

Series Development Needs

Series Title:

Target Audience/Goal (Take Away):

1. Weekly Sermon Topics:

Wk 1
Wk 2
Wk 3
Wk 4

2. Sermon Branding:

-Series Theme

-imagery

-series logo/icon

-title slide ideas


3. Set-design:


4. Illustrations:


5. Marketing:

-invite cards

-evite cards

-mag/sign adv.


Does it take all this today to do ministry? Sometimes I wonder, but what I don't wonder about is the fact that people's lives are being changed every week at the embassy and we're never going to back down from allowing God to resource his truths with the creativity He has laid within those who attend EMC. To keep us on track we are playing around with creating some core values for the CDT.

Creative Team Core Values

1. We are more creative together than anyone of us alone.

2. Our creativity stems from seeking the creator in prayer, devotion, and spiritual awareness to
the world around.

3. We hold to a deep commitment to create a relevant presentation of Jesus teachings and
Biblical principles.

4. Since God is the Creator the church should be the most creative place on the planet.

5. The greatest message deserves the greatest means to convey it.

6. We will use anything except sin to draw people to Jesus and the truths of His word.

Experience Easter at the Embassy

I can't wait for Easter this year. Start inviting your friends now because it is going to be off the hook! We are launching a new series on Easter Sunday called "Heroes". That morning we will celebrate the greatest, but most unlikely Hero who ever lived, Jesus! The creative team is building an amazing set for the main auditorium and the foyer. Does it take all this...I don't know, but it sure is fun. I heard someone say that the greatest message deserves the greatest means to convey it and what Jesus did for all of us truly is the greatest thing that ever happened.

Easter Sunday we will have Woodstock's first ever Easter Egg drop for the kids. Our local heroes from the Woodstock fire department will drop plastic eggs from the ladder of their fire truck. We will do two different age specific drops. After they gather their eggs they will be able to redeem them for candy and prizes. This is going to be wild! And the kids are going to go nuts. We will also have Team EMC Super Heroes and the Easter Bunny encouraging the kids.

One other thing we are offering is complimentary Easter photos in the lobby. See the above card for the times of these Easter events.

Woodstock be looking out for the Team EMC Superheroes and the Easter bunny in the cape as they're out on the streets the two Saturdays before Easter inviting people to come experience Easter this year at the Embassy.

Following Easter the "Heroes" series will continue throughout the month of April. Embassy will also be doing two community projects during this series as we strive together to be heroes to our community allowing people to see the heroic love of Jesus through His people. I'll have more info on that later this week.

This Sunday was our second week in our three week series entitled "Supernatural". Over the last year we have looked a a great deal at living the principles of God's word, but I have dealt little just on the power and presence of God. Last week we looked at our "Conversation with God". I built on the theme of Jesus giving us access into the presence of God. We looked at the Tabernacle with the Holy of Holies and the veil that separated man from God in the Old Testament and how Jesus' work on the Cross gives us access through the veil to the living presence of God (Hebrews 9 &10)

Jesus didn't do all that He did for us to just...."Now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul...." He did what we did so we would have access into the presence of God. This experience with God is more than a time for an information dump, but it's a time of intimacy. Basically the most Supernatual thing we can experience is to come into His presence. (breaking into the presence of God)

This week we looked at "miracles". Which are basically the by product of God breaking into our lives with his power and presence affecting change to the areas of our lives that are in need. To illustrate this I had a giant box on stage that I stayed in until the time for the teaching. I began to cut my way out of the box as I told various stories of Jesus doing miracles. Finally I step from the box making the statement that it is foolish for your pastor to preach his sermon from inside a box, but equally misguided is putting God in a box. We looked at three boxes that we put God in #1 God doesn't do things like that anymore. #2 God has to move when I say jump. #3 If He does still do miracles I don't think He will for me.

These are all boxes that we use to limit the supernatural in our lives. Jesus is still the same yesterday today and forever and Sunday we just set our hearts to believe that God can do what He says he can do and we invited Him to do what He desires to do in us.

Our final week of the series we will look at the "struggle behind the struggle". If God has given us access and if God can move into the areas of our lives in powerful ways don't you think there will be opposition to our souls trying to keep us from this? Next week we will examine this opposition.

Great weekend at the embassy!

This past weekend was absolutely amazing. We partnered with our city and the YMCA and helped with the 24 hour adventure race on Saturday and no I didn't participate in the race. It's 80 miles of running, biking, and canoing and the participants were crazy in shape. Maybe next year we'll enter Team EMC Extreme. When I say we... I mean you...any volunteers? Everyone that served during this event has been at the embassy for less than a few months. So it was neat seeing new people jumping in and doing their part to show people that they matter to God. One family we met Saturday visited Sunday and they loved it. Thanks team for taking part in this event that in someway will make a difference in this family's life forever.

On Sunday we dedicated 8 children to the Lord. One family e-mailed this about what emc meant to them that day..."You really given my husband and I the drive to start again with the Lord and continue our journey." Team emc thanks for all you do creating the environment God uses to reach people every week! That's what it is about let's never forget that. By the way we also had record breaking attendance on Sunday. We say it's not about the numbers and it's not, but it sure is about people and having 8 kids dedicated and a room well on it's way to becoming full touches me powerfully. Why because people's lives are coming into contact with God, His Word, and His people and their future and heritages are being impacted for ever!!!

Final thing Monday night was our creative design team night. These folks were off the hizzy fo shizzy my peeps. No really we were looking at our Easter experience and the series for the month of April. And it is going to be the biggest thing we have ever done. Frankly we could use some extra finances to make it happen so if you feel led to help us help people "embrace the hero within" so that they can see their lives, homes, and communities change by the power of the Ultimate Hero. Just let me know.