#4 Producing Your Own Newcomer's DVD

First of all, I would like to say how thankful I am to Celebrate Recovery at Saddleback Church for all the resources that are available for the promotion of this life changing, church growing ministry that we are involved in. I know for us at White’s Ferry Road Church in West Monroe, LA, the resources made the difference of being overwhelmed with trying to do it all, to on the other hand, using what was available to free us up to work on what was most important, the Newcomer.

The one resource I think of immediately is the CR Newcomer dvd, “Words”. We have used this dvd in our Newcomers 101 since it was released and were thrilled there was something of such high quality that shared about CR in such simplistic detail.

Now as we have grown and more people come in and are ready to serve, we have a responsibility to help people discover where they can serve best. And in doing so, we uncover some very interesting talents.

For us, it was a young man who had been filming for wildlife videos. Our CR TEAM decided we wanted to produce our own Newcomer’s video. So who do you think we got to do the filming? That’s right, Jacob, the wildlife videographer, who happens to be married to our daughter, Callie. Callie bought an inexpensive editing program for our computer and became the editor. So what I’m trying to say here is we kept it low cost and still achieved the results we wanted by producing a video that reflects our CR.

Now Newcomers in our 101 class will recognize the people they just saw in Large group and CR becomes even more on a personal level. Added bonus, it gave all our CR participants the opportunity to be involved in getting the word out by being a part of the dvd.

I have to add here, it’s also a great way to get younger folks involved since most of them are much more savvy on techno matters. Since Jacob & Callie produced the Newcomers video, not only are they working on their own hurts, hang-ups, and habits but they are also reaching out to other young people and getting them involved with CR.

Mac

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

As promised, we are going to show you some great t-shirt ideas. Thanks to Jess Lesick from CT and Lisa Kouns from LA for the photos!

When you think about it, what better way to share about CR than to be a walking billboard. I love when I see other people point at a shirt I'm wearing and say to a friend “Hey look at that!” or asking “What does that mean, God never waste a hurt?” or “what’s Celebrate Recovery?” So coming up with shirts that not only catch people's eye but get them to ask, “ What’s that about?” so you can reply, “Glad you asked!”, is a great way to not only share about CR but also sends a powerful message about who we follow in CR and what Jesus is able to do!

One of my favorite tshirts is from a friend who came up with the following saying when we did our cardboard testimonies. The tshirt says “Satan said I was garbage, God says I recycle garbage!” You can see him in action on the condensed version of our CR Newcomers video at http://www.youtube.com/ entitled, WFR Celebrate Recovery Newcomers video.

So be creative and let me know some ideas you’ve come up with, you never know who’s looking!

Mac