Production Blog: People want to be a part of something big

Above is a video of the black eyed peas performance of "I gotta feeling" at Oprah's 24th season kick off party. This is awesome, this gets me excited and this proof that people want to be apart of something big.

My wife showed me this video this past weekend and I loved it. How awesome is it that 21,000 or so came together and did one massive dance. How much fun would it have been to take part in it? How much fun would it have been just to watch it from the towers above the Chicago street.

I found out by searching the blogs that Carlos Whitaker of Ragga Muffin soul also did a short but powerful post about this video.

I have done some pretty intense research about advertising the past few weeks. One of the biggest things that I have found is that people want to be apart of something BIG! Which is one of the points of Carlos' blog post.

God is the biggest, greatest most awesome thing ever. The story of Jesus is the most exciting thing ever. How can we the church tell HIS story in a way that makes people of our Facebook, iphone, in debt, and hurting society want to follow HIM and dance like this for HIM.

What is the big thing we are missing? Should we completely change the way we do church? Do you have to sing every Sunday? I didn't not say worship I said sing. Could you portray the story without talking at people? I am not saying we SHOULD do any of these but what if we, the church, did? What would change? What if we laid aside our excuses as to why we shouldn't change things and just did it? What if you laid aside your excuses and DID the impossible plan God has laid in your heart? What if?

Sunday Look Back 7-12-09

1. Hardest Sunday I have ever had at DP



2. The band did a great job! Brien the songs were so appropriate and moving.



3. The best Sunday I can remember



4. The saddest Sunday I can remember



5. Philip hit a homerun! His message was perfect for the day



6. Who could have thought that when we planned this sermon series 4 months ago that death would fall on this week.



7. Life is short. Who are you living for?



8. Our volunteers did an amazing job clean up the back room!



9. Heard the open mic night on Friday was awesome! Check it out again in 2 weeks.

Sunday Look Back 6-20-09

1. Another year of being a father. It only gets better!

2. On the Production side: I got some of the robotic lights back and trained Rusty how to use them. They are so much fun and add a lot to the service. I wish I had more but I am thankful for what I have to work with.

3. "Freedom is Here" by Hillsong went off great!

4. Added 2 new band members this week James Greene on the keyboard and our summer intern Daniel McCullers on the electric. I was impressed!

5. I think this is the first time I have ever heard David Collinsworth play the Bass guitar. For our size we are very blessed to have the level of talent in our musicians that we have

6. "God is Father" was amazing and refreshing!

7. Spoke with a guy trying to get his church more savvy in the media presentation world. I love to help people but I am a terrible teacher.

8. Added 2 new volunteers to the Production Team!

9. Next week should be another great week at DP!!!

Sunday Look Back 6-7-09

1. Brien did an awesome job leading worship this week!




2. Really missed the Robotic lights this week. But they will be back next week!




3. Joe, my computer tech this week, did a fine job for his first full week on the computer.




4. I learn something new every time I touch the lighting board.




5. One Prayer is going to change many communities. Will we be open to God and let it change ours?




6. Was Andy Stanley not awesome?




7. Loved the story of the Rev. from central Georgia.




8. Steven Furtick is next week. He is my personal favorite.




9. Fill in the blank. In your life God is _______________

Production Notes

I really want to blog more content but I want it to be meaningful content. I want it to interesting and useful all at the same time. So instead of just posting a blog about social networking on Fridays I have decided to also do a Production blog on Wednesdays. Production is one of my many hats at DP and possibly my favorite right up there with the social networking. Production is such a cool thing but with the cool comes the frustrating. Production in a church is one of those things where if you do your job right no one will notice, you but if you screw up you are every one's goat. So I want to discuss with you the good, the bad and the cool side of production in a church. Next week I plan on writing about " The last minute musical chairs phenomenon".

Social Media and the Church- Twitter Tools

I have spoken to church leaders about using social media in the church a couple of times and the one thing that seems to come up more often than not is the issue of time. With everything else that is going on throughout the week, taking the time to update Twitter, Facebook or to write a blog seems like a challenging task. The question should not be do I have time to use social media, the question SHOULD be how do I make time use social media to reach people with the love of Jesus.

I work a full time I.T job, have 4 kids under 7, a wife who works 2 nights a week as a nurse and a part time staff gig at my church that takes up about 15 hours or so out of my week. Now I may not be the busiest person in the world, but my life does not stop most days until I go to bed. I have to balance spending time with my kids and wife with both jobs and house work. I told you all that so you would know that this is not being written by some one who sits in a office all day and has all the time in the world. My life needs short cuts. I need short cuts to use social media, not only for the church but for my personal accounts as well. Here are a few I use for twitter:

TwitterFox: This is a Firefox add on that puts little Twitter Icon at the bottom of your browser. When you click on it all of your friends recent updates are put in a nice neat little box in the corner of your browser. You can even update you status, see your @replies and Direct Messages (DMs)

Seesmic Desktop: A lot of people will tell you tweet deck is the best desktop Twitter Application. I disagree but only by a little bit. You can view and update multiple twitter accounts at one time as well as your Facebook page. So if you have a personal twitter and manage the twitter for your church you can update them both with out logging out and logging back in.

TwitPic: The Seesmic desktop allows you to put links to pictures hosted by TwitPic if you don't want to use Seesmic than you can simply go to the Twitpic Site enter your user name, upload pics, write a comment of two and they load the pics to Twitter for you.

Twitter Feed: This allows you to ad an RSS feed (such as your blog or Google reader shared items) to Twitter and every time you update it post a link and a short comment to your twitter feed.

Facebook Twitter App: Allow you to update you Twitter account from Facebook and Facebook account from Twitter. It's really Cool.

Twiggit: A tool that post a tweet every time you Digg a Article on Digg Nation.

Tiny URL: Not a short cut but a URL shortener so you can use less of your 140 characters when you want to post a link

Last but not least this is not really a shortcut but for Stat nuts like me I love to something I can use to track my twitter account so I use Twitter Analyzer. It provides tons of tools to see everything you have been doing on twitter.

Another Tool we will talk about in a later post is the Flock Browser. Without getting too technical its basically the Firefox browser built for Social Networking. Check it out if you get a minute.

I hope these help you use twitter faster and more efficiently. Do you have twitter short cuts that you use in your ministry? What are they? How are you using them? Let me know!

Monday Thoughts 5-18-09

I wrote on Facebook and twitter yesterday that "God works even when things don't go to plan" and I really believe that. From a production stand point yesterday's service was a hot mess. I can take one little thing but yesterday was a comedy of errors.

1. I produced and showed a video with horrible Audio.
2. We were late getting service slides up because or unusual circumstances
3. The Mike did not fit Jeff's head right so we had issues with feedback because we were trying to keep the gain up so we could hear him.
4. My computer tech slipped and accidentally played a techno song in the middle of decision time
5. With everything that went wrong on my end the Band did fine. They introduced a new song "You are the Light" by Steve Fee.
6. Jeff communicated well in Philip absence.
7. We introduced "One Prayer" Coming soon
8. The lighting was good, I introduced my lighting guy to a new technique this week and he ran with it.
9. Again God does amazing things even when we think everything that could go wrong did.
10. We had a lot of new interest in "Play Groups". Getting people connected is Awesome
11. Pray that Philip and everyone else traveling this weekend has a safe trip home has a safe trip home.

Learning Leadership Part 3

Okay so I have decided to start some series in this blog.. This series is called learning leadership. I am not a great leader and I am not ashamed to admit it. I am new to being on staff at a church and I am new to the role I play in my church. Most of my life I have been the one to do the work and let others take the credit. I love it that way and I would not have it any other way. I do not like the lime light and I enjoy criticism. I know I am weird. I do however enjoy when my team does a great job and people recognize it. That said being a leader of a team at Discover Point over the past year had taught me a ton lessons. Don't get me wrong I am still learning everyday but I thought I might share what I am learning.

3. Staying Positive goes along way
I was planning on blogging today about how leaders should stay humble but because of circumstances today and over the weekend today's topic made a lot more sense.
I am an I.T guy by trade. Today our main servers mother board went out. We had to send people home because without that server we can't run our plant (which is a problem in and of itself). We do not have a good back up because of money and corporate restrictions. Last I checked on Friday the server was fine and running smoothly so I left for the weekend thinking things were fine. I got call at 6am this morning telling me of the situation. So I got up out of bed and rushed to the plant. I worked all morning to get it back up and finally called our service company to order the parts I needed. Well the parts were no where in Atlanta so we had to order them out of Texas (They will be arriving tomorrow at 9am thank God). I know most of you guys understand business. So you must understand for a plant our size to be shut down for a whole day is a huge deal. Who does everyone blame when stuff like this happens, the IT guy. Is it my fault? Sure in some ways. Other ways not so much. Does it really matter who fault is was? The thing needed to get fixed and some one needed do it and not point fingers. Some one needed to stay positive even though the situation was grime. Was that me? No! I was visible stressed and anxious all day. I don't think I was ever negative but I was for sure not a calming presence. Instead my plant manger and Vice President remained calm and cool handled every problem that came their way, advised me and pushed me through he day and to them I am thankful.

another Example
On Sunday we announced some changes coming to Discover Point. These changes will effect our volunteer structure and will really shake up some things for the better at the church. It will however decrease some of the current volunteers roles. I was not sure how some people were going to take the news. Philip told the whole church during the service and was absolutely brilliant in doing so. He stayed positive and that went a long way towards easing the minds of some of our current volunteers.

Lesson learned stay positive.

Learning Leadership Part 2

Okay so I have decided to start some series in this blog starting with today's blog. This series is called learning leadership. I am not a great leader and I am not ashamed to admit it. I am new to being on staff at a church and I am new to the role I play in my church. Most of my life I have been the one to do the work and let others take the credit. I love it that way and I would not have it any other way. I do not like the lime light and I enjoy criticism. I know I am weird. I do however enjoy when my team does a great job and people recognize it. That said being a leader of a team at Discover Point over the past year had taught me a ton lessons. Don't get me wrong I am still learning everyday but I thought I might share what I am learning.

2. Can't dodge tough choices
You can't, there is no getting around it. The second you dodge a tough choice everyone knows it and you lose credibility as a leader. On top of that the longer you let what ever it is go on the worse it gets and the harder it gets to change things. Everyone that you are leading gets frustrated when they see what is going on and it makes it tougher to lead them. The is probably one of the hardest life lessons I am having to learn is that leaders even if they are not in charge cannot dodge the hard decisions. I am not saying you should not pray about them or think long and hard before making them. Consult with people you trust but in the end you must make the choice and go with it. Some times that may mean hurting someones feelings, it may mean you have to do more work but in the end what is best for the mission is the choice you have to make. This is by far the hardest thing I am learning but the tough choices are not easy. So are you a leader or just another person in charge?

Learning Leadership Part 1

Okay so I have decided to start some series in this blog starting with today's blog. This series is called learning leadership. I am not a great leader and I am not ashamed to admit it. I am new to being on staff at a church and I am new to the role I play in my church. Most of my life I have been the one to do the work and let others take the credit. I love it that way and I would not have it any other way. I do not like the lime light and I enjoy criticism. I know I am weird. I do however enjoy when my team does a great job and people recognize it. That said being a leader of a team at Discover Point over the past year had taught me a ton lessons. Don't get me wrong I am still learning everyday but I thought I might share what I am learning.

1. You can't blame the equipment.
No matter how old, not matter how broken the equipment is you have to make it work. I have that when things are their worst is when I am most creative. You can't sit around waiting for more money you have to rely on your team and your own creativity to make things work. Right now we are waiting to move into a new building and we are getting some great new equipment and as hard as I am preparing to move into the new building I am working just as hard to make next week our greatest week ever. I find myself brain storming for ideas for the building we are still in. The equipment we have is old and broken but we make it work and we have great services. Heck the large concrete gym we meet in is a acoustical nightmare but you never hear that used as an excuse anymore (we did for a little while) and trust me its bad. Long and short if your standing around waiting for something to happen it never will. Work with what you have be creative and the other around you will follow.

Top 10 Tuesday

I missed top 10 Tuesday so here is my make up list. I am going to go simple here are my my top 10 favorite TV shows.

1. Lost
2. Heroes
3. Fringe
4. Smallville
5. Sports Center
6.Top Chef
7. CSI Miami
8. Big Brother
9. Mentalist
10. CSI

Please note these are only a current list of shows that are currently on the air. I will post a list of my top 10 all time favorite TV shows later. What do you think did I leave one of your favorites off? How does the TV show you watch effect the things you do in your ministry? Please I did not forget about American Idol I just don't like it that much.

Public Speaking

I am a tech guy. I love all things technology. On Sunday mornings I can be found in the back running something or directing something. I do not however speak on Sunday mornings. That is what we have communicators for. This past Sunday I broke my own rule and co-taught with Philip. The topic was social networking. A topic I love and feel that all churches and church goers should embrace (as long you have people in your church under the age of 70). We spoke about how the church should use social media and how regular people can use social media to do great things for God. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be because I was prepare and it was a topic I enjoyed. Was I perfect? No but the audience laugh at my jokes a few times a lot of people ask questions afterwards so I would say it was a success Next week I am getting up there again and talking about Discover Point's community projects. This is another subject I am passionate about so it should be fun.

So if you are a media director (our whatever your title is) on staff at your church and you have never got up in front of your and spoke about how God is using technology or social networking in your church talk to you pastor and see if he can't develop a sermon series surrounding it. Get up there and educate people on how they can use technology to reach more people for God. Heck I liked it so much in 2 weeks Philip and I are going speak to a group of local pastors about how they can use social networking in their churches. Let see if we can't start a revolution. I'm in are you?

Marketing on Social Media

I love social media. I am a Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, Blogger addict. I love to talk to friends, meet new people and share my thoughts with complete strangers. I spend hours trying to figure out how we can market Discover Point through social media. What I found is that you can't truly market a product effectively on social media sites. You can however market ideas, personalities and brands. Social media is a huge tool for the church that few have yet to tap into. Heck I spend hours ever week trying to figure out how to use social media more effectively for kingdom building. I know a lot of churches that have the misconception that is not the place for the church. It's too "of the world" "Facebook is the devil" and that could not be any further from the truth. With Facebook twitter and even this blog I try to connect with people where they are and this day and age a lot of them are right in front of their computers. I use the church Facebook group to not only connect people within the church but to show people outside our church, searching for something, the personalities of people in our church. We are a friendly fun, loving, down to earth crowd. We love technology, creativity and innovation. Using Facebook and this blog and twitter I try to share our "brand" our personalities with people so people will feel more comfortable being at church. I want to shake the awful preconceptions people have about church. I guess what I am saying is use social media for all it is worth. Its the best free marketing your ever going to get.

New blogs to read

Okay so I know only a few people read these blogs but I thought I would promote a few new blogs that I think you should check out. 1. Is the Parker rd Blog: The Parker rd Blog is about the new Discover Point Church Building project. Philip will fill you in on all the recent updates with the new building. Check it out Here
2. Is Running into Grace by Brien Duke. Brien is a good friend and growing worship leader. His thoughts should be interesting if he post enough. You can read Brien's blog here So check these out and let me know what you think.

Trends

I must admit that I am an avid blog reader and Google fan boy. I use Google to find all sorts of nifty (did I just say nifty?) gadgets and sites that I would not have found other wise. One of my favorite Google inventions is Google trends. If you have never visited I suggest you do. What is Google Trends?

It is a site where Google shows what the hottest searches are for that day or you can compare how popular keywords are by a date range. The reason I think this is important is because I think it is important to have your finger on the pulse of culture. We as a church need to know what people are searching for on Google and use that. Why would you do a sermon series on "Thunder Cats" for instance when only a few people even still know or care about "Thunder Cats" ( I loved Thunder Cats). I mean you have to know your audience. If you have a bunch of 26-32 year old guys in your church by all means do a Thunder Cat series. What I am saying is the church needs to pay attention to what is trendy and use it to connect. Don't over use it and look cheesy either. Just because "LOST" and "24" are hot right now does not mean you should do a sermon series on them but maybe you could use a clip from one of these shows to drive home a point in your message (rather than a clip from "The Wonder Years").

World of War Craft (WOW) is hot right now, it's a video game for those of you who don't know. How awesome would it be to open your church during the week to teenagers and supply them with a few computers to play video games. Open the doors before a Wednesday youth gathering and let them stay for the gathering after playing games (thanks Jim for the idea). Be smart, study, and don't assume you know what is popular and what is not. Don't just use Goggle trends! Build relationships with people, ask questions, find out what is important to people who you know don't go to church. Don't assume that because you like a certain type of music that everyone does. Don't assume that your way is the best way because that's they way you have always done it. Don't just pander to your current audience. Broaden your mind and change the world.

What I am most excited about part 2

This is the second part of my list of things I am most excited about with the new building. click here to read the first installment.


5. Better Video, Audio and recordings
One thing I have dedicated myself to in 2009 is giving Discover Point a better Internet presence. I want to spend some time making our youtube, vimeo and podcast the best it can be. Yes we will have better recording equipment and that will help with the audio but the video is what I am most excited about. We will have more lights and better control of our lights. So we can shoot better video e page and more consistent video. This will make our Youtube page so much better.

4. Talented People
This one is just a guess on my part but I think we will see an influx of talented people join our church. People with talents in drama, media, music, technology and talents we don't even know we need yet. I love the current volunteers but they can not do it all and I refuse to let volunteers burn out. I am excited to see what talent God is going to bring to us over the next year.

3. Better Children's Program
This could be number one for me easily. We need a facility where are kids are allowed to be free and creative. Where they can have fun and learn at the same time. Out new building gives them that. It will be set up like a city square. There will be a kids theater, a huge crafts area, an awesome nursery and plenty of class room space. This will be one of the coolest kids areas in East Atlanta. We will see so many kids come to know Christ here and I guess that is the most exciting part of all!

2. We can serve the community better
We will not be using the building very much during the week so the plan will be to allow the community use it. Whether it is a place where businesses can do lunches or a place where teens can come and play games I love the idea of opening our doors to help the community. Also our Projects series will take full effect this year. Getting out in the community and just helping people have a better day. It is truly an awesome thought.

1. We will reach more people for Christ.
I think this says it all

Pictures of New Building!

Here are a few Pictures from the new Parker Rd location for those of you who have not seen them yet. I guess you could call theses the before pics. Thanks to Lisa Collinsworth for the photos.

NEW Website is Live!!!!!

Hey guys the new website discoverpointchurch.com is Live check it out and tell me what you think. By the way I could not have done this without Greg King, Lisa Collinsworth, David Collinsworth, the entire creative team and of course my wife who put up with me working on this thing all of the time. Thanks Guys!!!! Please send me feed back on the site even if it's not good. I can take it.

NEW WESITE

Top 10 things I am excited about in the new building

This post will include points 10-6 the next will include the rest

10. No more set up and take down
Now I will admit this is a little selfish. I have been setting up and tearing down for 3 years and I am tired of it. Has God used the set up and take down to teach me things? Of course he has and they have been valuable lessons but that does not make me any less excited about not having to do it. Will there still be some set up? Sure, but it will be done during the week and we will be able to plan and test things before 10:30 on Sunday morning. Which leads me into my next point

9. We will have the ability to plan and test better
I like for things to be planned and tested when it comes to the services. Right now because we really can't set up during the week all of our testing is done on Sunday morning after we spend an hour or so setting up and another 30 minutes with the band and then the rest of the time I am fixing all of the minor issues that come along with being a portable church. I want to be able to walk into our building after work on a Tuesday and begin testing and tweaking videos light ect.

8. The switch to Mac and ProPresenter
I know that this has not been finalized in the budget but it will happen soon. The computer we are currently using is on its last leg (although it has been a wonderful computer and we will find a way to use it until it dies) I am tweaking and tuning once every 3 days or so. I am a HUGE Mac fan. They are just better computers (I am not going to get technical on you guys). The other change is the one I am more excited about is the switch from Media Shout to Pro Presenter. The other week me and Philip were going over what was the bear minimum we need to get into the new building. One of the guys who was there ask me if Media shout could give me 85% of what Pro Presenter could? Sure but it also gives 100% more head ache. I have had the opportunity to play with Pro Presenter over the last few weeks and I love it. Again I am not going to get technical but the programing is so clean so well written and so user friendly. I have also been looking forward to the ability the Play .mov files cleanly without going through the headaches you have to deal with with playing them in Media Shout.

7. Live Drama
I know this sounds kind of corny but I love well done live drama and I would love to see more of it in a church like Discover Point. Now I am not talking about the corny half done not practiced stuff. I am talking about well written, well rehearsed, done by talented people who love it too kind of drama that can be sooooo powerful. I am praying that the right person will step up soon and lead this ministry.

6. Better Acoustics
When you have been in the acoustical (if that is a word) nightmare that we have been in for the past 2 years (The place has been a blessing but the acoustics are dreadful) you get really excited to be in an environment where you have tons of control over your sound. We've got a tom of ultra dense Styrofoam padding for our walls and we will have a drum shield which we have sorely lacked over the last few years. It will sound incredible.


I will list the next 5 tomorrow please let me know what things you are most excited about moving into the new building.

Short or no shorts

A friend brought up an interesting question the other day. Does it look bad for your worship leader to wear shorts on stage? Does it look unprofessional? At a church like Discover Point does it matter? We encourage our members to dress casually because it is more important to us that they are there than what what they wear. During the summer its not uncommon to see 10 people in T-shirts and shorts. Now for the record my friend is not suggesting that we wear 3 piece suits. All he is suggesting is that worship leaders (even at a church like Discover Point) should always wear pants (jeans). Nice T-Shirts are okay but no shorts. Everyone who attends could still wear shorts or whatever just not the people on stage. I guess my question is if we are trying to look professional who are we trying to look professional for? Part purpose of Discover Point is to reach by relating (that's paraphrased). Who are we relating to by not wearing shorts? 30 year old professionals? That is a large demographic. Would we alienating or turning off people if we decided to adopt this standard? I know that people feel comfortable with the people on stage if they relate with them but in that case we are some how changing someones view with either choice. I know it seems like I am making a big deal out of this but I am just trying to give you guys all of my thoughts. Is it a big deal if the people on stage wear shorts? No? But I would like to know what the 3 people who read this blog think.