MaraMorhouse.com
It started with a pandemic...
Murals
We have a variety of talented people in our congregation. One of my roles at the church is to engage artists in their God-given talents. I commissioned one of these artists to create a mural and was honored to have even helped him paint it!
Devotionals
Our noonday devotional has transformed into a bit of a talk show which includes a professor, an IT consultant and a pastor. We engage a variety of topics from Proverbs to The Miracles of Jesus.
A Digital Funeral
Our church is closed due to COVID-19, but when a member died after a long battle with cancer, we did everything we could to honor her wish of holding her service in our sanctuary. I recorded, produced and published her service.
Prayer
One tradition we started when COVID-19 shut down our church was to publish a prayer every day at 7:00 AM. For one week, we took the prayers LIVE over Facebook. I write 1/3 of the prayers (including this one) and for this week, recruited church members to record themselves reading them. I then produced and published the videos.
Learning Boxes
I am a Board Member for the organization Safe Spaces Lebanon. The chairwoman's daughter wanted to use her senior project to help the refugee children at our center in Saida, Lebanon by creating learning boxes (similar to Maker's Boxes.) I mentored her through the project and we presented it LIVE to the church as a devotional session.
Proverbs
For the month of July 2020, I led the church through a Proverbs study. We'd go live each Wednesday at 12:30 and discuss the Proverbs chapter that lined up with that date. Since Proverbs has 31 chapters, we have read one chapter a day. It has been a lively discussion!
Noonday DEVOS
When isolation-due-to-pandemic began, the church pledged to go LIVE on Facebook every weekday at noon. I called it, "noonday devotional" and managed, coordinated and produced all content. This is our announcement - made just 5 minutes after we decided to launch this programming!
Guided Meditation
Here is a noonday devo where I led viewers through a guided meditation on scripture. More examples of this programming I created can be found at Facebook.com/OLUMC/videos
Rough Days and Rabbis
In the beginning, these noonday devos were super organized. This particular day, I was not. Exhausted, frustrated and dirty, I winged a prayer which ended with the emergency electrician I had just called, joining us. It somehow "performed well" on Facebook. Who said God doesn't have a sense of humor?
Rob the Rabbi
A Navy colleague of mine, Chaplain Rob Friedman, led us in the Mi Shebeirach.
Digital Articles
Our monthly written magazine used to be a joy to create. I started it with the hopes of hi-lighting our church members (and their incredible lives) and handing it out once a week was a hoot. But during COVID, that was not possible. As with most things, the "We Are Oak Lawn" magazine had to evolve, and so my editorial board agreed to switch up the writing, to talking! We produced "digital articles" which were 9 Zoom interviews with church members, or in the case of my interview here, church leaders. I created the strategy, method, branding, images, and produced each article.
Enneagram with Alyssa
I love me some Enneagram and one of our church members happens to be great at teaching it. As such, I interviewed her to provide a summary of the Enneagram numbers so that our online viewers could consider some self-discovery while in isolation.
Tenebrae
Tenebrae is a beautiful tradition and one I enjoy every year during Holy Week. I was determined to carry across, digitally, Jesus' light leaving the world. With some good camera angles and a spoon...I managed to design a Tenebrae service for our church.
Maundy Thursday
When OLUMC's church plant, Gracia Viva, worships with us, we have to translate service. They are a *mostly* spniash speaking congregation. Here's an example of how I was able to design a joint-service in both languages during Holy Week.