Willow Arts Conference Pt. 4

It’s hard to believe it’s over already. The 2 1/2 days went by pretty quickly. On Thursday night a film festival of sorts was held. Churches who were attending the conference had sent in videos they produced. We must have screened 3 dozen of them, in all kinds of categories. Some were riotously funny (Reconcilosec, a pill that helps you survive family gatherings at holidays), others were more serious and moving. All in all, there was a lot of talent represented and it was great to steal some ideas I mean be inspired.

Friday morning was quite powerful. Two worship leaders shared their story of ministering in the contradiction—that is, how do you lead people into praise and worship while your own life is falling apart. They told their story of their twin daughters, both born very premature, and one with serious complications. It was (and still is in some ways) a very trying time in their lives, and both really struggled with issues of faith and trusting God. Ultimately, they have found some measure of peace and proceeded to lead us into a very powerful time of worship (I admit to having a hard time singing because I was so broken up after their story).

Next up was Donald Miller. If you’ve read his work, you know how much a treat that was. He talked about how the Enlightenment separated truth from meaning, and we now divide everything into left- and right-brained tasks. The problem is life doesn’t work that way, especially relationships. One of the reasons we are not really effective at leading others to the Cross is because we don’t put the Gospel in the context of a relationship. If the Gospel is turned into a bunch of legislation, beliefs and ideas, we take Jesus out of the picture and it’s no longer a story of a God who loved people.

I’m highly simplifying what he talked about here, but it was a profound concept. He went on to show how Shakespeare, an artist, used Romeo and Juliet to illustrate the Gospel. If I’m not mistaken, he goes through that in Blue Like Jazz (or Searching for God Knows What, don’t recall). You really should read it. The bottom line is this: The arts have incredible potential for communicating the Gospel of Christ to an increasingly skeptical world. It’s at once exciting and a challenge.

The week wrapped up with Erwin McManus and his team from Mosaic Church, Scribble. Talk about using the arts to declare truth! Scribble is a dance and drama troupe that put on a fantastic series of vignettes that Erwin wove his story between. Here are a few notes that I took:

There are no ordinary children, but there are ordinary adults. Sometime between when we’re born and when we die, we loose that sense of extraordinary. Is it possible that God sees more in us than we do.

In the end, the conference exceeded my expectations in so many ways. Having been to so many conferences that were often disappointing, I was a bit skeptical. I was wrong. And it wasn’t just the level of technical execution that was impressive, though it was. What really moved me was once again being reminded of the power of the arts to change people’s lives.

I was also impressed by the heart of everyone who spoke. They were not there to put on a show, or dazzle us with their witty banter, or wow us with their talent. From what I could tell, everyone had a genuine heart that truly believed the arts can make a difference, that people are important, and that this really does matter to God.

At the beginning of the week, Dewitt Jones talked about the need for us to fill our cup. Yesterday, my cup was so full it was overflowing and I could barely sing the last few songs because of the emotions I felt. The week was so worthwhile (though I could have done without the 2 hours sitting in Chicago traffic trying leave—what’s up with that?).

Thanks for reading these unconventional posts. Next week we’ll be back to what we normally do, sharpen our skills and learning how to better serve our King. God Bless…

By the way, if you’re interested in the live, on-line experience Willow put together for the conference, check out this site. You’ll find blog posts, many written live, and some video of the events.

Willow Arts Conference Pt. 3

Day Two has been a blur—in a good way. It was all breakout sessions today, and I decided to take a variety of topics. While all of the sessions had value, perhaps the one class that will impact what I do back at my home church the most was the session on “Running an Effective Technical Rehearsal.” Led by Todd Elliot and Chuck Spong, both of Willow Creek, they provided insight and a lot of great ideas

Perhaps the thing that I found most profound, was this concept: A lot of people (myself included) tend to designate the “programming” people (those who design the service, create the videos, act, sing and play) the “creative” ones. Those who execute the service, “production,” are often thought of as supporting the “artists.”

However, the technical team, “production,” are “artists” in their own right. It just so happens that their instrument may be a lighting board, or a sound board, or a computer. Moreover, when those two teams of artists come together, they have the opportunity to create something new, amazing and something that neither could create on their own.

I’ve written at length about how the tech team is part of the worship team, so I’ve not been completely oblivious to this concept. And certainly I view myself as an integral part of the worship experience every time I step behind the sound board. But it was really pausing to consider myself and the rest of the tech team as artists, co-equal with the artists on stage that was revolutionary.
As a complete team of artists, working in harmony (OK, that’s another post), we have the opportunity, the privilege of creating engaging, immersive experiences for those in our care. The challenge, of course, is to help both teams to view themselves and each other in this light, then work together to compliment each other to create new art. As I said, that’s another post.

Todd & Chuck had a lot more to share, more of which will show up on this page eventually. Other highlights of the day included a Line Array workshop taught by EV’s Monte Wilkes. This class (unfortunately for me at the end of the day) was very technical and full of great information that I’ll be able to use even though we don’t have a line array, nor am I likely to be out on tour with one any time soon.

I also got a chance to play with the Yamaha M7CL, which I have spec’d as a replacement board for our aging Soundcraft Series Two. I’ve done a ton of research on the board, but never got my hands on one. I was very happy to see that I walked up to it and within seconds figured out the layout, was playing with EQ, dynamics, and even a little routing. It’s very intuitive and reinforced my choice. Now, to find the dollars…

Another cool resource I learned about was Meyer Sound’s MAPP Online software. It’s a free, Java applet that allows you to import drawings of your room and model the room with any of their speakers. I saw a brief demo of the software, and it looked pretty impressive. Did I mention it was free? Granted, they set it up to use their speakers, but presumably you could get an idea of how other speakers would map out by looking at the specs and finding an equivalent. It may not be perfect, but you’d have an idea. I’m looking forward to playing with this when I get home. Internet access is somewhat sporadic, so I’ll post a link to that at a later date, or just visit Meyer’s web site.

Today is Day Three, and I’m excited to hear from Donald Miller again. If you haven’t read Blue Like Jazz you should. His other books are excellent also. Thanks for reading, more to come!

Willow Arts Conference Pt. 2

Session 3 of Day 1 featured Dan Kimball, author of They Like Jesus, But They Don’t Like The Church. Dan talked about a great number of things he found when he got outside of what he terms, “The Christian Subculture Bubble.” That was followed by a panel discussion of what the church really needs to do to reach the emerging generation. It was a fascinating discussion, and something that I think people in the technical arts really have a lot to contribute to.

Because the current generation is so media-savvy, they have come to expect a certain level of production excellence. On the other hand, Dan asked the question, “Are we creating an “American Idol’ worship experience?” As always, too much of a good thing is bad for you. If we go overboard with technology and make it the end in itself, the emerging generation (and probably even those in the pews today) will leave because it’s not authentic, nor does it meet any real needs—other than the desire to be entertained.

Which leads to my favorite part of the day, the evening service. While not technically part of the Arts conference, we were all invited back to the regular Wednesday night service. Regular is probably not a good descriptor; worship was lead by The David Crowder Band, and Donald Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz among others) spoke. It was a great service.

The gist of Don’s message was that we all live in stories. We love stories. In fact, the Bible is made up of stories that are so well written and so engaging they are on a whole other plane than what we write. What struck me is that we as the Church need to get better at telling engaging stories. Too often the message is “Turn or Burn,” which when viewed from the outside (strike that, from any angle, really) is not that attractive or engaging. Jesus gave us the words of life, and He gave them to us in stories. We have at our disposal the ability to use film (OK, video), drama and other immersive experiences to convey those stories to the next generation. How well are we doing?

More to come…

Willow Arts Conference Pt. 1

It’s the first day of the Willow Arts Conference. It’s also my first trip to “Mecca” (aka Willow Creek Community Church) (that’s tongue in cheek) . It is a big church. They have lots of toys. A lot. But I didn’t come here to be impressed with the toys. I’ve seen and worked with a lot of this stuff already in other venues. Sure it’s cool to have all the latest technology, moving lights, hazers, a great sound system. But unless you can create an engaging and immersive worship experience, what does it matter? I think that’s what we’re learning here.

The first speaker, Dewitt Jones, spoke of finding creativity. He suggested an exercise that all of us in the technical arts should do regularly. Take a blank sheet of paper and write down 5 things that “fill your cup.” In other words, what do you enjoy doing, what brings you joy? Then put a date next the last time you did any of them. Has it been a while? How can we as technically creative people be creative and give of what we do when our cup is empty? What do we have to give when we are empty?

Here are some more of my notes from the second session, presented by Nancy Beach:

We can become so consumed with the work of building and sustaining our “church,” that we leave no margin for with engaging with the culture. All of our time and energy is spent getting ready for Sunday morning.

Who am I intentionally building a friendship with that is not part of the family of faith and has no part of the church?

Other miscellaneous observations: I really like the moving lights and the hazer they use extensively during music scenes. I didn’t care for the tuning of the speaker system (at least where I sat). Seemed pretty hot in the 1-2K range. Nearly painful at times. They run the sound quite a bit louder here than we do. I like it. The musicians didn’t feel the need to play all the time during a song. That was good.
So far we’re only a half day into the conference, so stay tuned for more posts as I can access the “inter-web.”