At Okolona Christian Church we used the Gospel Project as our curriculum. For Elementary, we used the skits that were created for the curriculum to help students better understand the lesson and unit. Each unit had a different stage design that went along with the skit. Below are a few examples of the stage designs that I have done.

Over some time our team took a look at programming and saw a need to change our outline so that students were getting the best and most engaging service. We saw, as a team, that the skits were not helping the students connect to the lesson. Gospel Project does an amazing job writing skits that do connect to the lesson, but our students were tuning them out. So instead, we do a stage set for a full quarter or months at a time that is generic and work with our lights instead. You can see some of these generic sets below, as well.

Food Truck 

I projected the image that I wanted onto the chloroplast, traced the image, mixed and matched colors to paint, and then cut the chloroplast with a box cutter. It is propped up by 2x4s under the wheels, with 1x4s coming up the back, then there was a 1×2 added across the truck horizontally to ensure it wouldn’t topple over. The “menu” sign was created by our Graphics and Social Media Director on staff. The pendant flags were sewn by me and used in our volunteer room after this set came down. 

Camp Site

This set was put together with materials that we already had or that volunteers were willing to let us borrow for a couple of weeks. The “Goodbye Sunday” banner is for when our 5th-grade students are promoted out of Children’s Ministry and transition to Middle School Ministry. We have a day where we say goodbye to them, present them with a gift, and pray over them. 

There was a tradition that began before me, where we read Dr. Suess’ Oh the Places You’ll Go. I would read the story and then I had students sign their name and the year into the book. I wanted to have, like a yearbook, a place to look back and see who had come through the ministry. 

Lighting Design

The picture below was a lighting design that was done for a generic set. I have 7 4ft wide, 8ft tall panels that cover my stage. They can be moved to create different layouts on stage. On 3 of the panels is LED strip tape which gave us the ability to have different colors whenever we want. Also when we do the songs for the morning they will switch through colors activated by the sound.

Worship Night

My large group room that we use every Sunday is also a great multi-purpose room that our church uses for smaller adult gatherings. This Worship Night was set up for 250 people and our church was able to experience our wonderful room and the lighting that we have. Behind the musicians were stars placed all around the stage, we were talking through Genesis and the creation story, the flood, and Abraham’s story.

These are not stage designs but instead classroom designs. This is one of 6 classrooms that we had painted, every room is different and every room has its own unique style. This room had the 5 points to our Gospel Presentation. This classroom was designed to be used for our New Believers Class which would walk students through the decisions that had already been made after their baptism. While students were with me in a classroom, their parents were with one of our elders learning how they can answer their child’s questions and teach them how to be the best Christian they can be.