19 Feb SHOWCASE – Undercover Kindness!

Life App: Kindness—showing others they are valuable by how you treat them.
Theme: Undercover Kindness!
Date: February, 2015

“Spying” Some Awesome Environments!

This month’s showcase features five different churches and their amazing environments for the Life App of Kindness. In addition, two ministry leader’s offer their tips on how to create stand-ups for your sets.

Hope you find this information helpful. Be sure to share photos of your March environments for the Life App of Patience with us – so we can feature your church in next month’s Showcase!

South Bossier Baptist Church – Bossier City, LA

10612635_10200188988163552_1491308568386010906_nLisa DeLancy had been part of the Orange community for about a year now. I noticed photos of her fabulous sets on the 252 Basics Facebook page and asked her a few questions about how she comes up with her ideas, what her team looks like and specifically, how she makes those amazing stand-ups for her sets each month. Here’s what Lisa had to say:

We really don’t have a creative team yet. But I do have the most amazing group of volunteers! Pretty much everything is homemade. Cut outs are printed on a large format printer, then spray mounted on foam core boards. I usually get large project boards again the foam trifold ones and tape with 2 inch brown packing tape to make one large board. For really large cut outs you have to add more board by taping together. Back drops are images usually bought from clip art sights and printed again on large format printer. I print in large format paper, cuz it’s least expensive! Images are layered on to wood panels that are covered with black nylon fabric. Wood panels are 4×8 on coasters… Covered in black fabric. Then graphic images are layered to achieve the look that I’m shooting for… Ideas for each set… usually begins by looking at the graphics in the 252 material, next I read through the lessons for the month and then I pray! All I can say is God is faithful! Somewhere in this process I begin to have a picture in my head of our new environment! It’s kinda crazy but many times it wakes me up at night! I figure if it captures my heart, God will use it to captivate our kiddos!

Well, your environments have certainly captured our eye Lisa – keep up the good work and thanks for joining the ReadySetSunday community!

McBIC – Mechanicsburg Brethren in Christ Church – Mechanicsburg, PA

Dave Truit is new to the ReadySetSunday community and I am thrilled to be able to share what he came up with for Undercover Kindness. I love that their Children’s Ministry hallway has a simple mural painted on the wall of grassy hills and blue sky. It can be transformed each month to reflect the Life App and Theme. So clever! Here is what Dave had to say about how they created this month’s environment:

We created over 200 little magnifying glasses hanging from the ceiling. The “Evidence Tents” will be used on stage for where the Bible Story is located and/or on top of the sheet of paper that describes how kindness was shown/demonstrated. The “grass & sky” are a part of our normal decor. We traced the images onto black butcher paper, ricky-tacked them to the wall. We are giving all the kids little magnifying glasses this month as a giveaway. Had to do a last minute stage design. Turned to 252’s Facebook page and saw this design. We used a Cricut (a recent purchase) for the letters, traced the image, hung them up. Placed a few evidence tents around on the floor.

Connexus Church – Barrie & Orillia, Ontario – Canada

Operation KindnessShawna Lester’s Team had a great idea for Undercover Kindness that allowed them to partner with their community. Here is what they put together:

On Feb 15 we are having Operation Kindness morning. Small groups and their leaders will rotate through a few stations – make a secret agent badge, add your disguise ( we’ll provide stick on moustaches and magnifying glasses), they’ll pick up their “black bag” . Station 2 – make invisible ink. They’ll get to take it home in a plastic container. Station 3 – decorate a kindness bag, fill kindness bag with items for homeless. Station 4 – write a note in invisible ink to go in the kindness bag.

Family Life Christian Fellowship – San Diego, CA

Bernie Lopez is a regular voice here at Ready Set Sunday! She always has some great ideas going well in advance (we love that) and creates great Pinterest Boards for each month’s theme. Check that out here. Here is what Bernie had to say about her Undercover Kindness environment:

Here’s our final set from this month and a few “mug” shots! The kids are really having a good time with it! The mug shots are for a “wanted” whiteboard, in which the acts of kindness will be strung to their mug shots. The standup was just projected onto cardboard and spray-painted. Added white duct tape for the details. I use a lot of cardboard!

True North Community Church – Bohemia, NY

Phil Summers is also a loyal contributor to Ready Set Sunday! He always has terrific ideas and sharp looking sets. Check out what his team came up with for February:

We took pics of volunteers in both a mug shot type look and detective type look. We set the stage to look like a detective office. We actually didn’t need to buy anything as we reused some things from previous months. 

Great stuff everybody. I love learning from you all and can’t wait to see what you come up with for March!