When we look at ourselves, at the littleness of our
love, the barrenness of our service and the small progress we
make toward perfection, how soul-refreshing it is to turn
away to Him; to plunge afresh in "the fountain opened for sin
and for uncleanness"; to remember that we are "accepted in
the beloved" ... "who of God is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Oh! the
fullness of Christ, the fullness of Christ.

- Quoted from Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret

I’ve been asked a few times for a step by step instructional on how to make the “Response Stage Design” I posted a while back. So without further delay, my first blog entry in 8 months starts now:

Step One: Determine your height and width
How much space do you have to work with? Be sure to consider different viewing angle of your room. If at all possible, make it easy on yourself and keep the height divisible by 2 and the width divisible by 4. It doesn’t have to be exact, as you’ll see later, but it does need to be within a few inches. It will make your life easier.

Step Two: Create a materials list
Now that you know the dimensions of the total design, do some math on constructing a 2×4 frame. The dimensions of the frame equals the dimensions of your design. 2x4s are generally sold in 2′ lengths up to about 22′ or 24′ if I’m not mistaken. Don’t quote me on this though, I’m no lumber expert. In our case, we went with 16′ verticals so that 8 rows high will work very easily. When calculating materials: the vertical studs need to be placed on 4′ centers. You’ll have to do some math based on your specific design as to how many of these you need.

Wooden dowels or small 1x2s are used to protrude one end of each coroplast panel. We used 1x2s because they are easier to work with and we cut them to a 12″ length.

Our material list was as follows:
• 88 2′x4′ panels of coroplast, round it off to 90 or 95 to account for mistakes. We order 4′x8′ coroplast and then cut them to 4 pieces of 2′x4′.
• 16 16′ 12 for vertical 2x4s and 4 for the top and bottom of the frame. BTW, 2 of the verticals count as the left and right side of the frame.
• 2 12′ 2x4s for the middle portion of the top and bottom of our frame. This will vary based on your design.
• 176 12′ 1x2s – bought in long length and cut to size.

Step Three: Construct the Frame
I’m skipping some obvious steps of ordering or picking up the materials, gather construction tools and planning out the design with your volunteers or staff.
The verticals are, again, spaced on 4′ centers and go inside the top and bottom 2x4s making up the frame. So that your total frame height will actually be 4″ taller than the height of your verticals. For us, our total frame dimensions were 16’4″x44′. For us the extra 4″ is fine because we planned to paint the bottom of the frame black and start the panels 2″ from the floor or the bottom of the first panel meets the top of the bottom portion of the frame. I hope that makes sense so far. The leftover 2″ on the top of our design are also painted black and aren’t noticed because of the size of the design. If you really need it to be exact, consider cutting 4″ off of each vertical.
Measure everything out and assemble the frame on the ground. We assembled our entire frame on the stage and then raised it into position with several people. 2x4s are hardly ever square or straight. Don’t let this bother you as long as you’ve made sure to install them on 4′ centers. You can fix some of the crooked verticals as you install the panels as needed.

Step Four: Safety Safety Safety
I can not stress this enough. Make sure that you are operating safely through the whole process but now is when you must be aware of what’s happening around you. Do not lean, prop, or tilt the frame onto anything else. It must be anchored to your stage well before you may continue. Here’s what we did:
• Screw bottom of frame directly into stage floor
• Used additional 2x4s to build braces from the sides and back of the frame to anchor into the back walls
• 45° legs on the back side
• Safety cables from the top of the frame to anchor points in your building structure.
You must make sure that there is no possibility of the frame ever falling over.

Step Five: Add Panels
Starting from the bottom, staple one side of each panel to the vertical studs. Alternate sides as you add panels or use the same side whichever you prefer. Be creative. Some of the spacing may not work precisely and that’s ok. It’s a big stage design. It won’t be noticeable. At this point you may need to tweak a few vertical studs if they are crooked. Add the 1x2s or dowels to the non-stapled side of the panels. Because they are cut to 1′ lengths, they should protrude the panels to approx. 8″ from the frame. They are installed at the top and bottom corner of each panel and one end of the 1×2 should align with the back side of the frame. Make sense?

Step Six: Light and Enjoy a Cherry Coke Zero

Our panels were not rolling. Each is screwed to the stage floor and braced.

I removed myself from the design process for this one…since I was going to be getting married on this stage I didn’t want to have biased input. (We have a policy at Blue Ridge that the stage design doesn’t change for weddings.) The layout and design worked well for stage flow and, when lit, offered some good looks on camera.

We’ve had a few stage designs go by and I wanted to share them with you. We just finished up a series called “Free.” It was a very powerful series looking at what it means to be free. Here was the conceptualization for this design:

and

The idea with the platforms was a little risky and went through several variations before we settled on this. For the backdrops, we used landscaping fabric and Colin splattered/brushed white paint on each one. Photos coming soon!

¹⁰ When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. ¹¹ Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ¹² Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, ¹³ and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, ¹⁴ then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

¹⁷ You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” ¹⁸ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.

-Deuteronomy 8

When is the last time we stopped to give a deep heartfelt thanks to God for…

• A moment of creativity
• That idea we had regarding so and so that ended up helping people move closer to God. What about the idea we never had?
• That special skill we have. Ears to mix sound. Eyes to see color. The senses we’ve been given, the skills we lack.
• Knowledge to know what “that knob does.”
• The time we are given, the time we weren’t given
• The money we earn, or didn’t earn.
• Authentic Mexican food in the unlikeliest of places

“And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

-Ephesians 5:20

Lets check our hearts. Lest we wake up one day and find that we’ve gradually moved to a place where we say, with Gollum-esque voice, “It’s mine, my own…my precious ____” skill/knowledge/idea/talent/money/ability/you fill in the blank.

I’m thankful for the Echo Conference. I pray it’s going to be a place for God to breathe into Colin, Tim, Chad and me. Breathe life, creativity, skill, aptitude, attitude, reality, humility and for all of these things may we be thankful and full of gratitude.

And another kinetic type video created by Colin Harman. We would use these to set up the talk with a preview of the Scripture being taught.

This is an animation / kinetic typography piece for Blue Ridge Community Church in Forest, Virginia. Narrated by Marilee Earle and created by Colin Harman.

Music: “Begin” by Jam Balls

A simple motion graphic for Blue Ridge Community Church during the “Leaving A Mark” series
Credits:
Original music by Judson Lee.
Voiceover by Todd Foster.
Sound Effects by Colin Harman.

High resolution space photos from NASA Hubble