Merry Christmas!

I can’t believe that Christmas Day is almost upon us.  This month of December has been a whirlwind of activity.  We have had guest speakers, various youth choir presentations, a preschool presentation, special events, an outdoor drama and an adult choir Christmas cantata and of course our regular worship services.  I have been very busy to say the least.  I have also enjoyed every minute of it all.  It has been hard work with no pay but so rewarding it its own way.  I will probably write a review and lessons learned on the outdoor drama and the cantata after the New Year has begun.  I need a break from everything right now.

I have also been doing a lot of work on preparing to step out in faith and present myself for full time technical ministry soon.  I know what the Lord wants me to serve in but I do not know where or when or how.  The fiery darts of doubt, lack of confidence and stress are coming on me but that is why I have my shield of faith.  Pray for me as I battle and also pray for my discernment as I seek the specifics of the Lord’s will.

This year there has been a lot of controversy surrounding Christmas from churches deciding not to have services on Christmas Day to the ever increasing normalcy of commercialism to the political correctness debate.  There was a song that was performed at our Christmas cantata titled I Choose Jesus.  In that song it talks about making decisions and what turn to take at a crossroad.  I feel that as a society we are at a crossroad.  Whether or not a church is having services on Sunday doesn’t matter.  All the sales and shopping for gifts doesn’t matter.  Although you usually know where their heart is by what terms they use, whether someone says Christmas or holiday doesn’t matter.  What matters is if someone chooses Jesus or not.  I want my focus to be solely on Jesus, not just for Christmas but for life.  I pray that you will also choose Jesus.

I wish all of you a very, merry Christmas!  

Christian vs. Secular Genre

A thought that came to my mind during our worship conference is the increasingly common trend of using secular songs in worship services. I can understand the use of the songs to reach the lost and/or unchurched by being relevant but I also think that the lost and unchurched are looking for something new, something different than the lives they have now. They need their minds renewed and so do we. I want to be in a constant frame of mind and attitude of giving thanks and praise to God. I can’t do that with most secular songs.

Now, I’m not saying that all of those songs are bad and “are of the devil”. I still listen to secular songs from time to time but I most certainly listen to them in a different way than I did in the past. I now listen to make sure that the songs I listen to are not in opposition to the way I want to live my life before a holy, sovereign God. I do not want to fill my mind with garbage just like I would not view pornography for the same reason. Let’s face it; there are some songs out there that Christians should not listen to and they most certainly should not be used to reach the lost. Also make note that throughout I have not said music. I do not believe there is secular music; just secular lyrics.

I know many churches use secular songs every service but I have to wonder just how many secular songs bring us to a heart of worship. I would think not many if any. I pray that churches are not using secular songs just to say “Hey look at us, we are not that much different from you.” I believe that we are to be different. That is what makes people take at look at us and say, “What is up with you?” The answer is Jesus!

Another trend is the increasing popularity of bands under the banner of the Christian genre. I really enjoy listening to some of these groups but there is something that bothers me and that is the absence of God and/or Jesus from their vocabulary. Unfortunately I don’t make it out much so I have never seen these bands live. I hope and pray that they are at least presenting the gospel message at their concerts. I mean that is why we are here, right? We are to bring glory to God with our gifts and to go and make disciples. Like I said I have not attended any concerts of the bands I’m speaking of but recent appearances on several late night shows and shopping for CDs as gifts for Christmas got me to taking a deeper look. The only source I have is album reviews and the groups own web sites. A look at those web site home pages seemingly shows what is important and that would be chart ratings, albums sold, television appearances and where their videos are getting airtime. It looks and reads just like any other band that is out there for themselves.

P.O.D. (Payable On Death) web site has no mention of God, Jesus or their faith.

Switchfoot has vague references to scripture when they write;

It was another jewish man who said something like this a while back. "All is meaningless," Declares the teacher. "Meaningless, meaningless, Everything is meaningless"

And also,

There’s this moment in Jewish scripture, in Ecclesiastes, where it says, ‘Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.’ That’s the place where our new record starts.”

These references are to Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:2 NIV which is in the Bible and not just Jewish scripture.

Another place on the web site has this;

It was another jewish man who said something like this, "If you seek to gain your soul you will lose it."

This other Jewish man was Jesus and what He said was;

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?

Matthew 16:25-26 NIV

Jon Foreman the frontman for Switchfoot writes:

So at the end of our time as a band perhaps we will have only one song to sing- just one very long, rambling, eclectic song that touches on life, death, pain, sex, anger, joy, peace, politics, God and the other elements of a searching soul in the twenty first century. Maybe at the end of my life I will sing only one song, a song that has been refined and purified. A lonely group of notes that will be a sweet, sweet sound for an audience of one. Or maybe I'm still trying to figure out this broken, beautiful planet-
writing songs as a way of therapy in the hopes of a better understanding of this existence that we call life. Either way, the bitter struggle for meaning and truth in the postmodern world is a subject matter that I don't think I could ever exhaust.

I gather from this web site that this band is not comfortable with even mentioning the name of Jesus but are trying hard to be politically correct. I wonder if they are saying “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas”? It appears that God is just one element in their search for meaning. At the least they are still searching. I pray that they discover that the answer is Jesus and only Jesus.

Thousand Foot Krutch is another completely commercial site with no mention of the bands values only their tour dates and where they rank in the world.

Relient K website looks a lot like what I have already mentioned. Although there is a biography page which did give some insight. On the description of a song off their new CD says;

“Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been” launches with a reflective piano arrangement that builds up with intensity to address life’s moments when everything seems to be failing, while reminding all that God provides second chances.

That is so true. Our God is most certainly full of grace and mercy.

A couple of paragraphs later Matthew Theissen says;

“We’re not trying to hide anything with the songs on this record, just to get what we feel out there,” Thiessen summarizes. “We’ve also found it to be the hardest thing in the world to say ‘Jesus’ in a song and not be cheesy, so we definitely have our own way of singing about spirituality. But in the end that’s who we are and what we believe in. We hope between that and the music, it connects with someone out there.”

Singing the name of who should be Lord of your life is cheesy? The Son of God who died for our sins sounds cheesy? That is absolute nonsense. I really believe that the members of Relient K are Christians but they need to assess who they are really glorifying.

Kutless home page is fairly simple with a couple of tour dates and a news snippet. But when you dig deeper into the site, wow, what a departure from the previous bands and groups that I have mentioned. There is no doubt what these guys purpose is and that is worship of God. There is testimony and actual scripture references throughout. I guess I now know why this band has been sounding much better to me that the others here lately. This is a band that truly belongs in the genre of Christian.

I know that there are many, many more bands out there but these are the ones that people, the kids, are listening to and watching. If they are going to put out in market place as Christian then they have an awesome responsibility for showing Jesus to those that so desperately need Him. I pray that all of the bands that have at some point professed to be Christians, otherwise they wouldn’t be place in the music genre, to remember the scripture passage of

2 Timothy 2:15
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

New Links

I have added several new links to blogs in the Media/Technology Blogs list in the right hand column. Check them out!

Church Safety

A good article from last week was Texas Minister’s Death Prompts New Safety Concerns on Sound & Video Contractor. The death of Pastor Kyle Lake does not need to be easily forgotten. We all need to learn from the mistakes of others as well as the successes. I did not ever hear the final cause of the electrocution of Pastor Kyle Lake but I had my suspicions. If you get nothing else out of this article please heed the words of Chuck Wilson, executive director of the NSCA;

Some users, he notes, have even cut the grounding third prong
off plugs as a means of avoiding buzz. “Lifting that safety ground is an absolute no-no, no matter how the
system buzzes,” he says.

Unfortunately this practice was occurring at my own church. When I came to lead the media ministry I found that every drop cord had the ground prong cut off. I immediately disposed of all of those and purchased new cords. I have also written before about the dangers of overloading circuits and also protecting yourself from over current, lightening and ground faults. (See This Caught My Attention…)

We have to think about the safety of our ministers, musicians and members. In this season of so many Christmas productions it is tempting to bypass and shortcut in some areas because you want to make something work. There are many great creative minds out there that have a certain atmosphere they are envisioning. Many times safety is not on their list of priorities. It is not that they want to be unsafe, they just don’t think of it. That is where we come in. If you have the means to bring that vision to fruition then by all means do so but on the other hand if you can’t do it right and follow all safety procedures then be ready to take a stand and say no.

I challenge all of you involved in technical ministry to examine your equipment this coming year. Some things to look for are of course circuit loading, speaker and lighting rigging, cables and power cords. Also make sure that your team is well trained in electrical safety.
Remember the laws of physics were written by God. They are non-negotiable. Please keep the Lake family and the University Baptist Church family in your prayers.

Giving Thanks

I give thanks to God for all of my fellow bloggers that I enjoy reading. I won’t list them here because they are all listed in the right hand column anyway. A special thanks to Todd Rhoades and Gary Lamb for infecting me with this blogging bug.
I'm thankful for the dedicated guys and gals that are out there giving their best in media ministry for the glory of the Lord.

Now for some favorite scripture passages of thanksgiving.

I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High. Psalm 7:17

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. Psalm 9:1

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.
Psalm 30:4

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High,
Psalm 50:14

With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good. Psalm 54:6

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. Psalm 57:9

But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise. Psalm 79:13

I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. Psalm 86:12

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100:4-5

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
Psalm 118:1

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. Ephesians 5:4

17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, 20giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephesians 5:17-20

6Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
Colossians 2:6-7

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3:15-17

give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:18

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
1 Timothy 2:1-2

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
Revelation 7:12

Awesome Weekend Experience

What a great, worshipful, wonderful, experience this past weekend, November 19 & 20. Our church hosted our first annual worship conference on Saturday. We hope and pray that it will be the first of many to come. The turn out was light but what do you expect in the heart of USC Gamecock and Clemson Tiger land on the day these two rivals met. People have their priorities and for many it seemed to be football over conference. But God still loves them all and so do we. Next year I think we will plan a more open date.

Our keynote speaker for the conference was Travis Cottrell. Travis is best known for being the worship leader for the Beth Moore conferences. Naturally I had never been to a Beth Moore conference so to be honest I do not believe that I had heard of Travis Cottrell until our Worship Pastor told us who was going to be the keynote speaker. After an opening song by our own Surrender, Travis spoke to the group in the first session. One of the major points that spoke to me was when Travis said “Worship is what we offer God with our lives”. That is absolutely true. Our worship is not in song alone or prayer or listening to a sermon. Those are elements of corporate worship, yes, but how we live our lives and how we offer of ourselves is our true worship to God. A key passage of scripture is Romans 12:1,2. I do not recall what version that Travis used but I have decided to use the English Standard Version here;

Romans 12:1,2 1I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We are to present ourselves as a living sacrifice. I believe that means that we sacrifice any of our own desires to live as God wants us. We are to surrender to His will so that we may be holy and acceptable. That is accomplished in part by the renewal of our minds. We renew our minds by reading, studying and meditating on the Word of God. Also by spending time with God in prayer and listening. We also renew our minds by lifting up praise and thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father in personal time and corporately.

Our breakout sessions consisted of the Theology of Worship, The Arts as Worship, and the Philosophy of Using Media in Worship. I, of course, attended the latter. We invited Mark Rodenhauser of Digital Lighthouse Media to speak. Mark has had an interesting life including 12 years playing in the NFL and then after retiring he started producing professional media content for Fortune 500 companies. He is now obeying the call of the Lord on his life to teach, train, equip and enhance the body of Christ by enabling churches, ministries, organizations and Christian businesses to communicate more clearly and effectively. Mark is a no nonsense, tell it like it is, kind of guy. I like that. He speaks from his heart and his heart is for the Lord. Thanks Mark!
Let’s face it; society is not turning back from the technological advances it has made. People are becoming more visual and kinesthetic learners than ever before. That is a major reason for using media in our worship services and throughout the church. But Mark made an excellent point when he said “No media at all is better than bad media”. I agree. If you can’t do something well for the glory of God then you should not do it all. The Lord deserves our very best in all that we do.

The final session of our worship conference was once again led by Travis Cottrell. Travis challenged worship leaders to be real and made some great points about how to build a worship team consisting of choir, musicians and vocalist. As I listened I realized that most of the points he was making should be the criteria for any team’s ministry partners. Like, ongoing relationship with Christ, willingness to serve or servant’s heart, joyful attitude and desire to learn to share the vision; to name a few.

Overall, I believe the conference was very beneficial to all that attended. We had a great time of fellowship and it was a good networking event also. I met others that are involved in media ministry and what they are facing in their churches. It renewed in me a desire to develop a technical fellowship in this area so that all of us involved in a technical ministry can learn from each other, train together and share resources when applicable. I’m really starting to see a coming together of churches in this area to do Kingdom work instead of denominational work. I pray that we will become the body of Christ instead of different congregations of worshipers. A technical fellowship could be a step in that direction.

Saturday night we offered a FREE concert to the community in the local school district auditorium featuring Travis Cottrell. I set up video over there and then had to take care of family business so I was unable to attend. I heard that it was a great time of worship and that everyone enjoyed it immensely.


Sunday morning we combined our morning services into one. Unfortunately our sanctuary is not large enough to accommodate having both groups there at the same time. That is why we have two morning worship services of course. We had to use our gymatorium venue. It is a very acoustically live space. It took me a couple of years to work out all of the equipment issues and learn how to mix in that room. Now it sounds great. Travis was our guest worship leader and was absolutely phenomenal. His voice was weakened from the concert the night before in which he must have really let it loose. He still sounded awesome. I learned that day that Travis Cottrell is of the same ilk as Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and Paul Baloche. As he said after one of the songs we “almost got our praise groove on”. The house was rocking to say the least. That is saying something for this fairly conservative Southern Baptist church. I haven’t received any complaints yet. The week is still young though.
I’m glad that I had purchased all new Shure SM58 & 57s microphones a couple of weeks ago. What a difference in the vocals from last time we used this venue. These microphones are a vast improvement over the Behringer mics that I had inherited. The frequency response was outstanding. The fidelity was astonishing and gain before feedback was maximized tremendously. I’m still amazed at how well some of the other equipment is still operating. God wants to use it and that is all there is to it.

Sunday night we baptized two young ladies and praised God for bringing them into the body of Christ. We also were thrilled to hear a mission report from one of our own. A couple that we have come to love and admire. They put everything down in their lives to obey the call of the Lord to the mission field and are now serving Him in Mozambique. They had an awesome presentation and it was great to hear how the Lord is working through them to bring villagers into His kingdom. I was also tasked to build a photo slide show for the reception following the service. I used 491 photos that they had and built the slide show in SongShow Plus. I really didn’t think that SongShow would handle it because we have been having issues in that area here lately. Like I said before though; God wanted to use it so it worked. We had another great time of fellowship that night too.

As you can now see it was a great, wonderful, worshipful experience. I pray that God raises up gifted, talented, willing people to serve so that experiences like this would become commonplace in churches everywhere.

I thank God for Travis Cottrell, Daniel, Mark Rodenhauser, Roger Patterson, RachelAnne Fleming, Rusty Fleming our worship pastor, Dave Stanford our senior pastor, our family from Africa and last but not least our choir. I didn’t catch Daniel’s last name but he was with Travis and played guitar. All of you were used of God to bring people to a place of authentic worship including myself. THANK YOU!


Ok, Travis was that nice enough for you? :>

Photo #1 - Our own praise group Surrender
Photo #2 - Me with Travis Cottrell
Photo #3 - Travis Cottrell with Roger Patterson
Photo #4 - Travis & Daniel at sound check

New Shure Web Feature

Shure has a new web feature called Build Your Band. With Build Your Band you select the instrument or vocalist that you want in your band. The feature recommends what mic to use whether you want wired or wireless and if you want the basic or a higher tier microphone. You can name your band members and when you are all finished you can print out the recommendations for future reference. The feature also provides links for subscribing to all of Shure’s free online and printed publications, dealer locator and the awesome solution database. A vast majority of Shure’s publications are written by Tim Vear who is one of their senior application engineers and is an absolute genius when it comes to the science of sound.
This new interactive feature at Shure is educational and fun. Check it out!

Thankful for Anthony Coppedge & ChurchNerd

Many times I have made reference to Anthony Coppedge and his blog posts because they speak to me in this ministry.  I also want you to know of another great blog that I frequent and that is Church Nerd.  Whereas Anthony speaks to the human element often, Church Nerd speaks to the technical side more.  I’m fairly proficient on the technical side (media) but I’m weak on the people side (ministry).  I have learned a great deal from Anthony but I have also learned some great things from Church Nerd as well.  For example Anthony recently posted about building Tech Teams and Church Nerd turned me onto offering e-mail subscriptions through Feedblitz which you will see to the right.  (Sign up now):>)

One of the reasons I started this blog was to be able to write about my experiences and hopefully growth in this ministry.  I also wanted to help others along the way and be able to network with the people that are getting the job done.  Anthony and Church Nerd blogs are getting the job done by aiding me in technical ministry and by ministering to me with their knowledge and understanding.  

In this season of giving thanks I must say that I thank God for these two blogs.

I think I will post of more things that I’m thankful for in this ministry in the days to follow.  Let me know what you are thankful for in media ministry or in general.

THANKS!  

Veterans Day

I sincerely thank those of you that are carrying on in the tradition of character, fortitude and honor of defending our freedom.





To those of you that I served with; I will never forget you! Although I don't know where most of you are now I still think of you and pray for you.





To the families of those we lost along the way; I still carry that regret but I want you to know that they will always be in my memory. I pray for you also.

Posts on Worship Leaders & Music

A ran across a couple of excellent posts this morning about worship leading and music.

Check out Drawing Musicians by Gary Lamb the Mad Babbling Church Planter.

Also check out American Idol: Three Lessons for Worship Leaders by Phil Christensen who is worship pastor at Cedar Hills Evangelical Free Church (CHEF) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa This article was posted by Todd Rhoades on his Monday Morning Insight blog.

Nooooooo! It's Budget Time!

It is that time of the year that most of us in a technical ministry dread.  At least I know that I do.  It is time to propose a budget for next year.  That budget proposal will be submitted to the stewardship committee or board of directors or the staff.  We will be asked a bunch of questions about that budget.  Most of the people asking the questions will not have any idea what we are talking about.  That budget will be slashed to a maintaining budget in which there will be no room for any of the significant changes (equipment purchases) that need to be made.  Once again most of the budget will have to be reserved for the year for the “just in case” emergency that arises from time to time.  Does this sound familiar to you?  I believe that this is the case in most churches across this nation that uses some kind of media in their worship services.  How do we effectively communicate the needs of media or technical ministry?  If you have a board or staff led church then I think that task is much simpler than the committee run church.  With a board or with staff you have a much easier time educating and showing and relaying the needs.  I know in my own personal experience that the staff is usually sold because they have first hand knowledge of just how much goes into providing quality in audio, video and lighting.  But how do you effectively communicate and educate an entire church?  I mean every year you have a new stewardship committee that you start all over with.  I’m afraid that I don’t have the answer to educating an entire church but I do take every opportunity to be open about what the media ministry team does and how much time it takes and what all goes into building the media program for a service.  I also open up training to anyone in the church that is interested in audio, video and lighting.  I guess you could say that I’m chipping away at it one member at a time.  
I believe that the only other way to educate your members is to invite professionals and experts to your church to speak on the issue of using media and technology.  This year we are starting a worship conference for our area with key note speaker and worship leader Travis Cottrell.  One of our break-out sessions will be about using media in worship.  We have invited Mark Rodenhauser of Digital Lighthouse Media to share what the Lord has laid on his heart about using media for God’s glory.  I hope in years to come to invite others such as Anthony Coppedge, Brad Herring and/or Kent Morris who have been instrumental in teaching me how to be more effective in what God has called me to do in a technical ministry.

Now when talking about a budget of course you are talking about how the church is going to spend the money that God has entrusted to us.  To tell you the truth I hate talking about money.  I have never been comfortable asking for money especially for ministry or myself.  I guess I have seen too many examples of money being abused and never want to give the impression that I’m greedy or do not take stewardship seriously.  Unfortunately the reality in a media or technical ministry is you get what you pay for.  I could easily rattle off $25,000 of equipment that could be purchased and used effectively in the church but in the overall operating budget of a church is that feasible?  Not in most churches.  So what is the magic percentage of the total budget that media and/or technical ministries should occupy?  I really don’t believe that you can give a concrete answer on that question.  I believe it depends on the needs of your media and technical ministries.  Your needs should be based on the overall vision of your church.  What are the goals of the church?  Who are you trying to reach?  What is the style of your worship?  You must be clear on the vision of your church to understand what you need in media to help accomplish that vision.  
You ultimately leave it in the hands of those who will develop the budget.  This is a job that I do not envy.  I ask for you to pray for those who will be developing and presenting your budget.  I can tell you right now that they are under pressure from everyone.  Pray that your whole church will be good stewards of the time, money and resources that God gives you to use.

I most certainly have a lot to learn.  I know equipment but it is the intangible things in which I must gain knowledge to become effective in ministry.  Like leading a team, teaching others, budgeting and issues about pay and becoming full time.  I will continue to learn and seek God’s will for answers to all of these.  What more can I do?  


I’ve been prompted to post on these subjects once again by what I have read posted by Anthony Coppedge on his blog.  Please check out A New Change for Anthony Coppedge and Poll: Church Technology Budgets.

An Abnormal, Non-Typical Thursday at a FBC.

Last Thursday was very interesting to say the least.  I had to transfer registration, tags, insurance and taxes to a more fuel efficient automobile.  After that I had to attend a funeral to operate mainly the sound but something else unusual using technology. (more on that in a minute)  Lastly I had much set up to do for sound and lighting for an event that evening in one of our venues outside of the Sanctuary.

The car stuff went fairly smooth.  God is so good!  He knew what all had to happen that day so after filling out the paperwork at the DMV I went to reception to receive my “now serving” number.  To my amazement my number was being called as I entered the main office.  I was finished at the DMV in less than 30 minutes.  DID YOU HEAR THAT?  LESS THAN 30 MINUTES!  The same goes for the insurance office, where, yes, I saved a bunch of money on my car insurance.  I didn’t have to switch to a gecko to do it either.  The tax assessor office was empty so I didn’t spend much time there and my taxes were lower on this new vehicle.  I’m saving money left and right!

OK, back to the funeral.  The family made a last minute request that was a first for me and I had never heard of anyone doing this for a funeral before.  The son of the dearly departed has a son (the grandson) who is stationed in Iraq and was not going to be able to attend the service.  They wanted to do a video teleconference and have the grandson give a testimony from Baghdad on the big screen in the sanctuary.  This request was made on Tuesday before the funeral on Thursday.  Not much time to make something work where you are not remotely prepared.  With some help from a local IT freelance technician named Joe (I never got to meet Joe) and the local high school principle we pulled it off…almost.  
There is not any Ethernet into the Sanctuary as of yet.  Joe had set up a Linksys wireless router in an office with network connectivity nearby the Sanctuary.  We used a new HP laptop with built-in wireless 802.11g capability.  The high school principle had some experience so he brought in his Creative Labs web cam.  He set up the initial contact with guys in Baghdad using MSN Messenger.  After contact we first initiated voice traffic with them.  It was good audio at about a 1½ - 2 second delay. We next established video on both ends.  It worked like a charm and was much better than I expected.  The video was much more stable than some of the video phone reports that I have seen on Fox News.  All of this using cheap computer microphones, web cams and MSN Messenger.  After that there was only one thing to do and that was to integrate that to our audio and video systems in the Sanctuary.  Pressed for time I quickly realized that I was not going to be able to run the video through distribution and have the control I wanted.  I had to run it direct to our Christie LX45 projector and use the “no show” function.  I was able to use our audio distribution to feed the laptop audio to our Yamaha mixer console.  We took the web cam and taped it to the railing on the balcony for the final touch.  Man, we need some decent cameras in the Sanctuary.  Anyway, we had full video teleconferencing in our Sanctuary in about an hour.  The video and audio were much better than I had even hoped for.  
The funeral was about 30 minutes away and the testimony was about 45 minutes to an hour away.  I had the projector on no show and the principle was in contact by text with the Baghdad team.  The funeral started and we were all ready to go.  When it was time for the USN Chief Petty Officer grandson to speak I brought up the video which looked awesome and then I pushed up the faders only to hear what I can only describe as white noise in a barrel changing pitch and amplitude at random.  It was awful.  I couldn’t believe it was not working!  I muted the sound and kept the video up.  Of course no one knew what to do at that point.  It seemed like an eternity before some lady from the family stood up and read a letter that the grandson had sent back home to describe his memories of his grandfather.  It seemed to fit exactly with what the grandson was trying to say on the big screen.
Now I pose a question to the experts if I have any reading.  We never lost video and we only lost audio one way.  The grandson was able to watch and hear the entire service but we never recovered audio from Iraq.  Any ideas as to what happened?

After the funeral I rushed to change and then started setting up staging, lighting and mics for the women’s event that night.  Before I knew it we were doing a sound check as women were filing in.  The guest inspirational speaker and vocalist was Laurie E. Thompson who has a ministry for discipling women.  The message she delivered and the songs she sang were intended to touch the women but I was just as touched by her story as anyone.  
The event was nearly flawless.  I thank God for His guidance in us doing what was right for audio in that venue.  I’m amazed at the difference from just two years ago.  The cost was minimal as well and now we can provide audio for guest speakers, vocalist and groups that they can appreciate and we don’t have to apologize for every time.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the story of a completely abnormal, non-typical Thursday at a First Baptist church in a small town.  It was busy but it was fun and as always I learned from it.  Gaining experience is always a bonus.    

Marketing to Churches

Almost all major manufactures, distributors and dealers have a person or team that is dedicated to the “houses of worship” market now. I’m sure that most of these companies are thrilled to have a new avenue of revenue. But is the church market different from other markets? I would surely hope so. An article titled Marketing to Churches Requires Subtlety, Staying Power in Sound & Video Contractor explores this new phenomenon.

Word of mouth takes top billing as the most effective marketing in churches SVC determines. I’m thinking that word of mouth is the most effective marketing period; regardless of product or market. Word of mouth will make the sale or condemn it faster than anything.

The article goes on to correctly assess that building relationships is the best way to do business with churches. I can agree with that assessment. We do want to build relationships because that is our nature as Christians. Unless we are given the gift of evangelism the best way for us to share Christ is through our relationships with others. We have the opportunity to reach people for Christ that in the past have mostly dealt with markets in the secular entertainment business. That market is not known for fostering relationships but mostly of lending endorsement.

The article mentions that in larger scale projects a church will often seek a professional consultant. Not a bad idea but why limit that to large scale projects? I believe an honest, professional consultant who specializes in church audio, video and lighting should be the first relationship we should build. Make sure you find a consultant that knows churches and more importantly loves the Lord. They will be looking out for your best interest. I have had to write very meticulous, specific RFP (requests-for-proposal) for contractors to bid on and follow up on their every step because many are not looking out for you. Of course always accepting the lowest bid doesn’t always help either but that is a different issue. Anyway, I strongly urge any of you who need to have a system designed, revamped or replaced and you are not 100% sure of what you need then most definitely contact a consultant.
I will admit that when it comes to equipment needed in churches that I don’t possess the knowledge to know what is best or what is specifically needed for a certain application. I have no problem operating, repairing and managing but my strength is not design. Therefore I trust consultants to guide me so that I may be the best steward of the resources that God has entrusted me with. I pray that you do the same.

Hot Topics in Media Ministry

In the last few years I believe that God has called me to be in media ministry or some type of technical ministry full time.  Week after week I see the need to be able to devote a lot more time to keep up and exceed the level of media we are using for our worship services.  If there is any other event or request that requires use of media or our technical gifts then we are really pushed for time.  Since our team is made up completely of non-paid volunteers or ministry partners as I like to call them, we all have full time jobs.  Some of us have very demanding full time jobs in a technical field that requires more than 40 hours a week most weeks.  Unfortunately the time we have to use to keep up our level of media use is taken out of our family time and personal time with God.  Yes, the work we do in media is for God but it should not take the place of our personal time with God in which we study His word, meditate, pray and listen.  Our family relationships also should not suffer for ministry.  Many times we just plain run out of time and the services are not what our congregation has come accustomed to expect.  The lack of consistency is painful for someone like me who believe we should strive for excellence.

Another area of discussion in media ministry is how to deal with people who are just not getting the job done.  Sometimes it is personality conflicts in which you have to learn how to deal with in a biblical way and sometimes people just do not have the technical aptitude or creative talent or both that think they do.  Fortunately I have not had to deal with that yet because we are team and a church that is just beginning to learn how important the technical side is to our ministries.

I bring all of this up to primer you for a post by Anthony Coppedge on his blog titled WFX Recap – Great Questions! The predominant questions posed to Anthony during the recent Worship Facilities Conference & Expo ,also known as WFX, is what I have brought up in the first two paragraphs of this post.  These are great areas for discussion.    Thanks Anthony!    

Martin Audio Announces New Ceiling Speaker Series

Many times you don’t really think about distributed audio in your church. Other buildings and venues on your campus including nursery and preschool spaces and also overflow can be covered very well by 70/100 volt systems. I deal with these systems frequently with my day job and have learned how to apply that to media ministry as well.

So, I was pleased to hear that there is a new line of ceiling speakers on the market by Martin Audio. You can read the review by Sound & Video Contractor here.

It Was God Equipment Review

I want to give a run down of the hodge-podge of equipment that God used because He obviously wanted His message through Adrian Despres distributed from October 2nd. First was the very acoustically live, concrete block building in which the service was conducted. Not the best place for a recording with its many reverberations.

Next Adrian was speaking into a Audio-Technica ATW-T31 wireless lavaliere microphone which was transmitting to the ATW-R10 diversity receiver. This wireless microphone system is one of my least favorites that I inherited but that day it performed almost flawlessly. The receiver lost signal a couple of brief moments but other than that I was very pleased. The microphone has a very low gain before feedback threshold so I was amazed at how well it performed. It was God!

The wireless microphone system was connected to a Mackie CFX20 live sound mixer. The Lord has really looked out for this board in the fact that it has suffered through two major roof leaks and is still getting the mix done. The only thing that doesn’t work on this mixer is the headphone jack and some unbalanced ¼ inputs are suspect. It is and continues to be God!

Next is the recorder that we purchase this year to finally get away from cassettes. It is most certainly not high end. So far I have found that the spoken word is really good but I need to play with it some more to get music sounding better. I’m speaking of the Fostex MR-8 digital multi-track recorder. I usually can be proficient with a piece of equipment straight out of the box but this one took some manual reading. I have not put it through the paces due to time constraints but it has made recording our worship services much, much easier. It also brings us out of the dark ages of using cassettes which did not give us the capability of recording to other formats. The ease of having removable recording media such as the compact flash memory that this recorder uses it a definite plus. God used it!

My computer is a HP 845n but the star is the software that I have come to love in a very short period of time. There is a couple of audio editing software that I have been using and I have come to the conclusion that I like them both. The first is Audacity. Audacity is a FREE program written by a team of volunteer developers around the world. It works with many operating systems including Windows, Linux, Mac and more. It supports many different audio formats including .wav and .mp3. Not only is it an editor but it is also a player and recorder. Audacity has a vast array of effects including echo, compression and limiter, filtering and many more. Another great feature is unlimited undo. YES! The only problem that I have had with Audacity is exporting the project as an .mp3 file. It can’t locate the necessary files for conversion.
The other great editor I have used is Nero Wave Editor. It is more visually appealing than Audacity with the graphic equivalent of knobs and faders like a tangible digital recorder. Nero does not have nearly the effects that Audacity has. One great feature of Nero is the automatic crash recovery. Both have been more than adequate for what I do. We will see how they fair once I can use them more extensively. Regardless of which editor I use, I convert to .mp3 using dBpower AMP music converter. This software is Freeware and is packed with wave and mp3 codecs with capability to download virtually any codec you need. It has many features like adjustable frequency and bitrate and preset quality settings, DSP effects and volume normalizing. Nice little utility.

Last but not least is Nero Burning Rom 6 to burn the CDs. Very easy to use with drag and drop files into the window for burning. I’m also pleased with the speed and quality of the burns. It also has the capability of video but I have not tried that yet. This software has many features that I have not yet begun to tap into yet. Click here for a full listing of features.

As you can see none of this is high-end, state-of-the-art, quality equipment. Some of this equipment should not even work anymore. I keep it maintained the best I can with the ability that God has given me but sometimes it performs way beyond what I ever expected because God wants to use it anyway.

I’m just happy to be along for the ride because I love doing this stuff. I’m so glad that God gives me the opportunity work in media ministry!

It Was God!

Have you ever been involved with something happening and the only explanation is it was God?  I had that October 2nd and the week following.  
At the last minute without planning, preparation or practice, which goes against my core media ministry teaching, I decided to move my low end digital multi-track recorder from our sanctuary to another venue to record the special worship service we were conducting.  I used a spare aux send on the mixing board to send audio to the recorder.  I didn’t even check the audio level that was there until I set record as the service was starting.  I put on the headphones to make sure I heard audio and then I left it be.  

The speaker that day was Adrian Despres of Kingdom Building Ministries.  Adrian is the epitome of “He called some to be…evangelist”.  God has gifted this man as a communicator.  I thought he would have an impact because we have been hearing about him ever since we started attending our church back in 2000 from when he had been there in 1998 I believe.  His name comes up every year as we discuss revival.  I now know why.  I highly recommend Adrian Despres for any special event or revival you may be planning.

I had been warned that Adrian would speak longer than we are normally accustomed to so we planned to have one service that Sunday from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.  That was planning on Adrian speaking for 45 minutes.  I had recently ordered a 512 MB compact flash memory card for the digital recorder which would give us 98 minutes in mono.  I thought that would be perfect.  I was wrong.  Our service did not conclude until after 1:00 p.m. and I ran out of memory on the recorder before Adrian was finished speaking.

Now for the God part!  Have you ever seen your entire church go forward at the invitation?  That is what I witnessed from the sound booth.  400+ people going forward to confess sin, rededicate their lives to Christ and to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  What a sight to behold!  That was God!  

On Monday I started listening to the audio in .wav format.  The spoken voices for announcements and other things sounded ok.  The singing voices lacked amplitude.  The instruments just sounded bad.  The worship leader did not sound as good as I know he can sound.  I was disappointed in the audio to say the least.  Then Adrian came on and I was amazed at the sudden clarity, fidelity, amplitude and lack of noise.  I started thinking of what microphone I had him use.  The microphone was nothing better than what everyone else had used if not worse.  The .wav recording was ready to convert to .mp3 as is.  I sampled it again and found no fault.  Like I said before I ran out of memory before Adrian had stopped speaking so I thought I would have to do some editing and end at a part that still got the points of message across or I was going to have to scrap the whole project.  The recording could not have shut off at a better point in the message.  No editing needed.  I converted to .mp3 and listened to that on my computer.  It sounded great for computer speakers.  I then burned it to a CD in about 15 minutes which was excellent compared to other burns I had did.  This was for 65 minutes of his message at almost 700mb; a full CD!  I took the burned CD in and played it on my home theatre system and I was blown away at the quality.  It sounded as good as the CDs that I had purchased recently from Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram; minus the professional narration, lead in and packaging of course.  All of that was God!

I know when something is beyond understanding, beyond the capabilities of equipment and beyond my own human abilities then it has to be God.

Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to be a part of “rightly handling the word of truth”. (2 Timothy 2:15)

  

Comes in 3s

WOW! Has it been almost 3 weeks since I last posted? Time flies by when the day job is demanding a lot of time, the computer is down for a week and preparation for 3 worship services is ongoing. We had some great morning worship services this past Sunday and the evening service we ordained 3 great men to the office of Deacon.

My computer going down was a blessing in disguise. Thank God all my hardware was not damaged for one thing. Upon rebuild everything was lost on my hard drive. (Word of warning about what partition software you use.) Now my computer performs as good as the day I bought it. Actually it performs better because the OEM partition and the poorly engineered, bundled software is history.

Well, that is my 3 main reasons for not posting. Plus I have been spending some time working on another blog. All I can say is “Life is hard but God is good”.

That’s a few 3s. This makes me think of the late, great Dale Earnhardt. In case you just fell off the turnip truck, his number was 3.

Due to my newly reconfigured computer I now have a whole new bundle of joy; I mean software to play with. Now let me recommend 3 excellent tools that will help you as a blogger. Two will help you with any text document, including e-mail, which you prepare.

1. Blogger for Word -- I’m using it now. If would like more control over your text than what the post creator and editor on blogger.com can offer then this is the way to go. One benefit that I’m using in this post is a bulleted list. There are many, many more. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the capabilities of Microsoft Word.
   
2. WordWeb Pro – WordWeb Pro is a fully functional dictionary and thesaurus that runs in you system tray. Therefore it is available for any document that you may want to check definition or synonym. In addition to definitions and synonyms this utility recommends adjectives, anagrams and similar words. Nice tool to have.
   
3. Text Monkey PRO – What a very quick and adaptable utility Text Monkey PRO has proved itself to be. I believe it is one of the more invaluable tools that I have found when it comes to editing any document or text. This includes cleaning up e-mail and converting HTML. I can’t begin to tell you all the features and I don’t really have to because you can see all the features listed here.

I hope this short list helps you discover some excellent utilities to use for text if you didn’t know already.

I have some new audio and video editing software that I’m digging into next. Stay tuned.

New Book & CD from Matt Redman

"Worship is a choice to be made in every circumstance of life and every season of the soul. Come rain or shine, come hardship or ease, come confusion or clarity, wise worshippers make it through the storms of life with a cry of 'Blessed Be Your Name' on their lips."
-- Matt and Beth Redman






I'm looking forward to picking up "Blessed Be Your Name" the book and "Blessed Be Your Name: The Songs Of Matt Redman Vol. 1" the CD.

Are We Indigenous Missionaries?

Anthony Coppedge has authored yet another thought provoking article on his blog.  The article is titled Does the Church Need AVL Technology?
Now I must confess at first I was confused because in the mobile data communications business AVL is an acronym for Automatic Vehicle Locator which uses GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to help pubic safety agencies, trucking companies or any other organization with a large fleet to keep track of their vehicles.  I thought “Why would a church need that?”  Anthony quickly clarified in the first paragraph that this AVL represents Audio, Video & Lighting.
Anthony sparked new avenues of thought for me as I’m now picturing my realm of using media as a mission field.  I attend a heavily missions oriented church so I may score points with my pastor by presenting our media ministry team as an indigenous missions team. [smile]  
Thanks once again Anthony for stoking the fire of my passion.  

Hurdles of Media Ministry Part 2

4- PASTORS
Usually this hurdle is due to miscommunication on our part and misunderstanding on their part.  We as technical people speak a different language and most of the time would rather be tinkering with equipment than communicating anyway.  Therefore we usually lack the interpersonal skills that pastors have perfected to communicate effectively what we can do for them.  
We have to remember that media is, for the most part, not a ministry unto itself.  It is an extension of every other ministry.  It is a tool to be used.  With that mindset then we can go to our pastors and first and foremost get not on the same page but on their page.  The senior or lead pastor holds the vision of the body of believers that have been entrusted to his care.  We have to learn to communicate effectively how media can be an enhancement of our pastor’s vision.  We have to build the trust of our ministerial staff.  Using media in our churches is still a growing phenomenon and many pastors and ministers do not think to incorporate media into their teaching, building disciples, praise and worship.  Those that are gifted in the areas of audio, video, lighting, web site design and other creative outlets are given a vision of how to incorporate these different mediums into the overall vision of the church.  If you step outside of the overall vision and use media to be using media then it will fail.

5-PEOPLE
You all have heard the old adage “It’s hard to find good help”.  And it is hard but not because the help is not there.  You have to dig to find the gems.  You would be amazed at how many people in your church are technically gifted.  Many times you have to draw them out though.  Like I said before we lack in the area of interpersonal skills so it is rare for someone to just step forward and say, “Hey, I want to be part of the Media Ministry Team”.  As a team leader you have to be constantly on the look out for those that are gifted and you have to approach them and be able to communicate with them.  It is much easier communicating with them than pastors because you already speak the same language.  Many times technically gifted people never find a place to serve within the church and do not grow spiritually because they are not interacting with God through an offering of their gift.
You have to have people because we can not do it all.  I have tried to do it all and it doesn’t work.  You have to have help and as your media ministry grows you need a lot of it.  Make sure you keep your team well informed and well trained and make them a part of everything that you envision with media.  That helps develop ownership and the overall scheme of things flows much better when your team has a sense of ownership in the ministry.
Ultimately people are why we are in a ministry anyway.

6-PERSONALITIES
The hurdle of personalities encompasses pastors and people.  It is usually not hard to tell who is introvert and who is extrovert.  Those are common personality traits that are tossed about.  But how about who is resilient and who is reactive?  Who is a preserver and who is an explorer?  Who is a challenger and who is an adapter?  Who is flexible and who is focused?  And don’t forget the middle of the road personality traits of ambivert, responsive, moderate, negotiator and balanced.  In team building and relationship building you have to be able to recognize people’s different personalities and how to relate to that person whether they are a pastor or one of your team members.  You may not think of your senior or lead pastor as an introvert but they may be just that.  Just because they deliver a message in front of the congregation every Sunday does not mean that they are an extrovert.  You have to get to know people in different settings and different situations.  
When training or instructing you have to be able to discern how people learn.  Do they learn visually, auditory or tactile?  Do they think globally or analytically?  When you develop your training make sure you cover all the different ways that people learn.  For visual learners you need a visual presentation, for auditory you need to be able communicate clearly and effectively and for tactile you need to allow time for hands on.  When you broadcast your vision it is easier to cast an overall picture which will work for those that think globally or big picture down and then allow for questions for those that are more analytical who think from details up.
With all of that being said this is probably the area that I struggle with most.  I have a hard time relating to other personalities sometimes.  One of my personality traits is that I’m a preserver.  In other words I have a low openness.  I’m practical, down-to-earth, efficient and conservative in opinions and set in my ways.  I, therefore, have a hard time with those that have the personality trait of explorer.  They are described as creative, imaginative, or artistic and easily bored.  They tend to be curious and seek varied new experiences.  You may also know them as your musicians and worship leaders.  I have had to ask forgiveness for the many times they have frustrated me to the boiling point.  With the Lords help I have learned how to talk to them, give them what they need and still be able to accomplish the goal of providing a service worthy of the worship of Jesus Christ.  I thank Kent Morris of Worshiptech.com and Brad Herring of Church Production Resources for allowing themselves to be used of God to point me and many others in the right direction in this area.

After we have cleared all of these hurdles then a media ministry can be used of God to reach the lost, make our fellowship more enjoyable, help in discipleship, enhance our minister’s message, make missions visible, and engage hearts and minds to interact with God in authentic worship.  

Hurdles of Media Ministry Part 1

I’m learning that in media ministry their can be many hurdles to overcome.  I’m going to list several and expound on them.  Some of them I have experienced first hand and some I have not had to deal with but I know that some of you have.

1.EDUCATION
Educating your congregation on the relevance of technology in today’s churches can be very difficult if you have an older member base or even younger members that have grown up in rigid, legalistic churches.  Many times you hear “we’ve never done it that way before” instead of thinking “you know, Jesus used everything at his disposal to teach life lessons.  I wonder how God can use media and those technically gifted for His glory and to further His kingdom.”  So many people get hung up on things that don’t affect the meaning of the Word of God or the truth that lies therein.  Let’s face it; we are in a technology advanced society that has come to expect excellence in audio, video and everything else technical.  As a wise friend once said, “The young people of our church demand excellence and the older members deserve excellence.”  I ask that people not resist the change of using of media.  Media is not bad.  What people do with media is sometimes bad but why can’t we use the same thing to counteract all the filth, hatred and violence with goodness, love and peace.

2.EQUIPMENT
Many times I wish I could have been in on the planning and purchasing of audiovisual equipment so many, many years ago.  Of course when your church is lacking in point #1 then you have a very difficult task of convincing anyone that you need to purchase quality equipment and systems.  Many times you are just getting by and the high dollar equipment of 20 years ago is on its last legs.  You have to keep patching and repairing until the piece decides to go onto glory.  
Usually the minimal investment that is allowed on equipment is just that; minimal.  Unfortunately what you do purchase does not live up to the expectation of your church and you end up looking like a fool.  The old adage many times applies, “you get what you pay for”.  
Be careful though because of the booming market of audio, video and lighting equipment to churches there are those companies that are looking for the fast buck.  They don’t understand the church, don’t understand God and certainly don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ but they do understand money and greed.  Churches are many times an easy target because of point #1.  Do your homework!  Research all of your equipment.  Find out what is working for some other churches.  Compare prices.  Get multiple opinions.  Learn from others successes and mistakes.  Remember though that what may work in one church may not work in another.  That is when it comes to having someone design systems in your church.  Check references.  You want to find companies that are reputable (preferably Christian based) and have the necessary people, tools and resources to get the job done.  Also make sure you get several companies to submit designs and quotes.  Don’t hesitate to tell them that there is competition.

3.ENGINEERING
I recently posted about power distribution and what a mess I find and I continue to find.  It never ceases to amaze me what a predicament churches get into with regards to electrical.  When it comes to buying equipment or designing systems do not forget electrical.  
Even more consideration is needed when it comes to lighting systems.  Those lights are power hogs.  An excellent formula to use is nick-named after my home state of West Virginia.  Watts = Volts x Amps or W=VxA.  For example if you want to know how much wattage you have available you can solve for W.  We will take 120 volts (US average) x 20 ampere rated dimmer circuit = 2400 watts.  Then you would add the ratings of all your lighting fixtures to see how many you can place on the one dimmer circuit.
Audio and video equipment need clean power and common potential grounding.  Grounding needs to be common at your service entry and all equipment needs to be tied to that ground to keep the same potential throughout your system.  Otherwise you are asking for serious problems.  There is the potential of electrical shock and much damage to equipment.  Now if your building is very old then you may have some degradation in your circuits that can lead to noise and other problems.  That is why you need to think of effective AC power regulation and distribution.  Get rid of the $5.00 so call surge protectors you bought at Wal-Mart.
After power comes how everything else is wired.  Keep your wiring neat and off your feet.  Invest a few bucks on cable ties, wire loom and raceways.  If possible keep your AC power, audio and video cables separate.  It is possible to have noise on your system by induction of AC power on speaker cables and other audio cables.

I have a few more points that I would like to make but I will continue on this thread in another post.  Stay Tuned…

Line Arrays: Does Everyone Need Them or Not?

2005 has seen an explosion on the market of line arrays by just about every company that manufactures speakers. Although line arrays have been around for over 50 years there is definitely a resurgence in their use. But are they the cure all for your audio woes? As always it depends on the room in which you are wanting to reinforce sound. But hey I'm not the expert. Read from those who know.

Line Arrays: Beware the "Craze"?

Understanding Line Array Systems

JBL’s development team talks about line array concepts

John Meyer on Line Arrays

Hope this helps!

Check Out StandPoint!

StandPoint is a new blog you might want to peruse from time to time.

Dream Big, Think Big, Go Big!

Perry Noble offered a post titled Dream Big. For some reason they have their posts anchored instead of permalink so you will have to scroll down to find that post. After that, make sure you read the post above it as well. Good stuff!

Anyway the post got me to thinking about how many times I hear complaints about some aspect of media ministry. How when I mention what we could do with media or what it would take to really make an event stand out in the community then I get blank stares. When I'm asked by staff to improve an area but then the stewardship committee slashes my budget to the point that I have to maintain status quo. And that may be unfair because our church is fiscally sound. But it is frustrating still.

I'm not satisfied with status quo. The Lord has shown me the need to improve sound, video, lighting, website etc; in different venues to impact outreach, fellowship, discipleship, worship, missions and other ministries. Some of those ideas are a drastic departure from what we have now. But I want to jump out of the fish bowl into the pond and pond to lake and lake to ocean. I need to keep growing and learning and striving for excellence. I will continue to dream big, think big and someday go big!

What is a Technical Staff Position Worth?

Anthony Coppedge never shies away from the tough issues facing churches in the area of media ministry. His post yesterday was no exception. I really appreciated him bringing up this topic.

In my case, I'm the last one to bring up the question of money. I have never wanted to appear that I was there for the money. That is probably why I have never did fair market value research for any employment that I have had and I have never asked for a raise. I believe the love of the job is first and foremost, then people chemistry and then money. When the love of the job wanes though...well that is a different topic.

Of course when you are called to a certain ministry then your salary should not be a determining factor in my opinion. Now if a church or ministry doesn't want to pay you enough to support the cost of living in the area they are located then maybe they have not done their homework. Maybe they have not prepared themselves to take on another staff position. Then maybe that is not the place that God has for you.

Anyway, check out Anthony Coppedge's post Salaries for "Media & Communications" People

Casting a Vision

I heard the phrase "casting a vision" somewhere before but I don't quite remember where. Anyway, it is something that I need to learn how to do. How do I get a whole group of people to see the vision that the Lord has given me for media ministry and how do I get them onboard and as excited as I am?

I'm starting a DVD based training series on the fundamentals of audio starting this Sunday, August 14th. I pray that the Lord uses this to cast His vision.

Another P: Priorities

Every once in a while we need to take the time to get alone and assess our Priorities. Are we putting God first in all that we do? Even in our ministries it can become about the church or us and God is kind of put on the back burner. I know you all have heard the cliche "keep the main thing the main thing" but it is so true. When you get up in the morning try asking God; "Lord what would you have me do with your time today?" or "What would You have me do with Your money today?".
This is much harder when you are involved in a technical ministry when a lot of what you do centers on equipment rather than people. I try hard to not get wrapped up in making a service about the technology. It is such a fine line.
Another thing about being involved in a technical ministry is the time involved to make something right. We have to be careful about neglecting other areas because we are so involved in making an element of the service as perfect as humanly possible. This is where a good media ministry team can alleviate the burden of a leader and each other.
We must keep ourselves from becoming too busy for God. And it happens even in ministry. Our worship pastor posted an article in our church newspaper in which he took an entry from a devotional book printed in 1953. An excerpt from that devotional stated;

Christians are too busy even with good things, and the best thing -- to know God -- gets away.

Another excerpt stated;

If you are too busy to find time for God, you are too busy, You have received a charge to keep, and if your busyness keeps you from being about your Father's business, you are a poor business man! Take time for God!

All of that to lead into a post that Gary Lamb put up on his Mad Babble From A Church Planter blog titled Worthless... Once again God uses Gary to speak to me along with others to show me that I'm getting too busy to know God and what He really wants for my life.

July Concert Series

Our July 2005 "Concerts on the Lawn" series is over. I'm kind of disappointed that it is over. It was a lot of work. It was very frustrating at times. It was almost a disaster at one point. All in all it was a great learning experience and I had a blast. I met some great singers and musicians who above all had a heart for the Lord and a desire to spread the gospel above everything else. That is what it is all about.

The first week we had The Songsters. These gentlemen were in the tradition of southern gospel quartets and were outstanding. Their bass singer had recently passed away so they are for now a trio but sounded awesome. It was a pleasure to help them when they had some audio problems on set up and we were able to have the cure of a couple $3.00 adapters. Those will get you every time. I enjoyed helping them on their outdoor mix as well.

Week 2 was the disaster week. It can be read about at Planning, Preparation, Practice. Enough said. I hope to be able to let people hear how good the praise band from River Hills Community Church really is someday. Also a big thank you to Tim at All Pro Sound. He knew exactly what I needed to remedy my problems plus turned me on to some adapters that I didn't know existed. This saved me some making cables, building connectors, soldering pins time. That I liked. The guys at All Pro Sound are always easy to talk to and know exactly what you are going through because they are not just salesmen. They are out there on the weekends using the stuff just like we are.

Week 3 was moved indoors due to the intense heat we were experiencing. This really cut down on our set up time. No speakers to fly or snake to run and no amplifiers to move or mixer station to roll out. Only mics, stands and associated cables.
The group was our own praise band which is our own singing group Surrender joined with lead and bass guitar, an additional keyboardist and drummer. All the details can be read about at What a Difference a Week Makes.

The last week was also indoors but this time because of storms. The group was His Anointed This is a local family group that is on fire for the Lord. They really had the place jumping. They are also southern gospel but probably most closely resembled The Crabb Family. Not only is the whole family vocally gifted but what really impressed me is how much they love the Lord and how well they work together in everything they did. From their set-up to sound check to concert to tear down was all like a fine tuned machine. Outstanding!

Well, this summer was definitely an experience and one that the Lord refined me in more ways than one. I can't wait to see what He has in store for our media ministry next.