During the 2nd main session of Orange Conference Live, Jon Williams shared his story about his struggle with depression. Listening to him share his journey left me in a puddle of tears in my family room. The song that followed (a mash-up of You Will Be Found and Bridge Over Troubled Water) did not help! 

Actually, it was all incredibly helpful (just not in regard to my tissue consumption and in these days of COVID-19… well, you get it). I am so thankful to Jon Williams for being so transparent, so vulnerable, and so open about his journey. I feel that mental health issues still seem to carry so much shame and stigma. I hate that! It feels like we’ve moved the needle a bit, but I think we have a long way to go. Awareness and hearing stories like Jon’s help. I have personal experience with anxiety and depression. As someone who has struggled (still struggles) with it, and as someone who has watched it grip family members and rob their joy and peace. 

I am grateful that God is using Jon Williams to help move the needle. I am so thankful he shared, particularly as I think about how difficult that must have been. His message spoke to my heart in a big way. And it helped me ask much needed questions about how I handle my own mental health and how I handle others when they are struggling. 

Enneagram 2 – The Helper (The Struggle is Real!)

I am a Type 2 on the Enneagram. That means I like to help. I get a lot of energy from being able to help someone – especially if it means I can help them get resolution for something, or take care of something for them. As such, if I can’t find resolution, I can feel frustrated or “help-less.” I have learned that I tend to define what helping looks like as “fixing” someone’s issue. As such, I am discouraged often because it turns out – I can’t solve everyone’s problems.  

I’ve heard the messages about Job in the Bible and how his friends just sat with him in his pain. I’ve heard about how sometimes that is all someone needs, but I never truly understood how that worked. I tend to be more like Job’s friends later in the story who give the unsolicited advice and end up hurting more than helping! UGH!

Lamenting

In the opening session of OC20, Ryan Leak talked about pain. He shared that somehow we have become obsessed with turning pain into a positive. Being in ministry makes us feel the pressure of being an expert on everything when we might be an expert on very little. We have shifted our job description from being spiritual guides to being all-knowing life coaches. This grabbed my Enneagram 2 heart immediately! My need to help and my role in ministry combine to make me feel like I am winning when I can solve someone’s problem or help them turn something negative into something positive. 

But, Ryan went on to say this. The reality about pain is this – REVOLUTIONS ARE BORN OUT OF PAIN! What is at risk in numbing our pain and the pain of others is the progress we could make if we sat with our pain, and theirs. 

I don’t really like this truth, but I know it is right. I want to help others feel better. So… I always want to have an answer or bring hope in the form of a solution. Just do this. Focus on this. Try this! I was convicted as I listened to Ryan unpack the verses from Lamentations in the Bible that remind us that sometimes we don’t have all the answers. He shared this idea that we live in a world that is searching for answers. But he suggests that maybe instead of trying to conjure up answers right away, we should sit with the questions a bit. And maybe think about why they are being asked in the first place.

Kristin Ivy came into the picture a bit later and continued the conversation about lamenting. She expanded this idea of asking why even further. You can watch Ryan Leak and Kristin Ivy’s messages HERE.  

Time to Change

Both of these messages had me evaluating my helper nature once again. I began to think about what it would be like to respond to someone in pain with a statement like “I’m sorry this is happening to you.” and leave it at that. What? No suggestions for a fix? No offer to create a distraction or plan for how to move forward? I am not sure that will work for me. I’ve tried it before and it feels awful. For me that is.

But this morning in Session 2, Jon Williams shared about his friend Mike and how he came to see him in his pain and just sat with him. He brought no solutions, No suggestions. And no to-do list of things that would make it better. Instead, he was just with him. Later, he spoke of his wife and how she navigates times when he is struggling. She says things like “I’m here.” “I see you.” “I’m sorry you are hurting.” Mike and Jon’s wife, respond to Jon in such a way that they offer him the gift of their full presence. And in doing so, they offer what Jon described as the closest thing he had every experienced to Jesus on earth.

Jon’s story was affirmation of what I was hearing the night before in session 1. Maybe helping,…being the hands and feet of Jesus to someone in pain, doesn’t always look the way I thought. Maybe in my own pain, and as I help others in pain, I can rest. I can stop trying to solve the problem and instead just be there. In it. Not avoiding pain, or trying to take it away – but sitting in it. Lamenting if you will. 

It’s not going to be easy, but now more than ever, as so many are hurting, I have to at least give it a try. I think I’ll be developing a lot of scar tissue as I bite my tongue in moments of wanting to give an answer, but instead offer just my presence. My hope is that as I learn to do this, I’ll leave room for God to bring comfort. And in a healing process (designed by Him, not me!), that maybe REVOLUTION can be born out of the pain. Beauty from ashes! It’s God’s specialty. 

The post Orange Conference Live 2020 – Big Lessons for this Enneagram 2! appeared first on Ready Set Sunday.

Like all of you, April looked very different given the current Social Distancing and Stay at Home mandates. We changed our plan in March for how we would go about April’s set, given that we could not be in our church building. You can read about how we modified our plan HERE.

The set I ended up creating took up a small corner of my basement and included some of the original concepts we had hoped to use… they were just tweaked. A LOT! I invited our elementary families to participate in the creation of the set by giving them a few projects and asking them to send me digital photos of their finished products. 

Mental Health Pick-Me-Up

Nothing was as we planned, but somehow – I loved this set. Engaging parents and giving their kids something to do, felt good at a time when I was struggling to connect with families and help them. Plus, it provided a place for me to promote the online content Orange provided for us each week.

It’s not as polished as the set my team would have built, but it was something. And I loved having my time occupied with something I got to create! It did my heart good to have a project to work on and feel like I was accomplishing something.

Here is our finished product…

Promo Videos for Our Online Content

Each week, I stood in the “corner of my basement” and recorded myself revealing the bottom line and key question for the week by spinning the humility wheel “upside down.” It was a way for me to point our families to the online content we were putting on our website so they could engage with their kids and have “church” at home. I would post the new video each week on our Elementary Parent Facebook Page. 

This is my Week 1 video for April:

The post Humility: Upside Down – April 2020, Our Finished Product appeared first on Ready Set Sunday.

As I talked about in my initial post regarding this section of the blog, I hope to share thoughts and ideas that I’ve been learning about children’s ministry, leadership, and various other subjects outside the realm of set design. Given the current state of our world, I’m guessing that like me – you are learning to lead in a whole knew way. Stay At Home Orders have us all thinking outside the box more than ever and our leadership looks different as a result. 

Staying Connected

In addition to figuring out how to create and present online content for families, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how I could best stay connected to my team during these days of not meeting in person. I am making calls, sending texts, and hosting Zoom calls regularly, but I also wanted a way to find a way to stay connected to my entire team and give them a place to connect with each other. 

Social Media for the Win

We have a private Facebook group that is just for the volunteers on my team. Normally, it’s used to share wins and stories from Sunday, make announcements, and occasionally help leaders find substitutes. Since COVID-19 changed the way we are doing church, I began using this Facebook group as a place to share various things with my team that would encourage interaction. I post via video most of the time and encourage volunteers to engage in the comments. Some posts are fun, but most have been right from the heart of what God is teaching me through our current circumstance. 

Today, I’m sharing a video that I created for my team when everything first started back in March. It is obviously addressed to my team of volunteers, but my hope is that the message might encourage you as your lead and encourage your teams. I am praying for you as we all navigate these most unusual waters. 

The post Episode 2: We Don’t Know What to Do… appeared first on Ready Set Sunday.

Our OG Plan

Our original plan for the April set was one of my favorites. And not as much because of the set itself, but more because of the way we planned to build it. You can read all of the details HERE, but basically our March set was home to a DIY workshop where April’s set would be built. We had a plan for the host to work on something each week and show the progress of each element being built. We also had a plan to have the kids involved in the creation of the set as they would work on projects each week during their small group’s social time. They were going to make clouds, flowers, airplanes and a mosaic of a sun. Each element of the set was taken from 252 Kids’ theme graphic for April and our final product was to look something like the drawing we had hanging on the pegboard wall in our workshop.

Upside Down is RIGHT!

We got two weeks into the month of March and progress was right on schedule. Our iPhone from the previous month was cut into the shape of the truck from the theme graphic. We had a painted circle of foam board ready to be mounted on a spinning wheel and the kids had completed some beautiful clouds.

And then – the world turned upside down (btw – I spent that first week singing Yorktown from Hamilton in my head). In all seriousness, it felt like everything changed overnight. We were no longer meeting in person and really had to put our energy toward partnering with families and creating resources for them to engage with church online. The first week was filled with confusion and figuring it out. Obviously, all plans for a set were on hold because we had no idea how long the stay at home orders would last and life as we knew it was completely different. I’m not telling you anything new – I’m sure you all have your own version of this same scenario! 

A New Plan

Do I have any I Love Lucy fans out there? Maybe I’m dating myself, but I loved watching that show as a kid. The re-runs of course… I’m not that old. I did not watch in real time. Anyway, one of my favorite Lucy lines was always when she got herself into a jam and was trying to get out of it and she’d say to her sidekick Ethel – I have a plan!

That’s how I felt one morning when I woke up with an idea. I had this huge desire to engage with families. I wanted to provide resources for them, but not overwhelm them either. So, I decided to do something that would keep them connected to our resources while hopefully providing a project or two that would get kids creating and – truth be told – provide something for them to do, while giving parents a bit of breathing room.

So, I invited parents to have kids create the rest of their projects at home and send me a photo of what they created. My plan was to put them on the backdrop in our C3 Kids environment and create an intro video each week from the stage. I’d be there alone, but I’d reference their work and spin the big wheel each week as planned, to reveal the “upside down” bottom line. My hope was to send a video each week of April, as a promo of the materials we made available to parents for C3 Kids online. I have received some of the most beautiful photos…

Nope! Try again…

Well, all was going well, until I woke up Monday morning and heard that Maryland had now been placed on “lockdown” and the Stay At Home mandates were in effect through April 30th. The lockdown and 8 PM curfew was to begin that night. I knew going to church to create these videos was a “non-essential” so… I did what any good I Love Lucy fan would do. I devised a new plan! I got in my truck and headed to our church. I picked up as much as I could fit in my car and drove it all back to my house and placed it all in a little corner of my basement.

A Corner of My Basement

My intention is not necessarily to recreate the exact set we would have had if we were meeting together, but I knew I could bring some elements. I got the spinning wheel – which was the key piece. I had to cut it down and then into pieces to fit it into my car, but I’m working with it and hoping it will spin by Saturday! I continue to receive photos from parents of their kid’s creations and I’m excited to put something together where I can make some videos and connect with kids and parents even though we can’t meet in person.

Build Your Own Set – At Your Home

I also added one more element and encouraged parents to help their kids create their own upside down set in a corner of their home. One mom sent me a photo of her son’s work today! This them lends itself well, to a fun way of creating an environment in your home (turning furniture upside down, hanging drawings upside down, etc) where kids can engage with the materials we are offering online each week.

I’m praying this all helps families stay connected to one another and to our church. But more importantly, I pray that while our world is a bit upside down right now – we might all remember that Jesus turned things upside down in the very best way when He came on the scene. And He can do it again! As we choose to follow Him and grow in the Life App of Humility let’s turn this world upside down – Jesus style! 

The post Humility: Upside Down – April 2020, Our Plan (And Our Plan B – C, D… ) appeared first on Ready Set Sunday.

But – my job as a children’s ministry leader involves more than creating sets. I lead a team of volunteers, work with curriculum, perform on stage, choreograph dance moves for worship songs, create events for families, etc… all the while somehow managing to keep track of and store props, materials, and resources in every nook and cranny of our church (and my home!). Being a leader in the local church has challenged me more than I could have ever imagined. It’s also helped me grow and develop my personal faith journey in ways I could have never dreamed. Leading in the local church has provided lessons I would not have experienced elsewhere and I am so very grateful for all that I have learned and continue to learn each day.

For a while now, I’ve wanted a place to share some of my “lessons learned” or experiences that didn’t exactly have to do with set design. With the current state of our world (being in the midst of a global pandemic and having to rethink how we do church while not meeting in person, let alone how we go about our daily lives) I thought – well, no better time than the present! As a result, I’ve decided to add a new feature to my blog that will hopefully help you as you lead your team and particularly as you navigate our ever-changing world. 

In this “Beyond Set Design: Random Thoughts of a KidMin Leader” section of my blog, you will find just that. My random thoughts about what I’ve learned in leadership, what is happening in the world, how it’s affecting our church, my personal leadership, and just basic stuff that I hope will be helpful as you lead your teams. These posts will be marked by the same feature image each time, so you’ll be able to distinguish them from set design posts.

I hope you’ll grab a cup of coffee (tea, hot chocolate, or whatever your drink of choice might be) and let’s get to know one another outside of the sets we build. I welcome your comments and thoughts and look forward to expanding our conversations! 

Ready. Set… ???

The post Episode 1: Something New appeared first on Ready Set Sunday.

The Best Laid Plans…

We were so excited about our plans for March’s set. You can read the details of that plan HERE but basically, our March set was home to our “C3 Kids Workshop.” In that C3 Kids Workshop we planned to take on the most fun DIY project ever – April’s set!

It all started out just fine. During week’s 1 & 2 of March, our set design team began work on some of the large parts of the April set (the spinning wheel and the truck from the April graphics) and the kids worked on one of their assigned projects (clouds). But, like all of you, that’s about as far as we got. COVID-19 turned our world UPSIDE DOWN and the theme for April became a reality of our lives as the world seemed to be turned upside down overnight. 

Like you, we’ve been scrambling to figure out how to best connect with families from our church at this time. We’re using online options and we are so grateful to Orange for all of the free resources they’ve prepared for us! Orange has made these resources free and available to churches everywhere. You can find them HERE. 

But even with the amazing online resources, there isn’t really a way to incorporate a set, given the current social distancing restrictions and mandates… or is there? Look for a post about some ideas we have for that soon. In the meantime, here is our finished product for our March set and the progress we made on April’s set while we were still able to meet in person:

March Set – Finished Product

This was the set on the first week of the March. No “projects” had been completed, but we deconstructed February’s set in order to use some of the materials for our DIY project (i.e. the oversized headphones and iPhone). Our plans were hung on the peg board backdrop so the host could refer to our progress throughout the month. 

March – Week 1 – Progress on our DIY Project of April’s Set

Our team went to work on their first project – cutting last month’s iPhone into the shape of a truck and making it into a 3-D piece that resembled the truck from April’s graphics. The 6′ circle (2 pieces at this phase) was also painted orange and white to mimic the April graphic.

March – Week 2 – Progress on our DIY Project of April’s Set

The team went to work painting the truck white with black tires and gave the two half circles (our spinning wheel) a second coat of paint, while the kids took on their first project – clouds!

That’s as far as we got before we had to stop meeting in person due to the COVID-19 restrictions.

But then… I had an idea for how we could still utilize the set in videos throughout the month of April. Stay tuned for more details! 

The post Forgiveness: DIY – March 2020, Our Finished Product appeared first on Ready Set Sunday.

I’m so excited about the month of March! The theme for the Life App of Forgiveness lends itself to an awesome opportunity for some fun in our elementary environment. And, it gives us the chance to get everyone involved! Below, you’ll find all of the details for what we have planned.

The March Stage

Obviously, the DIY theme lends itself to a workshop/DIY project design on stage. We’ve done a “C3 Kids Workshop” before and we were trying to think about how to do something different, but decided it could be fun to bring back the old workshop and talk about it as something that shows up from time to time. The host will reference how we are “…back in the C3 Kids Workshop, and while last time we built a doghouse, this time we’ve got a new assignment or project to complete.” We’ll show pictures of the old set as part of the host’s opener to help make the connection. And then we’ll reveal/work on this month’s project each week! 

So, our March set will be filled once again by pegboards, saw horses, shop vacs, tools, drop cloths, paint, and all things DIY!

The DIY Project

Not going to lie – this is one of my favorite things our team has ever come up with! The DIY Project in our C3 Kids Workshop for the month of March will actually be our April Set! Yep! We’ll be constructing our April set all month long as part of the DIY theme/project for March. Here’s the plan:

• February’s set will be deconstructed
• Piles of foam board, paint, tarps, etc. from February’s set will be left throughout the workshop
• These pieces of foam board, etc will be used to create pieces of April’s set
• Our plans for April’s set (drawings, checklists, shopping lists, etc) will adorn the peg board backdrop
• Each week, a different piece of April’s set will be constructed (behind the scenes – on a Sunday afternoon possibly) and “stored” somewhere in the workshop until it’s time to actually build the set for April (the week headed into Sunday, April 5th)

April’s Set Plan

We will mimic some parts of the theme graphic for April as we create April’s set. Here are the main pieces that we’ll construct in our C3 Kids Workshop throughout March:

• Blue backdrop (5 foam boards painted blue to match the theme graphic blue)
• Clouds in the sky (cut from foam board and covered with cotton)
• A big sun (cut from foam board and colored yellow by torn pieces of various shades of yellow paper)
• A long stream of orange paper airplanes (made from orange copy paper)
• Flower pots (white paint buckets) with tissue paper flowers coming out of them 
• A large truck similar to the one from the graphic (made from February’s iPhone, with pieces of the headphones as tires)
• A spinning wheel center stage that has HUMILITY written across the top of the circle and each week’s bottom line displayed on the bottom of the circle – upside down of course. The host will spin the wheel to reveal the bottom line each week in his/her closer

ALL HANDS ON DECK!

This is the best part of April’s set! We’ll have the kids in our environment contribute to the DIY project all throughout March. Each week during our social time, Small Group Leaders will work on a specific piece of April’s set with their group. This way, everyone is part of the DIY project all throughout March and they get to see their work on display in April! Here is our schedule of projects:

• Week 1: Explanation of the project (no work for groups)
• Week 2: Clouds (precut foam board clouds) – SGL’s work with kids to place cotton balls on clouds and give them some dimension
• Week 3: Sun (foam board cut out in the shape of a sun with spires – enough pieces for each group to have one) – SGL’s work with kids to tear various shades of yellow paper and glue it to their part of the sun which will then be pieced together to make one sun on the backdrop
• Week 4: Paper airplanes – SGL’s get orange paper and create paper airplanes with their few
• Week 5: Tissue paper flowers – SGL’s create tissue paper flowers from blue and orange tissue paper to go into the white buckets in keeping with the theme colors

The truck and spinning wheel will be created by our set design team throughout the month and the kids will see the progress each week. For example, on Week 1 of March, the iPhone will be laying in a pile of foam board. By Week 2, however, it will be cut and painted to look like the side of the truck from the graphic. The center portion of the headphones from February will be painted black to act as tires for the truck.

This means a little bit of work each week from our set design team. We’ve worked it out so that we’re trading one big work night at the end of the month for a few Sunday afternoons. The work hours will hopefully be the same and our set for April will be done well in advance! We hope! 

Stay tuned – we’ll keep you posted on the progress from the workshop! Hope you all have a blast with your DIY theme this month. Share photos and let us know what you’re planning!

The post Forgiveness: DIY – March 2020, Our Plan appeared first on Ready Set Sunday.

Our finished product for February’s set turned out great! I love what our team did for this one!

• The oversized head phones are a forever favorite!
• I hosted on two of the weeks and had a blast spinning tunes in the DJ Booth – WIKI WIKI!
• And using the large iPhone with the Now Playing, Up Next and Recently Played features was a great way to intro the bottom line each week while reviewing the rest of the month.
• The heart EQ on the backdrop tied it all together and helped carry the color scheme from the screen graphics to the stage.

The post Love – Playlist: Put Love in the Mix – February 2020, Our Finished Product appeared first on Ready Set Sunday.

It’s the trademark of Southwest Airlines. I have no affiliation with that organization except that I fly on their planes from time to time, but I do love the idea of a get away! I love my job and I love being at my church every Sunday. As a matter of fact, I miss it when I’m not home for the weekend, but I also love when I can step away for a few days and unplug. The Orange Conference is an opportunity for me to do that each year and I am so excited to head to Atlanta at the end of April for OC20!

A Retreat Like No Other

In many ways, Orange is a retreat for me each year. A time to unplug, reset, and refocus my heart.

I realize that most of the time, when we think of a retreat – we picture quiet moments, walks alone in a field, time to read, reflect, process – maybe a spa day? I love that kind of retreat- I really do, but the Orange Conference is nothing like that.

• It’s hardly quiet – 8000 other ministry leaders in one place.
• There are no spa days – but there are some amazing food trucks!
• There is rarely time to be alone – you go from morning to night in main sessions and breakouts.
• There is not a quiet field for walking, but you will get your steps in as you travel from the arena to the annex each day!
• And reading a book? Well, your conference guide is a possibility and they have a ton of awesome books by phenomenal authors that are available to purchase!

I know what you’re thinking –  that hardly sounds like a retreat. But remember, I captioned this section “A Retreat Like No Other.” You see, the Orange Conference is not a quiet, get alone, kind of retreat – but oddly enough – it offers some of the same benefits.

Benefits of an Orange Conference-Kind of Retreat

For me, the Orange Conference allows me the opportunity to get away from my daily regimen. It gives me the chance to step out of my routine and step into a few days where I am not responsible for anything… well, except making sure I get to the free coffee line early enough to make it to the main session on time.

Somedays, carrying the weight of ministry and all that comes with it is taxing. Having a few days at an event that I am not responsible for is glorious. Knowing that I don’t have to worry about if the tech is working, or if a volunteer didn’t show up, or if I’m prepared enough to tell the Bible story, is a reset in and of itself. But there is so much more that happens for me at the Orange Conference each year. Here are a just a few of the things that help me retreat from my regular world and prepare me to come back refreshed and ready to hit the ground running:

INSPIRATION!

The main sessions are filled with speakers who remind us of why we do, what we do each week. They help me remember that there is a generation that needs us to help them know and follow Jesus. They do this in a way that encourages me, reminds me of my why, and helps me get excited about new dreams and opportunities.

WORSHIP!

The worship in the main sessions is absolutely beautiful. Singing and praising our great God with 8000 other ministry leaders gives me a peak at what I think heaven might look like. It’s a reset for my mind, body, and soul that no spa day could ever provide.

GROWTH!

Breakout sessions and main sessions alike leave me with pages and pages of notes. Things I want to remember. Things I’m dreaming about. Things I want to change. Things I want to make sure I share with my team. I learn so much each year at the Orange Conference. The lessons and take aways are things that have helped shift my ministry and my thinking. Orange Conference topics always challenge me in the best way. They help me see the world in a different light and remind me that our God is a big God who can do anything… yet He chooses us, to help pass the baton of faith to the next generation.

COMMUNITY!

The Orange Conference is like a big huge, 8000-person family reunion. Each year I get to reconnect with friends I’ve made across the miles and I get to meet new friends. It’s an amazing thing to be surrounded by people who “get it.” People in my same situation who understand the pressures and the joys of working in ministry. Getting to connect, share, and talk with others who understand this – oh so wonderful, but oh so unusual – work that we do, is life giving! Knowing I am not alone and sharing with people who are like minded is a huge blessing!

FUN!

The Orange Conference is always a place where there is a lot of laughter. While the work we do is serious and what is at stake matters – the faith of the next generation is not something to take lightly – the Orange Conference is intentional about bringing humor, laughter, big smiles, and a whole lot of fun to the room. You’ll find everything from speakers who tell some hilarious jokes and stories, to large group games played with 1000’s of people (one year the world’s largest rubber duckies were passed around the arena). There are funny skits, prizes, great music (that makes you want to dance), and an atmosphere of fun that creates moments where you can just rest, laugh, and enjoy. 

A New Revolution

This year’s theme for the Orange Conference is “Every Generation Needs a New Revolution.” I wonder if maybe our hearts need that too? Are you tired? Weary? In need of rest? You may not be sitting on a quiet dock or strolling through the woods on a prayer walk, but I believe the Orange Conference is a place where you can “retreat” for a few days and find some refreshment for your soul. It may be just what you need, to come back ready to start a new revolution – in your home… your church… your community… your life. Orange Conference might just be the place where God can speak to you and move your heart toward all that He has for you.

I hope to see you there!

The post Orange Conference 2020! appeared first on Ready Set Sunday.

Supersize It!

A few years back, 252 Kids used the theme Supersize Me to teach about the Life App of Contentment. To this day it was one of my favorite sets we’ve ever done. Learn more about that HERE.

I love anything that feels like we’ve stepped into the backyard of Honey I Shrunk the Kids. That’s why I’m so excited about this month’s set! We’ve got plans for some oversized pieces to help create our stage design for February! And some elements will be interactive! You know how I love when we can “use” the set as we teach and play with kids each month!

Here’s our plan to “put love in the mix” with this month’s Playlist Theme. It includes a giant set of headphones and an oversized iPhone on either side of the stage with a DJ Booth in between. We’re using the color scheme from the 252 Kids graphics (reds, pinks, and light blues) and we’ve got a few extra things going for our backdrop and environment overall. Here’s what we’re working on:

SUPERSIZED HEADPHONES

• Black pool inner tubes as the earpiece cushion for the headphones
• Painted red circles cut from 2″ insulation foam in layers for the outside of the headphone earpieces
• Painted red insulation foam cut for the “headband” of the “beats”
• All pieces will be screwed together and mounted on a small platform to keep them steady on stage

SUPERSIZED IPHONE

• Foam board cut to 6’x2′ with rounded corners
• Outside edge painted red like a phone case
• Inside edge painted white
• Screen painted black
• Album artwork – the bottom lines from the social media graphics on 252 Kids website were printed as 10″x 10″ photos and mounted to black foam board
• Velcro will be attached to the back of the album artwork and the black screen of the iPhone
• The albums will rotate throughout the month to reflect the following “Spotify” home screen categories:
  • Now Playing (the current week’s bottom line)
  • Up Next (the following week’s bottom line)
  • Recently Played (bottom lines from January and the February bottom lines as we cycle through the month)
  • Favorites (previous Life Apps as playlists)

DJ Booth

In between the headphones and iPhone, we’ll have a DJ Booth made from 2″ PVC piping, LED lights will hang from the top bar and will be set to chase for the opener each week as the Host intro’s large group and welcomes kids to C3K Radio!

• A 2×4′ table with blue painted foam boards that enclose the table
• PVC piping put together as a “truss” with lights hanging from it
• A large heart with C3K Radio printed on it – on the front of the DJ booth
• Equipment for the DJ (Host) to play with during the opener (i.e. headphones, computer, mixer, stacked cd’s, vinyls, etc)

Equalizer Backdrop

• Hundreds of hearts have been cut using a Cricut in various colors (blues, pinks, reds and whites to match the graphics)
• These hearts will be pinned to the backdrop to represent a huge equalizer behind the DJ

Life App iPhones

These phones were created for me by a volunteer about a year ago and I never had the opportunity to finish them. Sunday’s always coming and these were not part of the “tyranny of the urgent.” So, they’ve been moved around from my car, to my basement, to our elementary space and back again, over the last year! I figured this month would be the perfect month to start displaying them given the iPhone theme, etc. so I was motivated to take them out of storage and have my set design team help me get them ready!

They will stay in our environments even when February’s set is done as a cue/resource for small group leaders when they are trying to remember a Life App we’ve gone over or when they are reflecting/reviewing with their few. Below is my vision for these phones (one per environment space (K-1, 2-3, 4-5). 

• All of the Life Apps we’ve learned throughout the year will be posted on the screen of the phone.
• The dock will house the words from 252 Kids/Preteen’s 3 Basic Truths  – Wisdom, Faith, Friendship, along with the name of the environment where the phones will hang.
• The Life Apps will be attached with velcro so as we rotate through the scope and cycle of Life Apps each year, I can just continue to update them.

The post Love – Playlist: Put Love in the Mix – February 2020, Our Plan appeared first on Ready Set Sunday.