Video I made – full post on http://blogs.digium.com
Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
How to Configure Digium Phones with Asterisk and DPMA
Published October 20, 2012 Uncategorized Closed
Videos Tutorials I made to show a conceptual overview and configuration for DPMA
Video playlist I made showing how to use Digium Phones
A video tutorial I made on how to configure Digium Phones with Switchvox
I’m pretty pleased with the final product:
Our Commander is this cool guy who wants to capitalize on social media. He challenged us to create videos about how we inspire wellness in our department.
I’ve responed by writing a hip hop song about sanitizing your hands.
It’s about as goofy as it sounds and I believe there’s some decent humor in it. The whole process has been very energizing for me. I love the creative and even more I love getting people on board. My favorite part has been involving my co-workers in the project – seeing them laugh when the hear the song and seeing the song increase in quality due to the collective creativty. Each person has added a lit bit.
Yesterday I tried to start shooting the video and failed miserably at it.
Several coworkers had agreed to be a part of the video. I set a date to get together at lunch and shoot the first scenes, but not everyone showed up. We had three guys, and it just wasn’t enough of a critical mass to achieve the effect I was going for. One or two more guys would’ve made it work, but as a result of lack of participation I had to pack everything up without any footage. It was disappointing not only to myself, but also to the folks that did show. It was at that moment as I defeatedly folded up my tripod that God started doing a beautiful thing. Immediately I thought, “this is what Church planting is like. ” (or really, any kind of high-stakes leadership.)
You try to inspire others to join it, people commit and then leave you hanging. It’s not really because they don’t care, everyone who didn’t show had a pretty good reason to not be there, but this is simply he nature of leading. You work hard and stress and push and try to make things happen. And they don’t.
But I am so happy they didn’t.
Defeat and failure are God’s sanctifying agents in our lives. This one event is making me a better leader than the many successes I’ve achieved. The primary bonus here is that God is preparing my heart to be let down, over and over again. He’s allowing me to learn how to push through, rely on Him and creatively shift plans.
Ultimately there were several other immediate bonuses to this short-fall:
More involvement:
Because of this set back we’ll actually have a better video in the end. Initially I simply invited a few folks from my own department, but seeing the need to “over invite” (as no doubt people with have legitimate reasons not to be at the rescheduled shooting) I went all around the building getting more people on board. I invited the 1st Sergeant and he invited the Commander. I would’ve never done this had my original plan gone my way. Several other folks will possibly come on board and the final product will be that much better.
Encouragement:
One thing I’m convinced of is that younger men need encouragement from older men. Every chance I get I try to speak into the lives of younger guys. There’s a man at work that I have a great deal of respect for. When he saw my debacle he took the opportunity to speak some encouraging words. It was like fresh wind blown into the sails of a ship that’s been stagnantly afloat for too long. Without failure we miss out on these types of opportunities.
A Chance to Show Grace:
Not everyone is an attention addict like myself. Some folks are just camera-shy and aren’t totally psyched about the idea on being on screen. Rather than getting angry this was an oppertunity to allow people a gracious out if they wanted to take it. I’m pleased to say that most folks commited to the re-shoot.
My hope for you is that you experience a suffering defeat today. Such things are wonderful fodder for the Holy Spirit.
Sermon Notes March 22, 2009
Do you use LinkedIn? My younger brother, Don, is a professional in the Staffing/HR industry. He swears by LinkedIn as his networking tool of choice. I’ve built some great networks through blogging, twitter and facebook, but I’m starting to see some unique abilities of LinkedIn that have piqued my interested in using it more frequently.
3 Reasons to get more invovled on LinkedIn:
1. Business Oriented: While twitter and facebook can focus much on the personal side of life, LinkedIn cuts the fluff and focueses on business. If you’re looking for a webdesigner to help with your the launch of your campus you don’t have to wade through pictures of thier last camping trip to get to a person’s credentials.
2. Value Beyond Each Contact: LinkedIn uses “3 degrees of separation” to connect you with folks. This is its true power. You not only get to connect with a contact, but also with everyone they know and everyone they know. The contact you are adding may not have the knowledge or skills you are seeking, but odds are they know someone who knows someone who does. This makes it valueable to add people as contacts even if they have small networks and little experience in your field.
3. It’s Not Just About Finding A Job: While the primary function of LinkedIn seems to be able to find jobs or recruit employees it’s value goes far beyond. It’s a source of information. If your looking to findout who the experts in an industry outside your own are it’s easy enough to find some folks through LinkedIn and then ask them. You can use it to find someone who knows any type of information your a looking for (or someone who knows someone) inside or outside your instudry. The same types of searches just aren’t available to your on facebook.
You can find my profile here:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/billychia
If you haven’t signed up for LinkedIn you can do so here.
We found a church today. The Chias will be looking to hook into Summit Crossing Community Church. The service today was great. I could go on an on about all the things I love about this church…
like the way they recycled an old church building and outfitted it for modern worship instead of spending big bucks on a constructing their own building, or how they are doing four identical services so they can maximize their efforts while minimizing the financial investment it takes to put on a worship service in order to pour more resources into the community of Huntsville/Madison, or the fact that the audio mix had a healthy does of electric guitar and kick drum
But I won’t do that. (too much) I’ll just say,
God whispered to me, “This is the place.”
Right in the middle of first worship song. I knew that if Sarah didn’t hear the same thing then we’d be looking further, but she did. Even my daughter Eve wanted to come back.
That wasn’t the only thing God said to me today. God was raging on my heart all morning. He said a lot more to me including:
I’ll use you in the field of IT Networking
Today a man got baptized at the beginning of the service. Sarah and I were in tears at his testimony. He said, “I’m a computer nerd and never spent a lot of time with people or religion…but someone invited me to Summit Crossing and now Jesus is my savior.” I’ve been busting my hump doing online network training. My goal is to get some tech certifications and move into a career in the IT industry. I’ve wrestled with this a lot – especially the amount of time it takes to do the online training.
Today God confirmed in a big way that He’s sending me into a mission field where few can go to reach people few can reach. There are many more “computer nerds” out there who need Jesus.
Do what no one else wants to do
A chief concern for Sarah and I has been where we’ll plug into a church to serve. I need a break from leadership, but don’t want to stop being a Christian. I still want to serve.
Today Paul, the teaching pastor, made a challenge to everyone. He asked that as Summit moves to a 4 service format (2 in the AM and 2 in the PM) that folks choose either AM or PM time and then worship at one service and serve at another. As he talked about different areas of need it occurred to me that God was just calling me to serve wherever there was the deepest need. It may be out of my comfort zone or something I’m no good at, but for this season it’s what God’s calling me to.
Spend less time doing network training
At I was a little confused when I heard this. Especially since only a half-hour earlier God told me to plunge full forward into computer networking. Paul preached a tremendous sermon on simplicity (check it out here.) He talked about how we all spend too much time getting distracted by being busy. This was super convicting to me – some days I work 8-5 and then come home to do online training all evening. Paul challenged everyone to “Turn everything off for 2 hours in the evening from 6-8pm, and just have family time or alone time with God.” We’re gonna do it.
Starting today the computer, phones, tv, etc… will all shut down from 6-8 and we’ll do family worship time. It’s a little scary because I’m not sure where I’ll fit in my network training, but I believe God is faithful and will provide the oppertunity.
Yesterday we ate a lot of food at the Chia house. There was so much food it didn’t all fit on the table at once. We ate way more food than we all normally eat and the amount of food leftover was way more than the amount consumed. It was a massive heap of food.
As we cleared plates and stuffed mounds of foil-wrapped containers into an already-packed refriderator a clear feeling came over me. What might’ve been guilt actually turned into…
Satisfaction.
In the Untied States this practice seems absurd. We schedule a day to over-eat and prepare so much food it can’t possibly all be eaten – creating waste. It seems morally wrong to do this when there are so many around the world who don’t have food at all. I believe it probably is morally wrong if you live like most Americans live.
Most Americans over-consume everyday. We are the fattest people that have ever lived. Rates of heart-disease and cancer are at historic highs. Even our children are morbidly obese.
When you over-consume everyday and then you schedule a day to over-over-consume. It’s just wrong. Yesterday some people should have been fasting, not feasting.
I thank God for my awesome wife. Because of her, we don’t live like most Americans. We’re on the Dave Ramsey plan – living like no one else, so that later we can live like no one else. We roll slim at the Chia house. Sarah goes grocery shopping once a week on Mondays. She only buys what she estimates we will need and no more. By Sunday there are slim pickin’s and we get creative. Sarah often makes only enough food for that one meal – it all gets eaten in modest portions. If there are leftovers then those are eaten the next day.
This system works in a lot of ways:
- We are healthier as a family because we eat a balanced diet in modest portions
- We save money on our food bill
- We create very little waste on a daily basis.
- The money we save on food is able to be spent on others.
So for 364 days a year we eat modestly. When you do this then the mood becomes different as you bust out a huge spread. It becomes a celebration of thankfulness to a God who continually provides instead of a celebration of gluttony in an excessive culture.
Our God is a party God. He made the Jews have parties 8 times a year. Parties of lavish celebration. Even when God was going to kill are the first born males in Egypt he had the Israelites throw a party the night before. He’s a party God! He’s takes pleasure in our celebration. Thanksgiving should be a happy celebration absent of guilt. When you live modestly on a daily basis it can be that way.
If you’re feeling guilty about the weight you will probably put on this Holyday season. If the mounds of foil in your fridge cause a sinking lump to form in your gut instead of a beaming shine in your heart then it may be time to adjust your lifestyle. Start now – and by next year you’ll have a very different experience.
Our God is a God of second chances. He righteous life, innocent death and glorious resurrection paid the price for your guilt. Ditch the guilt and start a revolution of praise and thanksgiving.
Setlist today at CVC
- Not to Us – Chris Tomlin
- He Reigns – Peter Furler
- You are My King – Billy Foote
- Offering – Paul Baloche
- Lay it Down – Matt Maher
It’s Monday morning and I’m running on adrenaline. I’ve taken one day off in the last 3 weeks. I don’t feel tried. I never do – I tend to have endless amounts of energy until I crash. Instead I get irratable.
I feel it in my kidneys.
The chemical push of an artificial readiness. I haven’t sabbathed and I’m starting to pay the price.
It’s a hard place to be. Even if I could go back in time and take last Saturday off I wouldn’t. My head knows that that’s diobedience to God, but my heart needed last Saturday. We had a Fall Festival at church coordinated by our rockstar Children’s Pastor. This is the type of thing She is really good at. It was amazing. over 40 Chase Valley Church members showed up to pour out themselves by serving over 400 people from the community.
It was the most Church I’ve experience since I moved to Alabama.
The last two weeks of worship have been amazing. We have amazing people at Chase Valley. I’ve led worship all over the country in all types of churches and I’ve rarely experience people more dedicated and passionate for God on a Sunday morning. It’s an honor to lead them each week and the last 2 weeks have been over the top.
Yesterday we prayed over a missionary going India. Our missionary we sent to Rawanda came up and laid a hand on him during the prayer. It just felt like, “This is what Chase Valley Church is supposed to do.” Why haven’t we done this more in the last 10 months?
We also started promoting Operation Christmas Child. We have a member at CVC that’s amazing passionate about this ministry and she got on mic to ralley the troups yesterday. At Chase Valley we not only participate in Operation Christmas Child – we are the collection center. Which means other churches bring their boxes to us and our volunteers do extra duty to ship them out. That’s the kind of church Chase Valley is – we’re full of people who do “extra duty.” This was evident on Saturday when folks who normally don’t serve in the area of Worship Arts were ready and willing to help set up/tear down sound gear. That’s the kinda people we have – they don’t say, “that’s not my job” they just step up and serve.
I worked some overtime today. The big boss asked us to start a large project on Friday and it flowed over into today. It was actually pretty cool things went down that way.
The building felt cold and empty devoid of all it’s weekly activity, but a sense of camaraderie was built between the three of us working. During a quick lunch break our supervisor told us some hilarious stories about living all over the world and working for the army.
At 3pm, as we exited the building we continued is some small talk that ended with,
See you on Monday.
That’s when it hit me like a tons of bricks – why didn’t I say,
Hey would you like to come to church with me tomorrow?
I’ve invited people from work to come to church, but it’s usually in the middle of the week. By the time the weekend rolls around people forget. I figure I absolutely love the people I work with – they are awesome. But, if I really love them, why aren’t I being more intentional about inviting them to church?
My new game plan is to try to make a habbit of inviting everyone to church on Fridays. I don’t want to be pushy or rude about it, but simply consistent. I figure in the end everyone would appreciate this. My hope is to do it every Friday.
Trey McClain won the prize. Trey just launched a cool Evansville church plant. Check out his blog for a review in the next few weeks.
I used this random number generator to pick the winner.
Thanks to everyone who entered. You can read my review of Wild Goose Chase or purchase it on Amazon.
Last week I posted my review of Wild Good Chase. I have an extra copy of the book to give away and here’s how you can get it.
Step 1:
Send me an email and say, “I’d like a copy of Wild Goose Chase.”
Step 2:
Agree to read it as soon as you get it and post a review on your blog.
That’s it – just 2 steps. You don’t need to link back here or comment or anything goofy. This is a great book and I would like to see it get some more exposure. I’ll accept emails through this week and then pick a winner at random. I’ll email you back to let you know who won so you can look for their review.
I used a very scientific method to choose and “at random” winner for my free song contenst:
The following people left comments:
- Kyle
- Russ
- Tyler
- Christopher
- Alastair
- Pam
I asked Eve-Maire to pick a number 1-6. She picked “2” – so congrats Russ!
The set list for today at Chase Valley Church:
- I Am Free – Jon Egan
- Indescribable – Chris Tomlin
- Hosanna – Brooke Fraser
- Come Thou Fount – Arr. Billy Chia
- Better is One Day – Matt Redman
Today I pulled myself off the mic. During the week I coughed out my throat and just couldn’t bring it this morning. My two backup vocalists stepped up to challenge and led. It was awesome.
I told my team, If ya’ll are gonna treat me like this when I step off the mic I just might get sick every week.
Thanks for all your hard work this week everyone – great job!
Bonus: We were so full today our Welcome Team was asking people to move over in the rows to make room.
This post is part of Set List Sundays.
Can we all just agree right now to discourage some people from going to church? Jesus said that his followers would “take up the cross to follow him.”
Does going to church ever feel like “taking up a cross” ?
There’s value in the cryptic. There’s power in having to work for it. At times we try to dumb everything down the lowest common denominator in an attempt to be inclusive. This approach doesn’t really include anybody. In fact excludes everybody.
Seth writes today,
The problem with this approach is that you can never be simple enough. And of course, the bigger problem: Once you dumb it down so every single person gets it, you bake out the magic and the mystery and the elegance. Simple example: it’s not obvious how to use an iPhone, not obvious what to do when you walk into a church for the first time, not clear what to do when you visit Facebook for the first time either. At the symphony, should there be big applause signs so that people don’t clap at the wrong time?
We can up the level of commitment by making it harder to engage. If people need to ask for help we then have an opportunity to treat them with respect. It’s disrespectful to assume no one is smart enough to get it.
Are we ready to bring the cross back to church?
Here was the set today at Chase Valley Church:
- Jesus Paid it All
- Light the Fire Again
- Yours is the Kingdom
- You Never Let Go
- One Way
This is post is part of Setlist Sundays at FredMcKinnon.com
This week was my first week of doing push ups. (see my video here.) It felt awesome to be exercising again. I love working out and had totally become lazy in it. I honestly believe we are disobedient to God when we don’t take care of our bodies. This has been a cool spiritual as well as physical journey. My goal is to do 100 push ups and get 100 readers for my blog by December. (You can subscribe to my feed here.) Day 1 I was crazy sore. By day 3 I was rockin’ the push ups.
These folks are also on the path to 100:
Top 5 Series
I posted a series on top 5 blogs. I love to rank because I’m a competeative at heart. Who’s the best of the best? Check out my list. Disagree with my picks? Post a link in the comments to your favorite. (Note: If you simply post a URL like “http://billychia.com” including the “http://” part it will automatically become a link when you post the comment. ) For this series Nelson Searcy and Anne Jackson stopped by my blog to comment and Rich did a post.
Elsewhere in the ‘sphere:
Brody Harper is doing a great seires in an effort to get the attention of the Christian music industry and encourage them to blog. I’m all for it.
Seth Godin posted this admonishment to sing. His words are readily applicable to those who get on stage at Church on Sunday morning.
Joel put up an informative post selling Facebook to the folks who don’t have it yet on The Worshp Community. Don’t have Facebook yet? You should. Get it then add me as a friend.
Last night at Stearns I got a latte – my drink of choice anywhere. I saw this wicked awesome TV commercial, but didn’t think they really made each cup that way.
They do and I got to drink some beautiful looking coffee.
This blows my mind. Vince Antonucci recently announced that he is leaving his church. He is taking off, abandoning his people and going to plant a new church on the Las Vegas strip.
His people gave a standing ovation when he announced he was leaving.
I have been a part of a few different churches where the Lead Pastor announced he was leaving. The reaction was not unabashed excitement. People were scared, angry, hurt and just plain freaked out.
I’m currently serving in a church that saw a Pastoral change over about a year ago. Under the previous Lead Pastor the church was running around 300 adults in Sunday morning Worship. Within months of the previous pastor leaving worship attendance dropped to 100. People are still hurt that the previous pastor left, but that hurt is compounded by fact that they seen 200 of their friends take off as well.
I’m baffled by Vince Antonucci’s courage and the maturity of his people. What the heck did he do as a leader to build up to this point? He’s been a different kind of leader and he’s gotten a different type of response.
Vince’s story gives me hope and inspiration. It takes tons of moxy and huge vision to go for a church plant on the Vegas strip. It takes a lot of guts to tell people you are leaving a year ahead of time. This is not the coward’s way out. I have heard many people say, “I’m not leaving I’m being sent.” In most cases this was a total line of bull. In Vince’s case he actually seems to be able to say this with integrity.
Check out these recent posts on Vince’s blog:
I’m very interested to see what happens next year for Forefront Church.
This little blog has reached the 50 reader mark!
Thank you to everyone who’s been a part of the community through subscribing and adding comments.
If you don’t already get Billy Chia blog updates you can:
Team is so important – today mine shined brilliantly.
Pulling out hair
One of the frustrating parts of the last six months been rebuilding the team. Before I came on board close to 80% of the worship team (including musicians and techs) left the church. In most cases I’ve been rebuilding from scratch. The large majority of my team is new and few people know how our sound, lighting, and media equipment works. On other Sundays when something goes wrong I’ve been the only one who knows how to fix it. I find myself often running all around the church trying to tie six or seven loose ends together. Of course this type of stress always puts my heart in a great place to then get up on stage and lead worship. Either that or it puts my heart is a lousy place and makes it really hard to lead worship. One of the two.
Take the Initiative
Over the last six months I’ve been working toward creating a culture of risk-taking. I don’t want people to wait around for me to do everything but rather I’m trying to build up a team of people who act first and ask permission later. When it’s Sunday morning go time there’s no time to explain or discuss. I trust my team and more and more they are getting that.
The Victory
Today at about 5 minutes to sound check our Media PC died. I didn’t have time to mess with it or to tell someone else how to trouble shoot it, I needed to be on stage.
Thankfully I had an astute crew in the booth that leaped into action. It ended up being a simple connections problem and everything got rolling. The worship production when off with out a hitch and the Holy Spirit totally rained down. It was great morning.
Over last year The Worship Community Forums have a been a great place for disscussion and sharing ministry insight. Today Version 2.0 launched with feature articles, resources, and reviews.
Check it out and join the worship disscusion.
Last Friday I stood on stage speaking to the end-of-day VBS crowd and announced into my microphone a reminder to come back on Sunday morning and sing on stage. A custom graphic lit our screen behind me announcing “Kids Sing on Sunday: Be here at 9:30 AM.” I’d primed the pump by visiting each class and personally speaking with each VBS leader. In moments they’d be engaging the crowd of parents by offering personal invitations to come back on Sunday and have their child sing in our worship service. I felt confident that my well coordinated effort that would pay off with a big crowd on Sunday. Then I heard a shout come from the back of the room.
Tomorrow is long sock day, wear your long socks!
It was Matt, our resident youth sound engineer and didgeridoo player. He himself had been sporting long, knee-high, baseball-style socks all week, and now he was offering an invitation for everyone else to follow suit. Right in the middle of my invitation!
I thought, “He doesn’t have a mic. Who authorized long sock day? That’s not official. Can he do that?”
The next day I was shocked to witness a myriad of long socks in a spectrum of colors. A few words of encouragement from the teens had gotten the kids talking and sprouted a frenzy of children who all bought into the idea of wearing longs socks. Even my own daughter, who’s vapid shyness hinders her from participating in all things silly, wore her long socks with pride.
I’m sad to say I don’t own any long socks and had to settle for some calf-highs. Oh the humiliation.
When Sunday rolled around we ended up having around 30 children sing on stage. Last year only 20 kids showed up on Sunday, so we increased participation, but it’s still a small number considering both years had 60 total kids come to VBS during the week. I’m impressed that we got 30 kids to show up on Sunday. It took some intentional effort and strategy to pull off. But I’m even more impressed by the result Matt got through his non-strategic gorilla campaign to clad VBS kids in long socks.
What made the difference?
I went around to every VBS volunteer, looked them in the eye, asked them about their kids, listened to their story and then pitched them on my idea to personally invite parents to our Sunday morning worship service. I had a microphone and on-screen graphics. My idea should have caught fire with all that marketing. How did Matt’s idea catch on so much more quickly with less effort?
Matt had something I didn’t have. Mine was an invitation to be inconvenienced – to go out of your comfort zone to talk to parents and to inconvenience them by holding them up when they just wanted to get out with their kid. Matt’s was an invitation to have no-strings-attached-unadulterated fun. Matt taught me something that day about why some ideas go viral and others fail to spread regardless of the effort.
We can’t forget the fun.
Fun spreads. Inconvenice fizzles.
Sometimes the Church has this ‘charity’ mentality that the solution to our success, or to our problems, the way out of our crisis is for someone to give us money rather than asking the question, ‘How can we make such an incredible contribution that it would benefit everyone to invest?’
– Erwin McManus
You can listen to the whole interview on the Catalyst Podcast Episode 52:
We showed up to the church picnic today and totally got pounded by the whole church. After an action packed softball game we shared a meal. Then we went into a set of worship music and had communion together in the park. No sooner did I finish leading worship than my pastor took the mic and announced that my family was getting, “pounded.”
Everyone who came had brought a pound of food for us to put in our pantry!
We could barely fit it all in the van. This totally made my wife’s day.
I am itchy. A sharp stabbing pain is emanating from the line around the back of my neck where the collar of my t-shirt ends. It all happened yesterday at the post-VBS pool party. I had a great afternoon eating pizza, teaching my daughter to swim and getting trounced by our youth group in a game of “How fast can we launch wet Nerf projectiles at each others’ heads?” Then I got home and the UV rays had taken their toll. I put on some SPF 50 before I went out, but that didn’t seem to make a difference. Even my arm hair is itching right now.
The verdict is in and I’m just not a fan of the Sun. I love swimming. I used to be a life guard and a camp counselor, but these days I can’t stand to be outside for more than 20 minutes.
I may have to boycott all pool activities for the rest of summer.
Have you ever heard a sermon that drudged on with rehashed blither no one really cared to hear about? We want sermons to be impacting, but often they don’t pack a punch. If people come to worship looking for spiritual insight, but leave none the wiser something has gone awry. In today’s world there is an increasingly spiritual hunger. People are looking for answers.
Perhaps the problem is that we who are church leaders are not asking the right questions.
Kevin Kelly talks about the concept of never asked questions. He highlights how a product FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) can become an NAQ (Never Asked Questions.)Â Instead of offering real answers, they become marketing attempts to push more drivel. If you look at the FAQ you’ll find answers, but in reality they are answers to questions no one is asking.
Does the same thing ever happen with sermon content?
Perry Noble has an upcoming series that I am extremely intrigued about. To get through the dip of irrelevant information and find out what people really wanted to know, Perry simply asked them.
He writes,
Back in April we asked people to submit questions that have about life, the Bible, God…and anything else and the response was tremendous. After going through hundreds and hundreds of questions we then categorized them into the 18 most asked about topics and then set up a website where people could vote on their top pick.
Mark Driscoll kicked off 2008 with a similar series.
Although these are very high tech approaches that utilize the best of web 2.0 goodness, other more low tech approaches can also be effective. CFC, my church in Evansville, did a series entitled, Questions You Want to Ask God. They handed out 3×5 note cards on Sunday mornings for a few weeks and had people write down their questions. (Note the similarity in topics that came up: CFC and Marshill both asked “Why is there Evil?” and CFC and NewSpring both asked about sexual sin and salvation.)
Admittedly, the Evansville series does lack in comparison to the other churches. By limiting your sample to church people you are also limiting the response and the potential interest in the series. By offering a website for anyone to interact on Driscoll and Nobel reached a large, diverse group of people who then became emotionally invested in a series they helped to produce.
As church leaders it’s easy to become isolated and insulated to what goes on in the real world. It seems that if we want to answer the right questions, then we need to find some real world people and ask them,
What are the questions you have?
Jason Bedell has been rocking some guest blog posts for his pastor Vince Antonucci. This past week he’s posted super pragmatic, usable insights and worship ministry “how to’s.” The series includes videos of Jason giving candid behind-the-scenes talks from his experiences as the creative arts pastor at Forefront along with tons of links and helpful PDF files.
- Monday: What Does Your Service Look Like?
- Tuesday: Creative Worship Arts Planning The Man Video is buckled-over-my-gut-hurts funny. (Be warned the humor is crude and possibly offensive.)
- Wednesday: Resources Galore
- Thursday: Video Ministry How Tos
- Friday: Creating Culture
Terrific series J. Excellent blogging here.
I don’t want to kick up a fight, but I gotta severely disagree with my buddy Jeremy. He asked for responses to his post, Worship Is Not Meant to Teach. This is something I’m hugely passionate about so check the response below.
Worship has a dual function. It is meant to both celebrate and describe God. It is good to worship by singing songs to him. It is also good to worship God by singing songs about him. To do one and neglect the other is simply wrong. You need a good mix of both to get the full effect.
Jeremy says,
worship is not about teaching or learning anything.
and
…the Psalms were not designed to teach us about God. They were designed to praise, celebrate, and worship God.
Let’s look at the psalms.
Psalm 86:1, a psalm of worship, asks God to teach us,
Teach me your way, O LORD,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.
In Psalm 32 having “understanding” is a desirable quality,
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you and watch over you.
Do not be like the horse or the mule,
which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle
or they will not come to you.
Psalm 11 is a worship song that used “about God” language rather than “to God” language. It teaches theology like “The LORD is righteous, he loves justice.” If the psalmists wrote songs about God and not simply to him then I’m down with following their example.
The Greatest Commandment
When Jesus is asked what the most important commandment is he quotes Deuteronomy 6:5. Jesus says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” It’s important to note that loving God (and I would argue worshiping him) involves not only our heart and soul, but also our mind. If we want to really worship God we should be bleeding out emotion from the very innards of our soul. It also doesn’t hurt us if we learn a thing or two in the process.
Should the focus of our worship be theology? No. Worshiping God = good. Worshiping theology = idolatry. Don’t put the cart before the horse. Theology is a means to worship God. Don’t make theology an end in and of itself. Kept in the proper context theology is a rockin’ way to worship God and worship songs should most definitely teach.
I’m passionate about the importance of deep theological worship. I’m equally passionate about soulful/heartful worship. Check out this post where I spar with another guy. I pretty much say the same things and quote the same verses, but argue the other side of the equation.
What do you think – should worship teach?
In this section of the whiteboard we brainstormed new ideas. We asked the question, “What can we as a community, or I as an individual, do to encourage powerful worship experiences?” People were encouraged to imagine money and resources are no object and that no idea is a bad idea. We responded by completing the second half of the question, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we…” I compiled the list below based on table leader notes and what was shared in group discussion along with what was written on the whiteboard.
Wouldn’t it be cool if we…
- never do the same thing over and over
- got rid of the bulletin (follow this link to see a church that has done this.)
- we each had a binder to collect sermon notes
- we had welcome packets for visitors
- got away from the idea that missions have to be far away.
- joined hands in corporate prayer
- became known as a powerful, praying church
- shared short 2-minutes testimonies and stories of how God is working in people’s lives and ministries
- made video testimonies set to music
- had more visual arts like drama and dance
- more people joined the “sacred space” team to help decorate our worship center
- we decorated the entire worship center and not just the stage
- move the prayer altars from the balcony to the floor
- had music testimonies
- people singing solos
- instrumental music
- “special” music
- had theme 242 nights (ie – dress up like a cowboy night.)
- incorporated diversity in the styles of worship
- African/tribal drums
- an all acoustic band
- southern Gospel
- turn tables/drum machines
- had a band with all types of different instruments
- did once a month themed worship in different musical styles
- made a CD of the worship team to pass out
- saw everybody focused in worship
- saw manifestations of the Holy Spirit
- focused on the heart of worship instead of the art
- ministered more to children and youth
- worshiped in new ways
- new songs
- new prayers
- new forms
- worshiped 24/7
- came hungry because we had shared Jesus all week
- had everyone dance at the same time on Sunday morning
- all got hooked into a small group
- saw continuous revival
- canceled church to go serve in our community instead
- had an all-church mission trip
- had Billy and Nate lead worship together
- allowed worship to be uncontrollable and spontaneous
- had an all church retreat
- were open to God
- slowed down and got comfortable with who we are
- had a sermon blog
- brought people to know God’s love
- took God out of a box
- applied what we learned
- had a large amount of people in worship who did NOT participate fully. This would happen if we…
- had a lot of new people visiting
- had a lot of people here who didn’t know Jesus yet
- had a large amount of new Christians who were learning how to participate fully
- led community-wide worship
- had a night of worship music and prayer
- routinely received updates from missionaries we support
- showed videos from our missionaries
- read letters/email on Sunday
- worshiped in different languages
The Next Step
The people of Chase Valley Church are being asked to pray over this list. All of these ideas are great but we can’t do them all at the same time. Ask God, “What’s the best of the best of the best that you would have us do?” Pick the 3 most compelling ideas and email them in. Let’s keep the conversation going.
This is part 3 of a 3 part series on The Worship Round Table Responses
In this section of the whiteboard we looked for the “common threads” that linked the stories together. We asked,
What common elements do we see developing among these stories?
- God
- love (emotions)
- relationship
- spiritual
- revealing
- consciousness
- meaningful environment
- diversity
- personal willingness
- personal surrender
- impacted by our salvation story
- new beginnings
- depth
- distinct purpose
- dropping our expectations
- surprise
- personal vulnerability
- Risk
- change
This is part 2 of a 3 part series on The Worship Round Table Responses
In this section of the whiteboard participants at The Worship Round Table were asked to share a story about a time when they experienced powerful worship. As people shared around the table they were asked to finished the statement, “My worship was powerful because…” Table leaders recorded everyone’s response and then shared with the larger group while I chronicled responses on the whiteboard.
I used the the table leader’s notes as well as the written statements on the whiteboard to compile the list below. I’ve tried to loosely categorize these to make the list easier to interact with. Do you see entries that belong in another section or could fit into multiple sections?
- the Holy Spirit fell strongly
- God spoke to me
- God ripped my heart out
- The Holy Spirit filled me
- God met me where I was
- there was unity
- God surprised us
(Note that these responses show God’s influence or impact on our worship.)
- I experienced love
- I was able to worship for a full hour
- I knew what the songs were about
- I realized I’m not in charge
- I got married
- I knew my state before God
- I understood God’s cleansing
- I understood communion
- I sang to the Lord
- I experienced God’s touch
- I was in God’s presence
- I surrendered completely
- I took a class
- I felt God’s touch during my son’s baptism
- I focused on God
- I was alone with God
- I was able to meditate on the words of the songs
- I had freedom
(Note that these responses show intentional effort or awareness on the part on the individual worshiper.)
- it was scriptural
- it was visible
- the saxophone was beautiful
- there were meaningful decorations
- it was unpredictable
- it was new
- it was unexpected
(Note that these responses show that leading, planning and execution made a difference in the worship service.)
This is part 1 of a 3 part series on The Worship Round Table Responses
At The Worship Round Table last week 30 people met at Chase Valley Church to discuss how we could experience more powerful worship. We shared stories of our personal worship and brainstormed together ideas to implement into our worship arts ministry. As the facilitator I wrote everyone’s response on a whiteboard up front. Follow the links below to see a typed list of all the responses:
Whiteboard 1 – Stories Powerful Worship
Whiteboard 2 – Unifying Themes
Whiteboard 3 – Creative Worship Ideas
This past week at Chase Valley we tried something new and it was a smashing success.
At least the event part of it was.
One of my goals for The Worship Round Table was to create an environment that was worth people’s time. The last thing I wanted to do was to merely cram one more church thing on to people’s already-crammed calendars. I wanted a night that held high value for those who participated. Based on the feedback so far, people had a great time, truly enjoyed themselves and felt an immediate impact from the experience.
Which is great, but…
A deeper goal was to create something that has lasting impact. I’d like to see people continue talking about what happened long after they left the church building. I know for myself I couldn’t even sleep Thursday night thinking about all the possibilities. I would never overtly wish insomnia on anyone, but a small part of me hoped that others were similarly sleepless over what God could potentially do within and through our small community.
The real measure of an event’s success comes long after the event is over.
In his post today, Seth Godin supports the concept of round table discussion.
Seth writes,
A month after the conference, do you think people will remember the table where they spent an hour? When you force people through mild social anxiety, they thank you for it later.
The value of facilitating this type of interaction is that people tend to remember it longer than stage-presented content. And that was my hope for The Worship Round Table.
We’ll see how things play out as I collate and distribute the whiteboard ideas.
Great night. Thanks everyone!
For more photos from the event see my flickr page.
Coming soon: A typed list of everything on the whiteboard.
Tonight’s the first night that we’re trying out this experiment of uniting the worshipers and the worship team in a conversation and brainstorming process. We’re looking to share stories, discover unifying themes, and brainstorm ways to encourage powerful worship within the walls of Chase Valley and throughout the lives of our people.
Below you can see my agenda for the evening:
The Worship Round Table 1
Igniting Powerful Worship Experiences
Agenda
5:30pm – Set Up Crew Arrives: 4 Tables close to the stage. (Expecting 20 -30 people attending with 5 – 8 people per table.) A display on each table shows the “Goals” for the evening. A large white board on stage. Only First few rows of chairs removed. (Leave other sections of chairs in tact.)
6:30pm – Dinner/Fellowship begins – Informal, “Coffee House” atmosphere. We are sharing a meal and sharing conversation together.
6:45pm Intro – Explain format, Set goals, Pass out feedback cards
Format: Tonight we’ll go on a 3-part conversational journey together as a group. Each table small group will choose a recorder and a reporter. (It can be the same person.) I’ll ask some questions and as each question is asked your table group will share, discuss, and come up with as many rapid-fire answers to the question as possible. Your recorder will write down all of the table groups answers. Then we’ll take it to the large group to report. The reporter for each table reads the list of answers. Billy will write them on the large white board for everyone to see.
Goals:
1. Share Stories of Worship
2. Discover Unifying Themes – (What people do in the “down time” while another table is sharing for the large group. Every single person has an active role all night.)
3. Brainstorm New Ideas for CVC (Let the stories “seed” your creativity.)Feedback Cards:
Each person gets a 3×5 card. Write your name and email (or phone number) on the card. Set it aside. We’ll use them later.
1. Share Stories of Worship
2. Discover Unifying Themes – (What people do in the “down time” while another table is sharing for the large group. Every single person has an active role all night.)
3. Brainstorm New Ideas for CVC (Let the stories “seed” your creativity.)Feedback Cards:
Each person gets a 3×5 card. Write your name and email (or phone number) on the card. Set it aside. We’ll use them later.
7pm – Dismiss Kids for children’s programming
7 – 7:20pm Part 1 – Share Stories
1. Table Group: Think about a time when you had a very powerful worship experience. Share When and Where this happened? (3 min.)
2. Table Group: Why was it a powerful experience? What made that experience so powerful? (10 min.) Answer with, “My worship experience was powerful because…”
3. Large Group: Report and list on white board what made experiences powerful. (7 min.)
7:25 – 7:35pm Part 2 – Unified Themes
Large Group: What are the unifying themes that are developing? What are some of the common threads in these stories? (Shout out answers and Billy will write them on the white board.) (10 min.)
7:35 – 7:55Â Part 3 – Brainstorm Ideas
4. What could we do as individuals and as a community to encourage powerful worship experiences?
Answer the question “Wouldn’t it be cool if we…” Write down as many ideas as your group can come up with. No idea is a bad idea. If you think it, share it. Even if it sounds dumb or silly. (If you hear an idea that’s dumb or silly, let it fly, encourage it, let it spark your creativity.) Share with the group. Imagine that money and resources are no object. (15 Min.)
Share ideas with large group (5 min)
7:55 – Wrap Up/Bonus Question
Next Step – I will email everyone who participated a copy of everything written on the white board. Begin praying “God, out of all these ideas, which is the best of best of the best? What are you calling us as a community and me as an individual to do differently?” During this prayer time over this list choose the 3 most compelling ideas for you. Email me and tell me how God is answering that prayer in your life. Talk to each other about how God answers this prayer. Let’s keep the conversation going.
We’ve spent all evening talking as a group, now let’s spend some solitude time in prayer one on one with God. Answer the question, “What do we need to talk about next month?” Write the answer on your 3×5 card to turn in.
My pastors asked me to sponsor a round table discussion on worship, and tomorrow night my team will be putting on an event creativity entitled The Worship Round Table.
We’ll be setting up several tables in our worship center as well as a large white board. We’ll have some food and fellowship then I’ll be asking two rounds of questions for discussion:
Round 1: When was a time when you experienced powerful worship? What made it so powerful?
Round 2: What can we do as individuals and as a community to encourage powerful worship?
Each round will feature some sharing/conversation within each table group. We’ll have a reporter write down what everyone says and then share it with the large group. I’ll write down the ideas on the white board.
I hoping to spark some discussion and fuel creativity. We invited the whole church body, so I’m also hoping to get some people to share thoughts on worship who aren’t part of the normal crew.
There’s tons of potetial for people to come up with stuff together that they would have never thought of on their own.
See you there.
Edit:
Chase Valley Church Worship Set List for next Sunday June 22, 2008:
Click the name of each song to see the lyrics. (Links open in a new window.)
- The Heart of Worship – Matt Redman
- O Praise Him – David Crowder
- We Humble Ourselves – Paul Baloche
- Once Again – Matt Redman
- Light the Fire Again – Brian Doerksen
David Crowder* Band rocked 1st Baptist in Huntsville last night. It was an awesome time of worship and hanging with my team. Oddly enough this was actually my first time seeing DC*B live. Going into the show, I didn’t fully know what to expect. What I saw both amused and inspired me.
These Hi-Fi Guys
David Crowder Band is known for being avant garde. Not only do they push the boundaries of how to compose a worship song but they also make use of a random smattering of instruments not normally known in the realms of rock. The list includes a keytar, turn tables, a Mac running Ableton Live, a theremin, violins, a modded guitar hero controller, and the mysterious blinking noise box. In fact, their drummer runs an online forum dedicated to the strange sounds produced by the technological wizardry of David Crowder Band. All of this musical geeky know-how leads one to ask,
What about the lights and media?
Surprisingly enough, this super teched out group went ultra sparse when it came to lights and media. A mere 16 PAR cans adorned the lighting racks; 8 up top to front light, and 8 on stage as blinders and back lighting. A single old-school pull down screen showed a super lo-fi version of lyrics, with no visuals at all, simply white words on utilitarian black. Noticeably absent were any type of smart lights or real-time manipulatable graphic displays.
After witnessing this barren state of tech a few thoughts come to mind:
- Maybe they scaled down for a small venue Huntsville show.
- Maybe the real gear broke down moments before I arrived.
- Maybe after paying for Ableton Live and a Noise Box they ran out of money.
- Maybe I shouldn’t expect hi fidelity lighting from a guy who blogs on xanga.
Although there are many options, I believe their choice of minimalistic visual tech was more intentional.
3 Benefits of Less Visual Tech
1. Less visual tech accentuates the musical prowess.
I’m sure if DC*B put out an ad for a visual effects designer they’d get responses from all the top guys in the field. But then you’d leave the show all excited about the cool lights and not so impressed by the keytar. The plain white words on a poorly run power point underscores the instrumental mastery on stage.
2. Less visual tech equals more power.
Simple doesn’t mean powerless. In fact in Crowder’s case simple made a deeper impression. I found myself thinking more about the words and being more impacted by the words because they were so simply displayed. Even a classy background graphic would have distracted from that, never mind a wild-ADD-inducing video.
Because the lights were used sparingly for effect, when they were used they created a dramatic impact. There was slight coordination between the lights and the music throughout the set, but during “You Are My Joy” the lighting really made the song. The first three repetition of the line “You are my joy” were sung with building music to low light and then on the fourth “joy!” the blinders kicked up to full as people screamed at the top of their lungs. My view of the band was hidden by the silhouette of raised hands. This less-is-more moment became one of my favorite all night.
3. Less visual tech means a more creative Crowder.
Going slim on the visual tech allows the guys in the the band to focus on what they are truly good at: musical creativity. If they spent time inventing ways to create a cool visuals they’d probably come up with amazing stuff, but they wouldn’t have as much time to tinker with audio loops and video game controllers.
The Local Church Implications
- Ditch the fancy graphics in favor of white on black text for a powerful focus on the words.
- Do a few things great instead of many things mediocre.
- Don’t let a lack of resources stunt the creativity. Much can be done with little and less can be more.
I checked out vewzi today. It’s a wacky, user-experience, multiple-views way to search the web. It looks like a great way to search for things like photos, videos and mp3s. Of course I viewzi’d myself. And this video from Eric came up. (Somehow I missed it among my Google alerts.)
Thanks for the shout out bro. This had me totally cracking up. I hope your ear’s feeling better.
Hey I’m a ball of mush when it come to the power of Jesus. What can I say?
(RSS readers click through see the video below)
HT: Bobby
Chase Valley Church Worship Set List for next Sunday June 15, 2008:
Click the name of each song to see the lyrics. (Links open in a new window.)
- How Great is Our God – Chris Tomlin
- I Am Free – Jon Egan
- No One Like You – David Crowder
- The Stand – Joel Houston
- Yours is the Kingdom – Joel Houston
In order to prep his upcoming session at National Worship Leader Conference, Fred McKinnon asked, “how does web 2.0 impact worship ministry?
As a web 2.0 user I’ve seen ministry benefits come from Facebook, Myspace, flickr, forums, youtube and most especially blogging. (“Blogging” includes writing posts, reading rss feeds, and especially commenting.) I also started twittering yesterday. In response to Fred’s post here are…
3 Ways web 2.0 has helped my ministry:
1. Networking with Other Ministry Professionals
In the old days of ministry (circa 2002) I can remember feeling extremely isolated as a church worker. I served as the youth director of a local church in San Antonio. To help combat the isolation I met monthly with other area youth directors. These once-a-month meetings fueled my ministry in every way imaginable. The prayer support, camaraderie, creative ideas, and ministry stories of both victory and defeat were what kept me going. In the absence of these relationships my effectiveness as a church worker would have greatly suffered. I simply could not have done it with out my friends. The only issue I had with the network was that it didn’t meet frequently enough.
Enter blogging and web 2.0.
As a blogger I get to meet daily with other worship pastors from around the world. I hear the wisdom that comes from being in the trenches. I empathize with struggles that are shared with maturity and honestly. I don’t have to reinvent the wheel when other’s share their victories. Undergirding all of this is the notion that even though we’ve never met, I share a very real friendship with many blogging brothers and sisters in Christ. Saying, “I’m better a Worship Pastor because I’m a blogger,” is a wild understatement.
2. Help with Prepping Worship
One of the elemental tasks to being a worship pastor involves selecting music for weekend services. Music selection was once an arduous process due to lack of quality tunes. Now the opposite is true. There are so many quality songs and resources available that it can be overwhelming to try to narrow down what works for your specific setting.
One segment of Web 2.0 has tremendously helped me in the song selection process has been subscribing to the RSS feeds of bloggers who post set lists and worship confessionals. Every week, with relatively very little effort or time investment on my part, I get exposed to the set lists from numerous different churches around the world. These churches represent diverse styles, denominations and sizes.
The benefits are many. Among them are the fact that without any other resource I am kept abreast of new worship music. I don’t have to try out every new song to see if it will work, but rather I have an army of local church worship leaders as my resource. I get to hear their feedback on how well that tune worked within their context and I am better armed to decided whether it will work in mine. The ability to do this simply did not exist prior to web 2.0.
Note to bloggers: Post the set list! Videos are cool, but they are also time consuming. Post the list so I can quickly scan it. If i trust your opinion as a blogger and see that you are doing songs I’m interested in then I’ll click through to watch your video.
3. Connecting Better with My Own Congregation
There are several people within my home church who read my blog and leave comments. I certainly make use of “old-fashioned networking” like phone calls and face to face conversation – but there is a limit to how much can be down. It’s impossible to call every person on my team on the phone every night – but there’s no limit to how many of them can read my blog. To have a face to face conversation you have to be in the same place at the same time, but blog commenting suffers no such constrains. People can comment at any time and in any place. It’s the asynchronous nature of the communication that makes blogging so powerful.
I’m still new at my job and haven’t heavily promoted my blog, but I’m excited about the deeper connections I can make with people right here in Huntsville, AL through blogging.
Note: The web can’t replace phone and face-to-face contact, it can only supplement it. In fact I have talked with many of my blogging buddies on the phone and even met some in real life to further the connection.
Summed Up
Web 2.0 apps, especially those related to blogging, have positively impacted my worship ministry by tying me into a network of church professionals, easing the process of planning worship services and broadening the relationships I already have with people at my local church.
Jeff Miller posted about how Web 2.0 social apps and networking have revolutionized his life.
I’ve been contemplating Twittering for a while now. Joining in has been long overdue. This post from John Voelz just put me over the edge and I had to sign up.
You can all follow me now on twitter @billychia
A few people deserve big props in helping my conversion to tweet:
Chris, Los, Alex, Anne, and Russ
Honerable mentions:
Pete, Jon, Jeff, Fred, Rich, Bobby, Mark, Eric, Victor, Steve, Conner, Russell, Joel, Lewis, Tam, Brent, Ben, Heidi, James, and Jay
Remeber, you don’t always get to close the deal. Every seed you plant matters.
Thanks, I know I’m gonna like this.
I am having trouble adding twitter to my gmail im, any tips?
I’ve really been digging Shaun Groves’ recent series on simplicity.
Check out the series so far:
- Simplifying Simplicity Part 1(Why live simply?)
- Simplifying Simplicity Part 2 (Doing it now)
- Simplifying Simplicity Part 3 (The next steps)
I can appreciate many of the issues Shaun brings up. At the Chia house we are continually having conversations on how to live more simply.
Here’s how some of the talk goes:
Why live simply?
A large motivator for us is the ethic of being a one-income family. We have the best kids not only because Sarah is such a tremendous mother but also becuase she has the time to invest in them. We’re not opposed to women working, many women do it well, but it’s not what God has called our family to. To make this work we have to sacrifice a lot, but for us the end result is very worth it.
How we’re doing it now?
Some of the simple things we do around here are similar to Shaun’s:
- No cable TV
- Adjusting the thermostat to live less comfortably.
- Cooking at home or packing food for a picnic instead of eating out
- Fixing, mending and buying used instead of buying new (or not buying at all.)
- Celebrating Jesus at Christmas instead of Santa
What’s next?
The conversation never stops at our house. Right now much of it has centered around the fact that quality food is expensive. We are trying to strike a balance between eating healthy and keeping the food budget down.
I have been a long-time Sprint cellphone customer. The voice quality on their network has always been noticeably better than the rest.
Recently I’ve had terrible customer relations problems with them. I decided to simply cancel my account. This led to more frustration as I dealt with a difficult cancellation department. I was at a point of such deep disappointment that I planned on canceling my phone and never choosing Sprint again.
Until today.
I talked to amazing customer service rep who came up with a creative solution to my problem. Even though I’ve talked to 15 reps that were all frustrating, this one rep got me on track. She has redeemed Sprint’s name in my mind.
Sometimes It only take one nice person to make a difference.
A lot of churches are like Sprint. They are full of broken people that do a terrible job at “customer relations.” After all, we’re all human and we all have bad days. Sometimes someone can interact with the church and get spiritually beat up by 15 negative people. For that person they may simply need one nice person to offer some spiritual encouragement and that would make all the difference in the world.
Today you have the oppertunity to be that one person in your world.
Will you take it?
Billy Chia 