Laugh. Love. Learn.

Creative Chaos. I have to give props to Gregg Hampton, because he has made some awesome videos at The Vine. However, this is my favorite so far. We saw an idea similar to this at the Innovate conference at Granger, but we wanted to remake it, tailored to our message (on faith like a child) and using children from our congregation. I think it’s phenomenal. What do you think?

I’m so excited about this weekend; we’re starting a new series about the Ultimate Fighters in the Bible. Check it out:

We’re currently finishing a series called KINGDOM at The Vine, and we decided to brand the series with a Medieval theme. Remember how there’s a guy in the movie Dodgeball who thinks he’s a pirate? We thought it might be funny to open the services with a 30-second glimpse of a guy who’s convinced he’s a knight. Very fun. I think the third one is my favorite; the photoshopped pictures crack me up. (We also gave away Medieval Times giftcards to a couple of dads on Father’s Day…just to continue the theme!)

This post is a part of Creative Chaos at ragamuffinsoul.com.

This weekend we started a new series at The Vine called Kingdom. It’s based on this book, which is incredible and a definite must-read, and…you know…the sayings of Jesus. It’s completely rocking my world. But for this week’s Creative Chaos, I wanted to show you what a set-change looks like…time lapsed to 60 seconds.

Those three guys in the video — Nick, Kris, and James — a.k.a. Triple Trouble — are amazingly crafty, and I’m so thankful for them!
Here are some pictures of the finished product:

Creative Chaos at ragamuffinsoul.com

This week at The Vine we finished a series called theRomans8LIFE, where we discussed Life in the Spirit. Here’s a funny video we used to illustrate how cool it’d be to have an internal GPS…and then we discussed how the Holy Spirit wants to be your personal, internal GPS.

the secret is out: we have the best worship intern ever.
and he’s tall. and dashing. and collegiate. and, ladies, single.
introducing mr. jake decker.
(a two-and-a-half-minute glimpse of this morning at the vine.)

it seems like i shared this forever ago…
but it still amazes me that my story was redeemable. is redeemable. continues to be redeemed.

the context of the story was a message called “Stolen,” and we talked about how God wants to Redeem all of the things that have been stolen from us by the world, by Satan, by our bad choices…etc. [we used “Stolen” by Dashboard Confessional for the offertory.]

from a worship design perspective this video was way too long…even though it was shown in two segments, now that we’re older and wiser (ha ha) we would have probably edited it to around 5-6 minutes (as is, it’s 9.) we used this on the day we launched: April 8, 2007.

it’s crazy to look back on the last 12 months and see how incredibly the Lord has blessed our family since the launch of The Vine and since Tanner was born….it’s completely amazing. i don’t have adequate words to describe the amazingness, except to give Glory to Him!

What’s your story?

Creative Chaos / 11.

We saw something similar to this at the Granger Film Festival last fall, and decided to make our own version to recruit some volunteers for the Tech Team. Gregg wrote the lyrics and he’s singing in the background….and the congregation found it to be hilarious. The actors are some of our actual volunteers….

lessons learned from the back row —
theRomans8LIFE: Week 5

“if life is a game, you either win it or you lose it, right?”
“not only are we going to win this game of life, we’re going to win it DECISIVELY.”

apparently DW is SERIOUS about some Candy Land.
he’s also serious about Braveheart and the whole paint-your-face-blue-and-wear-a-kilt manly shin-dig that goes on in said movie.

“you were created to be in fellowship with God. that’s the point. nothing more and nothing less.”

“don’t just write it down on a piece of paper, write it down on your heart: God is FOR you.”

We made this fun. 25-second video to remind people what it’s like to choose teams…

who would you want on YOUR team?!? We are in a rare position, because of God’s love for us, that we’ve been given the freedom to choose! Are you willing to take inventory of all the competitors and say, I choose God?

It’s not really a matter of “If God is for you who can be against you”…it’s a matter of, “If YOU are for God, AND God is for you, who can be against you?”

What does it mean to be “justified” in Christ?
“it’s JUST as IF You’ve never sinned.” (thanks, GG)

“what is your LOVE cause? who are you willing to fight for?” guys, lemme tell ya, there’s not much a wife won’t do when she knows her man will FIGHT for her and she’s his priority. wow.

“what is your LIFE cause?” what is your full potential that can only be found in Jesus Christ? how were you created to serve?!? what is your life’s mission? what’s your calling?

did you know that there are 38,000 people in a 5 mile radius of The Vine who are unchurched or dechurched?

and, finally, you can check out the podcast here.

Creative Chaos.

Attention to detail is such a vital part of designing seamless worship experiences… it only takes about 6 seconds of awkward silence to completely kill a mood and get people distracted. The easiest time for awkwardness to occur seems to be between the offertory and the message (while the band’s getting off the stage,) so we like to have some kind of video element to play during the transition. It directs people’s eyes to the screens instead of the on-stage movement. Here’s what we’re using for this series…

When possible, we also like to use object lessons or tangible give-aways to reinforce the message…for this series, we made little game cards…going right along with the board game theme. Check it:



Hopefully people keep them in their wallet or on their desk and remember the Truth they learned about in the message throughout the week. They’re the same size as those little Pass It On cards that were so cool in middle school and should be included on Stuff Christians Like.