Production: Does Size Really Matter?

I always think we have a really large production...right up until I flip through Church Production Magazine.  Which is a great magazine, but I see pictures of video control rooms that are just HUGE and think to myself "I don't even know what some of that stuff is."  Which of course as a video professional is not an easy thing to admit.  Seriously though 5 years ago seems like all I ever heard about was the big 10 the *"NorthWillowLifeCrossBackPointe Church" or as my buddy Jim Kumorek says "First Mega Church of The Anointed".  Now I see things and read things about lots churches I have never heard of, and they are all so much bigger then us.  The level of production at these places far surpasses ours.  I won't lie it makes me a little bitter. 

Case in point, I ordered shirts for all our tech volunteers, with all the extras I ordered I got 90 shirts.  That was for our main campus and our multi-site ALL tech volunteers.  I believe ALL totaled we have 60-70 volunteers. For some perspective I went of to NPCC looks like North Point uses 40 volunteers a week.   Now I would never compare what we do to what they do, never ... it's apples and.... much much much smaller apples :-)

This leads in to my title, so I ask myself this "why should it matter?"

Obviously it shouldn't.  I can't even begin to tell you how blessed we are as a church and how personally blessed I have been.  I wouldn't even know where to start, and even if I tried I would miss/skip the vast majority of it.

That said, I am a flawed vessel.  I read the stats from North Point and I think to myself "man if only we could do that"  when my first reaction should be "Wow, it is so awesome that they can do that"

Mike made a great point in his message on love today that I think applies here.  He said I should be happy that a brother/sister in Christ is being blessed, and not bitter because it wasn't me.  THAT is the way I should show my love for them.  I should be excited for them, and rejoice with them, and if I was loving them like I should this would be natural. 

So I say to myself and I say to anyone reading this, rejoice for/with the blessed, don't harden your heart to them.  If you would love like you were suppose to this would flow naturally out of you, if it isn't... then you and I know what we need to work on.

And if anyone for North Point is reading this; Ya'll ROCK!! Keep up the good work!

*I wish I was clever enough to come up with that name... but it was CPM from Mike Sessler I stole it.

Church Tech Part 4

Funny I forgot that the message this weekend was going to be mission and vision.  So Mike talked about relevance and excellence.  I find it interesting that when I started this journey with this series of blogs I didn't know where it would end, and then Mike talks about why we do what we do in the message this weekend. Coincidence, I think not.  Mike made the point that while the way the message is told changes, the message never changes.  Jesus did some pretty revolutionary thing to help get the message out; drawing in the sand, observing someone planting, getting out in a boat.
What has been will be again,
   what has been done will be done again;
   there is nothing new under the sun.      Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV


I think that is pretty clear, so my last argument in the technology debate is FOR again.   Using technology keeps the way the message is spread relevant.  Read that carefully, technology doesn't make the message relevant, it is relevant regardless of technology.  Technology makes the way it is told relevant, and I would even go as far as to say; by making the WAY it is told relevant you make SOME people more receptive to it.

In this day in age where people are bombarded by information and technology these things have become part of who we are.  Honestly, while sad to admit I am not sure how I ever got along before smart phones.  I don't know what I would do if I had to wait somewhere and I didn't have access to angry birds.  The lesson here is, if you want to talk to me in a way that speaks to me then you need to play in my sandbox.  Otherwise I am probably not going to listen.  

FOR: While the message never changes the way it is told has to change, or else it will stagnate and die.  By using technology I think you present the gospel in a way people are comfortable hearing about it, and by doing that you remove barriers and make people more receptive to it.  


This goes hand in hand with my soapbox on lyrics on the projection screen.  I tell all of my volunteers THAT is the most important part of what we do, the lyrics.  Why? I am glad you asked.  Let me set up a scenario for you: You are not a believer, but you are interested and want to know more. So you go and visit a church.  This church uses hymnals.  

Let me stop right there and say I have no problem with hymnals... but this scenario isn't about me it's about this mythical non-beliver keep that in mind.


So when it comes to the worship some says turn to hymn 235, so you turn the hymnal (after you see everyone else pick up the BLUE BOOK not the BLACK BOOK) and you turn to page 235 and find hymn 243... quickly realizing your mistake you find the right page. By this time everyone is singing but you.  So you find the right page, however you don't read music... So you follow along for a verse and see how the congregation is following the words... then it goes the the second verse and you get lost again.  Finally you figure out how this whole hymnal thing works ... once you get to the bottom it goes back to the top of the page and you read all the NEXT lines.... ok great.  By this time they are finishing the second verse, but you are ready this time, you look to the third verse and you start to sing out.... only to discover ... they skipped the third verse.  They skipped the third verse!?!  WHY?  Because NEVER NEVER NEVER in the 25 years the church has been around have they EVER sung the third verse of that hymn. 
Now, tell me in THAT moment, how worshipful do you feel?

Hymnals are not bad, barriers are bad.  If they aren't a barrier for your people, keep them.  If it aient broke don't fix it.  However, if you want to reach the seekers you have to REMOVE the barriers... and stay relevant.  

Church Tech Part 3

If you read part 2 of this post, then you have prolly figured out why I do what I do.  That said it's not always like that.  First service yesterday was a perfect example.  We had a lot of little failures, stuff most people prolly didn't see or notice.  But I did, and my team did.  Those little failures clung to me throughout the worship set. I can feel the energy draining from my team like a balloon with a hole in it. Most of these could have been overcome easily before service, however during service ... not so much.    When things are going good I think I have the best job in the world, when things like yesterday happen I feel like I totally failed my people.

Mistakes tend to breed more mistakes and the more "moving parts" you have the more likely you are to get mistakes.  Lets face it, having tech adds an exponential number of literal and figurative "moving parts"

Against: Beyond power and technical failures, humans are involved so perfection WILL NOT be achieved.

A Reflection of My Heart

2 weeks ago, our band preformed this original song written by our worship leader.  I was given a click track to edit to for the video so I was able to integrate the live guitar solos to canned video via a luminance key, and some careful planning.

Church Tech Part 2

So for the second post in my closer look at why do churches have tech I want to take slightly different approach.  One that I am most familiar with.  At the same time I hope to better explain another argument FOR tech that some people may not have considered.  While a little (little might be an understatement) egoistical it still true... the way I serve on the weekends is for me the most pure form of worship I have ever experienced.

How so?  Well let me dig into this a little more.  As the video director at my church during worship I am calling camera shots directing camera operators.  To me I feel trying to facilitate the movement and direction of this living breathing thing that just wants to run wild and free and I am trying to help it get where it wants to go.  Also I am white and I am a recovering southern baptist... so when I direct, I dance.  I don't mean a little foot taping... I mean if our church released a video game knock off of DDR it would be called "Video Director Hero" When I am working it is as close to David bringing back the Arc as I think I can get
 I will celebrate before the LORD. 2 Samuel 6:21 NIV
Read 2 Samuel 6 and listen to the descriptions of what David was doing and celebrating....THAT is how I feel. 

With that said I know our church didn't put in all this tech just so I can worship, that would be crazy. However IF this is what it is like for me, and IF this is what it is like for the worship team, and we can encourage everyone involved, and everyone watching to have that and express it .... THOSE times it is awesome. 

Not to say you can't have that experience without tech because you absolutely can, but I think the more people that are involved that are having THAT same experience, like a fire in dry grass, it just spreads.

FOR:  You don't have tech just so the techies can worship, because not all of them worship like that.  However, it is a excellent perk for them if they do.

Church Tech Part 1

There are sometimes I lament being a techie at a church.

Perfect example: staff meetings.   When the children's workers say "12 kids made Jesus their forever friend this weekend" the High school/Middle school workers say "we baptized 23 this weekend" First impressions team "was able to pray with someone and lead them after to Christ of this message this week" the worship was "absolutely incredible".
I never get to say "we managed to bring 3 people to Christ because of the dutch angle on camera 4 this weekend"  or "camera 2 did an incredible job of demonstrating God's love with that pan" I mean come on that is just silly, and I know it is not a competition of "which ministry can be to most spiritual" (Spiritual Formations of course) But do you see my point? No one comes to Christ because of a camera angle, no one.  So why have cameras? why have tech at all?  I am going to explore/unpack this over the course of a couple of posts. I will let you in on a little secret, I am a little bias about the tech ministry.  To be honest, this is something I have to ask myself regularly, and my answer isn't always the same.

Let me start by saying, yes I see how many times I said "I" in the last paragraph, yes I am aware that prolly means I am treading on dangerous ground since this topic shouldn't be about me.  I agree, that said it's MY blog... this is how I am going to unpack my thoughts.  As I write this I am not really sure how it ends yet, so lets start looking through some standard arguments for/against.

For: The purpose of a tech ministry is to remove all obstacles from between the congregation and their worship/ learning.  Over simplified we make it so people can hear and see the worship and the pastor even if they can't from where they are sitting.  True and good.

Against: Sometimes though the tech actually creates more distractions the it removes.  True.    Sometimes that is because it's technology, and as is the nature of the beast if it can be plugged in it can fail. True and bad.

Sad but true

We recently traded in my old car for a newer used car.  This evening on the way home from dinner while listening to satellite radio "Step by Step" by New Kids On The Block came on.  I sang the first two lines before I realized what it was .... sad but true.