You have to know the backstory on this “Feeling Friendly.”

MTV’s The Real World pretty much started it all; reality TV. Several years later it really hit the mainstream with the breakout show, Survivor. I immediately became (and two this day am) a big fan. It was nearly 11 years ago and I credit the show for one of my favorite Youth Ministry memories as well.

The New Year’s Overnighter and the yearly outreach fall retreat, entitled “The Great Escape,” were the two events in which we’d pull out all the stops programatically. Because the year 2000 was an election year, Jimmy (our Jr. High Pastor) and I decided in the spring the theme “Decision 2000” would be a hoot to build a program around for our fall retreat some 6 months later. Think: campaigns, scandal, delegates, etc. Now fast forward a couple months after we had already announced and promoted the theme, Jimmy and I sat down for our customary brainstorming lunch (nothing like some Azteca spices to get the juices flowing). Well, no “election” juices were flowing. After an hour or so it came to us… the ol’ switcheroo! We spent the greater part of two months pulling off a secret thematic switch.  All of our advertisements, decorations, registration forms and announcements continued to push our “Decision 2000” theme.  But everything behind the scenes was spent discretely creating the most creative program I had been a part of.  There were literally four of five of us that knew about this (not a single student or volunteer leader).

Because the Great Escape had such a great reputation, students, though skeptical of the theme, invited their friends to “Decision 2000.”  We packed the camp out with a record 190 students and nearly 30 adult-leaders.  The anticipation was electric.  Then it started.  The camp chapel decorated in red-white and blue.  The lectern sitting up front as if a political speech was to begin; the Decision 2000 video started. It was filled with slow patriotic music, black and white pictures and a voice-over filled with boring facts about the U.S. Governmental history.  Students literally started fidgeting; our core students began questioning in their minds why they brought their non-believing, church-skeptical friends.  Jimmy and I were receiving the glares; then about two minutes in to the bore-fest the video went static; an announcement came across the screen, “Sorry for the interruption, Decision 2000 has been Cancelled, to bring you the next episode of…”

The Survivor theme song came on with a wonderfully spliced video with our unknowing leaders highlighted in the video (our staff retreat just two weeks prior had initiative games in which we used bandanas; the leaders had no idea we were capturing snap shots and videos to use for this Survivor video).  While students paid close attention to the projection the entire Chapel was transformed in one-minute (we had let our work-crew know thirty minutes prior).  The “election” stage scene became the set for a Survivor Tribal Council.

The weekend was a HUGE success as 16 leaders (supported by their teams of about 11 others) competed for the crown. The advertisements, graphics and video really set the stage and enabled us to pull of the big surprise!  We were not voted off the island!

This memory has made me “Feel Friendly”

Feeling Friendly is a weekend series I started a few weeks ago. Because weekend readership fluctuates so much I thought it’d be fun to get something consistent going on the weekends. It is essentially a plug, advertisement or “Brian approved” product or service! I know that word-of-mouth marketing is the best form of marketing out there; so this is my word to you about some of the folk I have used, will use or really like! To see past “Feeling Friendly” posts, click here.

Jimmy and I were the ones who master-minded the theme, but there was NO WAY we could have pulled off this heist without Peter Beringer.  Peter was our intern at the time.  Peter masterfully did the graphic work and produced all of the videos.  It was seamless!

Since 2000, Peter went on to be a Youth Pastor for a number of years while still dabbling with design work, web site design, photography and video.  A few years ago he launched PeterBDesigns.

I am privileged to have Peter and his family as close friends, but I’m also blessed to have Peter as one of my graphic design guys (I’m also honored to have the graphic design guy from our Publishers at Spire!).

Peter works so well with his clients.  He is gracious in both pricing and time.  I’d HIGHLY suggest you contact Peter if you deal with any of the following (or anything sort of related):

• Cover/Poster Design
• Logos/Icons, etc.
• T-shirt (or other apparel) graphics
• Advertisement Graphic Design and Layout
• Business Cards (or all things letterhead/stationary, etc.)
• Photography

He may even be open to some simple video work as well (ask him, I didn’t seek his permission to say that!  ha!)

Pretty much anything to do with graphic design, vector files, photoshop, etc. he would love to help you with.

Here is a link to some of Peter’s portfolio of work, a number of these items he did for me/youthmark.

In addition, I have added a couple designs you may recognize recently from Youthmark.

Contact Peter and he’ll hook you up with a quote!  Just mention me, because then his quote will be better (again, didn’t ask him for permission to say that!).

Grace,
Brian

Peter developed this logo for Youthmark

and this one for our spring retreat in 2010