mike jones

One of the best things about planning is preparing artists. Artists love preparation.  Planning allows for more creativity, more thought and consequently more impact a piece might have on an audience.

During our recent message series titled The Gospel, I spent some time with some highly creative people about eight weeks prior to the start of the series planning and brainstorming possibilities.  Several ideas came through that session and proceeding sessions that I believe were highly artistic and memorable.

This is one.

The series would be four weeks long, take us through Easter weekend and be composed of four main ideas: Creation, Fall, Redemption and Restoration.

We chose to have an artist paint live during the services, which has become a semi-normal element in The Orchard’s weekend gatherings.  In a conversation with the artist, I outlined the process we wanted to take for each week of the series, each week building on the next, to create a piece that would be unique to anything we had done before.

	We had Julie Vogt paint a picture that depicted the creation. Julie was very gracious as an artist and after collaborating together, painted a representation of a familiar art piece – Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo.  She did an amazing job and because the paintings she did (one for each of our three weekend gatherings) were a part of the weekend experience, many wanted to buy the paintings. Creation shown through art.
	The next week we displayed the piece she had painted during the corresponding weekend services the weekend before, and at the end of the service, had our lead Pastor Scott Hodge take a knife and cut the paintings between God’s outstretched finger and Adam’s.  The service ended abruptly at that point and we told people the story we be continued on Easter. The fall had occurred bringing damage and separation in our relationship with God.
	The next weekend, during our Easter gatherings, we had another artist (Lisa Price), use a thick red thread to sew the cuts in the paintings back together to illustrate the redemptive power of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
	The last week of the series, we again had Julie take the sewn canvases and paint on them to show the healing that we are a part of in restoring humanity and creation to what God had intended it to be.  She also depicted a city to show the progression of the story which began in a garden and will one day end in a city.

There were a lot of creative ideas, planning and artists that helped put this together and it was a powerful piece.  So much so that I have heard several families explaining the art to friends and family they have invited to our gatherings since – all without anyone telling them about each piece of the puzzle.  The story and purpose behind the art was a clear message on it’s own.

Thank you to all of you who were a part of bringing this piece, from idea to conception, to life for our church community!

Now go plan and dream the next big idea! 

We’ve been in the middle of a message series at The Orchard called Yesterday.  It’s a series that takes a look at the spiritual leaders from the past, from Yesterday, and learning what we can to help us on our journey forward.

It has been a powerful series.

A few weeks ago, our church community took a look at Saint Benedict of Nursia who had some great teachings on Humility.  In response and preparation for the weekend gathering,

I wrote a poem which we had Chris Rayford do a dramatic reading of at the end of the service.

Humility

we gathered together
the night before
did a lot of walking
listened to some talking
electricity in the air
time to remember
a time to eat and drink
my feet were dirty but now they’re clean

I expected a lot
the night before
I was a nobody before I met him
right-hand man now I’m hoping
time for a change
he’ll take the reins
show us how to lead
my feet were dirty but now they’re clean

we met in that room
the night before
to praise what God had done
how he had once saved us
now we have a king
“Hosanna!” they did sing
is it really God’s son we’ve seen?
my feet were dirty but now they’re clean

as we sit at the table
the night before
who will wash us? who will serve?
was anyone for this job secured?
for certain not me
get on hands and knees
to make us ready to eat
my feet were dirty but now they’re clean

then it happened
that night before
he picked up the basin of water
picked up the place of no honor
as a servant he knelt
I did nothing to help
what could it possibly mean?
my feet were dirty but now they’re clean

he washed our feet
the night before
washed us all one by one
in a servants place, God’s own Son
I couldn’t believe it
“master please stop it!
you’ll never wash my feet”
but they were dirty and now they’re clean

with tears in my eyes
that night before
I watched the master, the Son
wash our feet, one by one
me and the others who stayed
even the one who betrayed
“do for others as you have seen”
my feet were dirty but now they’re clean

so much humility
that night before
the next day showed even more
he died in my place, my Savior
put me above himself
could I do for someone else?
lift others as greater than me?
your feet were dirty but now they’re clean

Thanks for the encouragement from my team and fellow leaders and for God’s inspiration. Now go in humility.

Had the great privilege of co-leading a Senior High chapel session this week at Aurora Christian School. My friend Kyle Zehr from GC and I lead along with some of the ACS staff. I had a great time planning this with Kyle and putting the set together with a great team of people.

We started off with a multimedia piece that talked about what worship is then went into a worship set that looked like this:

Not To us – Christ Tomlin
Everyday – Lincoln Brewster
My Savior My God – Aaron Shust
How Great Is Our God – Chris Tomlin
Only You – David Crowder Band
Jesus Paid It All – Kristian Stanfill
Everlasting God – Lincoln Brewster
Your Grace Is Enough – Chris Tomlin
No One Like You – David Crowder Band

Cool experience and I’m thankful for the opportunity to lead these young men and women in worship.

Peace.

At the Orchard, we have what we call First Wednesday. The first Wednesday of each month (except for maybe a couple of months during the summer to give our teams a break), we gather together to just take a breather. It’s a time when our church community gets together to keep first things first and to remind ourselves of why we are Christ followers. It’s a time of music (usually all acoustic/unplugged), communion, and especially community.

It’s a time to re-focus, re-energize and re-fresh.

This Wednesday we had, in my opinion, ONE of the best gatherings I’ve ever been a part of. There were people of all ages, various backgrounds and different stages of there journey. My family got to come for the first time in a while, which was cool to see too.

We actually change our auditorium so that it is a unique and different experience than on the weekends. It’s a very spiritual experience. Not that our weekends are not, but it’s different.

This month, Scott talked about the Eucharist. You can read more about it on his blog post, but the main idea was that we have been called to be a living Eucharist. It’s not just a one time act, but a pouring into us that we then pour into others lives. He talked about how some have poured out so much to others but don’t always take the time to be re-plenished.

The music was great – just a couple of acoustics (Ken still threw some cool licks on the electric which gave it a nice touch), a djembe (awesome Matt!) and some fantastic vocals (Amanda – wow!). Great community time together – the sound of people meeting or re-meeting and re-connecting was almost deafening. A great time of just re-centering on what it’s all about. A great time of the church truly being the church – the body of the living Christ.

Thanks for all of you who were there – I pray you were touched.
I pray that you were re-filled.

If you weren’t there, you got to check it out sometime – you won’t be disappointed!

Peace.