Asbury UMC aCross Generations Arts

New Happenings

2010-09-19T05:42:00.000-07:00

Last week on Monday night the arts team leaders hosted a great evening of casting vision for the future of aCross Generations Arts. Beginning this week, we will be hosting "creation nights" on Monday night in the Grace building starting at 6:30pm. There will be a large group devotional led by one of the arts team leaders. Then we will split up in the building into the different disciplines (currently Drama/movement, songwriting, visual arts/scenic). If you are creating a piece, you can bring it to develop, or you can jump in and work on the series we are currently in production for...Right now we are working on Advent/Christmas eve. We are also blessed to have the Storehouse on campus just across the street, and there will be nights when we will spend time worshipping together there. Join us, bring a friend... we will be closing up shop at 8:30pm.

If you plan on coming, you'll need a door code to get in, you can email me (heather.baumbach@asburyumcmadison.com.) with your name and the phone number I can reach you on...

join us!

Art is either plagiarism or revolution.

Paul Gauguin

Big Idea Meeting-Servant Leadership

2010-04-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

We are having a big idea meeting for the creative team on Wednesday April 21st at 6:30pm in the Grace Lobby...if you'd like to get involved in the creative stuff for aCross Generations worship, show up- we will be talking about servant leadership....

Inspiration for the day...

2010-04-07T07:17:00.000-07:00

A photocopy of this poem was given to me by one of our associate pastors...John Ryberg. It is nice to let it roll around in your head for a while.

Playlist for between the services

2010-04-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

This past week the artists on the playlist for between the services were..

John Mark McMillan

Robbie Seay Band

Mumford and Sons

This song in particular has really moved us this week. Here are the lyrics to Skeleton Bones by John Mark McMillan.

Peel back our ribs again
and stand inside of our chest.
We just wanna' love you
We just wanna' love you

Peel back the veil of time
And let us see You with our naked eyes
We just wanna' love you
We just wanna' love you

We want your blood to flow inside our body
We want your wind inside our lungs
We just wanna' love you
We just wanna' love you

Skeleton bones stand at the sound of eternity
On the lips of the found
And gravestones roll
To the rhythm of the sound of you
Skeleton bones stand at the sound of eternity
On the lips of the found
So separate those doors
And let the son of resurrection in.

Oh let us adore the
Son of Glory drenched in love
Open up your gates before him
Crown Him, stand Him up

twas the day before Easter...

2010-04-03T11:23:00.000-07:00

it is ready.

we have worked and worked and worked and it is ready.

so many folks have been at the grace building for so many hours in the past three weeks. and now it is almost here.

thankyou to all the volunteers, the staff, and the parents of the children who have done so much to help us prepare.

back during GIC Julius Mbaya said it best when he first came into the worship space in the grace building..."LOOK WHAT JESUS DOES!!!" he shouted with outstretched arms...

yes...look what Jesus does:)

Running to the mercy seat...

2010-03-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

After a few long days and nights getting moved into the Grace building, few of us were feeling a bit loopy...here is a still from Chris's human video that had us all in stitches.

It's beginning to look a lot like Easter

2010-03-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

Cranes, Cranes, and more PAPER CRANES!!!!!

Original Hybrids to life...

2010-03-19T05:44:00.000-07:00

"Taymor's work-in theatre, opera, and film-is not so much eclectic, as it is cross-bred. She draws on an enormous pool of forms, genres, traditions. She grasps the center of each form, how it works in its home context and how it might resonate somewhere else. She conceives new theatrical organisms, combining traits from the most disparate sources to bring original hybrids to life."

That is from Eileen Blumenthal's book on Julie Taymor called Playing With Fire.

That seems to me to be the essence of what all artists in the church are trying to do. Take our experiences, the stories, and find God's truth in them, then form them into a hybrid that is relatable and speaks God's truth in a new way.

Later in the book there is a phrase about Taymor..."she assimilates disparate elements, rather than leaving them in native dress"....hmmmm.......

I am not a writer

2010-03-18T08:43:00.001-07:00

I am not a writer, I am not a blogger, but I am a list maker, (as long as it is not a list of things I have to do) and I am good a being random...so here goes...a random list, of art things that are inspiring me right now...

slumdog millionaire

oragami

flocks of birds

giant new buildings

sushi

late nights

early mornings

puddles of mud that never dry up

found object sculpture

artists, who don't think they are artists

Josiah -2 Kings

Update on what going on with aG worship arts....

dance team forming,wild training hours for the tech teams...for the new building,

rehearsals for Easter, with the actors/dancers/children/worshippers and the support teams:)

It is wild around here....Just like Jesus likes it:)....because, HE is wild and not TAME....as Beau would say, (paraphrasing c s lewis)

Soggy May

2009-05-02T12:49:00.000-07:00

I am very curious to know if anyone has been to the saddleback worship conference...does it compare with willowcreeks art conference? I winder if it is mostly for muscians?

Happy New Year!

2009-03-29T19:20:00.000-07:00

Seriously, I have no idea how I can keep up with this blog thing, I have blog envy...that's bad right?

I read all these very clever blogs that are continually packed with new and brilliant content, but I cannot for the life of me think of how to keep up with that kind of pace...

so Hi!...and Happy New Year!...:) I promise to try harder and be much more serious about this blog...just kidding...see you in 2010!

Giving Thanks

2008-11-27T06:50:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-01T16:56:00.000-07:00

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-

2008-10-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

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?!?

2008-09-18T13:10:00.002-07:00

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....

2008-09-18T13:10:00.001-07:00

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!