Are You At Church Or The Theatre?

The blog site, Church Stage Design Ideas, came on my radar because of my new job.  Someone suggested I follow his blog so I could become familiar with how a good part of our customer base operates.  For reasons I won’t get into, I’m not a regular churchgoer so my first thought was that it was probably going to be a little boring and “churchy”.  Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong!  I was immediately hooked and I’m now a fan.  Following his posts has now become a highlight of my day.  Still, (and this is not meant as an opinion) I wonder, is it church or the theater?

The Man Behind the Madness

The creator of the Church Stage Design Ideas blog and the writer for the related site, Jonathanmalm.com, is a talented young man named Jonathan Malm.  The blog’s direction changes daily and content is driven from the churches who send in photos, brief descriptions of their project, materials used, and construction techniques.

Church Or The Theatre, or Both?

Some days the blog highlights a particular lighting technique used as a backdrop for a service featuring a Christian Rock band.  Other days, it’s a dirt road (yes, with real dirt!) created for a program about the Road to Emmaus, at Pleasant Valley Church in Winona, MN.  Below is a photo from Church Stage Design Ideas, showing the finished project.  If you would like to see the various stages of construction and description of materials used, click on the photo below.

“The Road” – Pleasant Valley Church, Winona, MN

Most often, the designs submitted come from contemporary churches and used in non-traditional services, but occasionally you will see a submission by a traditional church.  I have an interest in live theater, not only watching it, but the processes involved in bringing a production to the stage.  Because of that, this site really peaked and held my interest for a number of reasons:

• I love the use of seemingly everyday materials mixed with professional products
• It proves you don’t need a lot of money to do something well
• Because it’s not long, it’s a fast read and doesn’t appear in my Inbox too often
• To me, the people working on the designs are so passionate it is almost palpable
• In a small way, the site manifests the spirit of Christian giving  in this wonderful collaboration of ideas, as it seems it exists to help others
• As odd as it might sound, I think it’s helping to open the doors of religion to many more people
• The site is neatly organized with – categories and curated lists – Yep, I’m one of those people… To me, that is like manna from Heaven!

So, I’m in deep like with this site and like I said, I look forward to it;  like when I see a Girl Scout selling Thin Mints.

I urge you to visit the site, but I’ll close with some photos of my favorite designs.  Again, to read the post related to the picture, just click on the picture and it will bring you to the post.