Bookends

Last week we crafted a couple of moments in our weekend service that seemed to work very well. We were pondering the ups and downs of a spiritual journey, and used our worship leaders at each campus to do a mini-sketch of sorts.

I wrote the script, and then set out to score it. I found some very cool ethereal music, and matched it up nicely with the text. If you want to follow my train of thought during this creative experiment, then watch the video below before reading more of my post...

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If you want the full effect of the weekend service - you can watch the videocast here. Our teaching then explored the back and forth nature of spirituality - and how it isn’t about just what we get, it’s about what we give, and the paradox that when we give all, that’s when we get the most.

So we had planned to then move from the teaching into a "silent" communion time, where the simple instructions of taking the elements would be on the screen, and the meditation would be simple and quiet.

But then the bookend showed up in our creative brainstorm. Since we had already been using the screen as thoughts of someone, Tim Sutherland, our teaching team guru, suggested that the communion meditation be a creative interpretation of how Jesus might have encouraged us during communion.

And as I was working on that video, it became clear that rather than a silent communion experience, that we should bookend our moments with the same music. And so, what you see below is the net result of those brainstorms coming together...

There is a lot of power in bookends. You see them all the time - It's how the best beginnings get through the middles and to the best ends.

It really seemed to work at Community this weekend. I'm grateful to our team for its collaborative spirit and desire to tell the best story in the best of possible ways.