Talks and Mentoring
Soul Care: A Gathering for Artists and Creatives
Sponsored by City Church, Charleston SC
Synopsis: Using some of my own stories and lots of wisdom from others, this talk lays it on the line about the demands on creative people who deliver their creativity day after day, often times without any feeling of legitimacy; plus, how to recognize when you are stuck, how to get unstuck, how to learn from and counteract the culture, how to release work, and how to tend to your own soul. See the resulting by-product at SoulCareForCreatives.com.
One-to-One Mentoring & Training:
Graphic Design for Worship Media
Tools abound to bring accessibility to this once-specialized skill. But how do you guarantee that the design is good? That the right message is communicated? That the process is sustainable? This commissioned one-to-one, interactive mentoring course celebrates the leveling of the playing field while developing a methodology for: The Plan, The Prep, The Process, The Principles, The Pitch, The Product, and The Pass-off.
New Wine Summer Conference 2016
Breakout Session: Empowered for the Arts
Synopsis: Are you dreaming of developing your skills in the arts? Working your dream job but losing balance in the midst of it? Writing a story in your head but can’t get it out? No matter your stage in realizing your creative passion - be it a spark or a blazing flame - negative resistance will wear you down and you will get stuck. You are not alone. Come meet with others like you and discover how to find courage to move forward in the power of the Holy Spirit.
CSP Mother Daughter Tea Keynote Talk
Broken to Beautiful
Synopsis: What happens when I choose safety, comfort and ease, preserving and insulating myself, avoiding the risk of being broken? What happens when I believe in God, but don’t believe God? The result: I fret, I set up my own plans ‘just in case God doesn’t show up’, and I grow weary trying to protect myself from being hurt, from being less than perfect. But perfect is boring. The adventure of living a life of faith results in chinks, chips and cracks that are beautified by the refining, redeeming hand of the Father.
“Most of my design work is ‘one and done.’ I start with paper and pencil but the final product is a result of musings, study, collaboration and things I find on the internet, which wind up on a website or a wall or a screen or in an email - but just for a short time before tragically being subjected to a context-less life. Building a portfolio of such work flies in the face of good sense. I did it anyway. The work itself demonstrates the dependence on context, but the origin story of the work is timeless; it reminds me of lessons learned, and continues to teach me new things.”
Sermon Series and Seasonal Campaigns
Sermon Series: This Genesis series ran 28 weeks, September thru April. Although a unique approach, the gameboard approach worked in context. Click image to view series and read the Case Study.
Service Promotion and Campaign: This series included promotion and ongoing Worship Media Graphics for a 16-month, weekly evening Worship Service on the Holy Spirit. Click image to view Case Study.
Sermon Series: The Seven Last Words of Jesus - Cries of the Savior from the Cross. A simple, serious, and minimal reminder used during Lent of 2015. Click image to view the full series.
Christmas Campaign: To supplement a church-wide participation in Advent Conspiracy, this series included weekly blog posts, a daily online/printed devotional guide with bonus material from parish members, and ideas and challenges to Worship Fully, Give More, Spend Less and Love All.
Sermon Series: The Homilies for the 21st Century. Divided into 4 mini-series, the series ran from January through September 2014.
Sermon Series: Short book. Long study from 2013. It’s not about the big fish; it’s about grace. From this series (which was pre responsive web-sites) came the development of a methodology for supporting all the sizes and shapes for promotion.
Fall Kickoff and Sermon Series: The "I'm In" campaign promoted involvement, investment and intentional commitment to personal growth, church-wide fellowship, reaching into the community, and a calling to impact the world, and preceded a nine-week study in Discipleship. Click image for a PDF of the Ministry Book and Commitment Form.
Bulletin Covers: The client requested a painterly-style image to grace the bulletin covers for Holy Week. Using pictures of parish members in the style of stained glass matching the large arch window in the sanctuary made a personal, yet weighty, visual effect.
“My life’s work isn’t what I’ve done, but it’s the people I’ve influenced.”
Through the Years: Immersion Retreats
2013 Worship Team Retreat: Journey
The Worship Pastor at St. Andrew's Church annually whisks the entire worship team off to a remote site for an immersive themed weekend of worship, teaching and ministry. As a part of the creative team, this was the ultimate opportunity for exercising creative muscles. Click the image for a small glimpse into our immersed worlds.
2014 Worship Team Retreat: Spiritually Healthy Teams
Immersive retreats expanded over the years to include everything from materials, media and visuals, decor, games, art projects, and goldfish gracing our dining tables. This retreat included a crash course in Spiritually Healthy Churches, which continued in monthly meetings throughout the following year.
2015 Worship Team Retreat: The Walter Mitty Weekend.
One of the best.
2016 Worship Team Retreat: Less is More
The year we were really tired...
“Taken out of context, I must seem so strange.”
Curriculum Design & Kids Programming
High in the hills outside of Hendersonville, NC, there's an idyllic camp by the name of Kanuga Conference and Retreat Center. Each year for many decades past, the last week in June is home to the Renewal Conference. Together with husband Doug, we create and carry out a week of fun for kids aged 3-10. Ranger Rightway (aka Mr. Doug) is still a legend.
View the curriculum synopsis.
Another summer, another Renewal Conference at Kanuga and another fun-filled, character-based week of lessons for the kids at Kanuga. This time it was Miss Patti's turn to follow the script and take on each of the emotions represented in Disney/Pixar's movie Inside Out (whose promotion and release coincided with the conference.) Mr. Doug was truly Joy!
View the curriculum synopsis.
After a two year hiatus, it was great to have another week with our favorite kids, plus, the younger brothers and sisters of our favorite kids. In keeping with the adult program entitled 'More' there were more sessions, more kids, more of many more things, and we all went home wearing more around our wrists.
View curriculum synopsis.
There's a church in Hollywood, SC that could be the gold standard on how to engage kids of all ages in a week's worth of VBS fun. Andrew and Tapley always bring a strong, truth-based curriculum. I'm always happy to design elements for them.
Every fun occasion deserves its own logo
This coaster-worthy logo represents a visit from my very best friends and fellow Worship Arts Team members from St. Andrew's Church, Mt. Pleasant who came to visit just a few months after I moved from Charleston, SC to Nashville. We attended the Story Conference, partook of some late night group therapy, and had lots of the life-giving fun and adventures we have come to enjoy from our many years together in ministry. Excellent Experience indeed, even in spite of the ER visits!
There's nothing like a girls' weekend away to combine friendship and soul tending. Taking advantage of the off-season in Asheville, NC, we definitely were Downtown Divas, celebrating all the good things in life, most of all each other. Kudos to the Haywood Park Hotel for treating us in style, and for allowing for an unexpected but not necessarily random memory connection. That's Kristy's story to tell and it's a good one.
Another March, another bout of Madness. While it's a family tradition, it's more about randomness, uniform colors and bragging rights than basketball, although some of us do take our madness seriously, complete with Mailchimp campaigns and slogans and trashtalk. Tickets to the Nashville-hosted 1st & 2nd round made this a bucket list item (see what I did there?) Plus, I now possess a large, green Mad Hatter-style hat confirming at I am the 2018 March Madness winner.
For four days in January, our house became headquarters for the 1st Annual Oakmont Cross Country Team Nashville/Vanderbilt Tour, including a Vanderbilt / Texas Christian U basketball game and all the great ways to show off Nashville to some high schoolers looking for their future home. They deserved their own logo and I was happy to oblige.
Posters, Infographics & Publicity
As a resource center, St. Andrew’s Church features a rotation of musicians, speakers, conferences, and programs for which a full portfolio of promotional posters and publicity were always needed. As a consultant to St. Andrew’s I was given the gift of imagining and creating.
TheKairosGallery.com began in the prayer room of the Ministry Center at St. Andrew’s Church, Mt. Pleasant. For over a decade the gallery displayed the exhibits of international and local artists, connecting the artist and the observer in unique ways. However . . .
. . . Tragically, along with the Ministry Center, the Kairos Gallery burned to the ground in April of 2018. On display at the time of the fire was the 90-piece exhibit: Marc Chagall and the Bible. Read the #beautyfromashes story and follow experiences of the people of St. Andrew’s.
Training and instruction comes in all forms: Hands-on, One-to-One, Visual, Manuals. And visual reminders help establish the common vocabulary and values. At St. Andrew’s the worship and work goes on, in schools, in makeshift offices, in historic buildings left standing after the fire.
“For surface shine, 80% might be more than enough. After that, the tweaking is for us, not those we seek to serve.”