Greg Atkinson

My friends, Nelson Searcy and Jason Hatley, at The Journey Church in New York are looking for a Pastor of Media. This is an awesome team, an amazing church and a special ministry where God is moving in the “Big Apple”. I highly encourage my tech friends to pray about this opportunity.

Below is the job description:

Are you passionate about raising up volunteer leaders, directing the media area at one of the nation’s most innovative churches, and growing a production ministry in a multi-site setting?

Are you interested in expanding an already healthy volunteer base of over 35 team members (camera, lights, stage, switchers, editors, etc.) to a structure of over 100 volunteers?

Can you join with our worship arts staff to lead at a very high level, and bring creative and technical excellence to the Sunday service, to worship planning, and to cultivating highly experienced technicians in New York City?

Are you interested in helping a growing church continue to grow?

Do you have a high view ‘serving as part of discipleship’ and do you have a strong desire to reach unchurched young professionals and artists?

This is an equipping position to make a difference with the best and the brightest from around the world that make up the Journey Church in NYC.

JOB REQUIREMENTS
- A Solid Calling to New York City
- The ability to mobilize and lead a growing Media/Production Team in an ever-growing environment
- A passion for the Bible and innovation
- A team player
- A high level understanding of media, including contemporary/secular films, video editing systems, technical systems (lighting, staging, video, minimal sound)
- Bachelor or Masters Degree
- Ministry experience in a creative, fast-paced, results-driven environment a plus
- A positive attitude
- A familiarity with The Purpose Driven Church Model
- A risk taker
- A passion for media and the arts
- A passion and drive for evangelism and reaching the unchurched
- A high commitment to the local church

*If you have interest in this position, please email Jason at jason@journeymetro.com.

Today we have another meeting to plan for our Christmas Eve services. We’re doing 2 services on Sunday, the 23rd and 3 services on Monday, the 24th. We’re doing a mixture of special music, a small dramatic presentation and a message. This is a small Christmas for us, as we’re maxed out with the new building coming soon. I’m curious… what are you doing at your church for Christmas?

Also, if you did something special for Thanksgiving, I’d love to hear about it.

EXTRA:

Many of you have emailed me about the audio equipment we’re selling at my church. Tomorrow I should have a complete list of model numbers, prices, etc.

PERSONAL:

It all comes down to the showdown tonight – the Cowboys and the Packers! Wouldn’t you know we have rehearsal during the game? 

Yesterday was a 14 hour day, so I’ll be brief. I’ll be reviewing some new Christmas media resources in the near future. For now, I’d like to mention 2 things: One from SermonVideos.com and one from WorshipHouse Media.

My boy, Craig, and his team at SermonVideos.com have created a new Christmas Pak for ’07. Their Christmas Paks are a favorite each year. I’d encourage you to check out the first two if you don’t have them and if you do, it’s time to purchase their new Christmas Pak 3. Go HERE and look for the newest resource on the right.

My friends at WorshipHouse Media are giving away a FREE download every weekday until Christmas! That’s right… every weekday. Also you can watch a daily podcast from Dale and Kent. Go HERE and click on the “Daily Freebie” ad to go to each day’s freebie.

EXTRA:

If you’re a fan of Paul Baloche (like I am), you may want to check out his video of the Christmas version of his song, “Offering”. You can watch it HERE.

I’m fried this week. We’re working 14 hour days. We have to take apart and take down several “Owner Provided” pieces of equipment to give over to the installers for our new worship center. I’m living at the church this week. I apologize that today’s post is so brief. I would, however, like to see comments on my post from yesterday about a leadership team. Give me some feedback, thoughts… something!

Last night after our last service I held the first gathering of our just formed “Technical Arts Leadership Team”. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, but was busy settling in and focused on the new building. Now as we get closer to the transition into the new worship center, I see that forming this team and multiplying myself is essential.

The majority of staff and ministries at my church won’t be affected much by the move. My world (the Tech Arts Ministry) will be in store for a HUGE change. We have to train a large team of volunteers on all new, professional equipment. There will be learning curves across the board – new sound board, new lighting board, new video switcher, new cameras, new Video Suite/environment, new computers with new presentation software (we’re switching campus-wide to EasyWorship). New, new, new….my head is swimming with the newness of everything and the learning curves that lie ahead as I will attend each training session and need to be able to explain each new piece of equipment to a volunteer that misses the training (you know someone’s going to miss it).

I’ve attempted to share the burden and responsibility with my newly formed Tech Arts Leadership Team. The meeting went great. I gave them an update on what’s been going on lately, when we’re expected to move-in (it looks like Jan. 27 will be our first Sunday in the new worship center) and what the training and commissioning schedule looks like. I’ve asked each team member to step up, take ownership and leadership in their given area and be pro-active in seeing that their teams are trained.

Besides myself, as the leader, the Tech Arts Team is made up of one person overseeing the following:

• Audio
• Lighting
• Video Production
• Live Video
• Graphics/Social Events
• Volunteer Scheduling/Assimilation
• Stage Managers
• Systems/Equipment Maintenance

So, how do you do it at your church? Do you haves some sort of team like this in place in your tech or media ministry? If so, how does it work? How often do you meet? If not, maybe this is something worth considering. I’m excited about it!

EXTRA:

If you haven’t already, you need to check out Collide Magazine. In their second issue, I wrote about my Top Ten church media producers. Check out my list (plus 5 new up-and-comers) and see what you think. You can subscribe HERE.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

Lest I forget: Yes, the Cowboys are 10-1. Just thought I’d mention that.

I wish you all a blessed, fun, and joy-filled Thanksgiving.

I’m off work today and hope to catch up on some long overdue reviews. You would not believe the amount of products that I receive from companies/producers. I have a stack of unopened packages sitting on a shelf in my house. I hope to review them today and tell you about them soon. Look for reviews of new media resources from LifeWay, Crossroads Creative and Christmas resources from Angelhouse Media, Flashlight Films, Highway Video and Worship Films.

If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to join my Facebook group for my upcoming book: Church 2.0. You can find the group HERE. I’d love for you to be a part of the group and join the conversation. Please feel free to post new topics and items for discussion.

EXTRA:

Who’s hoping to get a Kindle this Christmas?

We are coming upon the time at my church when we have to give up all our “Owner Provided” equipment, so they can be installed in our new worship center. We have some current equipment that we’re not going to use in the new building and will be selling. We’re getting rid of stuff like 2 Mackie 56 channel consoles, 1 Yamaha M-3000A (that we use for our monitor board) and our Clark 3-way splits. Maybe you have need of some of the above – just let me know. Email me at greg@gregatkinson.com.

Today is my last day at work this week! I’m off Wednesday through Saturday. Gonna get me some smoked turkey.

EXTRA:

Want to see something wild? Check out my guest blog on Church Marketing Sucks HERE.

It’s good to be back blogging. I got back Tuesday night from Atlanta. We had a great trip and great meeting with Clark ProMedia. I came home to find out that our home internet was down and so wasn’t able to blog Wed. and Thurs. (I didn’t have time to go somewhere else with my laptop).

I was swamped all day Wed. and Thursday, then left Friday morning to go to Phoenix, AZ. I had a great visit with Christ Life Church in Tempe, AZ. Above is a picture of me in the middle and Jeremy (their worship pastor) on the left and Tim (their media minister) on the right. They are great guys and serve at a church with a ton of potential. I look forward to continuing to work with them. Below (besides seeing Beowulf) was the highlight of my trip. That’s right… they have In-N-Out Burger in Phoenix, too!

I came home late Saturday night, got up early Sunday and we had a great day of worship at my church on Sunday. I left the best for last – the ultimate highlight of my week was my oldest daughter praying to receive Christ on Wednesday night. Yesterday we celebrated that at my church with a rose on the platform! We took a picture of her with her rose that I’ll post in the near future.

Now it’s back to work with a short week. What are you doing for Thanksgiving? We’re staying in town and have family coming to us.

Today I left at 5am for Atlanta. I’ll be in one long meeting all day and fly home late tonight. Pray for strength. I thought I’d link you to THIS article on “Saying Thanks” – as the Thanksgiving season quickly approaches.