I’m in message prep mode today. I am prepping for the teaching this Sunday and I had a thought that is rattling around in my head. It’s more of a question actually…
What if Jesus didn’t come to town to do what you thought he did? What if he came to do something so much more immensely important then you could have imagined? What if that thing didn’t fit in with your picture of what He came to do?
Just a thought, I hope you will be at Restore on Sunday, to see how it turns out. We have been looking at the misconceptions that we sometimes have of Jesus. What do you think Jesus came to do?
In the first year of Restore Community Church I have rediscovered the power of stories. There are so many stories of life change that have emerged from this very special church community. What has been challenging, is to figure out how to continue to tell these stories and keep the audience engaged. We have shared stories live and we have used video. Video seems to be more agreeable with most people who would rather die than stand on stage in front of others and talk. What I am constantly reminded of, is that these stories communicate so much in a short amount of time and they resonate with so many. Here are a couple of my favorites with some commentary.
Kim and Terrance’s Story was one of those that we wanted everyone to hear. They had never been to anything like small group before. Then their neighbor, one Tommy Bowman, invited them several times and the came. We decided to shoot it on their front porch mostly because we didn’t have a light kit. But it worked great because their neighborhood has been the setting for their group. Tommy helped me shoot this and I was really happy with the angles that we got. I wasnt happy with the white noise from Barry road. But, I had some fun with the color correction and the text. In the end we hope that it inspired people to get connected and inspired other to invite their neighbors.
A lot of times in our big idea planning meeting the one thing that sparks the most creative ideas is an intense conversation about the big idea that we are planning for. That was the case when we were talking about the Holy Spirit in the story of everything series. But we ended up going back and shooting that conversation, because by doing this we were able to briefly give a snap shot of the very different experiences that we all had with the third person of the trinity. In retrospect, I would say that we tried to emulate the espn 360 news show a bit too much. However, the end result was a 4 minute video that shared a lot of different stories.
Tough Times: Look Ahead from Restore Community Church on Vimeo.
Ed’s story of tough times that he went through was the center piece of our Tough Times series. Ed’s willingness to share some very dark moments and how God has used him has reminded me why I do what I do. His story has been a catalyst for starting a Divorce recovery group at Restore which he leads. Honest stories of God showing up in flawed lives speaks volumes more then any message that anyone could deliver.
Small Group 2.0 from Restore Community Church on Vimeo.
This last one is where I think stories that havent been told yet are headed. It recounts how the reproducing culture has taken hold even in relationships in small groups. It follow the relationships of 3 ladies and the life change that ensues. To me this is the next generation of stories where we tell more than one because they are intertwined in community. Its also the future because my Video Producer apprentice, Jonathan Cox edited this entirely. He does great work and he is the future of video here at Restore.
It blows my mind, but Sunday was the one year birthday of Restore Community Church! It’s been an incredible year and there are lots of stories to recount, but for my family and I this has even more significance. It was a year ago this past sunday we left a secure life behind for adventure of church planting! It has been a difficult year. We have had to make plenty of change to be in KC, not all of them have been easy. But as I recount the stories of life change and the twists and turns to the story of restore, I can’t help but think it’s been worth it. Over the last year I have learned so much. I thought it might be fun over the next few weeks to look at what has changed in me and my family. But that might require me to blog more than once a week. We will see…
I am a lot of things... a stay at home dad... an off site video producer for the Chapel.. a media arts director for Restore Community Church and a wanna be church planter. Read here to see what happens when all of this collides.
