The Worship We Knew...

Ok, so I haven't written much on here lately and for that I apologize. I actually had a request to write more from my one apparent fan, so thanks Sean. I ran across this blog post, which you need to read, and I too miss those things. Worship in the 80's and 90's, brought us for the first time actually having something to sing other than those old familiar hymns written by people named Fanny. :) The ginormous color coded wind screens, the over-head projectors or even better lyric slides from multiple trays, tons of church drama (good and bad) and for me it wouldn't be church if you didn't play at least one Ron Kenoly song. Give this a read, enjoy and then let me know what you miss.

I grew up on late 80s and 90s worship music. My father was a worship leader and later pastor at a Vineyard which was cutting edge worship music in those decades. I remember those years fondly and here's what I miss:

1. Wind instruments - There are a lot of flute and saxophone players out of work in ministry. I mean there has to be a line around the block for those guys collecting worship band unemployment checks. I really do miss those soft flute intros and funky white boy sax solos that just took the songs to a whole new power pop level. I think it was every worship pastor's holy dream to get Kenny G saved. Can you imagine how powerfully the spirit would have moved? Unfathomable.
2. Streamers and Banners - At its peak churches were removing rows of chairs just to make room for this tornado of twirling silk. They should have been surrounded in caution tape cause they were dangerous. Those wooden dowels were like holy swords waiting to impale you or gouge your eye out in accordance with scripture. I dunno about you guys, but you give me a banner team and a hard core sax solo and that's heaven on earth. I never could get a beat on the males who joined the banner wavers though...that always gave me cause for concern.
3. Transparencies - Who can forget the giant glowing box sometimes strategically placed smack in the middle of the stage for the backup singers to operate. I honestly miss the feel and even smell of those transparencies, shuffling through the accordion folder to find the songs and get them all lined up. Was there ever a professional way of handling these? I certainly am familiar with the bad way, the blank transparency with dry-erase handwritten words and the operator who seems to always make the slide appear upside down no matter how many times you try to explain mirrors to them.
4. Percussion - Rain sticks, triangles, cowbell, congas...what isn't appropriate for a worship song? Even the rocks will cry out, and Lord knows we tried to see what beating a rock with different sized sticks would sound like. The big churches share in culpability for this pandemic, but the smaller churches took it to a new level. I mean really, who isn't qualified to play percussion? As long as you have a heartbeat and 2 hands you can beat things with, you should be on stage right?
5. Constant 3 part Harmonies - Picture with me if you will, vocal arrangements as a mixing board with sliders for each singer. Usually you'd think of these sliders moving up and down as the song progresses through the arrangement, layering nicely in parts, muted in others. Well back in the day this picture was more of a giant switch. Vocals are either all on or all off. Hey those words on the transparency aren't for looking at, if you got a mic and there are words up, sang those things sister! Oh and you know your part, it's the same harmony you do on every song, it's easier that way and we also took the liberty of color coding the windscreens so you know which mic is yours.

Copyright 2008 Kyle Campos @ Our Rising Sound

Obama Boy

Seeing Obama try to explain the lipstick gaff the other day reminded me of a scene from Tommy Boy. So I hope you enjoy Obama Boy.

MSNBC has "LEFT" The Building.

Ok, so the past two nights I thought I would watch "the other side" of the news to see how they handled their coverage of the Republican convention, as well as their pre and post commentary. A few observations:

Observation Number 1
When did Keith Olbermann become the freakin' grammar and quote cop of the tv media. Last night he corrected J. Lieberman, not face to face of course, but later of his misuse of a George Washington quote, as well as "in the act of fairness" made sure that Barack Obama's words were used in the right context. Tonight he's correcting the delagates on the use of the word "pundit" and not "pundint." Thanks Keith for the continued education.

Observation Number 2
As a fellow videographer, the shot you set up and capture means everything. If a picture shows a thousand words, then how many words make up 29.97 frames per second. From previous work that I've done, a great way to show that your words are staged or not really from the heart is to actually show the teleprompter as a speaker is talking. This reminds the audience that they are just acting, and not really speaking from the heart. Twice tonight during Sarah Palin's speech MSNBC showed a back shot fully showing her reading a teleprompter. I suppose to remind the audience that she was "reading" her speech, one that was written for her. Now I didn't watch the DNC convention on MSNBC, but I would almost bet some serious bucks that they didn't use the teleprompter shot with Barack Obama. Tell me if I'm wrong though.

Observation Number 3
Andrea Mitchell just cracks me up. Last night she was just stunned that J. Lieberman spoke out against Obama. Stunned! She knew he was obviously going to support McCain, he was speaking at the RNC convention, but it was like she was just shocked that anyone would dare to actually speak against Barack Obama. Then tonight she just looked pissed when interviewing Rudy G., who knocked it out of the park with his keynote speech, and asked him if he "had any pause going after him [Obama] this hard and belittleing him the way you did?" Rudy's response, "No." Love it!

Ok, so there goes my first "political" blog entry.

Tim

Getting Old!

Ok, so I am now officially old. Last night I had my first rehearsal with the band at Valley Church. I may not have been the oldest guy there, but I'm getting close. Most of the rhythm players are probably in their early twenties. Anyway at one point while rehearsing "Only A God Like You" by Tommy Walker, during the instrumental break after the second chorus, I asked the keyboard player if he could give me some Bruce Hornsby action over the top. He just looked at me with a blank look and said "I have no idea what you're saying to me?" I then had to explain who Bruce Hornsby is, so finally I'm like, "you know...(singing) 'That's just the way it is. Some things will never change." When the electric guitar player, another twenty something, says..."Oh! You mean Tupac! I didn't know Bruce Hornsby did it too?"

If you're curious I had to dig it up and found it here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBAZfgMK5TQ)

Yeesh!

The old man.

A Vote For Me Is A Vote For...

Chapter ??

Trying to figure out God and his ways is a lot like trying to master the game of golf. Right when you think you have that slice in your drive figured out, your short game goes down the tubes. Then you work and work to correct your short game only to see that you can't putt to save your life. And around and around it goes. I have spend a good portion of this year trying to figure out, for my family and I, just what God is up to. And it's from this search that I can honestly say, "I HAVE NO IDEA!" I do know this. Earlier this I year I was asking God to restore within me that sense of adventure back into my daily walk with him...well you get what you ask for.

In October of last year I left the church I had poured myself into for almost 7 years without really knowing what was ahead of me. The afternoon I left, is when I received the first phone call from Westview Church, where I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of. I left Point Of Grace, completely burnt out, hurt and thinking maybe, that after almost 20 years of working in ministry, that I was done. But in just a short time, 8 months working part-time at Westview, I've rediscovered that I still love seeing lives changed and watching people utilize their gifts when giving back to God. This summer has been a much needed time of rest and renewal. So now the adventure continues, back to full-time ministry.

Really kind of out of nowhere, I was presented with an opportunity to join the staff at Valley Church located in West Des Moines, and after talking back and forth for a week or so, I accepted the position of Director Of Programming at www.valley-church.com. Now I've only been on staff for 4 days now, but I have to say I'm really enjoying it and looking forward to what God had in store.

I will miss seeing the new friends we made at Westview on a weekly basis, but as always hope that we can continue to remain friends. You can never have enough friends.

So to Westview we say thank you and you have been a blessing from God to my family and I, and to Valley Church we are extremely excited to dig in and get involved.

Tim

Change

Change. Some hate it, some love it, others thrive on it. No matter how much we try to avoid it, it's inevitable, we can't escape it. Change is part of our human existence.

But to quote my good friend Tom Clegg, "the only ones who like change are wet babies!" So how do we deal with it?

A few weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to speak at Lutheran Church of Hope on the topic of Creativity. To summarize what I spoke on was this:

God calls us to be creative. Creativity equals change.
Change brings fear. Fear requires trust.
Trust requires faith. Faith requires God.

For the past three weeks we've had the opportunity to have Dr. Tom Clegg speak at Westview for our current series, titled after his seventh book, "Missing In America." This past Sunday he used a quote in his message that reminded me of what I've been thinking on over the past few weeks. The quote he used was this:

"Healthy things grow. Growing things change. Change challenges us. Challenges cause us to trust God. Trust leads to obedience. Obedience makes us healthy. And healthy things grow."

So repeat after me... change is good. Change is good. Change is...