This made my day - Easter Recap from the OC

I love to see Jesus glorified through art! It is great to see people who's lives are radically transformed by His love and experience true joy in the hope that He gives them. God has been working in Orange County and we see renewed passion for God.

This video really got me stoked once again on artistic expressions of our lives in Him. This is from Easter this year. It includes a bunch of local churches and is coordinated by Rockharbor. A church that I have come to love and respect.



To view this on the original site: http://costamesa.rockharbor.org/wp-content/themes/rockharbor/embed.php?post=2353&blog=9

What is your expression of Christ's change in your life? What ways do you allow yourself to show those around you? Through words, through relationships, through a smiling face, through art???

Remember where you came from and live like the changed person you are.

Worship Technology 2.0

It is pretty cool what we can do with technology these days. We can put literally $1000s of dollars of outboard gear, computer hardware and network capabilities into these devises we call "smartphones."

Sound techs, now if you go digital you can mix from anywhere in the room with your ipad. Oh, and if you have enough Aux sends to support individual monitors for musicians and singers they can mix their own monitors from stage without even bothering you!!!! Then once you get some basic levels you can switch over to an app that allows you to analyze the sound in the room to get your EQ dialed in. Ever heard of Smarrt??? You can have that in on your iPad for under $100. INSANE!

Visual Techs, there is a world of stuff for you as well. Lighting magazines are filled with new apps and programs to function as a lighting control. And for your screens... here is a fun new projection system that is designed solely to be mobile.



Worship Leaders, there are endless tools for us as well. My favorite are:

• Planning Center Online's mobile app for scheduling and live events. Great for those conversations on stage of "am I playing next week" for someone as scatterbrained as me.
• Evernote!!!! Love this one as a songwriter. I can type out some lyric ideas, record audio clips and photo/videos to hold on to that melody line or lyric that junps out. 
• Shazam. This is a first generation app that still holds it's ground because it is so useful. Listening to the radio or something when you are out? Shazam it and share it to your email inbox. Perfect. 
• Bible App... nuff said.
• Metronome - This will help any worship team if you can utilize it well.
• Dropbox - free cloud sharing is great for storing large files that you may need to access from anywhere.
• There are so many more...

One recommendation if you are using your iphone in a live worship setting... "airplane mode." The other day I heard a call/text (don't know which one) come in when someone was using their phone for click track... not fun.

Creating an Environment of Worship Visually - WorshipVJ.com

I've been wanting to highlight a friend and show some new creative elements that are being used in Visual Worship Arts and I got an email from him about a session he is leading at the Song DISCovery Creative Conference in Nashville. So, I figured I would pass it on. Take a look. This is pretty fascinating stuff and really brings a new element of creativity to our worship.

Thanks for all that you are doing Stephen. Take a look at his website: http://worshipvj.com/

The Church used to be known for being the most creative, artistic force on the planet. Centuries ago, the Church commissioned visual artists to paint its ceilings, create stained glass images, and architect the most provocative buildings in history. Of course, many agendas, motivations, politics and power struggles were involved in the creative process (which is the same case today)...but at the end of the day, some of mankind's most stunning art was created...art that tells the Story of God!

But along the way, something happened. And a large portion of the Church threw visual art out the window. Beauty no longer had a place in the world of theology...and the Word of God was limited to text on a page and the academic preaching of a sermon. But things are changing.

The Church is welcoming art and beauty back home into it's mission & worship. And it's very exciting to see it unfold. And it's pretty messy, as well.

Pastors are trying to figure out how to manage and lead artists. Artists are learning to be pastors and visual prophets. Churches are making films. Worship leaders aren't leading with just songs anymore...they're leading with visual media! More eyes are on HD screens these days than they are on the cross, baptistry, or pulpit. And with "environmental projection," you can turn your once blank worship center into an image-filled cathedral of Story!

A generation of visual artists is rising up... and it's full of storytellers, film-makers, painters, media directors, graphic designers, VJs, lighting designers, photographers & more! The artist is the new pastor. And the media director is now the visual worship leader.

More than ever, there must be time & space to have conversations about what is happening... and to receive training and teaching so that we can lead and create in ways that bring glory to The Creator. And it's important to have these conversations in community with our musical worship leaders, songwriters and authors.

So all you visual worshipers out there, this is the summons. Come to the Song DISCovery Creative Conference in Nashville this April, and interact with others who are in the same boat as you. Click here to register today! And use code "VJ25" when you register to receive $25 off registration!

Sincerely,
Stephen Proctor
General Session Speaker
Song DISCovery Creative Conference


[Text & Images from: Worship Leader Magazine, Email - Subject: Hone Your Craft as a Visual Artist. Copyright (C) 2012 Worship Leader Magazine All rights reserved. Used by permission.]

Tech Team Tribute Video

Super funny video tribute to all the behind the scenes guys at churches and worship services.
A little something the Church Tech Talk boys cooked up for the opening session of Gurus 2011! http://vimeo.com/30082983

Hope you enjoyed this.

luke

There's an App for that...

There is a new Worship App for iPhone/iTouch users called Song Suggest. I was able to check it out and it seems pretty cool. You can do a lot with it. It helps you find songs, lyrics/chord charts, and videos for any song that is listed. It draws from a pretty huge database of songs.

Check out the website online at: http://www.worshipapps.com/ or find it in the app store.

Here is the video about the app and its features.