given a purpose to grow.

If you go to google there will be a good debate over what the top ten religions are (size wise) but what there is not a whole lot of debate over is one of the fastest growing religions.

Islam.

While most people will nod to this 'fact', it is also something that will make your skin crawl. A lot of people (or maybe just me) still question why this religion is capturing so many people who are seeking. Christianity continues in most circles to be the largest organized religion, it is also the most criticized and is possibly atrophying(in the US anyway). Why can you see these obvious growth trends? Why is Christianity loosing people, even to the likes of Islam and the LDS church?

I can give two simple reasons that I see within the body of Christ as to why this is true (and to why Christianity is growing so rapidly in places like China).

REASON and ACTION

These two play heavily into your volunteer base as a church, especially youth ministry and student volunteers. Muslims and Mormons both put much action to their faith, Muslims albeit radicals see a jump in growth because of the action taken to their faith through jihad and their practices. Mormons are extremely active in converting people and reaching out. Most Christians sit on their hands. So you wonder why people end up falling by the wayside. I don't have an explicit answer on how to get people actively involved in their faith, and how to keep them there, honestly there are not enough tasks to fit every person's unique abilities and keep everyone involved all of the time. But there does need to be opportunity for people to put action to their faith.

Faith without works is dead.

If it wasn't for opportunities to serve, to make my faith real and to work out for myself why I believed what I believed I could have very easily fallen into the apathetic Christian column. In youth I worked in drama, in college I was not involved and could care less about church, when I graduated I became so involved in tech and ministry that it finally clicked. I cannot make my relationship with Christ work on my own. I cannot sit and read or pray myself into submission to Christ and his will, only through working out my faith can I find out my purpose in Him and through ACTION I not only put motion to my faith but put proof to my faith to others.

Islam gives action to their faith, Mormon's give action to their faith, Catholics give action to their faith (yeah penance and confession is action).

So what opportunities are you giving people to give action to their faith? I think we can cut the attrition rate by giving opportunities to serve. Traditionally the 'christian' church is a sit and gorge buffet. Then you go and live your life to cycle back to Sunday and do it all over again. Christ never intended you to sit on your butt and play church. Work with church members to find their fit. So they're not technical, make sure that they make it into another ministry. So they can't teach or aren't a people person but maybe they can push buttons like no body's business. You also have to take into account that this is on their free time, so gratitude is in order for even the smallest task.

The other part to attrition in the church is REASON. Most people don't know why they believe what they're told to believe. It plays into ACTION very well, because in order for people to put motion behind their faith they need to know why they're doing it. This goes back to youth ministry as well, start young. If you give kids a REASON to put ACTION to their faith they have a much greater possibility of staying connected to their faith after they graduate.

I see so many kids week in and week out who struggle with who they are and why they show up on a weekly basis. Most of them are forced to church by their parents and have no more REASON to be there than the next person. Stop teaching the prosperity gospel, stop teaching 'love' (clarification: by love I mean teaching that all there is to Christ is love, and that it's all fluffy feel good stuff) and begin giving people the foundation behind their faith, there is such a thing called sin. That is why we're stuck in such a degenerate world. Why is the Bible true? Why is God who he says he is? Science v. Creation, is there a difference?

I'm proud to be part of a ministry that is giving kids these answers and the traction to their faith, albeit this is something that is very difficult to keep on top of.

Statistically those who are involved and take ownership of something stay involved, this is true for just about anything you apply it to, whether school, sports, family or church. How can we increase our volunteer base to give people ownership of their faith? What opportunities in the church are we not exploiting to give people an opportunity to serve?

What is the REASON and ACTION behind your faith?

*edit*
What is it that motivates my life to action?
It's something that is hard to put words to because I just came to a place where I knew that is what I had to do.

I guess to put some words to it is the knowledge that I am doing what Christ wants me to do spurs me on. My service is my act of worship.

Once the action was in place, to the point where I was consistently serving I felt more of a practical connection to what I believed. It is my purpose to help lead others in worship through tech and to train others and give them the opportunity to do the same.

I'm not necessarily sure how to translate that to others though except for living it out, and praying I inspire others to the same. It is more of the spirit living in you, and pouring out through what you do. Some people figure out their calling the moment they're saved, some people are called to just be Christians where they're at. Me, I fought being called to ministry. I just came to a point one day for no particular reason where it made sense and I surrendered to whatever and wherever I was sent.

What not to do, medication style.

I've been having sinus problems for the past month. I took some antibiotics while I was moving to TX thinking that would clear it up. Apparently not. It got better for a while, and it feels like it's coming back again. So i stopped at my local Walgreen and picked up some Mucinex D. If you've never taken the stuff it's pretty powerful. It will clear you out quick. I'm just not so sure my body likes pseudoephedrine.

What is interesting about it is it put my grandpa in the hospital (I had forgotten about that). It also doesn't let you sleep. I started taking the stuff Saturday evening, I slept all of maybe 3 hours that night. Got up and going Sunday (with no problems, I seriously was flipping out because usually I'd be dragging) couldn't take a nap that afternoon and was out till 1am without feeling tired at all. I had only taken one pill early that morning on Sunday so I didn't have it in my system once I got home and got in bed. I crashed and crashed hard when I got home. I tried to get up early and my body yelled at me so I crawled back into bed.

So there is a reason you need your ID to buy this stuff. Don't take it to often, in fact don't take it at all if you don't have to (a, it's expensive and b, it does some weird stuff to you).

Powerpoint? that's so 1995...

Powerpoint, Microsoft's flagship presentation software has paved the way for thousands of people across the world to interactively and graphically present their case for many years. Unfortunately the flagship software has sunk. It is no more intuitive than your toaster knowing that you want to make toast and it doing it without you touching it.

Now I'm not saying there is any catch-all miracle software that does fantastic at getting your presentation to look great and makes your toast too. But if you want your presentation to look like it came out of 1995 then by all means go for it! The templates are horrible and the transitions don't look so hot.

I had to plug in a PC to our projectors which are 4:3 but we overshoot, and scale the output to 16:9. Sounds simple enough, and with ProPresenter and Keynote it actually is. It's not hard to find settings to do such things. BUT powerpoint? no way jose. I had to google it in order to find out how to change the output pixel ratio, and do you know what I found? you have to "trick it" becuase who would want to use a (now standard) 16:9 device with powerpoint?! I had to go in and set the 'print output page space" to change the screen out put...REDICULOUS!

So not only does it make youre presentations look like you're way behind the times, it also makes set up for tech people a nightmare. Some how I made presenters view dissappear as well and can't get it back...oh well not my latop not my problem :)

Something else is, PC's do not come standard with a decent video card/output device so if you're pushing to a projector over a long cord, or your PC and your projector were made in different eras then you're going to have a huge compatibility issue and will either end up with lines through your screen, incorrect resolutions, a video card to weak to actually display the distance you need without a booster in line, or a sucky image.

Mac's can do it out the box...seriously. Use Keynote. Tech guys will love you forever. Oh and know what you're doing somewhat!

Audio is a whole other ball park and most mobile computers suck at doing it from the mini-port.

So if you're going to use a PC and powerpoint, design your graphics well, make sure you're ready to go for any type of display situation and don't give your tech guy grief if he has to jump through 500 hoops to get your presentation to display (and it still looks like crap, part of that is probably your fault)

keeping you tech savy

HEY MAKE SURE THAT EVERYTHING STAYS PLUGGED IN!

So what do you do when in the middle of your worship set you figure out that you've lost DMX control to two of your lights?

Sunday I'm producing the third service and running lights. Wildly enough as the stage strike is going on they decide to move the large drum riser to the center of the stage. I run up on stage to make sure that nothing came out of the audio snake. That would have been catastrophic if we had lost some channels of audio. (which the week prior the board unpatched a few channels and it was two songs in before we realized it) What I failed to check for is the DMX line that runs clear across the stage feeding the stage left floor movers.

First song comes along and I don't see any difference, second song hits and it's majorly blue...big problem, the stage left light is green. I go through the next few steps in the song...no change....still green. The stage manager goes out to check it, but he doesn't know what he's looking for so it stays green. The message starts, I pull down the working light and turn it green and bring it back in to match (hopefully that wasn't to noticible).

When the drum riser got moved it yanked the DMX control cable out leaving the two lights on the left totaly helpless...so making sure everything stays plugged in...didn't happen.

What would you have done differently? Just run the service sans change? Taken the lights out from the get go? Run on stage and fixed it yourself?

Living on my own: Episode Two

This week I got to experience a Jerry Springer moment. Yes that's right I figured the only real white trash lived in Ohio (no offense but you know the area's I'm talking about if you're from there). I think it was Friday night I had just got in a while before from seeing a movie and I hear voices outside my door. At first it was just loud talking, a heated discussion if you will. Pretty soon it turned into a full out episode of Jerry Springer (well, if you were in another room with the volume all of the way up on the TV and all you could hear was the voices).

I'd say the fight lasted for an hour, The boyfriend kicking his girl out. She was screaming and pounding on the door (it felt like she was pounding on my door it was so loud). She wanted her dog back and her cell phone. He said it's his name on the lease and he didn't have to give anything back. So this went back and forth outside my door, and up and down the stairs multiple times. Thankfully about midnight they hung it up for the night and she left.

So that was one of the more interesting happenings...white trash lives on, I guess it's more of a culture that flocks to the apt. style living rather than a specific area of a state.

I've also been fighting with Verizon to get internet hooked up to my place. Finally Monday I achieved success! It took two calls and someone coming out to my complex to do who knows what to get it connected but it happened. I had gotten a phone call last week telling me that they hooked it up but they lied. I then tried to call them on Saturday (because who has time during the week during normal business hours to call about a tech issue) and the 24/7 tech support isn't so 24/7...it's actually monday - friday 8-6...anoying. That's over now, I can now play online games and stream tv shows from hulu and catch up on what I've missed.

boy...games and tv shows...I need a girlfriend.

I feel like I had some more disturbing life information...but I can't remember what it is. I'm still waiting for insurance cards and my permanent gym card.

The bank that I started a checking account in got robbed the other day too...thankfully beacuse a branch gets robbed doesn't mean your money goes bye bye...I'd be pissed.

Leeland and the holy spirit hoedown

So the over all thought for the tech nightmare post was if you can't do it right when you're trying to do it big, then either a) don't do it at all, or b) scale back till you can do it right. One other thing I forgot to mention is the use of punch lights/audience lights as house lights...bad idea.

After yesterday's post on tech I figured I would bring the other side of the 'concert/conference' that made the entire thing just a little more on the awkward side. Gideon's Army was a charismatic organization that had put on the whole thing and frankly from the time we walked in it was kind of an awkward oppressive feeling because we were not part of the group. I kind of wondered what was going to happen when "Gideon" got up to introduce Leeland because intermittently he began saying unintelligible things, which I kind of shrugged off as the fact that I couldn't understand him to begin with.

The music started and people moved forward and all of the sudden people broke loose, dancing in the aisle ways shouting, etc. Now this could have just been an exuberant group of kids...so no condemnation there. Leeland started getting into it and went into a 20 minute rendition of just saying love, love, love or joy, joy, joy. Ok thats cool, but people were hoopin and hollerin like it was 1995. I didn't get it. So that kind of drug on and on and on and then out of no where the guy gets up again and starts praying because this was a "conference" to start igniting the passions of students in their schools. So wait...this was a student rally?

All of the sudden people started walking up on stage, to 'pray'. This girl grabbed the mic and started rambling nonsense then started praying and then back to some gibberish. Then another guy jumped up on stage and started praying and waving his hands. This was getting a little awkward. The pastor grabbed the mic and started praying again and had Leeland start to sing more, but he joined in with them in singing loudly into the mic and dancing on stage. By this point, besides looking like Benny Hin, he had lost all respect from me. This is the look at me mentality. What did Jesus say about the people who do this? They already have their reward.

Let's look at this from the reverse perspective, and this applies not only to this situation but what you do in your own church/life. We're trying to reach the MTV generation. These kids are already highly skeptical view of God, religion and church. You're going to hold a youth rally event, that you're going to encourage kids to bring lost people to. I'd say a lot of the kids have never been to church or, don't want a part of church because of past experiences. How to you expect to connect with them when your media and tech on the face value looks cool, but either doesn't work or doesn't look good? These kids consume exuberant amounts of awesome (production value) media, or go to expensive concerts. They're attention spans for this kind of stuff is short, you have to grab them and hold them, even if it's simple.

A lot of times Christians get pegged for doing cheesy stuff. Watch TBN, a large helping of Christian music videos and maybe a smattering of concerts online and you'll get my drift. Lady with big blue/pink/green hair in high backed gold chairs and fancy set pieces? A sub par music video that looks like a kid did it in his basement on his laptop and hand cam? a hand full of intelligent lights pointed at the ceiling?

I could take a ton of time and talk about speaking in tongues, go read the Bible, it's in there, the apostles did it because there was a need for each person to hear in thier own language, it's a miracle event. Gibberish not included. Can God still preform miracles today? yup, but speaking in a language all your own (and sounding like an idiot) to be more spiritual is not exactly what I'd call a miracle, more like acting like the Pharisee who is standing on the street corner praying loudly so that all can hear.

You expect students to invite their lost friends, who are skeptical to religion, to a place where they are ultimately going to feel extremely uncomfortable and probably become even more skeptical of religion. Imagine, you didn't know Christ, or you may not have to imagine. You walk into a building set up for 700 people and there are only about 200-300 people there. No one talks to you, and because you're an outsider you kind of get looked at funny. The event starts and people start going crazy, not just hey im having fun goofing off crazy but I'm possessed spinning and jumping around, flailing like a dead fish crazy. People start running laps for Jesus, a couple people get up on stage and start speaking in tongues, and the band is singing one word over and over again for 20 minutes. You can't figure out what is going on and by the time the speaker gets up to tell you what is going on you've completely disengaged yourself.

Now this all came with a gut check too. I had to stop and say, because I'm a Christian is it wrong for me not to get into something this much. Can I still say I'm joyful and not express myself outwardly like this. My conclusion is, yes I can. Your faith is expressed through many number of means and it does not have to be show-offy. Then I had to ask myself, is this junk wrong? You can take that in two directions. Personally for them is it wrong(without touching on biblical issues)? no, it is how they express themselves, if they want to dace like a fool go for it. Publicly is it wrong? I might have to say yes on that. Paul says in Corinthians to not cause any one to stumble, Jew, Greek, or the church of God.... Telling someone that they do not have the gift of tongues and there fore are less spiritual, or making someone feel completely out of place and uncomfortable is NOT biblical.

As Christians we are called to be a change agent in the world around us. Not a deter rant for those to believe. We should be providing warm, welcoming, challenging and growing environments for students that does not cause them to leave with more questions or down right rejection because of how we acted. (Not watered down, just being able to bring teenagers in without having them freaked out, the word 'church' is hard enough to swallow for the general public)

So does the holy spirit need to have a hoedown in order to meet us in a place? absolutely not, he's with us wherever we're at. Just be authentic, that is all God asks of you as a Christian. You'll get a better response from people too.

Leeland and the sword of faith

I ventured out to see Leeland last night. I was kinda pumped, I like Leeland, musically, vocally and lyrically. They are one of the 'fresher' bands on the worship/CHR music lists. Frankly I think a lot of their lyrics hit home just because of their age group and who they're writing to.

I got into the place after Brandon told me it was part of a conference to find out who was putting it on, Gideon's Army. I don't mean this in a condemning or mocking way, but it was a charismatic event. (insert pause here). Unfortunately every charismatic event that I have had the pleasure of taking part in have seriously been the most awkward things I've ever seen. There are a lot of things you can point fingers at in 'Christianity' and say that is why people think we're nut jobs, this would be one of them.

I'll dive into the technical aspects first. We walk in to see a jib (that wasn't being used for the concert) sitting in the back, cool except it was covered in gaff tape and was a little chincy...oh boy. Secondly we notice the IMAG screen (yes singular, one not two) that had a live single camera feed with the gideon's army logo and some text overlayed. The music lyrics were overlayed in the same fashion and it really seemed the lady was typing them up as the song went on because they were not instantaneous. The text was a serif and was tiny tiny. There wasn't really ANY front lighting for video except for the bright white and blue lights coming out of the movers they had. The sound, well...that was intersting, the right speaker cluster wasn't on through the first song, brandon had to go let the sound guy know it wasn't engaged. Vocal's weren't real audible and it was very hollow(and a lot of bass, the room was a conference room too which didn't help). Back to lighting, the inteligent lights had about 2-3 moves and most of the light got thrown onto the cieling which made no sense to me. One more thing that was a nail in the coffin. They stopped everything to show a video on relief efforts going on in Galveston, cool, except the video made me feel like I was on an acid trip. The computer running the WONDERFUL graphics was A) a PC, B) extremely UNDER powered and C) MIRRORED. If you're in the tech world these three things on their own are bad enough but all together = a disaster. So you saw the person end the program and go back to the desktop and open up windows media player to start the video and they struggled to get it full screen. It was at this poin that I noticed the screen was not keystoned in any sense of the word. Once the video played it started chugging, in essence the computer could not keep up with the audio/video, so the audio seemed to seriously lag, and it was extremely choppy. The guy talked slow to begin with, and the audio/music was aweful. So out of 5 stars i give a .5 on tech crew.

Ok I would go on to part two of this blog and talk about the atmosphere but I don't actually have any time to go on to that...

So I end part one with this, Christian events end up extremely sub par in the tech/creative field and this is one thing that we get laughed at for. You cannot be taken seriously any more if you don't step up your game. Just throwing money at something does not necesarily make it quailty either, time, effort and experience come largely into play as well.