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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