these are fabulous ideas we had that we either
a) forgot
b) put away safe for a more suitable occaision
c) were impossible to pull-off
d) decided were just too silly

but who knows if they’ll crop up in a service at some point…

Text message prayers
People’s mobile phone numbers would be collected as they entered the worship area. At a specific point in the worship the prayer would be send to each phone.

The illuminated altar
We planned to build a perspex topped altar with electric lights inside (or just get hold of a large lightbox). At the point of the consecration of the elements the light would switch on (ideally a gradual fade-in) illuminating the bread and wine, which would be on a glass plate and in a glass chalice.

This is the sign of the mysterons
Use a slide projector on some kind of multi-rotating thingy to project words across the worship area, settling on people and then moving to the next. Exactly what words was never quite discussed, although we fancied large bold letters saying ‘REPENT’…

The techno video dancer
Projecting moving video onto a dancer. This was perfectly achievable - just that none of us dance…

Extreme mood lighting
We don’t have any lighting gear, which is why we never used this idea. Basicially we wanted the lighting for a Good Friday service to start white and gradually get a deeper and deeper red towards the end. The service would finih in near dark-room conditions.

The heavenly corridor
Used as a transition between the cafe room and the church. The corridor would be lined in white material and have piped choral or transcedent ambient music that got louder the nearer the church you got. The church would be silent.

Actually, this idea did evolve and we built a ‘corridor’ out of sheets in the church itself that led up to the sanctuary area.

Naked communion
only kidding.

Outside projections
Projecting an image/video or even a live feed of the service onto the building across the road when host was in progress. Only reason we didn’t do this was that we didn’t have a bright enough projector.

Blank service
A service that began with an empty room and a pile of stuff. The worship is created there and then. Not that different an approach to how we create worship anyway, but we do it over a longer amount of time. We’ve just never had the nerve to do it from scratch on one evening - what if we didn’t come up with anything?

Blood splash
Expressing the pain of the crucifixion with a huge splash of red paint thrown across the white altar and projection sheets. It just felt too staged to actually do.

Too many candles
What would it look like (and what kind of response would it invoke) to fill the church with loads of candles - thousands of them, cover the floor, surfaces, everywhere…?
We were worried about the safety implications and so didn’t try it.

The evolving cross
To replace the wooden cross at the front of the church with a piece of art that changed every month. Some ideas:
a cross made from… rough railway sleepers; coke cans; bricks; projected image; welded rough metal; speakers (playing heavenly sounds); a real person; CDs; newspaper; televisions showing news images; baked from bread; drawn by children; grass; soil encased in a cross-shaped case; tarmac; car parts; cut out of the curtains behind the altar; speakers positioned at each point of the cross projecting noise in the ’shape’ of a cross; painted from blood; computer disks; a computer screen with a cross on; lightbulbs; lightbulbs illuminated; fishing line; foil; objects brought by the congregation; lots of little crosses; palm crosses (contsructed in a palm sunday service); christmas cards; torn material blowing in the breeze… you get the idea.

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