Greg Atkinson

Yesterday was great. Brenton Brown (and his amazing band) led worship - they rocked and really were sensitive to the Spirit. Our worship pastor preached and blew me away. We had a high school senior video direct for the first time and he did wonderful (keying and all). There’s no turning back now - we’ve started keying and we’re not going back. It was just a great day all in all. I love my church and am proud to be a part of it.

REMINDER (I’m looking to hire a full-time Audio Coordinator/FOH Engineer - PLEASE let me know if you know of someone that would be good for this position. Below is the job description:

Overview

Bent Tree Bible Fellowship, a 5,000-member, non-denominational church located in Carrollton, TX (a suburb of Dallas), is accepting applications for the Audio Coordinator position. Bent Tree Bible Fellowship currently holds three Sunday services (2 in the AM and 1 in the PM) in their current worship center. A new 3,200-seat worship center is being built and should be ready in late Fall of this year, at which time the church will go to 2 Sunday morning services. Bent Tree is seeking a full-time Audio Coordinator who will be responsible for overseeing audio systems for all worship services and special events that occur on the church campus. In addition to mixing front-of-house on Sunday & for special services, this position would include implementation of production team’s weekend sound goals, oversight of regular maintenance of existing equipment, sound support for itinerant ministry events outside of weekend service, team building and interaction, potential studio recording opportunities, and much more. You’ll be working directly with the Technical Arts Director on a week-to-week basis in addition to our large volunteer team and Worship and Arts staff.

Job Summary

The Audio Coordinator will lead volunteer audio teams and team leaders and so will need to be comfortable leading and managing people. The Audio Coordinator will eventually oversee audio editing and sound design using Pro Tools and other editing equipment once the church’s recording studio is complete. Lastly, this individual will oversee the operation, distribution, and maintenance of all audio equipment and systems throughout the campus.

Duties

* Oversee audio needs for all weekend services.
* Oversee all sound equipment on the church campus.
* Oversee systematic recruiting and training of audio team workers.
* Work with the Technical Arts Director concerning the acquisition of new equipment and software.
* Oversee the maintenance and repair of audio equipment and software.
* Ability to set up and operate advanced sound system (96 channel Digidesign Venue) and has at least 1 year experience with digital consoles and comfortable mixing at least 40 channels of audio.
* Oversee a budget for area of responsibility.
* Provide stability, leadership and mentorship for Audio ministry.
* Develop and implement training for secondary and volunteer audio staff.
* Oversee digital audio recording and editing of conferences, seminars, sermons, concerts, and other activities as requested by Worship & Arts staff.
* Oversee audio recording for website and podcasts.
* Oversee audio needs for small classroom settings and other smaller church functions.
* Oversee training of non-audio lay persons in the use of audio/visual classroom equipment.
* Maintain inventory of audio equipment.
* Maintain current knowledge of new technology and availability of latest audio equipment and supplies on the market.
* Fulfill other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

* Has a strong relationship with Jesus Christ.
* Must be an equipper and lead as such. The Audio Coordinator will have to multiply himself.
* AS/BS in Audio Engineering or related field is preferred.
* At least three years previous experience in related field.
* Organizes simultaneous multiple tasks.
* Operates with thoroughness and attention to detail.
* Works cooperatively with maintenance team, custodial staff, pastoral members, volunteers and general public.
* Act as a troubleshooter and makes mid-course corrections as needed.
* Has a strong knowledge of signal flow & RF wireless mic programming.
* Has experience with a digital console. The new worship center will have a Digidesign Venue as its sound console (prefer someone with experience on the Venue).
* Ability to troubleshoot and do basic repair on electronic equipment.

Additional Skills that are beneficial to this position

* Administrative skills
* Teachable and able to teach
* Leadership/supervisory skills
* Passion for excellent sound
* Participation in weekly planning and production meetings
* Ministry experience (volunteer recruitment/training)
* Keep a neat stage/platform
* Self-motivated to manage work-load
* Humble, servant attitude
* Love the Lord, show up on time, work hard, lead by example, pray often, rest hard, do it again!

Salary

This is a full-time position with benefits (40 hours/week on the average.) Be aware that there are peak ministry times 4 times a year where you’ll probably work over 40 hours (Good Friday/Easter, Christmas, Summer Fine Arts Day Camp and Fall Missions Festival). Feel free to check out http://www.btbf.org for more info about our church. Resumes and demo reels or CDs can be sent to Greg Atkinson at the church.

Email resumes to: gatkinson@btbf.org

Contact Information

Bent Tree Bible Fellowship
Attn: Greg Atkinson
4141 International Pkwy
Carrollton, TX 75007

Phone: 972-306-4477
Fax: 972-306-0894
Web Site: www.btbf.org

This Sunday we have Brenton Brown and his band as guest worship leaders. Brenton has written such songs as “Hallelujah (Your Love is Amazing)”, “Lord, Reign in Me”, “Hosanna” and one of my favorites: “Everlasting God”.

PLEASE NOTE:

I’m looking to hire a full-time Audio Director at my church. I started 5 months ago as the Technical Arts Director (I oversee the entire sound, video and lights ministry). This is my first hire and thus the first addition to the Technical Arts staff, which will eventually include other key staff, such as a Lighting Director and a Video Director. This first hire is crucial as we prepare to move into our new worship center and switch from an analog to a digital console (The Digidesign Venue). Tomorrow I’ll post the job description on here. If you or someone you know is interested in this position, please email me at gatkinson@btbf.org.
EXTRA:

One of my favorite bands, Mute Math, rocked David Letterman last night! Who saw them represent?

I’m in the process of coming up with a Video Request sheet for other church staff members to fill out when they have a need for us to create a video for their ministry. This sheet would have information like date project needs to be completed by, budget considerations, who it’s for, what they are trying to accomplish/communicate, storyboard, people to be involved and/or on camera, etc. I’m curious as to if any of you already have a document like this created. If so, I’d love to see it. Email it to me at gatkinson@btbf.org.

BONUS:

You (or at least your worship leader) is probably familiar with Worship Leader Magazine and their Song Discovery program, but have you heard of the new Song Discovery Community? If you’re a Song Discovery subscriber you can sign up now, if not, you can sign up in the near future. Our worship pastor, Scott Dyer, is the featured songwriter right now. His song, “Still Amazed”, is a great song that Song Discovery is featuring. I encourage you to check it out - it’s a great new arrangement of “Amazing Grace”.

Yesterday was a great day at our church. Our pastor was speaking on AIDS. We did a video interview with Kay Warren (Rick Warren’s wife), when she was in Dallas. The Warrens are very passionate about AIDS awareness and ministry. What she had to say was insightful, inspiring and a great part of our worship services. We also showed a video entitled “The Straton Story”, about a pastor in Rwanda. I’ll be showing it at all my future conferences - it’s one of the most moving videos I’ve seen.

Speaking of the Warrens - I’m heading to California today to speak at Saddleback’s Worship Conference. I’ll be teaching 3 workshops. If you’re going to be at the conference, give me a shout. I’d love to meet you.

EXTRA:

I came across this guy’s music on Myspace. I’ve been listening to it lately and dig it. Check it out HERE and see what you think.

Our whole Worship and Arts staff is reading “The Worshiping Artist” by Rory Noland (author of “The Heart of the Artist”). So far it’s a great read. I encourage you to check it out and consider going through it with your staff and volunteers. This book isn’t just for musicians - it’s for tech, drama and visual art teams as well. What books are you reading with your team?

After being sidelined for a while with a fractured foot and aching back, I was thrilled to join the ranks of the healthy last night as I played in a softball game. I haven’t played softball in over a year, so I’m sure I’ll feel it today. I appreciate all the prayers for my back and overall healing.

My family is out of town this week, so I’m living the bachelor life. After the softball game, I made it in time to catch a 9:30pm movie (it was $.50 Tuesday at the dollar theater). I saw “Next” with Nicholas Cage. I like Nicholas Cage and I enjoyed the movie, except for the ending. I thought it was a horrible ending. Has anyone else seen this movie? If so, what did you think of the ending?

EXTRA:

I forgot to mention Father’s Day resources from Angelhouse Media yesterday. I encourage you to check out their media resources HERE. They have “I Love You Dad” - which is similar to what they did for moms. They also have a countdown and loops. Check them out!

BONUS:

As you know, I love the band: MuteMath. They just recorded the theme song for the new “Transformers” movie. You can check it out HERE.

This just in from Jake Ludington:

Wavosaur is a lightweight audio editing application with VST support. All the basics are covered here, including support for multitrack audio files, trimming, adding effects, making loops, and normalization. Most processing settings are also available for batch conversions, making Wavosaur a handy tool for applying the same settings to a bunch of files. I like are the option to remove silence in a batch, which is a convenient way to speed up spoken word audio without altering pitch. A vocal removal preset also scrubs music files of vocals, so you can make your own karaoke tracks in a batch. The vocal removal doesn’t always get chorus sections perfectly scrubbed, but it shouldn’t hurt your ability to sing over the top of the file. The application runs as a completely standalone executable, meaning you could put it on a thumb drive and use Wavosaur anywhere. The user interface is generally more intuitive than the popular freeware app Audacity, but the two make nice companions rather than being replacements for each other. While Wavosaur doesn’t bundle all the features of things like Sound Forge and Audition, it does most of the common audio tasks well at a price neither of those two apps can touch. [Windows 2k/XP/Vista $0.00]

BONUS:

Jake also thinks Mixcraft is the Windows equivalent to GarageBand. He has searched at length to be able to say that. If you use a PC, I think it’s worth checking out.

The wonderful folks at Passion, including Louie Giglio, have released a special EP to encourage and minister to anyone affected by the events at Virginia Tech and for anyone just searching for hope in this world. To download the songs of hope, go HERE.

EXTRA:

The folks who you brought you Church Marketing Sucks and the Church Marketing Lab can now help you get a job or fill an opening. CFCC is now helping to connect churches and creative professionals with the launch of their job posting sites, the Job Lab and the Freelance Lab. Churches can post listings for full-time job openings as well as freelance projects and creative professionals who want to help the church can find the job or project to make that dream happen.

For a limited time postings are FREE while they bulk up the listings and work out any kinks. Check out the sites and spread the word. For more Center for Church Communication news visit their web site.

I’ve mentioned Jake Ludington’s newsletter before. I always learn of some cool new media resources through his newsletter. Here are a few things that he mentioned and I’m going to give a try:

• Spin It Again: Transfer your old 45’s and 33’s to CD or to your new MP3 player or iPod. This dedicated record and tape conversion software makes it child’s play to record and edit your old albums. The wizard driven process guides you through connecting your hardware, getting the correct recording level, and splitting your recording into multiple tracks. The software automatically removes clicks and pops and that unwanted tape hum and hiss. Convert your recordings to MP3s or burn them on to an audio CD.
• Eyejot: I’m doing a little video experiment with an online video tool. Eyejot is a FREE video app that lets you record video messages in your browser and send them to a recipient via email or RSS. This would fall under Web 2.0 tools for ministry. Check it out!
• JPG Video: Time lapse video is something I’ve always found fascinating. Take a series of images from the same place over the course of a day, week, month, etc., and then build them into a video to express the time change in a matter of minutes or seconds. JPGVideo is a simple app designed to make a time lapse video from a series of stills. JPGVideo is billed as a tool for Webcam images, but JPG files from any camera source will work.
  
• Windows Media Player Plug-in for Firefox: This plug-in allows you to use Windows Media Player inside of Firefox. It is designed to support the following Windows platforms: Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista.
• Registry Booster: They claim to be the safest and most trusted solution to clean and optimise your system, free it from registry errors and fragmented entries. Through Advanced Error Detection Technology, Register Booster automatically identifies missing, corrupt or invalid items in your Windows registry and dramatically enhances performance and general stability. * This I actually downloaded and used to clean up my computer. So far, I’m very pleased with it. *
  

NEW PRODUCER:

Check out Erwin Brothers Pictures, a new producer, available at their website or at WorshipHouse Media.

I’m exhausted. I’ve overdone it with my hurt foot, but I’m having a great time in Indy. I haven’t had any time to blog or check email while I’ve been here. I’m pretty much gone from my hotel from early morning ’til late at night. I tell you - I really enjoy this crowd of folks and have had some great conversations with some cool new friends in the ministry.

I’ve also enjoyed getting to know Keith & Krystin Getty (they wrote great modern hymns like “In Christ Alone” and “The Power of the Cross”). They are coming to my church this Fall, so I look forward to worshiping with them again. I fly home tomorrow and can’t wait to see my family. I’ll have some pics to post soon.

EXTRA:

If you have time, read my latest 3 articles: One is HERE on Monday Morning Insight, one is HERE on FaithVisuals.com and the last one is HERE in Worship Arts & Technology Magazine.