Tuesday, October 23, 2007

he lost.


October 20 & 21, 2007

Worship Setlist:

You Are Good (Israel Houghton)
Indescribable (Laura Story)
You Are (M. Roach)

Adding to the Noise (Switchfoot)

Breathe (Marie Barnett)


Ok, so this weekend, only our second ever with services on Saturday and Sunday, was full of excitement to say the least... We continued a great series called 'Noise' that just deals with the noise and distractions in our lives. This week's emphasis: filters. We discussed some of the most common audio filters and then really honed in on the notch filter--a filter that identifies an offensive band of frequencies and attenuates it (turns it down) in order to hear the rest of audio undisturbed. Well, come on, it works in theory :)

Anyway, the message and premise were great, but we had our share of attacks this weekend: First of all, the virtually complete loss of our Sr. Pastor's voice. I guess that wasn't enough for Saturday and first service Sunday, 'cause then we had enough tech problems to take plenty of the focus off of the rasp-filled message. The highlight (read: lowlight) to me was during the Switchfoot tune--after forgetting to turn my own volume up, delaying the intro a few bars, I started to sing the first line when I looked at our rear screen (yes, I cheat lyrically by using a rear screen) only to gaze into vast blackness... or at least as much blackness as a low-lit white screen can provide. I believe I actually uttered--ok, blurted--the word "wow" within close enough proximity to my mic that all knew that I was taken completely off guard.

So just in case you other worship leaders out there have ever wondered what would happen if something visually catastrophic were to impede your presentation during a service, I could give a little first-hand testimony of just how not fun it is. Good news: we all survived, the message came through in spite of it all, and ultimately, the enemy lost the fight. :)

4 comments:

Jules said...

"Attenuates" ??? Seriously, thanks for the definition. You're way too smart for me to hang with.

It was all good dude; when you said "wow" was the best. Not for you I'm SO sure. But we all smiled and you were pretty dern humble about it...all good...yep, he lost...

Anonymous said...

Heh...I think it's amazing how the enemy gets into the tech stuff to try to get us (worship leaders) distracted in the moment. In the past few weeks, I've:

1. Had a guitar go inexplicably (and horrificly) out of tune during a quiet part of a song where I was the only one playing...and the songset was designed to flow into two more songs without interruption... I tried to correct it quickly on the fly, but alas, it didn't work and I wound up standing there like a deer in headlights for a few seconds before I reluctantly continued strumming what I can only describe as a chord somewhere halfway between a G and a G#. My ears still hurt from the sound.

2. Last week, my in-ear monitor went out during what should've be the most powerful part of the songset, and I could hear nothing (except for the faint sound of my acoustic behind the noise from the drums behind me.

3. Somoene turned the heat on by accident in our theater (meeting place) on an 85 degree morning, and so much sweat was pouring into my eyes, I couldn't open them.

This is just a sample of some the recent stuff. Don't get me started on the time we blew a circuit breaker as we opened a service.

But in every event, the enemy failed to deflect our worship or our heart for God. As you said, he lost. Every time.

Btw... thanks for your kind words and the resource link for your songs you posted on my blog a few weeks ago. It's very much appreciated!

David Regier said...

I'll never quite live down the moment that I had everybody quieted down and said, "Let's pray." Our senior pastor was in the restroom with his lapel mic. . . on. He flushed. I blushed.

Matt Brent said...

Oh, this was my life Sunday! We were doing My Desire by Jeremy Camp for the end of our communion time. We also have a "confidence monitor" ha ha some confidence... lo, and behold we get to the bridge, & the words GO AWAY. They are gone. They are not in my brain, they are not on the screen. I could not make anything up...not peas and carrots...nothing. I had nothing. To make it worse, the tech guy kept double clicking past the words...double clicking back, past the words. So I stopped singing and looked like an idiot. It happened twice in two services (although I recovered the 2nd time). We have 3 services and in the third I got wise and printed the lyrics out so I could see them, but they got it right...of course. I also broke a string.