Resurrected Apr. 27th, 2008

Our tomb scene.









We built a "sandbox" with cheap OSB board and 2x4's from Home Depot. Spray painted the top brown, to wash it out visually a bit. Filled it (once it was in the foyer) with dirt from the construction site outside. Linen strips were torn and stained to resemble blood and dirt. Accent lighting was placed under and above. You can kind of see the x-mas light strings under the linen pile in the background.

New LS bands...

A very exciting announcement: There are now 2 more official worship bands at Living Stones.

"Outlet": an alternative, harder-rock sound led by Ricky Turner.

"Anima Mundi": an ethereal, ambient driven band led by Donald Zimmerman.

Watch for these 2 bands at Living Stones. They will be further carving out their styles and unique sounds.

Creative Elements from "Eucharist" Apr 6, 2008

Here's some quick snapshots from our evening titled,"Eucharist". We set up round tables low to the ground in the front row to provide an Ancient Eastern experience for those brave enough to sit at the tables. We set the tables to include basic passover meal elements, including bread and juice (or wine ....who knows?).

As a testimony to our unique un-churched culture in Reno, someone began eating the elements like appetizers during Harvey's sermon, not realizing that they were there for illustrative purposes.

Good times.

Sabbath

It often occurs to me that we are a people of lists and check-boxes. Day planners, calendars, and cell phones. I won't belabor the point but we spend an asinine amount of time on productivity. That thinking creeps into our Kingdom identity as well. I see it and hear it constantly.

It goes something like this: If i do good things, my boss likes me. If I do bad things, my boss is upset. God is the boss, so...

The problem is that while we know that this is contrary to God's economy, we hardly ever reinforce that truth in our lives. It's hard to know that our value is in "being" a child of God, when we are constantly "doing" things to please Him. They don't reconcile.

I recently heard someone say that the reason we have a Sabbath is because we spend 6 days a week "doing". That one day a week is to just "be"; to focus on "being". It's a chance to reinforce the truth that we are loved by God because of who we are in His Son. Jesus is the reason we have hope. Jesus is the reason we have God.

Keeping the rules for the sake of rules has been more destructive to human souls than disease, natural disasters, or historical atrocities.

Many of us don't give ourselves permission to rest. If God has, why can't we?