My cell group's booth at Ginghamsburg's 2012 Children's Sudan Bazaar. We raffled off a one-room EXTREME MAKEOVER and netted $500 for the Christmas Miracle Offering.

Girls-only cell group. We had a great time working the booth.

Erica Sharp chooses and reads the name on the golden raffle ticket - Trish Mckinney gets the Extreme Makeover! We are all excited!

THE MAKEOVER BEGINS: A week ago Caryn and Robin applied a glaze to these salmon-colored entry walls. What a great different that made!

Our greatest challenge? Two story walls that definitely needed paint. We chose "ecru" to balance the other bright colors in the room.

So glad Robin and Chris know what they're doing...applying tile around the fireplace.

Not done yet but oh what an amazement this will be.

Just hanging out - and sanding the wall.

One of the brightly colored accent walls we're keeping.

Caryn McDonald is a lean mean painting machine.

Grace Mckinney (on the scaffolding) hung with us, helping when needed. Fun girl! Stay tuned for Makeover @ the Mckinney's Part Deux...

Church extends faith in Trotwood: wdtn.com

welcome desk area - using a dark reddish brown, this area took on a much richer look

kitchen prep area - remember the lavendar walls? green counters trimmed in the darker brown and a gold wall are now the backdrop for the cafe

cement walls - we created a "chair rail" look with two colors. next week we'll add more design on the upper portion of this far wall.

front window walls - soffet repaired and trim painted - starting to look cared for.

staging area...for future small bands

Saturday we will take on the "cafe" area of The Point, our newly acquired Ginghamsburg campus located in a small strip mall in Trotwood, Ohio. We plan to transform this community space into another "Common Grounds Coffee Shop" - replicating the locations we already have in our "Avenue" at the Tipp City campus and another at our church plant in the Czech Republic.

Cafe Area: BEFORE. This pic was taken in August of 2011…just another one of the many lovely lavendar rooms in this place

Starbucks in Kroger

Tomorrow is the big day. Several TV stations and the Dayton Daily News are scheduled to show up along with 30+ “new” servants! TBC…

civil rights footage / "it feels like home"

i’ve been part of ginghamsburg for nearly 20 years- and served on the worship design team for most of that time. i can recall many great experiences and have felt God show up in our midst over and over again – but some days are just different, ya know? some days remind me why i signed up for this gig. some days i’m just darn proud to call ginghamsburg my home. some days it just feels like home.

martin luther king weekend worship has taken on different nuances over the last two decades. it’s been an opportunity to lift up one of our deepest community values – that if we aren’t demonstrating and celebrating the FULL kingdom of God it’s not really God. this past weekend we invited long-time ginghamsburg friend Dr. Frank Thomas from Mississippi Blvd. Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee to bring a word as part of our current “modernfamily” message series. Dr. Thomas did not disappoint. you’ll find a link to his message here  (column on the right) by tomorrow/tuesday at noon.

so many take-aways from this message, but the song JK chose for our offering really summed up my experience and the prayer of my heart:

it feels like home (the city harmonic)
I have a dream
That you can have with me
Of a city that shines so bright at night
Where love is true
But this love He finds you
And there is a fire in His eyes
Where I can see everything’s alright

It feels like home
Sweet home
There’s no, no, no, no, no, no
No place like home

When I awake
That day of glory
Your love will light the city streets
Oh and we won’t
Need our songs of longing
We’ll be a symphony of peace
Brothers and sisters we’ll be free
Thank God Almighty we’ll be free

It feels like home
Sweet home
There’s no, no, no, no, no, no
No place like home

don’t let go of the dream
-kim

CCLI Song No. 6129750 © 2011
Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing

how does your team press into the future?

(image: ginghamsburg’s worship teams @ AILERON)

a series for pentecost and community

based on the book of Acts, this was to be a series on the Holy Spirit. the timeline also included our teaching pastor’s debut and he (nick cunningham) was excited to focus on community. so, it ended up being a series on how the Holy Spirit impacted the community of the early church. pretty cool…and lots to work with.

inspiration for the stage design came from dan bracken’s graphic; the lines within it were worth imitating. without feeling angular or geometric, the graphic gave us the impression of movement.

design development began by taking a look at what was in hand: lots of gauzy fabric. when pulled out of storage, the team found that there were just a few long pieces and lots of shorter ones. the gauze would need to be supplemented and enhanced with rope.

gauze fabric & rope doodles were stapled to the wall

challenged by how to hang the fabric so that it looked flowing, the team got into a rhythm of attaching it to the back wall with staple guns, knotting the ends, and creating large swoops. spaces were filled in with doodles of rope design.  the final touch was the addition of the quietest, least expensive fans that lowe’s had to offer. as usual, when the l.e.d. lighting was designed, it took on a life of it’s own. adding cool teal to the color scheme enhanced the feeling of the summer season.

fans provided gentle movement of the gauze fabric

about those fans: kim advised all of the worship teams and crew that there would be a little extra stage noise…in advance.

fine artists painted more wind on pieces of canvas that covered the side walls. $20 neutral tone ikea designer rugs thrown across the stage really lighted up the space.

this 9 week series included 2 communion weekends. kim re-arranged stage candles and stands  each week, to compliment musician positions. overall, this was a very accommodating design that brought freshness into the worship space.

a few more photos from the series…

led lighting gave the fabric and rope a great teal tone

a mighty wind graphic for song background

canvas covered wall panels painted by the team's fine artists

theme carried well through a baptism on the lawn event

let kim know if you can use any of these ideas…or want more information. comments are most welcome!

coming up next: the series on prayer: omg

i’ve been trained at the school of never say die – so the only decision in my mind was HOW to redesign our worship – not IF. i knew that hundreds of people needed the message we had to share together that morning and we dare not miss the opportunity to remind one another of God’s forever faithfulness. as i connected with the worship team members they totally agreed – and so forward we trusted.

upon my arrival at the campus i remembered all over again how dark the worship area really is without lights. encountering the music, media and production teams talking quietly in front i realized everyone was present and anxious to serve… we all just needed our re-assignments for the morning since no cameras would be running, no amps could be turned on, no microphones needed to be sound-checked.

so the candle team grew – pulling in an arsenal of over a dozen candles for the very dark stage. i remembered we had five fuel gel cans for flaming pots left over from our angels & demons series awhile back- and placed them across the stage as well. the band pulled up close to the edge of the stage and rehearsed a powerful albeit simple version of the same tunes we’d enjoyed the night before – with acoustic guitars, minimal drum/brushes and richly blended vocals. excitement grew as we realized the power of what could happen when we used what and who we had – and trusted God to show up powerfully in our midst. in a crazy way i found myself secretly hoping the power would not come back on – so that the POWER could fully come in. and my secret hopes were granted.

why am i always blown away? we serve the God of the resourceful, the God of the great turnaround, the God of the come-back, the God who shows up despite our attempts to screw it up. in all three morning worship celebrations we experienced precious community moments. the peace of hearing one another sing like it mattered – an occasional childlike voice (cue crying baby…), a bold message of God’s provision and the sweet savor of shared communion to the tune of an old familiar hymn. “raw God” as one of my friends aptly commented. and oh my yes, God showed up.