And this week it culminates with the NFL starting. It’s going to be awesome!

Anyways, did anyone else watch the Boise State vs. Virginia Tech game last night? It was pretty good, eh? Well, the first quarter was really good, when Boise State was whooping up on Virginia Tech. But after that it [...]]]> Football season is here!

And this week it culminates with the NFL starting. It’s going to be awesome!

Anyways, did anyone else watch the Boise State vs. Virginia Tech game last night? It was pretty good, eh? Well, the first quarter was really good, when Boise State was whooping up on Virginia Tech. But after that it started to go downhill kind of fast.

Now, I’m not a Boise State fan, but I’m definitely not a Virginia Tech fan, so I was rooting for Boise State.

However…

I definitely do not think Boise State should be a contender for the national championship.

Really, I was wanting Boise State to win because I love a good shake up in the BCS(although the BCS rankings don’t actually come out for a few more weeks).

See, I have a real problem with people thinking Boise State is in the BCS championship hunt. And I really have a problem with their #3 preseason ranking.

What is my problem with that?

They only play 2 BCS qualifying teams all season!

Strength of schedule is always something that’s a big deal in the BCS rankings, well, Boise State has an extremely week schedule. They’re in the WAC, a conference with only 2 BCS qualified teams in it. You can’t say you have a strong schedule when you’re competition in your conference isn’t even worthy of BCS qualification. Compare that to the ACC or SEC or the Big 12 conferences of which nearly all of the teams are BCS qualified.

Boise State only played 2 teams ranked in the preseason top 25, one of which was Utah State who lost last weekend and is no longer ranked in the top 25. So as of right now, their schedule only has 1 ranked opponent.

Let’s compare that to LSU. They face 6 ranked opponents and 3 other BCS qualified teams. Or FSU who faces 4 ranked opponents and 5 other BCS qualified teams. Based on that, why is Boise State ranked higher than LSU and FSU? I do not know.

Again, I was happy Boise State beat Virginia Tech last night, a solid BCS team. But I still don’t think they should be anywhere near the BCS championship. A bowl game, sure. But not the championship.

This past weekend was awesome! It really, really was great. In terms of things going as we planned and the way we wanted, it was a total success.

There was a very small instance of equipment malfunctioning, but wasn’t a big deal at all. I really think it was operator error(I was the operator of [...]]]>

This past weekend was awesome! It really, really was great. In terms of things going as we planned and the way we wanted, it was a total success.

There was a very small instance of equipment malfunctioning, but wasn’t a big deal at all. I really think it was operator error(I was the operator of the particular piece of malfunctioning equipment). But everything went really, really well.

To start things off, we had some of our best volunteers with us this past weekend. Doug Anderson on CG. Stephen Johnson on audio. Monte Howton ran things backstage. I ran lights, and Brian fulfilled the role of Producer. I have to say that these guys are the true heroes of every service. Seriously. There’s absolutely no way Brian and I could do all this stuff on our own. We literally HAVE to have these guys here or we would fail miserably every time. So thank you to Doug, Stephen, and Monte for volunteering with us. Not to mention it’s Labor Day weekend! They definitely get some extra brownie points in my books for that.

I really want to talk about some stuff we did very differently with the flow and such of the service, so let’s go ahead and talk about the band, and then the set list.

We had Chris Moerman leading us yesterday. We had Cody Preston and Cory Estes on guitar. John Packer on bass. Zac Brooks on drums. And we had Doug Kuykendall and Sherry Keadle singing along with Chris. I want to say this is the first time Cory and Cody had played together at Crossroads. They sounded pretty good together and complimented each other well swapping off solo parts.

So let’s just into the set list so we can really talk about what we did during the service…

Song of Hope(Heaven Come Down) – Robbie Seay Band
Desert Song – Hillsong United
Who is Like the Lord – Unhindered
Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Green Day
It Is Well – Shane and Shane

Ok, let’s talk through this a little.

We kicked the service of with “Song of Hope”. We had started doing this one fairly regularly a few months ago and threw it back in for this past weekend. Chris led that one, then Sherry came up and sang “Desert Song”. Sherry is a volunteer singer who can sing pretty stinking well. She sounded great on “Desert Song”. Then Chris came back up to lead “Who is Like the Lord”. Then this is where things got really different for us…

After “Who is Like the Lord”, we played our “In the Loop” video, which a video announcement piece we show every weekend that’s around 2:00 in length and talks about everything we have coming up at the church(that way we have a 2 minute video instead of someone taking 10 minutes to do it live on the stage). Typically, after this video we go straight into the message. Well, Justin Craig was speaking this weekend and he asked that we do “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”, and we decided to do it right before his message. It actually worked out GREAT! It was awesome because Justin had worked it into his message that he rolls right into talking about our broken dreams. The connection between the song and the message couldn’t have been any better. It was the PERFECT set up for his message. Something would have been really lost if we would have done this song at the beginning of the service like we usually do. It really couldn’t have gone any better. And the audience loved it! Usually we do 80’s tunes, but everyone really got into this song from 2004.

“It is Well” was played during communion after Justin’s message. It was just guitars with acoustic doing most of the work and the electrics doing swells and such. It was good to keep it easy while everyone was taking communion.

And that was it. The one thing that went wrong was a video we had for the end of the service didn’t cue right during the first service, but again I’m pretty sure I didn’t something wrong there on the lighting console. But everything went great 2nd service. It was nice not to have to worry about software and hardware freezing up or shutting down on us for once. I was still getting used to our new technical set up, trying to figure out the best way to program certain parts of the service and what not. But I think I’ve got it down now, if this past weekend was any indicator.

Again, I’m so happy with how things turned out. I wish every weekend could be as technically smooth as this past weekend was. Everything was firing on all cylinders. Our volunteers killed it. Justin’s message was really good(I honestly think he’s getting better every time I hear him). I felt like this past weekend was one of the best lighting shows I’ve ever created at Crossroads. Not to sound like a jerk; I’m just really proud of the work I was able to do.

Anyways, this week is going to be a very busy one at work. Honestly, it’s not the best week for a day off(although I’ll gladly take it). I’ve just got a lot to do around the church, including hanging a new projector. But that’s for another time. Thank you for joining me for this week’s Sunday Set List. See you again soon!

There’s a church, who shall remain unknown to you, who is having some… Problems. It’s actually a very big problem. A big problem of integrity. A big problem of responsibility. A big problem of obedience to God, honestly.

Finances.

This church was one of the first it’s the [...]]]> I heard some very upsetting news a couple weeks ago.

There’s a church, who shall remain unknown to you, who is having some… Problems. It’s actually a very big problem. A big problem of integrity. A big problem of responsibility. A big problem of obedience to God, honestly.

Finances.

This church was one of the first it’s the area, that I know of at least, to start teaching Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace program. Desi and I went through that program before, and it taught us a lot.

But some of the executive leadership at this church has filed/is talking about filing for bankruptcy, including the lead pastor.

Now, I totally understand some people filing bankruptcy. We have some friends who filed bankruptcy on their business. They had, in my opinion, very legitimate and understandable reasons for filing bankruptcy. But again, this was for their business, not their personal finances.

But one pastor at the church I mentioned filed for bankruptcy, then went and leased 2 brand new cars. Another one of the pastors who filed bankruptcy at this church, who unfortunately made some poor investments so you entirely blame him, is actually over the finances of the church! And now the lead pastor is asking questions about bankruptcy! I’m sorry, but that is an incredible mess.

Here you have the leadership of the church, even the lead pastor, including the pastor who is over the finances of the church, filing for bankruptcy! I have to be honest and ask, “What are you thinking!?”

First, and most unbelievable, why is the person who can’t handle their own personal finances being left in charge of the church’s finances? Second, the lead pastor, who’s church pioneered Financial Peace in the area, can’t keep his finances in order either! Third, you have another pastor, who is being fairly vocal about his bankruptcy, leasing a brand new truck! This is also a church who fired one of their executive level pastors because they weren’t able to pay his salary(as so many churches are unfortunately having to do right now), and just a couple months later, bought the entire creative department brand new computers!

Now, I’m no financial guru, and I’m certainly not all that great with mine(that’s one of many things Desi is much better at than I am), but I just can’t help but wonder what these people are thinking. Do they really think God is cool with that? Do they think God is going to bless that? I sure don’t think so. You know the whole being-trustworthy-with-the-little-things-so-I’ll-trust-you-with-more idea really does work that way.

Take some responsibility. Have some integrity. Obey God’s Word!

I know I said I was going to do this every month and did once then missed 2 in a row, but I’m here now to redeem myself.

This months video is a music video from an artist I’m really starting to like, Sarah Bareilles.

Sarah Bareilles’ first [...]]]> It’s time once again for the Video of the Month!

I know I said I was going to do this every month and did once then missed 2 in a row, but I’m here now to redeem myself.

This months video is a music video from an artist I’m really starting to like, Sarah Bareilles.

Sarah Bareilles’ first big hit “Love Song” was good, but not a real favorite of mine, but she recently released “King of Anything”. I love this song. It’s a sweet little break up song with great music. The lyrics are pretty good, but the music is what really draws me in every time. The drums are so simple and fit the song so well. It’s really a great song.

Then I watched the video and fell in love with it! I’d try to explain it, but I’ll just let you see for yourself.

So here is the Video of the Month with Sarah Bareilles’ music video for “King of Anything”.

Sara Bareilles – King of Anything from Sam Garvey on Vimeo.

I also said that I’m probably a dork for noticing, but I think that’s ok.

Here’s the graphics package from last season taken from [...]]]> I tweeted out the other day during the NFL Preseason game of the Broncos vs. the Steelers that FOX has a very nice new logo and scoreboard graphic they use during the game.

I also said that I’m probably a dork for noticing, but I think that’s ok.

Here’s the graphics package from last season taken from a 16:9 ratio screen…

You can see that because the Digital TV switch hadn’t happened yet, the scoreboard didn’t expand beyond what a 4:3 TV would naturally display.

Now look at the new graphics package also taken from a 16:9 screen…

You can see how much wider the graphics span across the screen. Plus I think it’s a great look.

With the DTV switch, companies can now broadcast to everyone in 16:9, whether you have a natural 16:9 TV or a 4:3 TV. So what FOX did is ask the cable and satellite providers to use the format code that ALL of FOX’s programming now uses(Yes, everything FOX does is now in 16:9). What that means is that if you have a 4:3 TV, it appears as letterboxed on your TV.

I think this is a brilliant move(that I’ve only seen FOX do) for a couple of reasons.

First, not many people have 4:3 TV’s any more, especially not big sports fans. And people who still do have a 4:3 TV, well, even their parents are buying them new 16:9 TV’s. I think we all know that 4:3 is dying rather rapidly now, so FOX has put themselves on the edge of where everyone will be very soon. Anyways, this creates a better experience for sports fans. With the graphics being now more in the corners of the screen, you see more of the field and the action. They’re also much smaller than they used to be. Instead of awkwardly cutting off the top of the screen with a full bar, there’s just 2 small icons basically all the way in the corner. I watched more than half of the game and the only time I noticed the scoreboard was when I was looking for it, which is exactly how it should be in my opinion.

But the biggest thing that impressed me about FOX’s decision to place their graphics like this, is that they are the only ones who have done it.

I’ve watched preseason games on both NBC and CBS, and neither of them changed the location of their graphics at all. FOX is really leading the way with this. And they’re the only broadcast company I know of that is showing ALL of it’s programming in 16:9. There used to be limitations on broadcast companies for how wide of a viewing area they could use without alienating half the market(those who were still using 4:3 TV’s). But now that they can send 4:3 TV’s a full 16:9 signal, they’re changing all of their programming. FOX is blazing the trail.

Then it got me thinking…

What are some areas where our limitations have been expanded that we haven’t taken advantage of?

The church is ever expanding, ever growing(as long as we’re doing things right). As we expand and grow, so does our “viewing space”. We build new buildings, purchase new lights, upgrade our software, remodel the stage, put TV’s in the atrium, and more people attend. Old limitations get pushed back a little each time. There is always, and I mean always, something new going on at Crossroads that is allowing at least one area of ministry to grow. Have I made the most of how my ministry has grown?

The first area that comes to mind is the new set design. We used to only have screens on each side of the stage that displayed the exact same thing, now we also have a huge screen right in the middle of the stage(literally 16ft. by 9ft.). How much more could we do not only during the music, but also during the message now that we have more space to place graphics and videos?

Another thing that comes to mind is the size of the church expanding as in the number of people who come to Crossroads. We have more people coming to Crossroads each weekend now than we did a year ago. This makes me think specifically in the area of our production team. I have more people I can talk to about joining the production team than I did a year ago. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to grow the size of our team as the size of the church grows.

And that’s only the things I’ve been able to think of in just a couple of days. I can’t wait to take some time in the coming to weeks to talk with our team about how our opportunities are expanding and what we can do to take advantage of them. This might actually be a good thing to talk about once a year. Maybe towards the end of each year we could talk about what limitations have been expanded and how we can make the most of the new space for the coming year. Just throwing it out there.

So I want to pose the same question to you…

What are some areas where your limitations have been expanded that you haven’t taken advantage of?

I read those words and I think, “WOW! We have the power to do anything!”

Isn’t that incredible!? Think of what that could mean if as followers [...]]]> The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” -Genesis 11:6

I read those words and I think, “WOW! We have the power to do anything!”

Isn’t that incredible!? Think of what that could mean if as followers of Christ, we began to speak one language. What could we accomplish for God’s Kingdom!?

Think of the potential in that!

We all want to reach our highest potential, maybe this is the key.

Maybe reaching our highest potential isn’t about what “I” can do…

Maybe reaching our highest potential is about what “WE” can do!

Imagine if we all worked together.
Imagine if we all spoke the same language.
Imagine if we all strove towards the same goal.
Imagine if we all lived for a single purpose.
Imagine if we all did things together.

Think of what this could do just in your church, if the Lead Pastor, Executive Pastor, Adults Pastor, Children’s Pastor, Service Programming Director, Technical Director, Worship Leader, the band, Youth Pastor, small groups leaders, host team, parking team were all chasing the same goal. Imagine what God could do if all of us were running after the same goal.

Imagine what would happen if every church were working together for a singular purpose!

Imagine the potential!

Well, you guessed it…

Yesterday was insane.

It was actually really good, just insane. It was also a day that I realized there are things that are being done that apparently need to get done.

Yesterday, I tweeted this…

“This morning has been insane. Definitely got some things to talk about this week that we need to do [...]]]>

Well, you guessed it…

Yesterday was insane.

It was actually really good, just insane. It was also a day that I realized there are things that are being done that apparently need to get done.

Yesterday, I tweeted this…

“This morning has been insane. Definitely got some things to talk about this week that we need to do better.”

And honestly, we really do.

There were just some things that happened yesterday that are really easily avoidable, but they happened. But, this is our opportunity to improve and do the things we need to so those things don’t happen again.

I also tweeted this yesterday…

“Let me clarify, my volunteers are GREAT! The things that can be done better are things I do that can help us be better prepared.”

And that’s the truth. The volunteers I work with truly are amazing! They show up on time, get ready, and do their thing. And they really do know what their doing. Anything, actually everything, that we missed yesterday was totally our fault not theirs. It’s not their fault the baptism pool wasn’t filled(yes, that really happened). It wasn’t their fault the wrong mp3 was up on Planning Center. It wasn’t their fault someone didn’t show up for mic check until 10 minutes before the service(who was also the person who realized the baptism wasn’t full). It wasn’t their fault I forgot a volunteer told me earlier in the week they wouldn’t be there and I didn’t schedule someone else in their place. It’s not Joe’s fault he didn’t know what to do for a lighting cue we never ran through during rehearsal. And it’s not Jesse’s fault he wasn’t sure what to do on CG yesterday(he’s never even been trained on CG before!) All of this stuff are things that we as a staff are responsible for and have to do a better job of if we want to improve the experience at Crossroads.

Yes, I’m a little passionate about it and might sound rash with some things I say, but there’s a lot at stake here. We’re talking about effectively communicating the Gospel to people. That’s a big stinking deal. I want to make sure we do our best to remove any possible distractions during the service(such as having to listen to the baptism fill up with water during the pastor’s message). There’s really no reason some of these things should have happened yesterday, and more than one of them are completely my fault. There’s room for us to grow, and we need to grow.

Ok, sorry about that. That turned into a little bit of a rant didn’t it? Anyways, I’m over it now. Let’s move on!

Yesterday, we had an AMAZING band together. They sounded great naturally which made my task of mixing yesterday really stinking easy. We had Mark Davis and Rueben Bidez lead worship. Cody Preston and Matt Wells on guitar. Jon Sheats on bass. And Stephen Bailey on drums. It was Stephen and Matt’s first time here with us, and I have to say that I was really impressed. I’d definitely love to mix with those guys again. Rueben said it best after they rehearsed “Our God is Love”. He said, “You guys sound amazing! I felt like I was singing with a track it sounded so good.” And he said he loved his in-ear mix, which made me kind of proud.

And for the set list…

My Glorious – Chris Tomlin
Our God is Love – Hillsong United
Revelation Song – Mark Davis
The Stand/No One Higher – Hillsong United/Steve Fee

Not too bad of a set list eh? This was the second week we did “Our God is Love”, and honestly, we decided it’s not one we’re going to keep doing. You can get a pretty good feel for how your church is catching on to a song after 2 week, and it really just wasn’t catching for us. Which I kind of hate because it is a great song, but I think I said last week that it might not be a real singable song. “The Stand/No One Higher” was a bit of an experience yesterday. We’ve done the song before and the crowd really digs it, but this was the song that had the wrong mp3 online. We were supposed to just do the original arrangement of “The Stand”, but the mp3 was “The Stand/No One Higher”, so we had to go with that. Not a huge ordeal, but was still a little funky. Tag that onto us doing it after the message as a response song, and it felt a little weird because it gets really big and heavy really fast(which is why we were thinking in our heads to do “The Stand”). Oh well, lesson learned.

Best part of the whole day was 20 people made decisions for Christ yesterday! What does that mean? Despite all the things that didn’t go “perfectly”, God still worked in a huge way! Just another reminder that God works in people’s hearts, no matter what happens with anything else.

And that was really it. Greg’s message was great, again! The only other thing that happened was when we had a miscue on the lights and weren’t able to play “In the Loop”, our weekly announcement video piece. But again, that was our fault for not running through that cue during the rehearsal(One of the things that was totally my fault from yesterday). But honestly, probably no one really noticed that much. I doubt anyone walked out saying, “Hey, what happened to “In the Loop?” The most important thing that matters is that God was worshiped and His message was communicated well.

Welcome one and all, to the 18th edition of Project X!

Let me start off with, well, a change to Project X.

Project X is going to move from a weekly piece on NoisemakersUnited.com, to a monthly piece. The last Friday of each month, I will recap what’s been going on in the tech world at [...]]]>

Welcome one and all, to the 18th edition of Project X!

Let me start off with, well, a change to Project X.

Project X is going to move from a weekly piece on NoisemakersUnited.com, to a monthly piece. The last Friday of each month, I will recap what’s been going on in the tech world at Crossroads Church. Part of the reason is that I’m obviously not very good at remembering to do this every week. Another reason is because things are starting to slow down in the frame of updates and upgrades at Crossroads, which is honestly a little welcome at this point. Well, I say that, but I’m actually putting together a proposal for some microphone upgrades right now. Oh well. Anyways, that’s the plan for now. Also, I want to have room to write about other things throughout the week, and having the Sunday Set List, which is staying weekly, and Project X every week doesn’t leave me any space to not write for a day or two and still be able to write about some of the other stuff I have on my mind.

So, let’s jump into what’s been going on at Crossroads…

First off, this new school year has already been incredible! It’s really cool watch Crossroads really blossom since school kicked back in a couple weeks ago. Not just in how many people are coming, but in the atmosphere and excitement. To start the school year off right, we as a church gave away thousands of school supplies to North Douglas Elementary School. It’s considered the poorest school in the county with 85% of the kids there being on free and reduced price lunch! Basically, that means that their families qualify for government assisted food programs. 85% of the kids! And we were able to give away boxes and boxes and boxes of paper, pencils, calculators, notebooks, art supplies, and so much more. I wasn’t able to be there when they dropped off the supplies, but I heard that the teachers stood on their feet and clapped for our team that was there for more than a minute. And Kurt Dean, our executive pastor, was asked to pray over the teachers and the school year. Very cool moment for sure.

Compared to that, everything else seems so trivial.

I did spend a day this week putting together a proposal for some microphone upgrades. We’re looking at doing something we’ve never done at Crossroads, at least not in the 1 1/2 years I’ve been here. I don’t want to say what it is and spoil any surprises, but for us to pull this off, we have to buy some new mics. I’ve spent a lot of time this week looking at a bunch of different mics, so if you’re looking for anything, I could probably help you out. And this is the funnest proposal I’ve put together yet. Most of the time I just type of the need to know info on Word, then just email it to the right people. This time I’ve taken it a step further. I’m including pictures, analysis, and I got recommendations for other audio guys I put in there. I’m not sure if it’s maybe a little over the top, but it’s just been fun. Maybe I’ll let you see it later.

Also, I did some research on some lighting problems we’ve been having. We’ve added a lot of fixtures over the past year with LEDs and a couple movers. And we got our hazer back from repairs a couple weeks ago. But last week I had a problem that when I connect my hazer, all my LEDs would go bananas, flicker on and off, and I had no control over them when the hazer was connected. Oh, and I had no control over the hazer either; it would randomly start spitting out haze and run the fan. So I asked around and found what I believe is the problem. Signal strength. Basically, we have too many fixtures in the line(26 I believe), and the signal isn’t strong enough to be sent through all those fixtures. What that means is that as the DMX signal goes down the chain, it eventually gets weak enough that the fixtures keep getting shocked with the signal as it goes in and out, causing the flickering and loss of control. So I priced out some DMX splitters and found one I think would be great. It’s a Swisson Opto Splitter XSP. It’s got one input, and 5 outputs, all of which are amplified. I’ve heard a lot of really good things about this splitter, and it’s a great price, $378, much less than a Doug Fleenor and with more outputs. So that might be an addition before too long.

I also spent some time helping our student ministries guys look at some new wireless mics. I definitely want to stick with Shure since that’s what we have everywhere else, but we were trying to decide of we should get more ULXP’s or maybe SLX’s. There’s good arguments for either. Because we already have ULXP’s everywhere else, it keeps it easy for moving them around, or simply swapping a bodypack in this room for a handheld in that room. Or if a handheld suddenly stops working all together in one environment, we have another one in another environment that can go there. But the SLX’s are much more cost effective for what they need to do, allowing them to buy more systems. The students environment has always been kind of on it’s on as far as wireless systems goes, so it wouldn’t really change anything if they had SLX’s, but I definitely see the validity in wanting to keep all our wireless systems uniform in each environment.

And that’s really it. The rest of my time has been spent tidying things up from the set change a couple weeks ago. Last weekend was disastrous, so I spent some time trouble shooting some of that only to, of course, have everything work perfectly the first time. Doesn’t that always seem to happen? Something goes completely haywire during Sunday, then during the week, you can’t get it to mess up again no matter how hard you try. Oh well.

So that’s it for this months(that still feels weird) Project X. We’ll talk more Project X next month, and hopefully I’ll have some of these new additions to talk to you about. See ya!

Why?

Because they’re not afraid to try something different.

Take their new song “Home” for example. When was the last time you heard a song with guitars and piano going full steam ahead and the drums are doing a tom fill with a tambourine taking the rhythm? It’s different. [...]]]> I do love the Goo Goo Dolls, very much.

Why?

Because they’re not afraid to try something different.

Take their new song “Home” for example. When was the last time you heard a song with guitars and piano going full steam ahead and the drums are doing a tom fill with a tambourine taking the rhythm? It’s different. I can’t think of a single other song on top 40 radio like it.

Some times I wish I would take more risks. But it’s scary isn’t it? Scary because at some point, you will fail.

I mean just think of all that can happen.

How many times can I try something new and fail before I lose my job?
How long before people start saying “Maybe this isn’t for you”?
How often can I fail and still hold my reputation in my industry?
How many times can I fail before I just become a failure?

Or worst of all…

What if I never get it right?

I want to think more like the Goo Goo Dolls, who’ve had 17 songs land in the top 10 on the charts and sold more than 9 million albums in the U.S. alone.

What is worse…

Having the courage to try and being able to look back and think of all the new things you tried that no one else did, though maybe you never succeeded

Or

Wimping out and playing it safe, then looking back and being jealous of the guy who took the risk you didn’t have the guts to take?

I rather be known for trying what no one else would than be known for being the guy who never tried anything because I was too scared.