the church picnic

Normally, I am against most age-old church traditions. They are generally filled with the same pomp and circumstance that have driven people away from God for decades.

However, there is one tradition that I am so happy is alive and well today: the church picnic!

Okay, I’ll admit…some of it is out of selfishness. The food is generally very good, and abundant. Burgers and dogs. Potato, macaroni and other salads of a delicious nature. Cookies, pies and cakes. Oh, yeah!

But one other reason I love the picnic: everything else disappears for a few hours. Troubles, job woes, personal issues…they go away to make room for laughter, games and fellowship. I look around at the faces, and see a simpler time. Not quite Little House on the Prairie, but not today’s fast paced world, either. Somewhere in between. Somewhere that’s fun, and genuine, and good. Somewhere you can take a deep breath and relax.

Somewhere I like to be.

Now, excuse me while I look for my eating pants…we have a church picnic this Sunday!

if you don’t have a podcast…

if you don’t have a podcast set up for your church, then you are missing out. More importantly, your congregation members are missing out.

A clean, crisp recording of the message, along with a reliable podcast hosting company, is a must in today’s electronic age. This was not more evident to me until this past message series at LifePointe. It was a relationship series that touched everyone’s soul, and the podcast hits were off the charts!

Give your congregation the chance to re-listen to the message, give them the chance to share it with friends and family. Your pastor spent the time putting together the Word, so don’t make it a “one chance only” opportunity.

when media isn’t needed…

What? There’s a time when you don’t need media to enhance a message? Say it isn’t so!

Well, we found out at LifePointe Church this weekend that yes, sometimes keepin’ it simple is best.

As we finished up our last message in a relationship series, our Pastor brought his wife on stage. They talked about the story…the map, if you will…of their relationship. There were some powerful moments, some funny moments, and some solemn moments. To put it simply, there were some human moments.

While it was one of the longest messages Jamey had ever delivered, it was also one of the most driving, most engaging sermons I have heard. The kind that sends you down Reflective Boulevard.

And there wasn’t a drop of splashy media to be found. No video support, no cool graphics/photos. Just Jamey and his wife. Telling their story.

That was all we needed.

the day before

It’s Friday, the day before the first service of the weekend. So what does the day of the Media Guy for LifePointe Church look like on a Friday?

9am, roll out of bed. Check Facebook, and think of witty tidbit to post as my first status update of the day. Then, decide what to eat for breakfast…big bowl of cereal (or, The BBC as it’s know in this house), or leftover cold spaghetti? No contest….spaghetti. Then, I turn on the tv to see…wait a minute, this isn’t what you want to know.

Actually, earlier in the week I was able to load up the song lyrics thanks to our worship leader Stephen. He usually has them posted on Planning Center Online weeks in advance.

Then later this evening, Jamey will call with the verses and the phrases he’ll want up on the screen. This is awesome, because there are many pastors who wait until moments before the service to release this info, and that puts the stress factor at 78 for the tech team!

The real trick comes in deciding what types of video backgrounds to use for the songs and the message. Why is that tough? Well, you want to keep it interesting, cool, and relevant, but you don’t want it to distract from the words on the screen, which are the most important thing. The most important thing for any church media guy to remember is to enhance the message, not distract from it.

Mentally, though, the truly hard part is always remembering that it’s not a “show” we’re putting on…it’s a living, breathing embodiment of God’s word.

mac vs. pc

the war finally came to my front.

Mac vs. PC.

We had been experiencing trouble with the projector in our new building. After months of analyzing, we realized it was the way the computer/media shout/projector were reacting to each other. Combine that with the occasional Media Shout crash, and a decision had to be made.

The pressure to go Mac had been great. I had always been on team PC, and shunned those who said Mac was the only way to go. All the other church media guys laughed at me, told me I was too old-school, that the only way to take our service to the next level was to go Mac…

…and we did.

Got the best Macbook Pro we could afford, the 13″/250, and paired it with ProPresenter 4. And guess what? No issues. Better graphics. Smoother transitions. Multiple uses of video without crashing.

They were right. It is better. For church.

I will say this. If I were looking for a computer for personal use, I would still look at the cheaper, and still powerful, PC options.

But for now, thank you Mac, for making life a little easier…

help

I have always been self-reliant.

I would never ask for help…with anything. Homework assignments in college, projects at home or work…anything. I used to think this was an admirable trait. But recently, I found out that it was the trait that has been holding me back.

God put us on the planet with other humans for a reason: to interact and be part of a community. It’s that community that brings us closer to Christ, and brings us closer to each other. We are hear to support each other, and help our fellow man to achieve greatness; to become the people that our Creator meat for us to be.

If we can’t rely on each other, then we are but an island. And, as the old saying goes, no man is an island.

After 43 years on this planet, I finally get it. It’s easier to lean on a thousand shoulders than stand on your own.

why do christian movies stink?

O.K., the title to this post may not be fair. But, if you love the movie industry, you must agree that a vast majority (95%-99%) of Christian films stink.

Now, I’m not talking about the big budget Hollywood extravaganzas, such as The Ten Commandments or Passion of the Christ. I’m talking about the movies made in the past two decades produced specifically for the “church going” market. Duds like “Time Changers” and “Facing the Giants.”

Those are all well-intended flicks, but they’re awful because they are not relevant and in order to appeal to what they feel is their target market, they use dialogue that only Ned Flanders could appreciate!

peaceful easy feeling…

It’s 8am Sunday morning, and I’m sitting at my computer at church as I write this. We’ve already been here longer than an hour, and I’m listening to the worship band rehearse, and the volunteer setup crew putting the finishing on the stage. It’s a huge feat, because we meet in a movie theater, so we literally “build” a church and tear it down every single Sunday.

And right now is always the most peaceful time of my week.

It’s those few moment between disorganization and chaos.

It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s worth it. It takes that feeling of accomplishment to a new level, and it gives me the opportunity to watch a bunch of guys give a valuable block of time to their church…and mostly without complaint.

It’s the best time of my week…

what is connection?

We have got some great volunteers at LifePointe church. And, we’ve got a bunch of them! Half of our church are active volunteers, and that’s nothing to sneeze at when it comes to church statistics.

But, I often worry about connection. And by connection, I mean a deep-rooted attachment to one’s surroundings and a committment level to service that exceeds the average.

That’s what I mean by connection.

I always wonder if the people that volunteer under me are experiencing a level of connection that they deserve. You know…the one that God has in store for them.

How can i know? What are the signs? If there is no connection, will interest level stay at a high?

It’s kind of like being married, i guess. There has to be some communication. Asking, listening, lunches…whatever it takes. We only have one shot at helping someone connect with the community, with God, and we can’t screw it up. Eyes wide open should be the motto.

Do me a favor…if you think you’re not connected, or are connected and want to take it to a higher level, tell me! Just like my wife tells me when I’m not taking our relationship to the next level.

Only…I promise I won’t tell you to wait until the commercial comes on.

Is there a God?

Ahhhh…that is the question. The one question that secular humanists have been asking themselves for centuries.

You know, I think to help answer this question, i’m going to put on my “atheist hat.”

If God doesn’t exist, and man is truly all by himself on this big, blue marble, and everything we’ve accomplished up til now can only be attributed to man’s greatness, then what do we have?

Well, according to the latest count, there are 2.1 billion Christians in this world. If there were no God, then there are 2.1 billion (yes…I know that not all Christians act in a Christian way) people that are trying to be the nicest, the best humans they can be. 

2.1 billion people giving portions of their paychecks to help others, buying groceries for the needy, smiling at someone having a bad day, hugging someone that just experienced a tragedy.  

2.1 billion people building houses for the poor, risking their lives to get medicine to the sick in third world dictatorships, trying to spread hope in the most hopeless parts of the world.

2.1 billion people just trying to help.

Now, if there were no God, and these Christians were following a false hope…well, is there a better false hope to follow?

And, by the way, I think that 2.1 billion people promoting that same hope proves that there is a God.