Giving Thanks

Today, I had a few moments to think about Thankfulness before my feet hit the floor and my 90 MPH preparation for advent began, and the thing that came to  mind is volunteers, or more specifically, those who serve in aCross Generations Worship arts.  We have the best volunteers! They give up early mornings and late late nights joyfully to serve in a church where we can't set up the worship space until late Thursday Night, and we often have to be broken down directly after the 10:30 service on Sunday-

Because of the 7:30 am Sunday morning service- volunteers begin arriving at 6:30am to rehearse and prepare, the chair set up team has already set up over 850chairs, and all of these volunteers are joyful in their service.  There are altar prayer partners, baptismal teams, deaf ministry, communion servers, ushers, artists, musicians, and chair set-up, not to mention the tech booth, live video operators.  I am so blessed to be able to work and serve with such an amazing team so dedicated to the service of Our Lord- so, on this Thanksgiving day, I want to thank everyone on the team! You are all amazingly....FANNNNNTASTC!!!!!

Campaigning with playdoh

Playdoh Video from Heather Baumbach on Vimeo.

So I have always harbored a secret passion for Harryhausen films... Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts etc...how fun that we had the opportunity to make a stop motion for our current campaign to convince people to come to our 7:30am service- this is the third in a series of short films on this topic! Enjoy-

Video Intro for aCross Generations Gathering from Heather Baumbach on Vimeo.

Check it out- some aG Arts team members just created and scored this to use as an introduction to our aCross Generations (contemporary) worship services, we will start using it this weekend. 

Really?!?

I have been reading several books lately but the one that has really grabbed me is called When the Heart Waits by Sue Monk Kidd- It has really made me slow down and examine the idea of waiting .  She is a writer who has an obvious love for nature and God's creation.  Gardening and spending time outside are two of my favorite things to do.  In fact today the two littlest Baumbachs and I were able to capture what we have named the "WORLD'S BIGGEST SPIDER" - a huge writing spider- who is currently living in some tupperware on our back patio, feasting on a cricket.  She is awaiting her post-suppertime release into the park behind our house (I have to keep her until my husband comes home just to prove I was soooo brave, I grew up terrified of even plastic spiders) but I digress...

So today I went to get a haircut... (long overdue, I always wait too long between appointments, I can't decide if I am cheap, or lazy, probably the former)  The stylist said to me "I always send you out of here looking so good, and you come back to me looking so shaggy". Ouch, Really?

I've been rolling that around in my head the rest of the afternoon. Is that what God might say about me? I guess that is the beauty of His Grace- He can always do a little more trimming and refining, and then we grow- and he trims and refines us.  It reminds me of something from that book-Sue Monk Kidd wrote- "The sacred intent of life, of God [is] to move us continuously toward growth, toward recovering all that is lost and orphaned within us and restoring the divine image imprinted on our soul"  And I thought I was just going to get a haircut... 

And we"re off....

Welcome all-this is meant to be a forum about worship, art and the fantastic collision of the two.  Although this is my occupation is worship arts, I can not think of a time that I have not wrestled with the idea of art and the reality of our Creator God.  I hope you enjoy this blog, and have a few things to say about this subject as well:)

Ladies and Gentlemen... start your engines!