Silence Part 2

If you missed the previous post, check it out here.

I've uploaded the file that we used for our First Wednesday in Silence. We use Keynote as we run everything on Mac at The Orchard so I've uploaded a few options for everyone else:

1. The original keynote (Manksans font, 1280 x 720 screen size, no slide transition but a 2 second dissolve "all at once" build in and out on the text pieces).
2. A manual advance flash file that you can check out in a flash enabled browser to get the idea of the flow and the elements we used. We did the whole presentation manually advancing text so we could gauge the room better.
3. A zipped folder of the slide images. This includes a .jpg image for each part of the build so that if you put each image into a powerpoint or keynote presentation and assigned the dissolve transition to the images you should be ok.

If for some reason you still don't see what you need and would like to check it out for use in a small group or church gathering setting, let me know.

Simple but very powerful.

After you check it out, let me know what you thought of it.
Peace.

First Wednesday in Silence

I met some new people tonight who came to our First Wednesday service this last week and they shared how impacting it was for them. I too am still thinking about our time together in silence.

It was powerful.

For those of you who don't know what First Wednesday is, here's the short of it... every month at The Orchard, we get together on the First Wednesday to worship together, to catch our breath and begin our month by keeping first things first.

It's our chance as a church community to commit each month to God.

A chance to take a break from the business of life and focus our attention on our Creator.

We actually do some pretty creative things on FW to help us connect in different ways and I plan to post some of these ideas on future posts.

This last FW, we used silence - just taking the opportunity to be quiet and listen for God's voice. When a room of 100-150 people are doing this, it's powerful. We used the Nooma film "Noise" to help get things into this mindset of being quiet and still. Then we directed people purely with words on our screens. We spent nearly 40 minutes in silence.

We meditated on some scriptures in silence.

We took communion together in silence (the breaking of the wafer all together after so much silence was amazing).

We prayed together in silence and left together in silence.

It was probably one of the most moving FW experiences I've ever had.
I'll post the keynote or a version of it so you can see how it worked.

Have you ever taken time to connect with God like that before? In silence?
Peace.

First Wednesday Canceled

Canceled. Well we can't actually cancel the first Wednesday in February from occurring but we are canceling our gatherings for tonight. We have several inches of snow that have dropped within the last hour or two and they are expecting more through midnight tonight. Some places will get 12".

Bummed to have to cancel but want to make sure everyone stays safe. Had a great evening planned that we'll save for another time.

BTW, for those who don't know what First Wednesday is, or have never been to one at The Orchard, it's a time we take at the beginning of each month to make first things first - to align ourselves with our Creator. A chance to take a breath and slow our pace a little in the midst of our hectic lives. We have a great time of corporate worship together, in a different environment than our weekend gatherings. Usually highly interactive and multimedia driven.

See you at First Wednesday in March.
Peace.

First Things First

This last Wednesday we got together as a church community for what we call First Wednesday. The first Wednesday of each month we get together to re-focus, re-energize.

To remember.

This month we looked at Colossians 4:2-6 (Message):

Pray diligently. Stay alert, with your eyes wide open in gratitude. Don't forget to pray for us, that God will open doors for telling the mystery of Christ, even while I'm locked up in this jail. Pray that every time I open my mouth I'll be able to make Christ plain as day to them.

Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don't miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity. Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out.

When you look at your schedule over the next four months, what events do you know for sure will happen?

What events are you planning for, gearing up for, preparing for, dreading, etc?

The Colossians passage above says pray diligently... stay alert... with eyes wide open in gratitude... make the most of every opportunity.

When you look at what on the near horizon for you, do you see events, or do you see opportunities? Do you see challenges, complications, struggles or do you see a chance for God to do something in you?

Even more - when you look at those events, do you see opportunities for God to do something through you in others?

Peace.

First Wednesday: RE-charge

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.