Hello everyone, long time no blog.  Between not having time to write, and not having anything exciting to write about, I haven’t made it to this page very often.  Now, with two major events behind me, I feel like maybe I can fill a page with something relatively interesting……ok….maybe I can fill a page…..you can decide whether or not it’s interesting.

Worship Under the Stars, in it’s second year this year, was held at the Jekyll Island Convention Center on Jekyll Island, Georgia.  Yes, for the second year, we held an event called “..Under the Stars”, inside a building.  The decision to move inside was made early this year, allowing us to plan accordingly, and not be scrambling at the last minute.  I arrived into Brunswick late Monday evening, just in time to eat at Tokyo Joe’s with my friends Chris and Amanda, and Stephen and Leslie.  Tuesday was consumed with picking up my assistant for the week….Aaron Peck.  As most of you may know, he interned for me at CRCC for 7 months earlier this year, and it was a treat to work with him again….we picked right up where we left off…it was great.  Tuesday night we settled into our beachside hotel room, and met with our crew, a 9-member team that covered all of the technical aspects of the show: Audio, Lighting, Video, Staging, Production, Visuals, etc.  It was a great time of community, a time for a bunch of guys who may or may not have known each other, get to know each other.

Wednesday morning at 10am (ish), the fun began.  Two 24′ trucks pulled up to the back door of the convention center, and rolled open their doors.  Inside, packed floor to ceiling, wall to wall, was all of the lighting, video, and audio equipment I could stand….It was like Christmas…..except that what began falling from the sky wasn’t snowflakes…..it was rain….lots and lots of rain.  So, after unpacking the trucks in the rain, and getting everything inside, we began to unpack the boxes, and hang the equipment.  Everything was done by about 6pm, ready to be used. 

For those of you who kept up last year, I had a lighting console that was apparently manufactured by Satan himself, because it kept crashing, and would never work.  This year, I requested a console that i was familiar with, so that I could fix any problems that arose, and be able to program quicker, because I knew how to operate the console.  I unpacked it, and plugged it in, excited to actually be programming before 1am!  After about 3 minutes of working with it….it was apparent that it too, wasn’t going to work.  The rental company said they had another console that they could bring, but it would be there until about 3pm on Thursday…..the day of our 7pm Dress Rehearsal…….oh yeah….and it is yet another console that I have never used.  So, in an instance, I go from being 4 hours early in programming, to being almost 20 hours late.  I was happy.  I mean, really, really happy.  The benefit was that I actually got to sleep more that night….we finished focusing the conventional lights at about 2am, and we were in our room by about 2:30am…..believe me, an early night. 

The next morning, Fred McKinnon, the event Producer, told us that a 7-bedroom house had been donated to WUTS, and that he wanted us to move over there, with the rest of the out-of-town band members.  He was hoping that it would have that frat-house type feeling….everyone doing their own thing, hanging out in the free time (it was a GIANT house).  I slept there for 4 nights….and I NEVER even SAW another person in the house.  Ever. 

ANYHOO, we get to the Convention Center right before the new console gets there.  Up to this point, everything has run smooth as glass.  No audio issues, some video problems, but nothing a $50 online purchase couldn’t fix.  Even the lighting was going ok, except for the console.  The team was working GREAT together; it was fun to watch them all interact with each other, and get things done.  The console finally arrived, and by 5:30pm, I had started recording cues for the show.  Once dress rehearsal started, I stopped for a while….as it is hard to hear Song #3 in your head, if the band is playing song #6 on stage.  I walked out, and spent a few MUCH-NEEDED minutes on my computer, catching up on some very important things :).  After they were done, about 9pm, I started back again.  My faithful few, Stephen, Leslie, Chris, and Aaron stayed with me almost all night long.  It was a fun night….I got lots of programming done…had a few minutes of play time, including setting the Fire Alarm off on the entire Convention Center Campus…….Twice.  After all of the fuss, I programmed my last cue, and left.  I was back at the house and in bed by 7:30am (I told you 2:30 was an early night).

Friday morning came….at least so I hear……I didn’t actually see Friday until the clock said “PM”.  Aaron and I got up, made it over to the center, finished up some last minute details, and got ready to roll.  Doors opened at 6:30pm, and all of the planning, practice, programming, late nights, emails, phone conversations, was now less than 30 minutes from becoming a reality.  There was an excitement in the room.  We all met together, went over last minute details, and it was time. 

The house lights went down, the opening video started.  During that video, the opening band, Vertical Window, took the stage.  After 30 minutes of their time, they were off stage.  A couple minutes of Transition time, and the House Band for WUTS took the stage.  They sounded AWESOME.  My Audio guy made them sound great..the video looked great, the lighting looked great…it was all coming together….and you could tell in the faces of those in the room, that it was making an impact…..not the audio…or the lighting….but the audio and lighting together with the band and vocal, creating an atmosphere for people to freely worship.  It was amazing.  The show finished off great.  Saturday was even better….a better crowd, it was technically executed better than Friday, and the energy of the room was awesome. 

Friday night, Fred mentioned my name from stage, as “someone who made the whole show happen”.  Now, while I appreciate the unexpected Kudos, my official response to that is this:  While I did have a hand in making sure the event was pulled off successfully, I certainly did not to it alone.  My crew of guys did a TREMENDOUS job…They each did their job 110%, and all did things that were outside of what was expected of them, just to get the job done.  I could not have asked for a better crew of guys.  Technically, these guys rocked…the best of the best.  Personally, i couldn’t have asked for an easier group of people to lead.  Sure, I’ve been stressing about this event for months….but THESE guys….Dennis, Richard, Aaron, Scotty, Justin, Stephen, Chris, Kay….THESE are the people who made it happen. 

So, in this industry, they say with every major event, you should take something away…learn something, that will help make the next as successful, or more so.  As successful as this event was, I have three learnings. 

First, although irrelevant to things “technical”, I realized that there is a hunger for real, true worship in that area of the country.  There were MANY states represented at that event, because people are hungry for worship….not the liturgy or fake worship they experience in their local church….but a real connection….something that almost hinders them from singing, because the Spirit is so thick.  I saw many people experiencing that very thing both nights…and it made me realize something….While the overall “church” there seems to be dying at an alarming rate….the act of freely worshiping, is not.  People who were there were WORSHIPPING…..uninhibited by what other people thought, or what the general consensus is as to what is “ok” in the worship setting…..There were people singing, shouting, dancing, standing, sitting, going forward using the stage as an alter.  My worry is that the local church as a whole isn’t seeing that, and as soon as this once-a -year event is over, so is the ability to worship like that.  Why aren’t the churches latching onto that?  Why do they insist on being dead?  It’s confusing to me. 

The second thing I learned, is conflict-management is a vital piece of leading a team…and more importantly, how you manage it.  I learned this that week; that in order to diffuse a situation, you can’t get emotional, you have to stay perfectly flat and calm.  Secondly, you can’t convince someone who is upset.  When you try to “convince” someone, you are saying that you are right, and they are wrong.  Instead of “convincing” them, you have to make them understand that there is a better way, that needs to be mutually met.  It’s not your way versus their way….it’s the right way versus the wrong way.  That may be common sense for all of you, but I had the “chance” to test that out during that week…..and it got me out of getting my face smashed in…..so, just so you know, it works. 

Finally, my last learning is that when working with teams of people, the smallest things can leave the biggest impacts.  Tuesday night before the event, as I mentioned above, I scheduled a dinner with my crew at a local restaurant, for no other reason other that to just let them all interact with each other, and with me….for them to get to know the people that they didn’t know, and for them to get used to me.  Nobody there has ever said this, but I have a feeling about something…. While I was there, people walk up to me, as ask me NOT if I am Adam, but if I am that guy from Vegas.  This makes me wonder A) why are they talking about me, enough to know where I am from, and B) so what?  Sometimes, it almost seems like a defensive question, like I think I am somebody, or a know-it-all, just because I come from Las Vegas.  Anybody who reads this blog, knows that’s not who I am.  I think having that dinner that night; as simple of a thing as it was; allowed my team to see that I am not some bossy Vegas Director.  I think this helped us all out personally be able to get along with each other, because I made them know that we are all on the same level….but it also helped that when I DID ask for something to get done, they knew I was asking out of a spirit of making something the best it could be, not as an egotistical jerk from Vegas.  All because we ate barbeque together a day before the work started. 

Overall, I think the event was a huge success.  Aaron even mentioned how he felt a renewed passion about worship, music performance, and different styles of worship music.  I think we all came away with a sense of something gained from this event.  I loved working with my team, Fred, and all of the other volunteers that made Worship Under the Stars successful this year.  It was a week with little sleep, and even less food; but I wouldn’t change a single thing about it.

If you want to see pictures of the event, LOOK HERE, courtesy of Chris Moncus.