Brian Buonassissi

Where I’m At

2011-02-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

I don’t often get a chance to catch up with everybody on our teams as much I would like to. This has been even more apparent in last 2 months with my heavy travel schedule. That in mind, I wanted to share some things that have been on my heart for quite a while.

Sometime last year, in the midst of my travels for my entertainment company I felt a pull (very slight might I add) to move to the “City” (there’s only one city – that is NYC). To be honest, I wasn’t too sure if this was just a childhood dream being revisited or if it was in fact God’s prodding. I didn’t give it too much thought as the reality of making that happen didn’t seem possible.

I got married in early October and during our honeymoon, my wife Tara and I had a conversation that I can now say really was a turning point for us. I put out the question: “If either of us could do anything we wanted– an open slate so to speak, what would that look like?” The New York move immediately came to the surface for me. When I mentioned it to Tara, she fell in the love with the idea. Again, the move seemed to be unrealistic due to where we were financially and as committed as we were to our current situation.

Two other things have been happening as well.

As you know, I love the Arts and I love Shoreline church. This type of ministry model which I was exposed to in Southern California changed my life as a young 18 year old and I could see just how vital and effective this type of “seeker sensitive” style was. I feel God working at Shoreline. Lives are being changed and we haven’t even really hit our stride yet. At the end of October, our lead team went away to plan the year and I felt God was speaking to me about being even more apart of ministry. I shared these thoughts with Eric and told him to be praying for me and if an opportunity became available, I’d definitely be open to looking at it. These talks intensified after the Renken’s left and this actually became a viable option. So Tara and I took some to talk and pray about it.

My entertainment company has also going through some changes. My business partner, Christen Cowgill, and her husband were moving to California in January. This is actually a GOOD thing for us because that is where our company started and by reviving some old contacts, we have an opportunity to start doing some very profitable events in SoCal really soon. This would mean some travel for me (up to 2X a month). Of course, this ss all speculative and seeing how this will affect our Florida division is going to be interesting to say the least. Again, Tara and I took some time to talk and pray about it.

We set a January 1st deadline for ourselves because we wanted to roll into the new year with a renewed focus. After weighing all the pros and cons and feeling God leading us throughout the entire process we decided the following:

1) We want to pursue the call we believe God has on our lives to move to NYC. We understand this will not be a quick and easy transition and we don’t intend to leave until we are fully ready. At this point, we are looking at taking some exploratory trips this year and if all goes the way we hope, we’d like to relocate by May of 2012. This is very similar to the situation I was in 5 years ago when I decided to take a job in the panhandle of Florida. I knew 1 person when I moved here. Shoreline wasn’t even on the radar and to see how God directed my steps, sharpened and used talents he equipped me with for His glory, and allowed me to meet and eventually marry my amazing wife – I am in awe. God knows what he’s doing and I’m excited to see what God has in store for us there.

2) B-Boy Productions, Inc (my entertainment company) needs me. If #1 above is to become a reality, I need to focus 100% on my company this year and make sure that our Florida division can become manageable from wherever we live and that our California division can generate some profitability by the end of 2011.

3) I am going to rotate off the Shoreline lead team/staff. Again, with #1 and #2 being Tara and I’s “rallying cry” for 2011, I feel it would be a disservice to my wife and to Shoreline to give them sloppy thirds. There’s only so much time in the day and I can’t continue the pace I was at over the last few years, especially as we get ready to launch our Fort Walton Beach campus, without it affecting my wife and the other 2 areas above. This doesn’t mean that we are leaving Shoreline or no longer serving. This is strictly in regards to leading the ministry. We plan to be as involved as we can with Shoreline. It’s just that right now the timing isn’t right to jump into full-time ministry.

After we made the decision, we decided to give it a 1 week “cool off period” to be absolutely sure this was what we believed to be God’s will for us. Sometimes when you ask God to speak to you, he makes it even clearer than you expected. That particular “cool off week” was our “Biggest Loser” series kickoff and it also coincided with my company’s first and biggest “bridal show” of the year in California. Long story short, I put in a ton of hours that week. Once I got to California, I got extremely sick (which is a rarity for me). It was due to being completely run down. I felt like God was saying, “Brian, if you continue this pace, this is what is going to happen.” That was all the confirmation I needed.

The next week Tara and I met with Eric and Darlene and shared with them our heart. I was in no way going to leave them hanging. So I told them that I’d help them however I could in the transition but would like to finalize my time on staff by Easter of this year.

The human side of me was a little nervous for Shoreline to be honest. I knew we didn’t have the time or resources to go find someone outside of Shoreline to take over. So we were going to have to do this internally. God is so perfect in his timing. We recently had some folks join our church with some skill sets that would surpass our current Arts model and set us on a upward trajectory for maximum success moving forward. That in mind, here’s some new leadership changes within the Creative Arts:

1) We will not be replacing my Lead Team position at this time. The Arts will come under the direction of Kim Peters. However, Kim is leading “Administration” as well and so we will have to hire addition help in the Arts as well as raise up and count on our volunteers. Kim’s primary role will be “programming”. She will lead our programming team, handle putting together all of our service flow, adding the “spice” to our services (i.e. dramas, visual arts, video clips, etc), and working with our music director. She has a large amount of experience in this area as has actually been a “silent” programming team member for 2 years (I’ve cc’d her on everything while she was at our pastor’s old church – East Coast Christian Center – working in a similar capacity).

2) Our Music and Programming are the core of the Arts. They are done every week. That in mind, it is imperative that we hire somebody part-time to plan and execute the music. Dan Austin has filling this role for our “weekend services” in a volunteer capacity while I handled the rest of the music area. With me leaving, this option was no longer viable. Dan will continue to serve at Shoreline but will be stepping off in leading this team well. We’ve decided to bring on Aaron Wolfe to lead our entire Music Team (this includes Night Of Worship, Special Events – insider, baptisms, etc, as well as our weekend services). Aaron is extremely well qualified for this role and I have NO DOUBT that he will propel us to new heights with the music ministry. He will be leading the overall ministry and serving at the Destin campus. We will have someone else under Aaron leading the FWB music team. Once we solidify that, we will let you know.

3) We’ve also made a change with Drama. Lisa Tuttle has been leading this for 3 years and done an amazing job. However, this year we need to really expand this part of our Arts. Recently, we’ve had someone on our drama team who has felt God speaking to them and is looking to step up. This is timely because she has the time and energy to really build this team. So I’m excited to announce that Sally Whitesell will be taking on leading our drama team. Again, like the music, we will be looking for a FWB campus person to work under Sally and lead that team. Once we solidify that, we will let you know. Lisa will still be involved and I think this allows her to maximize her gifting in writing. She is an amazing writer and I look forward to the pieces she will be able to create with 100% focus on that.

4) Our Visual Arts team will remain the same. Hillary Fosdyck will continue to run this team. At this time, it is not a necessity to find a person for FWB as the backdrops will not need weekly maintenance/set-up.

I apologize for the lengthy post but I felt it was necessary for you to see the whole picture rather than a small snapshot. Let me close by saying how thankful I am for the opportunity I had to lead this team over the last 5 years. It’s been my honor and privilege to work with such talented artists. I truly believe we have some of the best Artists in the country. I have always said since day 1, that the Creative Arts has never been about me or any single person. The church (all of us) is what it’s about and how we “band” together to share with others with the life-changing and grace-filled message of Christ with those that don’t know Him.

I look forward to seeing where Shoreline goes in the next 5-10 years. It’s going to be an amazing ride. I’d like to ask for you to keep Tara and I in your prayers as well as these new leaders.

Thanks again for reading this.

In Christ,

Brian Buonassissi

Top Ten Ways To Know You Serve on the Creative Arts or Tech Team At Shoreline Church

2010-12-28T09:31:00.000-08:00

We shared this at our annual Christmas Arts Party 2 weeks ago and I was asked to repost so here it is:

Top Ten Ways To Know You Serve on the Creative Arts or Tech Team At Shoreline Church

10) Getting to church on time means getting there while it’s still dark out.

9) You’ve poked your eye out on a tree in the middle of the Rave lobby.

8) You know how to use gaffer’s tape in 20 different ways.

7) Your last name is now used as a punch line (i.e. “Chadwick’d”, Esther’d”, “Renken’d”).

6) If you’ve ever said, “The orange ones go in the orange bin and the yellow ones go in the yellow bin.”

5) You’ve bought a shirt to match a backdrop.

4) Your spouse has to say to you, “Can you NOT play the songs while I’m around this week? I want to be surprised.”

3) The phrase, “It’s 8 O’clock!” sends you into instant panic.

2) You’ve ran from one theatre to another and you actually WEREN’T trying to sneak in to a movie you weren’t supposed to see.

1) You’ve spent 6.5 hours at church on Sunday and not heard a message.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 12/26/10

2010-12-23T08:19:00.000-08:00

SERIES: THE LIFE OF THE PARTY
MESSAGE TITLE: THE AFTER PARTY

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Go Tell It On The Mountain by Needtobreathe
*My Own Little World by Matthew West
*Lay Em Down by Needtobreathe
- WORSHIP
*Joyful, Joyful - Charlie Hall
*Lead Me To The Cross - Chris & Conrad
*Our God (Acoustic Version) - Chris Tomlin

VIDEOS:
Acoustic Christmas Spoof (Bowen Beer Bottle Band)
A Social Network Christmas
Jib Jab Greeting

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 12/19/10

2010-12-23T08:16:00.001-08:00

SERIES: THE LIFE OF THE PARTY
MESSAGE TITLE: THE PURPOSE OF THE PARTY

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Merry Christmas Baby by Sheryl Crow
*Carol Of The Bells by Gary Hoey
*It Came Upon A Midnight Clear by MercyMe
*Come Home by OneRepublic
- WORSHIP
*O Come All Ye Faithful - 33Miles
*Angels We Have Heard On High - Chris Tomlin

VIDEOS:
Pop Christmas Spoof (Keenan Cahill sings "All I Want For Christmas")
Jib Jab Greeting

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 12/12/10

2010-12-23T08:12:00.001-08:00

SERIES: THE LIFE OF THE PARTY
MESSAGE TITLE: INVITATION TO RESPOND

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Jingle Bells by Glee
*Do You Hear What I Hear? by CeCe Winans
*God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Glee
*Angels We Have Heard On High by Glee
- WORSHIP
*You Are Good - Lincoln Brewster
*The First Noel - Aaron Neville
*Joy To The World - Cheryl Rogers

VIDEOS:
Glee Spoof (Elevation Church)
Jib Jab Greeting

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 12/5/10

2010-12-23T08:10:00.000-08:00

SERIES: THE LIFE OF THE PARTY
MESSAGE TITLE: INVITATION EXTENDED

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Jingle Bell Rock by Steve Holy
*Silver Bells by Lady Antebellum
*- WORSHIP
*Happy Day - Bluegrass Worship Band
*You Are My King (Amazing Love) - Rachael Robinson
*Hark! The Herald Angels Sing - Carrie Underwood
*How Great Is Our God - Trinecia Butler

DRAMA:
Ugly Sweater Competition

VIDEOS:
Jib Jab Greeting

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 11/28/10

2010-11-29T14:13:00.000-08:00

SERIES: THE VOW FACTOR
MESSAGE TITLE: THE VOW OF PURITY

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*The Story Of Us by Taylor Swift
*No One Is To Blame by Emile Millar
*Ain't No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
- WORSHIP
*Glory To God Forever - Fee
*None But Jesus - Hillsong
*Our God - Chris Tomlin

DRAMA:
- Marriage Game/Giveaway

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 11/21/10

2010-11-22T06:44:00.001-08:00

SERIES: THE VOW FACTOR
MESSAGE TITLE: THE VOW OF PARTNERSHIP

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*I Want To Grow Old With You by Adam Sandler
*(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To by Weezer
*If It's Love by Train
*I Believe In A Thing Called Love by The Darkness
- WORSHIP
*Where You Go I Go - Jesus Culture
*Reign In Us - Starfield
*Love The Lord - Lincoln Brewster

DRAMA:
- Marriage Game/Giveaway

VIDEOS:
- Rockstar Video Compilations (courtesy of Toad Productions)
- Kelsey McCabe's Story

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 11/14/10

2010-11-22T06:40:00.000-08:00

SERIES: THE VOW FACTOR
MESSAGE TITLE: THE VOW OF PURSUIT

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Every Little Thing He Does Is Magic by Shawn Colvin
*Just The Way You vs Teenage Dream (Brian's Mashup) by Bruno Mars vs Katy Perry
*I Run To You by Lady Antebellum
- WORSHIP
*Marvelous Light (BEP Version) - Charlie Hall
*Lead Me To The Cross - Hillsong
*Holding Nothing Back - Jesus Culture

DRAMA:
- Marriage Game/Giveaway

VIDEOS:
- Hollywood Wedding/Marriage Scenes
- Date Night Video Clips

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 11/7/10

2010-11-10T09:24:00.000-08:00

SERIES: THE VOW FACTOR
MESSAGE TITLE: THE VOW OF PRIORITY

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Breakeven by The Script
*I Never Told You by Colbie Caillat
- WORSHIP
*Power Of The Cross - Martin Chalk
*Holy Is The Lord - Lex Buckley
*Desert - Hillsong

DRAMA:
- Marriage Game/Giveaway

VIDEOS:
- YouTube Wedding Bloopers

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 10/31/10

2010-11-10T08:41:00.000-08:00

SERIES: HOW DID I GET HERE?
MESSAGE TITLE: THE WAITING GAME

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Under Pressure by Queen & David Bowie
*Open Arms by Gary Go
*I Won't Back Down by Tom Petty
-WORSHIP
*Trust In You - Jeremy Camp
*Sing, Sing Sing - Chris Tomlin

VIDEOS:
- Promo Video for "The Vow Factor" (upcoming series)

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 10/24/10

2010-11-10T08:38:00.000-08:00

SERIES: HOW DID I GET HERE?
MESSAGE TITLE: POWER

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Once In A Lifetime by Talking Heads
*Hope In A Hopeless World by Widespread Panic
*Your Hands by JJ Heller
- WORSHIP
*Sing, Sing, Sing - Chris Tomlin
*Blessed Be Your Name - Matt Redman

VIDEOS:
- Ohio Unemployment

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 10/17/10

2010-11-10T08:27:00.000-08:00

SERIES: HOW DID I GET HERE?
MESSAGE TITLE: WHAT ABOUT ME?

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Boulevard Of Broken Dream by Green Day
*There Is A Way by Newworldson
- WORSHIP
*All Because Of Jesus - Fee
*Your Love Never Fails - Jesus Culture
*Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
*Only You - David Crowder Band

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 10/10/10

2010-11-10T08:22:00.000-08:00

SERIES: HOW DID I GET HERE?
MESSAGE TITLE: FIRST IMPRESSION

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Pink Houses by John Mellencamp
*Breathe In Breathe Out by Matt Kearney
*Never Alone by Barlow Girl
- WORSHIP
*Where You Go I Go - Jesus Culture
*Desert Song - Hillsong

VIDEOS:
- Rion's Story

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 10/3/10

2010-09-29T05:18:00.000-07:00

SERIES: SIMPLY SHORELINE
MESSAGE TITLE: GOD'S DREAM

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Blessed by Martina McBride
*Higher Ground by Stevie Wonder
- WORSHIP
*Let The Praises Ring - Lincoln Brewster
*Holding Nothing Back - Melissa How
*Our God - Chris Tomlin

VIDEOS:
- Brian's Worship Intro
- How Did I Get Here Series Promo
- Message Bumper: Brian's Tim Celek Intro

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 9/26/10

2010-09-29T05:16:00.001-07:00

SERIES: SIMPLY SHORELINE
MESSAGE TITLE: SERVING PUSH

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Taking Care Of Business by BTO
*Our Lives by The Calling
- WORSHIP
*Oh Happiness - David Crowder Band
*POwer Of The Cross - Martin Chalk
*Sing To The Lord - Hillsong United

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 9/19/10

2010-09-29T05:11:00.000-07:00

SERIES: SIMPLY SHORELINE
MESSAGE TITLE: LET'S TAKE A WALK

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Where The Streets Have No Name by Chris Tomlin
*Something More by Secondhand Serenade
- WORSHIP
*Song Of Hope (Heaven Come Down) - Robbie Seay Band
*Where You Go I Go - Kim Walker
*Kingdom Come - Elevation Church

VIDEOS:
- Message Bumper: John Siebling's FWB Video

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 9/12/10

2010-09-29T05:10:00.000-07:00

SERIES: SIMPLY SHORELINE
MESSAGE TITLE: INTIMACY WITH GOD

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Here I Am For You by Fee
- WORSHIP
*Majestic - Lincoln Brewster
*With Everything - Hillsong United
*Holding Nothing Back - Melissa How
*From The Inside Out - Hillsong United
*Jesus Paid It All - Passion

VIDEOS:
- Spiritual Intimacy For Curt Palermo
- Spiritual Intimacy For Beth Alexander
- Spiritual Intimacy For Denae Holified
- A Life Of Worship
- Message Bumper: Motion Conference Recap

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 9/5/10

2010-09-07T02:41:00.000-07:00

SERIES: SIMPLY SHORELINE
MESSAGE TITLE: BIBLICAL AUTHORITY

MUSIC:
- WORSHIP
*All Because Of Jesus - Fee
*Always - Hillsong
*Through The Valley - Lex Buckley
*Wholly Yours - David Crowder Band

VIDEOS:
- Message Bumper: Tawny Lee Thomas presents Church-ersise
- My Story: Arlis James

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 8/29/10

2010-08-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

SERIES: SIMPLY SHORELINE
MESSAGE TITLE: GET LIFE DAY

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Owner Of A Lonely Heart by Yes
*You've Got A Friend by Jesus Jones
- WORSHIP
*Let The Praises Ring - Lincoln Brewster
*Kingdom Come - Elevation Church
*Holding Nothing Back - Melissa How

VIDEOS:
- Youtube Clip Of The Week: The Breakup - Dinner Table Singing Scene
- The Decision 2010
- My Story: Joy Elpedes
- Message Bumper: What is Love?

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 8/22/10

2010-08-18T14:25:00.000-07:00

SERIES: SIMPLY SHORELINE
MESSAGE TITLE: CREATING ENVIRONMENTS

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*We Can by Leann Rimes
*Right Here, Right Now by Jesus Jones
- WORSHIP
*Oh Happiness - David Crowder Band
*Our God - Chris Tomlin
*Hosanna - Chelsie Boyd
*Kingdom Come - Elevation Church

VIDEOS:
- My Story: Jeremy Renken
- Video Bumper: FWB Rewind
- FWB Video: Tim Celek (The Crossing)

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 8/15/10

2010-08-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

SERIES: SIMPLY SHORELINE
MESSAGE TITLE: APPRENTICING LEADERS

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*King of Anything by Sara Bareilles
*You Learn by Alanis Morissette
- WORSHIP
*Today Is The Day - Lincoln Brewster
*Holy Is The Lord - Lex Buckley
*Holding Nothing Back - Melissa How

VIDEOS:
- Rudy Giuliani Leadership Clip
- My Story: Beth Alexander
- Video Bumper: Erich Frandrup
- FWB Video: Billy Hornsby

Tough opening tune to play live (thanks Dan - way to make us stretch!). LOVED the new worship tune we introduced called "Holding Nothing Back". Went over really well. Took it to the 90s with the "You Learn" track. Every element really tied in. Definitely a solid weekend.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 8/8/10

2010-08-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

SERIES: SIMPLY SHORELINE
MESSAGE TITLE: I LOVE MY CHURCH

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*One Minute by Kelly Clarkson
*Heartbreak Warfare by John Mayer
- WORSHIP
*Oh Happiness - David Crowder Band
*Power Of The Cross - Martin Chalk
*In The Mystery - Hillsong United

VIDEOS:
- My Story: Shane Keller
- Video Bumper: Sunday's Coming
- FWB Video: Steve Vaggalis (Destiny Worship Center)

Started a "why we do what we do" series. We usually do these 2-3x a year to spell out our vision. Sam and I came up with a cool "My Story" feel for the series. Shane's worked out well. I got the Heartbreak Warfare song idea from another church and edited the song a bit. It worked really well.

"Oh Happiness" was a new worship tune for us. Easy hook to sing. Seemed to catch on with everyone.

Great having a video clip on the FWB launch with Steve V. So cool to see pastors in the community supporting one another. Looking forward to returning the favor.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 8/1/10

2010-07-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

SERIES: THE BOOK OF DANIEL
MESSAGE TITLE: EDGE OF DARKNESS

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*The Lost Get Found by Britt Nicole
- WORSHIP
*Happy Day - Jesus Culture
*Hosanna - Hillsong United
*Revelation Song - Gateway Worship

VIDEOS:
- FWB Video

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 7/25/10

2010-07-31T11:47:00.000-07:00

SERIES: THE BOOK OF DANIEL
MESSAGE TITLE: MAN ON FIRE

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Away From The Sun by 3 Doors Down
*Hope Now by Addison Road
- WORSHIP
*All Because Of Jesus - Fee
*Power Of The Cross - Martin Chalk
*Mighty To Save - Hillsong United

VIDEOS:
- FWB Video

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 7/18/10

2010-07-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

SERIES: THE BOOK OF DANIEL
MESSAGE TITLE: TRAINING DAY

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*We Weren't Meant To Follow by Bon Jovi
*Airplanes by BOB feat. Hayley Williams (of Paramore)
- WORSHIP
*Happy Day - Tim Hughes / Jesus Culture
*Blessed Be Your Name - Matt Redman
*You Hold It All - Desperation Band

VIDEOS:
- FWB Video

Happy Tuesday all! This past weekend we started a book/character study under the series name "The Book Of Daniel". It should be a great series that inspires hope in the midst of tough circumstances. Daniel sure dealt with his share of peer pressure. But he always stayed true to his beliefs, convictions and faith!

We opened the service with a Bon Jovi tune that really talks about taking a stance and being a true leader. The Airplanes tune was a tough tune to find a good "live" version to replicate. It has a great message but with no rapper available, I had to utilize youtube to find a "singing" version of the tune. We combined 2 different versions to make this one come off! I was in route to Vegas on Sunday but the reports I heard is that the service went off well. Great to have such an amazing team of folks that can make the church run on all cylinders when you're not in town.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 7/11/10

2010-07-14T08:22:00.000-07:00

SERIES: LOVE REVOLUTION
MESSAGE TITLE: THE GUERRILLA FRIEND

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*King Of Pain by Alanis Morissette
*Hear Me by Kelly Clarkson
*You've Got A Friend In Me by Paul Newman
- WORSHIP
*All We Need - Charlie Hall
*Your Love Never Fails - Jesus Culture
*Our God - Chris Tomlin

DRAMA:
-I Need

VIDEOS:
-Chris Hodges FWB Video
-Book Of Daniel Teaser
-Guerrilla Assignments #5: Ambush As A Serving Group

This was the close-out weekend of our "Love Revolution" series and I'm so proud of our teams for a variety of reasons.

Everything seemed to tie-in so well this week! Great job programming team!

With the small bands at each campus, we're forced to have to become tighter and our singers that are scheduled are singing more tunes than they have in the past. This was my first week singing "live" in months. I've been directing the band on the mic when I've been playing through the in-ear monitors while not being live in the house. It's been a huge advantage with the technology wehave. However, with Paisha being the only other vocalist in service 1 and 3, I had to do some BGVs in addition to leading one worship tune this week. I forgot how much I love to do BGVs. Love harmonizing with others.

Chelsea was scheduled to sing in service 2. She came down sick on Friday but pulled through. Thanks to Shannon Siegrist for being ready to step-in if needed. Our team is soo good like that! When one person is down, another picks it right up! That's so huge!

Alan and Lisa did a tremendous job on the drama combo with the "Hear Me" tune. Very powerful. We had some mic issues with the drama in the 2nd and 3rd service but all in all, it was great to have that element in our service again. I know I really want to see us incorporate dramas more often. Thanks to the Crossing for the script.

Learning that "You've Got A Friend In Me" was a challenge for me. That's definitely NOT my style of playing. After "dumbing it down" (thanks Chad Gilliland for giving me that term) somewhat, I was able to give it a decent cover that made it seem like I knew what I was doing. Luckily, it came off. Thank you Jesus!

The message was brought courtesy of our resident Englishman, Pastor Sam. His story about the chick on the toilet seat will be a Shoreline classic for years to come. Awesome job this weekend.

Sam did a tremendous job on the "teaser" video ad for our new series starting next week called the "Book of Daniel" (awesome voice-over by our own Dan Collins). I'm really looking forward to the impact that this series I believe is going to have on the people who attend our church. The topics are very timely with so much fear and despair going on in our localized area due to the oil spill and economy issues. Can't wait to see what God does here!

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 7/4/10

2010-07-08T09:35:00.000-07:00

SERIES: LOVE REVOLUTION
MESSAGE TITLE: THE GUERRILLA WEAPON

MUSIC:
- WORSHIP
*Everlasting God - Lincoln Brewster
*Blessed Be Your Name - Matt Redman
*Reign In Us - Starfield
*Lay It Down - Dave Lubben

GIVEAWAY:
-4th of July Holiday Giveaways

VIDEOS:
-Dan Stallbaum FWB Video
-Guerrilla Assignments #4: Ambush A Charity

This week Eric returned....sort of. He's actually still in Bali but pre-recorded a message for this particular weekend before he left. We showed the message via video. It was great to use this format again (last time we did this was a couple years ago). We dimmed the lights and went for it! To give some levity to the service, we spent $30 TOTAL (thank you Dollar General) for 3 services worth of giveaways. It was fun and because we were so video heavy this week, we needed some more live elements. First weekend of the year where we did all worship music. Made it very easy on our band...which was all acoustic this week.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 6/27/10

2010-07-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

SERIES: LOVE REVOLUTION
MESSAGE TITLE: WHAT IS LOVE?

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Love Revolution by Chris & Conrad
- WORSHIP
*Power Of The Cross - Martin Chalk
*You're Worthy Of My Praise - Big Daddy Weave & Barlowgirl
*Holy Is The Lord - Chris Tomlin
*Lead Me To The Cross - Hillsong

VIDEOS:
-What Is Love?
-Casey Henegan's Pastor FWB Video
-Guerrilla Assignments #3: Ambush The Parking Lot

So what do you do when you have a guest speaker and no clue where he's going other than he's talking about "Love Revolution"? You go generic. This Chris and Conrad song was a suggestion from one of our Programming Team Members and although we could've used it anywhere in the series (we'd considered it the past 2 weeks), we decided to hold off on it. This I believe was a God moment. It worked perfectly with the message.

Speaking of the message, we had a guest speaker while Eric is gone on vacation (25th anniversary) to Bali. His name is Casey Henagan and he launched Keypointe Church in Arkansas on the SAME weekend as Shoreline. Casey called me up and gave me his thoughts on his message on Tuesday. Unfortunately, that didn't give us much time to come up with much to support his talk. But one idea that did come was playing off the title and big idea of his message "What Is Love" and doing a Night At The Roxbury spoof. We threw something together pretty quick and used it in the service and then had that as the "walk out song" at the end of the service. Here's the clip.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 6/20/10

2010-06-21T06:03:00.000-07:00

SERIES: LOVE REVOLUTION
MESSAGE TITLE: THE GUERRILLA EQUATION

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Everybody Hurts by Alex Parks
*World by Five For Fighting
- WORSHIP
*Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
*Desert Song - Hillsong
*Mighty To Save - Laura Story

VIDEOS:
-Post Secret: What's Your Secret
-Matt Keller FWB Video
-Guerrilla Assignments #2: Ambush Your Co-Workers

It was Father's Day weekend. Boo on me!! I didn't have any giveaways planned for dad's. My bad. We'll get you next year...I promise. Anyways, this was the 2nd weekend of our "Love Revolution" series. Eric's talk was about how to some of the keys to being compassionite to others. A couple ways to accomplish this: Put yourself in their shoe, make time, and remember the gospel (the good news that God saved us). If you do these 3 things, you're well on your way.

Creatively, we decided to focus on the "put yourself in their shoes" and "make time" connection. Thanks to Lisa Tuttle, who once again found a signature piece for us to use. It was this video from "Post Secret". Such a cool piece...we did have to edit it a bit to make it work in a service but the point of using the video was to show that you "don't know what others are truly going through". From that, we found a very cool version of "Everybody Hurts" - a stripped down acoustic version. Because of some last minute personnel issues, we ended up just doing it with a keyboard and a vocal. WHOA!!! It was powerful.

We also used as song called "World" by Five For Fighting as we wanted to tie in the "making time" element. It is truly our world. We can make of it what we want. What are we going to chose to do is the question.

All in all great weekend!

e: Weekly Blog Postings: Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 6/13/10

2010-06-18T06:51:00.000-07:00

SERIES: LOVE REVOLUTION
MESSAGE TITLE: THE GUERRILLA MOTTO

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Revolution by The Beatles
*Say by John Mayer
- WORSHIP
*Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
*Your Love Never Fails - Jesus Culture
*Lead Me To The Cross - Hillsong

VIDEOS:
-Dino Rizzo FWB Video
-Guerrilla Assignment #1 - Ambush Your Neighbors

This weekend was the start of a new series, called "Love Revolution". It's based off of Vince Antonucci's book "Guerrilla Lovers". The big idea in this series is that our church wants to change the perception people have of the church "loving people". It should be with NO STRINGS attached. We want to make this a lifestyle not just a temporary, once a year initiative. In this week's installment, Eric laid the groundwork for this change by saying that we first just need to be "normal". Have normal conversation with people. Love people where they're at.

We went back to 2 bands this week. It's amazing how much stress that releives. Also, had a cool video from Dino Rizzo encouraging our church during this FWB push.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 6/6/10

2010-06-08T08:59:00.000-07:00

SERIES: CONNECTIONS
MESSAGE TITLE: REACHING THOSE THAT ARE FAR FROM GOD

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*The Way I Am by Jennifer Knapp
*Perfect People by Natalie Grant
-WORSHIP
*Run - Hillsong
*You're Worthy Of My Praise - Big Daddy Weave and Barlowgirl
*Mighty To Save - Hillsong

Special guest speaker, Dave Smethurst, spoke this weekend. Due to limited personnel, we went with 1 band and did an acoustic set again this weekend. Duane Mays was back! What a gifted musician and an amazing worshipful heart! I was out of town this weekend so I really don’t have much else to report other than the feedback I received back was really good! So stoked to be able to take a weekend off and leave everything in such capable hands.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 5/30/10

2010-06-08T08:53:00.000-07:00

SERIES: KEY HOLDERS
MESSAGE TITLE: KEY TO EVERYTHING

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Mountain O' Things by Tracy Chapman
-WORSHIP
*Song Of Hope (Heaven Come Down) - Robbie Seay Band
*You're Worthy Of My Praise - Big Daddy Weave and Barlowgirl
*Ready Now - Desperation Band
*Lay It Down - Dave Lubben

VIDEOS:
-Dave & Esther Posey Part 3 of 3

Last weekend of the series! We talked about how to be spontaneous with our giving...creating margin so we can give when we see an opportunity to do so. Shannon sang lead on a cool Tracy Chapman tune. Dan rocked it on keys with me. Such a great serving spirit on our team. I love how our people will see a need and just figure out a way to fill it!

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 5/23/10

2010-06-08T08:47:00.000-07:00

SERIES: KEY HOLDERS
MESSAGE TITLE: KEY TO THE CITY

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*My Sacrifice by Creed
-WORSHIP
*Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
*Everlasting God - Lincoln Brewster
*Your Love Never Fails - Jesus Culture
*Lead Me To The Cross - Hillsong

VIDEOS:
-Dave & Esther Posey Part 2 of 3

This was a cool weekend because we talked about making a difference in our city...financially. Eric spoke on the vision for the FWB Campus and how that's going to require us all to sacrifice. Nice having Dave Posey on percussion. That guy rocks!

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 5/16/10

2010-06-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

SERIES: KEY HOLDERS
MESSAGE TITLE: KEY TO THE HOUSE

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*It's Your Life by Francesca Battistelli
-WORSHIP
*All Because Of Jesus - Fee
*Our God - Chris Tomlin
*Hosanna - Chelsie Boyd
*None But Jesus - Hillsong

VIDEOS:
-Dave & Esther Posey Part 1 of 3

The start of a new series on giving! Tithing principles are so important to our growth as believers. We don't hit this area very often in our weekend services but it is vital to taking people to the next level. We decided to give our band a break and go "acoustic" for the series. It'll be fresh and something we haven’t done in a while. Chelsea and Judy led worship this week and did a phenomenal job! Thanks for serving ladies. We also had Alan Tuttle MD for the first time. He blew me away!!! Such a professional. AND we had Hope Tuttle play some jimbey. That was such a cool surprise.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 5/9/10

2010-06-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

SERIES: CONNECTIONS
MESSAGE TITLE: MOTHER'S DAY

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*A Change Is Gonna Come by Seal
*Temporary Home by Carrie Underwood
-WORSHIP
*All Because Of Jesus - Fee
*Mighty To Save - Laura Story
*Revelation Song - Gateway

VIDEOS:
-Mother's Day Commercial - John Lewis Ad
-Shorebreak Kids Talk About Moms

Mother's Day weekend is typically the 3rd highest attended service (outside of Easter and Christmas). We usually do a little something for mom's but our focus has always been to talk about something other than Mother's Day. Reason? Well, if people only go to church on this day, then they're probably hearing the same type of message every year. So we use this opportunity to give a vision message (why we do what we do).

We went back to 2 bands this week. Volunteers are running thin on our music team so we had a few people sit in (thank you Chris, Josh and Matt Anderson). Jeremy did an amazing job in svc 1/3 of singing "A Change Is Gonna Come". That style is in his sweet spot for sure. Meanwhile, service 2 had Paisha hitting it out of the park with "Temporary Home". Casey (svc 1/3 worship leader) was sick this weekend but I was so proud of her for pulling through. We also had a video of Shorebreak kids giving their thoughts on their mom! Kids are hilarious!

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 5/2/10

2010-06-08T08:04:00.000-07:00

SERIES: CONNECTIONS
MESSAGE TITLE: SHORELINE'S 5TH BIRTHDAY

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Celebration by Kool & The Gang
*Party In The USA by Miley Cyrus
*Beautiful Day by U2
-WORSHIP
*Happy Day - Jesus Culture
*Blessed Be Your Name - Matt Redman
*Ready Now - Desperation Band

VIDEOS:
-Happy 5th Birthday Shoreline Montage
-Eric Partin Reflection on 5 years
-Brian Buonassissi Impact

We celebrated 5 years as a church this weekend! I love birthday weekends because it gives us a chance to pause for a moment and look back on what we've accomplished so far and then look forward to what is to come. We went back to 1 band for both services. Hunter Dawson (one of our guitarists/worship leaders) finally got his wish, we did "Party In The USA". We edited it down and used it as we introduced the staff. Speaking of the staff, Sam scheduled his vacation not knowing we were having the birthday weekend this week. So it was all about video editing for me this weekend. It was fun, challenging, and rewarding. I picked up a little tip...with the flip camera, you can't go more than 2 minutes before it audio/video start to separate when you convert them with Final Cut. God to know. We had the youth come on the stage during worship as we introduced "Ready Now" to our adults. The teens had this as sort of their anthem at camp last year. What a powerful tune. The "Beautiful Day" song took us by surprise. That tune is hard!!! Sometimes you don't realize it until you're in the midst of learning it. Sounds a lot easier than it is. Thanks for the humbling lesson U2...I know I needed it!

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 4/25/10

2010-06-07T11:04:00.000-07:00

SERIES: UNFILTERED: GROUNDS FOR QUESTIONING
MESSAGE TITLE: WHY IS CHRISTIANTY UNFAIR?

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Mad World by Alex Parks / Tara McLean
-WORSHIP
*Happy Day - Tim Hughes
*Desert Song - Hillsong
*Our God - Chris Tomlin
*Grace Like Rain - Todd Agnew

DRAMA:
-What are people thinking?

This weekend Dani spoke. Because of the band make-ups (1 band had keys and 1 didn't), we ended up finding 2 different versions of the "Mad World" tune to have it work for the different band's personnel. We're learning as we go with this staggered service / 2 band format.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 4/18/10

2010-06-07T10:54:00.000-07:00

SERIES: UNFILTERED: GROUNDS FOR QUESTIONING
MESSAGE TITLE: HOW GOOD IS GOOD ENOUGH?

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*The Middle by Jimmy Eats World
*Forgiven And Loved by Jimmy Needham
-WORSHIP
*Happy Day - Tim Hughes
*Our God - Chris Tomlin
*None But Jesus - Hillsong

DRAMA:
-What are people thinking?

Sam gave the talk this Sunday. We officially announced Dan Austin as the "weekend music director" to our congregation and prayed over him in the service. I love doing this kind've stuff!!! This was a huge milestone for our Creative Arts Ministry. Dan is going to take us to new heights in this role. We also experimented with a lean band in Svc 2. We had no bass player so I ended up splitting the keyboard to play bass and all the keyboard parts with Hunter on guitar and Charles on drums. It was REALLY tight even with the small band. Another experiment was having Jeremy go back and forth singing the "Forgiven and Loved" tune on both sides. It worked out REALLY well!

We also introduced a new worship that I love. It's called "Our God". I think it will be our church anthem for this season.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 4/11/10

2010-06-07T10:51:00.000-07:00

SERIES: UNFILTERED: GROUNDS FOR QUESTIONING
MESSAGE TITLE: AREN'T ALL RELIGIONS THE SAME?

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Heaven by Live
*Closer To Fine by Indigo Girls
*By Your Side by Tenth Avenue North
-WORSHIP
*All Because Of Jesus - Fee
*Holy Is The Lord - Lex Buckley
*Mighty To Save - Hillsong (Wow Version)

DRAMA:
-What are people thinking?

This was the first weekend we decided to field two bands doing the same material. It makes for some additional programming thinking as the material has to be able to be covered by both bands (vocally and instrumentally) but makes it much easier as a portable church from a set-up/tear-down perspective.

Ft Walton Beach Campus Update: 5/28/10

2010-05-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

I've been getting a lot of people e-mailing, calling, texting, etc. me about the latest update on the Fort Walton Beach campus. I thought I'd use this blog to keep everyone in the loop.

Monday afternoon our lead team prayed over a proposal that we faxed off to the leasing agent. As of today (Friday), we have not heard back. Please be keeping this negotiation process in prayer.

Also, last weekend Eric talked about what is needed financially to make this campus vision a reality. He asked our church to pray about it and then come this week with a commitment. Please be praying for this!

We serve a God who can do anything...even the impossible. More news to come.

Sorry for the absence...

2010-05-27T12:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy couple weeks with the staggered services and being in wedding season. But I'm determined to stay with this blog. I'll be playing catch-up this weekend with the service elements and post those shortly. Stay tuned. For now, I thought I'd share with you this youtube video that is getting popular right now.

In an impressive display of sheer martial arts prowess, this bear insides of a Japanese zoo enclosure, is clearly hatching an escape plan and honing his Kung Fu skills to beat his handlers to a pulp with a stick on his way out. Enjoy!

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 4/4/10

2010-04-06T19:07:00.000-07:00

SERIES: UNFILTERED: GROUNDS FOR QUESTIONING
MESSAGE TITLE: IS GOD REAL?

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Easter 2010 Opening Medley arranged by Brian B and Dan Austin
*These Hard Times by Needtobreathe
*Dear God by XTC
-WORSHIP
*Today Is The Day - Lincoln Brewster
*Power Of The Cross - Martin Chalk
*From The Inside Out - Hillsong

DRAMA:
-What are people thinking?
-Grounds For Questioning

VIDEOS:
-E-Trade Baby Commerical
-Sonic Epic Commercial

So this is the crème de le crème of Sundays in the church world. If anybody is going to go to church, this is the weekend. Last year we had over 1,100 people attend in 5 services @ 3 different campuses. This year we only had 1 campus for Easter but still were going with the staggered services + an overflow. No pressure or anything right?

Well, I must say, we had a real struggle in coming up with what we were going to do with Easter. After numerous meetings and discussions, we landed on "Unfiltered: Grounds For Questioning". The idea behind the series was to deal with questions that real people wrestle with. With the topic and series decided on 2 weeks prior to Easter, our programming team was under the gun to get something together.

The band has been hit by a multitude of departures, etc. with people moving, taking different jobs, etc so we've been EXTREMELY thin at almost every instrumentalist position. We were struggling to put the band together much less the programming and I somehow knew at that instant that God would come through. We had 2 of our most talented guitarists who haven't played in a while (Hunter and Matt) step up and play. That was a huge God moment for me!

Dan and I came up with a plethora of tunes questioning "God being real" and thought about putting together a medley. He took the lead on this and worked out a 9 minute medley that I edited down to 4 minutes. Great way to open the service.

Worship was the best it's been in I don't know how long. The energy in the room and excellence with the musicians was at an all-time high. Dan picked an amazing worship set! It all REALLY connected and people were worshipping like crazy!!!

We added some comic relief to what was going to be a pretty heavy topic by using Graeme to do some v/o work. We did the roving camera in the crowd with a "What Are People Thinking" banner. We made fun of the band...always good times.

In looking for our tension starter, The Crossing came through again. I saw that they were going to do "These Hard Times" by Needtobreathe and although we did the tune in the latter part of last year, it went perfect with narrowing the focus in the service. It's got such a catchy hook and the lyrics are amazing.

To add some more tension, I called on Lisa Tuttle, who's been helping us with dramas for the past 2 years, and she wrote an amazing piece that her husband Alan performed (our first drama of the year). That guy can sell any theatrical piece!

As I was driving one day last week, the "Dear God" tune came to me. I knew this would be an edgy piece but it went perfect with Eric's message. This was the centerpiece I was looking for to build our arts portion of the service around. Jeremy gave it the emotion it needed and the band played it so well!!! The 3rd service you could hear a pin drop at the end of the tune. It did it's job.

Sam, as usual, went all out with the bumper. He and Christopher Byron did some stop motion cinematography. Cool tune as well. Be sure to check it out here when they upload the video.

We closed the service with some comic relief during the offering. Our "E-Trade Baby Commercial" was brought out of retirement and people were rollling. Graeme and his "Sonic Epic Commercial" also worked well.

The backdrop was phenomenal. Our Visual Arts team worked hours to make this come together and boy did it show. We experimented with a few elements that didn't come off (coffee beans in the cup, brewing coffee behind the stage) to allure the "smell" sense and we built a few coragated fixtures. But I was so impressed with their vision and willingness to try it all.

Our Creative Arts volunteers kicked butt!!! Tons of hours put in and never a complaining tone at all. The service was IMHO one of the best we've EVER had at Shoreline. It really ranks in one of the top services I've ever been apart of at Shoreline. Oh, and the attendance? We have over 1,160 this year. Here's a pic of 1 of the services.

I'm hoping that those that came for the first time will continue to come back and give this church thing a chance. Their lives will be forever changed.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 3/28/10

2010-04-06T18:43:00.001-07:00

SERIES: THE GREATEST
MESSAGE TITLE: THE GREATEST SACRIFICE

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*The Distance by Cake
*This Is Your Life by Switchfoot
-WORSHIP
*Happy Day - Jesus Culture
*Your Grace Is Enough - Matt Maher
*Let It Rise - Big Daddy Weave
*You Are My King (Amazing Love) - Passion
*Lay It Down - Dave Lubben

I'm sorry for the 1 week blogging absence. Getting ready for Easter, starting the staggered services and launcing "Experiencing Shoreline" have been quite projects! On this particular weekend, we closed out our "The Greatest" Series and talked about Communion. It was fitting that we did this on Palm Sunday. Great way to walk into Easter.

Jeremy was our Creative Arts Representative during the "Experiencing Shoreline" volunteer orientation. He did a great job! I think the newbies got a good glimpse of just what goes on behind the scenes.

We had our practice run through with the staggered service. We learned a lot through this practice run....stuff that we were able to really work on before Easter. One of the biggest challenges with the staggered service is going to be staying organized with service times. The other challenge is raising up another team. Being portable can really drain you out setting up just 1 theatre...then you add a 2nd theatre to the mix. Whew! Let's just say I was ready for nap at the end of the last service.

Dan came across a good find for our opening tune this weekend called "The Distance". A great tune about someone committed to being great and not straying off course. The band had a great groove and I got to play some cool keyboard parts :)

Paisha and West led worship. We did 4 tunes during our initial worship set. Eric came up in the 3rd service and closed us out of worship with a moving scripture reading.

We did the Switchfoot tune in the middle of the service. It's a no brainer that West would sing it. When he gets a piece like that, one which he connects with...it's game over!!! He killed it. One person commented that he'd never seen West sing better!

At the end of the message, we took communion as a church and Dan led the congregation in "Lay It Down". What an awesome song to leave us with before Easter.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 3/21/10

2010-03-24T11:32:00.001-07:00

SERIES: THE GREATEST
MESSAGE TITLE: A DIFFERENT KIND OF GREAT

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*All Star by Smashmouth
*Keep Holding On by Avril Lavigne
- WORSHIP
*I Am Free (Who The Son Sets Free) - Newsboys
*Your Love Never Fails - Jesus Culture
*Desert Song - Natalie Grant
*How He Loves - Kim Walker
VIDEOS:
-Serving Time Lapse Video

This week was our serving push weekend. We do these twice a year. We had it scheduled for last week but quickly called an audible when we realized time change weekend was the same weekend. So we moved it thinking more people would be there for the "Big Ask". The weather decided not to cooperate and thus our attendance was a little lower than we had hoped. But, those are the times when you lean on God most to come through and boy did He! We had a record # of people sign up to serve in different ministries.

Creatively, we opened the service with the tune "All Star". The song, although a bit cheesy musically, has a great lyrical message about the ability of ANYONE being an All-Star. They just have to go out there and play! How true that line of thinking is in serving at a church.

Worship was powerful this weekend. Dan is doing an awesome job in picking some fresh arrangements of worship music. Paisha hit those worship tunes out of the park! Before Eric's message, we went into the Avril Lavgine song "Keep Holding On". Looking back, I wish I could have a do-over. The song has a great lyrical message. I do, however, think we could've tied it in more with a focus. Oh well, you can't win them all!

At the end of the message, we did our "big ASK". Eric challenged folks to consider serving for the next 3 months in an area that fits what they like to do. Graeme helped provide the color commentary during this "auction style" serving push. To give people a feel for all the opportunities, we had Todd put together a time-lapse video. It was quite honestly one of the best videos we've ever had to highlight all it takes to make a Service Experience happen at the Shoreline. Check it out.

Our close-out weekend of "The Greatest" series is next weekend. Hope to see you there.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 3/14/10

2010-03-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

SERIES: THE GREATEST
MESSAGE TITLE: SUPPORTING ROLE

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Live Like We're Dying by Kris Allen
*I Was Here by Lady Antebellum
- WORSHIP
*Majestic - Lincoln Brewster
*Reign In Us - Starfield
*Lead Me To The Cross - Chris and Conrad
*Revelation Song - Philips, Craig and Dean

VIDEOS:
-Epic's Goin Down: Announcement Video

This has been a crazy busy week for me. Getting ready for Easter and planning for future staggered services, equipment buying, Shoreline Insider, etc has taken up much of my week. But I didn't let it beat me. I still got in my blog for the week.

This past weekend was a solid service. The Kris Allen tune is hot right now and Lady Antebellum has to be one of the hottest bands out. I feel we had 2 really good connecting elements musically. We tried a few new arrangements of some of our more "standard" worship tunes. But the highlight of the service had to be the youth video. Great job Graeme and team for putting that together in 2 days. That's all I got this week. I promise I'll blog more next week.

Resource Week: Uncrate

2010-03-10T11:11:00.000-08:00

This comes courtesy of Sam. Check out Uncrate.

While this site isn't something I specifically use for any one thing, it's a great resource for seeing some of the trendy products that are coming out. This could give us a feel and look of a series (branding wise), give us backdrop ideas, etc.

Resource Week: Green Book Of Songs

2010-03-10T07:19:00.000-08:00

This post is a day late...my apologies. In our service format at Shoreline, "Performance Songs" are an important part of our DNA. Our major target audience for our weekend services is "non-churched" folks. We feel "Performance Songs" are an easy way for people who have never gone to church to connect with us. Why?

REASON #1 - Most people feel comfortable watching a performance. Whether that would be going to concerts or a bar to watch a band, headed to a theatre to watch a movie, play or musical, or a date night at comedy club to watch a comedian. It is easy and non-evasive. You can just sit and watch and not feel pressure to have to participate. One of the most foreign thing for "non-churched" folks is standing for 30 minutes and singing worship music. For one, the tunes are typically songs they don't know. And secondly, they feel forced to have to participate. If they don't participate, they look like the outcast. So while we do insert worship music on Sundays, we limit how much of it we do on a Sunday morning in order to create an environment that any one would feel "at home".

REASON #2 - We also desire to do music that is familiar with people. The style(s) of music your church uses should be based around the age demographic of your attendees and geographical location of the church. We have such a diverse group of attendees at Shoreline. Our music selections have run the gamut from 1960s motown to 90s alternative to top 40 of today. Obviously, the more recognizable the piece the better. Hopefully, people will hear the tune at some point outside of church and remember that we did that tune AT CHURCH and they can think back as to why the tune was done and/or what we were talking about that day.

REASON #3 - The songs need to have a point. If you merely pick a tune for the sake of doing a tune, it's literally just an "entertainment" piece. We pick tunes that have a tie-in to that weekend's message. Although this is #3 on the list, this is the #1 thing to keep in mind when picking tunes.

With millions of songs out there to pick from, how can you find songs that directly tie-in? Well, with the help of Todd Siegrist, a member of our programming team, he found a site that has been VERY helpful for us. It's called The Green Book Of Songs. For a small annual fee (something stupid like $10-20), you can find TONS of songs (this is updated very regularly) on various topics. This is a huge help and one of many resources we use to find tunes at Shoreline. This can work for more than just church stuff. This could help for music to go along plays/musicals or movie productions, etc. Hope you find it useful as well. Thanks Todd for the hook-up!

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 3/7/10

2010-03-08T06:40:00.000-08:00

SERIES: THE GREATEST
MESSAGE TITLE: OUT OF THE WAY

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*The Best by Tina Turner
*Change by Carrie Underwood
*I Want To Know What Love Is by Mariah Carey
- WORSHIP
*Tell The World - United Live
*Reign In Us - Starfield
*None But Jesus - Hillsong

VIDEOS:
-Man On The Street: Who's The Greatest

We headed into a new series this past weekend called "The Greatest". The main question of the series is this: What does it mean to be the greatest? There are so many different answers to that question. However, God's answer is pretty simple. It says in Matthew 22:37-39, "Jesus replied, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

A new trussing/staging system was brought in this week. This hopefully will go a long way in standardizing our set design. Thank you Hillary, Tara, Zack and Shane for putting this together. We also tried redesigning the stage pieces in preparation for our Easter services. Thankfully, we have a few more weeks to work out the kinks. Thanks musicians and Eric for working with the limited stage space.

Our service opened with a song called "The Best". In lieu of showing lyrics, we had quotes scrolling on the screen from folks that many would consider "great" (Michael Jordan, Mother Teresa, etc.). The band sounded tight! Great having Alan Tuttle back playing bass. Also had some killer guitar riffs courtesy of Jill Fuller, sitting in with us this weekend on guitar.

As we went into worship, we introduced a song that we'd done in a Night of Worship a while back called "Reign In Us" by Starfield. It’s a catchy tune with powerful lyrics. Our youth showed us this tune from their summer youth conference they went to last year.

We'd taped a "man of the street" interview earlier in the week asking the questions, "Who Is The Greatest Person You Know" and "What does it mean to be great?" Interestingly enough, all of the answers had to do with personal friends or family. None were celebrities or heroes. This went perfect with the song "Change" by Carrie Underwood. I'm not a huge country fan but Carrie penned some amazing lyrics on this tune.

Our video bumper had an original musical piece made by Justin Hunolt, one of our college kids. Justin has been producing music for the last couple of years and is also an accomplished musician. He took a sample from a Mohammad Ali speech and used the "I Am The Greatest" line throughout the piece. Great job Justin!

We ended the service with the remake of Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is" covered by Mariah Carey. We used a click track made by a guy I met at our church membership dinner literally one week prior to the service. His name is Shane Keller. He recreated the beat and added in his own flavor. Shane is going to be a huge asset to our team. Can't wait to see what his creativity is going to bring to our services.

As a side note, we had a little emergency this Sunday. At 5:45AM Sunday morning, we (Shoreline) were taking things out of our storage closet in the Rave. An item fell and hit a water pipe and water gushed everywhere inside the closet. A mini-flood ensued in the closet. The water in the Rave was turned off for bit until we could get a handle on the situation. Luckily, we had a handy man in our church (Will Gilette) come and fix it and it appears as if all of our gear still works. Whew! Never a dull moment at Shoreline.

8-Year-Old Brazilian Girl Does Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance"

2010-03-08T06:11:00.000-08:00

Watch as 8-year-old Laura Montana takes to the stage on a Brazilian talent show with a rough...err...unique cover of Lady Gaga's smash hit "Bad Romance".

Resource Week: The Cool Hunter

2010-03-08T05:32:00.000-08:00

This week I thought I'd begin a series of posts with some cool website resources that I've either ran across myself or someone has shown me. These sites either have given me and/or our teams some creative inspiration and I hope it can do the same for you.

Today's site comes courtesy of Hillary Fosdyck, our visual arts team leader and a member of our programming team. From design to music to fashion, this site is such a gold mine. Check it out here.

Love seeing our creativity leveraged...

2010-03-04T12:51:00.000-08:00

We recently shook up our programming team and added a few new people. One of them was Graeme Cowgill, our current youth leader. Besides the obvious laughs that come with him being ANYWHERE, he is able to take some of the ideas we come up with and leverage them for the youth services.

At one of our more recent meetings, we talked about the "Sonic" commercials that are running and utilizing the concept for a campaign of ours. We haven't had the man power to put those together for the adult service so Graeme took the concept to the youth services and ran with it. They are utilizing them as an "advertising" campaign for their services. Check it out below.

One other video worth sharing with you. They came up with this on their own. Graeme pulled a prank on on his wife Christen, who coincidentally is also my business partner.
Funny side note: this was shown in the youth service. Apparently one of the teens tried it on their mom and she sprayed soda all over ceiling of the kitchen. Not too surprisingly, that kid's mother wasn't totally stoked about it. LOL.

We've always desired a youth service at Shoreline that is ahead of us adults in creativity. Our youth department is well on its way....wish they had this type of youth department when I was a teen.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 2/28/10

2010-03-02T06:41:00.000-08:00

SERIES: THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT
MESSAGE TITLE: THERE'S A LIFEGROUP FOR THAT

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*I'll Be There For You (Friends Theme) by The Rembrandts
*Use Somebody by Kings Of Leon
*I'll Stand By You by Gina Glocksen
- WORSHIP
*Run - Hillsong
*Mighty To Save - Laura Story
*Sing To The Lord - Hillsong

This was the close-out weekend for the "There's An App For That" series. We ended the 4-week series with 'Get Life Day'. This is the Sunday where we roll out the current semester's lifegroups. With so much growth over the last few months, I think people were jonesin' (editor note: love that word) for a way to get more connected with the church. Lifegroups are the perfect outlet for that.

Speaking of growth, last week in our 2nd service, Eric asked for 60 people to stand up from their seats to signify they were willing to switch the service they attend to the 9:30AM one in order to make more room. Well, when our church is challenged, they respond! 1st service was off the hook! I could really feel it with our worship time. That, along with the fact that people are fasting made for an amazing time of worship. "Sing To The Lord" is quickly becoming one of my favorite worship tunes. Thanks Chris for introducing that one to us.

Creatively, this is one of those topics that we're going to hit at least twice a year so it's important to keep a plethora of ideas in the cue for when we're going to hit this one. It's kind've crazy that we hadn't yet covered the "Friends Theme" in all of our previous years. So that was a great opener to use. We actually had covered "Use Somebody" in our services last year right before it skyrocketed to the top of charts. I'm not a fan of recycling performance tunes but every now and then it's good to do so, especially if you can do it better than you did it the time before. Dan knocked it out of the park this weekend and the band played it really well. You can view it here (best viewed with the Google Chrome browser).

The message is where we really infused some creativity. In past "Get Life Day" services, we would take up almost 20 minutes of the alloted message time showcasing life groups via video. However, with so many groups being offered, it's impossible to do that now. Eric did a great job highlighting the groups and magazine. He had people flipping to certain page #'s with some music going on lightly in the background. People were really engaged. It was perfectly executed!

We closed the service with the Pretenders song called "I'll Stand By You". We did the Gina Glocksen version (former American Idol contestant). A classic tune...and not an easy one to sing by any means. 4 key changes in the song. The thing I love about the song is the lyricaly content and meaning behind it. It really was a perfect ending to a "Get Life Day" message.

32 Years ago....

2010-02-23T14:19:00.001-08:00

....I was born in Springfield, MO.

In one sense, I can't believe it's been 32 years. On the other hand, I feel like I've done and experienced more in the short time I've been on this earth than most people do in a lifetime.

Looking back, I was raised in what is one of the most diverse and populated places (SoCal) in the United States. Growing up in the "OC bubble" was a wonderful place that I still call 'home'.

SoCal has the best, most consistent weather you could ask for (can you say 75 degrees YEAR ROUND?). Sunsets like this are daily occurances (one of the many perks).

I've worked in some of the most corporate of environments....

...dabbled with a few ingenious start-ups...

...and even worked for a few philanthropic organizations.

If you would've asked me when I was in high school if I thought I'd be where I'm at now both geographically and vocationally, I would've said, "You're crazy!". Every step of the way, God has had my back. It's so bizarre to see how every connection I've made has led to where I am right now.

2010 is turning into a landmark year for me.

I'm about to start a new chapter of my life when I get married in the fall. Once again, I've been blessed. I'm engaged to the most amazing woman I've ever met. She is the most caring, wonderful, supportive and beautiful woman in the whole world. I definitely don't deserve someone this perfect. The Big Fella was really looking out for me on this one.

I'm also looking forward to where my company is headed. Every year, we continue to get better, grow bigger, and I get to do what I love to do. It's crazy to think that what started as a hobby has now grown to a full-time job that can support me. As I sit in MY office and type this looking out the window in Grayton Beach, FL, I couldn't be happier. I have a wonderful business partner who pushes me to be a better person and our company to not settle for "average"....

....and I enjoy every moment. At the end of each day, I know we run a busines that is built on integrity and excellence and we get to make people smile.

I can get so busy with life that I forget to take a few moments to stop, reflect and give thanks for where I'm at in life. Here's to the next 32 years!

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 2/21/10

2010-02-22T12:05:00.000-08:00

SERIES: THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT
MESSAGE TITLE: THERE'S A CHURCH FOR THAT

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*There's Gotta Be (More To Life) by Stacie Orrico
*Shine by Collective Soul
*Wait and See by Brandon Heath
- WORSHIP
*Power Of The Cross - Martin Chalk
*Everything Glorious - David Crowder Band
*Lead Me To The Cross - Hillsong

This week Eric talked about the church's vision and where we're headed for 2010. These talks are always good because who we are and what our mission is as a church is what Eric is most passionate about. We also gave out our "financial report" with yours truly on the cover. It was only a matter of time until they found the perfect cover model :)

At 5:45AM Sunday, we got a call from Paisha that she was sick and unable to sing (she was going to lead "Lead Me To The Cross"). Some churches would be in trouble if one of their main worship leaders went down. Not so with Shoreline! Chelsea Harrell stepped up in the clutch and did an amazing job leading this morning. I know I sound like a broken record because I say this ALL the time, but we are so blessed to have such talented folks.

Being portable, you never know what's going to happen on a Sunday morning. Just when you think you've seen it all, you get reminder that you haven't. In the first service, we tripped a breaker and lost all power on stage with the speakers and sound system. Initially I thought it was me, but then when I pulled out my ear buds, I realized it was everybody. Dan did a great job of pressing forward and we just sang on with just his acoustic guitar. About a minute later, everything came back and the service carried on without a hitch. Gotta love that first service!

Eric announced this morning our plan to add a staggered service at 9:45AM starting on Easter Sunday. This is going to open up more seats. The $1 that everyone is giving during the fast is going to go towards this "Make Room Initiative" in buying gear, etc. I can't wait to see how God uses this service. Stay tuned.

Coming Soon: New Weekend Music Director

2010-02-22T09:51:00.000-08:00

I recently made on a post on our worship team page about a change we're making on our Music Team. I thought I'd share it publically here as well. We could really use your prayers during this transition. Here's a copy of the post that went out.

Hey Gang:

For those of you that were not at our music team get-together this past Saturday, we made a public announcement that Dan Austin is going to be taking over our weekend music director position effective after Easter. The first question everyone has asked me is if I'm going anywhere and the answer is "No". Let me share with you a little background on this decision and what this now means.

I was leading our programming efforts at Shoreline back in 2006 on a volunteer basis. This entailed coming up with backdrop ideas, dramas, service orders and working with Hunter Dawson (our music/worship pastor at the time) on music selections. Towards the end of 2007, Hunter decided to step down as our music/worship pastor. With no budget available to pay a replacement, it was decided that I would come on staff part-time as the "Creative Arts Director" and include the music team under my wing and we would develop weekend worship leaders from our current music team roster.

Coming from a very progressive church in California that had a full-blown arts ministry, I knew I wanted to get us there with all the bells and whistles but it was only going to happen in stages. So in January 2008, I decided to focus on 1-2 things first and then work on the others later. So I chose the music team first. I've worked hard on developing this team (both personnel and structure) and in 2 years, it has become a well-oiled machine. We've got a format that works for now and it is pretty much self-running.

In 2009, I wanted to step it up a notch and so we added 3 teams to the Creative Arts area: a Programming Team, Drama Team and Visual Arts Team. All 3 did really well but it was tough to keep the Drama Team and Visual Arts Team staffed and running with me not able to put any focus on them.

So going into 2010, I decided to help those teams out with volunteer recruitment and pouring into Lisa (our Drama Team leader) and Hillary (our Visual Arts Team leader) to see these teams become a more regular part of our weekend services. That in mind, I felt I had to step out of leading the weekend music team. This was also going to be a necessity (that I step out of leading a specific team in the Arts) as we grow and add more services/campuses. My role will have to be more oversight/management and less in the trenches.

It might not seem like a lot, but so much goes into picking the tunes, getting the right band in place, charting the music and leading rehearsals. Not to mention the relational/pastoring part of the job. I'd say that 60% of my week was spent with this team. With no budget to hire someone right now, I was praying that God would put on my heart the right individual from within our team that could step-up to the plate and help us out.

After praying and chewing on it for a few weeks in December/January, it was apparent that Dan Austin was the right guy to ask. He comes to practices so well prepared and has grown leaps and bounds as a worship leader and I could see great potential in him leading this team. So we met in late January and Dan felt this would be something he could handle and he also felt the timing was right for him to step-up on our team. So here's what his role will be and how we'll implement this change.

His duties will include the following: picking the performance and worship songs used in our weekend services. He'll also be responsible for putting together the band personnel for the weekends. Lastly, he'll be playing twice a month and leading the band those weekends as an MD. The other weekends he isn't leading, either myself, Hunter, Duane or West will MD until other MDs are raised up. Dan will also be on our Programming Team. I'll still be handling the charting duties for the weekends (for now) as well as giving oversight to the other areas that need music/worship (i.e. Shoreline Insider, McGuire's, etc.). In the interim (until he takes over after Easter), he and I are going to be working together on the music selections for every weekend up to Easter weekend.

I want to ask you as a Music Team member to do 3 things:
1) Pray for Dan. As you know, the music is a staple of who we are at Shoreline. God is going to do great things with this ministry and I look forward to seeing where it goes under Dan's direction. However, taking on a position like this without prior experience can feel a little overwhelming. So please pray for God's peace to come over Dan and that God's hand continue to be on Dan's life.
2) Support Dan. When you're on for weekends, please give Dan all the encouragement and help that he needs. Again, this is going to vital, especially in the beginning.
3) Step up. As you know, putting together the bands is tough with the limited volunteers we have. If you can play multiple weekends, that will really help Dan out. So please be sure to send in your availability to Josh so we can have an accurate picture of who's available and who isn't. Also, please send in song suggestions when asked. This makes such a difference...you really have no idea how helpful it is.

Thanks everybody for your support during this transition. I can't wait to see how God uses this team from 2010 on out!

Books...

2010-02-22T07:56:00.000-08:00

So I've heard the saying, "A good leader is a good reader." Luckily, I do love to read. I just bought 3 books over the course of 2 days and I have 1 I've been working on since the winter. The 4 I'm reading are:

"A Deeper Level" by Israel Houghton. He' a grammy award-winning artist and worship leader. I thought this might be a good study for our music team so I'm previewing it first.

"Get Naked" by Patrick Lencioni. No, this is not a book on sex for those of you who were thinking that ;) This author is awesome. A lot of the very principles from his books are things we use in the office environoment at Shoreline. His book format is amazing. He starts the first 2/3 of his books with a fable and the last 1/3 is application of principles. This particular one is about "being transparent with your clients/customers". I'm in 50 pages so far and I'm digging it.

"Pocket Music Theory" by Hal Leonard. Just giving myself a refreshing course for the "Music Theory" lifegroup I'm about to start in a couple weeks. Hal is awesome at breaking things down. I'm about 2 chapters in so far.

"Made To Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath. This book is about how to make good ideas stick. Gives tons of examples. This book isn't one you finish fast. So far so good. Lots of great examples in the book of people who've done a good job with this concept. Definitely worth reading.

One of the things I love about reading is that it can be relaxing yet engages your mind. It's a nice replacement for television. With March Madness still a few weeks away and a few months till the NBA playoffs, this is definitely a nice break from the norm. It sure is better than watching "curling" in the Olympics.

So what are you reading right now? Whether it's for pleasure or work, I'd love to hear.

New Stage Look Coming Soon...

2010-02-18T12:54:00.001-08:00

[NOTE: THIS IS A PICTURE OF SAMPLE TRUSSING ONLY}

While in Vegas last week, I came across an AMAZING deal for some trussing. This will allow us to upgrade our current backdrop system as well as give us some other avenues with lighting. Hillary Fosdyck, our Visual Arts Team Leader, and I have been discussing/praying about this since last October so I'm really excited to see it coming to fruition. Stay tuned.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 2/14/10

2010-02-15T09:33:00.001-08:00

SERIES: THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT
MESSAGE TITLE: THERE'S A PRAYER FOR THAT

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Alive by Becki Ryan
*Typical by Mute Math
*The Motions by Matthew West
- WORSHIP
*Today Is The Day - Lincoln Brewster
*Run - Hillsong
*With Everything - Hillsong

VIDEOS:
-31 Day Video Blog (Hunter Dawson)

We're at the halfway point in the series, "There's An App For That". We're teaching on spiritual disciplines that can take a person's walk with God to the next level. In this week's installment, we looked at "prayer/fasting" and introduced a church-wide 40-day fast, which we'll start on Wednesday. The format we're using is an interesting one: Fast 1 meal a day, read 1 chapter a day, and give $1 a day. This was something that we saw another church in the community use and we tweaked it a bit to fit Shoreline. We're a church that understands that we can't come up with every idea under the sun. There's absolutely nothing wrong with leveraging other people's ideas...how cool is it that there's great stuff going on in the churches in our community and we can utilize stuff here. Shoreline has put together an easy reading plan and what we're going to do with the money raised from this 40 day campaign is going to blow your mind! More on that next week.

Creatively, we went with the theme of "giving your all and not being average". That's something that you encounter when you decide fast. You're taking it a step further. Duane led the band. He usually does so when I'm out of town but this week I was here and able to play keys while he led. It was so good to see him "in action". What a great guy he is...and so talented! The opening tune was about the desire a person has to be "alive". With worship, we did "With Everything" to close the set. What an amazing worship song...both lyrically and instrumentally. I hope to incorporate this one more often. "Typical" was a Mute Math song that came out a little while back. West sings this style so well. Lyrically it was a home run. We closed the service with a song called "The Motions". It's a newer Christian tune and again has really impacting lyrical content about not going through the motions.

The message was infused with a lot of creativity. Dani, one of our associate pastors, gave the talk again today. He used a great illustration with different liquids in various sized glasses and containers. It really made his message come to life. We also had Hunter Dawson compile 31 days of personal video blogging that he took while doing a fast to start off the year. This was extremely creative and Dani spearheaded this effort. I think it brought a "realness" to the fasting concept. Great job on editing it Dani. That's all for this week!

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 2/7/10

2010-02-08T09:32:00.000-08:00

SERIES: THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT
MESSAGE TITLE: THERE'S A SCRIPTURE FOR THAT

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Harder, Better, Faster Strong / Technologic Medley by Daft Punk
*Fortunate Son by CCR
*I'm Letting Go by Francesca Battistelli
- WORSHIP
*Salvation Is Here - Lincoln Brewster
*Not To Us - Chris Tomlin
*Your Love Never Fails - Jesus Culture

DRAMA:
-The Culps

VIDEOS:
-Youtube Random Piece

This weekend we started a new series. We knew the topics ahead of time but didn't yet have a brand. At the programming meeting, we came up with "There's An App For That". I was excited because of 2 things...1) we had a brand that is hot. A year from now, that would probably not be the case. 2) The branding/graphic design was 90% done for us. You'd think that would mean less work. Not the case. We worked harder on this series than we have any in past memory. Check out the video bumper.

We like to try and knock the first service of a series out of the park. This week was a grand slam (in my humble opinion).

We started the service with a "Daft Punk" medley all done with the "Daft Punk App" on the Iphone. We edited down the tune and Randy and Sam killed it. The service just built from there.

We had Shack playing bass for us this week. It had a been a year since he last played. Boy is he talented...and he's a great personality. Sitting in on lead guitar this week, we had Jim Fuller. Jim came down with a 24 bug and wasn't able to make it for our rehearsal but came totally prepared on Sunday. What a good guitarist he is.

Last week, we had planned on having the Culps in service but Angela, our lead actress, came down with the flu Saturday morning. We had planned to do the same Culps skit as a "recap" from the last series early on in the service. That was until I saw that Granger had done a Culps sketch last weekend as well. Their topic..."Reading The Bible". That is the exact topic we were talking about this week. So we grabbed 2 sections of their skit and applied it to ours and there you have it!

From the drama, we did the tune "Fortunate Son". The tie-in here was that a lot of people don't read the Bible because they feel they don't relate. For example, someone might read about a miracle happening and wonder where their miracles are. The song talks about a guy who doesn't seem to be a "fortunate" person. Great fit. West killed it vocally...and that song is not an easy one to sing. Its REALLY high. We are such a blessed church to have amazing musicians and vocalists.

The message was awesome. Dani spoke this week and really did a great job. The random youtube clip in the beginning of his message was a great illustration about the importance of having context when reading anything (especially the Bible).

Dani followed that up by giving context to the Bible and laying it all out in 6 minutes. The "chapter slides" were a great tool to tie it in (not to mention some pretty funny comic relief).

We closed the service with the tune "I'm Letting Go". Great find by Dan Austin. This was an inspiration tune that really speaks about allowing God to have control of your life. An A+ service. So lucky to be serving alongside such talented folks!

Superbowl Humor...

2010-02-05T20:27:00.000-08:00

I couldn't resist sharing this with the game around the corner...

A man had 50 yard line tickets for the Super Bowl. As he sits down, a man comes down and asks if anyone is sitting in the seat next to him.

"No," he says, "The seat is empty." "This is incredible," said the man. "Who in their right mind would have a seat like this for the Super Bowl, the biggest sporting event in the world, and not use it?"

He says, "Well, actually, the seat belongs to me. I was supposed to come with my wife, but she passed away. This is the first Super bowl we haven't been to together since we got married in 1967."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. That's terrible. But couldn't you find someone else-a friend or relative, or even a neighbor to take the seat?".

The man shakes his head.

"No, they're all at the funeral."

Pants On The Ground (The Remix)

2010-02-03T12:25:00.001-08:00

Every year, there's always some catchy story line from American Idol. Last year, it was bikini girl. This year it's General Larry Platt's "Pants On The Ground". Leave it to 2 DJ acquaintances of mine (Danny Diggz and Jordan Laws) to put together a VMix (video remix) of the piece. Very creative and funny. Enjoy!

#14

2010-02-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

Why blog about the #14? I have great reason to do so. At the end of 2008, I decided to start a blog and had hoped to keep it active through 2009. Result = major fail. I only posted 14 times last year. What a difference a year makes. I've already hit that mark with this very post. I'm really excited that I'm staying comitted to doing some posting every week. I'd love for you to leave me some "comment love" though. I know I'm not as cool as Lori but give me a shout people. Let me know there's a pulse!

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 1/31/10

2010-02-03T12:05:00.000-08:00

SERIES: WASTED
MESSAGE TITLE: OOPS I DID IT AGAIN

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Wasted by Carrie Underwood
- WORSHIP
*Song Of Hope - Robbie Seay Band
*Everlasting God - Lincoln Brewster
*You Hold It All - Desperation Band
*Mighty To Save - Laura Story
*Glory To God Forever - Fee

This was our closeout weekend for the "Wasted" series. In wanting to end it with a bang, we had planned to have the Culps make an appearance. Graeme had been sick for close to 3 weeks with a throat issue but was getting better daily. We practiced every day last week and around Thursday, I could start to feel some sickness coming on (for me personally). It wasn't a huge deal because I was just playing keys. Well, around midnight on Saturday, I get a text from Angela that she's come down with the flu. We waited until 6pm that night but she wasn't any better so we ended up having to cancel the drama piece (major bummer after announcing it in church the week before). But what can you do?

The "Wasted" tune by Carrie Underwood was a perfect tie-in to Eric's message. Thanks for the suggestion Dawn! Paisha knocked it out of the park. We moved into the middle of the service with the Culps piece not being there. Worship was fun this week. Good energy. Jeremy and Paisha led very well. "Everlasting God" was a throwback for us. And we had John Esling back in the band. Been a long time since he last played with us. Fun to serve with him again.

We did the first 3 worship tunes up front. At the end of the service, we wrapped up with some worship. We started with just the chorus of "Mighty To Save" then went straight to "Glory To God". Great series! Now on to the next...

Same story, different day....

2010-02-01T08:05:00.000-08:00

Last week I mentioned a little story from my visit to the Tom Thumb. Here's an addendum. I went again this Sunday morning. Same ritual...backed the van in, grabbed the redbull and doughnuts. Came to the register and it was the same clerk from the week prior. First words out of his mouth: "I didn't think you guys worked on Sundays." Wow. Groundhog's Day.

The Burried Life

2010-01-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

I've been seeing commercials for this upcoming show on MTV. I'm really intrigued by it. I think it has potential to be a huge hit. What a great concept....living out a dream to do things you've always wanted to do but also HELPING others along the way. I'm getting my TIVO ready. What do you think? Win or Fail show?

One of the best commercials I've ever seen...

2010-01-25T19:54:00.000-08:00

I saw this commercial and thought it was definitely one of the best I've ever seen (definitely Super Bowl worthy). Enjoy!

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 1/24/10

2010-01-25T08:45:00.000-08:00

SERIES: WASTED
MESSAGE TITLE: YOUR CHEATIN' HEART

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*First Dance by Corey Smith
*The Story by Brandi Carlile
*Faithfully by Journey
- WORSHIP
*Power Of The Cross - Martin Chalk
*Holy Is The Lord - Chris Tomlin
*None But Jesus - Hillsong

VIDEOS:
-Shorebreak Kid's Church Marriage Questions
-Jeff & Dawn Landry Video Testimony
-Video Slideshow of Married Couples

So being a Creative Arts Director at a church like ours, I love getting topics like the one this week - "Affair Proofing Your Marriage". For one, there is so much music material to pick from. Also, this topic allows you to go in so many directions emotionally. The last few times we've spoken on this subject, we've gone the real "deep emotional route" of someone who's cheated on their spouse. This time, I wanted to focus on the joy of what COULD be if you stay together. So many great creative pieces this weekend. I loved every single moment of this service!

I heard the song "First Dance" about a year or so ago at a wedding I was DJ'ing at when a couple selected it as their first dance. The lyrical content along with the look in this particular couple's eyes was so moving for me. So I thought, why not have a couple dance during that song in their wedding dress while we do it? I threw this out at our programming meeting and the team suggested have different couples in different stages of their marriage come out on different verses. I loved the idea and we went with it. We had Graeme and Christen as couple #1 (in a suit and wedding dress). We had Marty and Lisa Buchmann as couple #2 (having been married for a couple years) and then we had Chuck and Ellie Hightower as couple # 3 having been married over 29 years! Working in the wedding industry, I had 2 companies donate their products as a rental for us to set the scene. RSVP donated the dance floor and Florals By The Sea donated the wedding arch set-up. Great companies and great people. The trio of Dan (vocals), Hunter (Guitar) and Posey (Percussion) was awesome! Those boys tore up this song!

Worship was very high energy...especially 1st service. Typically, 1st service is a tough one to generate a lot of energy. But this week was off the chain! "Power Of The Cross" seems to be a great tune that our church is really starting to connect with. Thank you Matt Menendez for sending me this selection.

After worship, we showed a clip that Angela Angelovic put together. She is SUPER TALENTED in many different facets. I gave her the questions and then she ran with it. Hilarious answers and great editing job. Thanks Angela for this awesome piece. Big shout out to Andy and Lori Saczysnki for pro-creating a kid who someday will be on our drama team ("I think it's kinda weird on my WEDDING DAY....").

We also ran another video piece. This was something that Randy Schumann, our new video team leader, shot and edited. I wasn't sure if I was force-feeding this piece in the service since the couple DIDN'T have an affair but I felt if nothing else it definitely brought value as a piece in setting up "The Story" song that we were going into next. Thanks Jeff and Dawn for being so transparent and open with your story. I have no doubt that it spoke to a lot of couples out there. Love you guys!

We moved into the song called "The Story" by Brandi Carlile. I came across this piece last year from my Cali church, The Crossing. I loved the emotion behind the tune...especially at the end when her voice cracks on purpose. I have a feeling that happened on the first take in the studio and the producer decided to keep it. To me, it makes the song. This song gained popularity on the show "Grey's Anatomy". Casey Davis was back singing with us for the first time since last summer. It was so awesome having her on the team this week. From the time she came to practice on Wednesday night to Sunday morning, you could see the joy of her wanting to serve written all over her face. Vocally speaking, she has an amazing and VERY versatile voice. She's really the ONLY vocalist that could have pulled this song off with just the right emotion and she absolutely BROUGHT it! So proud of you Casey.

Eric's message was SOOO good. My favorite part of the message was the beginning. He did such a great job of building the tension of "5 easy steps to have an affair". With my wedding coming soon, I was really engaged (no pun intended) to the whole message. His "21 day sex challenge" had the Twitter and Facebook world buzzing all afternoon. Might want to start staffing up on our Nursery workers...we might have some new arrivals soon.

We ended the service by doing the classic tune "Faithfully" by Journey. I again leveraged something I saw at the Crossing. I don't think it was this tune but they did a similar song and had a slide show of a bunch of married couples from their church (a then and now photo) running on the screen during the song. We did something similiar but I had Chris Byron (our new church tech intern) add in each couple's names as well as the dates of when they got married.

All in all, a great service...some have said it was the best of the year so far. Not to mention that all this was done the same weekend we moved into a different theatre. Plus, we had no A/C. Talk about a hot one. No A/C is tough, especially when you have the highest attended service of the year to date. I walked off stage after the second service and thought for sure I was going to faint.

I'll close by saying that the greatest part of this weekend was all the people who had a hand in putting this together. This wasn't a one-man show this week (never has been and never will be) but this Sunday, it was really evident. From the stage design to video productions to the music, there were so many people who stepped up and made this weekend happen! I'm so privileged to be working with you all! Can't wait to do it all again next week.

The joys of portable church...

2010-01-25T06:55:00.001-08:00

So working at a church that is portable can be challenging but it also comes with its fair share of comedy. We had a "Bangkok Cleaners" van donated to the church a few months ago. The signage says, "I'm Picking Up Your Dry Cleaning Right Now". We use the van to transport the necessary band gear between the Rave Theatre (where we have church) and our practice sites. We've thought about changing the signage, but doing so may bring more unwanted attention from gear thieves so we've decided for the time being to keep it as is.

Well, Sunday morning I was driving the van to the Rave and made my weekly Sunday morning stop at the Tom Thumb for a pickup of 1 can of Redbull and 1 6-pack of mini-doughnuts (my powerhouse breakfast combo). Being that it was 6:00AM, I was the only customer there so I decided to back the van in to a parking spot in front so it would be easy to get right out. I walked in, grabbed the items and made my way to the counter to pay for everything when the ensuing conversation took place with the store clerk.

Clerk: "Wow, you're up early this morning."
Me: "Yup."
Clerk: "It must be tough working on a Sunday morning."
Me: "Yup".
Clerk: "I didn't even know you guys worked on Sundays. You must be working the hotel accounts."

It was then that my brain finally decided to kick-in (pretty impressive considering I hadn't even taken a sip of Redbull yet) and I realized where this conversation was coming from. He had seen the Bangkok Cleaners van with the signage and he thought I was working with them. It took about 30 seconds to have an inner debate about whether or not I should explain the van donation and what I do vs just agreeing with him and taking off for the sake of time. I went with the time-saver. Here's how it ended.

Me: "Yup, the spring season is right around the corner."
Clerk: "Making the pick-ups must be hard work."
Me: "Sure is. You can't imagine the kind of stains people leave on their clothes. Have a nice day."
Clerk: "You too buddy."

What I'm Looking Forward To At The Moment...

2010-01-21T09:46:00.000-08:00

*Tonight's First Shoreline Insider of the year

*This weekend's service - we're going to be pulling out all the stops creatively. When I say, don't be late, I mean DON'T BE LATE to this service.

*Next weekend's service - The Culps are going to be returning to Shoreline on January 31st. Lots of practicing has been taking place. If you didn't see the last one LIVE, trust me, you'll want to be there.

*The next step for our Music Team. We've got some cool things we're looking to implement soon and I'm excited to see how that's going to raise the level in this department.

*Continuing my individual team member meetings....I've been super committed to doing 4-6 weekly and they've been awesome. I'm learning so much and feel more connected than ever before.

*My new lifegroup that I want to lead next semester. I'm still in investigation mode of how to do what I want to do (more on that soon).

*Getting together with the other "Arts Leaders" in the area. We did this monthly last year and have been on hiatus since Christmas. There's so much talent and experience that I learn so much every time I'm around these guys. Looks like our next one will be in February.

*Our February series. It's looking to be a super creative one....can't wait to see where we end up taking it. I'm also looking forward to how it affects our people.

*February Night Of Worship. West mentioned last night that next month's group has REALLY gelled well. Hoping to increase our attendance for that night from last month.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 1/17/2010

2010-01-21T06:06:00.000-08:00

SERIES: WASTED
MESSAGE TITLE: I CAN QUIT WHENEVER I WANT

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Who Says by John Mayer
*In My Next Life by Terri Clark
- WORSHIP
*Let The Praises Ring - Lincoln Brewster
*All Because Of Jesus - Fee
*Your Love Never Fails - Jesus Culture

VIDEOS:
-Addiction Piece (Life Church TV)

This was another Sunday where I wasn't able to be at Shoreline (don't worry, this is my last one off for a couple weeks). My day job took me to a local bridal show. I had to start prepping on the show floor @ 9AM so I wasn't even able to help set-up at Shoreline. That's always a bummer as I really do enjoy serving people on our team when I'm not on the roster.

As far as the programming, seeing how well it worked the previous week keeping things simple with me being out of town, we did it again this weekend. I was excited to have Duane leading. He had done so well in that role before going on staff at Citi Church in Crestview. Now, having him back, I was looking forward to see how that experience had molded him as a MD/WL. The topic for the week was "Addictions". The message was inspired by a Craig Groeschel message from Life Church. They had an addiction video element during a similiar talk that we ended up leveraging during the message in our service.

Musically, the song "Who Says" by John Mayer is very current right now. It's a perfect tune for the topic. The guitar part is a bit tricky but Duane nailed it! I was very impressed by Mason this weekend. He really came prepared with his guitar parts learned. He's very talented...can't wait to see what God does through him in this next year. Heard great reports from a lot of people that worship this weekend was amazing!

I was struggling with finding a middle performance song. Then I found "In My Next Life". We don't do country often but when we do, it usually goes off REALLY well. The spin we took with this tune is that a lot of people think they get a "2nd chance" to do life again, thereby, letting this life be a "freebee" or a license to do anything they want. The reality is that isn't the case. We've got 1 shot so we need to make the best of it.

This weekend was also Michaela Partin's last for awhile. She's leaving back to the mission field. It's always bitter sweet for me to see her off. She's such a great person, an amazing vocalist and I love having her on the team. However, I know this is God's calling on her life...to be a missionary and I love seeing people fulfill their calling. We wish her well and look forward to hearing good reports.

My Last Weekend...

2010-01-12T18:40:00.000-08:00

So as I mentioned earlier, I took this past Sunday off (my first weekend off in 8 weeks) to visit family and do a "late Christmas" with them. There's something so peaceful about my parent's place. I don't know if it's where their house is located, just the safety net of being at my "parents", or the time of year I end up going there, but I always feel like I can re-charge when I'm at their house...which for me is always a good thing.

One of the perks of visiting infrequently is my mom tends to go all out with the home cooked meals. The final weekend count: 2 home-cooked breakfasts, 1 home-cooked lunch and 1 home-cooked dinner. And just so you know, my mom is an amazing cook! I brought Tara and we did some wedding errands, which included having Tara meet one of my really good friends (who also happens to be a groomsmen at our upcoming wedding), Nick Hahn. Nick is a class-act guy. I've always respected his work ethic and integrity and to see him doing so well makes me proud. You see, back in the day, I hired Nick to be a demonstrator for me at Pioneer and then eventually I relocated him from Alabama to California take my place as the Marketing Manager when I went to the Sales Department. Now he's at Promo Only as their Marketing Director in Orlando and doing awesome. I love having Tara meet people like Nick. These people have played such a huge role in defining who I am as a person. I also got a chance to meet Nick's new girlfriend as well. She seems like the perfect compliment for him.

Saturday, we awoke to a BITTER COLD morning with SNOW on the ground. Did I mention my parents live in FLORIDA??? There wasn't much of it, but it was snow nonetheless. We really took it easy that day - which is exactly what I needed. We did, however, make it out to a cool little eatery called Larry's Subs. I love finding cool little spots to eat like this. Absolutely, amazing food...one of the best sandwich spots ever. Definitely recommend it if you're in the Ormond/Daytona Beach area.

That night, my parents wanted to take us to their new church, a place called Beach Side Church. Personally, I love Saturday night services because you can take Sundays off!!! My step-dad really liked the senior pastor, Robby, and you can see this church has been a real impact on his life. He's now serving as their CFO and handles their offerings. How cool is that. The church bought a closed up "Ace Hardware" store and completely retro-fitted it for their church. They are making a huge impact in the community. They are targeting the "surfer community". They've only been around 3 years and they're averaging 800 or so people on the weekends. The pastor, like ours, wears flip flops every weekend (even on a day when it was 35 degrees outside). I loved the stage design and the worship was well-done. They are interviewing right now for a music director and are having prospective candidates lead on the weekends...the guy this week was from Kentucky. You could really feel that people there loved the church and the vision. Funny side note - their logo was very similar to Shoreline.

My mom wanted to take me 2 two other church services on Sunday. She loves showing me things that are going on at other churches. As a creative guy, I love looking at stuff like this. Unfortunately, we awoke the next morning to no electricity. So we missed the 1st church service waiting for the power to come back on. We did make it to the 2nd service. We went to Calvary Christian Center. This church was rockin!!! It was predominately an African-American church. The band was awesome and they had a 100 person choir. Loved being there.

We stayed just for the arts portion and then went to Panera Bread for lunch. After, that it was back home to pack and then Tara and I were off back to Destin. We had a little pit stop in Jacksonville to visit a friend of hers that just moved there.

One thing I realized as I'm typing this on the way home, I love my family. We don't have the perfect status-quo family (who does right?) but we love each other and will always be there for each other NO MATTER what. And now every time I leave, I realize it's never enough time. My brothers say they're coming up in the next few weeks. I sure hope they do.

Weekly Creative / Music Set List - 1/10/2010

2010-01-11T04:57:00.000-08:00

SERIES: WASTED
MESSAGE TITLE: DOUBLE CLICK

MUSIC:
-PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Animal I Have Become by Three Days Grace
*Mess Of Me by Switchfoot
- WORSHIP
*Power Of The Cross - Martin Chalk
*You Hold It All - Desperation Band
*The Glory Of It All - David Crowder Band
*Salvation Is Here - Lincoln Brewster

This week we dealt with Porn. Tough topic to hit. I really love the fact that Shoreline tackles topics like this - ones where people have a lot of questions or struggle in these areas and you can't find a whole lot of teaching on them. From a creative side, I wanted to be sure not to do anything that would "glorify" the issue. It was a really short week for me because I was taking off Thursday to do a "late Christmas" weekend with my family in Ormond Beach, FL. So to simplify (especially with me and Dani not being around), we went with a really light "arts" service. As a side note, we always joke in staff meetings that when I'm gone, those are the weekends that we attempt to something really challenging like juggling monkeys on tri-cycles, etc. None of that this week.

I worked with Hunter in putting together the music set. He came up with the Three Days Grace tune. I loved the fact that it was looking more inward at the individual instead of the issue. It was very popular a while back and I knew this weekend's band (West, RJ, Matt Moore and Hunter) would do a good job with it. I went on XXX Church for some ideas, but honestly the site is really hard to navigate through. It was on that site, however, that I saw a guy talking about "Mess Of Me" and how that was a song he was leaning on to help him get through his porn problem. I thought that might be a great closer. I also had a Sanctus Real song called "I'm Not Alright" (a West suggestion) that was pretty rockin' and could set up the service well before the message.

The weekend was starting to take shape but it was a lot of performance music for a band that's not used to the weekend format (with Matt and RJ). So Hunter and I talked more about it and thought it would be best to go with "Mess Of Me" in the middle of the service and use a worship tune to close out the service. I had this Lincoln Brewster version of "Salvation is Here" in the cue since last year and was waiting for the right time to bring it in. It's not that new to us as a tune since we used to do it all the time. This version, however, would give us a freshness to it. The only issue was that the keys really gives this texture. Since we had starting using loops over the last couple weeks, I started looking to see if anyone had done a loop for this tune and "Glory Of It All". I found an awesome website resource that has tons of loops and found one for both tunes so we used them for the weekend.

It's so nice to have a team in place that can allow me to take a break and not feel the weight of having to be "on" every week. It was a great weekend for me (more on that in another blog post) but I'm looking forward to being back.

Revamped Programming Team 2010!

2010-01-10T20:15:00.000-08:00

Back when I took over as the Creative Arts Director at the end of 2007, I was a little overwhelmed with the responsibility. Not only was this something I had never done in its entirety before, but it was happening at a church that hadn't had somebody in this role before. So we were going to grow and learn this together. I'm lucky to have such an awesome senior pastor like Eric. He is a very empowering type of boss and lets the gifts of his staff really shine through.

I also had an awesome model while at The Crossing (this is where I spent the previous 11 years serving both as a part-time employee and a volunteer). They do things at such an excellent level and are very similar in mission to Shoreline. So one of the first things I did was take a cue from them and put together a Programming Team. What's the purpose of this team? This team sets the creative direction for our weekend services. I strongly believe in the theory that not one person has all the ideas. Because we have such a small staff, this team outside of myself is comprised of all volunteers. This is great because we can then create and have buy-in from those that are sitting in the seats every weekend and looking to bring guests instead of from 1 or 2 paid staff people. I hope one day we can bring a few of them on staff. What do you look for in team members? It's important to have a few specialists....as examples, someone who is good at finding tons of music, someone who is good at finding videos, someone who leads your drama and/or visual arts ministries and then a few "Jack of all Trades". Our team last year comprised of the following individuals:

Me
Lisa Tuttle - Drama Team Leader
Hillary Fosdyck - Visual Arts Team Leader
Hunter Dawson - McGuire's Band Leader
Matt Menendez - Worship Leader
Angela Angelovic - Video Production / Jack of All Trades
Todd Siegrist - Video Production
Jessica Miller - Music / Jack Of All Trades

Outside of Todd, who was added last year, the rest of the team had been there since the inception of the team. This year I felt we needed a jump start and some new members. It's important to keep a real balance on the team - gender, spiritual aptitude, age, etc. Our team had noticed the lack of male team members being able to attend our once a month meeting so I was looking to add some new male team members. Joining the team is Graeme Cowgill, our current youth pastor, and Dan Austin, one of our worship leaders. I also had Tara come and take notes. Our first meeting of 2010 was held last week at Lisa Tuttle's house. Not only did we enjoy a shrimp boil (courtesy of Lisa/Alan Tuttle and my FIRST one) but we had a phenomenal meeting.

We came up with some branding for our February series (can't wait to share this with you all!!! It's gonna rock!) and the energy was just awesome! As with all of our teams this year, I'm looking for us to stretch ourselves. I want us to be more creative than we've ever been, be willing to take calculated risks, dare to be different and just plain blow the socks off this community and reach people for God! We want all of our ideas and elements soaked in the Holy Spirit. We're not trying to do anything for the sake of being "cool". Be praying for this team when you can. We could all use it!

Weekly Creative / Music Set list - 1/3/2010

2010-01-05T21:01:00.000-08:00

SERIES: WASTED
MESSAGE TITLE: BLAME IT ON THE ALCOHOL

MUSIC:
- PERFORMANCE TUNES
*Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett
*Waking Up In Vegas by Katy Perry
- WORSHIP
*Power Of The Cross - Martin Chalk
*Glory To God Forever - Fee
*God Of This City - Chris Tomlin

VIDEOS:
- Trailer (collage) from Hangover

I'm going to start something this year to help me with my goal of blogging weekly and that is listing out what we do every week, my/our thought process in doing so, challenges, struggles, etc. in putting our weekends together as well as anything else that pops into my head. I hope you find this enjoyable to read and gives you a glimpse into my world on a week to week basis.

The January series has been something that over the last 3 years we've really tried to go all out on. Why? Well, one of the more popular resolutions people make every year is, "I should go to church more". So we try to capitilize on that by doing a series with topics than most non-churched folks would be interested in (i.e. the more controversial type topics that churches rarely address). So this year, we're calling the series "Wasted" and we'll be addressing such topics as Alcohol, Porn, Addicitions, Affairs, and Sin vs Mistakes.

In the past we've done radio advertising, made invite cards, done micro-sites, etc for a series like this. Well, enter in the current economic conditions and Shoreline has been affected just like everyone else. Offerings were really low over the holidays (we missed budget a few weeks in a row) so not only was advertising not able to happen but all spending was on a freeze.

Backdrops were a part of the freeze. The good thing with that is that it forced us to get even more creative. We used some recycled backdrops from our last series and did a cool collage of "wasted type" photos and then had Vladimir paint the "wasted logo" on a piece that we cut out. We used some "wasted" koozies that we had given out over the last few weeks, some christmas lights and some wire to tie around the backdrop boards to give it a 3-D feel. I was really impressed with the backdrop. It looked great. Props to our Visual Arts team and our Tech Pastor, Sam.

As far as the programming elements, I don't know if our Christmas season just completely wore me out or what but I was completely devoid of energy to really get a head start and get the month programmed as is typically my preference. That coupled with the fact that the holidays came before we were able to get a completed band schedule and I was scrounging to put together a band for the first big weekend of our series.

The "Waking Up In Vegas" tune was an easy pick. It's current and fit the theme of the message. Video clips always seem to tie into songs well. I'd seen "Hangover" a few months prior and thought maybe that coupled with the "Waking Up In Vegas" would work. I watched the movie 2 days in a row and although I laughed hysterically throughout the movie both times, I quickly realized there really wasn't 1 single scene that I could use in it's entirely that didn't have cursing or some type of vulgarity. It was a bummer cause the theme of it worked perfect with the tune. I didn't want to completely abandom the movie cause it is so current right now so my plan B was to edit a bunch of short clips from the movie together. To get some ideas for a good edit, I pulled up the trailer on Youtube. To my great surprise, the trailer was perfect. It had no narration...just strictly video footage. A few quick edits of that trailer and we'd have a winner. The only thing was to find a high rez version. I called Sam to rack his brain on find this trailer. He mentioned that Apple had highrez downloads of trailers for free. We downloaded and edited it and had found our signature piece for the weekend.

The opening tune was a lot harder. With no "YouTube Clips Of THe Week", it's even more important for our opener to be something recognizable. I searched all over and even lobbed a few calls to some of my other colleagues at other churches. The best I could come up with was "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse. However, we needed someone to really play up the character to make it work. I knew Anna Curtis would do this best because she'd played the part in the past but with her being sick, this probably wasn't gonna happen. My 2nd pick would've been Jessica Julian. She's perfect for these type tunes but with her taking over Kid's church, this was a non-option. Luckily, Paisha was in the wings and I called her at the last second to sing (she can cover just about anything). With her being avaiable and it being Tuesday already, I made the decision to go with it.

The next morning I got a call from Eric. Not knowing that I had decided to go with "Rehab", he threw me an idea of using "Margaritaville". Being in the South, Jimmy Buffett is huge. I'm just not a huge fan personally of that type of music. Rarely do I get many song suggestions from Eric with him really feeling a certain song. But since I wasn't totally sold on "Rehab" anyway, I made an audible and we went with "Margaritaville". It worked out much better...a lot easier of a tune to play than "Rehab" and it pulled in the over 40 crowd.

With worship, I really wanted to introduce a new song to start off the year. One of our worship leaders, Matt Menenendez, had sent me 2 tunes from Martin Chalk a few weeks ago and I really liked the "Power Of The Cross". Very modern feel, semi-deep lyrics for newbies and had a good chorus hook. I asked West (our WL for the weekend) what tunes he was feeling and both "Glory To God" and "God Of This City" were on his list of ideas. "Glory To God" has gone over really well @ Shoreline so I though it'd be one of that our people would sing out well. "God Of This City" was an anthem worship tune during our "Catch And Release" series last year and had a good lyric message to start off 2010. Worship went awesome this week. Tons of folks singing and worshiping.

All in all, a good service to kick off the year. On top of that, our attendance went back up to normal #'s. Hope to seee it continue to climb.

New Year, Renewed Energy!!!

2010-01-05T15:05:00.000-08:00

So I've got to say, 2010 is gonna be a great year. Call me crazy for saying that so early on, but I just have this gut feeling. This is the year of "stretching". My life is gonna change in a lot of different ways.

For one, I'm pushing myself to really build into and support our Creative Arts Team leaders. They've done such a great job up to this point and I want to give them my total backing and serve them as much as possible.

I want to push our teams to new heights this year. We've got some of the most talented folks of any church around and I want to leverage those giftings to see more people than ever who've never experienced Christ do so in a real and tangible way through what we do in the Arts.

I'm also pushing myself this year. I want to read a book a month, blog every week (notice the updated look), learn to play guitar by June and continue to meet with people and spend time in their lives connecting outside of the "serving" atmosphere.

On a personal note, I'm getting married this year. I've found the most amazing person with whom to share this journey of life. I can't wait to write more on this but for now let's just say, I'm one lucky guy.

That's just a few of the things that have me pumped about 2010. What about you? What are you looking foward to this year?

McGuire's 2010

2009-09-30T05:41:00.000-07:00

Last night concluded our last McGuire's service of 2009. It's a seasonal service we do from March - September. I'm excited already at the prospects of McGuire's 2010. This past year we completely overhauled the format as well as the feel of McGuire's to a more "chilled out reggae type vibe". 2010 will have a new fresh look. Get ready!

Always game for something new

2009-08-14T11:59:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I get to try my hand at filming and editing an extended video piece for a service. I've always been fascinated by the film editing process and I seem to have a good eye for what makes a good edit. I just never have had the chance to do it....until now. They say for every 1 minute of film it equates to 1 hour of editing. Needing a 5 minute piece on Sunday, my goal is to squash that silly notion as nothing more than an old wive's tale. We shall see. Be sure to come to Shoreline this weekend. The video will be used at the close of this weekend's service. Let me know if I did OK.

Vegas Baby, Vegas!

2009-08-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

This past February we did a series called "On The Road Again". This was a continuation of a series we do yearly (last year it was called "Road Trip"). In both series, we talked about serving the community locally, nationally and globally. I've been charged with leading a national missions trip in the fall. We are headed to none other than (cue the fanfare build-up music from 'Vegas Vacation'), "Fabulous Las Vegas". Not a bad place to have to do a missions trip.

Las Vegas is one of the most electric cities in the world. It is quickly becoming the destination place for high quality, unbelievable entertainment. No place has better nightclubs, more gambling, unlimited entertainment options and unbelievable buffet spreads! At the same time, there is no place that needs Jesus more than Vegas. Having been raised in SoCal, Vegas was a family vacation destination for us. As I became an adult, weekend trips to Vegas were always a fun way to escape the SoCal mundane lifestyle. I've always had a place in my heart for Vegas.

Shoreline is partnering with a church plant in Vegas called "The Verve". They are actually launching services started in 2010. However, they're already there getting to know the community and working on a meeting location, etc. We got to know this church through their lead pastor, Vince Antonucci (an Itallian like myself). Vince was lead pastor of Forefront Church in Virginia Beach. Eric Partin, our head honcho pastor, had been following his blog and read about them launching a "church in the bar service". This was something Eric had a vision of doing at Shoreline. So Sam, Eric and myself went to Virginia Beach to observe the bar service and get some ideas to take back to Destin. Their service became a blueprint for what we now call our "Church @ McGuire's". Earlier this year, Vince felt the Holy Spirit pushing him to launch a church in Vegas. After much thought and prayer, Vince left Forefront to start this church on the strip of Las Vegas.

Our role there on this trip will be to help them in meeting people in the community. This will include some or all of the following: handing out water bottles, giving out snowcones in the park, putting door hangers on doors, free car washes, serving casino workers, and bringing coffee to people in the Town Square mall. We'll also get a chance to hear the vision of "The Verve" and attend a local church in the area to see what Vegas is currently doing, etc.

The cost of the trip is $1200 per person. This includes airfare, food, lodging, transportation and a donation to the Verve. The trip dates will be Oct 15-18. I'm hoping you will come out there with me. It will be an amazing trip. We're looking at no more than 8-10 people to go. If you're interested in being a part of this experience, please comment back and we'll get you some information!

Community

2009-08-12T10:18:00.001-07:00

I'm so proud of our Creative Arts teams. Each week they present amazing pieces that support the message of the speaker. But more than the art they create, I'm proud to be apart of a team that supports one another....a team not just in it for the sake of the task but for the relationships that can formed and created. We're about to launch a new semester of lifegroups. I'm excited about the services we're putting together for the lifegroup push. Some of the stories we're hearing from lifegroup attendees are just awesome! That leads me to some questions for you: How have Shoreline lifegroups impacted you? What's been your favorite group you've seen or been apart of? What lifegroup would you like to see that's not been created? Comment back.

Best All Time Movie Sountracks and Sound Bytes

2009-08-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody...it's been a minute since I've blogged. My problem is that I want to have something really meaningful to say instead of just typing whatever. This obviously takes a little time for me - thus, the long droughts between posts. I've been "highly encouraged" to just start blogging...especially since my blog gets advertised every other week or so in the services. So here we go.

This time I could use your help. In a few weeks, we're going to start a series entitled "Be Kind Rewind". It will be a play off the movie. In the movie, they do homemade versions of famous movies. We'll be taking the following movies and pulling the biblical principals from them.

September 6:
Groundhogs Day
Biblical Principal: Make the most of every day

September 13:
O Brother Where Art Thou
Biblical Principal: Baptism / Redemption

September 20:
Princess Diaries
Biblical Principle: In the movie, the woman doesn’t live like a princess. She finds out she’s royalty and has to learn how to live that way. Eric will be talking in the message about understanding who you are in Christ and living that way. This is a perfect follow-up message to the week prior.

One of the creative elements we'll be doing each week is a medley of various soundtracks or songs from movies each week to kick off the service. In them, I'd like to create spots where the band plays instrumentally and we actually have a Video DJ mix in audio/video bytes from the most classic of lines from the movie. It would be similiar to the church "b-day medleys" we did with 6-7 songs in a medley.

So what I could use is your favorite movie soundtracks that would be doable for our band and actually one liners from movies. It doesn't necessarily event have to be a "sountrack" per say...it could be a recognizable song from the movie. Please comment back with your picks! Examples: "You Heart Will Go On" - Titanic, "Danger Zone" - Top Gun, "Power Of Love" - Back To The Future, etc.

Rest

2009-06-30T10:05:00.000-07:00

Here is a recent Creative Arts newsletter "spiritual nugget" I sent out to our Creative Arts teams:

It has been almost a 3 month layoff for me on sending out a monthly newsletter. To be completely honest, I’ve just been ridiculously busy. Here’s a little run-down: I transition/moved my entertainment company from my home office into an office out in Grayton Beach , moved into a new house and have been gigging every Saturday since the beginning of April not to mention playing in the band every weekend at Shoreline since Easter! Heading into the middle of summer (can you believe we’re already halfway through 2009?), I’m catching my breath and I plan on enjoying the rest of this summer season. I love this time of year! The days seem to get a bit longer. There are summer cookouts, community events, boats on the harbor, hammocks (wait, I don’t have a hammock), etc. The humidity levels are in full swing and highway 98 seems to back up more and more in both directions from Brooks Bridge to highway 331. Good times :-)

In a year where the economy and world conditions have taken our personal stress levels to an all-time high, it’s more important than ever to take time to rest, relax and rejuvenate ourselves both physically and spiritually. Mark 6:31 says, “And He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ No human is capable of working endlessly like a machine.

When God rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done (Gen 2:2), He was modeling for humanity His intention for a weekly day of rest. Clearly, he did this for the sake of Adam and Eve (and for us) because God Himself does not tire or need to “rest”. I took this past weekend off from Shoreline (traveling for my entertainment company to New Orleans) and this weekend I’m taking an extended break from Friday through Monday to be with my family down in Ormond Beach, FL for the July 4th holiday. 2 weekends off in a row!! I’m excited and am definitely in need of this. I notice when I do that, I come back fresh and ready to serve and work like never before! I encourage you to do the same. Take time to enjoy your family over the summer. Time flies by so quickly and you don’t want to be looking back wishing what you “could’ve done”.

On the spiritual side, take this time to “rest in the spirit”. In the midst of all life’s troubles and worries, know that you can lean on God. When the world seems to be spinning out of control, you can rest in His love and assurance that He is in control and you DON’T have to worry. Philippians 4:13 sums it up well. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” God beckoned David to the same kind of reflective stop in the midst of chaos and turmoil. Even as “nations raged” and “kingdoms were moved”, The Lord entreated the king to “come and behold the works of the Lord,” and “be still and know that I am God.” (Ps 46:6, 8 and 10).

When the twelve disciples returned from their preaching tour (Mark 6:7, 12, 30), Jesus took them aside for a bit of rest and relaxation (Mark 6:31). Rest may seem to be the last thing we need, given the world's obsession with productivity and our culture's reputation as a “leisure society.” But God wants us to adopt His values, not the values of our culture. One thing He values is leisure. He values work as well. Work is a gift from God and is essential to our nature. Even so, work was never intended to define our identity. God does not measure our worth by our productivity. He loves us for who we are—the way He has made us to be. Rest is something God Himself does (Gen. 2:2), which means that rest is good in and of itself. In fact, God actually commanded His people Israel to rest (Ex. 20:8–11).

Have you determined how much time you actually need to spend at work? Have you carefully considered how to balance your time and energy between workplace commitments and your family? Are you perhaps working too much, not because the job demands it, but because you won't trust God to supply your needs through a reasonable amount of work? Perhaps you need to take Jesus' advice: “Come aside… and rest a while.”

Blogging Again...

2009-06-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

My goal when I initially started this blog was to post something every week. I thought it'd be easy but I'd have to say I was severely misled. It's hard! But I'm going to try and stay at least a little more consistent.

Last winter, I went to the "Telluride MountainFilm On Tour" that was held in WaterColor. I only went one day and saw about 6-7 short films. I was truly moved by one particular short film called "Pickin and Trimmin". It was a documentary about a barbershop in North Carolina. This shop has been around forever (still is today) and is the hallmark of this particular town. In the shop, they have what they call the "back room". There, a bunch of guys (mainly seniors) play music throughout the day. Some people come to the shop just for the music...not the haircut.

I didn't used to be a fan of bluegrass music. My father was a huge fan of it and it was on non-stop in the family vehicles. I looked to eject the cassette tapes at the first available opportunity. However, as I have gotten older, I've grown to have a huge appreciation for it. The music seems so pure and it requires so many moving instrumental parts to be successful. I love that team work concept! The director of the movie recently made a return trip to the shop and took some footgage of some guys jammin. As soon as the movie is available to buy, I will be getting it for sure.

Hope you enjoy it!

Music...The Universal Lanuage

2009-03-30T08:02:00.001-07:00

It's amazing the impact music has on people. Every now and then, a song comes a long that affects everyone - different age brackets, ethnic diversities, religious preferences and sexual orientations. This song below is one such tune.

This DJ/Producer went across the world recording various parts of this song. He put this version together with all those different parts and captured it all on video. So creative and emotional moving. Hope you enjoy!

Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

IV Shore Awards

2009-03-07T20:18:00.000-08:00

Next week is gonna be UNlike any service you've ever seen at Shoreline. We're going to be celebrating the 4th anniversary of Shoreline. Get there early. You will not want to miss a single bit of this service. We're be looking back at the last four years and celebrating what God has accomplished and looking forward to what He will be doing in this next year. I wanted to thank one of our newest creative arts team members, Melissa De La Vega, for coming up with this logo (she serves on our newly created visual arts team). Great job! Hope to see you next Sunday.

Get Life Day

2009-03-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

We just had "Get Life Day" last week...40 some odd groups were launched this semester...the most we've ever had at Shoreline to date. I'm really excited about the "Worship Leading" group (one of a few) that I get an opportunity to lead. I'm praying for God to take us to a whole 'nutha level in that arena. Group life is good stuff...it's through those groups that relationships are built which can lead to life long friendships, ones where we can call on our friends to help us through the good and the bad times. Here's one of the tunes we did on "Get Life Day". Great job Jeremy and band!

Going Deeper in Worship

2009-03-02T08:05:00.000-08:00

We had a tremendous latter part of December and January as far as excellence in our services, spiritual growth of our team members, and the start of our monthly worship night. I expected it to roll right on thru and keep building momentum, but then it happened.

Eric made the announcement at the Shoreline Insider in January. He publically told those that attended that Insider meeting that he felt through his quiet time with God that this is the year we as a church focus on going "deeper in worship". By doing so, Satan immediately started looking for ways to cause havoc. We had a few rough Sunday services in February. Perfect timing on the Devil’s part with Easter right around the corner right?

We all contribute to the worship portion of our services. We have to immediately identify when and where the devil is starting to attack and fight it with every ounce of energy we have! Every Sunday, we have people who don’t know Christ that are looking for something to connect with at our weekend service. As an arts department, we play a huge part in supporting the services. That in mind, I wanted to offer a few tips to help us:

1) TREAT EVERY WEEKEND YOU SERVE LIKE IT'S YOUR LAST ONE…we don’t know when God is coming back. It could be today, tomorrow or years from now. That in mind, we must be acting with a sense of urgency to reach those that don’t Christ with the message of salvation. If you are scheduled for the weekend, we should be preparing like this is our last service…as if this is the big game, the super bowl, the world series, etc. This means:
- Showing up to rehearsals and service on time
- Spending time in prayer all week for the service
- Keeping Saturday night activities to a minimum when you're serving so you can be at your best on Sunday
- Coming prepared when walking in the doors on Sunday (if you're a musician, this means know the music; if you're a thespian, know your lines)
- Having a heart to worship as soon as you step foot at the Rave on Sunday

If you need to serve less to make the ones you serve more impactful, then do that. I’d prefer quality over quantity any weekend!

2) KEEP IN MIND THAT SUNDAY'S RUN THROUGH MAY NOT BE PERFECT…this is why I stress with our Arts Team Leaders to iron out everything as much as possible at rehearsals. Being portable has its challenges and with so many elements added to our service mix each week, the chances of getting a complete run-through of every element on Sunday is typically not possible. Also, we have to remain flexible! Some things may not go our way, but God will use us just as we are. West Steiner, one of our Weekend Music Directors and worship leaders, shared a great devotion a few weeks back at our music rehearsal about God using “the less than perfect people” to do His work. There is so much truth in that. We all are there for the common goal to reach people for God and because we’re not “perfect people”, our human side may get the best of us on a Sunday. It’s crucial that we recognize this if we see it in ourselves, repent and move on. If we see it happening with others on our team, we must speak to them about in love and pray for them as well. We must also be prepared to worship no matter the circumstances. Worship doesn’t just happen when things are going our way. Worship is not a feeling. It’s an act of obedience. That’s why I love the lyrics to the tune “Still I Will Worship You” which is in our song rotation. What a great song to inspire us to worship.

3) SUPPORT THE PASTORS AND ME…Please know that our pastors are there to help us! Any suggestions or input by them should be welcomed as they want us to grow in our walk and in our gifting so we can all continue our call to reach people for the kingdom. So when they come to us, we need to be quick to listen and slow to speak. I also am asking for your support. I, along with our programming team, spend a lot of time researching the "service arts elements", talking with the speaking pastors, and praying about them before they are ever put into the service order. We don’t just randomly select tunes, video clips and dramas. We try to find the “best” fit for the service and make sure that it has best chance for optimal impact based on the subject matter at hand. So my request is that you pray for me, the programming team and the pastors that we can continue to be fresh, innovative, creative, etc.

4) STAY STRONG IN YOUR WALK WITH CHRIST…I find this to be the hardest of all the things mentioned above but it is the most vital. The moment this slips, the others will start to crumble in a domino effect. That is why we started a Bible reading plan at the beginning of the year. It doesn’t matter where you’re at in it…you could’ve stopped last week or never started. We’re not doing this for a grade or to put a checkmark in the “completed” box. The idea behind the plan was to allow us all to grow closer to God. If you need something modified to fit you, contact me and I’ll be glad to help you find something that’ll work for ya.

These are just a few things on my heart right now. I hope you’ll allow these things to sink it and become part of you, thereby becoming a part of our creative arts team's DNA.

I'm back...

2009-03-01T22:47:00.000-08:00

Well, I have to apologize for not blogging lately. I've been on what feels like a whirlwind tour schedule over the last 2 months. Tons of stories and the like which I'll be blogging about over the next little bit. One of them, I thought I'd share. I bought a "Flip Video Camera" not too long ago. I must say...it's one of my best purchases EVER. Its small enough to make it easy to travel with, takes regular AA batteries (easy to manage), has a sound compressor that allows you to take video in loud environments without DISTORTING the sound and the video quality is actually pretty decent.

Long story short, I had left it on the counter of my kitchen and my roommate got a hold of it and took a funny little tour of my room and house (ala "cribs" TV Show style). He actually filmed this piece back at the end of December and I didn't notice until end of February when I downloaded all my vids. I couldn't help but laugh...in typical Hunter fashion, he used the word "crap" and "explosion" about a hundred times. I'll be getting him a thesaurus to help expand his vocabulary and payback will be interesting!

Hope you enjoy the vid!

Bible Reading Plan - Mark 16

2009-01-23T10:02:00.001-08:00

OK so as you may or may not know, I started a daily bible reading plan at the beginning of the year. I was totally "gun ho" about it and was determined to stay with it no matter what (I even took my Bible with me on my business trip last week and was reading on the plane). Then it happened...the classic "getting too busy" syndrome that seems to always wreak havoc...argh! This week, my reading fell off and I missed Monday-Wednesday.

Of course I was ticked off at myself. Here I am asking others to read with me and I can't keep to my own goal. Well, even though I'm not a quitter with most things, this is where I'd typically say to myself, "It was a good run. I guess I'll try again next year."

Not this time. I'm not going to let Satan win this one. I decided to just pick up on the day's reading yesterday (I'm gonna go back this weekend and read the missed chapters) and it blew my mind. I read Mark 15 yesterday and I saw some things in the crucifixion story that I had never picked up on before. I was able to share it with the band at last night's rehearsal during our devotion and you could hear a pin drop. I really felt the Holy Spirit moving last night. What a great way to set-up for rehearsing for Sunday...remembering how much pain and anguish Jesus took on for us. If that doesn't make you want to worship and give Him your best, I don't know what does!

I thought I'd share my thoughts on Mark 16, our current reading plan stop for today. In Mark 16, the overall theme I see is "doubt". Here's a couple spots.

Mark 16:1-3 - Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James) and Salome went to the tomb to embalm Jesus and they wondered how the stone was going to be rolled away.

Mark 16:8 - When they saw the angel and were told that Jesus had risen from the dead, they still couldn't believe it. It took Jesus physically coming to Mary Magdalene (verse 9) for her to believe.

Mark 16:11 - When Mary Magdalene told the disciples, they didn't believe her.

Mark 16:13 - After Jesus appeared to two of the disciples, those two went to tell the others, and the other 10 didn't believe them (even though these were two of their own kind - disciples - and you'd think they'd be able to at least believe them).

It literally took Jesus coming to them in physical form (verse 14) and when he did, he scolded them for their "stubborn unbelief".

I can relate to the disciples a bit. To be honest, I've been struggling with doubt a lot lately. As we started 2009, I spent a lot of time in prayer. I had set goals for our Arts Department. I wanted us to grow with some new teams this year and have some of our current team members step up in certain leadership roles. When it didn't come to fruition right away, I must admit, I got frustrated...not so much with people but with myself. What was I doing wrong? Was I not listening to God? Was I trying to make us run before we were ready? Maybe, I wanted more for Shoreline than God wanted.

It took me reading this passage to see that God has a plan for everything. I may not understand it at times but God has impeccable timing. No sooner had I read this morning, then God gave me confirmation that He's in control. Thank you God for always having my back. The stress exerted into worry / doubt could have been all avoided had I just had faith that you would come through! Today's reading was a great reminder of that for myself.

If you're not doing our reading plan or if you tried and couldn't keep up, I want to encourage you to NOT give up and get in on it. It will truly change you. Don't worry about catching up on missed chapters. Start today. Here's the plan for the weekend and the next week (we're starting a new book of the bible).

Saturday: Proverbs 3
Sunday: Psalms 8 & 9
Monday: James 1
Tuesday: James 2
Wednesday: James 3
Thursday: James 4
Friday: James 5

If you want a PDF of the plan, comment here and I'll send it to you. Have a great weekend!

Night Of Worship

2009-01-05T07:54:00.001-08:00

This Wednesday is Shoreline’s FIRST “Night Of Worship” at Fudpuckers from 6PM-8PM. I’m pumped about this. It gives us an opportunity to come together corporately and do nothing but worship God!!! It’s gonna be off the hook! I really want to encourage our creative arts teams to support this effort. We want to not only have great attendance but we want to support Fudpuckers, who is allowing us to use the venue FREE OF CHARGE. Here’s 3 things you can do:

1) COME EARLY AND EAT…from 6-7pm, we’ll all eat together. Then at 7PM, we’ll start the music portion of the evening. We can support Fudpuckers by ordering food/drinks from them and tipping out really well. What a great way to be a light in this community and show them the generous spirit of Shoreline.

2) COME READY TO WORSHIP…this is our opportunity to give praise to the Almighty God. I want us to make the most of this time. Spend some time preparing your heart before you arrive. Once you arrive and the worship starts, I want you to let loose. Worship God with reckless abandon. The experience you will have by doing so will rock your world!

3) PRAY…this is huge. Pray for the band, the tech crew, and for the people attending. I can speak on behalf of the band. They have been preparing like mad for this. It’s a LOT of material so please keep them in your prayers and pray that God will allow this night to flow and that they can get lost in the worship "experience". Speaking of "worship expereience", this is what I'm praying for the people attending. For some, this may be there first time at a service such as this. I'm praying that it will inspire them in their walk with God and take them to a whole new level in their relationship with Him.

Hope you’re having a great start to your week! See you all Wednesday night!

Resolution #1 For 2009: Reading Accountability

2008-12-29T11:48:00.000-08:00

If you're like me, this time between Christmas and New Year's is always time that I look back on the past year and evaluate how I did in business, my personal life, and my spiritual walk. Once I've done that, I then start looking to the following year and set some goals for myself.

One area that has been my achilles heal is spending "daily" time in the Word of God and doing so out of pure "enjoyment". Now, don't get me wrong - I do read my Bible. However, if I'm going to be completely honest with myself and with you all, a lot of times it feels forced. More often that not, I read because I "have to". Whether that be to study for an upcoming series, prepare for a devotional, or lead worship on a Sunday morning, etc. How embarrassing that is to have to admit. Rarely do I stay in the Word for pleasure and for the pure sake of wanting to know more about my God.

Well, this year I'm determined to stay on a daily reading plan and keep my motive strictly about wanting to learn more about God. I've tried the "One Year Bible" and a few other plans in the past and none have seemed to work too well for me. What typically happens is I start strong and somehow interruptions creep in and I'm a week or 2 behind and I just give up (which is pretty ironic because I'm not one to give up with most other things).

A good pastor friend of mine developed a reading plan of going through the New Testament. What I like about it is that it spreads the gospels throughout the year, and it saves most of the more difficult books for later in the year. This plan also includes Psalms and Proverbs (N.T. on the weekdays, Psalms and Proverbs on weekends).

I'd like to offer this to our Creative Arts Teams. I mentioned this to the music team that was "on" last weekend and a few wanted to be apart of it. So, if you want to read through the N.T., Psalms and Proverbs with us, we’d love to have you! Comment below that you're interested and I'll e-mail you the plan. Launch date is the first Sunday of January (the 4th)!

Christmas Service

2008-12-26T12:40:00.000-08:00

Looking back on our Christmas service, I felt it was a great way to end our year. As I was doing some research on Christmas and preparing for the weekend, I came across something in the Christmas story that I had not seen before. That is this:

It was a "silent night". There was no big fanfare, a huge production, etc. the night of Jesus' birth. The birth of Christ was a very "raw" event. God could've made it more (in fact he had every right to do so...after all this was the birth of the Son of God) but he decided not to.

We tried to hit on that theme in our services over the weekend. I'm so proud to have served alongside the artists, band, and tech crew we had on board that weekend. Each of them brought something to the table that created this Christmas "experience". I really believe God was looking down on us that weekend and saying "Well done, my good and faithful servants".

I'm a blogger!

2008-12-26T12:35:00.000-08:00

Well, I've entered the world of blogging! Never thought I'd be doing this but I think it's a great way to connect with our team of artists, friends, etc. I hope you'll check this when you can. My goal is to blog at least once a week!