Archive for March, 2009

In Me – March ’09

// March 18th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Thoughts

Here are a few thoughts I shared with the team this week about what God is doing in me.

We have such a large capacity to live within our own brokenness and do so without realization. (At least for some time.) This is becoming a life lesson for me and has been in process perhaps for the last 8-12 years. (Apparently, I got on the slow train for growth!) This is being a difficult and beautifully restorative journey where God is healing me. I’d like to share some tools that have been helping me while I’m in the midst of it.

We are not as strong as we think we are :: Rich Mullins

“But I’m me. How can anyone know me better than me?” That’s the underlying thought at least. A songwriter wrote “O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.” Psalm 139:1-2.  With these words, he begins to paint the picture of how well God knows us. The remaining chapter is spent adding the color, stroke, and details of the painting of just how much better God knows us than we know ourselves. How is it that anyone could know us in this way?! Settle into this: God does.

The ending of Psalm 139 has struck me with a greater level of depth.  It’s simple but it runs deep!  “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”  We all can rest here…in a healthy, humble need of God.  This is where we stop trying to produce a fix or even create understanding on our own.  His knowledge of us is utterly more than we could ever handle about ourselves and He will point out areas in our souls where we need to take some sort of action.  I’m learning a new kind of rest and work…well, it isn’t anything new…just new places for me to go.

You humble me, Lord.

K-1 System Installation

// March 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // Audio, Stage Design

Much of my attention this past week has been directed towards installing a small audio visual system in our K-1 room.  Our kid’s ministry recently restructured in order to combine Kindergarten and 1st graders.  Along with this came the need for a small system to support a mini production that will be fairly video heavy and include several actors. I wanted to share this install because I know many churches are looking for DIY methods to support their various services.  This is a documentation of the route I chose.

Note:  I am not a certified system designer.  I do not use software such as Ease for precision.  There may very well be a more professional install for this room and as always, I’m open to critique.

Here’s what we chose.

Audio:  JBL Control 28 Speakers w/ SB2 Sub.  I chose these because of their cost, coverage (90ºx90º), weight (12 lbs), and ease of hanging.  3 Control 28s arranged as a center cluster provides the 180º of coverage needed.  The challenge was how to hang from drop ceiling.  Our solution: the Chief CMA-455.  It’s a 2×2 mounting plate that can be flown above the drop ceiling.  We flew this from the purlins, used 4 turnbuckles to level, anchored the mount to the drop ceiling grid and we were ready to hang.  The mount was also safety cabled back up to the purlin…just in case.  The JBL MTC-28/25CM ceiling mount arms were used to hang each speaker.  Each Control 28 is safety cabled to the mount.  The SB2 sub was mounted about 3″ from the ceiling on the back wall, stage right.  A Draper screen will be installed next week in front of the sub.  Allen&Heath ZED14, Sennheiser wireless systems, QSC amplification and DBX DriverackPA for system management.

Media:  We love Renewed Vision‘s presentation software, ProPresenter.  With our site license it just made sense to stick with this software.  I’m very confident with it’s stability especially when it comes to handling a lot of video.  A 20″ iMac w/ good size hard drive — we were granted permission to rip the curriculum DVDs to the local hard drive for more reliable playback.

Lighting:  Available power was an issue in this room.  I know LED lighting has a way to go but in this case it was hard to resist.  I chose Irradiant’s LEDPro64 Short fixtures.  They were very cost effective.  Since they are RGB LED mixing, the fixtures don’t produce the best white but for K1 children they’ll work just fine.  When we tested them today the different colors produced some great effects on the stage paint…completely changing the look.  I may post a video later on of this.

I must give a shout to my friends at Point Source Audio for all of their help with this project.  I wish every production team had a group of professionals they could trust like my friends at PSA!

I like photos….so here’s the progress thus far:

K1 Install