I recently revisited the blog of Dave Wilcox, the technical director of my home church. He’s made some changes to the layout which make it even easier to read and benefit from.
For the past five years, Dave has consistently pursued using media in or meetings with excellence, humility, innovation, and effectiveness, all in a way that seeks to promote the gospel rather than distract from it. Hence the title of his blog, Undistract. He’ll often share review thoughts from a Sunday morning that are both comprehensive and thoughtful, and touch on everything from sound, to video, to lighting. He explains his motivation here:
One of the ways that I want to grow is by taking advantage of each weekend experience to encourage the people on the production
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Yesterday we had another planning meeting for WorshipGod08: Rediscovering the Psalms, to be held July 30- Aug 2 at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD, outside of Washington, D.C.
This will be our 5th conference. Every one has been filled with rich biblical teaching, practical instruction, fresh encounters with God, great fellowship, and lots of laughter. Laughing helps us not take ourselves too seriously. When you’re involved in regularly leading others to magnify God’s glory in Christ, it’s good to remember that we’re the jars of clay and Jesus is the treasure ( 2 Cor. 4:62 Corinthians 4:6
[6]For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"
has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (ESV)
). Laughter helps us do that.
No one makes us laugh more at WorshipGod conferences than Mark Altrogge. While Mark writes incredible songs for corporate worship, he’s also one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met. …
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Jonathan sent this question in:
Several members of my church’s A/V team proposed that we begin using NiCd 9 Volt batteries for all of our wireless equipment, following the thought that our church should be good stewards of God’s gifts and not use alkaline batteries, which can be seen as expensive, wasteful, and harmful to the environment. Unfortunately, because of the energy-leaking nature of NiCd batteries, we are quickly becoming frustrated with their lack of dependability, compared to their alkaline brethren. My question is this: as stewards of not only the audio/visual quality of each service, but also finance and the environment, what are your thoughts on the battery issue? I would also be interested to hear what does Covenant Life Church does, considering its resources and needs.
We have two …
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A while ago, Richard wrote in to ask:
“Do you think there is an advantage one way or the other for a congregation to sing from a hymnal and songbook/sheet (so that they are all looking down), or singing from the words on a large screen in the front of the room (where they are all looking up and facing the same direction)?”
First, I think that people can sing from hymnals and still be “facing the same direction,” and that you can sing from a hymnal and still be looking up. However, I’m not making a case for using hymnals. Or not using them. Actually, I’m surprised at how strongly people defend one position or the other in dealing with this issue. There are good reasons for doing both, and God …
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Dr. Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, recently posted a blog bemoaning the increasing use of pre-recorded (canned) music in church services. After I read his comments, Eric Zeller sent me this e-mail:
“Often smaller churches will use pre-recorded musical tracks either to accompany soloists, choirs, or congregational singing. Do you have any thoughts on this practice and its impact on worship?”
I don’t know if Eric saw Dr. Mohler’s post, but it seemed like the topic of pre-recorded music in the church was worth commenting on. New Testament Christians obviously didn’t have to face this issue, so there’s no Scriptural example for us to draw from here.
God refers to singing over 400 times in Scripture, so that’s not up for discussion - He wants …
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