Greg Atkinson

I know several people that are coming to Dallas this week for the C3 Conference at Fellowship Church. I’m planning to meet with a few of them and give them a tour of Bent Tree. If you’re coming to town this week and want to get together, just shoot me an email and let me know: greg@churchvideoideas.com.

EXTRA:
We have a team of leaders from our church in Pune, India training Church leaders for our adopted people group, the Marathas. This past Sunday we spoke with one of our elders live during our Sunday morning worship service. It was about 9pm his time and it was morning for us. It was very cool. We could all hear him clear as a bell and he heard us with no problem. We did it using Skype!

EXTRA, EXTRA:

According to TechCrunch yesterday, a source close to Microsoft says the company will launch a new desktop software called WorldWide Telescope on February 27. Pretty cool. You can read more about it HERE.

BONUS:
I read this in WIRED magazine: You can place a picture of you and/or your family on the moon - that’s right: on the moon. Check out HERE for more info.

As I always do, I try to visit as many churches as possible when I’m away from my church. This past Sunday I visited 3 churches in the upstate of South Carolina - 2 in the morning and 1 at night.

• 9:00 AM - I went to a church that I always try to visit whenever I’m in Greer, SC: Springwell Church. Springwell is a vibrant, fairly young church that has had a great impact on their community. This was my 3rd time getting to attend a service in their new (3 years old) worship center. As usual, I wrestled with trying to worship and turning off my analyzing and critiquing. All in all, I had a great experience. This was the first time I had seen them use IMAG (they had 3 cameras). I was disappointed with the quality of cameras/picture and the video directing. I also thought their left and right screens were too small for that size room. On the positive, I like how they used their screens. They had a left, giant middle and right screen. They did some cool stuff on the middle screen which was a nice touch. The had some nice looking backgrounds and FYI - they were using ProPresenter. The music was great. 2 young worship leaders co-lead and both had great voices and sang some of my favorite songs. Their youth pastor was preaching. I only got to listen to his intro and then had to slip out to go get my family and attend my mom’s church.
• 10:30 AM - I went to Tigerville Baptist Church, which is where my mom and step-dad go. My step-dad is the pastor there. TBC is located on the campus of North Greenville University. This church was probably the most special of the 3 churches I visited. Besides getting to hear my step-dad preach and worshiping with my kids and mom, it brought back all kinds of memories from the church I grew up in. This church is much like how I grew up - no screens/media, the music minister called out the hymn numbers and we turned in our hymnals to that song. Everybody knew everybody. There was a sweet spirit and family-type feel, which I can see being attractive to college students - which they have attending when school is in. There was no children’s ministry, so my 3 kids sat on the same pew with my wife, mom and me. I must say, they behaved very well and it was a memorable experience.
• 5:00 PM - Sunday night, I rode with my friend Don Chapman to his church: NewSpring in Anderson, SC. As you know, I’ve blogged about NewSpring several times. 2 of their staff members: Lee McDerment and Tony Morgan are a part of my upcoming book. Tony was on vacation, so I didn’t get to talk with him, but I did get to hang with Lee for a bit. Lee is an amazing worship leader and that band rocked! The whole experience was amazing. I was blown away. NewSpring lived up to all the hype (they are on the “Most Innovative Church” list and the “Fasting Growing Church in America” list). I knew of what they were doing, but had never seen it with my own eyes. Now I know why Don drives 30 minutes every week to go there. He won’t have to for long because they are launching a Greenville campus! I was blessed to be there for their last Sunday of the year, where they gave thanks to God for all He had done in 2007. You can listen to the message online. They played a highlight video, which was very moving. They had also had their congregation vote on their favorite songs of 2007 and did the top songs - I loved them. I was very impressed with everything I saw on the screens - the backgrounds, the picture quality, the video directing, everything - very well done. The sound was great - they are not afraid to raise the roof. I commented that I had never been to a church that played the pre-service/prelude music so loud - it was cranked! If you ever have the chance, you’ve got to check out what God is doing in this small city - it’s truly a God-thing. FYI - NewSpring used MediaShout.

As you know, 2008 will be a new season for my church as we move into our new worship center and begin renovating our current worship center (and some other rooms) into a theater for the kids. I’m having to be real picky about my time away and where I speak in ‘08. I’m not doing any conferences in January or February and have chosen one for March and one for April. Here’s what I know so far:

• I won’t be doing any conferences in January or February due to the move-in
• I’ll be speaking in 3 classes at NRB in Nashville in March
• I’ll be teaching 2 classes at NAB in Las Vegas in April

This is from my friends at Technologies for Worship Magazine:

TFWM just wanted to let you know that I will be speaking in conjunction with the Technologies for Worship Pavilion® and Conference at the 2008 NAB Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV from April 13-17, 2008.

I will be presenting the following seminars:

1. Which Worship Presentation Software is Best for Your Church?
2. Church 2.0

For my complete seminar descriptions and dates, click here.

To register, click here.

EXTRA:

We’re in South Carolina visiting my family. Today I’m visiting NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC. I’ll blog about them later.

PERSONAL:
Today is my 12 year wedding anniversary!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Today I left at 5am for Atlanta. I’ll be in one long meeting all day and fly home late tonight. Pray for strength. I thought I’d link you to THIS article on “Saying Thanks” - as the Thanksgiving season quickly approaches.

This weekend was good and I enjoyed the opportunity to not think about our building project for a couple of days. Friday night I took my son to his first ever football game. It was a local high school and they are very good (I try to see them play a few times each year). They were winning 42 to 0 at halftime, which was a good time to leave and get my son to bed. He thought he had seen an entire game. His eyes were wide the whole time and it was a true joy for me to hold his hand and walk him into the stadium.

Saturday, my oldest daughter went ice skating for the first time with her mom and I stayed home to watch the other 2 kids. Saturday night we had a special dinner at my church to give core people an update on our building project. Several building tours went on and there was a lot of excitement about this special season we’re in. Also, our worship pastor (Scott), returned from leading worship at a Willow Creek conference in Germany. I hadn’t seen him in 2 weeks, so it was good to have him back home. We have a lot of catching up to do!

Sunday was a different kind of day for our church. We had an abbreviated service - in the service we gave everyone a sneak peek at what a typical Sunday will be like in the new reality. Not only are we building 3 new buildings, but as soon as we move into them, we start a huge renovation of our current worship space, which will be an amazing kids’ theater (like KidStuff at North Point), plus 2 other smaller kids’ theaters. We did a short music and preaching set, then played a video of KidStuff at North Point to cast the vision, heard from our Kids Pastor, then had our new FX Live (FX is for Family Experience) team do a short portion of a typical family production service with a host, actors, singing and dancing. It was a ton of fun and well received.

After that, we had a huge tent set up in the parking lot and after a challenge “to get plugged in and serve” from our pastor, we ended the service early to allow our people to go out to the tent, fellowship, eat (we had great snacks/food), sign up to serve (we had every ministry represented at different tables) and just have fun (we had a DJ playing music the whole time).

In between the morning and evening services I came home and we had a 7 year old birthday party for my oldest daughter. It was a fairy party and my wife did a great job decorating the house and making fairy wings for all the girls. I went back to church later on that afternoon for our night service and then came home to catch the last 2 minutes of the Cowboys game - which they won! (That’s right: the Cowboys are 8-1).

I get some air miles this week as my Audio Coordinator and I go to Atlanta this Tuesday for a full/intense day of meetings with Clark ProMedia. We leave at 5:15 and return at 10pm. Then Friday and Saturday, I’ll be consulting with a church in Phoenix. Pray for me.

I’m back in good ‘ol Dallas (’till I fly to Atlanta tomorrow). Hopefully I’ll get to go to 7:22 tomorrow night at North Point. My worship pastor and I will be meeting with Clark ProMedia to go over our equipment list for our new worship center. It will be two days of meetings, then I’ll finally be back in Dallas for a while. I think the next thing I have on my calendar is Catalyst. I’m taking a break from conferences/traveling.

Nashville was great. I arrived Tuesday night and had dinner with Wayne (our church’s band director who was also in Nashville) and Gersh (formerly of WhiteHeart) - who Wayne was spending the week with. Gersh (who has written 20 #1 songs) works with churches and worship leaders, as well as writing, arranging and producing for a living in Nashville. I didn’t plan on it, but I ended up spending all day Wednesday with Wayne and Gersh. We started off the day eating brunch at the famous Loveless Cafe, which was amazing (see above).

Wednesday night, I took Wayne to see the legendary Wooten brothers, who play every Wednesday night in Nashville. This was my 5th time seeing them and I was as amazed as ever. I think Wayne was blown away, too. I met up with my best friend, Thomas Rose (worship leader at Mosaic Nashville) and followed him back to his new house, where I stayed the rest of the week.

Thursday, Thomas and I hung out at Rocketown (where Thomas also works) - Rocketown is a youth community center/skate park/concert venue founded by Michael W. Smith. Later that afternoon we went to a strategic planning meeting for Rocketown, which was held at one of the board members’ home (the owner of Purity milk and ice cream). I sat two chairs down from Michael W. Smith, who was listening to stories from teenagers that had been impacted by Rocketown’s ministry.

Friday, Thomas and I stopped by MediaShout to say “hello” and get a demo of their brand new MediaShout V3 Express. It was great to meet some new folks at MediaShout, as well as talk for a while with my friend, Paul Jackson, President of MediaShout. MediaShout Express is going to be an answer to prayer to many, many people. Every conference I do, I come across people that would love to leave PowerPoint, but can’t afford to pay $399 for something like MediaShout, EasyWorship or ProPresenter.
MediaShout Express is on sale for $199 - that’s right ONE ninety-nine. Express has all the main features of the full version (and is upgradable, if you want to go to the full version down the road), including text over motion backgrounds, a song database, Scripture, sample media and more. The retail price is $229 - tell them Greg said you could get it for $199. If you’re ready to take the next step, leave PowerPoint and start using a presentation software designed for worship, then this is definitely worth checking out.

Friday night we went to the Nashville Sounds baseball game (minor league team), where it was “Faith Night”. Rocketown was there in full force - with their skaters and bikers putting on a show outside the gates, plus one of Smitty’s new bands (from Rocketown Records) playing music - as well as Michael himself singing a song. Michael also sang the National Anthem and threw out the first pitch. It was great exposure for Rocketown. The B-Boys (a dance group from Rocketown that my friend, Thomas, oversees) danced on top of the dugouts in-between innings.

Saturday night, we got to visit LifeChurch.tv’s campus in North Nashville (Hendersonville). I’ve blogged about LifeChurch.tv many times, but had never been to this campus (they have 11). Thank you to Andrew and Charles, who invited me via this blog’s comments. Andrew is the campus pastor at the Hendersonville campus (read his words HERE). Charles works for MediaShout and is a part of their tech team at the church. LifeChurch.tv was on week one of their new series “30 Days to Live” - it was very moving and powerful. I love the move and work of God that I experience each time I visit one of their campuses. I’d encourage you to check out the service online. ALSO - don’t forget that you can use ALL their resources for each series for FREE via their Open website.

Sunday, I worshiped at Mosaic Nashville, where my friend Thomas leads worship. This was their second week in their new location (which is really cool). I had a great time there and then hit the road to head back to Big D.

I got back in time to see my kids last night. I’m hanging with the family all day today and then catching a 6:30 AM flight to Atlanta to begin the 2 day meeting. I’m not bringing my laptop with me, so I’ll blog again on Thursday.

Each year I make a few trips to Nashville - to get away, because it’s “Music City” and because my best friend lives there. Today, I leave to go to Nashville for some time away. I don’t know how much I’ll be blogging. I am bringing my laptop (and my guitar) and plan to do some writing. I’m working on a book project and am looking forward to getting away for a bit.

Today I fly to Spartanburg, SC to speak at a worship conference. This will be my 3rd year speaking at this conference. I love it, not only because I enjoy meeting new people (there will be about 1500 worship leaders from around the country), but also because the conference takes place about 15 minutes from where I grew up - so I’ll get to see my family, too!

This past week has been crazy. The search for our new Audio Coordinator/FOH Engineer is full on. I have a stack of resumes from around the country. I’m really praying for God’s wisdom, discernment and guidance to the right person.

I’ve got 3 and 1/2 words for you: In-N-Out Burger. Yes, sir - gotta love it. I’ve already made the first of a few trips to In-N-Out Burger. Monday was a rough travel day with all the delays due to storms in Dallas. I got on a different flight and had to go back late Monday night to get my luggage from the original flight. I arrived at Saddleback in time to talk with their worship pastor, Rick Muchow. I also got a sneak peak of what they’re doing Thursday night, as well as sat in on a rehearsal with Tommy Walker. I spoke to him briefly and told him we’re looking forward to having him at our church later this year. Brenton Brown is coming to our church later this month, so I need to run into him, too.

After leaving Tommy Walker’s rehearsal, I then went to check in at the hotel they booked for me and found out I was booked Tuesday through Friday (even though I arrived Monday night). I called up Rick Muchow and he invited me to sleep at his house - which I did. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Rick is one of the nicest men I know. I thank God for him and his family’s hospitality. I pray God will bless them. The next morning it was a true joy and blessing to see Rick leading worship with 2 of his sons on stage singing with him. Tim Hughes led worship after him and Rick Warren spoke - it was awesome. God showed up. More to come…

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.