Christmas at Status

We've heard the Christmas story - and every variation thereof - dozens of times. We've sung the songs to the point of exhaustion. So, with these two things in mind, I'm supposed to help create a Christmas worship gathering? Quite a daunting task... but it was a powerful night, and - best of all - we actually engaged together.

We brought everyone together for one service, and for this reason as well as our desire for people to engage in experiences around the room, we removed the chairs. Ben White, from Origins Long Beach, CA led a few songs at the beginning of the night, then Trent Sheppard, one of our teaching pastors, spoke on the parallel between the book of John (specifically the beginning) and the book of Genesis and wrapped up talking about our command as followers of Jesus to be givers over consumers.

Then, we transitioned into a time of interaction based on some questions inspired by the participants of the first Christmas (ie. Mary - "what pain has Jesus caused us? how might this pain be used for the glory of God?" or The Star - "how are we supposed to be light in the darkness?"). These questions were meant to help us be introspective around the idea of giving over consuming. Several of the questions also had interactive experiences involved with them to help people engage sensorially and not just cognitively. This time was about half an hour long and was accompanied by a group of about ten musicians.

Thanks to everyone who made this stuff happen:
Melyssa Marshall - tech director
Jenn Janaciewicz - operations
McKenzie Parker - producer

Josh Luker - engineer
Jake LeBoeuf -guitar and vocals
Luke Domeck - guitar and vocals
Noemy Olson - viola
Lu Bonilla - trumpet
Paulo Clayton - guitar and vocals
Ben White - guitar and vocals
Greg Perkins - guitar and harmonica/Designer
Sarah Hester - keys and vocals
Andrew Ross - guitar
Jordan Dowty - runner
as well as all the ops peeps that took down and reset chairs and the lighting and video crews.

Here are some pics: