m-audio, a Mac, and a Mic

I just finished watching lifechurch.tv's internet campus this morning, which airs live at 11:25/30a.m. It's pretty cool. When you login, you are given a countdown that tells how long until the internet campus service begins.

There are opportunities to join a chat room, invite a friend to come sit on your "row." Also, you can give your offering and write down notes to print off, email to a friend, or save for later.

They have made the internet campus as interactive as you could imagine, even including an interactive screen which sometimes posts "God is Good," and the inet campus and click the "All the Time" link to interact.

The only downside is that if you are a part of a separate church, the only opportunity you will have to join in on a service online would be when you are sick or maybe out-of-town and you have inet available.

Once logged in, you can choose which worship leader you would like to worship with, Stephen Cole or Trent Austin. Since I saw Trent Austin live, I wanted to see Stephen.

It was definitely interesting. The band was Stephen leading from an m-audio 61-key keyboard, connected to his mac. He had two mics, one facing the audience that was for when he was playing the keys, and the other for odd vocal effects that was perpendicular to the keys and connected to the mac. The other two musicians were another keyboard player who had a 76- key triton and an 88-key Motif below, and to complete the ensemble, an electric guitar player added some crazy cool sounds (I think enhanced by sounds through his mac).

Every song was sequenced and it was very good. I don't know what it would be like live, but watching online provided a lot of energy, even with the small speakers that accompanies the MacBook pro.

If you ever get a chance, check out the lifechurch.tv internet campus and see the what shut-in ministry will look like in the future.

Saddleback, Willowcreek, Fellowship Church & Lifechurch.tv

I was talking to a future church planter via email and mentioned several of the US' largest and most influential churches that I've been able to visit and he asked about the pros/cons of each.

I thought it would be good to post this out and see if anyone else would share the same opinions or have any others about these churches.

Saddleback:
Pros |

• Great atmosphere that encourages community (tables everywhere, open air seating with view of stage and video outside, wireless inet everywhere on campus)
• Was greeted at least 8 times before entering the building.
• Solid worship, great preaching.
• Built on purpose, not personality
• great small group structure

Cons | can't think of any right now.

Willowcreek:
Pros |

• The most creative place I've been to
• Engages every sense (including smell)
• Every weekend is an event
• Use venues as a way to provide various worship experiences.
  

Cons |

• didn't give an opportunity for salvation every service (however, they rely upon their congregation to do this.

Fellowship Church:
Pros |

• Creative atmosphere
• Trendiest church I've been to
• Very visual
• great music and videos
• Allows anonymity
  
• Great bookstore and cafe
• Great marketing strategy (place website on everything and promote events creatively)
  

Cons |

• Seemed to be built on Ed's personality
• By allowing anonymity, it appeared harder to connect
  

Lifechurch.tv
Pros |

• This was my favorite place
• best balance of creativity and the gospel
• Compelling invitation at each service.
• Uses video venue on a multi-campus level
• Allowed anonymity, however there were several people who were very cordial and helped with any questions.
• They had McCallisters sweet tea and other snacks for everyone before service
  

Cons |

• can't think of any other than the tea wasn't that sweet, oh and Craig wasn't there... I really wanted to just shake his hand, but the campus pastor that spoke did a great job.
  

Jazz Museum.. a cool theater... and a man's story

Last night, Cassie and I attended a benefit for the urban ministry called "Higher Impact." The company I work for, Meyer Companies, was a sponsor for the event.

The ministry reaches out to the "high risk urban youth" and teaches them job skills, leadership skills, and provides mentoring and accountability. This ministry has been featured by People magazine and has been recognized by the President of the United States.

The night involved a disco band (that was entertaining, more because of their personalities than talent - the lead singer had hair past his shoulder blades and conveniently placed a fan on the floor to blow his hair to make it look like a music video. We also caught him looking at himself in the reflection of the window, doing different poses in his 70's outfit.) Sorry, got carried away.

The night was catered and was held in the American Jazz Museum which shares the foyer with the Negro League Baseball Museum. The premise of the night was a Hollywood style premier night to honor 7 youth who are a part of this ministry and who created their own film which was viewed in the history GEM theater (pictured on the left, this would be an awesome place to have a church - what a place!)

The founder of Higher Impact, Tyrone Flowers, is a man with an amazing story. Growing up, his father was shot and killed at the age of 7, and beating the odds of his culture, 2 weeks prior to graduating and attending MU on a scholarship, an argument on a basketball court put this MU-bound ball player in the hospital after being shot 3 times. Now flowers is quarantined to a wheelchair.

His determination is a testimony in itself. He truly lives an example of endurance and attitude. After receiving Christ, Flowers, has since forgiven the man who shot him, and has a friendship with him.

An amazing example of a man who made the most of his opportunity, transforming his misfortunes into an investment that changes lives.

The Mystery

I love the mystery that we live in. A mystery that isn't to be understood, but just known. Paul mentioned this secret plan, and now we live it. How a God who cannot be contained wants to have a friendship, even better, a relationship with the one's He created.

But the mystery becomes more mysterious as we are separated by sin, and we discover how God's love and forgiveness is not for our sake, but His.

Isaiah 43:25 (NLT) - "I alone am the one who blots out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again."

God's passion is to be with us. So much that he forgives our sins so we can be with Him. Let's live the mystery.

New David Crowder CD

Using new sounds and fresh lyrics, David Crowder brings another great release for our ready ears.

The first song, "The Glory of it All" grabs you from the beginning and the rest of the album keeps you listening till the last note fades into the darkness.

His unique use of sounds, especially the "gameboy" sound on the second track, integrates really well into the music and style.

I especially am liking the keys that are throughout the cd. It brings a good flare to the sound. You can listen at New Release Tuesday's site.

Also, I have to mention, my other favorite album right now by Tim Hughes, Holding Nothing Back. If you haven't put this in your iPod, what are you waiting for? Martin Smith (Delerious) helped him write Happy Day and the title track, which are both my 2 favorite songs on the cd.

new MeyerBro hat

I'm back in After Effects

Right now I'm working on a video in After Effects. Here's a screen shot of what it is so far. Hopefully tomorrow evening it will be a full video.

I forget how versatile this software is. If I only new all of the different aspects of it.

If you are looking for a great place for After Effects Tutorials, then you need to check out CreativeCow.net.

Coffe Cup Advertising

I was at a coffee shop on the plaza this Saturday, since my MacBook Pro has not been wanting to turn on... oh and btw it turned on first thing while at the apple store. In fact it worked perfectly. I spent 45 min trying to get it to come on at home that morning and another 35 min on the phone with support with no luck. But as soon as I walk through the portal of the apple mecca, viola... perfect. Weird.

Okay, idea...

As I was at the coffee shop, the cup sleeve had some upcoming dates on it of some events going on at the plaza. It then struck me that a church could design a coffee cup sleeve for an upcoming event and have several thousand made and go to the different coffee shops and ask permission to save their costs and use your sleeves.

You could promote a holiday event, bridge outreach, message series... like Espresso Yourself by Ed Young, or a kids thing you have going on.

Do something creative with this!

Ivories... Cookies... Sliced and Diced.

Well yesterday I was privileged to be able to play on the Westside band in the morning services. The morning went great. The only bad thing was that I had to be there at 6.3a. and it takes 35 min to get there. So you can do the math to see when I had to leave, and wake up.

So today, I woke up a little groggy, but after skipping the gym...again, I feel a lot better.

The message yesterday was about cookies. Yes we all have cookies, some have more and some have less. Some don't have any cookies at all. We also, learned how all the cookies are God's and that just as our parents taught us a valuable lesson when we were young with cookies, God still expects us to continue that act.

We are to Share our Cookies. It was a simple, but powerful message. You can check it out at this link in a couple of days.

I made it sound simple, because it is simple, but it was delivered in a cutting, make you feel like you've been sliced and diced, way.

It was pointed out that if every Christian tithed, there would be enough money to feed, clothe, and medicate every impoverished person and still have over $70 BILLION to carry on the work of the local church.

I think it is time we share.

Love shouts.

Tonight my wife and I celebrated her new promotion by dining at P.F. Chang's on the Plaza. We love that place. We tried something new, their Lucky 8 dessert, it was good.

You see a lot of crazy things on the plaza. Our waiter had a fork for a bracelet, there was a magician that was wearing all orange with a good sized crowd around him. Occupying the air waves was a tenor sax musician that was playing can you feel the love tonight, however, she was torturing the song.

Adding to the atmosphere was a group of men singing off-key. Their choice of song: "It is Well." As they sung, they held their signs in the air compelling everyone to "come to repentance."

It is so frustrating when people like these exhibitionists even turn me off to Christianity. It makes me so mad when people give such a horrible example of Christ.

That's the short soap box. Remember that love shouts louder.

Music worth listening to

If you haven't hear of The Anthem, then make the journey to their mySpace page and let your ears be serenaded by the new melodies and fresh sound that this band is coming up with.

New Direction, New Fears, New Stories

When I resigned from Crown Pointe, I was very uncertain about the future, and honestly scared. What I had set in my mind for the path my life would take was brought to a halt abruptly and redirected.

For the next couple of months I felt vulnerable as I was starting a job that I had little experience in... Marketing. I've worked at a church for 8 years so you can imagine the adjustment that had to be made.

My new direction brought new fears. Will I ever get back into ministry? How will that happen? How can I keep from falling into the everyday routine? How do I reposition myself to get involved in a church? What church do we go to?

These fears were new to me.

Over these last couple of weeks, as we have embraced our new chapter in life and began seeing our life take a new direction God has done some pretty great things in our lives.

Today, Cassie got a promotion to a new position at work. The other co-workers who will be doing the same job as her have degrees, and even though Cassie is in pursuit of hers, they still hired her. This was totally a God-send. They pursued Cassie.

Also, this week is my first week to play with the Westside Family Church band. After 4 months of not leading worship and sitting in a seat, God's opened a door. I'm excited about learning from the leadership there and how they administrate a volunteer team as large as theirs is.

We're excited about the new stories that we will have to tell. I don't want to be contained by my fears, because if we don't confront our fears, we will have no stories to tell.

Half of Learning is easy, it's the other half that's hard.

Life is about learning. Leadership is about learning. If we are not continually acquiring new skills or sharpening current skills then we aim short of the possibilities that life could offer.

While life is about learning, I'm beginning to understand that life is also about unlearning. Unlearning the old and thinking of the new. Challenging the process to everything to find new insights and new methods. Scrapping routine to push our minds and bodies to the limit so we don't maintain, but grow.

My mom has always said, "If you are not growing, you're dying." A simple, but powerful truth.

Physically, when we stop growing, our body begins the degenerating process. The moments we stop training our mental capabilities are the moments when we tap our potential.

And spiritually, if we are not growing we're dying.

Life is about learning, and learning is about unlearning. Jesus was a huge campaign manager for the Unlearning candidate. Look at his Sermon on the Mount.

"You have heard that it was said"... "but I tell you."

In his book "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day," Mark Batterson says this about unlearning:

"Half of spiritual growth is learning what we don't know. The other half is unlearning what we do know. And it is the failure to unlearn irrational fears and misconceptions that keeps us from becoming who God wants us to be."

What things do I need to delete from my mental hard drive, and upload a new way of thinking?

My she looks good...

We went to Justin Tanner's wedding on 08/18 and I wanted to post this pic because she just makes me look so much better.

And an FYI, her mom made the dress. Way to go Linda. (It was Cassie's brainstorm and Linda's handiwork.

My, she's gorgeous. I'm one lucky guy!

New Abundant Life Website

Congratulations Abundant Life A/G on the new website... it looks good! Of course I'm biased since I built it. 

It's only a basic shell and I'm waiting on more info, but after working on it for 19 hours in the past 2 days... we finally got a good shell to work with. Boy I'm slow at this...but I'm learning different tricks everyday, which is exciting.

Trying out for the Band at Westside

I was able to meet with Pastor Jason who is in charge of the band at Westside, and he seems like a great guy. He's a very tasteful guitar player and has a very genuine personality and apparently a highly creative person.

On Sunday we worshiped sitting down and it was cool. The thread running through this sermon series is "uncommon," so we did music in an uncommon way.

I think that any time a church makes each Sunday different from the normal (to where the unexpected is normal) the experience is greater. Variety builds expectation and change ignites growth.

I'm currently going through Ed Young's book, "The Creative Leader" and he gives a lot of good tips to inspire the creative gift in all of us. After all we are made in the Creator's image and we have a reputation to uphold.

Kudos Westside for pursuing the creative element every week, and thanks for letting me audition to be on your team!