Friday, June 19, 2009

Shoestring Stage Design - Part 6

6. We’re a church not a night club.

I’m gonna be frank here...the Holy Bible (and by holy I mean the KJV of course...or any other version) doesn’t say a word about stage design, lighting, audio being to loud or church having a certain look. It is something that the bible doesn’t touch, nor would it have a reason to because the church wasn’t confined to a physical building while the scriptures were being written. The confines to a traditional building wasn’t created until a few hundred years later. Today the stigma comes from a time when the piano and organ were the only things allowed on the stage. You lit the room so that people could see the Bible, the equally as important hymnal and the pastors face. Audio reinforcement was only for the pastors voice if you were lucky enough to have it and media itself was non-existent. Unfortunately that is all wrapped in tradition. Some churches are so steeped in tradition that they condemn you for putting on an appearance of “the world” in using lighting, and media in your services.

Paul is a huge influencer of the modern church, he wrote a large chunk of the New Testament and most of his thoughts that were injected into the body of Christ, were radical. The immediate church, the Jews, thought that only they were the body of Christ. Then it opened up to the gentiles. Paul began to bridge that gap, but preaching the Gospel to the gentiles opened up a whole new can of problems. (1 Corinthians) The gentiles had so many gods that they followed that they were just adding one more into the mix (sound familiar to today?). So Paul had to find ways to preach relevant unwatered down gospel to the gentiles in ways that they could comprehend. Does this relate directly with stage design? No, but it does come with the term “relevant”.

Most churches are not relevant because church is supposed to be “church” and not a night club. The stage is a place to preach from not a theatre platform. I’m not necessarily sure I see the difference between a performance of Le Miserable and a reading from Proverbs. Both are supposed to engage and evoke emotion. Both are supposed to have a meaning and a purpose to the audience and both are supposed to leave you walking away saying WOW. In fact, the Bible should always leave you walking away saying WOW and if it’s not then maybe you need to re-evaluate some things.

Isaiah 43:18-19 “18 Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

This stigma of the church tradition is something we are cautioned about repeatedly in the Bible, the Bible that so many try and use to support legalism at its finest. A pastor friend of mine once said something to this effect:


“We need to be grateful to and acknowledge the accomplishments of the church in the past, and move on to do greater things in the church.” - Jason Mahr


I talked about the MTV generation in a past entry. The church has got to be able to be culturally relevant enough to reach the kids who are consistently bombarded with an anti-biblical message. Sorry but the Bible as it’s presented by door to door evangelism and tiny tracts printed on fake 1,000 dollar bills doesn’t grab people any more. They had their time and place, and the church would not be where it is today without that.

I worked in a restaurant where this type of evangelism was used by Christians. I would see a tract laying on a table with the tip (or in many cases they would leave it AS the tip, shame on them). Instead of watching a fellow server pick it up and immediately laugh and make fun of God, I picked it up and threw it away. I’m not ashamed of my Christ, but I am ashamed of people who think that it’s about a piece of paper asking “ARE YOU GOING TO HELL??”. People I worked with knew I was a Christian and respected my relationship with God and even asked questions, but it’s because of how I lived, and my relationships I built with them. Church has to be on a much more personal level. Cultivation of relationships and discipleship need to take place in order for people to grow deep, but you have to grab them initially. A dead stage with limited presence isn’t going to draw anyone in. You need to be able to create that sense of intimacy, energy and captivation in order for people to pay attention. You don’t need strobes to be culturally relevant but you might want to open yourself up for a bit of color and design.

This swings the other direction and one can do way to much to go the other way and make it seem like church is a party and end up distracting from the gospel or worse, not preaching the gospel at all. There are many churches across America who in effort to become culturally relevant have swept the gospel under the rug in exchange for some flowery words that make them feel better about themselves and their sin nature. So there is a balance that you have to keep in order to be true to Christ as well.

So this is a major part of the creative process as well. You need to evaluate your design and your process to make sure that it isn’t detracting from the gospel or the presentation. There is also the element of making sure that you’re being relevant and adding depth to what is going on.


Sunday, June 14, 2009

Shoestring Stage Design - Part 5

5. I need inspiration, HELP! -
Experiment, fall on your face, don’t be afraid.

Every body is uniquely gifted in some form of creative aspect. Whether you’re the analytical creative who is able to code his brains out to some significantly controlled creative beauty or you’re the type of person who is happier with a paint brush or piece of charcoal in hand doing you’re darndest to create the next big piece of artwork. But no one gets any kind of creative product unless they try at something and fail a few times. Edison definitely didn’t create the light bulb on his first try. Bell had to have a few attempts at the telegraph and phone. I can almost bet that the Sistine chapel has a couple spots with cover up paint from one goof or another.
"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Design is knowing which ones to keep"
Scott Adams
The point is even if your ideas are crazy or wacked out, or you don’t know how you’re going to accomplish them, go for it anyway. I can guarantee if you don’t know how you’re going to get it accomplished someone around you can figure it out. Or if you give them a round about plot of how to get it done, they’ll improve on it. The first thought I have for your inspiration is to surround your self with other people who can do things. Other creative people to help inspire your process, other analytical creatives who can help streamline and shore up some of your inconsistencies in your process. These can be your most immediate and useful sources of inspiration.

Secondly start surrounding yourself with other creatives in your field and closely related through networking sites. You’ve got twitter.com with a slew of techies and creatives and media pastors and the like that will help bolster your creative quiver. You will be amazed what insight and ideas you can come up with through reading some other creatives blogs or pictures that get posted of other worship services and or concerts that people are putting together. Sure you might not be able to recreate it exactly but you can pull elements and ideas from it. Go blog diving, most people who are creatives have their blog site in their twitter profile, and in their blogs exist a plethora of other creative blog links.

Gather resources that aren’t necessarily in your field. I personally love to browse through graphic design magazines. These magazines aren’t related to stage design but they get my creative juices flowing, and usually remove that creative block that comes up when im in a crunch. Surround your office with stuff that inspires you, pictures, colors, action figures etc. Most creatives do this in one aspect or another. Another resource kind of related is then industry magazines, http://www.tfwm.com/, http://www.churchproduction.com, http://www.worshipfacilities.com/.

Take breaks. Go outside for a bit, nature is one of God’s most creative masterpieces and if there is one thing that can always initiate inspiration is going outside for a bit and looking at the natural architecture God put out there. The colors that flow so naturally together. The textures, the shadows the gentle chaos that exists. It truly is an awe inspiring masterpiece.

Here are a list of some blogs and creative websites that I enjoy using to get ideas from.
http://www.churchtecharts.org/, http://anthonycoppedge.com/problog/, http://visualworshiper.com/blog/, http://worshipvj.com/, http://www.gregatkinson.com/, http://christavalare.com/, http://productionmusings.com/, http://www.collidemagazine.com/, http://www.elementlabs.com/ProjectsPage.html,


Saturday, June 13, 2009

Honest

I'm sitting here in this youth camp just taking in the worship services this week and honestly just soaking it in. Yeah I'm not paying attention to the speaker because I wanted to type this out as it was fresh on my mind.

Worship is a lifestyle I've talked about it before. Worship, the music, the lyrics is an expression of worship but it is also a message. We can sing and speak the words and have no idea what were talking about.

Two songs that have stuck me are Mighty To Save and You Are Sovereign Here. The first the title says it all. Christ came to this earth to save the unrighteous into righteousness. 1 Peter 3:18. Unrighteous there is no one righteous. There is someone on your mind right now that you think it is impossible for them to be saved. The person I think of is my brother. He wants nothing to do with God. He could care less. He is unrighteous. BUT God is mighty to save. He came down to save him and he can and will do it regardless the state of his unrighteousness. I was blown away. Somewhere along the line I put him out of the realm of possibility of the reach of God's grace and righteousness, that same grace that is extended to me and I definitely don't deserve it.

Secondly is the song you are sovereign here. Stephen Miller wrote it and it's lyrics are amazing truth. In the midst of unrest and in the midst of your world falling apart he is in control. At the same time when. The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing and life is amazing. God is in control. HE is sovereign here.

No life won't go the way you want it. It won't be easy most of the time. The health and wealth message that is given most of the time along side Christianity is total bunk. Sin came in and ruined perfection. So were spinning our wheels most of the time to just make ends meet and stay on track with God. We can not do anything to fix it. Life got broken a long time ago so of course it's going to suck big ones. But in the midst of that HE is sovereign here. He is in control even though it seems like were crashing and burning. How can he allow it? Why would a good God allow such pain sin and death? It's because of the original sin of man. Adam broke off that communication with God and it's been a down hill go since then. God sent Jesus to bridge the gap. Not as a quick fix or a pick me up but as a promise of eternal life with him. So it's gonna be rough until the day He comes back to claim us, but he is sovereign here. He is in control and Mighty To Save.

Sorry if there are misspellings, grammatical errors or wrong word choices. This came from the iPhone.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

30 seconds from now

Sitting in an airport more often than not makes me want to write. What spurred this one was a girl missing her flight by ten minutes and then spriting off in tears. consider it a creative break from my current series.

30 seconds from now

Hey girl I see the pain in your eyes
The way you try to hide
But you can't hide it any more
It's about to all spill out.

If you think no one notices
If you think no one cares
I do
If you think it's all over
If you think you can't pull through
I do

The world is over thirty seconds from now
Tomorrow is they day that will never come
Just one more breath and it will be ok

Hey man you think no one sees you cry
That you don't wanna fight
You don't know what's in store
And you want to her

If you think there's no answer
If you think it can't be real
I do
If you think it's going to end
If you think no lights comin' through
I do

The world is over thirty seconds from now
Tomorrow is the day that will never come
Just one more breath and everything will be ok

Put aside the tears and grab out to something bigger than yourself
Hope in something more than the fear in your heart
Because I do

The world is over in thirty seconds from now
Tomorrow is the day that will never come
Just one more breath and everything will be ok


Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Shoestring Stage Design - Part 4

4. Where do I find materials???

Your local hardware store. No seriously. Lowes or Home Depot are a great resource for throwing something together for your stage at a decent price, especially if you have someone in your church who’s handy with a hammer and saw. More than likely you have someone in your volunteer team who fits that description, and if you don’t maybe it’s time to start broadcasting that you need a volunteer to fill the shoes. I bet if you offer it you’ll get someone. Put it in the bulletin (a concise but explicit description of what you’re looking for) or on your website.

"Design is in everything we make, but it’s also between those things. It's a mix of craft, science, storytelling, propaganda, and philosophy."
Erik Adigard
Second depending on your need you may find local distributors of products in your area. In Houston I found a warehouse distributor that sells corrugated plastics and other sheet materials of the like. This stuff has no bounds for creative uses. It’s cheap too, $10 for a 4ft x 8ft sheet, and it lights really well (previous entry with the heart is what it is made from). Most of these places have a will call for you to come in and pick up whatever amount of material you need, and they work with tax exempt organizations too. Call around, ask when you find a place on line if they have a local distributor to you

If a local resource is impossible or hard to find there are always the big wig companies. See if you can deal direct though rather than through a re-distributor. Usually going this route will shave a few bucks off of your end cost because you’re cutting out the middle man. Get you’re own personal representative within the company that you deal with directly. Form a relationship with the person during your phone calls for orders (a working relationship people). Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. I don’t know how many times people get on the phone and just take face cost. Most of these companies can fudge a little bit in your favor. Don’t be afraid to ask “what can you do for me here” or “what options do you have that could cut the cost down”. Unfortunately the phrase “in today’s economy” works in your favor a lot of times because these companies are just eager to have business, especially if you’re project is a little on the larger side (yes price negotiation is possible almost anywhere, you don’t know until you try).

Are you looking for lighting gear? this is a good time to start shopping around. Don’t go to a place necessarily because it’s local. Some of these places especially for tech needs like lighting, or simple consumables like gaff price gouge you. Same deal goes for sound gear, or any other gear or consumables. When you’re looking for materials such as plastics or wood, look at it’s reuse possibilities.

Don’t throw scraps away unless there is no possible use for them. Buy in bulk if you can help it and see a use for the left overs in the future. Bulk usually gets you a hefty discount in most arenas. Your church budgeting council (whether its one person or a whole team) will thank you later even though the bill might be a little more daunting to hand them. Also with most companies you can create terms with them for payment, kind of a credit with the company. This ensures you get your product quickly and they bill you for it later. It makes for ease of future purchases, and potentially can help with costs later down the line assuming you pay on time according to your payment terms.

Finally, look around your church. Someone is usually a pac-rat there are always scraps of this or that, in the youth building i found scraps of corrugated metal that I used to face that platform and podium pictured above. That helped tie it into our stage well. There is usually scrap wood, material and various odds and ends that can be used to piece together some creative stage stuff. A little gaff tape or solder and viola....a unique work of art you can be proud of. 




Shoestring Stage Design - Part 3

LIGHTS, action, camo.

You can do a lot of things on your stage to give it some presence but if you don’t have it lit right or well you can ruin the look. Light has multiple functions, first is to give light on the subject so that the audience can see what is going on. This is incredibly important if you’re doing IMAG (image magnification). You want your subject to be well lit, no shadows or hot spots, and you want them to pop off of the background, especially if you’re against a black or dark colored backdrop.

The next, and most important responsibility of light is to paint the canvas of the stage with color. Color evokes emotion and so you must pay particular attention to how you color your stage. Here is a link to a site discussing color and emotion please forgive the post modern spiritualism crap weaved in. I don’t want to get into art 101 here, and im pretty sure you can google what emotions are evoked with each different color, and what colors go together with other colors. Also, match your backgrounds. Either choose a complimentary of lighting with your slides/lyrics used in worship or a matching color. You don’t want to end up with a puce on stage (a visual equivalent to the color of puke...). You can cover your stage with objects meant to be lit but until you add those strokes of color your stage doesn’t really become engaging or active to the worshiper.

Creating action in your lighting doesn’t necessarily mean using moving lights or chases programmed to timing of the music. While you can create motion using these effects you can create motion on your stage using static lighting. What I mean is highlighting the action points on your stage. Use solo lights. Use back lighting to create shadows. If you’re not using IMAG you have potential to do some very cool lighting effects during worship by back lighting your entire band and dropping out the front light. These silhouettes can create some amazing action on your stage and you didn’t even spend any extra money to get it. Just a few dimmer channels. 



The reason I said camo in the title is that camo has depth. In order to create a great stage look you need to create that depth look with your lighting. No one wants to be bored or disinterested with what they’re looking at and most artwork that is extremely flat is not any fun to look at. It doesn’t evoke anything and does not engage. I’m not saying you need to have 500 colors on your stage, but having multiple colors and depth of shapes helps create shading and dimension. Speaking of camo, have depth to what you light. Layer fabric and texture for a unique look. I found a roll of shrink wrap backstage the other day and the thought occurred to me, why not hang that, pull and stick it together and then light that for a multi dimensional stage look. It’s all about lighting, texture and using what is available. If you want to use literal camo, do that too. go to an army supply store and buy up some of the tent camo to light (the white stuff preferably, or paint the green/tan stuff white). 


Lighting can add a lot to your stage design with out adding any or little cost but is definitely something you need to go into with planning and purpose. Things can of course be done on the fly as you’re putting it together. Most of my genius inspiration comes on the fly ;-). But a game plan works wonders in saving time while you’re setting stuff up.

...still to come
  • Where do I find materials???
  • I need inspiration, HELP!
  • We’re a church not a night club.


Thursday, May 28, 2009

Shoestring Stage Design - Part 2

2. Projection is your friend.

Something that is coming up into church production is projection. If you’ve got the equipment to do some cool projection in your environments you have an inexpensive way to add some engaging worship elements. Of course the cost here is time in producing unique elements but you’re able to taylor each piece custom to your need. There is a whole new market of creatives that have begun to open themselves up to the church world. Worship VJ, video jockey - yes this is a throw back term to radio days...a disk jockey. This person is one who creates visual worship environments using projection in a space.

"The visual image is a kind of tripwire for the emotions."
Diane Ackerman

One growing form of this is environmental projection. Taking projectors outside of the confines of the screen and projecting on walls, sides of buildings, on people, across platforms, etc. A couple of people who are doing this well are Cameron Ware check out his blog on visual worship at http://visualworshiper.com/blog/ or Greg Dolezal & Stephen Proctor over at http://worshipvj.com

VJ (short for) :: Video Jockey (meaning) :: One who creatively captures and effectively communicates a specific message using a wide range still and moving imagery.


If you’re worried about creating a variation of staging elements, cost of materials or lack of creativity on the stage, but you’re knocking it out of the park on the video elements why not consider taking your strong point fully into the room. Imagery can help engage and enhance worship, and it is also a good idea to have the input of your worship leader/pastor. You don’t want to do something that detracts from the spirit of the song or moment. At the same time you may run into some pastors who are either not entirely creative or what you are trying to accomplish goes over their heads. In that case take care not to offend, but also take care to mold and shape their suggestions into something they can own during the set. I have found myself sitting during many worship sets across quite a few different churches where I scratch my head at the background selection. I don’t think that was the intended reception for it, but that is certainly what came across.

This is something you can chance regularly without much effort or expense so get creative with how you project and what you’re projecting. http://www.renewedvision.com/ has a couple pieces of worship software for the mac that has many different applications for the worship environment including a way to split images across multiple screens. I am by far no expert in this area, but am continuing to explore new ways to engage the worshipers in new ways.

"Designers can create normalcy out of chaos; they can clearly communicate ideas through the organizing and manipulating of words and pictures."
Jeffery Veen
to come...
  • LIGHTS, action, camo.
  • Where do I find materials???
  • I need inspiration, HELP!
  • We’re a church not a night club.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Shoestring Stage Design - Part 1

-designing creative worship environments on a tight budget

I work for a youth ministry doing technical production and don’t always get the largest budget with which to be creative. I have to justify for every penny I spend because sometimes, the ideas I have are a little more harebrained than one might normally come up with. The designs have to be more engaging than it would be for an older demographic because kids are bombarded with incredulous stage designs and production values. You can’t one up music videos, MTV or VH1 music award shows, Miss America pageants, Good Morning America or American Idol. Thankfully you don’t have to. No one expects anything from the church which is a good thing...and an incredibly sad one. So the only limitations you have are set by yourself and whoever governs your stage design. Once you set a certain level of design you’re going to have to keep it up in one way or another.

The best way I can tell you to keep up your level of design, is surround yourself with creative people, resources, and when you buy materials buy multipurpose. Design stuff with a future use in mind because one day instead of going out to buy a gaggle of one thing or another you’ll already have something you can either use in lieu of, or along the same lines of what you’re initially thinking. Also if it’s a disposable material...try and get as many uses out of it as possible. Either incorporate it into your next design to keep costs down, or use it soon after. These are some ways to keep an air of consistency throughout your designs.

In these next couple of blogs I’ll talk about my design process and how to create some cool stuff with what you have and a little help from home depot.

  1. Substance abuse or looking good?
The age old question, form (looking good) over function, or do you design for the series topic (the substance)? This is the first thing that I start throwing against the wall like cooked spaghetti and if it sticks I go with it. This is all dependent on what you’re asked for. Sometimes you can come up with some incredibly creative elements that fit your theme, and other times you can’t touch it with a ten foot pole. If you’ve got a series on relationships, there is a plethora of material you could use that would be either inexpensive, edgy or laying around your house that you could use to knock it home visually to your audience. If you’re allowed, a bed in the center of your stage could give a bit of the forbidden allure to the topic at hand. I’m pretty sure everybody has a spare bed somewhere in the church that you could manage to wrangle up there. One church in Ohio built a large heart-shaped bed in the center of their stage. Whimsical, edgy and communicative. What I decided to do was create four foot 3D hearts out of corrugated plastic, some lumber and our existing LED lighting fixtures which gave me any amount of color options I wanted on stage. A 4ft x 8ft sheet of this plastic was $10, it took two per heart and I created two. Lumber add another $25. So i created unique staging elements with a theme for around $70.

I’ve been amazed at how often those outside the discipline of design assume that what designers do is decoration. Good design is problem solving.

Jeffrey Veen



Not everything has to be with a theme though. Sometimes your creative layout can be with the way you stage your band, use your existing lighting, and maybe a few other pieces just to create a nice visual look. Ikea paper lanterns and bulb strands are an incredibly cheap, reusable and warm creative resource to give a homey, ‘cool’ look to your stage. You can vary your look too with different sized paper lanterns, and what I found is if you’ve got LED par cans just use the frame holder in the can, slip the paper lantern ring into it and viola you have a color changing paper lantern you can hang anywhere on your stage. I used these to create a homey ambience on the stage, but not necessarily adhering to a particular themed look.

Sit down with your team and decide if there is a particular creative element that will drive your series. It may be something small to accent your entire design that will make people stop and go wow. Sometimes even your theme or series can be lacking in the creative flow. This is a good time for you to make magic happen. Boost the creativity of the group by coming up with some crazy awesome stuff looks wise. Sure the theme may be lacking in creativity but that doesn’t mean you have to. 


to come...
  • Projection is your friend.
  • LIGHTS, action, camo.
  • Where do I find materials???
  • I need inspiration, HELP!
  • My name is what?



Tuesday, May 19, 2009

you fail, I fail, we all fail. hooray.

Alright I suppose that is a little depressing.

But it is entirely true. I sit around the youth office and we have discussions about Christian media and how much it makes Jesus cringe. So I'll just go down the list of what makes Jesus cry.

Christian Media
Christian Music
The Church
The World
You
I


sooo everything?

Most of this is the ME factor.

We are selfish and cannot see beyond our own goals, dreams or accomplishments.
Isaiah 2:22 Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?
This is not a natural phenomena, nor is it a recent one.
This thing called, sin (what is sin? sin is anything that is not a part of, or perfect or righteous in God) it came in and separated man from God, it put us on the outside looking in so to speak. It introduced a selfish agenda into our nature instead of a God centered agenda.
It's not recent either. Go back in time and you find examples of biblical proportions of selfish ambition and vain conceit (Philipplians 2:3). Moses, out of selfishness beat the rock to get water out of it when he was told to just speak of it. Adam and Eve wanted to be "like god" and ate the fruit.

To dig down under the surface we see most of these huge moral failings happen when man begins to rely upon either another human or themselves for strength and understanding. It happens to everyone in some way, shape or form (1 Corinthians 10:13). There are also right and wrong ways to deal with it.

The sooner we start realizing that everyone is at fault and begin relying on God and not man the sooner we can rectify the situation and begin NOT grieving God in all of the trivial things. I'm not there yet either. I grieve God daily.
Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Religion put Jesus on the cross.

It's getting close to easter.

Lately more than normal my mind has been going to the Cross. The story of a man, born to die an untimely and brutal death is a compelling one. I was reading a bit in Erwin McManus' book Soul Cravings about the love that Christ has for us. I put that book down a little over a year ago and today I found it sitting in the floorboards of my car and decided to read a bit of it. The book is disjointed, and I remembered why I put it down in the first place, but it took me back to the cross.

Speaking of Christ's compassion, his love for us and the reason he had to come down as a human and die in order to save us, is because there wasn't any one else he could send to do it. An angel could not be that sacrifice, the bulls, rams and birds? they were only temporary. Christ came to put an end to the separation between man and God once and for all.

Now what does this have to do with Religion putting Jesus on the Cross.
I take it to heart when I hear things come from super conservatives. I grew up super conservative and I've seen how it destroys lives. How the legalism and stumbling blocks (which we are told NOT to be) that are set up in Christ's name sake has driven people from the cross instead of to it. I'm not going to take a blog to point fingers. As reminded by Chris we are to speak the truth in love, and it would not be love to sit and bash.

This whole concept of legalism and super conservatism reminds me of the Jews and their failure to see Christ as the answer to scripture. They were so stuck in their scrolls that they could not see the deity of God emanating from this man. God was to come back with a strong hand to rule the world they thought. He was going to come and rid them of the Romans. So when Jesus showed up on the scene in his pure white robe, blue sash, conditioned flowing hair and well groomed beard...oh wait. I'm pretty sure he wasn't your grandma's picture. Are you kidding? The Christ was a man. He got dirty, he smelled, he probably looked bad. He couldn't be the king. In fact most of the religious idiots in those days said Jesus was possessed by a demon.

It didn't take long for those idiots to stir up a hornets nest. The Romans could care less about Jesus, that is until the religous pius pitched a fit and refused to be moved until they were appeased. This religion, which was because of God's love, was rejected, turned into a self loving system, and turned against the very one who initiated it. This religion, it put Jesus on the cross.

I am sad to say that today...my religion also put's Jesus on the cross.

Romans 7:21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.


Many of what religion, or church sets up as "right" or "righteous" today begins with good in mind. Evil lies close at hand. It is that evil, that sin nature, that has put Christ on the cross.

Each sin is what put Christ on that cross. My religion, it put Christ on that cross. My sin, it put Him there. Those lead astray or kept behind because of their religion, that is what has put Christ on the cross. Sin across time was heaped upon Jesus at this one moment in order to completely forgive you once and for all. His love kept Him on that cross.

Thankfully it did not end there.

Christ entered the grave, defeated death and rose to give us new life. From this point we are not enslaved to sin. We have an option to get out. Our sin nature is still in full effect fighting us at every turn, but we've got an option. We can walk away because our sin, it was already dealt with.

So stop worrying about the spec in your brothers eye. I've got a log in mine I'm trying to pull out. I'll worry about that for now thanks. Maybe you ought to try and get rid of yours too.



Wednesday, March 25, 2009

You know what they say about assuming.

Assumption - 2. The act of taking for granted, or supposing a thing without proof; supposition; unwarrantable claim.

Inference - The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

I'm going to make some general assumptions and or inferences, and these may be offensive or racist but they are assumptions most people make.

Asians are incredibly smart.
White people are rednecks and are prone to alcoholism (and psychotic break downs)
Black people are ghetto.
Indians either have dots or feathers.
Hispanics like tacos.
People from the south talk with a drawl and say y'all.
People from the north talk fast.
If you live in New York you're probably Jewish.
If you live on the west coast you're either a hippy or you're gay.
If you live in Florida more than likely you're a retiree.
European's do not necessarily have good hygiene.
If you're a teenager you're either sexually active or on drugs.
American's are pretentious.
Famous people are crazy.
Religious people are crazy.
America is a Christian Nation.

Don't worry I'm getting somewhere with this.

I was on the elliptical last night at the gym and saw several TV shows on that were crime scene shows. The first assumption/inference that I made was that Crime Scene shows are popular. Think about how many there are, and I'm not even going to google this I'm just going to name them off the top of my head. CSI, CSI New York, CSI Miami, Law and Order, Law and Order:SVU, Law and Order: CI, Bones, Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer (yes this is a crime show), NCIS. Ok I think you get the point, there are more. Americans are obsessed with crime shows. Or are we?

I began to seriously think about this and made another assumption/inference. If we're obsessed with crime shows we must be obsessed with finding answers. If we're obsessed with finding answers then we must be asking questions. Then it hit me. The reason we watch TV is because these shows are asking the same questions we're asking. That is why they're so successful.

TV shows dont' tell stories as much as they ask questions that are in tune with the general population.

What happens to people when they die? Is there retribution? How can we know we're doing the right thing? If there is a God why are all of these bad things happening?

Getting out of the crime shows you begin to look at other popular shows.
Lost - poignently asks the question is there life after death?
Heros - asks whether there is more meaning to this life than just to live it?
24 - asks whether or not there is an absolute moral system?
American Idol - asks if there is more to this life.
The Bachelor/ette - asks if there is someone out there who can fufill them.


These questions seem fairly spiritual in nature no?

I'm just going to make an assumption right now but I'm going to assume that we were created to ask these questions.

So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them. - Genesis 1:27

Behold, God is great, and we know Him not! The number of His years is unsearchable. - Job 36:26

That all the earth’s people may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other. - 1 Kings 8:60


We were created by God in God's image, if we are in the image and likeness of God, then it is safe to assume we are created to know him. Unfortunately we don't know him (sin entered the world and cut that off). It is not that we can not know him though, we have the ability to know God, know what He is about, we just have to look for him...or ask questions.

Now how do we apply this?

Everybody's got their ten cents on this one, here is mine.

As a church we're supposed to be available with the answers to these questions. Now the bible doesn't explicitly teach on each of these questions, but it gives us a pair of glasses with which to interperate facts. Take science for instance. No the bible isn't a science text book, but it gives a form and structure with which to interperate science. Otherwise, left up with our own devices we come up with self-centric solutions that make us god. Unfortunately a lot of churches are not equiped in general to offer answers to most questions that are raised in society today. Instead we think we have to go cram our own personal "bible" (interpretations) down people's throat. Jesus told it how it was when people raised questions, but didn't cram it on people who didn't want it. I think that is part of Jesus' attractiveness. Oh and what he did cram the bible down was the actual church...because they weren't getting it right...sound familiar?

Personally I think we need to dive in and start answering the questions we have our selves so that we in turn can answer others like minded questions. Making our faith our own.

Professionally I'm going to turn this more on the Christian productions that happen because of the crap that comes out of 'hollywood' under the guise of Christian media. Right now we produce media (not all but as a whole) that are answers. The media doesn't pose questions so much as force "answers" on people. The truth of God is as foolishness to those who don't beleive so why start with the assumption that they believe, then you are only trying to reach believers. Maybe instead of trying to produce "Christian media choc full of the 12 essential rules, regulations and answers that everyone needs to fufill their lives" we should start producing media that identifies with the deepest questions and yearnings that every person has.

Why do you think Touched By an Angel ever made it through and lasted. It dealt with the question of Life after Death. Yeah it was cheesey, was not necesarily a protestant view either (Neither was the Passion of the Christ and yet Christians claim that one as a banner). The Passion of the Christ didn't deal directly and identifiably with the diety and authority of Christ. It just showed the brutality of the Roman's toward a man (he died, it showed his humanity, the imagry around the satan and hell was honestly a big vague, and i appologize if it did deal directly but from what stuck with me was more the brutality from that movie, not Christ's diety). Christians understood it to be the reason behind our salvation, but an unsaved person could see it as just another gory history lesson, but it lead to questions. I think that is why it was so effective.

It allowed an open door for questions.
What are you doing in your ministry to allow for questions and dialogue with the community?

Let's get away from the assumption/inference that this is a Christian nation and that everyone knows at least informally about Christ or 'religion'. That was true in 1950. That is not so much true any more. Walk down the street, ask someone who God is....there are hundreds of definitions you will get and most won't be the God of the Bible. Who was Jesus? You're going to get a few odd looks on that one.

Instead let's assume that everyone has questions (and that is a VERY safe assumption).

What are you going to do about it?

Friday, March 20, 2009

what I'm listening to these days.

Ok,
This is a pointless blog where I tell you about music I've bought lately. Why? Because I can and because I want to. Descriptions will be brief.


Mayday Parade (self titled) - Suggested by Heather
Great CD. Catchy, poppy, fun to listen to.



The Fray (self titled)
Similar to their last album, although their cd layout is different, goes from fast to slow, but the fast isn't all that fast and the slow is down right melancholy. By the end of the cd you're left on a downer and wonder where your razor blades are...no but serioiusly. It's good, but not as good as the last.

http://image-7.verycd.com/491cd7e139e2c602c5819033f87e9c9c34246/cover.jpgThe Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Lonely Road
This is a guilty pleasure CD, I loved the last and I like this one. I'm a sucker for that pop punk sound (insert missing Blink comment here and glad they're "back together")

http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/39/s_9b25b98ab2344b09a145ac215ead6969.pngJake Holman -I'm EP
I'm biased towards this guy, but that's because I know him personally. He's got a great voice, and huge musical talent.

http://above-thefold.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/tornado-cover-500.jpgCloud Cult - Feel Good Ghosts
This is one of those odd epic trippy albums, some great instrumental parts. The vocals are unique. Not bad though, just unique.

http://www.milanoweb.com/public/raccomandati/images/36/36-05_fasciinatiion--the-faint.jpgThe Faint - Fasciinatiion
A good electronic album if I ever heard one. Just something to groove and get you going. It definitely moves you creatively .

http://api.ning.com/files/-0qMisg7eBPK0nBNjgDXFymCQ9ifkPo-ohd8YHsFXW87M14UlBkRoF0OlTBTWqr*SG5AaPPQdgYfa4lVy9JV6IfIBjZPrKGB/TheTingTingsWeStartedNothing.jpgThe Ting Tings - We Started Nothing
Yeah this purchase was influenced by the Apple Ipod Shuffle commercial...and I don't care I'm happy with this purchase. Once again a great up tempo electronic quirky album. I dont care for all of the songs, but I did find my self singing along with most of them...yeah

http://joseangel12.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/jimmyn_compa_r4b1.jpgJimmy Needham - Not Without Love
This guy is the Christian Gavin DeGraw/John Mayer. His lyrics are cleaver and he's easy to listen too. Not a rock out CD, or a worship CD but its great music, and it's pretty deep too.

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0002HSDK0.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpgAmusement Parks On Fire (self-titled)
Great chill rock music to take with you on a long drive.

http://www.twowordheap.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/mutemath-spotlight-ep.jpgMute Math - Spotlight (EP)
I kept telling myself I would not buy this because I was not impressed with one of their live late night preformances. I like it...oh well. so much for that idea. Thankfully this EP doesn't sound like they've sold out, I don't know what their live stuff is like now though.

Some other random crap i picked up was Pinball by Akira Kiteshil, a great little electronica ambeint piece. and Pop Ambient 2009 (Varioius Artist CD) makes for some great background music as you're working.

So there you have it folks, that is what I'm listening too.

Straight from the AudioJunky

Monday, March 16, 2009

this one may be low on my top ten

But this past Sunday night I had another worship experience that makes it on my top ten most awkward moments in a church.

I went to The Woodlands Church where Jimmy Needham usually leads worship. This was spring break weekend...Jimmy Needham was not there.

Instead there was this band. I will say this much, they were all talented musicians. Now moving beyond that they looked like a lumberjack, a hot chick, someone from a hardcore band and some dude from the chess team merged to form this band. Looks you can get around. There were no familiar worship songs were played, all of their own stuff. The opening lyrics were something like, "Rip open my chest and stand inside, burst open my veins and blood run down". Something odd like that. Almost everyone of the songs went like that.

So then comes the question. If the band was engaged in authentic worship and this verse is true why not worship anyway?


John4. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.


I must say it was distracting, not only because the lyrics were just odd, and it was hard to understand what they were singing when they sang. It was also distracting because it seemed more like a "worship CONCERT" than being lead in worship. Also I would say 98% of that room was confused and weirded out by what was actually going on and then intent of the evening.

I tried to engage in worship, but the atmosphere was truly not conducive.

Worship is not always music either, it's you're lifestyle. You don't walk out of the 'worship service' and stop living/worshiping in spirit and in truth. I believe that verse is talking about the people God is seeking are those 24 hour worshipers. Get some coffee, wake up, and realize your calling. Each is uniquely different and still so much the same because the same spirit binds us all.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

video me

I'm trying this out.

http://12seconds.tv/channel/audiojunky



Friday, March 6, 2009

Watchmen

*PUCH* I've always been better than you, you just don't under stand what I'm doing, that's why I'm the worlds smartest man. *AUUGGGGGGGHHHHH* *kicks and misses* *breathes hard* you're never going to get away with this, the world must know what evils you have been committing under that mask. *LAUGHS* *throws caped guy into the air* If you ever do tell the world...who is going to believe you.


That was the last 20 minutes of The Watchmen. Proof that superhero's/villains dialogue during their fights. If not for that the movie was pretty good. A little drawn out (then again when watching it at 2am anything seems drawn out). Great amounts of violence and gore. For that I was pleased. Seriously some of the sickest fight sequences in a movie of that kind.

Be forewarned, there is plenty of nudity and sex to go around in the movie, so it's not something you want to take the family to go see, or go to on date night.

Over all I would give this movie a 6 or 7 out of 10.

I got more excited for the Harry Potter, Star Trek and Transformer II previews though. Seriously who's with me on those?! JJ Abram's is going to kick but on Star Trek and hopefully revive the series. Yeah I'm a Trekkie nerd. You get geeked over stuff too.

Ok my post is actually over so I'm going to go back to work now.

PS I got my iPhone replaced yesterday because the vibrate/ring button fell off. I still love my phone, and now I have a new one. It's syncing my music and all of my contacts have already been restored. Thank you Apple, or making my phone experience so amazing.


Saturday, February 28, 2009

relationship qualifiers.

Was talking to a friend today about relationships and what we look for in the opposite sex. Here are some qualifiers. (but not necessarily disqualifies).

*copied*
intelligent, funny, sarcastic, is ok with not talking all of the time (just hanging out), cute, walks to her own beat (cookie cutter in her looks and personality is not good)
enjoys movies, traveling(anywhere and everywhere), music, concerts
likes/tolerates sci fi,can handle my eclectic music selections (don't worry I'm not going to force you to listen to hardcore) and can take sarcasm like there is no tomorrow.
oh, love Jesus but that's a given.
and be ok with me making no money working in a church
*/copied*

does that describe the perfect woman? nah.
It's a start.

There are days when it would be nice to have a relationship, and others where I'm glad I don't have to put forth the time or effort.

My perfect woman is out there, waiting for me, for the right time. I'm gonna wait for her.

There have been times where I've found someone I've total compatible with, but because of my inability to be subtle at crucial moments, I have ruined it.

I suck at relationships, and maybe I'm afraid of commitment. It sure as heck ain't about sewing my wild oats and being tied down to one person.

Today relationships take longer because there is more to do beyond family. People have more opportunities to see the world, work interesting places and seek out risky opportunities. If you're held back by a spouse you'll never know the 'what if' and so a lot of people put that part of the equation off for a while longer. I sure wouldn't have ended up in Texas very easily had I been married or in a relationship.



a story from yesterday.

I was walking to Japinero's (sushi) from my car and walked across this loading area. Some ladies in a car whipped it into the space and came inches from hitting me. They did it on purpose to scare the ever loving crap out of me. They waved me over to their window, if we hit you and you messed up your teeth we could have worked on your teeth. These ladies worked in a dental office. I was kind of pissed because...well I'm not sure why, this whole thing was super awkward, its funny now but at the moment it was not. I just kind of gave them a look and said, I've had enough oral surgery to last me a life time I don't want any more.

Then I walked away...someone was being mr. grumpy pants yesterday and that someone was me.


PS Hulu made Boxee.tv stop feeding their stream to their product so now other than spending money on itunes shows my appletv is a brick...thanks hulu for being nonsensical.

Friday, February 20, 2009

in my life be lifted high

I'm sitting here and listening to a worship rehearsal go on and I'm listening to this chorus' lyrics. 

In my life be lifted high
In my world be lifted high
In my love be lifted high

Is God being lifted high in my life right now? 
I would say in some areas yes, but the harsh reality is there are more areas that I would have to answer no to that question. 

It's not that there is something in particular wrong. I haven't taken a nose dive. I haven't run off the road.  I haven't been an unspeakable horrible person. 

More like a low tire. Maybe the crash after a caffeine high. 

Something feels a little lopsided, A little sluggish. 

I think that at this point as I just take a second to step back and evaluate. I am not putting my life in light of who HE is. How great God is. How he provides for me at every turn. How undeserving I truly am of his mercy and grace. 

Last night in Bible study we talked about salvation, about sin entering the world and separating us from God and it began to make me think how unworthy I am of that grace. I am certain that on a day to day basis I do things that grieve the spirit of God. I am a selfish, lustful, prideful, harsh, bigoted creature. The simple fact that I am living is a testament to God's mercy and grace because if it were up to myself I should be struck down where I stand. 

Christ 2,000 years ago took on flesh. Gave up the comfort of being God and subjected himself to pain, hunger, temptation, disappointment, loneliness, and ridicule. He was beaten, spit upon, abused. He had his flesh ripped from his body, beard plucked from his face and hair torn out of his head. He was hung from a cross and had every bone popped out of socket. That was nothing in comparison when every sin that had been committed and would be committed suddenly was placed on Christ, the sacrifice once and for all. Then because God who his all holy, all righteous and all just and cannot be a part of sin turned his back on His Son. 

Jesus died, once and for all as the final sacrifice for mine and your (insert sin here). He was put in the grave but it didn't stop there. He resurrected and ascended to Heaven. Giving us the hope for a future with Christ and also claiming victory over death and the grave that had been introduced by the original sin of Adam. We weren't made for death. We were not made for separation from Christ. Jesus' sacrifice fixed that. There is a simple answer for that hole that everyone longs to fill, and thank goodness it's nothing you or I can do. 

So another question is... Why don't you or I live like we're saved? 

It's one thing to sing 'in my life be lifted high' and it's another thing to live like it. 
It isn't easy. I struggle every day. I know you do too. You will until that day when you are with God and in your glorified body. The people that say once you're a Christian you will never have another problem, temptation or struggle is a liar, and you know where liars go. (just kidding... kind of)

My current prayer:
PS. 51:12 (ESV) Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.


Friday, January 23, 2009

If I was building a new facility I would…

*warning tech blog ahead*
I was asked to write down my thoughts on what a new building a/v wise would look like. It is all subjective to your space and your needs so it's kind of vague in a lot of areas.


If I was building a new facility I would…

Infrastructure:

  • Accessible lighting positions, either by catwalk or motor lift trusses.
  • Enough power potentially run my equipment (mainly lighting) , foreseeable/unforeseeable expansion and have enough power to run outside events with little to no problems.
  • Run lines not only to where I want cameras now, but expansion in the future.
  • Pipe grid over the stage for easy access and multiple hang locations.
  • Stage wise, depending on how modular you want to make things I like the portability and flexibility of using breakout boxes rather than floor boxes so I can just drop my inputs near my audio sources. (Modular power is a huge plus as well)
  • I would make sure that my audio booth is out in the sweet spot of the room so that the mix is as even as possible.
  • Build a couple isolation cabinets somewhere off stage to throw your guitar amps. No need to give antsy old people another complain point and it gives you more head room on your DB range.
  • Inputs to your video system from the stage. DVI, 5pin BNC (any other host of signal inputs you can think of.
  • Plan for people. Dream up of a couple staff members you’d like to see in place to take care of some things, even if they are part time positions. What would the dream look like though? Someone to do lights full time, audio full time, video full time, staging full time?
  • Set up a volunteer infrastructure. Develop a way to plan, schedule and get people involved. The biggest sell to keeping people in church is getting them and keeping them involved and taking ownership of the services. It’s a huge reward watching people get gratification out of what they’re doing. (sometimes you may sacrifice a little bit of quality or consistency, but in the scheme of eternity what is that?) planningcenteronline.com is a great resource to track, schedule and plan worship services.

Equipment:
I’m not going to specify to many brands because a lot of the stuff is totally subjective to your needs and your budget.

  • I love the Digico boards just because of their flexibility in the mix environment and sound. Their effects plug ins aren’t so great though so I would make sure you have a good selection of outboard gear with digital i/o for loss of integrity. I would definitely go digital for the flexibility you gain for having multiple services (helps with different service styles, etc.) The Yamaha M7CL is a good midsized board. . Go with something that is expandable, you want to be able to grow beyond your current needs. Whether you buy something that has more channels than you would ever imagine using or you buy something that can add i/o modules. Also you want something that is going to be easy to train people to use, and practically dummy proof. Shop around, this is a huge needs based product.
  • Buy something with aviom support(or other IEM capable system) Killing your stage volume is a huge must. It will save people’s ears and take care of the mud that you end up with in the FOH.
  • Cabinet wise I would find an audio guy you trust (a lot of A/V guys take churches for a ride) to spec out your room. Some venues are going to sound amazing with a line array, and others are going to sound great with a specific cabinet set up. So again I’m not going to specify a ton in this area, except invest in a professional. Meijer make some killer install sound though, and the more wattage the better. I’d rather have a killer system that I scale back on a regular basis than a system I have to push and worry about frying every Sunday.
  • Lighting console, I like Jands Vista. It’s again a very flexible piece of equipment without a huge learning curve. They have a huge spread of devices to choose from, and its both a mac and pc based platform, so If you want to take work home with you, you can. One thing I would suggest investing in if you’ve got the extra money is a CAD visualizer so when you’re programming offline you can see what you’re doing a little easier.
  • Buy a hazer, CO2 based hazers hang around longer in the air because it chills the solution. Oil based sticks around in the air longer too, although there aren’t many oil based that are considered to safe.
  • Video again is subjective; you definitely want something with big expansion capabilities. You don’t want to get something that is going to limit you in 2 years when you decide you want 3 more cameras in your service. I would also think very hard about the HD/SD issue. I would get a board that is compatible with both (we’re getting ready to install a grass valley kayak). In a church environment especially the HD components are not practical at the moment. HD projectors do not come with enough lumens for the buck to support a bright stage environment versus a SD projector.
  • Renewed Vision’s Pro-presenter software is something I’d seriously recommend to anyone for words/graphics. It’s simple to use, robust for almost any need you would have and wit h it’s modules like the triple head to go system you can get some pretty sweet video effects (triple head to go is an inexpensive way to do a seamless video across a triple projection system).
  • Depending on the ceiling height I would consider using all intelligent lights for my lighting. (minus house lights) Martin makes a nice looking intelligent light with a conventional bulb so you have great lighting for video and have the versatility to throw that light anywhere you need it.
  • Projection the big names are Eiki and Christie, same company, different names. Sanyo is the same too. 16x9 in my opinion is better. People are getting used to seeing that everywhere, and it just looks better. High contrast. High contrast high contrast. There is nothing worse than looking at a washed out image that isn’t actually washed out. (10,000:1? Yes please). DLP is better for cinema projection LCD technology is best for graphic reproduction. So again, venue & purpose come into play here.
  • Cameras are a ballpark that I am not to experienced in so I don’t want to touch to heavy on that. Full cameras are easier to work from a ‘broadcast’ perspective than a handy cam or portable cam. The most expensive part of the camera is the glass. So depending on your venue size make sure you’ve got enough zoom capability in whatever lenses you buy. Cameras that work well in low light are a plus too. That way in worship settings you’ve got more flexibility in how you light and how you shoot.


Take Aways:
  • The biggest take away is expansion. You can always build for your needs now, but then in 4 years when you’ve outgrown your current potential you’re in a pickle again. So go big that way you don’t have to go home.
  • The second is budget. Make the church budget committee realize that the building isn’t the big cost, A/V is. To do it right you need money. Radio Shack does not qualify as decent A/V.
  • Third is time. Take the time to get some professionals you trust in to go over your new space with you and build the best system possible for what you need. (worship style, culture, and current needs vs. future growth)



Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Religious Fashion Shows


This is going to be an interesting blog post, and something that is very open ended. My thoughts are not your thoughts and so forth.

I want to talk a little bit about worship and the 'religious fashion show' that we put on. I heard a comment that modern worship music is shallow and repetitive, and that hymns are where the meat of theology are.

I'm not going to attack hymns out right. I think they do have some great relevance to speak into our lives. I think a lot of time and effort by some great Christians went into writing those lyrics. Now had God given us those hymns in a book and labeled it the bible part 2 and gave explicit instructions that if we were to add or subtract from it in our worship, then we would be lead to use only those for our praise.

As I see it worship music is a stem of our passion for Christ and his instilling of creative ability in his children. Psalm is mainly a book of poems and songs written by David (and a few other writers) as their expression to God. I think that as we sit and reflect on God, who he is and what he has done in our lives that what results is true, authentic worship. For people who are lyrically and musically inclined this authentic worship will sometimes result in music being written. When a worship pastor selects songs to be done in a service, I think there should be a lot of thought put into the selection. Mainly as to how this presents the throne of Christ and how it connects to you personally and to the people you're leading.

There are a lot of subjective issues in worship. For instance, Friend of God does not speak to me in any way shape or form and I have taken an issue with the song. People who know me know that. If I were to get up and lead worship there is no way that I would use this song to lead by because it doesn't speak to me or lead me to the throne of God and result in authentic worship.

To say that one form of music is preferable over another is simply that, a preference. There is no reason to be dogmatic over style. If you are living a life of worship (which is what we are all called to do) then I'm not sure I see a reason to attack one side or the other.

Now to say that modern worship music is repetitive? I would say that is somewhat correct. I would not however say that there is something completely wrong with that. There are not a whole lot of words to tell my God how worthy he is. A lot of times I am left speechless in light of His grace. The repetitive chorus gives you something quick to latch on to, something that you are able to let go of having lyrics on the screen(or in your hand). Something you can own, close your eyes, lift up your voice and just let God in a few simple words how amazing he truly is.

Does every song provide that same type of experience, does each song do that for each and every person? nope.

I don't want to dive into theology. There isn't enough time in the day. If your worship leader is doing his or her job they should be diving into the meat of the song before it hits your ears in the auditorium. If there is something that raises an eyebrow then maybe it should be shelved until you can figure out why there is a question. I don't care if it's catchy, it does need to mean something.

An exercise of sorts: make up your own lyrics if you can't 'get into a song'. Sing them in the instrumental riffs. Tell God what he means to you outside of the song. I'll tell you what, it's hard to find the words.

So on to hymns. I can throw the repetitive arguments at the hymns as well. 18 verses and 18 choruses later of Amazing grace or Just As I Am and I'm about ready to run up on stage and shove the worship leaders head in the piano or pipe organ. I don't care if you know all of the verses and can sing all four parts to the chorus, that gets stale and stagnant. Hymns are also extremely liturgical.

liturgy
1 often capitalized : a Eucharistic rite
2
: a rite or body of rites prescribed for public worship
3
: a customary repertoire of ideas, phrases, or observances

If you get down to the core of liturgy you see repetition, tradition, and...dare i say it, staleness. The hymns have a hard time today because they are almost to wordy. They are also as in the case of a King James translation difficult to understand to people who didn't grow up on them, or don't speak old English. The reason people don't want to get rid of hymns is because of a word in that first sentence, tradition. This is the way we've always done it and this is the way we should continue to do it.

I'm not a fan of that statement at all. Change has been a HUGE catchphrase politically, but it has been at the forefront of the church for centuries. Jesus came on the scene as a catalyst for change, he wanted to do away with the Jewish liturgy. No body liked that to much either. Christ's statement to his disciples was, you're going to do greater things than I have done, now get going. You know what that says to me? KEEP MOVING FORWARD. Today's worship phenomenon is not going to be where it ends, and the hymns are no longer where it is at.

Yes modern worship music connects with me, but I hope that out of the inspiration from others as I grow in my faith, and grow in my age I will continue to connect and adapt as an influx of new worshipers lead music for me and other believers throughout the world.

I don't want to pick something I'm comfortable in. I want to invade the worship of those to come after me, that I may be able to speak life to them as well.

As far as the Religious Fashion Show goes, I was reading in Matthew 22(the Message) the last statement in that chapter was Religious Fashion Show. It's in reference to the religious leaders trying to trip up Jesus at every turn just so they could have something to justifiably mad at him with. It goes without saying I think that we see our own religious fashion show going on in churches today. In more ways than this issue, but we see it here too. I say it's all hymns, and she says it's all modern music. You're the pastor what do you say it is?

There is no kosher answer without throwing one or the other under the bus.

If we're living a true authentic lifestyle of worship then we should want our life to reflect and invade any worship style. It may not necessarily be what we like, but our heart should be able to commune with other believers under any circumstance and worship the creator with one accord.

If you can't get past the issue of music in one church there is always another church somewhere else that might be more to your liking. I would suggest going to that church rather than causing problems at the one you're currently attending. Christ did not command us to cause division but to be united as one body under the Holy Spirit.


Friday, January 16, 2009

Vision



When you think of vision what is the first thing that comes to mind? 

This is something that our staff is digging deep into over the next few weeks at Sugar Creek. Where have you come from, what are you doing and where are you going to go. 

Personally I think vision needs to be incredibly detailed. Christ was explicit with his vision for Israel, he got specific with numbers  of the people (you will be more than the grains of sand). He got specific for the land they were to be given (you will have the land between this river and this river even though its occupied by others). He was specific about time frames, about being captured, about growing, about the messiah coming. 

Once the messiah was on the scene Christ got specific about his church. He gave a vision for who would lead the church, how it should look, how it will grow and how it will end. 

Vision is specific because it gives you a place to go. 

That being said, for all of you who live in the past, the past is important to look back on and reflect on. But you don't live there, you learn from there. The present is good as well. You end up staying in the present and your life will have no momentum. That is why you go toward the future. 

A couple years ago I received a vision for my life and where I should be. I got a vision to work in a church, doing what I love and impacting the church for Christ through tech and media. I'm there. Now that I've reached that part it's time to recast vision for my life. What will it look like 5 years from now? 

I don't think that vision is something that is stagnant and never changing. Sure set goals that are big, but somewhat attainable. Once you reach them wipe your slate clean and start again. Pray, recast the vision for you, your ministry or what not once you reach or come close to your current vision. It could take a couple years or it could take 20 years to get there, but don't stop once you get there. That just means you're growing and being active in your faith. Your faith doesn't ever stop so why should your vision stop, or run out, or die?

In developing a vision, I do think that it should be something that is bigger than yourself. Something that is totally outside the box, outside of your comfort, something that God is going to be able to accomplish, not you. I do not think however that it should be something so outrageous or vague that there is no way it is ever going to happen. 

So I would say that some of the goals for 2009 are part of my vision. I also pray that God gives me a vision bigger than myself, something out of the box and outside of my comfort zone for the future. I'm not sure what that looks like yet, but I'm on the path to try and figure that out. 

This could be more in depth, but I'm also sitting here and lending my ear to Kay Arthur as she speaks so that she doesn't clip or junk like that. Then  after this is done my vision for the day is: I'm going to go get lunch and get a hair cut. The faux hawk is gonna go away. Time for a change. After that I'm going to bust out some prep work for Sunday (and a little for the saturday 'training session') and change out some projector lamps. Then a work out and who knows what happens tonight.


Monday, January 12, 2009

It was presented at the table on Tuesday that we were having a round table discussion on our current series topic for the message on Sunday. The topic was on God, the Bible and other questions you may have about your faith, We're calling it EVIDENCE. One thing about students, and most people in general is that you're going to be sitting in silence for a long time because no one likes to get up and ask the first question, or sound like an idiot. So we needed some kind of anonymity. Kids automatically are drawn to technology like their cell phones. Services that take text and put them on a website for some kind of dissemination is pretty stinking expensive, and more robust than what we needed. Some churches do these types of things all of the time and need a little more consistent support.

If you've got the time, effort and a few volunteers you can get it done for free and offer students, or your congregation a chance to interact with you on stage, and maybe help a few people defend their faith.

Most people have texting capabilities today, if they're not paying for it monthly, they can send a text for $0.10. Set up a free email account, (gmail, yahoo, hotmail) just to name a few. keep the address name as short as the service will let you, 6 characters is the general minimum. This way people will not have to take forever entering it in their phone.

We set up a general email address to use on future occasions, it was short and easy to remember once we took it off the screen. Have your moderator or speaker get up and present it to everyone, phones today can send a text to an email address (in place of a phone number). If it can't then you've probably got an iphone or blackberry and can just email the address.

From there I opened up a group chat window in ichat (everyone on stage had macs) and would list off the questions while the people on stage answering the questions would sort through and let me know what questions they wanted to tackle next. Then my graphics opperator would copy and paste the question from the email into ProPresenter and display the question real time.



In a group of close to two hundred kids we had around 50 serious emails that came in (65+ if you count then ones asking why the guys on stage were so sexy).

While the answers may have been a little long, because this was the first time we've done anything like this, some of it may have gotten lost on the kids. We at least had peaked the attention of students and gotten into their world of text and technology in a relevant way. With the 30 some odd unique questions posed there was no way to answer them all in the hour slot. So now we're going to tackle each question in a series of blogs on the student website, www.lyf.net, also referencing some solid online resources so that the students can better defend their faith in an world that isn't alwas the easiest to stand up in.

If there is an opportunity to have an open discussion like this again a few tweaks to the process may be that one person instead of multiple answer the questions while another person on that staff or team is in the back sorting through and picking the best handfull of questions for the presenter to go through. (I was in the back acting more as a filter instead of a question moderator).

Research the topic you're planning on answering thouroughly, don't go up on stage and expect to know it all. Kids have some incredibly deep theological questions today because of the gap between school and the Bible. They are presented that it's either one or the other, not both, and that the Bible is a fairy tale (so take your guess at which one they end up thinking is better to believe in? It's not the Bible).

You may understand in your heart why you believe those things, but it's a little harder to articulate those issues on the spot.



Friday, January 2, 2009

The Obligatory New Years Post

I'm sitting here on the plane ride back to Houston. So I figured I would pound out a blog entry while my iphone charges (watching a movie eats battery like no other, although I was kinda bored this afternoon and read twitter a lot too, so that might have had something to do with it). It's really dark out right now. I love looking down over the cities and looking at the lights at night. It really puts you in your place. How everything is orchestrated and how everything is put together by God.

2008 in a nutshell(semi-sequencial order):
- Work at Answers in Genesis
- Get entirely to frustrated while working there and want to quit.
- Set a date and when no job came got out regardless.
- Trusted God would put me where he wanted me.
- Worked for two months in a restaurant.
- Interviewed and landed a job placing me in Sugar Land, Texas.
- Saw God move in that he wanted me in Texas.
- Happily worked the past few months at said job.
- Met some great people.

2008 had its ups and downs but I'm happy with the way it turned out. It was rough on a lot of people and I praise God that even though things aren't exactly as planned he is still sovereign and he is still in control.

I left a lot of good friends in Ohio who shaped my life for the good. God put me in the midst of more people who are going to initiate even more life change. I am extremely thankful for that and look forward to working hard this coming year and forming even more relationships with the people I have met, and have yet to meet.

One thing I do wish is that I would have seen my brother stop throwing his life away. He has a beautiful baby girl with his girlfriend, and unfortunately it's almost like they got a new puppy that mom and dad will take care of when the excitement wears off. If you pray, I ask you do so for him.

Something that I want to see in 2009 is that Christ uses me for His glory and significance. I want to grow in him, and I want to force myself out of my comfort zone and do something big. I don't know what that will be. I'm sure God will be all over that one though!

Oh yeah, I want to bungee jump, sky dive and take some trips this year too. Anyone want to give me a few grand to make those happen?