The Church Wire

It has been a little while since I personally have written, but summer is winding down and I am going to pick up again…hopefully.

For the longest time I have been using Yahoo! Mail for my personal mail account.  I’ve used Entourage and Outlook on my computers for work email too.  Being the techie that I am, I always sign up for new mail accounts to see what I like best.  I signed up for Gmail when it first came out but never really used it.  After receiving tons and tons of Spam on my Yahoo! account I finally made the transition to Gmail.  Honestly, I think it was one of the best things I have ever done from an email standpoint!

Do you like a cluttered inbox? I always am bothered by having a cluttered Inbox.  I usually put everything in designated folders, but when you receive emails in mass volume, it is hard to categorize all of them.  Gmail has a solution.  You simply “Archive” the email and it disappears from your inbox, but is still in your account.  If you need it, just hit view all mail or search for it and you can easily find it.  That way you can keep only the most important emails in your inbox.

Do you find yourself writing lots of emails back and forth with an individual?  Well Gmail has all mail divided up by conversations.  All emails with the same subject line between two or more individuals are grouped together.   This makes it really easy to go back and quickly reference another email that they had sent you or you had sent to them.

Do people send you links with videos or pictures?  Gmail replaces the link with the actual video or image so you can open the email and watch the video right there without ever leaving the Gmail page, pretty nice, huh!

Do you have several email accounts and wish you could consolidate them?  Not a problem.  I have my work email, a personal domain email, my Gmail address and 3 others all going to my Gmail account!  It is simple to link multiple accounts.

Have you ever wanted some of the features of Outlook online so you can access them anywhere at any time on any computer?  You can do that too with Gmail!  You can share calendars with people and make appointments right from your mail.  You can also get a little pop-up on your screen saying you received a new email, guess what! You don’t even have to be on the Gmail site to get the pop-up.  It is a download called Gmail Notifier! You want to add a signature to your email, no problem!  Are you going on vacation?  Set-up an easy to use vacation response!

I love Google so much so that the next few things I write on will be on different products and services Google offers.  On a side note, if you like investing, Google stock is pretty awesome.  I was able to buy some when it wasn’t nearly the price it is at now and it has been my most profitable stock!

My church’s student ministry has a really cool program called “lyric.” (yes, the lower-case and the period are intentional).  It’s an event they put on in a small coffee-house environment once a month during the school year.  Each month, three different art forms are showcased.  They have a performance (music, fiction or poetry reading, etc), a visual art (usually a painting done throughout the event), and an example of culinary arts.  All the art is produced by local students who audition for the various slots.  It’s important to note that the art doesn’t have to be overtly Christian.  Rather, it’s an opportunity for the church to promote art and community among local students.  Obviously, the artists are asked to respect the sanctity of God’s house by not performing offensive material, but their creations are free to roam other than that.

The nature of the event doesn’t really allow for large bands or rock-style music, so Jeremy, the guy who created this whole thing, decided to have a big blow out for the local students who wanted to showcase larger and louder art.  So he created “lyric.palooza.”  It was a sort of cross between a music festival and a battle of the bands.  We had seven bands performing over three hours, along with a visual artist doing a piece on an 8’ canvas throughout the evening.

We had scream-o (a new term for me), alt rock, and a bit of softer stuff, but that really isn’t the point.  The cool thing was that the church opened its doors to the community and let them do the talking, or, in this case, singing.  The point is that relationships are formed through two-way conversation, and so often the programs inside the church walls are one-way when it comes to conversing with the non-churched.  We preach, we teach, we pray.  All good stuff, but not stuff that makes for relationship forming.  The thing I liked about this event was that the church shut up for a while and let its guests do some communicating.  Perhaps the most potent thing the church said that night was, “We’re listening to you.”  That kind of respect means that some of these artists (and the fans who came to hear them) might be willing to engage in some dialog when they might not have otherwise.  I think that’s really cool.  I think the church is better, and healthier, for “dialoging with,” rather than “preaching at.”

Oh, and one other thing, I got to run lights for the event, which was incredibly fun.  We had two grandMA consoles, 8 movers of various models, 12,000 watts of strobe lights, ten scrollers, and assorted conventional lights, along with two hazers and a fogger.  I can tell you that scream-o isn’t exactly my cup of tea musically, but it sure is fun to light! Here’s a link to a Facebook album with some pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=98910&id=65871347454&ref=mf

One thing I can’t stand is endless rehashing of old debates.  I no longer care who’s a Mac and who’s a PC.  I’m just exhausted at the very start of CNN vs. Fox News conversations.

One such discussion that, for a while, had me equally fatigued was the debate about worship vs. entertainment.  The stodgy blue-hairs thought the devil himself crafts drums in his fiery workshop like a brimstone-encrusted Santa Claus; the rebellious, impulsive whipper-snappers held that the music had be loud enough to be heard from heaven (or 30,000 feet, whichever came first) or it was worthless.  That debate bores me.  Why?  Because it isn’t a debate about anything important.  The computer logo is a distraction.  So, too, is the fight over whose journalistic bias is more offensive. Also, we ought to see the church-music debate for what it is: a distraction.

So what’s the real issue? What should we be talking about? How do we get past the surface-layer insignificances and move on to a discussion that’s worth our time?

I recently read a cleverly written essay (a la Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters”) which proposed that all the efforts of the worship production community were, by and large, a waste of time.  No one really was moved in a significant way by anything we did musically, technically, or dramatically.  The essay was signed by Satan.  The actual human author was using it to illustrate that those of us who work hard to put together worship services should not be taken in by the lie that our efforts don’t matter.  This is all well and good, but I’d like to argue that even the fruit, or lack thereof, of our labor isn’t the point. Whether God chooses our music, our mix, our lighting, our words to save a soul isn’t why we ought to be doing what we’re doing.

How do I draw all this together? What ought we to be talking about? What good comes from our efforts? I propose this: we do it because God likes it.  Mind you, I don’t think He cares about the end product much at all.  If the note gets missed or the cue is late, I don’t think He really notices.  What He seems to care about is that we make the offering at His altar, and that we make it our best, our “first fruit.”  Some might jump to the conclusion that I’m arguing that everyone’s best efforts are equally valid in all areas.  I’m not.  If you have a lousy voice, stay out from behind the microphone, please.  God has gifted all of us with certain skills.  To use those skills to honor Him is worship…it delights Him.  If you are a scientist, peer through your microscope for Him. If you are a carpenter, measure carefully for Him. If you are a nurse, take gentle care of your patients for Him.

Here’s the cool part: how many people with these skill sets get to lift up their offerings on His altar and, at the same time, lift up the rest of the body in the process?  Not many.  The scientist, the carpenter, and the nurse glorify God in their best offerings, but only a few might even be aware of their efforts (which certainly don’t diminish God’s delight in them).  God has given those of us who lead His people in worship a special privilege: our sweet aroma before the throne also smells pretty good here on earth.

Now, as we all know, with privilege comes responsibility.  What is our extra level of responsibility? I’d suggest that it is to passionately safeguard the artistry of our efforts.  Note I didn’t say style, quality, pleasantness, popularity, or even effectiveness. I said artistry…why?

For centuries the earthly Church, with all its failings and foibles, was just about the biggest art gallery in the western world. The church commissioned sculpture, painting, music.  It was the bastion of the arts and the greatest benefactor of the artist.  It didn’t play this role terribly well, but it did assume the role because the Church seemed to understand that art has the capacity to lift the soul and draw the eyes and mind to Heaven.  The Church lost this role more recently, but in the past few years it seems to be coming back slowly.  The Church is once again recognizing not just the power that art possesses to impact people on a large scale, but also that the execution of art for God (be it religious or secular) is the very offering of some of God’s children…artists.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes for good art.  I’m not an expert in this field (nor for that matter in any topic discussed here), but it seems to me that art must be novel. If it’s simply a re-hashing of something old, then it’s mimicry, not art. If it’s universally appealing, then it’s merely entertainment, not art. If it’s poorly executed, then it’s a showcase for the benefit of the performer’s ego, not art. So art is fresh, will occasionally rouse some discomfort, and is well-executed.

So the real debate should be about how to incorporate art into worship.  That’s a relevant, and tough, question. That’s a question that doesn’t bore me. How do we edify the body of Christ without fear of making them uncomfortable? How do we continually produce fresh and excellent art when we don’t have a budget or time suited for the task? How do we deal with the non-artists who don’t see the value in our offering?  How do we overcome the stigma that our art is really just a show we like to put on for our friends, and thus not worthy to take its place in a worship service? I’m not sure, but I know that these are questions worth asking.

Hey Everyone,After a lull in posts on TCW, I am excited to announce we have a new writer, Matthew Reeves.  He is a very talented author and has a lot of experience in church tech.  He is currently at Perimeter Church right outside of Atlanta, GA.  Several musicians including Aaron Shust and Laura Story have come out of that church.He will begin posting soon! Stay tuned.

Hey Everyone!I can’t believe it, but The Church Wire has already been around for 1 whole year!  Well, happy first birthday, TCW!!!

I am always amazed to see God work.  Often times we hear of God working through missionaries or revivals to impact lives for eternity.  That is awesome.  But you know what else is awesome?  When 3 middle schoolers sacrifice everything they have to follow Christ.  I have had the incredible privilege to meet with three middle school boys on a weekly basis.  Their passion for others and for God is amazing.  They are barely teenagers but they are all about spreading the love of Christ.  I could share numerous stories showing the many ways God has used them.  However, some stories they wish to keep private and others are just too long.  However within the last three weeks these boys played a role in leading a person to Christ, impacting a community and strengthening other Christians by encouraging them in their walks.I stand back and am watching this unfold.  As I write this I am in tears just shocked by what God has done in such a short time.  Wouldn’t it be awesome if we saw middle schoolers in youth groups around the nation bond together and take the time to pray with each other and challenge each other and go out and serve each other.  God is truly awesome.  I know what I wrote is fairly vague, however, it has impacted me so greatly, I thought I would share as much as I could.Please join me in praying that students like this would rise up in their church and make an eternal impact on those they come face-to-face to on a daily basis. 

There have been great authors throughout history such as C.S. Lewis and John Bunyan that have written books that contain deep symbolism and parallels to Christian beliefs.  After reading “The Shack” by William P. Young, I knew that this was going to be another revolutionary book.  The plot is so rich and detailed that is difficult to give a synopsis of the story without blowing major highlights and events but I will do my best.   Mackenzie Allen Phillips, the main character takes 3 of his children on a camping trip.  While there, his daughter, Missy, is abducted and there is evidence which points she was killed in an abandoned shack.  Mackenzie struggles with the sadness.  He has bitterness and feels responsible.  One day, Mackenzie receives a mysterious note that he believes could be from God.  It tells Mackenzie to go back to the very shack where they had assumed Missy was taken to and beaten.  The book takes you on a journey that answers questions that people throughout the course of time have been asking.  All I can really say is that this book painted a picture for me of God’s unconditional love and how we are to show it towards others. Honestly, I am not a big reader.  However, the book was so powerful, that I think I would pick it up and read it again. The story behind the book is just as fascinating as the book itself.  William P. Young has an incredible background that makes the book mean that much more.  It is well worth the read.  The only downfall I have heard is the fact that it could possibly contain “bad Theology.”  However, within the first pages of the book Young says that this is not necessarily Theologically accurate.  It is supposed to be create a parallel or an image that is designed to help people understand difficult concepts.If you are not a reader like me, just download the audiobook from iTunes.  It is just $5.95. I would love to hear what you think. 

Ok, like I said, I am starting a whole new section about undiscovered, small bands that are good and deserve some level of recognition.  The whole month I am going to focus on them for different things.  This month is Flowers for Faye.Flowers for Faye is an incredible band.  I had the privilege of booking them for a youth event at our church.   Everyone loved them, and I mean everyone.  They are a wholesome band with nonsensical songs.  They put on a great show that is bound to make you laugh.  I am not entirely sure how to describe their music to you.  Their style is a mix between Relient K and Hawk Nelson.  They call it PowerPop.  They are truly one of the most fun and most talented small bands that I know of.  Check their website out at www.flowersforfaye.com.  If you stay long enough, you will have a good laugh. Be sure to check out their music too.

Are you ready for Winter’s largest Christian entertainment tour ever?  This year is bigger and its better than ever before. Check out Winter Jam 09 hosted by NewSong with  TobyMac, Hawk Nelson, Brandon Heath, Francesca Battisteli, PureNRG and more!If you haven’t been to a Winter Jam before, let’s just say it can get a little crazy.  Be sure to get there right when the doors open because you pay $10.00 at the door.  This sometimes makes people go crazy.  You don’t want to miss out!The tour launches in 6 days.HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Well, as you probably have realized, I have been a little busy and have not been doing anything with The Church Wire….well, my New Year’s resolution is to fix that.  So I am going to begin writing again.  You can be expecting:

• Book Reviews
• Music Reviews
• New event ideas
• Movie Reviews
• Up and Coming concerts, CDs and other Christian entertainment
• And an all new section featuring undiscovered Christian bands

Happy New Year!  I look forward to getting back into the swing of things!

Wow, first TobyMac, then Casting Crowns now the David Crowder Band,  they are all LIVE!  Check it out on 8.18.08, the David Crowder Band will be playing in select theaters.  Hey, if you miss that, don’t worry, you can still buy the DVD!  Check out the new LIVE DVD and CD today!

If you had the privilege to see Casting Crowns in their Altar And The Door Tour, you probably left saying, “Whoah, that was amazing!”  Well now, you can relive the concert again in their all new “The Altar And The Door Live DVD/CD.”

Now, if you missed out when they were on tour you definitely need to pick up this live experience.   It will be on store shelves next Tuesday, however you are able to pre-order today by clicking here.

Well, I just arrived back from China at am safely at home.  But I am heading out again tomorrow for another trip!  Hopefully next Monday, I will resume my normal writings!

Well, since I am heading out of the country, I was recruiting a new writer for TCW.  I have found one, Jim Clements, an amazing guy I have been able to get to know.  He is an audio whiz and I learn something from him every time I have the opportunity to serve along side him.   I am extremely grateful he volunteered and I am sure he will do an excellent job.

Hey Everyone!  I am going to be heading out of the country in just a few days (not much time, I know)… Unfortunately where I am going will not allow me to access the internet, or at least this site, so I am calling out to see if there is anyone interested in writing on The Church Wire.  Even if it is one article that will post sometime throughout my time out of the country, that would be great!  So one time writers or maybe even permanent writers are welcome!  Just send me an email with a sample (email address is on the about us page)! Thanks! 

Well after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, I am now officially ROOVing.  Roov.com, is a great way to connect with fellow believers in the church world who have different causes and pursuits in the Christian world.  Check it out today at ROOV.com.

Casting Crowns are out with an all new music video based on their song, “Slow Fade.”  They are great in concert–I have seen them twice in the last year and they have been great.  This music video only makes me want to see them live again. Check it out below.

Having trouble viewing it?  Click Here. 

Planning Center Online is at it again.  With new updates, they just made their web app even more useful for the church.  They have enhanced the user interface as well as created a site that works directly with the iPhone.  If your church is not using Planning Center (or another scheduling app) it is worth looking into.  Every penny invested into apps like this, especially Planning Center, will not be wasted.  If you don’t know what Planning Center is or what it has to offer, use the search bar to your right and look at our various articles on Planning Center or go to the site and check it out today!

With the new issue of COLLIDE Magazine coming out, COLLIDE decided to do some tweaking of their website as well.  Check out their new website at www.collidemagazine.com.  While you’re there be sure to subscribe to the magazine or at least get the free trial issue.  Actually, don’t because you are guaranteed get hooked with all of their great content that is so relevant for today’s church.  Visit today!

Wing Clips has the very latest from the new movie “Narnia: Prince Caspian.”  Check out the trailer as well as additional clips from the new movie premiering this weekend.  Click here! Use these clips and other useful clips from popular movies in your sermon!  Search by theme or movie.  This is just one more way to stay relevant in today’s society.