I got us a NEW Sound Board for the Chapel at newcov today. We used it tonight for the first time at the mid-week service. What a difference a good sound board can make for the mix. It was like night and day for us. So much more of a cleaner sound. Even with our "portable" amps and speakers on sticks if sounded better. We have been using a Mackie 16 channel portable board. I really like these Allen & Heath boards. We have the ML5000 with a side car in the main sanctuary. So I went with the GL2400 for in the Chapel. It's pretty solid. I like it, I like it a lot!

Here's some Pictures from the Amazing Easter at New Covenant.

This is how we've been doing ours announcements in our Sunday morning services lately. I love how she has everyones attention. This has been a very effective way to communication information to the congregation about key events or just plan info we want them to know about. It also is a great way to throw to a bumper video before the message. No intro needed. Just roll it! And the Pastor walks up right on cue every time.

Announcement Person & Message Bumper Video


Bumper video made by the weaveman.

The last song of the RESCUE series.

(One camera video at Front of House)
Cross Of Love - LIVE at NewCov

Just finished a three week sermon series at NewCov called "RESCUE" this Sunday. All the messages were out of the book of Luke, chapter 15, the three Lost Parables.

The whole 12 hour day in a 3min (long version) video. There's also a 1min (short version) we'll show on Sunday morning this week. The song is "A friend like that," by Hawk Nelson.

Fast Forward (long version) Hawk Nelson Concert


Fast Forward (short version) Hawk Nelson Concert

Hawk Nelson & Run Kid Run - Green T Tour - March 11th LIVE at NEWCOV

WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

What a fun day today was! It was long, but it was good! The production crew for this tour was right on. They came in prepared and ready to go. I really didn't have to say much or do much for them. They knew what they wanted and they got it done. They really spent some time in the prep work to make sure the Load-in and Load-out went easy and smoothly.

The lighting was really good. He used the fixtures effectively and it was cool. They even had CO2 blasts! I loved the use of the three projection screens. They added a lot of movement and excitement to the stage. I also loved that they use catalyst for video playback. The Catalyst system allows you to control video on your lighting board. The sound was mixed great too. The sound DB's were the loudest NewCov has ever heard. The meter read over 110db for the majority of the night with peaks into 120db. YEAH! I thought the acoustic panels were gonna fall out from the ceiling! Rock on!

Hawk Nelson and Run Kid Run - LIVE at NEWCOV.

Just chillin' at FOH (Front of House) with the guys and waiting for the Concert to start at NewCov. They're in a "Meet-n-Green" right now for special guests. We started Load-in at 1000am this morning and it went up quickly. Doesn't Look or seem like a lot to this rig, but they do have their fair share of cool things and gear. The production team did a great job of prep for this tour. The whole thing went up smoothly. More on the concert and tech later on tonight!

For those of you who don't get a "backstage access pass" to newcov production. Here's a few shots of the back stage/tech room/green room at New Covenant. I spent some time cleaning it up this afternoon. It's starting to look nice back here, but I still have plenty of work to do. My Fix It bucket is overflowing!

Kicked off a new sermon series at NewCov called "RESCUE" this Sunday. This Sermon Series is out of the book of Luke, chapter 15, the three Lost Parables. We are really encouraging the congregation of New Covenant to invite their lost friends to church, especially for this Easter Sundays Services.




For this series, we asked them for pictures of their lost family and friends so we could have them up on the center screen during the service. This was pretty powerful to have the photos cycling though on the screen during the whole service. It was a constant reminder to pray for the unsaved. There are also two prayer walls at house left and right (placed on the floor) so they could at any point in the service walk up and write down a prayer to the Lord.

We closed this service with a song by Jared Anderson, called Rescue. The NewCov worship team did a great job with it. I should have been listing to the music the whole week while I was building the set. I didn't know any of the songs prior to rehearsal. Not knowing the songs very well really hurt me on the lighting changes. However, it still was a amazing Sunday! Check out this video from camera 2 in the house.

NewCov Worship Team - RESCUE - LIVE at NewCov


I'm Looking forward to the next two weeks of this series and then Easter is next! Check out the whole order of service HERE at the newcov set list blog. And more on the Set Design in a later post at the newcov production blog or at Randy's blog HERE or at Pat's blog HERE.

Wrapped up the four week series in Matthew at newcov...

YOUR LIFE - keys to living large.




FAST FORWARD - Stage Design

We closed this Sundays service with a worship song that wrapped the whole sermon series up in cute little red bow. "And Now My Lifesong Sings" by Casting Crowns with Pat at the piano, Dee on violin, and Reggie dancing to it. It was really cool. Check it out!

And Now My Life Song Sings - Dancing - LIVE at NewCov


NEXT TIME: I should have stuck with my instinct to go with the all blue wash on the upstage instead of the magenta. The color was good for the cameras I guess. But I think blue would have been a lot better at setting the mood for the dance. Not only would it have been darker on stage, but blue is the color I see for this song. Oh well. It still was pretty cool. I guess having another person in the booth to run the mixer or to run lites could have helped too. Maybe next time I will just set-up the mixer next to the lighting board!

Being "The Sound Guy" for weddings can be fun and easy or it can be extreme ridiculous. This Wedding, on Saturday, had it's fair share of non-communication issues, like not having a order of service, but it was by far one of the easiest ones I have ever done. There was only one Acoustic guitar, two female vocalist, and some walk-in music on a CD. The funny thing was they only wanted tracks 1,2,5,8,9, & 10. We used the CD players program button, so we wouldn't have to stare at the timer all day long. This feature sure does work nicely. We didn't have to fade down the music... and then skip tracks... and then fade up the music.



Burke Rea, one of the NewCov Production guys, came along to help out and learn the ropes so he could jump into the mix to be one of the "The Sound Guys" for weddings at NewCov. It's too bad this was an easy Wedding for him to see. It sure would have been nice for him to see us having three or four CD's to change out. Remembering to only play the first 32 seconds on track 4. Then place the next CD in QUICKLY and then play track 7 for 1 min and 17 secs and start the fade as Pastor Speaks. And then play video slide show on powerpoint computer or DVD player. Don't forget to mute the mics at communion.... and....and....don't forget too!!! If you have done sound enough times for weddings, then you know this is true and it does happen!



It was great having Burke come and hang out today. He was a lot of help. Even though learning sound from me can't be all that good. I really enjoy having him on the team and I look forward to seeing him continue to grow in his Faith with the Lord, and in the tech ministry here at NewCov. He's a hard worker, wants to learn more every Sunday, bright, an excellent leader, and fun to be around. He beings a lot to this team. Thanks Burke. You The Man.

Experiential

Participatory

Image-driven

Connecting











EPIC is a concept from Len Sweet in his book, Postmodern Pilgrims. Sweet believes churches can be effective at reaching and discipling a postmodern culture by becoming E.P.I.C. churches. I [Pat] would add that it's not just for post-moderns. I think the EPIC concept just plan works.

Why?

Experiential: People truly want an experience. Why do you think Disney is so popular? At NewCov, we try to give them an experience - corporate AND personal - of God.

Participatory: Christianity is neither an individual nor a spectator sport. Our faith is experienced best as we engage, individually AND corporately. People want to be a part of the process, not detached from it. Again, check out Disney... and almost every ride, you have your experience together and you are a part of the experience.

Image-driven: We live in an image-driven culture. Images give hooks to thoughts, ideas, and meaning. Image becomes metaphor.

Connected: The pursuit of individualism has led us to this place of hunger for connectedness to communities. This is one of the core beliefs of biblical Christianity. We are in this thing together.

So basically, when we do our EPIC services, we are trying to give people an opportunity to experience God, through sight and sound (hopefully in the future, through smell). It is an experience that can be chosen and the depth of meaning is totally dependent on the individual. The experience is corporate and sends the message, either subtly or loud and clear, that the church does life best - all aspects of it - when it does it together. Togetherness with God and each other gives deep meaning to these events and, as a result, these services are very powerful.

This Sunday we hit the ground running with a awesome opener. I spent a little extra time programming the lights for the opening song, My Savior Lives. I think it was worth the extra time and effort for this song. I also let the sound dudes know to crank it up. It really rocked the house. It's too bad our cameras couldn't keep up and pick up the lighting better. I think it might be time to invest in some better production cameras. Especially if we continue to film services to highlight key moments of the service for the production blog.

This was the opening worship song.
NewCov Worship Team - My Savior Lives


This was the offering song. (One camera in the booth.)
NewCov Worship Team - More To This Life


This was a part of the service when we asked people to write down something on a piece of paper that can be a prayer, act of repentance, or something that will be a commitment made for the Lord. They then were asked to come and nail it to the cross or lay it down at the foot of the cross. The worship team played two great songs during this EPIC moment that really made this time a God moment. The Lord definitely showed up.
We Fall Down & All Who are Thirsty - Cross Moment

Spirit West Coast Road Show - LIVE at New Covenant




Marshall Pulliam, a newcov worship leader, opened for the Christian Music Artist, Paul Wright and for the Christian Comedian Bob Smiley. This was a great event for newcov. The music was good and the jokes were funny. It sure was nice not having a HUGE load-in for this gig. They did have a technical rider, that was a piece of cake, and they just showed up with their guitars and materials ready to rock. The sound, lighting and video was all covered by the newcov production team.

Marshall Pulliam - Freedom..burden and blessing.


Paul Wright - Take This Life


Paul Wright - The Fresno Song

Just got done with round one of the Paul Wright Concert with Comedian Bob Smiley in the Student Ministry Center. The first event was a luncheon for the valleys Youth Pastors put on by Spirit West Coast. We're all looking forward to tonights bigger and better, real deal, event in the new sanctuary. Should be pretty cool.



(I didn't have my camera...So I used my camera phone.)

Well...This Sunday don't go completely all the way I would have wanted it to. However, it still was an awesome Service. All of the things I thought didn't go well wasn't noticed by the audience one bit, just one thing that could not have been avoided happened. It was that during second service when our worship leader's acoustic guitar broke right in the middle of the service. It took him about 2 minutes to get his electric guitar going since it was not hooked up with wireless, and it was all the way upstage. (He played "in the band" for the first number.)

In my opinion this threw everything off, the worship team vocals, timing of the songs, and most importantly the complete sound mix just wasn't right anymore. The first service mix was great...I listened to the CD recorded audio, but I couldn't use it for the recording of this video. I didn't even record first service at all. My bad. All in all, this Sunday still rocked!

We tried something a little bit different for us. We used sign language as an art of worship during a song in the service. The whole experience was very powerful to witness. All the elements, the worship team singing, the sign language to the song, and the prayer time taking place at the down stage edge, really made this a "moment" for God in the service. God definitely showed up. Thanks Natalie for spending the time to learn the moves and motions. It was great! You add a lot to this team.

Second service at NEWCOV' video feature. "all who are thirsty" - sign language



Video Side Note: I really should have had a another down stage camera on another angle. Only having two cameras really made it pretty difficult. The third camera was just sitting on the booth for a cut away. I had to use it a little and was on it way to much I think. Again, I still think we are moving in the right direction for videoing the services for the web and for archives.

"What beautiful music we can make, when we live life God's way and not our own way."




We tried something a little different for us in this week service. A three camera shoot, just for the offertory! We really don't have the right "LIVE" video equipment or personnel at this time to have a really good rock-n-roll video ministry for our services. But I think this turned out pretty good. It's diffidently a step in the right direction.

Wrapped up the four week series in Genesis today at newcov...

CREATION - Beyond the Debate.