Coming Attractions

"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions"

Albert Einstein

The summer movie season is upon us. The period from May thru July 4th is often filled with movies that we have been waiting to see. It may be the next edition of Indiana Jones, Narnia, or Batman series but this is a great time of the year to see movies. I remember I once kiddedTerri that we would celebrate our wedding anniversary by attending the Lord Of The Rings : Fellowship of the Ring on it's opening night. Of course, Terri was less than thrilled by the option, so we didn't go.

We have been seeing previews of coming attractions for our church facilities. We have glimpses of what is coming, but we do not have the full picture. For those of you who missed some of the "movie trailers" because you were in line getting popcorn I thought I would reiterate some of the neat stuff we have in mind for the renovation of our facilities and our ministries.

The "July 4th blockbuster" of the renovation project is the new fellowship hall. Our intent is that after the renovation, the Hospitality Center (HC) will be a first-class venue for fellowship, teaching and worship. Our planning has been geared towards making the HC a very flexible space. The room is designed to adapt to a number of usages. This is part of the reason why you have not heard a lot of details on what will be in the room. Let me explain this by analogy.

During the Thanksgiving holiday you are in a movie theater and you have just seen an exciting preview for an action movie that will be released on the following July 4th. Your immediate reaction to the preview was "We've got to go see that". In November, however, the movie is not finished. There are thousands of digital artists who are painstakingly working to create each frame of the film. There are audio engineers who are working to create every sound you will hear. There are even marketing executives who are still negotiating contracts with fast food chains for shared promotional campaigns. In short, during the eight months between November and July there is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes. The same thing has been going on with the HC. We have been working on the building addition design, the kitchen design, the audio visual design and going through the permit and approval process. I'm sure that someone has spent at least a few days working out where exactly all of the plumbing lines have to be run, down to a detailed level.

We still have a ways to go on the HC renovation. We are working on estimating costs, establishing options for financing the construction, getting necessary approvals, etc.

As we go through this process we will need to tweak the design, but here are some things that I hope will make the walk down the "red carpet" during the premiere of the HC.

• An integrated video projection system that consists of three projectors/screens that can be used for teaching, song lyrics, announcements, sunday school, etc.
• A sound system that is in many ways is superior to the system in the Sanctuary (Note: As the A/V chair I have plans to fix some sound issues in the Sanctuary too)
• A video camera and editing tools that will enable us to build a media ministry team to better catalog and illustrate visually our lives together.
• New instruments that will equip us with the ability to host a contemporary service in the HC space.
• Flexible, portable A/V control racks that we can store easily when the room is not in use.

Here is where I want to invite you to put on your "imagination cap". What I would like for you to do is dream about ways we can make use of these new capabilities. We will need people with a passion to use these tools and a willingness to learn to fulfill the purposes of the HC center.

We can build the nicest theater, have the most special-effects filled scenes, the best script, and the tastiest pop-corn, but if the theater is empty we have missed our purpose. We need folks to step up and say, "I want to learn how to run the projector", "I'm good at making popcorn", "I'm friendly, so I can help people find a seat", "I'm a great cleaner, I'll sweep the aisles to keep the theater looking new". The goal of the HC is not about neat new toys, it is about the things the God will do, through his people, with those capabilities. So dream a little bit.

See ya at the movies...