Greg Atkinson

Though I had to get up at 0-dark-thirty, I am now in my hotel room in Orlando, FL. I’ve got to admit it’s beautiful and a nice change from the cold fronts we’ve been having in Dallas. The flight was interesting. I was one of four people without NASCAR gear on. Myself, Jack Graham (pastor of Prestonwood), his wife and the referee that Charles Barkley challenged to a race, were the only people that didn’t look like we had sponsors and logos all over our jackets.

NASCAR fans are fanatics. I don’t mean that in a negative way (kinda). I just mean they are very dedicated and colorful. How I landed on a plane that was apparently headed on to the Daytona 500, I’ll never know. It was funny to hear Jack Graham tell NBA referee Dick Bavetta to “punish Barkley”.

I’m now working on my presentation for tomorrow and then going out with some other NRB speakers tonight – looking forward to that. More later.

Sunday I leave for Atlanta. I’ll be a part of the Passion staff for the 3rd year in a row. The last two years Passion we met in Nashville. I will miss being in Nashville again, but know Atlanta will rock, too. I’m also looking forward to staying with and hanging out with my friend, Jake, and his family.

* If you missed my blog on New Year’s resources, you may want to read it to find out about some new resources for this Sunday and the winter season.

PERSONAL:

Today is my 11 year wedding anniversary – that is evidence of God’s grace and an amazing wife.

I’ll be speaking several times at NRB/Reach (which is in Orlando this year). I’d love to meet you if you’re going to be there.
Here’s my schedule so far (there may be one more class added):

• Saturday: 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM
  “Beyond the Ecclesiastical Box: Reshaping Your Media Ministry to Reach a Postmodern Culture”

Presenters: Greg Atkinson, Founder, Church Video Ideas, Dallas, TX, Phil Bransom, Producer/Director, Phil Bransom Productions, West Linn, OR and Jay Edgerton, Producer/Dirctor, Consultant, Atlanta, GA.

Get out from behind your church and revolutionize your media ministry. Discover what’s working in emerging churches to touch postmodern society. How can your church use media ministry to grow beyond conventional methods? Learn new ideas to gear up and bring people in your community to the faith of Jesus.

• Sunday: 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
  “Mushroom Eaters: Churches Taking Risks with Media (And Living to Tell About It)”

Presenters: Grant Guffin, President, Flashlight Films, Collierville, TN and Greg Atkinson, Director, Church Video Ideas, Dallas, TX.

Noted author Erwin McManus labels himself a “mushroom eater”—one willing to take a risk so that those who follow may benefit from—or avoid—his original experience. This session will highlight churches that are on the edge; blazing exciting, new trails with progressive, aggressive, Kingdom-minded use of media in an effort to connect with a media-savvy world. Hear dramatic stories of experiments that led to breakthrough, experience the end result, and walk away with fresh concepts you can apply in your own laboratory.

• Monday: 10:45 AM – 12:15 PM
  “Q&A Forum on Creativity in Church Media Ministry”

Presenters: Greg Atkinson, Founder, Church Video Ideas, Dallas, TX; Orlen Stauffer, Director of Media, Kempsville Presbyterian Church, Virginia Beach, VA; Randal Taylor, Sr. Consultant/Executive Producer, BMC Advertising, Dallas, TX; Steve Smith, Media/Communication Pastor, First Baptist Church, Orlando, FL.

If you are in pursuit of imagination, inspiration, ingenuity and want to advance your knowledge in media systems & equipment, join this discussion.

I’ve been away from the internet the past couple of days. I’m back home in Dallas now. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Fort Myers, Florida. My host, Doug White, who is a worship pastor in Panama City, put me and the other conference speaker (Matt Tullos from LifeWay) up in a condo right on the beach – it was awesome! Alicia Williamson (you may know her from her years with Truth and the Women of Faith conferences) was also at the conference. We all went out to eat last night and had a blast. Alicia is teaching worship at Liberty University – I hope to speak there in 2007. Pictures to come soon!

It’s November and a beautiful day in the 80s. I must be in Florida. Today I speak at the Florida Baptist Convention. I’m speaking on “Leading Multi-sensory Worship” and “Resources for Media Ministry”.

Phil Cooke sent me the results of a poll he just took concerning Ted Haggard and if pastors talked about it on Sunday. You can see the results HERE.

My friends at The Work of the People just added a Holiday Resources tab. Click HERE to check out TWOP’s products for Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, and New Years.

Yesterday WFX concluded. I got to see some friends from various ministries across the country, meet Craig Janssen from Acoustic Dimensions and hear my friend, author and speaker Rex Miller, deliver the keynote address. Rex is a truly a great guy. Besides are regular get-togethers for lunch and lively discussion, Rex once paid for my wife and I to go to a marriage seminar weekend – for which we will forever be grateful. I really enjoyed hearing him speak and encourage you to get and read his book “The Millennium Matrix”. You can check out his website HERE. I think it’s a little messed up, but you can get a feel for what his ministry is like. He works in both the business and church world – which I think is really cool. To buy his book, go HERE.

TRAVEL:

Sunday night I fly to Fort Myers, Florida to speak at the Florida Baptist Convention on Monday and Tuesday. I look forward to a good time in the great state of Florida and hope to meet many new friends in the faith. Pray for me as I share and teach from my heart at this gathering.

PERSONAL:
Last night I had the joy of celebrating my daughter’s 6th birthday. We held our first “sleep over”. I’m officially old now.

Our 2nd podcast episode is LIVE! Check the website for show notes.

This morning the Wasteland Creative team heads to Nashville. Nashville is one of my favorite cities to visit (which I do frequently). One, because it’s “Music City”, but also because my best friend and his wife live and serve in Nashville. Anytime I get to see him (we’re staying with him) is a great time. His name is Thomas Rose and he’s an amazing worship leader. He leads worship at Mosaic Nashville and also works at Rocketown (founded by Michael W. Smith).

We have two big Wasteland Creative meetings on Friday and would appreciate your prayers. One is with the Executive Board of Rocketown Nashville and the other is with EMI/WorshipTogether. Both meetings are important as we are currently working on two big projects. The first project, which my friend and Co-founder of WC, Mike Biggs, is running point on is to start and run a non-profit youth mentoring center based on the Rocketown model in the city of Dallas. The other project, that I’m running point on, is a city-wide worship project and movement that will take place in various cities throughout the United States and eventually the UK. These meetings are crucial as we are in the early development stage of both projects.

We also hope to get to spend a little time again with author, Matthew Paul Turner, who on our last visit, basically gave us an advanced and customized seminar on writing. He’s an amazing and very transparent/genuine writer. I hope you’ll find and read each of his books – they’re great.

BONUS:

The Work of the People has a FREE download from Chris Seay, Pastor of Ecclesia Church in Houston. The video is entitled “What is Sacred?”. Pastor Chris Seay speaks about Sacred verses Secular, seeking redemption in all things, and creating sacred spaces. Check it out!

The journey continues. Today was week 4 of “the switch”. Remember 2 Sundays ago, I trained 2 people on EasyWorship. One ran it last week and the other ran it today. I just came in for about 10 minutes before the first service for a “refresher” with Amy. She rememebered well from 2 weeks before and ran both services alone today. I was in a Sunday School class during one service, then sat with a friend and my wife during the second service.

I also popped by the church this past Friday afternoon to train two new people. One of the people I trained is the person who had been creating the slides each week in PowerPoint – she was a crucial one to train so that myself or the Technical Director, Brian, don’t have to set up the slides each week. Now she can continue to prepare the slides (which is part of her job), but now on EasyWorship, instead of PowerPoint. I showed her how easy it was to connect to CCLI’s SongSelect Lyric Service and import songs into the EasyWorship database. It really is simple and impressive. She caught on quick and will now begin preparing the EasyWorship slides each week during the week.

A SIDE NOTE OR MINI-LESSON:

In my conferences on “Beginning and Developing a Media Ministry”, I talk about two teams:

1. The PREPARATION team – A person(s) who creates the slides each week (that’s who I trained Friday)
2. The PRESENTATION team – These are the people who come in on Sunday morning and just run what has already been created for them.

PERSONAL THOUGHT:

This was an especially cool and out of the ordinary Sunday for my church. The theme/focus was “worship”. If you know me, you know I was a happy camper. The pastor wove his message throughout the entire service. He actually started the message before we even sang our first song (that really blew people’s minds). He pretty much magnified God and said why we worship, which led into a time of worship. We would sing 2 to 3 songs, then he would come back up and teach some more. The pattern repeated a few times. It was a great worship experience and a nice break from the norm.

Anthony and I left this afternoon and had a wild trip home. It’s 12:30am and I’m just now home. I was supposed to be back around 9pm. We missed our flight and had to switch airlines and take a later flight. When we finally arrived in Dallas, wouldn’t you know it: my bag didn’t make it!

Other than the trip home, it was a great conference. I met some great people and got to see some friends that I haven’t seen in a while. Anthony and I were able to get some interviews for our new podcast, which launches very soon.

Look for upcoming interviews with:

Kem Meyer (Granger Community Church)

Mark Batterson (Theater Church)

Brad Abare (Church Marketing Sucks)

Shawn Wood (Seacoast Church)

I was on the road (or “in the air” would be more appropriate) the past 2 weeks. It’s so good to be back home with my family after 2 trips back to back.

1. Two weeks ago I taught some classes at Church Music Oklahoma, which takes place in Oklahoma City. Like I did last year when I taught at the same conference, I stayed over to visit LifeChurch.tv on Saturday night and Charlie Hall’s church, Bridgeway, on Sunday morning.

• My friend, Don Chapman (www.WorshipIdeas.com) was with me and got to join me on our whirlwind tour of churches. On Saturday night, we attended LifeChuches’s South Oklahoma City campus for their first Saturday night service, then went to the main OKC campus for their 2nd Saturday night service. They both have 4 services on Sunday, too – keep in mind that LifeChurch.tv has 9 campuses, including an “Internet Campus”. Sunday morning we saw Charlie Hall (not leading worship, but he was there) at Bridgeway, the church he helped plant. Their service lasted ’til noon and wouldn’t you know it – we had enough time to make it back to the main LifeChurch.tv campus to catch a little of their 1pm service.

• We drove from OKC back to Dallas from 1:30pm to 4:45pm, so Don could experience Irving Bible Church’s 5pm service. We had hung out earlier in the week with Russ Ware, worship pastor at IBC, so Don really wanted to attend one of their 4 services. We made it just in time to be there for the entire 5pm service and then went home exhausted. Don went back to his home in Greenville, SC and blogged about his experience at LifeChurch.tv (including pictures).

2. This past week I spoke at the Christian Supply Choral Festival in SC, which brought together over 1200 worship leaders from around the country. The cool thing for me is that the conference takes place about 10 minutes from my family/where I grew up, so I got to see my mom and sister and her family. Two things worth mention from this conference (I didn’t get to visit any churches on this trip – I left Saturday afternoon, so I could attend my home church with my family on Sunday):

• The first thing to mention from this 2nd conference is the new movie “Facing the Giants“, which hits theaters next month. Back in February I sat on a panel at NRB with Alex Kendrick, Media Pastor at Sherwood Baptist in Albany, GA. Alex is the writer, director and lead actor in “Facing the Giants”. You may recognize the name from all the media hype. “Facing the Giants” is the movie that the Motion Picture Association rated PG instead of G, because it is so evangelistic. Personally, I’m glad that it got a PG rating (I think more people will attend the movie), but I don’t agree with the reasoning behind the decision.
• When I was with Alex back in February he was discussing a movie that his church had produced called “Flywheel“, which Blockbuster picked up and carries nation-wide!
• At this conference they showed a powerfully moving promo and teaser produced for Church leaders about their new movie, “Facing the Giants”. Now I love sports movies anyway, so I was getting pretty pumped up just watching it. What do you need to know? Go see this movie and tell others to see it. Besides being produced and shot very impressively, it represents Christ and His Church very well.
• The second thing to mention from the SC conference was a 2 hour conversation I had with Rick Muchow, worship pastor at Saddleback. We discused media in worship, my class on multi-sensory worship and a city-wide worship project that I’m currently working on and you’ll hear more about soon. I was surprised to learn that Saddleback has multiple venues and worship styles on their campus. I was intrigued and fascinated as he was telling me about them. Keep in mind, these are all on the same campus. They are also launching their first off-site video venue and are pretty excited about it’s potential.
• For me (and I told him this), it was extremely encouraging to hear one of the main leaders at the 2nd largest church in the country talking about how they can improve and what they think they can do better and more effectively. There’s a lesson there for us all.

Well, that was my most recent roadtrip. Next month I’m teaching at the National MinistyCOM conference in Phoenix. If you haven’t already, sign up and plan on attending this event. I’ve invited 2 friends of mine to share in my class with me on “Creative Synergy”. Shawn Wood, Communications Pastor at Seacoast Church and Anthony Coppedge from Anthony Coppedge Consulting will be around and sharing in our discussion of creative synergy, which, by the way, is the name of my new weekly podcast “Creative Synergy“, featuring Anthony Coppedge and myself (more to come on that in the near future).