Easter rocked

Easter Sunday, or Resurrection Day, was great. The extra practices this week paid off. We adjusted where we needed to and were able to help lead 2 services of people into worship. The dynamics of the worship set were awesome and supported the entire theme of Jesus' resurrection. Over 900 people, more than 50 decisions, a message that brought the gospel home to a lot of people. Overall, Easter was chocked full of good worship time, good 'down'time, good family time...was a full day but was good.

As far as the sound/amp/stage/direct question that I raised before...I think I have a possible reason for the divergent opinions of the use of amps vs direct boxes, etc. I think a person's opinion on the issue depends simply on whether a CD-type, studio sound is wanted versus a live, stage sound. There...that's it.

Let me explain...everyone who has an ear for music can hear the difference between a Live version of Sweet Home Alabama and the studio/CD version of the same song. Live sound has a totally different vibe, feel, and mix of instruments 'overlapping' together - a true amalgamation of tone/sound. Amalgamation is (dictionary.com) "the mixing or blending of different elements, etc.; also, the result of such combination or blending; a homogeneous union."

This is totally different than a studio, or CD sound where individual, direct tracks are fed into a 32 (or more) channel board and then "mix"ed in terms of volume level, panning, et al, with the other channels. I guess another example would be the London Philharmonic orchestra. Even on the CD version of a performance, 107 (love that number) instruments are not individually miked. Why? Because the blending together artificially/digitally, channel by channel, in no way catches the live, naturally "amalgamated" sound of a symphony played all together. Even in the studio they aren't recorded by just one mike, so that there is definitely "overlap" of sound between instruments and sections of the orchestra. You get my drift.

So, in my opinion, that's at least one of the main reasons for the difference of opinion in the use or non-use of amps onstage. This is not to start an argument - it's just discussing opinions/options. The bottom line to me is that there should be an "amalgamation" (haha) of the 2 viewpoints. They both have their strong points and in a live situation, live sound would be best along with still a centralized point of overall control. Why do you still need centralized overall control? Because it's not a concert - but an attempt to bring people into worship in singing, etc.

Any thoughts on it?

Oh and btw - there's a reason why Marshall, Ampeg, Fender, Gallein-Krueger, etc. all still make amps :-).

Later...and be careful out there.

107 - Are You Kiddin' Me???

107 - my new favorite number. That's how many people were baptized at church yesterday. I got so excited that right after church I went straight to Valero's and played that number in the Lotto - shhhh don't tell the pastor.

Anyways, it was an awesome thing to behold and be a part of. Some of them were planned but many, if not most, were spontaneous. How spontaneous? The Pastor explained baptism and its significance with the example of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunich. He very bluntly asked the question directly to believers "if you are not baptized, why not?" He then proceeded to answer some possible excuses. When he opened up the question for people to come respond to be baptized, there were so many people who came forward that we gave a new meaning to the phrase "double dipping". We had 2 of our pastors baptizing people, and sometimes there were 3 being baptized at once. Our portable baptistry was set up outside with live video and audio feed to the rest of the congregation inside the school auditorium. And there was none of this stiff, formal "please wait until everyone is baptized and be quiet...and pass the Grey Poupon..." garbage. Man, people were rowdy-style clapping and cheering, encouraging and welcoming every single person who was baptized.

It was truly an amazing thing to be a part of. It's why all the volunteers at our church (over 200 at our volunteer banquet a couple of months ago), our staff, and everyone involved at Lifepoint do what we do - trying to reach people far from God to they can know Him.

Organized chaos takes a lot of planning - but we make it work every week. There are so many points of service in a portable church. We have volunteers getting up at 5am or earlier on Sunday mornings just to set up anything at all for the services and Sunday ministries. We have others staying until 3pm and later on Sunday afternoons packing everything away in the crates and trailers. In-between we have Tech Teams (all things techie), Kidspoint Teams (birth thru 5th grade), Highwire Teams (middle school), Parking Teams (crash avoidance), Welcome Teams (lockthedoorbehindthem), Visitor Guide Teams (seeing-eye-people for firsttimers), Volunteer HQ Teams (FT = HV (full tummies = happy volunteers)), Photography Teams (photo snipers), Starting Point Teams (go ahead...ask..make my day), Lifegroup Teams (group homes oops I mean home groups), and on and on and on. Sunday mornings our place of worship looks like an anthill on steroids to the NSA guys monitoring the satellites.

Of course, most people are still in bed that early on Sunday mornings LOL. All I've got to say is that they better enjoy 'sleeping in' while they can because our goal at Lifepoint, in an indirect or maybe not-so-indirect way, is to get them out of bed earlier on Sundays...not to go to the beach, or go to Walmart, or go yard-saling - but in a simple response of faith, worship, and service to the Savior who reached them while they were far from Him.

Brainstorm for a new motto spoken with Sean Connery accent...
"We are 107...and our name is Point. Life Point."

Brainstorm for a new song...
"..whatcha gonna do when we come for you....whatcha gonna do??"

Later...and be careful out there.