05 Mar Faith – Now I See It: Seeing is Believing – February 2014 – Part 2: Our Finished Product

Life App: Faith—believing in what you can’t see because of what you can see.
Theme: Now I See It; Seeing is Believing
Date: February, 2014

Is it March Already?

Wow! Life has certainly been busy these days. Everyone is posting pics of their March environments and I am just now getting to post about our February set. We’re in the midst of a crazy season at our church. We had to move to a temporary space until the building we purchased is ready for us. That move, and preparing to be portable for a period of time took over my life for the last two weeks.

So, while I’m late to the dance – I still wanted to post. I’m hopeful that all set design ideas are helpful – whether they are current or not. Sometimes, you’ll see something in a set from a while back that might spark an idea for something you are working on now. As such, I’m posting our February set below and I’ll be posting a showcase of your February’s sets this week too!

Speaking of your February sets – thank you for your interaction on the blog last month. It was the most collaboration we’ve seen so far and I, for one, benefited greatly. You’ll see how below, as I revamped our entire set two days prior to launch with many of your ideas!!!

Plan B!

This month, I had a plan for our set and a team to help me put it together. By Wednesday night of the last week of January, our February set was complete. I should have walked out of our environment and been pleased with the bit of margin I actually had going into the month – 3 whole days to go and my set was complete! That never happens. And – as my personality would have it, that didn’t happen! I rarely can leave well enough alone and I never have margin in my life. I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie and work best under pressure but more importantly, I left that night feeling very unsettled about our set. It didn’t have a wow factor. It just felt boring and I just didn’t feel right about it.

So, I went home and began to think about what it needed. Before I knew it, I was at the dollar store on Thursday buying all sorts of things for our science lab and my husband and daughter had been roped into helping me create oversized atoms, DNA strands, and molecules (thanks to all that you guys had shared!). We worked every spare minute for the next two days and by the time I left our environment Saturday night – I felt that I could rest easy. I loved what it turned into and felt like we had the WOW factor I was hoping for.

Not Doctor Recommended!

Division Ahead Traffic Sign IsolatedNow, I do not recommend these types of antics! Part of me wishes I could just let things go and not have to work like a mad-woman to make the picture in my head a reality all the time. I know that only God is perfect and my goal is never perfection – just the best I can give. Sometimes that can take me down serious rabbit trails as it did this month, but in the end – I was grateful for those trails. I’m hopeful that the extra work this month created a WOW factor that made things stick. I’m hopeful that what we did was memorable, but more importantly, I believe that the environment we created helped kids learned about Faith. Our science lab helped them make real-life connections about their ability to trust God and, they had fun at church. That is one of my greatest goals as an children’s ministry leader. To help kids love church and want to come back!

Here is a look at our journey from Plan A to Plan B:

Plan A – The Not So Finished Product

The Overhaul

Plan B – The Actual Finished Product

It was a crazy set design month for us, but in the end, it all worked out. Check back tomorrow for a video of our Live Foreverinator in action!