Something New

I am trying something new. I'm moving my blog to Wordpress so that I can update from my iPhone easily. Please update your subscriptions and links. I'll see you over there.

http://micahfoster.wordpress.com

Quick Update

The baby boy is coming faster than a speeding bullet! I feel like his arrival is just around the corner and I'm not ready. I don't think any father is really ready. The studies show (What studies? I don't know, but it makes my hunch sound more official) that men don't feel like a father until they see the baby and women begin to feel like a mother part way through the pregnancy. It's going to be so crazy to see that little guy! Tons of people are trying to guess what his name will be. We do have a name picked out, so you don't have to send me all your suggestions. Most people like this joke, "You know what would be a great name? (insert their name here) Now that would be a great name." Well, sorry to dissappoint you, but most likely it won't be your name.

Erica's job at Park Point Health Club just went part-time. She no longer has to stand at the front desk for 5-hour shifts twice a week. She just started working part-time at New Vintage Church, which is what her true passion is.

August 2nd I'm the Best Man for my Best Man's wedding (John and Kala). It's going to be in the chapel on Pepperdine's campus in Malibu. I'm pretty excited about going down there, haven't been in what seems like forever.

Last weekend we spent the fourth of July in Fresno with family and friends. Paul, Jenn and Grace came back with us and stayed until Tuesday night. It was a lot of fun hanging out with our best friends again. This Sunday Luke and Sarah Mundy are coming to visit. They'll stay the night on Sunday and then on Monday we're all driving down to San Jose for the Coldplay concert!

That's the quick update. Follow me on Twitter for more.

Wii Series

Here's what's coming up at New Vintage Church.

DRIVE '09 Highlight Video

Drive '09 Highlight Video from North Point Media on Vimeo.

A Simple Win

I got this message from someone from New Vintage Church on Facebook. I love hearing this kind of stuff. Keep 'em coming Angel!

"Hey Micah!
I wanted to share something with you. I just received a message from a woman that lives in Milwaukee. I have never met this woman, but she has followed my son's story through a hospital carepage I have set up for him. She has often written to me with encouragement through different things with my son. Anyway, she found me here on FB. She sent me a message today saying that she found New Vintage through my FB page. She went to the NVC website and she has been listening to Andy's sermons. She said, "I don't have an iPod so I have to sit at my computer and listen to him".....She went on to say what a wonderful communicator he is and what a wonderful gift he has. She also mentioned that she is thinking of buying an iPod so she can continue listening, but doesn't have to sit at her computer to do so!! I thought this was so cool!! Someone I have never met and lives in Milwaukee (Danny Gokey country :-) ) and she is able to enjoy New Vintage just as much as I am!!! Praise the Lord!! Thought you might like to hear this and pass on to Andy!

-Angel"

Technorati tags: facebook, message, inbox, win, new, vintage, church, wilwaukee

DriveEurope '09

Check this out - DRIVE is going to Europe!

DriveEurope '09 Promo from North Point Media on Vimeo.

The Spontaneous Dance at DRIVE '09

Before one of the sessions at Drive there were people in the audience that were strategically sitting and spontaneously starting dancing. This is how they taught the dance to the staff and volunteers involved. It was awesome.

Drive Conference 2009 - Dance - Session 2! from John on Vimeo.

Technorati tags: #drive09, drive, conference, spontaneous, dance, hummanerror, vimeo

Snapshots of DRIVE '09

I'll post my reflections, notes and some quotes later, but here's a visual taste of what happened at DRIVE '09.

Technorati tags: #drive09, driver, conference, north, point, community, church, atlanta, breaksk8, flickr, unhindered, worship

What's New at New Vintage Church?

What's new at New Vintage Church?

This week we're kicking off our new series called "It's Personal."


Every first weekend of the month we have KidStuf Live.

Technorati tags: it's, personal, andy, stanley, vomsteeg, new, vintage, church, sermon, kidstuf, live, santa, rosa, northpoint, ministries, youtube, productvideocast.com

The iBible Commercial

In case you missed this at Catalyst West Coast last week, here's the video you've been waiting for. Thanks Tripp!

Technorati tags: catwest, catalyst, west, coast, tripp, crosby, iBible, youtube, commercial, comedy

Video from Rush Hour

Technorati tags: rush, hour, worship, invert, charged, atone(ment), atonement, new, vintage, church

Atone(ment) in Santa Rosa, Ca

Yesterday the Student Ministries of New Vintage Church hosted some of my friends from Fresno. They played a strong, heart-felt worship set at an event called Rush Hour. It's the first of several events like this. We'll continue them in the fall. But here's the set list:

Broadcast (Fee)
Light of Salvation (Desperation Band)
-Introductions-
Break Free (Hillsong United)
We Shine (Fee)
Awaken Us (Casey Darnell)
-Testimony from Haylie Royce (Bass Guitar/Vocals)-
Your Love Never Fails (Chris Quilala)
-Testimony from Micah Foster (Vocals)-
Glory to God Forever (Fee/Beeching)
From the Inside Out (Hillsong United)
Glorious One (Fee)
-Testimony from Kaleb Smith (Drums)-
How He Loves (Eddie Kirkland)
-Testimony from Chris Hudiburgh (Electric Guitar/Vocals)-
Lift High (Eddie Kirkland)
Hosanna (Hillsong United)

After the event we went to Carmen's Burger Bar and had a great time unpacking the evening. We each had students come up to us and talk about how they appreciated our honesty and our stories. It was a very fulfilling night for everyone. Thank you Atone(ment) for coming up and helping us out!

Technorati tags: atone(ment), band, music, rush, hour, new, vintage, church, fresno, santa, rosa, student, ministries

Easter Recap

Easter Sunday has come and gone again at New Vintage Church (web/twitter). I don't want to say too much, but rather leave you with some iPhone pics and a video I took from my flip mino. Not great quality, but that's okay.
_






Production Team: Who was on?
Pro Presenter- Greg C.
Stage Right- Wes
Stage Left- Don F. & Dan
Sound- Kelsey
Stage Setup- John I. & Duane
Producer- Micah

WINS from this past weekend:

• We packed out two services a the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts!
• The production crew was lightning fast-despite the 6:45am call time!
• There was a huge energy in the room, especially during first service! People were moved. I heard about people "laughing, crying and being impacted."
• The song "Overcome" along with the video was a huge hit! People cheered after the video faded out and the band did a great job leading us into worship.
• I saw people really responding in worship. It's great to see surrender in worship. People were prasing God by singing out, dancing around, raising their hands and their hearts!
• Jack Blades, of Night Ranger, did a great job with his orginal song, "Long to be Close to You" and people really enjoyed the "My Sweet Lord" song as well. (Watching Wes and Dan act as the choir was possibly the most humorous moment of the morning)
• The old hymn, "Jesus Paid It All" revamped was a big hit. People told me after the service that they loved it!
  
• Randy Waller stepped up and took care of a little tech. emergency. We left an in-ear monitor at the old building and he found a way to get it for us! Thanks Randy!
• Dan Fisher programmed out two moving lights that sit on the ground at the back of the stage. Don and Dan had fun building an incredible lighting experience for us from backstage!
• After Jack Blades played the first service without his acoustic plugged in we had a revelation - he needs a roadie - pretty funny.
• Dan Fisher is also responsible for getting a live video feed to the screens in the lobby as well as lowering our projector screens so that people's necks don't hurt while looking at them! Thanks Dan!
• I also heard about a little girl in the bathroom singing the song "One Way" after the service. So great to see people connecting with lyrics and melodies that praise Him!

Here are some quotes I've seen on Facebook over the past few hours:

"Wow Easter Service was SO good!!!!! I laughed, I cried I danced!!!!"
"Such a great Easter service experience!"
"Wonderful Easter Service, my son was visiting from NY and loved it so did my daughter and her bf."
"This morning was awesome. Thanks so much....I'm sure it took a huge about of thought, time, energy, and prayer to put it all together."
"Hey Andy, Church was AMAZING today! Thanks!!!! Happy Easter to you and your family."
"God was using you, Andy! The service was great!! God is faithful!!"
"Awsome service today!! I was speechless and that is hard to do!"

We'd love to hear your stories about Easter. Were you impacted? Did you bring people that were impacted? Share with us on facebook here.

Technorati tags: easter, desperation, band, overcome, resurrection, production, team, new, vintage, church, lighting, sound, propresenter, wells, fargo, center, arts, santa, rosa

Easter Video Invite

Here's a quick video from Andy VomSteeg (twitter/blog) inviting people to New Vintage Church for Easter. Pass this invite on to everyone you know in Sonoma County! Services are at 9:30am and 11:15am at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts.

RSVP on Facebook here.

Technorati tags: new, vintage, church, sonoma, county, andy, vomsteeg, easter, invite, video, youtube

Easter @NewVintageWFC

Easter is right around the corner ~ This Sunday, April 12.

We're looking forward to seeing you and your family celebrate with us this weekend. Our Saturday evening service will be cancelled, just this once ... but we'll be adding a second Sunday morning service at Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. Come early for the 9:30am service, or sleep in a little and join us at 11:15am.



We're thrilled to announce that  JACK BLADES of NIGHT RANGER will be singing for us, too, so don't miss this weekend! Most importantly, don't come alone! Easter is the perfect time to invite your family and friends that don't have a regular church home, and we want to meet them.
 
Click on the link below for a special Easter Invitation from Andy.
 
http://newvintage.org/tv/index.html
 
Pass it along to at least 10 of your friends and ask them to do the same.  Don't forget to post it to your twitter blogs, myspace and facebook profiles, too!

Here's the Facebook Event Invite!

Technorati tags: new, vintage, church, jack, blades, easter, sunday, wells, fargo, center, for, the, arts

My Screaming Wife // 3

It's been a few months since Erica had a good scream. You may remember two previous posts about her screaming (first, second). Yesterday we broke that streak. Here's Erica's version of the story. Now it's time for mine.

We went to Fresno for the weekend to attend a funeral, spend time with Erica's family and hang out with Paul and Jenn before their baby arrives. We left Fresno yesternacht and started on our journey. We stopped for gas just off I-5 and Highway 33 and got some snacks as well. When we got back on the road I heard a strange noise coming from my side of the car. I wasn't sure what it was and it didn't sound like anything car-related so I thought nothing of it. A few minutes later I felt something on my neck. I reached to scratch and nothing was there. No big deal, right? Then I felt something again. This time when I reached - I felt a large bug (about 1.5 inches long). I grabbed for it and it climbed onto my hand. I then, very calmly said, "Erica, yawn, I'm going to roll down the window."

At this point in the story you may have one or two questions. The first one might be something like this, "Why did you tell her to yawn?" When you're traveling along a highway or interstate and you open the window - the air pressure changes and can sometimes hurt your ears. If you yawn it helps your ears adjust easier. The second questions might be, "Why did you calmly say that?" That's also easy. My wife does not like bugs!

So I opened the window and the bug jumped towards my face. I dodged it by doing the Night at the Roxbury headbop move.. At this point Erica is a little freaked out. "What are you doing?!" she exclaimed. I said, "There's a bug in here and I was trying to get it out." BIG MISTAKE. I should not have told her about the bug or that face that I had lost it INSIDE the CAR. I could see the panic in her face welling up. I tried to open the windows again and I could hear it making a strange noise somewhere by my head, but I didn't know where. I finally realized it was on my seatbelt where it connects to the side of the car. It then moved to my headrest. What I did next - you should not try at home, learn from my mistakes. I then told her exactly where it was. Erica took one look at it and then a large breath. Then it began. The scream. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" She yelled and yelled and yelled. She said, "I can't do it! I can't do this! Pull over, pull over, pull over!!!!!"

What happened next terrified me. She unbuckled and latched onto the door handle. Need I remind you that we are traveling on the I-5 North, in the middle of Nowhere, Ca and I have not slowed down yet? I could just imageine what sort of logic is going through her brain. "My chances are better doing a tuck-and-roll out of this moving car on the freeway than with this mutant insect!" I pulled over through the bumpity-bumpity wake-up call slites in the pavement and screached to a halt. Erica jumped out of the car screaming, crying - hysterical. I can only imagine what the drivers passing by thought was happening. I found the bug, grabbed a plastic bag and put it inside. I contained it. But Erica would not come back in until I threw it out the window.

She slowly stepped back into the car, shut the door - crying and I comforted her. "It's okay, it's okay, it's gone." She slowly calmed herself and began the after-screaming-stage. Laughing. (What I didn't mention above was that the way she was reacting was actually making me laugh the entire time. I don't recommend you laugh at your screaming wife.) I slowly pulled back out on the the 5 and we were on our way again. A few minutes later I said, "I feel another blog post coming on."

Honestly, the bug looked like a mix between the two bugs below. A true mutant bug. It was large.


When was the last time you had a good scream?

Technorati tags: my, screaming, wife, erica, foster, bugs, chico, bugs, grasshoppers, I-5, california, nowhere, roxbury

Production Team WINS // 3-28 & 3-29

Here are some WINS from last weekend:

The Team:
Saturday - Kyle, Jim, and Micah
Sunday - Kelsey, Sy Richardson, Wes, John Iervolino and Micah
Sunday Night (Special Service) - Kyle, Jim, Seth and Micah

• Last weekend was what I call headache galore weekend. We had all kinds of technical problems - but despite our equipment or manual failures - God shines through!
• Andy said he continues to see more and more people he has never met - this is huge. It is partially due to the fact that our visiting people are returning. They're having a great experience and coming back! That's huge!
• People loved the interview with Ken Johnson (kenjohnson.org) on Saturday night and the special service on Sunday night. Andy said he's getting email after email telling him how much they enjoyed the experience. Thanks to Kyle, Jim and Seth for stepping up for that service.
• I had several people ask for a recording of Sunday night's service - they connected with the material and wanted to share it with others.
• GroupLink went great - lots of people signed up to be in small groups for the first time!
• Our screens were a big issue on Sunday - sometimes God likes to stick his finger in the machine so that we don't forget...He is in charge, He makes it all happen - He just allows us to be a part of the process.
  
• We're expecting 1800-2000 people for Easter! Wow - 2 Services and packin' it out! I'm excited.
• John I. and the set up team actually talked about some biblical stuff on Sunday. That's the first time the WFCA guys have really show an interest in knowing what we believe about certain issues. Keep praying more opportunities to talk about the gospel present themselves.
  
• Do you have some wins?

The first picture is from the Sun night service.
The second picture is from a moment I had with God this past week. Have you had any moments with God lately? Find time. This always humbles me - Ecc. 5:1-7.

Technorati tags: wins, production, team, new, vintage, church, santa, rosa

Video Dump Monday

Here are four videos I posted to YouTube today. I'm dumping them on you.

Technorati tags: kd, ken, johnson, pastor, youtube, video, dump, prank, love, songs, music, new, vintage, church

Production Team Wins // 3-21 & 3-22

Team - Last weekend was awesome!

Saturday night - Thanks to Jim and John
Sunday morning - Thanks to Wes, Jim, John, Don, Duane and Kelsey (oh yeah and all the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts guys too)

Wins:

• Kelsey has been running sound out there the last two weeks. It's great to have someone who knows the venue inside and out. But the big win here, get this...he is an announcer for the Oakland Warriors. He's often late to his Oakland gigs because he's driving from our services. The guys there have started calling him "Church Boy" - I wouldn't usually describe it a win to be called "Church Boy" but he seems to be embracing it. He told me his mom loves his new nickname and that he was raised baptist. I'm glad he gets to be involved at a local church - even while on the job!
• Sunday morning looked awesome. Lots of haze, lots of really great lights and it rocked!
• The Sunday set up team was done early and the band was done rehearsing at 9:54am! That's a record! That's perfect! Let's do that every Sunday.
• We have successfully piped sound into the foyer outside the main auditorium - that's been really great for people with babies during the service and a little lively music before service starts.
• People seemed to really grab what Rob Bell communicated on the video.
• I heard lots of people saying they loved having music at the end of the service. In fact, so much that we're going to close this weekend's services with a song, "My Hope."
• What WINS are you experiencing? - It doesn't have to be about Production or even New Vintage Church.

FYI: You can check out the sermon podcasts here.

Technorati tags: production, team, wins, wells, fargo, center, arts, new, vintage, church

I love the interaction...

Today I posted a quick question on twitter (it automatically updated my Facebook status) and here's the conversation that followed on my facebook.

Micah Foster Do you judge people, business, churches, and organizations by their websites? What about restaurants?
11:03am · Comment · Like · via Twitter

d.j. iverson at 11:04am March 24
it definitely goes into consideration.

Meagan Burroughs Block at 11:04am March 24
completely.

Micah Foster at 11:06am March 24
'the website' is the modern day 'book cover'

Dana Pellerin at 11:07am March 24
Absolutely.

d.j. iverson at 11:08am March 24
my only exception is for mexican restaurants.

Meagan Burroughs Block at 11:09am March 24
hahahhaa

Micah Foster at 11:09am March 24
understood.

Michelle Heidi Rivera at 11:22am March 24
hey micha! long time no see and I may, but I personally don't judge a book by its cover anymore?

Sarah Stapleton Abbott at 11:43am March 24
Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes and No.

Seth Charles Naumann at 12:21pm March 24
i like fish tanks at my restaurants!! and maybe a tv playing surfing videos in the background

Micah Foster at 12:23pm March 24
What is it about restaurants that they get a free pass on the website (except in Carl Flynn's book)?

Celia Chamberlain at 12:43pm March 24 via Facebook Mobile
yes to all, except restaurants. I will read reviews and talk to people whose tastes I agree with; they can have the best page in the world, but the worst food. Taste is subjective, services offered are pretty straightforward.

Annie Hawks at 12:50pm March 24
I am not sure if this is a survey or not. The best way to judge a restaurant is read the health inspection website. http://food.sonoma-county.org/

Ryan Jones at 1:16pm March 24
A nicely designed website is always a good idea, but I think it really depends on the field or industry. For instance, I'd never hire a graphic designer, photographer, or any other creative professional who has a crappy site. Period. Churches, restaurants and other businesses SHOULD have a nice site, but I don't think it's as imperative, since it's not necessarily representative of what they do. I do think, however, that all businesses should have a well thought-out image and consistent branding. We live in a world where presentation matters, and with so many resources to help businesses maintain a look, nobody should have an excuse as to why they don't.

Sorry for the rant...

Technorati tags: website, facebook, twitter, interaction, survey

A Jumbled Update on our Lives

Last week was a little crazy at New Vintage Church. We had 3 Living Room events (20-Something's Night Out, SingleLife Live, and MarriedLife Live). We also had our normal Saturday and Sunday night services. On top of that a ton of electrical work wa being done in our building to bring it up to fire code. This week is Spring Break for the schools up here so there's no student ministry stuff happening this week. Last night Erica and I went to see Duplicity. It was prett good, though not what I expected. I didn't even see one good shoot-out, oh well. We've got the twitter-wagon going up here and the church even has an account that I run (@newvintagewfc). We're right in the middle of a series called HOSTAGE and I'm closing out the series the week after Easter. I can't wait, it's going to be great to be on the main stage speaking to a whole new crowd of people. I've been leading the Production Team and they're a pretty awesome group of volunteers. One guy, Wes, is a Rock Star. Seriosly, the guy is basically a stage manager and makes sure everyone happens just right in set up, tear down and between. I love having him on te team! I just got a call from our new Small Group Leader and her mom isn't doing well. They need to take some time off from the group (pray for the Colberts please). So, we're debating leading that group, or trying to find new groups for our group to divide into. Not sure which way we're going to go yet. Ok, that's all the randomness I'm going to spit out at you, sorry for the lack of consistant posting. It'll be better. Oh, did I mention that I'm going to the DRIVE '09 conference? That conference has fueled a drive in me for the past 2.5 years. Can't wait to go again.

Technorati tags: random, blog, update, life, new, vintage, church, twitter, speaking, hostage, drive, conference, living, room, events

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Production Team WINS // 3-14 & 3-15

The Team:

Saturday - Don, John, Jim
Sunday - Don, Sy, John, Jim, Duane, Wes and Kelsey

WINS From This Past Weekend:

• First off let me say that I am continually impressed with the level of committement from you guys. Seriously, just look at the last picture on this post. Amazing. It looks great!
• John did an incredible job on Saturday night with ProPresenter. He's watched someone do it once and he had his first hands-on training on Saturday night. Great job!
• Jim handled our sound board without Alan there! Always a great thing when we can take care of business while our pros are on tour.
• Kelsey from the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts is doing our Sunday morning sound while Alan is gone. It's great to have someone who can troubleshoot the system when something isn't working right.
  
• I noticed that the worship was really started to tug on people's hearts this weekend. When Amy pulled back a bit on "Surrender" I really felt people starting to let their passion out.
• We had a woman by the name of Sandi become a member of NVC on Sat night and she dedicated her son Devon. It was great to see someone committing to be here, participate, give, and serve.
  
• On Sunday mornings we now have two moving lights on stage, our stage left hands control them. They really looked great next to the hazers. You can see a little of what they do in the last picture on this post. they are the circular lights shining on the ceiling.
• Loved Andy's bottom line: Freedom is found under God's ultimate authority. Also, God is into freedom!
• Sign ups for MarriedLife Live, SingleLife Live and the 20-Something's Night Out were really great this past weekend. Hope you can all attend one of those this week.
• StudentLink in the foyer was great on Sunday morning. I personally talked to 3 different families who have teens and invited them to Charged and Invert. Grant spoke with a couple of families and I saw some other leaders mingling as well. That's a repeat event to help us bridge the gap between main service and student ministries.
  
• What are some WINS you are experiencing?

Don Fluitt joined twitter! Love adding to the NVC twitter list. Here are some other NVCer's on Twitter.

• New Vintage Church
• Andy VomSteeg
• Lynn Matthews
• Amy Ferrante
• Grant Saunders
  
• Bryan Smith
  
• Micah Foster
• Erica Foster (my wife)

In other social media news: Andy VomSteeg has started a blog and he wrote a post listing some WINS from his perspective. Check it out!

Technorati tags: production, team, wells, fargo, center, arts, propresenter, lighting, sound, andy, vomsteeg, new, vintage, church, wins, twitter

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Rhythm Contest - An Experiment

The next series that the New Vintage Church Student Ministry (Charged & Invert) are doing is called Rhythm. What if we did a contest to see what small group did the best expression of what it means to have Rhythm? Watch the video to see what I mean. What do you think?

Today we started a new series in INVERT - we put this challenge forward:

This was made for NewVintage.org's student ministry.

The Challenge

Create a performance of Rhythm with your small group. It's a contest and winning small group gets a prize. What's the prize you ask? We're not telling.

The Rules

1. Keep it clean - moves, words and music - clean


2. You can sing, dance, play an instrument, beatbox, drum or any other expression of Rythm


3. You can either perform it live OR you can submit it via video (.mov files please)


4. You score extra points if you get your small group leader in the performance


Does your small group have what it takes?


We'll see.


Video submissions due and Live performances on March 29th

Technorati tags: numa, new, vintage, church, student, ministry, xp3, rhythm, charged, invert, contest

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Doubt Series Comes to a Close

Here's a recap of last night's (and Sunday's talk). Post your reactions if you've got any.

Technorati tags: doubt, xp3, new, vintage, church, student, ministry, charged, invert

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Production Team Wins // 3-7 & 3-8

Great job team! Alan, Jim, Don, Jerome, Wes, Riley, and Duane!

Another weekend under our belts! Here are some WINS from this past weekend:

• Jim Matthews was able to shadow Alan and learn some basics of our digital sound board on Sat and Sun! That's huge becuase Alan is going on a European tour for the next few weeks!
• Don Fluitt killed it on the lights Sat night. Take a look of the picture from Sat night and you'll see what I'm talkin' about!
• Alan pumped up the bass and kick drum this weekend and we felt it. It was awesome to have concert-quality sound. I felt it in my chest!
• The song ONE SHOT by OAR was our offering song and it connected with some younger faces. Great to have that flavor in our service. I noticed a guy recording the song on his iPhone and singing along. I asked him to send me a copy and it sounds a'right for an iPhone recording. Thanks Nick Clay!
• Don Fluitt introduced me to an iPhone application that you can take notes with in the form of a 'mind map' and he sent me a copy of it. I'll put it at the end of my post...really intersting way to categorize information.
• I just heard that over the past couple of weeks the Host Team has handed out around 50 Newcover Boxes. That's incredible. That means that we're attracting a lot of people from the community and that makes our job even more important. When we get it right, when we can help people focus on what's important during the service, removing all the distractions and creating a professional environment - we WIN big! You are the reason it's working.
• Jerome did a great job on making sure our videos, words, backgrounds and everything visual on the screeen, on time! Fantastic job.
• Sunday we added an element to the stage - two moving lights operated by a small light board - Don ran that from the Stage Right position behind the curtains. We haven't perfected the placement, but it added some cool effects during the service.
• Duane was thrown into the fire and given the HAZER controls on Sunday morning. Thank you for your willingness to jump in and take control. Wes guided how much haze and when. Overall -- great job guys! We love to manufacture the pressence of God in our "smoke" - just kidding guys. Actually the purpose of the haze is to make the lights pop - it brings 'em out.
• Sunday morning was a little crazy - but with some prayer (Don and Amy) and troubleshooting everything went great. 
• We also had a really funny looking set from the group that was performing after us at Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. And by funny, I mean ugly. Haha. But, the great thing is that the WFCA guys we normally work with hated it. They were upset that we, "their best clients" had to deal with such a terrible inconvienance. That's huge guys! We're making an impression on these guys. Keep up the great work.
  

Technorati tags: wells, fargo, center, arts, production, team, hostage, series, worship, tech

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Production Team Wins // 2-28 & 3-1

This past weekend we kicked off the HOSTAGE series with a BANG! Here are some WINS from the weekend:

Who was on?
Sound: Alan
ProPresenter: Greg L.
Lights: John I. (Sat Only)
Stage Set Up: Wes, John I., Duane (Sun Only)

• This past weekend was "set-change week" and it looked awesome!
• Dan (the man) did a ton of the work for our Sat night location and it was AWEsome
• Sun morning was exciting. After some conversations and adjustments the WFCA guys put our panels up and focused lighting on the shadows
• It was great to have Duane for the first time helping us set up for Sun morning!
• Greg, John and Alan killed it on Sat night -- and by "killed it" I mean knocked it out of the park! Cues, transitions, it was beautiful!
• Andy VomSteeg and Dan both gave praise to how smooth it was.
• Riley has been a huge help setting up our FOH (front of house) table with the sound board and computer
• Despite the set-change week and all the challenges that come with that, we opened the doors just after 10am (our target on Sundays) and started the service ON TIME - WOW!

I'm grateful for every one of you! I continue to learn and be stretched in this role and hope that we can continue to build an experience and environment that removes all the distractions and enables people to focus on what's important.

Technorati tags: FOH, new, vintage, church, production, team, wins, santa, rosa, wells, fargo, center, arts

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Notes from Catalyst One Day « ShaneCraven.com

You've got to check out this post about Catalyst One Day. Great Leadership thoughts!

Notes from Catalyst One Day « ShaneCraven.com

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HOSTAGE Series

This week is "set-change week" at New Vintage church. We've just ended a series called Tribes based off of Seth Godin's book and now we're using the graphics from LifeChurch.tv's Hostage series to do our own HOSTAGE series. This series is seven weeks long and ends on Easter Sunday. I'm so excited about what's happening here. Here's a peak into the set build.

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NVC Production Team Wins // 2.21.09-2.22.09

Wins are where we scored, hit the bullseye and something went right.

Yesterday was my first day leading the Production Team at New Vintage Church. I've been learning a lot from Dan Fisher over the past month of what the Multi-Media Team does at NVC.

Here's the weekend run-down:

• We were severely short-staffed this past weekend, so most of our volunteers stepped up to the plate on Thursday or Friday of last week. Thanks guys! Incredible!
• Saturday: John (Lights), Sy (ProPresentor) and Tom (Sound)
  
• John was cross-trained in ProPresentor before service and can now fill another position in rotation for us!
• Tom and Sy hadn't been on in the rotation for a few months and I'm so happy that they were there helping us out on Saturday night. Let's continue to build the team so that the rotation is large and not a drain on any one person.
• Sunday: Wes & Riley (Stage Hands), Jerome (ProPresentor), Allen (Sound) Gary & Wes (Stage Set Up) and the Wells Fargo Guys too. We were set up in record time, way before the musicians where ready to practice. That's huge guys! Keep it up.
• The dancers were "stunning," especially on Sunday with the spots only! It really was the graceful illsutration Andy was looking for.
  
• Lighting overall was "A-W-E-S-O-M-E" according to Julie McIntosh. 
• Many of our normal volunteers were able to take the weekend off, going out of town or spending time with their families. I'm glad you guys got some rest.
  
  

This next series, HOSTAGE, is going to be awesome. It starts next week. Check out the video invitation below:



What are some WINS you noticed? I'd like to hear.

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Living Room Events

Foyer-Living Room-Kitchen (want to know more, click here and watch the "next" video)

That's the strategy of New Vintage Church. We want to move people through steps to end up in the Kitchen (Small Groups).

In a couple of weeks we're having three different Living Room events:

MarriedLife Live
SingleLife Live
20-Somethings Night Out



I'm speaking at the 20-Somethings Night Out.

If you were speaking, what would be your topic? If you were attending, what would you want me to talk about?

Technorati tags: new, vintage, church, foyer, living, room, kitchen, married, life, live, single, 20-somethings, night, speaking