repurpose

[re]purpose 

last spring we did a sermon series that we titled repurpose, based on the life of Joseph in the old testament. in case you're not familiar with the story or missed the series, Joseph had a right rough go of it for much of his life, but ultimately, what was meant for evil and to cause pain actually brought blessing and life to Joseph, his family and thousands of people.  (you can check out the whole story of Joseph here.)

often times when our team decides on a stage design, it's just because it's beautiful. or interesting.  
but this time we planned for the stage to communicate the theology of the series; i.e "...all good stories, our included, have plenty of ups and downs of various amplitudes. in the end, though, we have this hope that 
'all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.' (romans 8:28) 

Joseph’s life offers a perfect illustration of this point. Joseph experienced family betrayal, wrongful imprisonment, and broken promises. yet, when he finally saw his family, the very ones who had betrayed him originally, he was able to say, 'you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.' (Genesis 50:20) Joseph, not unlike us, experienced profound lows, but those lows did not fully define his life. he was able to follow them up with the words but God… and hold onto hope."

what better material to use than pallet wood to illustrate this?  torn apart pallets that when rearranged, repurposed became beautiful? add to that the we were able to get all the pallets FO FREE and it's an idea that was a no brainer. and also, we got our inspiration from the website church stage designs, home of so many good ideas. 

 

our building guys cut all the pallets apart and since we were going after a more irregular look, we randomly assigned them a home and used a nail gun to attach the pallet pieces to the stage grid. we sandwiched the edison bulbs between the two levels of pallet wood.

for our prayer stations in the worship center and for the mantle in the lobby, pim and shoan created these raw and beautiful pieces.  love love how these pieces turned out.