BabuLife

Real Media Rocks

Here at Grace Church we've partnered with different organizations to meet various weekend service needs.  One of the companies we've partnered with is Real Media.

One of our electric guitar aficionados happens to be the owner of Real Media. I couldn't let this pass without posting a link to one of our local news affiliates here in town that did a story on Real Media.  Not only do they work with major league sports franchises, colleges or even commercials, they create video elements and documentaries for ministry organizations as well. 

Check out the link here to watch a video on Soakie and his company.  Visit their blog for more info.

Here's a video they did for Grace Church that we use during our services:

A Little Vision

This morning our worship team got together for some donuts and a little vision casting.  I'm a believer in the power of communication for teams, hence the WST blog, this blog and other sources.  While these are great tools, nothing beats the power of a face to face every now and then.  Here are some of the things we had a chance to talk about...

• Celebration - I've been keeping notes and comments from Connect Cards received during the weekends.  It would be selfish of me to just keep these to myself so I pulled a few out to share with the team like this one.
• 2007 Review - Looked at what major things happened for our worship team this past year.  Things like professed salvations, baptisms, new worship team members etc. 
• 2008 Focus - We've got some major things happening this year.  With an anticipated third service on the horizon, we'll be making some moves this year to prep our worship team for whatever time is decided upon.
• PlanningCenterOnline Training - Walked through some of the tools offered on the site.

It was good for our team to refresh ourselves on why we do what we do.  It was good for all of us to actually be in the same room without instruments in front of us.  I'm looking forward to 2008 and can't wait to see how God uses our team.  Thanks to the team for taking two hours out of your weekend to catch up!

The Worship Planning Tool has Landed

It has arrived.  The latest worship planning tool for the Grace Weekend Service Team kicked off this past Sunday.  At the close of 2007, we moved our online service planning to PlanningCenterOnline.com...and I'm hooked.  Here are just a few of the great features:

• Volunteer Scheduling - This is a must.  However, I've found this tool is only as useful as your volunteers use it.  I love the automatic email reminders it sends to team members about rehearsals and playing dates.  The "block out dates" feature is also extremely helpful.  Volunteers can mark dates they are unavailable which then flags them for me if I assign them to a date.
• MP3 Playback - This is what I'm really digging.  The ability to upload audio files of new songs where team members can log on to their account, click on their scheduled date and if there's a new song, they can listen to it.  No more CD BURNING BABY!!!  Again...this tool is only as useful as the volunteer makes it.  Here's to hoping our team uses it...hear me WST...use it!
• Chord Charts - This dumbfounded me.  I can't believe how easy it is to keep chords and lyrics.  Not only that, but when you copy and paste the lyrics and chords into the planning center, you can create another arrangement within the same key.  What does that mean?  Well, if you're a capo freak such as myself and you've got a song that is played in the key of G but you want an alternate chord chart for playing with your capo on the 5th fret in the D chord structure, just indicate the alternate chord structure within the key and make your "capo 5th fret" note and voila...it automatically creates a separate arrangement for the capo.  These can be downloaded as PDF files.  Unbelievable.
• Songselect - If you're a member of the CCLI and use the Songselect site, you can export the notes on songs to your computer then upload them to the Planning Center site and all of the important info automatically gets updated on that song.  Author, year, publishing company and CCLI number.  All the stuff you're supposed to be displaying on your video screens during services to be copyright compliant.  This is the easiest tool I've seen for this.  Also, if you're in a reporting period with CCLI, Planning Center can automatically report printing and play dates to CCLI.  How cool is that?!?!  By the way, if you aren't using Songselect, go get it here.
• Video Training - They have done an awesome job at creating training videos.  I've had all my questions answered instantly by watching the vids.  Good stuff.
• Ministries - Not only can this tool be helpful to the Grace Weekend Service Team, but we can add various ministries under the same account.  For instance, if the youth ministry planned worship services and wanted to use this tool they could.  And their team could log in only under the specified ministry.  Great for CCLI reporting which comes every 3 years or so.  I think we're going to give this a shot with the children's ministry when their ready to make the leap.

I'm sure as we go along I'll find something that is missing or would be good to add.  They've got a great forum where you can make your recommendations and they listen.  I highly recommend this tool for anyone involved with planning services with a worship team.

Try PlanningCenterOnline.com

Are My Teeth Clean?

This past Sunday between services our stage director was made aware by someone in the congregation that Tim's glasses were a bit dirty, smudgy and dusty.  "What's the big deal?" you may ask.  While it may not sound important, the fact that one person was distracted from the message because of dirty glasses means there had to be other folks with the same issue.  But really the story for me isn't the dirty glasses, it's the fact that someone had Tim's back in letting him know.

What's it mean to have the back of your pastor on Sundays?  It means making sure he's on time.  It means making sure his microphone is set up and working.  It means he's got the podium in place when he steps out onto the stage.  It means making sure all of those seemingly insignificant needs are met and taken care of so he can focus on what God's called him to do...preach the gospel so others can come to know Christ.  This is a core value on our Weekend Service Team that I've hardly ever mentioned to our team members.  It's just the kind of people they are.

I need a "fly checker" on my team...or someone who will have the guts to tell me there is green stuff on my teeth.  Thankfully I've got several of those every weekend. 

Projectors Fixed

Last night our fearless video leader rose to the occasion and jumped on the lift to fix the projector issue we had during services last Sunday.  After a long evening of deep cleansing and color tweaking, the projectors are now operable. Doug and I finally wrapped up at 11:30pm. Hopefully we won't have the tennis match effect this weekend during services as I mentioned here.  Go Video Doog!

Boom Worship

My blogging friend Pete linked to an interesting post from Perry Noble regarding "booming worship".  Check it out:

I have made it a point on this blog to say that I have given up visiting the sites of certain “watchdog” Christian organizations…now it seems I am going to have to give up something else…Christian talk radio!  (With the exception of Tony Beam and Dave Ramsey!)

I was driving home the other day and was listening to an interview with a pretty popular fellow in Christian circles–he was being asked about worship and he said, “I am not trying to be a cantankerous old man, and I have thought about it…and I just don’t see how someone can truly worship God with a booming sound system.”

Continue reading . . .

HT: Pete

By the way...have you checked out TheWorshipCommunity.com site today?

Band Workshop a Success

This past year we've seen our worship instrumentalist team grow from 5 to 11.  We even have a violinist that accompanies us periodically.  With the addition of new team members and anticipation of continued growth, it was time to take a moment without our instruments and catch up on the heart and skill factors in leading worship at Grace.  This morning we did just that.

Last June the vocalists on the team came together and watched the "Vocal Workshop" DVD created by Paul Baloche.  This time around the band members watched Paul's DVD called "Worship Band Workshop".  There are a lot of great insights on the video.  One point that I found helpful a few years ago when the team watched this before the was aspect of creating space.  Giving yourself to the song versus trying to outplay each other.  That's not a problem our team has had, but it's one I think many worship bands start out having to dissect.

While the video was great, the discussion was even better.  Before the video started, I had each member rate their individual skill level and then rate the worship team as a whole 1 - 10 (1 being stinky and 10 being amazing).  I've gotten flack before from people about rating yourself, but playing skillfully and continuing to improve is an important thing in the Bible..see here for example.  You can't worship or sing to the Lord with bad music.  (I suppose you could, but really, why do that when you can bring God better). From this exercise turned to things we felt needed improvement and also discussed our greatest strengths.  This was my favorite part of the morning.  The workshop also gave me a chance to share my heart and vision for our team as well.  Our biggest future anticipation...a third service.  It's coming.  Don't know when...but it'll be here.

Thanks to the folks who made it. I hope it was worth your time to sit and chat without the instruments in our laps.  It's a privilege to be a part of this team and what God's doing here through each of you.

Get the "Worship Band Workshop" DVD here.

Nu-uh...I can't Believe this Happened

So I'm sitting in my office Friday late afternoon working on some music when I see Pat, our receptionist, through the window of my office door holding a giant box.  It looked like she needed help so I got up and went to the door.  I was confused by the giant Breedlove logo on the box wondering what in the world this was doing here.  Turns out someone out there felt led to purchase the guitar I blogged about and deliver it to my office.  HOLY COW!!!!  As our pastor, Tim Howey says . . . UN-BE-LIEVABLE.

To the anonymous donor...thank you soooo much.  I don't know what to say.  I was literally stunned and shocked.  Your heart was so uplifting....thank you sooo much for the card too.  God is definitely good.

Pics to come soon.

Meet my New Guitar . . .

Sometime in the future.  This is it.  The one.  I will be stuffing cash in my Dave Ramsey envelope system for this little item.  I dragged the wife out to Guitar Source today and embarrassed her with my guitar geek enthusiasm. 

So...have a look at the pics...it's the Breedlove Atlas AC25/SR Plus with the sunburst top.  It's going to take some time for saving, but I WILL NOT use a credit card.  That's for all my Financial Peace University buddies out there.

The Worship Community Website

Be a part of a new worship community.  If you're into lighting, audio, video, worship music or worship leading, you'll find something out there that will interest you.  You can bounce ideas off of others, get CD reviews, learn about new music and tons of other stuff.  I joined today, check it out and be a part of this new community!

Thanks Fred for the email invite and for taking the time to assembe this valuable resource.

Visit www.TheWorshipCommunity.com