Well, I figured it has been a while since I have posted on here, so I thought I would catch up.  If I follow my normal routine, I will add about 3 entries today…and then no more until June or so.  Sorry, that’s just the way it is.  Things have settled down a little bit now that the Easter rush is finally over.  We had EIGHT Easter services that weekend….1 Friday, 3 Saturday, and 4 Sunday.  Our numbers were lower than we expected….onlt 9,112 people on campus.  Still, that’s not bad.  We also had over 100 people baptized that weekend, around 40 of which were not registered….which means they decided to get baptized AFTER they arrived at church that weekend.  VERY cool.  Chris is out here, and is getting settled in nicely.  He bought a new car, and is zipping around all over town now.  In his first week, he put in almost 80 hours…..way to go Chris!  This past week around the Ridge has been a little slower…which has allowed chris to start working on the other part of his job….web design for the church.  Check the Church’s Website often to see some of the changes he is making…..coming soon….Podcasting @ the Ridge.  I can already see the dilligence and work ethic that Chris is going to put into all of the projects he works on.  I am really excited to have him here. 

On a completely different subject……how do you deal with personal conflict?  Whether it be sin in your life that you are dealing with, or personal struggles with decisions, or trying to always do the right thing….How do you keep in check?  I have realized that having an accountability partner could quite possibly be one of the best thing that could happen to someone’s personal walk.  Having someone you can talk to, tell them everything that’s going on in your life (the good, bad, and questionable), and someone that can help keep you going in the right direction seems priceless to me.  I don’t currently have one of those people…..but I know others that do, and it’s helping them a ton.  For the rest of you who don’t have that person like me, I encourage you to find someone.  Someone you can trust, who you can talk to, and someone you can take guidance from.  I think you will see the difference.

I am priveledged enough to be working with two of the high school kids right now, on a slightly deeper level than normal, to help them become what they want to be.  A mentor of sorts.  Both of them have tons of potential, although in very different areas, and i am excited to be able to help them grow into what they want to be.  I firmly believe that one of them will be a dynamic, renowned worship leader within the next 10 years.  I tell you this because I have seen two things within my own life since I have started working with them.  First, in order to fill others, you have to be filled (back to the last paragraph).  Secondly, it is an amazing feeling to have someone, who isn’t THAT much younger than you, look up to your for asnwers in all kinds of subjects…life, church, music, whatever.  Sometimes I feel like I just live my life, getting nothing out of it, and giving nothing to it.  But as I talk to these kids, I realize: I am using my own life experiences…..the very ones I thought didn’t impact me……to lead these kids.  Not only that, but as I talk to those kids, I am making an impact….no matter how small.  That one student is going to be who they are because of their talent, their character, and their heart….that has nothing to do with me.  But knowing that I did even just one little thing to help steer them in the right direction, makes it VERY exciting to me.  (not to mention the name recognition and free concerts later )

This may be one of my most random blogs to date.  They are all just things that I am thinking right now….now being an interesting time in my life……some things are going better than I could have ever expected….some things aren’t……and some things are going, whether I expected them or not.  I am excited to see what is in store.

Stay Tuned…..

Well, after many months of convincing Chris that CRCC is where he needs to be, he is FINALLY coming out here!  His official start date is April 10th.  He will come out for 7 weeks, and then go back and get married to his lovely wife-to-be Amanda, and then they will both come out for good sometime in mid-June.  He will be working on our web-development stuff, as well as be the AV Manager for the new youth buidling….which basically means a second ME, which will leave me to work in the Auditorium.  This is an exciting time in my life, his life, and the life of our church.  Visit his blog page to see HIS account of the last few months, as well as the church’s website that he will be working on!!

This blog is similar to the previous one….I have a bad tendency to not blog for several weeks, and then get on a role, and not be able to stop.  Bare with me, or exit the site at any time….Otherwise, please keep all hands, feet, arms, legs, teeth, hair, and toes inside the car until it comes to a complete stop.

     Having been a church sound person for nearly 14 years now, I have been a part of COUNTLESS funerals and memorial services, and by that, I mean in the upper hundreds.  I have seen everything from age-induced death, lightning strike victims, cancer victims, murders, terrorist bombing victims, suicides, etc.  Over time, I have developed a numbness to the event, which is really both positive and a negative.  Positive, in the sense that I can get my job done, and focus on meeting the needs of the people in mourning.  Also positive in the fact that with so much hands on experience, I have lots of comforting advice to give to families, from seeing similar scenarios played out over the years.  However, sometimes it can have a negative effect, because I think the callouse that has built up towards deaths has made me seem insensitive.  It’s really not that I am insensitive to what has happened, because many times I have stopped to ponder "what if?", as I am sure many families have done over the years.  I think after a while, I just bypass that initial shock stage, and move right through the recovery stage and into the moving on stage, without even thinking about it.  Being part of the operational side of a funeral service has probably made me view it as a business transaction, or operational task more than a person’s death.  After helping lift 100-200 caskets out of a car, you forget that there is a brother, son, aunt, uncle, mom, dad, sister…in there.

However, a funeral I did last week made me give pause to a thought, like no other funeral has done before. 

The scene was typical, lots of black dresses and flowers everywhere.  A teenager, male, about 15, calmly left the living room where his family was, walked into his bedroom closet, shut the door, sat down, and shot himself in the head.  Unfortunately, a scenario I have delt with before.  In my mind, it was just another kid who thought he had problems, (how many problems do you REALLY have when you are 15?) and decided to provide himself with a long-term solution to a temporary problem.  But then, the boys younger sister by a year, got up, and read a letter that she had written to him after his death….again, something I had seen before.  It had all of the usual sap that you would expect from a 14 year old grieving girl…until about the 3rd paragraph.  My best paraphrase is this:  "Why did you have to do this!?  All I wanted to hear from you was ‘I Love You’, instead, I heard the bullet go through the wall, and I will remember that sound forever.  I thought we were closer than that!?  Why wouldn’t you let me help you?…"  She went on for several more minutes, but that one sentance rang louder than anything else she said: "All I wanted to hear from you was ‘I Love You’, instead, I heard the bullet go through the wall, and I will remember that sound forever."  What a statement.  Most times, parents would edit out graphic details like that before it got to the podium, but there it was, coming across the microphone loud and clear.

What was the last thing you said to someone you love?  I hope and pray that nobody that reads this blog would ever dream of doing something like this young boy did….but in a figurative sense, take a moment and think:  Was the last thing you said to him/her an "I love you", or was it a bullet?  Every day we get a chance to make sure that the last thing people hear INS’T the sound of a bullet going through the wall.  The voice of desperation or the cry of feeling alone is still better than a gunshot.  I hate to think that this boy died in vain, although it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel in these types of situations.  For me, his funeral service was a reminder for me to check up on my relationships, both friends and family, and make sure that no matter the situation, no matter the time, date, place or person, the people that I love KNOW that they are the people that I love….Because THAT is the sound I want them to remember forever…

  Do you ever stop and think about the people you surround yourself with?  I mean, why do you pick the friends that you do?  What qualities do you look for?  Are there different things you want in female friends that you want in male friends?  Are there things that you look for in people that are older, or younger?  Do you set mental parameters as to what type of people you can be friends with?  For some reason, I began to think about these things recently, as I looked at my own sets of acquantences.  I look at my life, and see a trend of always having friends that were my age or older.  I guess I equate this to being a fairly mature person for my age growing up, and I tried to surround myself with people on my "level" more than people my age.  Now, I see I have friends in almost every catogory:  Single guys that are double my age…single guys that are my age…single girls…married guys…..married ladies….a more eclectic list than my former years of life.  Why is that?  I believe as I have grown up, I have been able to develop a deeper understanding of people’s CHARACTER, and maybe not so much their TRAITS.  While this may seem like an oxymoron due to the fact the two words are usually used in tandem, I believe there may be a distinct difference.  A younger me only spotted the TRAITS of people…The fact that they were funny….some were pretty girls….I thought I was smarter than them…..They could drive fast….They also had musical talent…they had video games at their house…etc.  And while some of those traits are worth noting, very few are worth forming or maintaining a real relationship.  An older, more invloved me, has found CHARACTER is much more valuable.  Things that draw my attention NOW, are things that were never on my radar before:  People who are thoughtful, compassionate…People who aren’t afraid to be REAL, and show it’s OK…people who believe something and work hard to prove it.  I find these things are much more vaulable, and almost necessary to form real, lasting relationshps with people.  Necessary, because the TRAITS I looked for long ago mean nothing now, really….Funny is great, but if you have no Compassion, so what?  Driving fast cars and being smarter, those things fade with time.  Pretty girls can’t be a draw anymore, for obvious reasons.  Maybe it’s because of all these traits that haven’t held up, that has caused me to look deeper into myself, and other people.  I find the harder you look at someones character, the less important their traits become, even bad ones.  Say someone has a tendancy to be late…..so what?  That’s a trait….I’d take someone who’s late but Caring ANY DAY over someone who is filled with negativity. 

     The more I think about it, the more I personally believe (with absolutely no Biblical backup that I am aware of at 12:51am) that all of our friends are here for a reason, because they bring something to the table that you will need one day…..maybe someone is your release from a bad day at work…maybe someone is the person you talk to when you are struggling with a problem….maybe someone is there to challenge and grow your character…maybe someone is there to show you love when you feel unloved…..and most importantly….maybe they are there for you to show THEM love when THEY feel unloved….Maybe they are there for you to help THEM through rough times….maybe you are the person taking THEM out to dinner, just to catch up.  I think that’s what our friends are all about….showing each other God’s love; through humble acts of service, and by being there for each other.

    I have developed lots of friendships since I have moved to Las Vegas….Most of which I could say I Love…and many of which I hope are life-long.  I believe many of you subscribe to this blog.  I am thankful every day for the attributes and attitudes I have learned from each and every one of you, and for the things that you have given me, and challenged me with.  I hope that before my time at the Ridge is done, someone can say that they got even 1/10th of what I got from them.

     While I of course think family is important, necessary, and all of that….I think our lives revolve and EVOLVE around the friendships that we make.  Sometimes friendships will fail, sometimes they will be strained, and sometimes even frowned upon, but I know we are put in each others lives for a reason, and I am totally stoked about the challenge of finding out why….

(Editors Note:  Of course, daily excercise, and spiritual growth also helps form who you are, but that didn’t really fit in the above blog )

Hey Everyone!

      Believe it or not, it’s already time to start thinking about WUTS 06!  We are tossing around several ideas, including doing it in the Spring instead of fall this year, and ACTUALLY trying to be under the stars!!  Please begin now to pray for the event, that the location details and plans start to come together.  Check back here and at the WUTS Website to see the progress being made for this event!  See you in ‘06!!

I want to start this post with a excerpt from my book, in Chapter 10:

“Serving in the technical ministry requires you to have a certain ability to balance both science and art. This doesn’t mean you have to hold a microscope in the left hand and a painting in the right. It means that you have to find your own little niche in the booth, and figure out when the right time to use each process is. Let’s look together at an outline of when to use science, and when to use art. Since I’m not there, how about you just look at it by yourself, and then let me know what you read.

I refer to “science” because understanding how to mix first begins with it. You can’t paint a beautiful priceless painting until you know how to mix colors, how the paint reacts to the surface, and how everything flows together. The same is true with technology. You can’t design a lighting plot for a play until you know how the colors react to the set pieces, where the shadows fall, and how the technology works to make the end result possible. In audio, you can’t mix a band together until you know how the equipment works, how the songs flow, and what instruments are featured. You use the science to master the concept of technology, from the basics of how a microphone works to the everyday sound check. The science comes into play when it’s time to get the band (or vocalists, or whatever) checked. Get the monitors set, figure out when certain instruments are soloed, etc. In lighting, figure out where lights need to be focused and colored, and then use those fixtures, and figure out when to fade in and out. You will find that the science is a long a tedious process that should never really end. If you find yourself not using the science as often, that says that you already know it all, and have nothing left to figure out. If this is the case, please come teach me everything you know! Again, without giving the proper attention to the science aspect of technology, you can bring you final product down from a Picasso event to a Barney Fife event.

The art aspect of technology is definitely not something that comes perfectly the first time, yet it is something that takes time after time of practice to refine. Art in technology is taking all of the things you learned with the science, and applying them to your task. For the audiophiles, it is masterfully creating a work of art with the sounds and nuances of the music that you learned during sound check. You are a band member, and the sound console is your instrument. For you lighting guys, it is craftily mixing your lighting to create moods that send your audience exactly to where you want them; whether it is a feeling, mood, or even place. Using the art does not, and should not mean you live by a “set it and forget it” mentality. Especially is audio mixing, you cannot expect to set your levels and not touch them……”

So many times, I think the problem with the local “tech guy” is that they are really good at one aspect, but have insufficient knowledge in the other. I believe this is why so many churches have a 2nd rate technical ministry, and in turn, have a second rate music ministry. When people don’t give 110% of themselves, and give the attention to detail that the job requires, it shows, and it shows bad.

I guess this blog is written mostly to the sound tech, and the person that manages them. If you find yourself leaning more towards science than art, or vice versa, I encourage you and challenge you to step back, analyze what you are doing, and consider doing it differently. Change CAN be a good thing, and when you try new things and they work out well, people will notice. And because perception is the prelude to expectation, if someone comes into your church, and the environment is set for a 110% performance, they are going to expect good things to happen- and that’s when God shows up….when you are giving your absolute best for Him.

Well, months of planning and hundreds of dollars in cell phone bills later, Worship Under the Stars was an awesome event! Despite the problems we had getting started on Thursday, and wondering if it was even going to happen on Friday, when we opened the doors at 6:35pm on Saturday, it was evident that something was going to happen that was bigger than all of us, and bigger than all of the problems we faced prior. We were forced to move into the convention center, after the rental company put the halt on setting equipment up outside, (mostly due to high winds, not rain). We were all very frustrated at first that the vision of being under the stars had been erased, but little did we know of the Divinity of that move. The Ampitheater holds approx. 1200 people. By 7:05pm, we had 2100 chairs out, and loading more in. By the the time we started the show, the convention center had ran out of floor space to put chairs, and people were lining the walls. Vertical Window did a great job opening, despite their opening technical issues, but once we got rolling, it was a great event. People were worshiping, and it was evident that many people, from many churches, from many denominations were all there together, and it was awesome. THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the event. I hope it was awe-inspiring, and a great time of worship for everyone who attended. Don’t forget to pre-order your DVD or CD of the event at the Worship Under the Stars website. So what’s next year? Well, let’s recover from this year a little longer before we start speculating about next year. I can tell you this though. First, the success of the event this year was beyond anything we had ever envisioned…just goes to show that we really were never in control to begin with…..Secondly, this success will definately spark a conversation of whether to do it again next year. Thirdly, It goes without saying that the amphitheater and the convention center are no longer options for us, so pray for a larger venue for us next year. Thanks to everyone who helped me pull off the night. Kay Oplinger was a silent hero, who really pulled off making everything happen right prior to the event. I would also like to thank my staff, who put in HOURS and HOURS of work, including Dennis Williams, Richard Milner, Stephen May, our helpers Bradley Jones and Chris Moncus, and the staff at StageFront. It couldn’t have happened without you guys!! See you next year!

What’s WUTS you ask? Only one of the biggest christian happenings in southeast Georgia! Worship Under the Stars is only 9 days away! I hope everyone in the Golden Isles area will do whatever it takes to make it to this event. It is going to be TONS of fun, and most importantly, FREE. As the Technical Director, I am responsible for making sure all of the Show aspects go as they are supposed to. For you tech guys who like to know what it’s going to look like, Check out this 3-D Drawing presentation, to get an idea of what is going on. URGENT: I am looking for help (4-6 people) for setup on THURSDAY, September 7th, from 8:00am until…. If you can help AT ALL this day, please let me know ASAP. Or Sign Up to Volunteer here. Hope to see you then!!!

For hundreds and hundreds of years, the church has been around, and it’s been here for the sole exsistance of trying to reach the lost world. However, even in today’s culture, the church is having a hard time. I believe this is because churches aren’t tapping into the resources that God has given them, and using every possible method they can to reach the lost. Theaters are full every night because the world lies to people very well, while churches are empty because they tell the ultimate Truth poorly. Why is this? Dave Matthews Band can use video footage at their concert to tie into the point of the song, if it even has a point, but many churches won’t use that same approach to bring home the cause of Christ, and make it relevant to the lost people of the world…Why? I hear too may churches say it’s because they don’t have the resources or money, but that’s not really the point. The point is, churches are too complacent where they are. They are more interested in making the old folks comfortable than they are reaching the poepl who drive PAST the church on Sunday morning!! The Bible says “be faithful with the small things, and you will be given many things (Matt 25:23). Maybe you can’t step into large scale Arts Preformances, and that’s OK. But if you are faithful with what you have, and give it 110% all the time, you will see fruit.

Worship under the Stars is quickly approaching!! The Jekyll Island Amphitheater is the place to be on September 10th this year! It is going to be an AWESOME night, including TWO bands, and all of the WOW-factor of a high-end touring concert. A live DVD and CD recording are being made that night, for later re-sale, so make sure that you are there to be a part of the night. The best part? It’s TOTALLY FREE!!!! www.worshipunderthestars.com