31 Aug 3 Sets in 7 Weeks – WHOA!

We’re A Bit Behind

Due to our school schedule in Maryland, we are behind most of you 252 Basics users. You probably  finished off the Life App of Obedience this past Sunday and are getting ready to kick off the Life App of Courage this coming week. Normally, we would  have skipped the Life App from August since we are still in our summer series that month, and then we would align with 252 Basics schedule in September. This year, however, we did not want to skip August because we wanted to make sure we were in line with 252’s plan to teach the Bible chronologically according to the One Big Story Timeline. Obviously, they started in August with the Life App of Obedience, and the book of Genesis, and we did not want to skip that!

9 down to 6

Since we wanted to make sure we covered August’s content from Genesis, but only had one week to do it since our summer series took us through August 18th, we decided to split the curriculum from August and September and do a little of each beginning on August 25th and running through the end of September. Specifically, we’ll spend 3 weeks learning about Obedience and then in mid-September, we’ll switch over to the Life App of Courage. Then, finally, we’ll be back on schedule with 252 Basics in October as we launch the Life App of Honor.

Here is a break down of how we’ve condensed 9 weeks of content into six:

• We’ll spend three weeks on Obedience (8/25, 9/1, & 9/8).
• On Week 3 of Obedience, we’ll focus mostly on Abraham’s story from Week 3 and just add some script from Week 4 in order to “complete” his story.
• We’ll switch over to 3 weeks of Courage in mid-September (9/15, 9/22, 9/29).
• We’ll do Weeks 1, 2 and 4 from the original Courage scripts, but on Week 2 we’ll add some script from Week 3 to cover the rest of Moses story and on Week 4 we’ll add script from Week 5 to cover the walls of Jericho with Joshua. 

Condensing 9 weeks of content into six and changing Life Apps mid-way means we will create 3 sets in 7 weeks. Whew!

Sharing Anyway

Even though we are behind most of you, we thought we’d share a bit of what we’re up to as we prepare for our fall season. We’d really love to see what you all have been up to as well, so please share your photos and design process for August and September here.

Ideas We’ve Brainstormed

Both the Life App of Obedience and the Life App of Courage took us through a very arduous brainstorming process. Not much of it had to do with set design, although it started out that way.  Normally, we have a section of each post about what we brainstormed and where we landed, but since this month was so different, I’ve dedicated and entire post to that brainstorming process. You can read about it here.

Keeping it Simple

As a result of our schedule and desire to create a program for One Big Story, we are sticking pretty close to the suggestions 252 Basics gave in the Get Ready Section of Week 1’s script for the Life Apps of Obedience and Courage. Details for each are below.

• We knew that when we changed sets in mid-September for Courage/Phobia Island we wanted a green backdrop, so we chose to use green for our Obedience/Some Assembly Required set as well. This will be helpful mid-month when all we have to do is change how we’ve “accessorized” the set!
• Thankfully, we already had a green backdrop from our Friendship and Contentment series,  so we freshened those panels up with a new coat of green paint (they had black footprints and a detective painted on them from our Contentment/Who Dun It series). Painting one coat of the same green paint over top of an already painted backdrop sure was is a lot easier and faster than starting from scratch!

Set #1 – Some Assembly Required

Life App: Obedience
Theme: Some Assembly Required
Date: August 2013 (August/September for us)

Our Obedience set will have the green backdrop mentioned above with the following additions:

• Our FX set is a permanent backdrop that we put our monthly set in front of. Three of the panels for the FX set are “brick walls.” We decided we would keep the brick exposed and only cover the other panels of the permanent backdrop with our green insulation foam panels. We thought the brick would look more like a workshop.
• On the center wall of our stage, we’ll have a Photo Tex print of the Life App definition for Obedience. We’ll mount that on insulation foam and hang it on our focal wall. 
• Another feature of our FX set is a peg board panel, so naturally we’ll use that to hang tools, extension cords, etc.
• We’ll place two saw horses on stage with plywood across them. We want to create a “project in process” look. In addition, this could create a “table” should the host or storyteller need one. I love when the set itself can be a functional/interactive part of what is actually happening on the stage.
• We’ll hang blueprints on the walls of the stage that do not have peg boards.
• We’ll set out tool boxes, extension cords, a ladder, etc. around the stage.

Set #2 – Phobia Island

Life App: Courage
Theme: Phobia Island
Date: September 2013

Our Courage set will have the green backdrop mentioned above with the following additions:

• On the center wall of our stage, we’ll have a Photo Tex print of the Life App definition for Courage. We’ll mount that on insulation foam and hang it on our focal wall.
• I’ve borrowed some very cool trees from one of our volunteers. They are long brown sticks that are bundled to create a tree trunk. Large leaves made out of parachute material get stuck into the trunks at varying heights and will create a fun jungle affect.
• We’ll have tiki-torches stuck in buckets of sand. We’ll wrap the buckets with burlap as suggested in the Get Ready Section of 252 Basics curriculum.
• We’ll hang ivy and greenery around the backdrop to fill in where the trees do not cover.

Set #3 – Road to Glory

Life App: Honor
Theme: Road to Glory
Date: October 2013

We’ll be posting our plan for October early next week, so stay tuned! We’ll be creating that set in the midst of changing sets in mid-September, but because we’ve kept things simple for Obedience and Courage, I’m hoping it won’t be too bad!

So, there you have it. Lots of sets. Lots going on! How about you all? What are your sets looking like as we kick off another year? Show us here.

 Obedience Gallery

Courage Gallery

True North Community Church – Long Island, NY

Process Details from Phil Summers

For this month’s Phobia Island, we started preparing by reaching out to volunteers to bring in any fake trees and bamboo torches for us to borrow. Then we scavenged the church building for anything else that would fit into the theme. The tiki hut was a previous frame built for a habitat for humanity promo that we also used as our chillinator a few months ago. I’m not ashamed to admit we had some friends of our ministry do some dumpster diving for some of these items. When all is said and done, all that you see here cost us less than $20.