An online magazine for pastors and church leaders.

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Creative

The Service

Every year, JourneyChurch.tv puts together a Christmas show to reach out to their community. They call it the Christmas Spectacular. Before attendees entered the building, they were greeted with Christmas lights, a bonfire, and Christmas music. They had a horse-drawn carriage ride around the building, S?more roasting, and outdoor games before people even entered the […]

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Creative

The Planning

There were some major challenges in planning for JourneyChurch.tv?s Christmas Spectacular in 2012. One of the main challenges manifested itself in a recent amount of staff turnover. Many of their staff (including their creative arts pastor) came on board in November. They began planning back in July of 2012. Their worship leader, Trent Langrehr, headed […]

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Creative

The Feel

Each year JourneyChurch.tv?s Christmas Spectacular falls directly in the middle of their December sermon series. This year?s sermon series was titled Vintage Christmas. Because of this they tried to create as much synergy and cohesiveness between the two events as they could. They decided their choice of vintage year would be from the vaudeville era. […]

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Creative

The Visuals

Series packaging for the December sermon series. Christmas Spectacular packaging. Vintage lighting fixtures and fake proscenium in the sanctuary. Snow machines activated for the finale. Inside the lobby. Wide shot of the lobby.

Categories
Worship

The Song List

JourneyChurch.tv?s Christmas Spectacular was a hybrid between a church service and a Christmas variety show. So they tried to keep a mixture of fun elements but also allow time for folks to engage in worship. This meant a shorter message, some unique varieties of music, and some narrative videos to help bring people through an […]

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Worship

The Goal

Planning for the worship experience during the Christmas Spectacular began back in July of 2012. Trent had a couple of brainstorming meetings about songs with the creative team. Unfortunately, since the worship experience was so seamlessly integrated into a variety show, it required the whole creative team to put it together. And they were working […]

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Leadership

Leadership During Christmas

A Christmas Spectacular like this would be a big project for any church to organize. But what made this one so much more complicated was the short turnaround and the new leadership that came on staff. JourneyChurch.tv had been organizing the event annually for a few years. They saw it as a way to reach […]

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Technology

The Challenges

You want tech challenges? JourneyChurch.tv had some major tech challenges to overcome last year during preparations for their Christmas Spectacular. Marty, their new creative arts pastor, came on staff in early November. Shortly after, their lighting director Steve came on staff. Marty?s first initiative, after coming on staff, was to upgrade their lighting, acoustical, and […]

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Technology

Lights and Sets

Each year, JourneyChurch.tv puts together a Christmas show to reach out to the community. They want to wow and entertain those who attend, then prepare their hearts for a salvation-based message and a time of worship afterward. This means the set design and lighting are very important. So while they needed something impressive for their […]

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Communication & Marketing

Communicating to the Congregation

Part of the huge success of this Christmas Spectacular event for JourneyChurch.tv was mobilizing their own congregation to show up and invite their friends. They did this some of the normal ways, but also created something that was worthy of word-of-mouth recommendations from their folks. They started with the normal things. They designed invitation cards […]

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Communication & Marketing

Communicating to the Community

To promote JourneyChurch.tv?s Christmas Spectacular, they relied heavily on their own folks inviting their friends to the event. They knew that?s always the best way to get people to check out your church?personal invitations. But they did do a bit of traditional advertising, as well as something a bit creative that gave them a huge […]