Today, we are often faced with many challenges that inhibit us from attending a church on Sundays. Many churches that I am in communication with are now having a worship service on Sunday evening, that have two main goals. One of those being to allow members/attenders to worship because they are not able to make it on Sunday mornings. Two...to give room for more people to attend on Sundays.

Another option I have noticed here more recently is the advent of streaming the services online. This seems to be a more cost efficient method with the popularity of the Flash video encoding. This allows the video/audio image to be crisp and clean, yet not too bandwidth consuming. Even so, the turnout seems to be good for the services.

Many people have family situations or have to work in this day and age on Sunday. They can still connect with the church via a video stream while also allowing them to worship and be fed spiritually at the same time. This is hopefully another reason that churches allow streaming of their services.

Back in the 80's and 90's, many churches had to pay a lot of money to have their services broadcast on television stations. This was a lot of work and expense. Trust me, I worked at a church doing this. I think with the advent of the internet, it is more feasible for churches to send a live video and audio feed to the online community. This would require about the same amount of money up front to purchase and maintain the systems, but at the same time, internet broadcasting is a much cheaper medium of sharing God's message. Plus, you are not limited to a specific time block. You can stream the entire service because the ministry controls what goes out there.

I "attended" a church stream about a month ago. I was fascinated with how it worked, mainly because this church had a chat room contained within. Viewers could chat with pastors and seek prayer for specific needs that the person had. I thought this was a great asset to add to the streaming service. That way, it makes the viewer feel more connected with the church's broadcast ministry.

I want to hear from you guys. What do you think about online worship services? Do you have any experiences that you would like to share?

Thanks for taking the time to read.
-Ken

Labels: 316 networks, Buckhead Church, Chapel Hill, church, digital, FIrst Orlando, Flash, God, gospel, informative, internet, internet growth, Media, North Point, Orlando, Scott Link, simulcast

This blog is difficult for me to write. I've been burned with this very thing. Needless to say, I have learned a very painful lesson, and honestly...glad that I did. So let's jump right in.

During tonight's message at First Baptist Orlando, Pastor David Uth touched on a topic that I have struggled with in the past, and still do. This is not word-for-word what he said, but paraphrased... "Instead of talking "about" someone when you have a problem with them, try talking "with" them."

I am not going into details, on my experience, but I am going to give some observations. Still to this day, I dislike severely confrontations. I remember when I managed a Chick-fil-A. I had to do a large amount of confrontation. It is not fun for me, and I am taking a wild assumption here that there are not many people that would find it fun.

(**Disclaimer: I am using the word "people" in this paragraph not calling anyone out. I am talking to myself as well.**) I see it time and time again. Person A has a problem with person B, and they do whatever means they see fit in order to "call out" that person, but tend to forget the appropriate way of dealing with the problem. Going to that person in private and discussing the matter in which is an issue. How does this help share God's love? How does God look at this? Can the action cause more harm than good?

So, let us keep in mind, we do not have all of the information. I spoke with Scott tonight, and he gave me an example of a situation he was it where a lady wrote a letter to a group of people because he was misquoted by the news media. Scott explained himself to her and told her the situation, and she understood. But did she go and do the correct action to make it right? No.

In my own life, I find that I am a person that will deal with major confrontation issues, but a majority of the time I just let them go. That is something I need to work on. It is the fact that I am completely uncomfortable in those situations. Trust me in saying that I had a situation that happened YEARS ago in which I handled incorrectly and that still comes up to bite me. Did I do what I needed to at the time? Yes. But the person has refused to forgive the wrong doing I inflicted toward him, therefore hindering the friendship from going any further.

If you have never listened or took to heart anything that I have ever said, please take this snippet and apply it to your life. "Instead of talking "about" someone when you have a problem with them, try talking "with" them."

Thank you for reading.

-Ken

Labels: careers, Change in my Life, christ, church, David Uth, experiences, FIrst Orlando, forgiveness, friendships, ministry, Scott Link, stubborn

Last night, I had the opportunity to go to my instructors church. I
was under the assumption that he was going to simply show us around
the reinforcement systems they had on campus. It turned out that was
just a little bit of what we were able to do there.

In fact, they have an entire system and staging they have to setup for
the Sunday overflow and childrens services they have on Sunday! I was
able to assist in this process. I must say, it was a great experience!
Vince is using a DigiDesign FOH console in that venue. I must say,
looking at that control surface for the first time may throw a person
into a confused state, but once you take a minute or two to sit down
and play with the control surface, it really makes sense.

This experience made me think of the first time I did a show on a
Yamaha digital console at my previous church. It was just
installed...the installtion was the finest part! I knew how to use the
system, and made it through the dress rehearsals just fine. I was
scared to death though...I was scar3d that somethingwpuld happen
during the service that I could not correct, but could if the same
thing happened on an analog console! The show turned out fine, and by
the end of it I was fairly confident with my abilities with that desk.

Digital consoles are wonderful. In some scenarios, I prefer them over
analog systems. Many people tend to be scared of them, but in reality
you can do exactly the same thing on a digital system that you can on
an analog. Most of the time it is even easier. There is criteria that
make up a good or bad digital console, and that is a factor you have
to figure when going out to make the purchase.

Ken Miller, Jr.
Sent from my iPhone.
Web: www.kintmiller.com
Moblog: www.kintmiller.mobi

Labels: analog, audio, church, control surface, digidesign, digital, foh, future, upgrade

Everywhere you go, you can see and here in one form or another people getting all hyped up or joking about the "Swine Flu" or as I refer to it as the "Pork Scare."

This weekend was an interesting one. It seems as though a Catholic church in the Orlando area encouraged the attenders that they had in their mass to not shake hands with other people attending. My church, First Baptist Orlando did not go to that extreme, but were planning on practicing the regular safe guards, which is nothing out of the ordinary. If I was making an executive decision on the matter, I would have gone with the option that my church took. I believe that people are extremely over reacting to this swine flu scare. People do not get this hyped up over the regular flu each year.

The Media and Communications Pastor of First Baptist Orlando, Scott Link was interviewed by two news networks here in Orlando on Sunday morning. Scott answered their questions honestly of what our church in regards to the Swine Flu. The interview aired during the Sunday evening news. One network quoted him correctly the other network misquoted him completely. If you listened to the interview, you would blatently see that was not the point Scott was making. This is a prime example of how the networks misquote and mislead their audiences. Is that what you want from your news networks?

I remember a couple of years preceding the turn of the century when the media was sending everyone into a panic about every computer system, government and banking computers systems were going to crash at the turn of the century. This caused many people to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars in preparation for it...in buying food for week/months and taking precautions to prepare for a long outage of food and supplies. Corporations spend thousands if not more dollars to become Y2K compliant...reconfigured databases and software systems all for something the media was getting the audience all hyped up for. What happened when the clock turned from December 31st, 1999 at 23:59 to January 1st, 2000 at 00:00, absolutely nothing. Power was still on, money was in everyone's bank account and computer systems still functioned. So what was the scare for? Did we over react?

I think we did. The media continued to push a non-threat so much that the American people started being concerned. They recommended many things to do and in reality we did not have to do anything. It could have been another nice new year.

I think this swine flu is the same thing. The liberal end of the media is totally over reacting. Since they choose to not give a balanced report on what is really happening is Washington, they have to dig and dig for some sort of story to blow out of proportion. It was Bush, picking him apart piece by piece. They arrogantly selectively report specific things about Obama. Do not give the truth about what he is doing, destroying, or other leaders he is bowing to, this leads the media to dig into something that is not really a threat to get a reaction out of the people. So explain to me how this is supposed to be the most transparents administration ever if the American people are being lied to?

-Ken

Labels: church, First Baptist Church Orlando, Media, over reacting, scare, Scott Link, swine flu, virus, Y2K

I have been out of town (Orlando) for the last week, and sadly I was not able to join my home church, First Orlando (physically) in their worship services this weekend. I did, however watch the stream online on Saturday evening. This morning, I was able "multi-worship" and attend two churches here in Atlanta that are very dear to me.

I was blessed by visiting Buckhead Church this weekend. The scenic atmosphere was ingenious, as it always tends to be. They had a rig on stage that consisted of truss', plasma displays and LED light fixtures. It was a nice setup, which wasn't a surprise.

Todd Fields led the worship set this morning. It was great experiencing his worship style again. I have not been in a worship service with him for sometime now...probably the last time was back in the day when I was at a 722 service!

The churches in the North Point family, have moved toward a new technique of letting their congregation be a part of the sermon. Instead of the Satellite churches being a week behind NPCC...or whichever church Andy or the speaker was at, they elected to invest in simulcasting each week. I am not sure of your knowledge of streaming audio / video, but this is a major task! I am not quite sure on the technical setup they have for this new option, but all churches have to be timed right in order for this to work appropriately. I am sure they have some type of DDR (digital disk recorder) that each facility uses "just in case" something goes unexpected. I know when Shane Stevens took me on a tour of the NPCC facilities early 2008 he was mentioning doing something like this. I guess it finally happened!

Simulcasting allows for members at all satellite churches to hear the same message the same week, which makes everyone feel included moreso than a delayed message. It was interesting to see the audience's reaction to the sermon. Andy Stanley (Senior Pastor of NPCC) had a question time, and people answered aloud the questions and even laughed out loud at jokes...just as if he was preaching at Buckhead!

It was a great experience. I hope that one day, I am lead into a ministry that not only am I broadcasting God's message...but incorporates streaming to multiple venues. It will be an exciting experience.

After the service concluded at Buckhead Church, I traveled over to my home church, Rehoboth Baptist Church. After visiting around with my kids, the Minister of Music (Andy Newsome) approached me and asked if I was willing to go CG for the service. I accepted. **It turned out that Michelle (Andy's Wife) was not feeling well and was unable to make it to the service. Michelle is usually the CG masterette...and take care of those responsibilities week-to-week. It was very humbling to be trusted enough by someone that you have never worked for to just up and ask you to do something major for a worship service. That went well. Although, it would have been more convenient to have ProPresenter, they have Media Shout...which is fine, but I do prefer the GUI of ProPresenter much more. Plus...it works on a Mac... :)

I was impressed, though with the state of the technology at that church. Most of that equipment is older than me, so it is good to see A) that it is still functioning after all these years and B) that the staff at RBC is using the stuff...to assist the worship experience. Nothing is worse that having something **sit** because it is not up to today's standards. Put it to work! It cost good money. You should not waste it, if it is still meeting your needs.

Tonight, I will be attending the evening service at Rehoboth. I am really looking forward to that as well.

-Ken

Labels: Andy Newsome, Andy Stanley, Buckhead Church, church, MediaShout, North Point, Pastor Rusty Womack, ProPresenter, Rehoboth, sermon, simulcast, streaming, Todd Fields, worship