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!!

Well, I figured it was time to write again.  It has been a while since I have blogged about anything, mostly because I don’t have the time to do so.  Things here in Vegas are running at a steady 1,000-MPH.  We are working on our $16 Million campus expansion program, our attendance has reached nearly 5000 per weekend during the last 6 weeks, I believe that I am getting a 7-month intern to come work for me in January, and my best friend from Georgia might be coming to work at CRCC Full Time sometime around May.  Lot’s of exciting things are happening.  And even in the midst of all of this, right as I begin to get caught up in all of the whirlwind of life, I am reminded why I am REALLY here.

      The benifit to having such a large staff at CRCC is that there is enough Pastors/Counselors to deal with most everyone and their issues.  But sometimes, we all have to lend a hand; and I have learned that this experience might be just as helpful to me as it is to them.  Last weekend, I was shutting everything down after our second Saturday Evening Service, getting ready for the next morning, and making sure everything was put away correctly, etc.  As I was about to leave the room (I was the only one in there, our Facilities staff was on another part of the campus), and I saw a guy just sitting there, looking at the stage.  Probably late 20’s, jeans, baggy sweatshirt, shaved head.  Now, in Vegas, that’s the typical attire for a good majority of the congragation, or something similar.  But this character was sitting in the last row of a 1250-seat Auditorium, over 20 minutes AFTER the last service.  Call me cynical, but I wasn’t about to walk out and go home, with $50,000 worth of musical instruments on stage, and probably over $500,000 worth of technical gear in the room- and him. 

So, after weighing my options, I decided to approach him.  In my mind, I was prepared to run or fight, an had no idea what this guy was doing, but knew in my head what I THOUGHT he was there for.  After talking to him for only 2 minutes, I realized that I was very, very wrong.  Here was a guy that was broken.  He has a huge drug/alcohol addiction problem, has two kids with 2 girls, and is just in a bad palce in life.  After talking to him further, I learned that he is actually a Christian, and has a pretty solid grasp on what is right and what is wrong.  But like all of us, he gets weak, and let’s the devil invade him with the ways of the world that are available in EXCESS in our town.  He even made an attempt to reconnect with one of the mother’s, to try a make a legitimate family.  But, because of her lack of salvation, she wanted nothing to do with him, and kicked him out Wednesday.  On Thanksgiving Thursday, he was alone and broken, and he tried to commit Suicide.

So here I am listening to this, now only partially listening, because I am nearly numb.  There I was, 10 minutes ago, ready to have Metro P.D. remove the guy from the building.  And now, here he is, telling me that he was sitting at home watching a movie, and something told him to come to church, and wait for someone to talk to him.  Can you say- The Hand of God?!

For guys like me, it’s easy to get caught up in the task at hand.  As fast paced as life in the church is, all you can think about sometimes is getting your "To Do List" done, and accomplish what you need to, in order to help yourself.  Sometimes it’s making the volunteer schedule, sometimes it’s building a set, or buying new microphones, or whatever.  But on this day, I realized that sometimes, and often, I just need to STOP………..And realize that while my life is hectic with work- Somebody’s life is hectic with trouble, and in ruins.  This incident helped me to realize that I’m not here to push buttons or turn knobs.  It’s about MUCH more than that.  Our Information Technology (IT) guy at CRCC proclaims to "hate computers".  The point is, the computers, the buttons, and the knobs?  They are all just excuses to work with people; A vehicle of opportunity to care for people who are hurting.

If I can offer anything to you, as a Christian; Keep an open mind.  You never know who is around you, and you never know how they might need you.  I pray that you don’t emulate my initial reaction, and that you never get caught up in the task, or what you think are are there for.  What if I had only paid attention to what was in my sound booth, and then left. Where would he be?  Or as importantly, where would I be as a Christian, whose job is to "Seek and Save the Lost"?

By the way, if you think about it, pray for a guy named Bryan.  He’s working on getting closer to God, and he needs all the help he can get.

As long as I am going for the gusto here, I want to point out a few other things. First of all, anybody in ANY type of church leadership position (paid or unpaid) or volunteer position, I encourage you to read the book “Volunteer Revolution” The reason we serve in church is not merely because there is a job that needs to get done. The task is merely an excuse to get together, be in community with each other, and serve a God bigger than anything we know. You ask any grandmother why she would rock a baby in the nursery, and she wouldn’t say because she has too, but because of her love for children, and her gift of being able to keep babies quite and content. Likewise, you should never ask someone do play an instrument or run sound, simply for the fact you need someone to fill that spot. Their act of serving is more than just fulfilling an obligation, or pushing buttons. They are offering their gifts as an act of worship to God, in the best way they know how.

I have a very good friend who is a dancer on the strip here in Vegas (and NO, you don’t have to be a stripper to be a dancer in Vegas). She has been in shows on the strip since she was 13 years old, and she is now in her mid- 30’s. About 6 months ago, our women’s ministry had an event, and on of the programmed elements was a dance using 3-4 girls dancing to a song that was being played by the band. I was doing tech stuff at that event, and had the opportunity to see her. After the program, I was talking to her, and she informed me that was the first time in here life she had ever “danced for the Lord”. 25 years of dancing, and it was the first time dancing at church as an act of worship. Her comments that followed were that the 4 minutes she danced to that song, was the most exciting, electrifying, and invigorating time of her life. Dancing for 25 years in front of hundreds of people per night, and one song in front of 75 people did it for her. Not because of the music. Not because of the venue. But because of the audience she was performing for- an audience of One.

I have technical guys like that as well. They are sound techs and lighting designers on the strip by trade. That’s what they do every single day, day in and day out. Yet each one of them says they realize that the volunteer work they do at the church on a weekend, is more important and more valuable than a lifetime of work downtown. They are giving their gifts and talants back to the God that blessed them with it. That can’t be taken lightly.

There are lots of people out there that see serving as an act of worship, myself included. We need to be receptive to those people, and be creative in finding ways for those people to use their talents to glorify God.

I am so dang frustrated right now, I thought I would go ahead a blog about it. I really hope I get some comments concerning this issue. Feel free to reply to this blog with your comments.

I was recently doing a gig, and I contacted some music/technical directors from the churches around the area, to see if they would be interested in getting their tech guys involved in this relatively large event. The main draw was that we needed help setting up all of the gear, but the fringe benefits for the group was that they got to spend time in community with each other, developing relationships with other people with the same interest, crossing over church membership and denominational lines, to serve God by offering their knowledge. It also would have been a great training and learning experience for them all (for free), and lastly, it would have given them the chance to be part of something bigger than themselves and the monotony of Sunday morning hymns.

Out of 15 or 20 emails I sent out, I only had one reply. That alone was discouraging enough, but the content of that reply is what really made things bad. It set off such a sadness/disappointment/anger in me, that I needed to write this blog, just to see if I am just way off base here. I of course won’t use personal or church names, but the reply came from the music minister of a well known church in the city, and his reply was to the effect of (paraphrased):

“….I am too busy right now for anything like that; I just have too many things on my plate to add anything else to my schedule…”

As I got this response, I was disappointed, but deleted it, and moved on with my day. But after a while, I began to start thinking about the values that we (as church staff) should be trying to uphold; and I got pretty angry. I have two major conflicts with his reply statement. First of all, what are you doing there? As a church staff member, our job is NOT to do all of the work ourselves, nor is it (in a music ministers case) to produce a great worship service. Our job is to produce great people, and help them excel in their field of interest. If you do this correctly, great worship services will come by default. And you produce good people by investing time in them, getting to know them, being there for them, and most importantly, providing them the resources they need to carry out the tasks you have asked them to do. You don’t ask a soloist to sing a special without giving them direction, music, and a microphone. You don’t ask a drummer to come play drums at church on Sunday morning, but don’t provide a drum set. Likewise, you shouldn’t ask someone to operate sound (or any other technical equipment) without giving them the sound console, and the knowledge of how to use it. Many churches don’t spend enough time (or money) giving the appropriate amount of resources to their volunteers, yet wonder why they have a high turnover rates. There are two aspects to every single job function in the church: The operational side, and the relational side. The operational side is the stuff that has to be done, or the tasks at hand. Your sound guy knows he has to come in and run sound at the 10:00am service, he just knows that. The relational side is what the majority of most churches miss, but is the most important. That’s where the staff needs to make it fun, or make it so the engineer looks forward to coming to run sound at 10:00am. Give him the knowledge he needs. Give him the gear he needs. And most importantly, give him the attention and atmosphere he needs to produce great work for the Kingdom. Remember, they aren’t just button pushers, they are silent worship leaders, and the spirit of the leader, will be the spirit of the team.

In short, to say he was too busy mystified me, because the very thing I was asking of him, should be what he is there to do. He had a perfect opportunity to let his team grow and learn (again, for free) and be in community with other, and all he had to do was take 5 minutes on Sunday morning while his team was there, and ask them. But he was too busy. That’s a shame.

Finally, the second thing I was disappointed about was the cop-out line itself. Too busy?! We should never be too busy to take time and invest into someone else. Volunteers are the life-blood of the church, and when they get burnt out after doing sound for 10 years without so much as a “Thank You”, you’ll wish you had taken the time. I work at the largest church in the city of Las Vegas. We are adding a 5th weekend service because we can’t contain everyone who is showing up, we are about to start of 4th 40 Days Series, we are in the middle of a $16 Million expansion project, and we have more money and people than we know what to do with. Yet, I and my fellow co-workers saw the opportunity to reach out into a spiritually coma-induced area of the US, and they allowed me to step away from my obligations here, to reach out to those in that area. But he was too busy. That’s a shame.

My last two paragraphs ended with “But he was too busy. That’s a shame.” What if that were true of God? What if when we needed Him to reach out to us, and invest in us, he was too busy? Where would we be? Our job as church staff and as Christians is to reach out to those both inside and outside of the church. For those on the outside, Invest in them, and then Invite them to church. For those inside the church already, invest in them, and help them to be 110% all the time. Volunteers are what make ministry happen. They can’t be forgotten. But he was too busy. That’s a shame…..

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.