| [..who i am..] |
|---|
| I am trying to be the best husband to Jessica and father to Connor I can possibly be. In the daytime (and after they go to sleep) I am the Innovative Creative Arts Pastor at Powell Church in Knoxville, TN. I love songwriting, creating stupid videos, apple computers, and pie. |
| [..blogs that i read..] |
| journey to claire |
| real live preacher |
| bill wolf |
| cult of mac |
| adam mayfield |
| bob carlton |
| adam feldman |
| futility closet |
| jeph hurst |
| jason edelen |
| jon reid |
| church marketing sucks |
| kem meyer |
| anthony coppedge |
| betsy wolf |
| mark nelson |
| multi-site arts |
| [..graphic & video resources..] |
| sxc.hu |
| igniter media |
| sermon spice |
| highway video |
| worship house |
| digital juice |
| church marketing lab |
| [..music & artists..] |
| gregadkinsmusic.com |
| greg on Myspace |
| new city cafe |
| bill mallonee |
| the innocence mission |
| andrew peterson |
| andrew osenga |
| over the rhine |
| nickel creek |
| david wilcox |
| rich mullins |
| hem |
| andy gullahorn |
| jill phillips |
| arthur alligood |
| dave potts |
| [..my so called music career..] |
|
| [..52 songs in 52 weeks..] |
|
| [..where i serve..] |
| powell church |
| [..disclaimer..] |
| I am on staff at Powell Church in Knoxville, TN but the opinions, thoughts, comments, and humor on this page are solely my own. Wade in at your own risk and be warned, I'm a bit of a goofball. |
| [..my site feed..] |
| RSS |
| [..archive..] |
Not enough Nerds...
Well, we did okay on the Playstation deal... it sold for $770. So, after shipping and ebay fees and paypal fees and sales tax and all that, we made about $225 on the deal. Not bad, but we're not going to retire on it or anything. The prices the night we got it were at right around $950... then the next morning they were down to $850 or so... by the time ours sold, $750-$800 was the going rate. There were so many of them on ebay... I guess there just weren't enough nerds buying them. Oh well. I never even got it out of the box... it didn't come with a game so there wouldn't have been much to do with it. I'll have to be content with my old dust collecting X-Box. I get it out every now and then to play some Tiger Woods or NCAA football. Playing those games is fun, but it's more fun playing with somebody else... Connor is only 2 so he pretty much sucks at X-Box. I beat him every time.Sorry for the lack of regular blogging... life has been pretty busy... you know how that goes. I'm in the process of archiving all of my old Hi-8 Video tapes from my old video camera that died on me. I'm dumping it to my hard drive so I can burn DVDs. I've got a stack of about 20 tapes on the counter and that's taking awhile to go through. Add to that, my friend Mark Nelson gave me a box of about 50 tapes (each one full at 2 hours each) that he filmed while I was in junior high and high school. Mark was my youth minister and these tapes are mostly of me and all my friends at what was a really great time in my life. It's a blast watching these tapes... having a chance to relive the past a little bit. It's been really cool. I'm working on transferring these tapes to hard drive too but it's going to take forever!
One final thing... I blogged a couple of weeks ago about Netflix. Well, we cancelled our membership and joined Blockbuster. If you live anywhere near Blockbuster, you should sign up... it's an incredible deal. It's the same as Netflix... 3 rentals at a time, $17.99 a month. Here's the kicker though... when you're done watching your movies, instead of mailing them back, you take them to the blockbuster store and they'll mail them back. They'll give you FREE on the spot, one in store rental for each movie you just brought back. Then, the next 3 movies in your queue ship the next day... no waiting for the mail... as soon as they are checked in a store, the next movies ship. So basically, you can have 6 movies at a time if you count the free in store rental you get each time you return one and the movies they ship you. We've been signed up for 2 weeks and have already seen: The Sentinel, Star Wars Episode 3 (who is the nerd now?), The DaVinci Code, The Breakup, Mickey Saves Santa (um, for the kids), V for Vendetta, Mission Impossible 3, Lost season 1 disc 1, Arrested Development Season 3 disc 1, and The Lake House. It would take almost a whole month to see that much with Netflix.
On the down side though... I've been watching too much TV. I need to go outside.
My wife is awesome.
I should probably say that more, but today, I'm really feeling it.So she was in Walmart last night buying a piece of fabric for some Christmas decorations when she heard it announced over the intercom that they had just received a couple of Playstation 3s on the truck and they were first come first serve.
Yes, the very playstation 3 that geeks across america waited in line for 4 days to buy.
Well, my wife, being the smart gal that she is, beelined it on over to electronics, was third in line, ponied up $550, and brought me home a Playstation 3. She got the last one. Funny thing is, all 3 were sold to women... she said a bunch of teenagers got there just a bit too late to get one. Don't mess with the ladies in the Walmart dude... seriously.
Now, before you go thinking that I've got stacks of benjamins and that throwing down $550 is no big deal... or thinking that I'm a giant dweeb, playing my video games 24/7, doing a little up up down down left right left right a b start action, remember one thing...
Playstation 3s are selling on ebay right now for $1000 a pop. Our auction ends tonight at 11:00. We're hoping to make a profit. Booya walmart teenagers.
My wife is awesome.
Netflix
is awesome. This weekend we watched a documentary about Disneyworld made by the History channel... it was amazing. It explained the whole underground tunnel system under Disneyworld which we were just fascinated by.Then we watched the Adam Sandler movie "Click" which was surprisingly good for an Adam Sandler movie. It's message of family first is something everyone in the ministry would do well to be reminded of... I know it took me a couple of years of workaholic tendencies to learn how to just say no to church sometimes. And come on... who hasn't dreamed of having a remote control like that! What's funny is I actually remember seeing the old Twilight Zone episode the movie is based on, except in that, the guy has a stopwatch and a nuclear missle is about to hit his town so he hits pause. He goes out in the street and actually sees the missle in the air about to strike his city so he has to live with the world paused forever. And then he beats the living crap out of Bob Barker so you can see why Sandler wanted to remake it.
Finally tonight, to round out the Netflix trifecta, we watched Akeelah and the Bee. Awesome, awesome, awesome. It's about an 11 year old girl from south central who gets into spelling bees... turns out she's pretty good and the good kids have coaches. Her coach happens to be Morpheus. I won't tell you anything else, but come on... Morpheus and spelling bees? What else do you need to know? Also, the mean Chinese guy who tortured Jack Bauer on the finale of 24 last season plays an evil dad who locks his kid in the house and makes him memorize spelling words all day. If that doesn't sell you on needing to see this movie, nothing will. All kidding aside, it was a great movie, even if my wife did fall asleep for the dramatic ending. I'm going to mail it back to Netflix and not tell her what happened.
Hoodwinked!
Just found out.... the Midget Vs. Lions story is a hoax. Never happened. Thank God.Although I do think this will probably end up as a special on the Fox network.
I have no words.
for this.And for my next trick... the triple lindy!
Well, today was a first for me. I was asked to teach a university class. A friend of mine who is head of the music department at Johnson Bible College had me come out to teach his Worship Technology / Media class a lesson on Easy Worship software and visuals in worship. So... I put on my best sweater (I would have worn a sweater vest if I had one), made some notes, and went out to the college. It was a lot of fun... one of my dreams used to be to become a college professor so this was a little taste of that. I don't think I'd be any good at it all the time, but for an hour, I don't think I sucked too bad. Or maybe I did... don't tell me.One of the handouts I made for the students was called "Guidelines for Visuals in Worship". I thought it might be of use to some of you here. These are just a few of my thoughts on creating visuals for worship services... certainly not an expert opinion, but from my experience, these are some guildelines that might help.
1. Know your audience – This is probably the most common mistake I see in churches. Not all visuals fit with every audience. If your church is made up of primarily an older crowd, maybe MTV style quick-cutting video backgrounds aren’t the best choice. If your church is in a rural community, maybe big city background images aren’t going to connect. If you are doing visuals for a youth / college service, maybe that waterfall isn’t as cool as you think it is. Try to find visuals that will connect with YOUR congregation… it might not be exactly what you would want, but you can’t go wrong trying to choose images that will be right for the most people.
2. Less is more – Another big problem… especially when creating visuals that will go behind song lyrics, keeping it simple is essential. When choosing video clips, you generally want to find clips that don’t have a lot of motion, don’t have a lot of quick edits, and most importantly, clips that don’t change from dark to light frequently. All of these things can make it extremely difficult to read the lyrics. When choosing still images, try to select images that have some empty space where the lyrics can go. Don’t put lyrics over busy parts of the image. The simpler an image, the better it will probably be.
3. Hold the cheese – I’m not against waterfalls, really, I’m not… God made them and they are beautiful. But I’ve been in worship services where every song was set against a lovely waterfall background (or waves breaking on the beach… or trees swaying in the breeze… or a sun slowly setting… you get the idea). Again, these things are fine in moderation… but remember that you are allowed to use things other than nature footage! Look at some of the websites I’ve included for examples of non-nature backgrounds.
4. Pick a font and go with it - Don’t change fonts on every song. A consistent look will help with the flow from song to song. Also, avoid any type of script or handwriting font… they are always hard to read. Also, avoid common word processor fonts (Times New Roman and Arial). Most people use these to project and if you use a slightly different font, it can give you a distinct and stylish look. I really like Helevetica or Helevetica Neue.
5. Know your Software – Get to know your presentation software and use it to your advantage. For example, in Easy Worship, you can control things like text color, shadow, outline, and also placement on the screen. It doesn’t always have to be center justified top to bottom and left to right. Easy Worship allows you to move the text around the screen in the background designer… take advantage of this sometimes for a fresh look.
6. Develop a Style and Stick with It – Try to be consistent with everything you do… if your church has dominant colors in its logo / print designs, use those elements when you can. If you are going to go with a grungy, edgy style, stick with that week in and week out. If you’re going for a more middle-of-the-road look, try not to deviate too far from that look. Think about successful companies like Starbucks… they do an amazing job at branding. Everything they print, design, and sell, all has a similar aesthetic. I can recognize something as being from Starbucks before I ever see the brand name. They have been intentional about creating a look that their customers will realize. The church isn’t a business or a brand, but there’s a principle here that is worth exploring.
7. You Have a Screen, so Use it! - If you are going to be committed to using visuals effectively in worship, look for creative ways to use your screen other than during the music. Remember, you have people in the service who primarily learn through visuals so don’t sell them short! My goal in creating visuals for worship is to never let the screen go black but also to never let it be a distraction. This is a challenge and sometimes I fail, but it’s a worthy goal to shoot for. Consider using Announcement Loops, Loops of your Church Logo, Sermon slides, Scripture Slides, ANYTHING to help keep the attention of your visual learners.
8. You Have a Screen, so DON’T Use it! – Bear with me here… Visuals in worship don’t have to be limited to your main projection screen. You can really create some interesting looks by experimenting with other things. What about finding some old slide projectors (I bet you there are 10 of them in the attics of people in your church) and having some of your still images made into 35mm slides (www.slideplus.com does it for as low as $1.19 per slide). Then you can shoot these images onto big empty walls, extra screens you can make out of fabric, or even the ceiling. One cool look is to get some shiny, slightly transparent fabric and hang it about 20 feet from a wall… then shine an image on that… the image will go hit the fabric and appear to just be floating in the air (and it will also hit the wall behind the fabric but slightly bigger… trust me, it looks cool). What about old TVs? Get 8 or 10 of them… wire them together with a VCR or computer… run a thematic image or video loop during your service. What about fabric? Hit the $1.00 bin at Walmart and go nuts… you can do some cool things in a worship space with fabric. And hey, don’t even get me started on candles! Use your imagination here… you really can do a lot with a little.
9. Look Around You – One of the very best ways to get ideas is to study what other people are doing. Visit churches and if you don’t have time to do that (and if you work in a church, you won’t), then visit their websites. I don’t want to discuss the pros and cons of megachurches, but one good thing is that they usually do some pretty great stuff with visuals in worship. Look them up… surf their websites… see if you can watch their service online… call their tech people… email them… ask questions. I’ve learned a LOT by just seeing what other people do. And most importantly, don’t be discouraged… you’ll find places that have tons of money and equipment and you’ll think “there’s no way I can do that”. Well, maybe not, but don’t look to recreate the whole look… look for one idea you can use and go with that.
Driscoll stirs the pot...
Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle has written a post on his blog about the Ted Haggard situation that has the blogosphere just losing their collective minds. (In case you've been living under a rock, Ted Haggard was pastor of a 14000 member church in Colorado and president of a national evangelical group... he just confessed to having a secret homosexual affair for the last 3 years. Ted has also been the most outspoken proponent of the federal marriage amendment... so as you can tell, it's a huge mess.) Here is the comment Driscoll made that has everyone in a tizzy:Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and liberties with their wives. At the risk of being even more widely despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband’s sin, but she may not be helping him either.
Driscoll is known for saying controversial things like this so this doesn't surprise me too much. My question for you is... what do you think? Is Driscoll a disgusting pig? Or, as my friend Bob Carlton said, "Mr. Driscoll is craven, a poltroon, dastardly, a recreant, a milksop". What do you think?
Kirk Cameron vs. Rob Bell in an all out SMACKDOWN!
Too good to be true? Nope... believe it. Kirk Cameron's "Way of the Master" has put out a video attempting to refute one of Rob Bell's "Nooma" videos (the "Bullhorn" episode specifically). You can view the video and see some interesting comments about it right here.While it's no secret that I'm more of a "nooma" guy than a "wotm" guy, I wasn't aware of quite how lame way of the master was until I saw this... man... those guys just don't get it. at all.
