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)

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.

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.

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.

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?