Greg Atkinson

It never fails, everytime I visit a church, I notice the senior pastor sitting in the worst seat in the worship center. I experience this weekly at my home church (Fellowship Dallas) and used to experience it weekly at Bent Tree.

In each case the senior pastor would sit on the side, front row (right in front of the subs and closest to the drums). Then they will say it’s too loud (when it sounds fine out in the house to the other thousand or three thousand seats). The sound engineer then feels his hands are tied as he tries to mix for 1100 seats (at Fellowship Dallas) or 33oo seats (at Bent Tree) or whichever church I’m visiting – the audio guy has to adjust for the person in the worst seat and thus has a bad mix for the majority of the room. How backwards is that?

My suggestion to the pastor sitting in this worst possible seat – trust your people and tech team out in the house and let them mix for the entire room. Don’t ask them to adjust things to your liking – it’s not practical. How about you? Have you experienced this in your church?

Catalyst is about Leaders. Leaders who have a passion to impact our Generation, including leaders in music and the arts.

Catalyst believes there are new anthems and worship songs being written on the hearts of our generation across this nation and around the world. This is a call to leaders who have a vision to share these songs with the body of Christ.

Introducing the 2009 Catalyst Music Project – worship songs for the next generation. Upload your recording before July 1, 2009 for a chance to have your song included on the Album.

I’ve now seen Star Trek twice. One thing that I loved and appreciated is director, JJ Abrams, is not afraid of silence. There were several times when he’d cut away to a new shot and it would suddenly go silent – it really added a nice touch. 

I started thinking about how silence is a beautiful thing, especially in contrast to our busy lives. I wonder how often in the hustle and bustle of life that we miss out on God moments. Remember He speaks in a still, small voice and if we’re not careful, it can be hard to hear from Him. 

Psalm 37:7 – Quiet down before God, be prayerful before him. 

Psalm 46:10 - Be still, and know that I am God. 

Psalm 73:23-24 - I’m still in your presence, but you’ve taken my hand. 24 You wisely and tenderly lead me, and then you bless me.

*** My encouragement for you (and me) is to take time out to “be still” and quiet before our Creator. Listen for that still, small voice. Mind you: you have to be intentional about this or it will never happen. Now – be quiet!

Let the wars begin! Just kidding. Actually, I ask the question because I think the answer (for most churches) is BOTH. I just talked with 2 guys that do video at 2 different larger churches and they use both Avid and FinalCut.

In the world of Church IT (which I’ll blog more about later), there seems to be a either-or mindset and after talking to a few geek friends, plus Tony Steward (who is just too fun to call a geek, but he knows his stuff) – they seem to believe that church networks can have a happy marriage of PCs and Macs.

I wonder: is this your reality? Is your church all PC? all Mac? Are you a hybrid? What’s your situation? My church is predominately PC, but the whole Worship & Arts/production staff is Mac and after talking to several of our pastors, they’d like to be Mac, too. I wonder if you, like me, since we’re at a tipping point.

HERE’S an article that I wrote almost a year ago for Monday Morning Insight. I was shocked at home much attention it got. It was obvious I had hit a nerve/hot button. I asked in the article how many have switched to Vista and how many have switched to Leopard. I ask you the same. We recently switched all our Macs to Leopard and got the Final Cut Studio 2 upgrade.

So, what say you? PC? Mac? Both? Are you near a tipping point? Do you think both can live happily together on a church network? Are Exchange and Entourage incompatible? Are they either-or options or does that even matter? Let me hear ya!

Each week I get phone calls and emails from church members and visiting Church leaders asking where we get our backgrounds that we used during worship. Obviously, I have access to a ton of media and we use a number of products from companies that I’ve blogged about before, but one company we keep using again and again and again is SermonVideos.com.

One note about Bent Tree is that we are in HD, so our background selection is smaller and pickier. With that being said, there are a growing number of resources out there. I absolutely LOVE Igniter Backs and have raved about them before. I’m looking forward to them re-releasing volumes 1 and 2 in HD and am anxiously awaiting Backs 4.

What I don’t like is that you have to wait every one or two years for another volume to come out. I wish they’d release backgrounds as they create them and when they have enough, create a volume. What I LOVE about SermonVideos.com is that they add/upload brand new backgrounds weekly. As soon as they get them or create them, they’re up and ready to download. We have a subscription, so I just log on and in a matter of minutes have them loaded into my EasyWorship resource folder.

In my own church life, from week to week, we’ve worn out Igniter Backs Vol. 3. I have to take a break from them because our people were seeing them so much (they are the only thing they have in HD). I even went back and took a select few from Igniter Backs 1 and 2 and stretched them, which seemed to work okay (thanks Igniter for suggesting that).

I use a few from FortyOneTwenty and a few from BlueFish.tv. I’m truly grateful for the never-ending fresh supply from SermonVideos.com and am thrilled to add new backgrounds in the mix each week. My hats off to my friend Craig Lillard and his team of artists at SV. Thanks for a job well done!

EXTRA:
2 weeks ago we kicked off our service with a Call to Worship video from Restoration Videos: “Worship“. They didn’t have it in HD, but thankfully created it widescreen. This video was a powerful start to our service. Thanks to Restoration Videos!

Yesterday I announced the beginning of the Church 2.0 Local Forum. I’m excited about the first 2 of these in May (one in LA and one in Chicago). For now, I’d like to give you more info on the first one in LA. This is for all Church leaders in the Southern California area. If you’re involved in ministry and would like to meet, network and share with others in ministry – this FREE event is for you.

DETAILS: We will gather on Friday, May 2nd from 11:30am to 3:30pm in Grant Hall at Hollywood UMC. I’d appreciate you signing up so we know how much lunch to provide. To RSVP go HERE.

Sponsors that have taken care of the facility rental, free give-aways/swag and free food for all are: eight20eight, iStockphoto, RevoStock and SermonSpice. I’m extremely grateful for their support.

Here’s a special note from sponsor iStockphoto: Enter the coupon code FAITH and you will receive a 20% first purchase discount on any order over 55 credits and you can also choose 20 FREE images out of a group of 50. Go HERE to check it out.

WHAT’S SO COOL ABOUT MEETING AT HOLLYWOOD UMC?

Due to the unique beauty of the buildings and the history emmanating from their individual spaces, the church facilities are often used as a film and television location and have been featured in several major motion pictures.

FILMS SHOT AT HUMC include…
• Jarhead
• Domino
• Anger Management
• Big Mama’s House
• Beautiful
• A Civil Action
• That Thing You Do!
• Super Mario Bros.
• Sister Act
• Back to the Future
• Star 80
• Imitation of Life

TV SHOWS SHOT AT HUMC include…
• CSI
• Days of Our Lives
• General Hospital
• Murder, She Wrote
• The Golden Girls
• Jake and the Fatman
• The A-Team
• Hardcastle and McCormick
• Riptide
• Hotel
• Dr. Phil – Special
• Bette Midler – Special
• The Temptations – Special

SPECIAL FOOTNOTES FOR FILM FANS -
In Back to the Future, the church gymnasium was the location for the high school prom/dance scene where Michael J. Fox reunites his parents and takes the stage to perform a wicked guitar version of “Johnny Be Good.”

In Sister Act, virtually the entire church served as an on-location set for the story of Whoopi Goldberg posing as a nun. The scenes where the nuns ate at a long table and where Whoopi was scrubbing floors were filmed in Grant Hall. The scene where the nuns were gossiping in the kitchen over ice cream was in the Main Kitchen. The choir room in the movie was shot in the church’s actual choir room at the time.

In Tom Hanks’ That Thing You Do!, the gym stage was the setting for a college talent show where the movie’s fictitious pop-rock group, “The Wonders,” first sang their hit song “That Thing You Do!” in public. In the scene, the group’s drummer surprises them by speeding up the tempo of the song, with very positive results.