AUMC AV Blog

First, let me say that I should be getting to sleep right now, and I pray that God will see this time writing this post as a sacrifice, and that he would reward me with rest. =: >

Second, for your consideration (not only because it is a cool scripture, but because it is the scripture that I was reading that made me get up to write this post): Ephesians 6:10-20

OK, on to business. I have been thinking a lot about the new tech team, and specifically how I am going to lead the new tech team. A general idea has been beating around the bushes, and tonight it cleared up: I don't want to just lead a bunch of guys into working perfectly as an AV team. Yes, leading worship is a large goal that this team has, but I am now convinced that this is not what God is calling me to have as my main goal.

I believe that God is calling me to minister to the people in the tech team. And I don't mean "minister" like a pastor does, or "minister" like an accountability partner does. I feel that God is calling me to help people focus on God. Too often I see teams in churches get the job done, but not much more. For example, every Sunday morning at AUMC, long before any service starts, everyone involved in worship (IE: the staff) gets together and goes over the services; who is doing what, the topic of the day, any special announcements that need to be made, etc.. And then they pray.

This weekly meeting is effective because it gets things done. I realized that every Sunday our tech team will need a similar meeting to cover similar (but media focused) topics. But I don't want it to be a simple quick meeting; I feel like there is an opportunity to do more. See, in the staff meeting, everyone there is on staff and knows their parts well, but my volunteer team will be much less focused and aimed, ready to fire on all cylinders (sorry about the mixed metaphors).

Before I go on, let me backtrack a moment. As all three readers of this blog well know, we have been working on the AV system in the new building, getting things ready. About a week ago some painters were going though the building, re-painting all of the door frames. We were working in the booth that day, so we were constantly going in and out of the booth. If you have seen pictures of the booth or have been on site, you know that there are several steps right inside the doorway to the booth, so as you are walking out of the booth it is very natural and often necessary to put your hands on the top of the door frame to steady yourself. If you can't see where this is going, you need to go back to 6th grade: yes, we now have not one, but two lovely handprints forever embossed on our door frame. (And from two different people, neither one me, I might add.)

Anywho, the painted-on-handprints led us to start joking about football stadiums that have sayings over doorways, so that as players walk through the doorway they see the saying and reach up and slap it. We decided that we needed to put a sign over the door that people would see every time they left the booth, because they are already putting their hands up to touch the door frame.

When we were talking about it that day, I took it as a joke; but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. I like the idea of having something (probably a scripture) there to remind people of our purpose, our reason for being here (both specifically volunteering at the church, and our reason for being here on Earth). The more I thought about it, the less I could narrow down what I wanted to put up there. I soon had the idea of every week having a different scripture, just to give volunteers something to think about and to help them stay focused. I took it one step further: I was thinking that it would be a good idea for, every Sunday morning, before any service, us to get together as a tech team and first read over the scripture of the week, then pray. At that point, we could have our tech meeting, I would tell them what they needed to know for the services.

OK, bringing the two halves of this post together: I again took it one step further. The following is my hair-brained idea. It is the ramblings of a brain that needs sleep, but here goes: The two tech volunteers and I show up at the same time, probably at 7:45. I go to the 7:45 staff meeting, while the volunteers turn on the system and get everything ready. At 8:00 (or whenever the staff meeting gets out), I grab the two (or however many there are) volunteers and we head into a conference room (that is, if we can find an open one). In the room, apart from the hustle-and-bustle of everything else, we would have a 5 minute "Mini Bible Study." It wouldn't be in-depth or profound, but it would be enough to help people focus on WHY we are here volunteering, on HOW we can serve God, on WHO we are serving. (The studies would not be geared for these specific topics, those are the reasons for the study.) After the study, which would focus on the scripture that is hanging over the sound booth door, we would pray, go over anything about the service that needs to get covered, then at 8:10 head to the booth for final prep. This would give us plenty of time before our 8:30 service to have things ready to go.

Yes, I know that taking 10 minutes of busy time could be a bad thing, but I think that having volunteers (and of course myself) focused on God BEFORE we start leading worship for others could be an amazing tool to help us be focused and ready to glorify God.

Is this a good idea, or just a waste of precious time? I love to hear any and all feedback on all of my posts. =: >

Matthew

Well, we have a new header (meaning the photo at the top of the blog). Like it?

I love the back-lit cross!

Matthew

As our country decides who our next president will be, I am trying to get my mind off of the idea that we are picking the wrong guy. So, here is what I am thinking about for the computer and computer software in our new building. I put this here to get your feedback. If I am missing something, or you disagree with me, speak out and tell me what you think!

Hardware:
iMac: $2,368.00
24", 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB memory, 500GB hard drive, 8x double-layer SuperDrive, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS with 512MB memory, price includes Apple Care.
Honestly, this one buggs me. I know that it wouldn't be smart, but part of me says "Wait until Apple updates the iMac" (which should be mid-January). See, my last iMac I bought two months before they were upgraded, and it still buggs me that I missed out on a better computer for the same price. I guess I am destined to do it again. Anywho, I want to get the top of the line iMac. If we will be doing video and other heavy processing, I figure it is worth the extra couple hundred bucks to get the best.

Some kind of mouse: $30-$100
Sorry Apple, the Mighy Mouse sucks, especially if you need precision mousing like we will need. So I suggest that we splurge on a different mouse. I personally own the Logitech MX Revolution. It is expensive (just under $100), but it is an AMAZING wireless mouse.

Apple Mini-DVI to DVI Adapter: $19.00
A monitor cable to hook the iMac up to our video system.

Kensington lock: $30
So the iMac doesn't walk away.

2 more GB of RAM: $30
Lots cheaper than the $150 Apple wanted.

Necessary Software: (IE: Software we will use on a weekly basis)
ProPresenter: $340
This will be the backbone of what we project. We will use it for projecting songs, scriptures, videos, etc. The more I use this program, the more I like it.

Microsoft Office: (already purchased)
For those times that we need to use PowerPoint, we will need Office. It has served us well so far, so we will have it in case we need it. (The sermon notes might end up being displayed in Office every week.)

Audacity: Free!
Audacity is a great app for recording audio. It will be easy to record the audio from the board so that we can easily put sermons on the website.

DropBox: $100/year
A great utility for moving and sharing files on several computers. I will probably pay the upgrade for 50GB so that we can store everything online... this will also serve as an off-site backup.

Not Necessary Software (IE: Software that we won't use on a weekly basis, but it will probably be installed on the computer anyway)
Quicksilver: Free
A great little app that can do just about anything. If you haven't used it, it is hard to explain what it is. If you have used it, you know why it will be on the computer.

Covenant Eyes: $100/year
Covenant Eyes is a program that watches what web pages you view and it reports to someone else what you have looked at. While mainly used for people seeking an "accountability parter", it can also be used for keeping track of what others are looking at on your computer. Not that I plan on the internet being abused on the church computer, but I think it is wise to hold people accountable when they are browsing the web.

Adium: Free
A multi-client IM program. We might use this to receive notices from the children's wing.

Meteorologist: Free
A great weather-in-the-menu-bar app.

Maybe Later Software (IE: Software that we will need one day, but probably won't get right away.)
PhotoShop Elements: $90
This is good for editing backgrounds and photos and stuff. There have been many Sunday morning where I was in the booth and just wanted to touch-up a photo so bad...

Final Cut Express: $200
For basic video editing and the like. However, iMovie will have to do for now.

Well, I am sure that I have left something out, in which case I will add it in later. Outside of things I have missed, what do you think of the list?

EDIT: I have added: Kensington lock, extra RAM, DropBox, and Meteorologist.

Matthew

Short work day today. We got the projectors installed, and built the two light bars that will hang over the choir. In the next few days, James will work on the punchdowns. Next week we will start the heavy working again.

Matthew

Well, before this morning I hadn't worked at the new church in two weeks, so it had been going slow... but so much has changed in the last 24 hours.

Without going into too much detail (as to not bore you), I have entered into an alliance with someone at church, someone that I should have been partnered up with a long time ago, but because of my personal problems I did not allow that to happen. Thankfully, I have forgotten the past, and now look forward to working with him in the weeks, months, and years to come.

We also got to work up at the new building today... WOW, what a difference a bit of carpet can make! (see the photo gallery above to see pictures) Because of the carpet, we can now start doing some real work, cleaning things up, attaching cables to things... all the fun stuff that I have been waiting for.

So anywho, things are (for real) now starting to get busy. I hope to soon give a "tour" of the place, to show off all of the new toys... but that won't be for another couple of weeks (I had originally planned on doing it by now, but now it probably won't be until near or after Thanksgiving). Please pray for us as we do these installations; please pray that we make the best decisions, that we are lead in everything that we do, and that God keeps us safe.

Matthew

Yea! Carpet is in! That means we can start having some real fun up at the new building!

Matthew

Yea, I finally got the photos updated. I added over 50 photos to make a round 200, including:

Photos from around the building,
photos of them installing the cross on the front of the building,
photos of the new cross (including one taken at night... the cross is back-lit!),
photos of the new carpet in the children's wing (taken today).

Anywho, I hope you enjoy them. Look for "Sept_28" on page 2 when you click on the "photos" tab above.

Matthew

For the first few months of this blog, I was taking many photos every week at the new site. I would go out on a Sunday afternoon and get 20 or 30 photos from around the building.

Lately, however, I have been lax on the photo taking. Most of my photos have centered around the booth/sanctuary. So yesterday, after church, I went by and took around 50 photos from around the building, including two panoramics of the sanctuary.

That is the good news. The bad news is I keep forgetting my camera in my car, so I haven't uploaded the photos yet. Don't worry, they will come soon. =: >

Matthew

Well, I told a bunch of people that this weekend we will be showing Part 3 of our Satan Interview series... but I lied. Because of time constraints and because this weekend's service will be special, we won't be showing the interview... hopefully next week it will be shown.

Matthew

AUMC is being covered with videos.

From two Sundays ago to three Sundays from now, we will average two videos a Sunday. This is a huge upgrade from before when we would play at most two videos a month. The videos these five weeks all fit into one of three categories: "Satan Interviews" (we still have one left), announcements, or "Giving Interviews" (a two week video series that will give the testimonies of people in the congregation).

This explosion of videos is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because personally, I am a video guy. I enjoy producing, making, and showing videos. And from every account that I have heard we are getting great responses from the congregation about the videos (which is good, because I was slightly worried that the older portion of our members wouldn't appreciate it as much). It is also a curse because it is a lot of work for me to do all of the pre-production, shooting, editing, finalizing, and everything else that goes along with creating videos. But it is a mixed curse, because while it is a lot of work, I enjoy the work; it is fun for me. One half of me regrets that I am doing this for (almost) no pay, while the other half is glad that I am able to use the talent that God gave me to glorify his Kingdom.

Today I was working on the "Giving Interviews" (as I am calling it, there is no official name for these videos). Below is a screenshot of the timeline. It is relatively simple (Actually more simple than the Satan Interviews because while both interviews were two camera shoots, during the "Giving Interview" both of the cameras were basically the same shot. Also, the audio is much better this time around, I didn't have to tweak every sentence like I did with the other videos.). The music is "In the Midst" by Russell Martin (permission pending, but I doubt that he will say "No").


(click for full size)

Anywho, I am off to bed. We will be working at the new building in the morning, hanging choir speakers and such. Wish us luck!

Matthew