AUMC AV Blog

Tonight we had a special service called "Soul Cafe". The theme for tonight was "Jazz", so it was basically an hour long jazz worship session. It was a load of fun for everyone! We had some great musicians playing, lots of great music, and everyone was worshiping God.

Anywho, I had a lot of fun. This reminds me why I enjoy Church Media so much. Sure I was running around last minute like a head with my chicken cut off, but it was all worth it. The praise, the glory lifted to God was amazing.

But what really got my adrenaline pumping was that it was different. Sure, Sunday church is fun, but it has become mundane and predictable. When I am having to run around and fix all of the small problems at the last minute, that is my forte. When I was in college, taking lots of Radio, TV, and Film classes, my favorite times were always when we were in the TV studio doing live production. The "it has to get done now or we fail" really gets my blood pumping.

For example, tonight we sang the song The Summons. When I had the last minute check-over-the-PPT-file-with-Joe, he pointed out that I didn't have the lyrics to the song, so I would have to add them (from this morning's PPT, a simple copy/paste). But leave it to me, I forgot. So, we are going through the service and Joe introduces the song... and I realize that I don't have the lyrics. So, while they start playing their jazz intro, I look on the hard drive for this morning's file... it isn't there. Not in the trash, not in the normal folder, I have no idea where it went. So I grabbed my USB thumbdrive and thew it onto the computer, opened the PPT file from the morning, found the song (at the end of the file, of course), and copied and pasted the lyrics into the currently running PPT file, all in about 20 seconds. And I got the lyrics on the screen only about three words late. If I never told anyone about me forgetting to copy the lyrics over, then no one would have noticed that I had just saved the song from total disaster (or at minimum a lot of confusion).

I was able to do that (and other such feats of awesomeness) because I have been doing the sound booth for well over four years at AUMC (and a year at another church), and I have lots of practice and experience fixing problems on the go. And I have to say, being able to save the day makes me proud. I try not to be prideful, but I do have pride in the work that I do.

I also want to point out that none of this is my doing. Joe Stobaugh is always telling me what a great job I do, and how much I do for the church, and I always want to reply: "I'm not the one that deserves credit for this, it is God!" See, I totally believe that God used circumstance and coincidence to bring me to AUMC and thus for getting me into the Church Media business. Today I can't imagine not doing Church Media, whereas five years ago I had never given it a thought. It is by God's grace and guidance that he has brought me here and has groomed me into being the amazing sound guy that I am. (This is why I can call myself "an amazing sound guy" and not be prideful, because it is not by my doing that I am amazing.)

So when you see me do hard work and pull something extraordinary off, know that I do have pride in what I do, but I also fully understand that it is by God's grace and love that I am able to do the extraordinary. Don't give me credit, give it to God (although, a "thanks" to me now and then won't hurt).

Matthew