Fusion 07

This past weekend I attended ‘Fusion 07’ which was held at Providence Baptist church in Raleigh. It is the fusion of Worship, Music and Technical ministries. A large part of the event are the training tracks you can select from, and there is also a good sized trade show to see and touch what’s new. It is put on by the Technical Resource Group (www.trginc.net) who also put on the annual TechXplosion conference. This Fall it will be held in Clearwater Florida. I highly recommend it.

The worship leader and keynote speaker for the event was Travis Cottrell. If you know who he is, you can skip the rest of this paragraph. For those who don’t know him, he is a singer, songwriter and worship leader. He has led worship for Josh McDowell and Annie Graham Lotz. Currently, he leads worship for the Beth Moore conferences. You’ve sung his songs without knowing it: "The Lamb Has Overcome", "In Christ Alone", and “Friend of God" are all his. He has a contemporary style that embraces his more traditional roots. His humility was evident the entire weekend – he is completely surrendered which makes him perfect as the keynote speaker for the event.

So, what is it that Travis can say to motivate us to be better servants in our minsties?

Regardless of our function we are all ‘Front Line People’. We are the people who God uses to bring His people into His presence. Everything that we do should be done so that we help people come before His throne in worship.

God is Creator, and he is still giving birth to new things today. Creation is part of His very nature, and He continues to create new songs, new technologies and new ways for His people to know Him.

When you compare one generation to another, it seems that each generation is becoming darker. The current generation is the darkest yet. That means that we need to reach out to them using methods that they relate to in every day life. The current generation expects to see a presentation that previous generation would have termed as ‘entertainment’. So video, lights, motion and high energy need to be part of the worship experience if we expect to be able to reach people. These are all things that are part of frame of reference of the current generation.

This means that we need to employ creative methods to reach people – but we must never loose sight of being authentic. People today can easily see through phony ‘shows’, so we need to keep it real.

We are servants, and we must serve one another in love. A true servant acts as a representative, an extension, of the master.

God method of leadership was servanthood.

There are a number of reasons to be servants:

1 – It is our calling (Mark 10:42-45, 1 Peter 5:5, Philippians 2:3ff)

2 – It is our joy (Matthew 8:5-13 – the Centurion joyfully cared for his servant, Matthew 18:4)

3 – We will receive favor (James 4:6, 10, Matthew 23:12)

Relationships are hard. We have to work at keeping the relationship we have with our fellow ministers positive. Our calling is to love one another. That is hard, because our flesh wants to be justified. When you are in a situation ask yourself ‘Is being right more important than being loving?’

Be sure to serve the people you serve with.

There are fruits to serving:

1 – Peace

2 – Joy in our calling

3 – Blessing of happiness

4 – Worship filled with power

- -

That was the end of the keynote address. Stay tuned for more from Fusion.

What's New?

It's been too long since the last post. Shame on me. So, what's new?

First, we have two new members of the team - Benjamin Corll and Jason Sfreddo. Be sure to say hello when you see them. They've both jumped in and gotten right down to work.

I hope that you have all had a chance to meet Dan Goodson. He's on staff, and will be overseeing all of the Tech ministries. H brings a lot of experience in TV and the visual arts, and is knowledgeable of sound, so he's a great asset to C3!.

Since the last post, we now have steel up in the Worship Center and the garage door has come and gone. We are comfortably housed in our little corner of the room. Nothing remains the same for long at C3, but I am not expecting any major changes in our physical layout until we move into the new Worship Center.

What has been done lately that you all may not be aware of?

The subs - We no have both boxes of 18" subs back on line, and the 15" full-range boxes we were using as an interim solution have been moved to The Annex (Modular #3 for those not up on the latest lingo). They are back to being powered by only one channel of each amp (1200 watts at 4 ohms per side), so we shouldn't fry these any more.

Vocal fills - this past week we added two 12" monitor speakers next to the subs to act as vocal fills for the first few rows. On comment that Dan had heard was that the folks in the first few rows weren't hearing the vocals. These are being powered by the second CL4 amp, so they are getting 600 watts at 8 ohms per side. The signal is taken from the center channel cluster. Now all we need is one more unit recessed into the center of the stage, and we can get really good vocal coverage throughout the room. We've got the spare amp channels to power it.

Delays - Dan also noticed the delay speakers weren't doing much, so we increased their level by about 3 dB. We now get a decent sound at the back of the room (we can actually mix by it). The drop in level from front to back used to be about 4 dB. Now, it is not nearly as noticeable.

Just this weekend we added another DVD feed at channel 38. It looks like we will be keeping this for a while as we do more video services, so we need to come up with a better and permanent cable. I would also like to re-work the right side of the board so that we get better grouping of the various feeds. For example, the announcment mic, Wireless C and Pastor's two mics should be grouped. The two DVD and the Computer feed should be grouped. Finally, the various vocal mics should be grouped.

Kurt - would you care to weigh in on if/how we should rework our 8 sub groups? I'm thinking we could free up a group if we took the kick out and moved it next to the keys.

Well team, that's all for now. Comment as you are led.

For Him

Kevin

A HUGE Thank You!

A HUGE Thank You to all of those who helped get the sound and Tech booths moved this past week!

As I pointed out to Chris, every single wired connection between the stage and the sound booth was redone. New wires were pulled, new connectors soldered, old wires extended. In order to make the moves, we had to scavenge some parts from the WhereHouse that were not needed there right now. All in all, it was a busy week.

Special thanks to Lee, Steve and Kurt for adding their special level of expertise.

If you haven't seen what was done, stop by and check it out! We took the opportunity make some improvements in the entire set up. The Shure processor has been moved down to the amp rack, which freed up space in the board rack. Components were moved around to make recording the message and playing CD's a little easier. The compressors were re-worked so that almost every signal is on a dedicated compressor. Both the compressors and the Aviom were labeled so that we can tell what is what more easily. Let me know what you think.

The schedule was tight. We tore it apart Sunday night, and started to put it back together Monday afternoon. Benjamin thought we would be done by Tuesday (he's an optimist, for sure). We were able to turn power on to the board and get a signal from the speakers shortly after 5 on Wednesday. By 5:30 we had all the wireless connections running, and the CD and DVD feeds. It took another hour before we got the other issues worked out so that we could record to DVD and we had sound and video on the monitors in the building. The Connect Group started at 7. Praise Him since we got exactly what was needed working by then. Saturday dawned with the need to get the mic and instrument lines connected to the new snake location. That involved running a sub-snake from the new location over to the old. We got that working by about 11:30 Saturday. By the time we got the wires secured and things generally cleaned up and ready for worship, it was a little after 2, and rehearsal started at 2:30!

God is never late, but He also usually isn't early, either.

The pay-off for me was being able to sit in the 9:00 AM service and be able to worship. From where I was, things sounded great! Lee had a fantastic mix going, our Worship Team was on their game, Tech had all of their lights working (finally) - everything came together for the congregation to feel God's presence.

Be prepared that the next few weeks may be very messy. The construction crew is scheduled to begin punching holes in the floor and the roof to make room for the new steel columns by next week. First Wednesday is a definite, but Twenty/20 may be moved or cancelled. We'll see.

Let's keep our heads on swivel and make sure we've got the message reaching those seats filled with hurting people.

You guys are great! I'm proud to be working with you!

For Him,

Kevin

Merry Christmas 2006!

It has been a long time since the last post. That doesn’t mean things haven’t been happening – I think it means TOO MANY things have been happening.

In any case, I want to wish each of you a Merry Christmas. I pray that each of you will be refreshed at this season as we celebrate the birth of our Lord. Let us always remember that He is the reason that we do what we do.

Many Changes Are Ahead

The next 3 months should see many changes for our C3 Tech Teams. Most of you already know that we will be launching our video campus in the Spring. The date currently being discussed is March. We are going to need a complete Tech Team there, probably including Camera for I-Mag. We need to grow deeper in our Sound Team so that we have the committed folks trained and ready to step in and replicate the C3 experience in a new location. Please pray about what your involvement will be in the new location. If you feel called to serve there, please let me know. If team members do not feel called, we may have to rotate people through at given intervals. Given the present size of our team, this WILL be a stretch.

We have also been informed that as part of the new construction it will be necessary to add some structure in the current Worship Center. Structure in the form of steel columns - at least one of which will be right in the middle of the room, and another of which will be in the Production booth. We are trying to find out the exact locations where these will go, and what the schedule is since all of our wiring runs from the booth to the stage right through conduit buried in a line with where we think columns will go. If that’s true, it means we have to move the wiring.

From now until the time we move into the new building, things will get very messy. Be prepared for constant change and the unexpected. We’ll do our best to stay ahead of the events, but it won’t be easy.

Christmas

This is going to be an awesome weekend as we hold SIX services. Thanks to all of you who are going above and beyond in order to serve this weekend. Please remember to pray for your fellow Tech Team members, and especially pray for Pastor as he will be preaching each service and concluding our current series.

Connect Groups

I hope that all of you are already in a Connect Group. If you are not, you are missing out on one of the best ways to continue to grow spiritually. As we start our new series ‘The Blessed Life’, I urge each of you to become a regular participant in a Connect Group. Ask God to show you why He needs you to be a part what He is doing in them.

I pray that God would bless each of you abundantly in the coming New Year, and I thank Him for the privilege of working with the best sound team around.

20/Twenty - November 15, 2006

If you couldn’t make it to 20/Twenty last night, I wanted to share some of what was heard, as it was a short, but very powerful message.

Pastor talked about what it is that makes C3 different from some other churches. Since he is often asked what it is that we are doing that seems to be working, he wanted to share with us the two things he sees as the reasons why we are having an impact in our part of Johnston County. There are basically two reasons:

1 – As a church, we don’t focus on growth, but on health.

To do that, we follow what it says to do in Hebrews 12:2 – we fix our eyes upon Jesus. We will continue to be healthy as long as we stay focused on Jesus and what He wants us to do. Our church goals are summed up by the expression you’ve all heard before. At C3 we:

Expose – people to the Gospel, mostly through weekend services

Equip – people primarily through Connect Groups

Experience – through Ministry Teams

2 – We should be passionately in love with people.

All people matter to God, and we try to express His love for all people through ourselves. We must never loose our desire to reach out to people outside of our church. We’re not about number, we are about people.

Every Connect Group should have an empty chair to remind ourselves that we want to bring new people to know Christ. We want to reach out.

If you see a church that ‘plateaus’, you need to ask yourself why. It may be because they have lost sight of Jesus, or they have stopped reaching out. Many churches get comfortable in themselves and the become a ‘Holy Huddle’.

If you have ever had a campfire, you know that a single campfire can be used to start other campfires. The person who starts the other campfire needs to leave the warmth and comfort of the first fire, and move to establish the next camp fire. This has happened with C3 in the past, as staff have moved on to other locations where God needed them. As a church, C3 is about to embark on a new growth path.

The new sanctuary is under construction, but it will not be ready until Easter of 2008 (keep that in your prayers). We need to provide more seats sooner than that, so next year we will be launching new campus – a Video Venue at the White Oak Theater in Garner. We will start with one Sunday service, but will probably grow to two (or more) quickly. To give you an idea of how big this is, the greater Cleveland School area has about 11,000 people. Garner has 24,000 people, the majority of whom do not attend church regularly.

We will export the C3 experience to a new location and a new audience. Live worship, Children’s Ministry, a BIG lobby for coffee and fellowship, and a dedicated pastoral staff. The only thing that will not be ‘live’ is the message which will be on video.

Guess what that means for us – a new tech team to support this campus! This will be a great opportunity to expand our ranks, and God is already doing that. Within the past week, we have information on at least 3 people who are excited about joining us in ministry. As God grows our team, we can reach out to hurting people in a wider area.

This is a truly exciting time to see how God is working in and through us.

We also covered some more things from ‘Hear of the Artist’ – but that is way too much to put in a blog. Please continue to read the book – it will greatly help you to understand yourself, as well as the people you work with here at C3.

You guys are great, and it is a pleasure to serve with each of you.

First Wednesday - 11/01/2006

What an AWESOME First Wednesday!

I hope you all saw Chris’ email that he forwarded from one of Arts Team members. You ARE making a difference and I am so proud to be working with each of you. Thanks to Fred for the fantastic job he did last night.

I know that when you sit ‘second chair’ for a service, sometimes you don’t feel like you are doing much, but I can assure you that your presence is a necessity. There is just too much to do for one person to be able to handle it with the excellence we need. All of the tech teams are doing more and stretching their expertise. I just can’t tell you how pleased I am to see that each team supports and covers for the other. We each have our special focus, but we also assist when needed in other areas. Remember what Pastor Matt said about ‘keeping your head on a swivel’.

I Keep Hearing The Same Thing

It may be me, but has anyone else noticed that the messages of late all have a common theme – we can do more working together? Our study this week is on Nehemiah, and how he was able rally the people to rebuild the wall in only 52 days. Pastor spoke last night about what he has do in order to be in this for the long haul. He can’t put himself on the altar the way he has been, and expect to lead the C3 family for much longer. What that means is that each of us must step up and carry the load the way we are called to (see Galatians 6).

I am also reminded of 1 Corinthians 12:12 – “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.” We have the tremendous privilege to work together to see what God wants to do in Johnston County. It is not by my power, or your talents that we will change someone’s life – it is by God’s grace that we can work together to provide an atmosphere where God can touch someone’s heart.

Technical Stuff

This is supposed to be a tech blog, so let me fill you in on a few issues.

The second 18 inch sub is still out of service. Parts are on order to fix it. Until it gets back in to rotation, we can’t push the 15 inch full-range speaker on the left too hard, since it doesn’t have the power handling capabilities of the 18’s. Wired the way we are now, we could easily blow out a driver in it.

Pastor’s regular body pack is acting a little suspicious again – battery levels dropping quickly. Starting this weekend, we will use the new body pack (Wireless D, board channel 39) as his primary pack, and the current ‘Pastor’ pack as his back up. I will try to get these packs labeled for their new assignments. Be prepared that I MAY switch out the two corresponding receivers. I just like having Pastor on channel 40. If I do that, I will leave you all a BIG note.

REMINDER – No one is to be allowed to use Pastor’s mic or body pack. The only exception to this is if he personally approves it. I would expect we would need to have a very good reason to do something like that.

I hope you all got to hear about some of the figures from this past weekend. The numbers themselves are not important, but they take on great meaning when we realize that they represent lives touched by the Lord. Please be in prayer for how we can continue to reach people through our ministry.

I look forward to seeing you all this weekend and next Tuesday for our November Training Night.

For Him

Kevin

Long Time - No Post

If you remember back to the beginning of our RWTG series, we saw that one person can make a difference. That truth is so relevant to our C3 Sound Team that I am astounded almost daily. Each member of this team brings unique gifts and talents that God is using in a mighty way. There is an expression that “the whole is greater that the sum of its parts”, and that is definitely true of our team. It is also the basic concept behind Synergy, which is what C3 has called the training program Connect Group leaders. (Coincidence?)

Thanks

Thanks to Kurt and Fred who stayed after 20/Twenty last week to work on changing how some of our amps are wired. We’ve bridged our two most powerful amps and can now send 1200 watts to the subs. To do that, we had to find another amp to power the low/mids that are flown. We took the QSC amp that had been idle and used it in stereo mode for those. That gives us about 700 watts available to each side on the low/mids. We are now able to get more out of the speakers without clipping the amps. Once we get the 18 inch subs back from the shop, we will have a really full sound.

Wireless Assignments

Most of you know that we have another wireless pack for use with a Countryman. It is designated Wireless D and is connected to board channel 39. Since we are having more guest speakers who need to wear a Countryman, the decision was made to get the new system. With that, we do not have the need to use Pastor’s system for anyone else. He is adamant, and I agree, that we will NOT use his headset or body pack for anyone else at any time unless he specifically directs us to. That still leaves us two systems that can be used for guest speakers, baptisms, etc.

Keep It Neat

We’ve spent a lot of time and effort in getting the amp rack area and the music room neat and organized. All mic cables have been tested and labeled, as have the CAT 5 cables for the Aviom (thanks Fred). There is a chart above the snake head to reference board assignments back to the snake assignments, and with all of the cables labeled, it is now easy to make sure everyone is connected to the right place. In the music room, the peg board has been divided up into sections for the mic cables, instrument cables and other cables. Please be sure to put things back in the right place. There is also a place for cables that may have gone bad. Put any questionable cables, DI boxes, etc. in this location. They will be tested, and either repaired or disposed of. Above all, let’s keep it neat.

Training

Training is always a big issue, especially since we all have differing skill levels. Send me an email as to what you, personally, want to be trained in. I will see what we can do to make that happen. There is a wealth of talent and knowledge within our team, and even more is readily available. Let me know.

More Thanks

Thanks go out to Benjamin who was responsible for adding deflectors to the A/C vents. It is no longer necessary to wear a winter coat in the booth at all times. This weekend, it was down right comfortable.

I don’t know about you, but I am finding that the 2 + 2 service schedule is a whole lot easier. Saturdays are a little tough, since we have to be there earlier in the afternoon, and dinner gets delayed. Sundays are a whole lot less stressful. When I go home, I actually have some energy left!

You guys are the best, and I am proud to work with each one of you. Your comments are appreciated.