Constant State of Flux

Since my life seems to be in constant state of flux the last couple of months then why shouldn’t my blog as well?  The blog at this location will cease to exist soon.  You will now find the blog at www.mediaministry.org/blog  It may not be pretty right now.  I’m working on it when I get some free time but that is not very often these days. This will probably be my last post at this WordPress hosted location.  See you over there! 

TWO YEARS!!!

I just realized after posting that this is my 2nd anniversary of blogging!  WOW!  Time flies when you are having fun.  I look forward to many more years of blogging on that for which I am called and that would be using the mediums of audio, video, lighting, publications, web and any other technology that may arise to make Jesus known and make disciples of Him.

The Roller Coaster Ride

Do you ever feel like your life is a roller coaster? Up one day and down the next? It has been like that for me lately. After riding this roller coaster for a while I just feel sick. There has been no relief since this ride goes through church, family and work.

With church it is the age old battle of those that want to serve and further the kingdom of God and those that want to just sit back and do nothing. There are those that want to change to reach the community and those that resist change no matter what.

With family it has been the threat of cancer and then the relief that it was not.

With work it has been the struggles of a very demanding field engulfed in politics and the reward that you are doing something of significance.

But in my work world all things were put into a new perspective today when a dear friend and fellow supervisor did not show up for work and the worst was true when the director told me that he had died in his sleep.

I often regret that I do not have the gift of evangelism especially when an acquaintance, co-worker, family member or friend dies. Did I share Christ enough? Did exhibit the character of Jesus enough? With this particular friend I had shared the gospel a few times in the most straightforward manner I could muster. All his questions were answered by the Holy Spirit through me. I was amazed at how the words flowed out of my mouth because I’m not well with speech. The Lord blesses me often with the ability to write but speech is not always given. Now I can only hope that those words fell on fertile ground.

Unfortunately I was told that I still must make a trip that has been planned so in the morning I will be flying to Austin, TX. If I have any readers in that area I would love to have a meal or even a cup of coffee with you. Drop me a comment or send me an e-mail from my profile.

I’m seeing this trip as a stop to the roller coaster so I can have a couple of nights away from the amusement park.

Weatherman Was On Something!

I had almost forgotten about Mark Mathis until Todd at MMI had a video clip featuring the best of, or worst of depending on your perspective, this embattled weatherman. Fans loved him and station managers hated him. He was one of those guys you couldn’t help but like. Mark was only on the air for about 3 years at WCCB here in Charlotte but was the talk of the town on many occasions. He actually was a regular on stage at the Comedy Zone. Todd asked “What’s this Weatherman On?” Apparently several things which finally led to his firing even after several failed attempts to rehab. We lost track of Mark in 2004 but rumor has it that he accepted Christ while in one chemical dependancy program. We can only hope and pray that he did or does. Mark is now Chief Meterologist at KREX-TV in Grand Junction, CO. Thanks for the laughs!

Give It Away with Excellence

HT to MMI for both of these links. Today are two posts that speak to what my last post was about and about giving our best. I have written many times about striving for excellence and I could not have written any better than the post Christian Excellence. This is a blog that I have not read in the past but after reading this post I subscribed because Nathan Rice is dead on in his analysis.

Check out How Much Can We Give? by Craig Groeschel, Senior Pastor of Lifechurch.tv

Check out Christian Excellence by Nathan Rice.

Give It Away!

I was struck almost dumbfounded by what I heard come out of the mouth of the youngest member of our media ministry team yesterday. I heard, “It’s sad that the church has better stuff than we have at home.” Inside I’m screaming WHAT!? Outwardly I said, “It should.” I fight this pervading mindset that the church gets our leftovers from many older adults all the time so I was disheartened when I heard it coming from our youngest generation.

I receive the biggest bunch of unusable equipment from well meaning people to use in our media ministry that you can imagine. Things like the very first VCR or televisions that will only except screw terminal connections from an antenna or … well you get the picture. I know that these givers mean well but they are misguided in their thinking. The church is not a thrift or pawn shop or a dump. We have to think of our giving as an offering because that is what it is. Just like our service is an offering. Both deserve our best. We should be giving our very best. If you want to give to the church for some particular ministry then buy something brand, spanking new. If you don’t want to buy anything or don’t know what to buy then give monetarily or ask the leader of the ministry what they could use.

I’m not just talking about technical ministry either. Take a look at other areas of ministry as well such as children or youth. What could their ministries use that is not in the “budget” this year or ever. My wife and I take a portion of our income tax refund every year and buy something new for the church in an area of need that we have noticed. If we have unexpected windfall we will do the same. This is on top of our tithing.

Our focus this month at First Baptist is stewardship and the catch phrase is “Give It Away”. We have heard some awesome testimonies on tithing this month but I believe to really reap the benefits of God’s blessing then we need to give sacrificially. For some that is your tithe and that it is awesome. A quote from a testimony yesterday really stuck out to me and that was when the lady said, “You can’t out give God.” And that is very true! So let me encourage you to think about how you give and what you give. I believe tithing is a must but what else can we give? Just give it away!

Random Announcements & Thoughts

Well, I have been wanting to post several times over the past week but time has not allowed. So today I just wanted to throw out some random announcements and thoughts.

1. The NSCA Expo has announced that they will host Fits and Starts Production’s HOW-TO Church Sound Workshop at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando FL on March 16th & 17th. All information can be obtained by visiting this page. You have heard me announce this workshop on several occasions. It is some of the best training you will receive for the money.
2. We completed week 17 of Quest for Authentic Manhood at our church this morning. This life changing experience is part of Men’s Fraternity developed by Robert Lewis, pastor of Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, AR. I know that I have never been through anything that has challenged me week after week like this series has. If you are looking to get a men’s ministry off the ground at your church then this is an excellent option to consider.
3. I wrote a post almost a year ago to the day titled Church Media Consultation. What brought it back to my attention was that I received a comment on it this year from none other than the church media consultant guru himself, Anthony Coppedge. Anthony has been low key the past few months so it was great to hear from him. Also judging from some conversations that I have had recently at my own church and some other blogs that I have read this is still a hot button issue. Take time and review this post and check out the good comments and there is a hint that Anthony may having something coming soon as well. Wouldn’t that be great?!
4. I’ve been hearing a lot about innovation in churches here lately but what about innovation in conferences. I received an e-mail from Doug Gould of Shure yesterday announcing that he will be conducting seminars at a conference. OK, nothing new there. What caught my attention is where the conference will be held and that is a Royal Caribbean cruise liner. Now I may just be out of touch here and they have been doing this but this is the first time I have heard of it and to me it is a great idea and innovative. Check out Worship at Sea for all the details.
5. Speaking of innovative, I’m sure everyone has heard by now that Perry Noble’s church Newspring are hosting there very own conference called Unleash. The price is right and the location is just a jut to the left. I’m up to hear what they have going on over there.

Have a great weekend!

Time Accountability

Good post at God::Media titled Accountability and Culture in which David brings up the dilemma of people not being on time for services or for serving. In a few cases people just don’t take church services seriously or the time aspect of those services. In the case of our church and maybe others is that there is just not enough time between classes and service start time. People are arriving late because there class has just let out.

On the service side of things I believe that David is having the same problem that a lot of us experience and that is getting people to be on post in enough time for them to adequately prepare themselves for the upcoming service. Now there may be a few that just have a lackluster interest in serving and that goes back to my post last year of Why Are You Here? Those few need to be dealt with on a one-on-one basis. The issue that I run into is that those that serve on my team also serve in several different areas. If they are a teacher then it is impossible for them to get to their designated post in the time that we ask for people to be there.

What is the answer? I believe that part of the answer is to pray for workers as I alluded to in Reflections On Service. Like I said before they may be a few that you need to have a one-on-one talk with about their service. It may be that your church needs to take a look at how service times are structured altogether.

I’m really just thinking out loud here in this post so feel free to chime in on the comments section and/or at David’s post if you have some wisdom to impart.

Product News

Aviom Now Shipping Pro64 Series of Audio Networking Products

Aviom is now shipping its Pro64 Series of audio networking products for corporate AV, broadcast, education and more. Pro64 products are designed to deliver the flexibility of a digital network combined with the audio performance and simplicity of analog. They promise to deliver low-latency audio via Aviom’s A-Net audio transport protocol.
Click here to read the rest of the announcement

Cubase 4 Photo Gallery

Click here are some screen shots of the new Cubase Pro 4.

What To Do With Cassettes?

This certainly caught my attention. Recently I was cleaning out my office and found case after case of cassette tapes in a closet. I was thinking of what I was going to do with all of these cassette tapes. It would take years and some bucks to replace all of these with CDs or to download. Today I find the answer. Thank you Greg Atkinson of Church Video Ideas for making this known to your readers. What I’m talking about is the Plusdeck 2c. Plusdeck2 is a fully functional cassette deck for your computer.
Greg has the review from Jeremy Dunn of WorshipMusic.com on his site.

I have some great content for training on cassette from guys like Bill Thrasher and Ron Lambros that could now be converted into a more accessable format for my team. I think I will have to buy one. I see that WorshipMusic.com has the item available for online ordering.