"Our mission is to reach and influence the world by building a large Christ-centred, Bible-based church, changing mind-sets and empowering people to lead and impact in every sphere of life."
My family, the Moss' and I travelled to London on April 16th to attend a church service run by Hillsong. It was around 2hrs long and it included singing, dancing and drama. I really enjoyed it and would love to go again next year.
The stage was amazing. It was constantly changed to suit was happening at each point, whether that was the songs, the drama, or the prayers. When we entered the theatre we could see people with instruments standing on different levels, in front of a large screen with the words of the song they were playing so we could also sing along. I enjoyed the fact that they were all spread out and higher than each other because we could then see everyone. For the drama piece they had a large cross wheeled onto the stage, and steps either side both made out of wood. These parts of the staging added to the atmosphere and overall effect of the drama, as it gave you an image of something everyone recognised. When it came to the end of the overall performance the stage was left bare which I thought was very clever because there then wasn't any distractions and everyone listened to the pastor.
The costumes only came up for the drama because for the music at the start they wore shirts and trousers/ whatever they wanted to. However for the drama they had soldiers, disciples, Jesus and the chorus. The disciples, Jesus and the chorus started off with wearing mostly the same thing, black jeans, fur coat and skin coloured tops whereas the soldiers were dressed very differently so you could differentiate who was who. As the play moved on it became very dark and sombre. There was one song where the chorus were dressed in rags and had chains tied to them, they continually dragged them and hit them on the floor. At the end Jesus was also dressed in rags and put on the cross. The costumes overall added to help the audience understand who was who and what was happening.
The vocals were outstanding! The band all blended together and created an amazing sound. I loved the fact that the audience was able to join in giving the audience the feeling of being involved. The drama also involved singing, the songs during this were very powerful and heartfelt. The songs started off being very joyful but as it moved on they became darker and darker some were even scary! All of the music overall was my favourite part of the service.
The lighting suited the stage at different intervals such as during the time the band was onstage it was mostly blue and white lights being used which was different to the drama. They mostly used yellow, red and black lights. The lighting is very important as it helps the audience understand the overall feeling of each section of the performance. The lighting is also important because without it you wouldn't be able to see the actors nor would you be able to understand the setting of the scene.
Overall the service was amazing and very inspirational. I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone! I'm definitely going to go again next year and the year after that, I may even start attending the services that happen monthly. The stage added to the atmosphere of each sections of the service, the costumes were very unique and interesting, and the vocals as I've already said were outstanding!
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