I wear a lot of hats here at St. Simons Community Church and at the Gathering Place where I volunteer regularly. My job title is Technology Director. My roll is WAY more complicated. I am involved with everything audio, video, lighting, IT, software, graphic design, video production, event production, service planning, content planning, and a few other things I am missing. I like the multitasking, I like the every-day-is-different, I like the freedom & responsibility. (This is where I must mention the two guys I work closely with: Bo and Chris, they share an equal load in tech direction in the church and I/we couldn’t come close to doing it without them.) What I don’t like is how it has fostered a critical nature in me.

I am responsible for what happens in our live services for instance. So whether I am running front of house, producing, or making sure that our awesome volunteers are taken care of, I still find myself generally somewhere in the back of the room or video booth critiquing. It seems that without it being specified in my job description anywhere, I am constantly identifying problems, errors, oversights and just things we could have done better. This is bad for people in my postion or similar ones because we will become generally negative pretty quick. It is the nature of the beast I think. We just have to tame that.

I don’t want to be the guy that only points out the bad things and neither should you. People will quickly discount what we say if all we ever have is a bad thing to say. Even worse probably, it will frustrate us quickly. If all we do is focus on the bad stuff we will stop seeing any good stuff. I had a real gut check this past week when running sound at a youth event in our community. We have had some technically frustrating nights this summer and followed that up with a few nights that SEEMED spiritually frustrating as well. This past week everything went pretty smoothly, which is nice, but the big thing for me was SEEING life change. People responded to a clear message and call from God through our speaker. I stood at the console in the back of the room while two people behind me wept and prayed out loud.

There are about 1000 students a week there and lives have been being changed all summer, I just hadn’t really even attempted to put myself in a place to notice. Actually, lives have been being changed by God long before I offered Him my amazing services. Lives were being changed before you jumped on board at your place too. Here is the kicker, God doesn’t need perfect pitch, flawless transitions, the right SPL and hyped up videos to move. He uses them to move and thankfully allows us to be a part of that. We need to remind ourselves of that fact.

So here is the take home on this, and yes, it will be on the test. Have you heard of a compliment sandwich? You should try one, they are delectable. I must confess that Stewie Griffin set the example for me. Anyway, KEEP CRITIQUING. It is important to always work to honor God by doing the best you can with what He has given you. However, every time you notice a negative, find two positive things about the event, service or whatever to report on as well. Sandwich that criticism between some positive review. Trust me, the people you work closely with will greatly appreciate it and they will PROBABLY start listening to what you have to say too.

So, anyone else feel me? Chime in with your thoughts and experiences.

Senheiser USA just added a plug about our new facility on their website. I was at an Expo in Chicago while at the Willowcreek Arts conference and one of the Sennheiser guys saw my name tag and told me about it. I gotta be honest, it felt kind of cool to be “noticed” by their East Coast rep. Apparently two of the guys in Chicago had worked on our wireless coordination. Even though I am not mentioned in the short article, I think I am famous by association right? I mean, A LOT of people read the Sennheiser Houses of Worship news feed right? Hmmm. I think this blog may have more readers (6) than that. Anyway, in a geeky sense, it was cool for them to “know me,” same thing happened at the Meyer Sound booth as well. EDIT: Turns out as I was about to post this, Bo found another article at Lighting & Sound America about the build. REMEMBER, these were written by our systems contractors and not us.

On that same note however, this “new building” thing was already on my mind. Nancy Beach, one of the creative leaders at Willowcreek, said something that really stuck with me yesterday. She discussed how much Willow strives to be known for making a difference in their community and the world and NOT to be known simply as the church with the big building in town. She actually teared up during that part of her talk. It really hit me hard.

I don’t want SSCC to become known only as the big church on the island or anything like that. I don’t think that we SHOULD be known only as that. But it is an important challenge to never forget. The baptisms we regularly hold and the missions teams we send out each year are a constant benchmark for the work that God has called us to do… Even if I do get excited about tech toys and the like. I like the exposure that the facility can give us, I just pray that we use it only to more greatly glorify God.

Although somewhat technical, I definitely consider this blog subject “off topic” but I couldn’t ignore it. I stumbled across an article leading me to this website, which confirms something incredible.

PETA (the animal rights group) is offering $1 million for the first group of scientists to come up with commercially viable and edible meat. Let me say that again. PETA is going to award $1 million to whoever can make MEAT grow in the lab. It has to be distributable to multiple states and priced more cheaply than its real counterpart (chicken).

PETA is willing to help us “gain access to flesh that doesn’t cause suffering and death.” How very considerate of them. What about the suffering of the taste testers? I don’t even want to think about the test meals in that kitchen.

What a way to re-enter the blogosphere, huh?

-Yours Truly

A big discussion arose today in the hall outside of my office with 6-7 coworkers today that lasted about 20 minutes. It was centered around whether we should have tryouts for a “team” that was reconfiguring as we head into our new facility. Do we do something as the Church like that, knowing that some people who try will probably not make the cut? Is it wrong for a church ministry to make people audition for something? I was (rather strongly) suggesting that we “pursue excellence” and that individual involvement should not supersede the quality of the service for 250 or so people in this instance. Let me say this now, I am NOT suggesting that I am right, I may be right or wrong, I am just telling you what I think. I am curious what the world thinks. (By world I mean “the seven people who read this blog.” Unfortunately, three of you were in this conversation.)

We toss around terms like pursuing excellence, usually not knowing what WE really mean when we say it. I have decided that pursuing excellence for me is: doing the best you can with the resources that you have. Excellence is relative to culture and resources especially. Think about the widow’s mite or the parable of the talents. Its not HOW much you have that matters, its how well you use WHATEVER you have that matters.

So I guess I should rephrase the question now. In a churches pursuit of excellence, where should it draw the line with involvement? Is it right for a representative of Christ to potentially really disappoint someone who is really excited about participating in something? Also, is the same thing true in all situations? Do you treat vocalists for your adult centered service with the same care that you might with volunteers in a different ministry in the church?

I was discussing this later with one of our AWESOME ministry directors, something that worries me is the potential that the church is being dishonest in the name of compassion & grace rather than being truthful to people. I think about at least three American Idol tryouts I saw where he/she told a story of their church being super positive, loving their voice and encouraging them to even pursue careers in singing. Now these people, who clearly couldn’t sing, stand in front of these judges thinking, “well, my church lied to me, these pros think I am horrid.” Isn’t it the role of the church to help people find their spiritual gifts and talents? That defineitly would look different from just letting people do what they most wanted to do.

Anyway, this could go on forever, each question leads to another question….

So, talk amongst yourselves, what do you think? What do you do?

-Travis

While these stories are not technical and not DIRECTLY theological (Thanks to Rob Bell we know everything is spiritual), I had to share them.

First up is:

…a rare dolphin beating. Yes you heard me. A group of fishermen came upon a Ganges River Dolphin, “had never seen a creature like it” and beat it. They had second thoughts and tried to sell it as a rare fish, when that didn’t work, they left it on the steps of a museum. I guess they realized they were onto something just a little to late in the game.

I just want to say, who does that? Really? Its stinking 2008 people, who does that? Who finds a rare enough creature to potentially instill awe and wonder and just beats it to death? Also, know that this picture is not of that specific dolphin or one of those fisherman, I just got it on the web to be all illustrative of my message.

Second in our story is:

…a baby is thrown from a 4th floor balcony during a fire and survives. This one undoubtedly caught my attention because I have a little girl about this size. But seriously, WOAH. Can you imagine being the parents, having to throw their child to the people on the ground? I don’t know about that one. Like I said, the child survived, no word specifically on the parents, but some people were killed in the fire. I will let the pictures to the rest of the talking.

Studies show that high-speed internet is cooling the earth. Or something close to that. Read this article I found a few weeks ago on news.com and then get straight to earth cooling!

“How would faster downloads and Web page loads curb the annual flow of globe-warming gases, and by how much? According to the report:

Telecommuting, a “zero emission” practice, eliminates office space and car commutes: 588 million tons.
E-commerce cuts the need for warehouses and long-distance shipping: 206 million tons.
Widespread teleconferencing could bring one-tenth of all flights to a halt: 200 million tons.
Downloading music, movies, newspapers, and books saves packaging, paper, and shipping: 67 million tons.”

How bout them apples?

-Travis

This is a blog post I came across earlier. I think it should spark interesting discussion. Chime in with your two cents.

What do we do in our churches that would anger Jesus if He visited this Sunday? Do we ever turn parts of His Father’s house into something other than a place of worship?

-Travis

Media and even chain-letter email are cluttered with opinions about “The Golden Compass.” Some tell us to see it, many tell us not to. I guess that is normal for any movie but this one gets special attention because of its potential atheistic bent. For a while there it seemed like I was getting one message a day about this flick. I am a skeptic by nature, even if it is skepticism that I am being skeptical of. (If that is possible.) For some reason I have been bothered by all of this negative attention that TGC has been getting. Mainly, SO MANY people who have not read the book and obviously hadn’t seen the movie (since it wasn’t out yet) were telling me and the rest of the world how wrong it was. That kind of stuff drives me nuts. I mean, we have to listen to what other people tell us and take advice, but if you are going to get passionate about something, get educated on it first. Also, there are a myriad of anti-Christian/anti-religious things in our culture already. Why did this one get so much attention? The irony of the whole thing is that all this kicking and screaming has given the movie more publicity than it probably could have bought in the first place.

All that being said, I want to know what others think about seeing the movie. I read an article on MSNBC today where the author of the book answers some directed questions. I encourage you to check out his responses there. The short version is that he says he is not promoting atheism. Pullman said, “as for the atheism, it doesn’t matter to me whether people believe in God or not, so I’m not promoting anything of that sort. What I do care about is whether people are cruel or whether they’re kind, whether they act for democracy or for tyranny, whether they believe in open-minded enquiry or in shutting the freedom of thought and expression.” When asked specifically about the church represented in the work and how it is painted negatively, he equates it to something like the Taliban. He said his issue is with religious organizations gaining great political power and then using it “for bad.” Granted, “for bad” is a grey statement and we may all disagree on what is good or bad for the government to do.

So far, I do not see all the potential harm in this film that I have been warned about. As a family fantasy movie, it seems like it will be incredible. Children won’t pick up on or be looking for all of the “messages” that the rest of us think we see anyway. I do not see how it would do more harm than “Lord of the Rings” or “Narnia.” I think we just don’t get riled up at their fantastic content because we know the heart of those authors. I also recognize that after I see the movie I may have to take back what I said about it not being a big deal. Maybe it is a big deal and the author is playing it down. Know that at this point I am not promoting or protesting this movie. I am inquiring about it.

Have you seen it? Will you see it? What do you think about it if you have seen it?

-Travis

This is a soap box that I hop on every so often. I am not sure what sparks the passion when it happens, but regardless, I get frustrated and vent.

I am not even sure what first made me start thinking about this today, I guess it was “Christian Musician” magazine at Barnes & Noble, or something like that. I just remember it had Casting Crowns on the cover and was crowded in with the rest of the music magazines I had intended on thumbing through. Anyway, what is it with ‘Christian Alternatives’ anyway? I regularly find myself incredibly bothered by them. Godtube and Shoutlife are big names in the Christian rip off category. Yeah, I called it a rip off, it is what it is. HaHa. It seems like every time there is a vehicle for easily spreading light in the darkness, someone does something to pull the light OUT of the darkness. And, in my not-so-expert opinion, it is usually a poor variation of the original.

YouTube and MySpace are really amazing technological developments. These two things draw astonishing amounts of people to their respective pages and allow them to spend way to many hours there. There is unlimited potential for viewership and influence on the personal pages and posts of these two communities. Obviously, they got huge, they got a lot of press and they got a lot of content (of all moral standards) uploaded to them. So what is the Church’s response? “Let’s make our own!” I understand the reason, I think. ShoutLife, for instance, allows a MySpace type community without the questionable ads on the pages. Godtube provides the same searchable video library as YouTube with the addition of content screening and control.

The way I see it, they are saying, “hey, all you good intentioned users out there, lets do this somewhere else.” Consequentially, removing light from the midst of apparent darkness. I tend to LIKE the idea of a funny Christian video getting bounced around YouTubers. I think it is great when someone who faithfully follows Christ talks about it in the middle of MySpace or Facebook and I HOPE they are connected to hundreds of friends that will see it too. Shoutlife can provide a ’safer’ environment for teens to roam on the internet but I am not sure what would prevent sickos from going there too. Godtube’s mission is to ultimately advance the Gospel, but I don’t see how well it will work. I don’t think entitling something “God…” will attract the average unbeliever to its pages. Yes, I recognize that seekers will go there and all that, but I’m considering the norm, not the exceptions.

I just wonder if all these Christian alternatives aren’t counter productive to the advance of the Gospel? A Google search of “Christian Web Alternatives” will reveal a myriad of these things. I just learned that there is even a Christian alternative to the Girl Scouts, wow.

Are we piling up our salt and putting our lit candles under a bowl? What do you think?

It’s not the first time, and hopefully it won’t be the last, but it is a big deal to me anyway. Two guys from NJ have been convicted and are being sentenced for sending out millions of spam emails, mostly to AOL users. Its a small step to stopping junk mail but a big step to stopping masked messages. Here is more of the story. Hopefully this will start to put a little more fear in the spammers minds. These two guys got busted by taking a ‘project’ from a government informant.

I don’t like getting junk mail more than anyone else. My web hosting services (I have 5 different ones) do a varying level of good against spam. Gmail is good, Apple’s .mac is great (although I don’t have that address out there anyway), 1&1 internet is ok, HPP was awesome and is decent now, they do provide good support and hosting services. And finally there is Comcast who are average with spam filtering. All that being said, what is it worth to me to get it stopped? I am curious to know the amount of government resources that are going to stopping it. It seems like there are bigger fish to fry than spammers. Spammers are a hassle, but isn’t that also what the delete button is for? As long as I am not charged for bandwidth, it is at most a minute or two a day of deleting and no other cost. I do get occasional complaints from some of the women at my office about the content of the junk messages, I wish there was more I could do for them.

So, lets discuss. How big of an issue is junk/spam to you? Do you think we need the govt. resources going to it, and does it make a difference? Do you have any good or bad email services to recommend or warn against?

-Travis