How To: On Campus Simulcast

It’s that time of year again.  Secret Church is tomorrow night.  Madison and I just left church from a late night of lighting the new set.  I’m thankful for a hard working intern that doesn’t mind staying late to get the job done.  I think Mandi is working on a post that includes some details and pictures of the new set and the construction process, so I won’t give any details on it now.  All I will say is that it definitely falls in line with “The Radical Experiment” that we are conducting as a church next year.

The theme of Secret Church #7 will be Angels, Demons, and Spiritual Warfare.  I’m pretty excited to hear David teach on this.  The response has been overwhelming.  Tickets sold out in three hours, and the number of people on the waiting list quickly reached over one thousand.  This promoted us to open up our student building as a simulcast room to try to accommodate more people.

So the task at hand, get video and audio to the student building.  Here’s what we used and how we did it:

The Gear:

1 – Ross Video FSR 9241 miniature fiber optic to HD/SDI module

1 – Ross Video FST 9242 miniature HD/SDI to fiber optic module

2 – AJA HD10AMA audio embedder/de-embedder

1 – AJA HDP2 HD/SDI to DVI converter

How we set it up:

Video is currently distributed throughout the main building through an HD/SDI distribution system.  HD/SDI is cool because it carries high quality digital audio and video over fairly cheap digital coax cable.  We tapped into this system on first floor backstage, and ran a new HD/SDI cable up to the amp room on second floor backstage.  This is where we used one of the AJA audio embedders to embed live audio from the worship room onto the HD/SDI cable. Next we put the Ross HD/SDI to fiber module inline.  This Ross module converts our HD/SDI signal from the worship room to run over the fiber optic cable that already exists between the main building and the student building.

We had to pull some fiber optic cable from the communications closet on second floor of main building, through the offices to the amp room backstage.  Believe it or not, we happened to find a roll of the exact fiber that we needed while digging through some dumpsters to find some materials for our current set.  The Lord provides.  Thank you to Joseph, or I.T. director for helping us pull the fiber and getting the ends terminated.

Down in the student building communications closet, we installed the second Ross module which converts the video signal back to HD/SDI from the fiber optic cable.  We pulled a new HD/SDI cable from the closet, through the ceiling, then down the wall on stage and then installed a wall plate.  An HD/SDI cable runs from the wall plate to the AJA HDP2 where the video signal gets converted to DVI. This DVI signal is then run into the projector which is set up on stage, rear projecting onto one of our 7′ x 12′ screens.   The HD/SDI signal is looped off of the AJA HDP2 and run into the AJA HD10AMA where the audio from the worship room is de-embedded and run into two inputs on stage.  After a few tests, we worked out all of the kinks, and now everything is ready to go.

This was a fun project to work on.  I’ve never messed around with anything that uses fiber optics before.  It’s pretty cool stuff.  We had our cell phones out while testing the audio portion of the system.  Madison was in the main worship room talking on a microphone, while I was in the student building listening.  I was hearing audio faster over the the simulcast system than our cell phones.  Fiber is so fast.  The specs on the Ross modules say that they can transmit the HD/SDI signal up to 30 km.  Hmmmmmm……Where to next?……..

-Matt-

P.S.  Thanks to our friends at Media Visions that helped us get everything we needed.

The Way of the Master

James 2:14 says, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?” In light of what our pastor has challenged us with from God’s word as a church, I have been looking for ways to put my faith into action. Yet, whatever I do I want to make sure that the gospel is the motivation, center, and goal of my deeds. Therefore, to accomplish that I believe I need to not only know the gospel, but be able to communicate it effectively through my words and actions. One resource I have found that is particularly helpful is a website called The Way of the Master. I see the overwhelming statistics of how many children die each day from simple curable diseases, and the statistics on how big poverty and hunger is around the world. However, even more tragic is the fact that the majority of those men, women, and children that are dying do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That must be at the front of our mission to make the gospel known wherever we go. The Way of the Master has been a great resource that I have used to not only learn how to share my faith, but how to take my faith to the nations. Check it out at:

http://www.wayofthemaster.com/

Does God Owe Me Anything?

This summer, our worship team went on a mission trip to New Orleans. The main focus was construction – repairing remaining damage from Hurricane Katrina,  and getting to know the people at those homes. We were split up into several teams, with each team at a different house.  My team had the opportunity of meeting and talking to several people who had lived there during Katrina. Their outlooks on their lives and their situations was strikingly different.

For example – we met a man who’s house had been devastated. Completely unsalvageble. He lost everything and lived in a FEMA trailer for 2 and a half years. His response? “It wasn’t so bad. There were others who were a lot worse! I got along just fine.” Then, we met a lady who had only had a couple of feet of water in her house. Many repairs needed, but definitely not total devastation. She’d lived in a FEMA trailer for several months. Her response? Anger and lawsuits. The trailer wasn’t up to specs, etc., etc.

This difference has had me thinking ever since. Obviously, I don’t know the ins and outs of each of their situation, much less what it must have been like to live in their shoes. But, it raises the question, “What am I entitled to?” In a country of financial aid, welfare and loans, we are groomed to believe that we are entitled to a certain standard of living. But, when you think about it, why should we be?

The same can go for our spiritual life. “I’m a good person. I deserve a great life. I deserve no pain. I deserve to have fun. I deserve good things. I certainly don’t deserve hell.” In a world of “self-esteem boosting,” we are groomed to believe how great we are and what we deserve. But…how does that fit with God’s word?

God’s word vividly describes our condition apart from Him.  We are morally evil (Gen 8:21), spiritually sick (Matt.9:12), slaves to sin (John 8:34), blinded to truth (Eph 4:18), lovers of darkness (Eph. 5:8),  children of wrath (Rom.5:10), and most importantly, we are spiritually dead (Eph.2:1).  Any one of these things alone means that I am sinfully wretched.  Try and comprehend being ALL of them.

It’s almost funny that we could consider ourselves “deserving” of anything.

That’s it right there.  That’s the key.

If I “deserve” anything, I suck God’s power and grace right out of salvation.  Any god that was merely giving me what I was entitled to, is no more powerful than the checkout lady at the grocery store – giving you what you paid for. The point is, we haven’t earned a thing!  It’s only by God’s grace that I am free, saved, and empowered to glorify Him!

I don’t know why he chose to love us and save us by His grace.  But I know that ALL of the work and glory comes from Him.  My job is to praise Him for it.

Now that’s a God worthy of worship.

Our new Romanian friend

A couple of weeks ago, the worship staff had a unique opportunity to invest in a worship leader from another country. Raul Chirica is from Iasi (pronounced Yahsh), Romania, and was in the states for a couple of weeks. Our team had the great privilege to get to know him and spend time learning from one another. We always welcome the opportunity to meet with worship leaders from other countries. One important part of our ministry is to invest our resources and time into training and equipping people for ministry outside of Brook Hills. When we meet people who are already doing the work of Christ in another part of the world, we jump at the chance to spend time with them to share information, methods and to encourage one another with what God is doing throughout the world.

Romania is a country roughly the size of Oregon, in Central Europe with a population of about 21,400,000. The major religion there is Eastern Orthodox. Evangelical Christians there are very misunderstood and sometimes persecuted. A year or so ago, a small group from Brook Hills took a mission trip to Romania and met Raul. One of our musicians was on this trip and began a friendship with him. Raul plays guitar, piano and cello, has a great voice, and writes music. He leads worship in his home church where his father is the pastor. When the Brook Hills team was there, the worship ministry was contacted to see if there might be a possibility of us working with Raul at some point.

So, a couple of weeks ago, Raul came into the office for a couple of days and we spent some time together. Our team met with him throughout the week showing him how we do different things in our ministry. He spent time with us doing some day-to-day tasks such as stage reset, rehearsals, meetings, etc. We also had some practical training times.

We studied the Biblical Non-Negotiables of corporate worship together. In a nutshell is says:
1) God is more pleased with purity than professionalism, substance than style, and attitude than appearance.
2) Worship seeks to please God rather than man, and our evaluations should be based on what He thinks rather than what we think.
3) Worship involves a rhythm of revelation (who He is) and response (our reaction to that), so that the Word must be central in worship.
4) We are a community of faith, not just individual worshippers, so participation is vital. 5) Worship should reflect the unity (we belong to Christ) and diversity (every nation) of heaven.

There was a songwriting time where we encouraged him to make the Word central in writing songs, to write for the purpose of corporate worship and edification of the church, as well as some practical things (song structures, choosing the right key, etc.) We talked about how the goal of our songwriting is not to come up with “great songs” for the sake of great songs, but to encourage and challenge our congregation to seek Christ and to be active in our faith.

We also spent time talking about purity in our lives and ministries. We must pursue purity in order to know God more and in order to be an effective example in our ministries. One of the struggles that Raul faces is that in Romania, he has experienced fame. He is a well-known musician there. Not only does he lead worship in his local church, but he also plays in a band outside of the church. Many people recognize him from television and he must continually keep his motives and humility in check.

Raul was able to see how we go about planning worship services, working with our pastor, leading our volunteer teams, rehearsing and recording. His situation is a bit different than ours. He has a smaller team that he leads worship within a smaller church. We were able to share some ways to lead our teams effectively as we seek to honor God.

One of the most encouraging things about our time with Raul was hearing about the ministry he has back home. His church is very involved in the community. There is an area in Iasi called the Phantom Block. Most of the members of his church are from this area and because of the poverty there, it is a great opportunity to show the love of Christ. People are coming to faith in Christ and then ministering in these areas. There are a lot of children there who have HIV. They are the outcasts. Raul ministers to these children personally and shared about how God has changed him to be able to love these kids. He also leads a small group of younger boys where he is sharing his faith and challenging them to follow Christ.

We also were able to have some “fun time” with Raul. The weekend that he was here, our staff and families went down to the lake and spent the day on the water. Raul had his first jet-ski ride and his first inner-tube ride. We had a lot of fun just hanging out and having fun. Afterward, he wanted to eat pizza for dinner. There was a funny moment when he asked where the ketchup was. He was willing to try ranch dressing instead, but exclaimed… “This is weird for me. I not like.”

We really enjoyed getting to know Raul and training him in some areas as well as learning from him. We are praying for him and his ministry in Romania. On the following Sunday, we were able to lead worship with him. It was such a great picture singing with him…us in English, he in Romanian. Truly a small picture of what worship in heaven will be like…people from every nation and language.

How To: Multi-Screen Video Display

Every now and then, I have people ask me how we display a video across multiple screens at Brook Hills.  For the last series, “Love Story” we used three 7’x12’ screens all hanging in the same plane with a 1’ space between each screen.

Here’s a picture:

We’ve done several different screen configurations, but the hardware and software we use is the same.  Here’s what we use to do it:

Software-
Renewed Vision’s Pro Video Player.  We have 1 HD license and 3 Network Node licenses.

Hardware-
3 – Apple Mac Mini
1 – Apple Imac
3 – Da-lite 7’x12’ fast fold screens
3 – Panasonic PT-DW5100U  – we picked these up used at a great price from Elite Multimedia.

Here’s how the system works-

The Imac is the brain of the system, and it runs the HD license.  It can be located anywhere on the network.  Most of the time, ours lives in video master control.  Sometimes we move it to front of house.  The HD license allows the Imac to drive a projector, but we are not setup to do that right now.

Each Panasonic projector shoots onto a Da-lite 7′x12′ screen, and is driven by a Mac Mini that is strapped to the projector.  All projectors are shooting a resolution of 1280×720.  Each Mac Mini is hard wired to the network via cat5.  If we are using the system to display a single still image that will not change, I can get away with using a wireless network.  However, if we are going to run multiple images or video clips, I use a wired network.  This assures that the images and videos stay synced correctly.

All of our content is built at a resolution of 3840×720 (3 screens wide x 1 screen high) and then broken out into three 1280×720 images or clips.  Each clip is then loaded onto the appropriate Mac Mini and the Imac. Once the content is on the computers, I then add it to the Pro Video Player library on each computer and build the playlists.

Pro Video Player is very user-friendly.   You can have multiple play lists, each with different images and video clips.  When you click on a playlist on the Master computer, each Network Node moves to that playlist.  Click on a video clip in a playlist on the Master, and each Network Node will start playing that clip.  It’s that simple.

There are several different configurations of hardware that are available that can be scaled to meet your specific needs.  There are also several advanced features in Pro Video Player that we haven’t used yet.  I recommend browsing Renewed Vision’s website for more options and ideas.

-Matt-

Something to Check Out…

A member of my small group recently told me about a web tool you can download to help you study the bible called E-Sword. Despite the cheesy tagline (”the Sword of the Lord with an electronic edge”) it may be something worth checking out. I was looking around the website this week, and there are some cool features such as access to various bible translations, commentaries and dictionaries and even a parallel bible feature. That last one is what I’m most interested in. The whole software package is available to download for free, which is nice. I’m sure there are more flashy looking software packages out there, and ones that are available for MACs (this one isn’t), but this may still prove helpful. I’m going to download it to my PC at home and see if I like it. Visit their website if you’re interested: http://www.e-sword.net.

the point of it all.

 

“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. . . . Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal in missions.”

–from Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper

 

There is a truth ringing in my ears and with each day it gets louder and louder. The truth is that God Almighty is worthy of our worship, and there are places in the world where He is not being worshiped. 

And so in response, we fill our minds and our hearts with the Gospel, save our money, buy a plane ticket and go to a strange place where no one speaks our language.

Why? Because God is not worshiped there.

 

John Piper wrote a book called Don’t Waste Your Life. In the first chapter, if not the first page Piper urges us to realize that we only have one life-that’s it.

 

“You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.”

-Psalm 39: 5

Visually, Psalm 39:5 makes me think of a little girl blowing a kiss to her dad. And just like a kiss that is tossed into the wind as soon as it is made, life’s final breath comes before we even realize what we are.

And what are we?

“the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” 

-Genesis 2:7

What does that mean? It means that the only thing that separates us from the ground we are walking on is the breath of life that God breathed into our lungs. 

If that doesn’t give you an enormous view of our God, then I urge you to take a day off from your busy life and go lay on the ground and ponder Genesis 2:7.

When I think about where I came from (dust) and how long I’ll be here (seconds) I realize that there is no room for fear in the church. We’re all going to die, people. Let’s do it big. Let’s go to the hard places. Let’s not just say we love- let’s lose our lives for the sake of true love. Let’s take the Gospel to the ends of the world!

“We’re created for risk. We’re created for danger. We’re created to walk on the edge because if we fall off the edge… there’s just life… in the arms of Christ.”  -Matt Chandler

Worship+Justice

The chorus of the song “God of Justice” by Tim Hughes has always struck a certain chord with me: “We must go, live to feed the hungry, stand beside the broken, we must go. Stepping forth, keep us from just singing, move us into action, we must go.” I think the words of this song really convict me, because they bring into the light an important Biblical truth that too often remains in the shadows of our American Christian culture (and my heart, for that matter). God is concerned for the hungry, broken, and marginalized people of this world, and we, His chosen people, should be too.

Throughout Scripture we can see this truth come to the surface. In Deuteronomy 15 God’s people are commanded to be “openhanded” and “generous” in their giving and providing for the poor in their land. In the same breath they are told not to be “tightfisted” and “heardhearted.” In Luke 4 Jesus proclaims His earthly intentions in the midst of all those in the synagogue at Nazareth: to “preach good news to the poor,… to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

As I consider the words of Scripture, I am suddenly stricken with the realization that God’s heart breaks for the broken. If our goal in worshiping God is to constantly align the concerns of our hearts with His, then “we must go, live to feed the hungry, stand beside the broken.” My hope for my own Christian generation is that we will not be content with meeting together in comfortable rooms to sing to and about the God of Justice, while living in blatant ignorance of what concerns Him. May the Lord not say of us, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Isaiah 29)

As I have been at Brook Hills for only a month and a half, I have already been encouraged by the sense of urgency to provide for the needy that exists in our congregation. I am so thankful to be part of a church where the Gospel, Worship, and Justice are at the forefront of everything we do. It’s also good to know that we aren’t the only ones. Here are some great movements for worship and justice that I’ve seen and been challenged by lately:

“God of Justice” by Tim Hughes

The I-Heart Revolution by Hillsong United

CompassionArt by Martin Smith of Delirious?

What’s Next? Part 2

Where’s your mission field?

This last month and a half has been SOOO busy–due in part to preparations for the worship team’s next project.  On Sunday, we’re heading to New Orleans for a week-long mission trip.  It has been 4 years since Hurricane Katrina hit the city, and there is still so much rebuilding to be done.  So we’re off to build some homes.  I am so excited by what God has in store for us next week.  And although we’ll be focused in large part on nails, drywall, paint and lumber, the real mission is spreading the Gospel of Christ.  It always is, no matter where we are.  I think that can be a bit of a disconnect for some, myself included.  Traveling to Sudan, Honduras, India, and other countries, where poverty is high and many still have not heard the Gospel, it’s easy to see that these places are “the mission field”.

But what about the 98% of the year when you’re not overseas?  What about all of the time when you’re not on an organized mission trip somewhere?  There is a sign you see on your way out of the parking lot at Brook Hills, and it says that you are now entering the great commission.  All you’ve done is drive out of the parking lot onto the street, but you’re already out in the mission field and you haven’t even left the neighborhood.  It doesn’t matter whether you are at home, at work, in the grocery store, in South Africa or wherever.  Your mission field is just as important locally as it is globally.   So spending time in the Word and in prayer becomes even more important, so that you will be prepared to serve God in all that you do everyday, wherever you are, both here and over there.

Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 28:19-20,”Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”  You and I cannot change hearts, we cannot save people, but we are disciples of Christ, and God uses us to share His Word and the truth about His Son, so that He can be glorified and He then softens even the hardest of hearts.  Our pastor has put it this way: show the Word, share the Word, teach the Word, and serve the World.  My prayer is that God will turn me outward so that through what I say, what I do, wherever I go, others will see Christ first, and that I will be unafraid to share and talk about what an awesome God we have and how amazing His grace is.   It is so easy for us to forget amidst all the busyness of life, but maybe we should all stop and check in every once in a while and ask ourselves where our mission field is…because it’s wherever you are.

May the Lord help us remember that we are always on mission.

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  • How To: On Campus Simulcast
  • The Way of the Master
  • Does God Owe Me Anything?
  • Our new Romanian friend
  • How To: Multi-Screen Video Display
  • Something to Check Out…
  • the point of it all.
  • Worship+Justice
  • What’s Next? Part 2
  • Where’s your mission field?

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