Old to New Testament

Madi Moore from Red Mountain Community Church in Mesa, Arizona brings us this stage decor for the gamut of the Bible.

This stage design had a two-phase reveal process, one coinciding with their church beginning to read through the Old Testament together and the next phase occurring as they began reading through the New.

The initial Old Testament design was inspired by Psalm 119, seeking to convey the great value that Scripture has, especially because it is inspired and illuminated by the Spirit himself. The smaller books along the shelves (about $50 from Goodwill) loosely represent the different books of the Bible. The wood crates were used for height differentiation, but really anything leftover from previous stage designs could be used. ($10 at Michaels, and packs of three of different sizes from Amazon for $55). The large books on the shelves were created from styrofoam sheets purchased from Home Depot and cut with a band saw, following a video called “How to Make A Giant Book” on Youtube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7XzdXcFJZs) The Scripture on the pages of the large books was typed out in a Photoshop document and printed at FedEx as 24” x 36”architectural prints for about $5 each. The other items on the shelves (lanterns, gold dishes, shiny vases) were meant to depict Scripture being a light to our path and of greater value than silver and gold. These were all purchased from Michaels or At Home. The initial fairy lights were a combination of about 16 20ft or 33ft long strands bought from Amazon and cost around $115 in total. They were battery-powered and remote-controlled. The glass cylindrical vases were left over from a previous stage design but were purchased from Michaels.

As their church transitioned to the New Testament in their Bible reading plan together, the stage design took on some new elements. The fairy lights within the clear vases spread from within them and took shape among the shelves and around the larger books as a representation of the Spirit moving about in a more free-flowing, uncontained, and more expansive way in the New Testament in comparison to the Old Testament. Metal tacks from the Dollar Store were used to attach the fairy lights to the wall when needed. The updated design also included artwork on the pages of the Bible. Each image depicted an allusion made to Jesus in the Old Testament that we can now see in full details and focus as New Testament believers. These were drawn on paper, then photographed, put onto an iPad for final shading and color work, and eventually put into Photoshop on top of the Scripture page files to be printed at FedEx as one new document together. While the black and white prints were again about $5, the color prints of the same size were about $35.