8.10 Reverb

It is time once again for reverb from last Sunday at Covenant Life. We heard a message from Dave Harvey called, "Don't Waste Your Ambition," and it definitely whetted my appetite for Dr. Harvey's (yes, he is a dr!) forthcoming book on the same topic. If you were in Discovery Land or on the video crew, please listen to the message. Even if you heard it already, I'd challenge everyone - and especially the men - to listen to it again.

"Without ambition churches won't be built. Without ambition, nations won't be reached. Without ambition, businesses won't be started. Without ambition, nothing is explored. Civilizations become lazy without ambition." - Dave Harvey

We should be ambitious for the glory of God.

But Dr. Harvey's message obviously wasn't the only thing that happened on Sunday. Here's a quick summary of the whole service:

• Bob Kauflin led us in singing along with an "acoustic" band.
• Brian Chesemore helped us remember and proclaim Christ through communion.
• Josh Harris shared pastoral priorities in announcements.
• Then, Dr. Harvey shared his message on ambition.

As I'm looking over my notes from Sunday, I only have five things written down, so I won't break my comments down in too much detail.

• Sound - Julie, I thought the acoustic band sounded great. Don's vocal on his solo was smooth and full. The mix still had the same fullness when Jared moved to percussion from the drum kit, which is exactly what we're looking for. Well done!
• Lighting - Dave, thanks for your patient endurance through setup on Saturday. Because of being short-staffed on the sound side, I had to give more time to their efforts and it took longer to get the set in place.
• Video - Overall, it was another smooth morning. Thanks, John and Bill, for jumping in to cover camera director. Liana, I sure hope you are feeling better. We missed camera 4 during the second service, but thankfully there were no ministry mic moments.

I have a couple all-volunteer notes:

1. Ken Boer and Grant Layman both independently brought thoughts to Julie regarding the volume of the guitars during the instrumental music. The thoughts, however, were in direct conflict with each other. If you ever experience this, do what Julie did, and check in with me. If you can't get to me, Grant is the boss. Sorry, Ken!
2. Email Noise Warning - I know that you get a lot of emails from Latricia and me. Oh, how I wish it weren't so! But email is still the best way to reach everyone with the same info. The sound team had a unique schedule this weekend, and Latricia did outline the change in the Wednesday reminder email. Unfortunately, the details got missed by a couple sound team members. I know that can be easy, and I mention it only as a reminder to read carefully and to not assume the normal. Thanks!
   

Finally, I do want to note a few things related to lyrics and sermon notes this Sunday:

First, someone I never met tapped me on the shoulder after the first service. She wanted to encourage the people running lyrics because she had absolutely no trouble following when we sang a new song for the first time (The Lord Is). Thanks, Kathe and Dolores, for serving people so effectively. This is one of those areas that rarely gets noticed when things go right, so know that you did an excellent job.

Second, our lyrics folks made two wonderful mistakes. I say that sincerely. These are the types of mistakes I want to see. At one point, Bob said, "Let's sing verse three." And verse three went up (Good!). Then Bob proceeded to quote from the middle of verse three, which was actually on the second slide. Oops. The second part of verse three went up (Good!). Then Bob began to sing from the beginning of verse three. Oops. And the first slide went up again (Good!). This may have looked like a mistake, and it may have felt like a mistake, but I love the fact that they were being proactive to get stuff up early and to follow where Bob was going. Is that exactly the way I would have liked it to go if we had planned it? Probably not. Given the situation, however, I'd rather lyrics operators be proactive and make mistakes than be late consistently. Why? Being late is a mistake every time.

Also, during the first sermon, our folks missed a Scripture reference. The reason? They were taking notes on the application point that just went up. Covenant Life pastors are learning that they can't put a quote or scripture immediately after a main point. No one has time to write down the point before it disappears. I'm not sure if there was any communication about it, but the second sermon was better because Dave Harvey took more time before referencing the Scripture. The lyrics operators got it up that time.

Thanks everyone for serving this weekend! I will be on vacation for the next two Sundays, so make sure to give the Lord (via Ben and Bram) your best efforts these next two weekends.

And please send in your thoughts about this last Sunday by commenting on this post.

7.27 and 8.3 Reverb

Covenant Life Church has had a very full couple weeks with two Sundays, two Mills, the Rebelution, and the WorshipGod08 conference. If I have counted correctly, that's 58 services or seminars in the span of 10 days. That may just be a density record!

Thanks to you all for consistently serving above and beyond your normal monthly assignments. You are making the clear gospel available to thousands each time you serve.

July 27, 2008 - Don't Waste Your Kids

On Sunday, July 27th, we heard from Josh's father, Gregg Harris, on "Don't Waste Your Kids." You can listen to the message, and use application questions for personal study.

I only have a couple notes from that morning, most likely because so much has transpired since then that I've lost a clear perspective on what actually happened.

First, I need to do a better job of finalizing the order of announcements when Josh is leading through them. Because he is the senior pastor, he rightfully feels the freedom to improvise, but that has continued to cause us problems related to getting slides up at the right time. I think the best solution at this point is for me to be more active in getting the right order from him on Sunday morning.

Second, we had the privilege of supporting parents in child dedications. We changed up the stage arrangement a little bit, so that we could get three things at once:

1. A clear shot of Josh
2. A clear shot of the families.
3. Josh could look at the families and at a camera at the same time.

This arrangement worked well, but we need to address some lighting problems for the area where Josh was standing. We may need to use the lift to aim some over-stage lights on him next time. Also, whenever we have child dedications, there is a period of time when Josh addresses the congregation and parents at length. We can intersperse shots of the children while he talks. Because he no longer has to turn around to see the families, we don't have that cue to cut from Josh' back to the cute kids. I would say use shots of the families about one third of the time and shots of Josh the other two-thirds.

August 3, 2008 - Don't Waste Your Job

This past Sunday, Mark Mitchell taught us how to not waste our jobs. If you were running tech in Discovery Land or taking care of IMAG, you can listen and apply.

Tech on Sunday was tremendously smooth, especially given that we were understaffed. Thanks, Chris, for leading your video team through this wild morning. I saw that you filled out three of the checklists yourself!

Sunday must have been smooth, nevertheless, because this is what I heard from Grant over the radio (a first): "No notes from me for you, Dave. Excellent job." Sweet job, everyone, and thank you, God, for helping us in our weakness.

I have just a few bullet-point notes:

• I need to get Josh's announcements order earlier on. Did I say that already?
• House directors, don't forget to change the matrix switcher. My 10-month old son is my spy in the nursing mother's room, so I do find out about it.
• Chris asked about leaving up video during prayer. Do we leave it up or take it down? As of today, just leave it up. For those who don't close their eyes in prayer, let's give them something to see that helps then concentrate on the prayer.

What did you notice that could have been better? Share your thoughts for all of us to benefit. Don't hold back. (Any thoughts from visitors to Covenant Life who stayed over from the Rebelution or WG08 are particularly welcome!)