Camping – Goal 1 Reached

We finally did it.

We camped overnight. I know, not that big of a deal. But, it was the first step of a larger goal.

I used Recreation.Gov to find and book a tent camping site, with electric. And then the day before were were going, was very sick. Some sort of Spring flu that turned into bronchitis. Not fun. Then we got so busy with life, and events. We finally found a Friday/Saturday overnight with good weather.

So, We booked a tent site with electric at Johnson Creek Camp at Lake O’ the Pines. The cost was $20. We were right on the water. The weather was beautiful. Partly cloudy. Low humidity. High in the mid 80s and low of 60. We had to use blankets at night.

Here’s how it went.

Everything fit into my small Honda Fit. Check in was easy. We rolled in about 4:40 or so. The gate pulled up our reservation, gave us the car card showing how long we were staying and directions to the camp site. Super friendly.

We rolled into the site. It was very packed. I don’t think we saw any open RV or tent sites. Our original dates were much earlier and the camp ground was not as full. But since we had hit May, things were busier. (We booked the spot about a week before we went, there had been several open sites then.)

Location was pretty good. We looked at the map online before we booked. We wanted to be close to the bathroom and by the water.

We met the neighbors right off the bat. And their friendly dog came over a couple of times, but not enough to be a bother. People were actually pretty quiet. Even so, we would rather have been around less people.

Once we arrived, we set up the tent pretty quickly. The Coleman 6 person went up fine. The tent site was hard packed sandy dirt. The site had lots of shade.

The lake was awesome. But also, it was the source of most of the noise. Generally, boat owners seem to blow past the camp area at full speed, all the time. I get it. But it was fairly loud.

There was one boat… I mean, they had invested in a very good/loud sound system and were skiing. And they really liked profanity-laden gangster rap. Their music was so loud, they had to turn it down to talk. We kept hearing them yelling, “What?” when they would try to talk to each other. And then they would crank the music back up. It was super annoying. Enough that I was wishing we were on a smaller lake. One where people didn’t want to ski.

The other noise issue was something I could have found out before we went, but it never crossed my mind. I knew that this lake hosted periodic fishing contests. Saturday morning, at 6 a.m., 41 fishing boats came screaming out of the boat ramp, heading out to fish. That will wake you up.

Once we got set up, it was time to cook.

I was excited to try this. I bought a small camp grill, and then put a grill tray on it. We used charcoal, so no need to haul any wood. It took a little longer to cook the burgers than in a grill (no enclosed grill to hold the heat in). But they tasted great.

We didn’t really do much. Just set up. Ate. Rested. I put out the hammock. At sunset we went into the tent.

I used a large, thick blanket to cover the floor. We had two air mattresses. And we brought sheets and blankets. We had a better powered fan, which was great because the tent was a little stuffy, even in the mild weather.

After the fishing boat wake up call, we got up. I had a pop tart. We hung out for a while longer and I slowly packed things up. Mid morning we took the tent down, and bailed.

We drove around the rest of the camping area, to see the other tent spot. Then we headed home.

Here’s what I learned:

If we’re doing this a lot, we’re going to change up the sleeping system. First, the blankets. Definitely going to use lightweight sleeping bags. They would be so much more efficient and easier to carry and use. Second, the air mattresses. If we keep doing this, we will be getting some cots. Something that won’t leak air and that is higher off the ground.

We didn’t leave much of anything outside the tent. Others did, and I doubt we would have had anything stolen. But we were only staying overnight and did not have much.

I also brought way too many lights. I didn’t know how many we would use and what would work well. So, we will be bringing less of those. But maybe we will do more outdoor lights? We used no outdoor lights this time.

For overnight, the way we were camping, we didn’t really need the electric. A small battery pack can power the phone. But, if it had been hotter, a big box fan might have been nice. One neighbor had a window unit AC set up blowing into their tent.

We enjoyed this overnight getaway. Next time, we will look for a smaller lake or no lake, maybe something with trails.

Hobby Goal 2 – Another overnight stay, less noise, less people, more activity. Maybe head to the Big Thicket?

Time lapse from our campsite.

Camping – Hobby Goals

Why, after almost 27 years of marriage, did I ask my wife if she wanted to go camping? We have camped once, in my parent’s yard, years ago. I took my son camping once with a church group. Why this sudden interest in camping?

• I like to travel and see cool places. 

• That costs money, and one of the major costs is lodging. Camping can mitigate those costs. 

• In a couple of years my kids will be grown. And we will have more opportunity for travel.

• I like to take pictures and video of interesting places. 

• I like gadgets. I like figuring things out. Camping has a whole ecosystem of gadgetry available. Lots of DIY projects. 

I used to go camping more as a kid. Spent a week in Branson, MO camping at Table Rock Lake. My dad, uncle, cousin and I used to do a two day float trip down the Big St. Francis River, and just camped on the side of the river. I just don’t do it anymore. 

So, camping goals…

Now, you can drop major money on camping vehicle and trailers. I could be wrong, but I don’t see us ever spending $30k on a trailer. 

Hobby Goal 1– Get an inexpensive tent/car camping system and see if you really want to do this. 

How terrible would it be to invest thousands and start traveling just to find you hate it? Better to test things out in the beginning. See what we like, what we don’t, what we want and what we won’t. 

To car/tent camp you need:

-Somewhere to sleep– In a car, SUV, or van. Or in a tent.

-Some way to eat– Whether it’s dogs over a camp fire, cold cuts or take out, you need to eat. As we do this, I’m sure we will acquire the kitchen tools to do more. 

-Somewhere to use the bathroom– Many campsites have toilets and showers available. No need to dig a latrine.

Sleep System- 

So, we bought a tent. $70 close out from Ollie’s. This 6-person Coleman Skydome is 10’x8’ and is 6’ tall in the middle of the dome. 

It doesn’t have any built in electric stuff. They had some of those, but the reviews were not kind. Instead of a cheap fan or light thrown in, I will get those things as we need them later. 

I actually have a few things, like battery powered lights. We already have some inflatable mattresses. And sheets and blankets. 

Meal System-

This will be minimal. We have coolers and will keep things simple. We have some plastic plates, and sticks to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. The normal stuff you accumulate. 

Bathroom System-

For now, we will only camp at sites with restroom facilities.

The first step is to go somewhere close. There are several campsites that allow tents and have facilities within a hour of our home. 

Let’s see how things go.

Upgrading Audio in a 2010 Fit: Sound Deadening Part 2 & New Speakers

Off and on I have been doing little things to upgrade the sound in my 2010 Honda Fit. I did not want to swap the stock audio. A while back I added sound deadener to the floor. I recently added sound deadener to the front doors. I have a video of the Pre and Post vibrations in the doors:

You can hear there is a definite difference. But there are 4 doors, and I only deadened 2. However, I did a few tests and saw another 3db drop in noise, generally. Between the deadener on the floor and the doors, the mid range noise is down between 4 and 6 db. That’s a real noticeable difference.

While I had the doors off I wanted to go ahead and swap the front speakers. I didn’t want to open the doors up twice. Normally, when you take off panels from older cars, some of the clips break. (Amazingly, none of the clips broke on my Fit. Everything went back together. Your mileage may vary.)

Now, I was certain that the heavy-midrange, 14-year-old stock speakers could not be worse than even the cheapest after market speakers. I was right and wrong.

I got a pair of ridiculously cheap JVC coax. And, for the first day, they did sound better than the stock speakers. They had no low end at all, but that was expected. What I did not expect was that they would blow within 24 hours of moderate use. After one day, they had noticeable distortion at any volume.

Turns out, cheap speakers don’t last. So, I found a pair of cheap-but-not-as-cheap Pioneers on sale.

Just visually, the construction on the JVC is inferior. But the real test is whether they would last. Oh, and sound OK.

I did use the adapter kit for the speakers. I don’t know why car manufacturers don’t just use normal size and hole patterns for speakers. The Pioneers are the G series, which is the just-better-than-stock line Pioneers puts out. They are not amazing, but they sound better than stock- marginally. And they don’t blow up.

The adapter kit makes the speaker slightly too tall for the door card to fit exactly right. But it’s secure and you can’t see it unless you look closely.

So, deadening the doors and floor actually help a lot. There’s still a lot of glass and noise, but this is better. If you replace the speakers, don’t completely cheap out.

Why Churches Drift on Theology

I’m a conservative theologian. Not every position I hold would be considered conservative, but my approach to theology and practice is very conservative.

I believe every believer should develop a biblical worldview. I believe the Bible is an external plumb line we should use to determine what is right and good in the world. Here’s an episode of a podcast I used to do which explains this: Foundations Podcast Episode 2

And, I firmly believe that any local church’s theology and practice should be biblically based. It should not violate scripture.

It’s weird to have to write that out. But, over the last few years, as our culture drifts further into a post-Christian condition, I’m hearing comments from believers and church’s alike which sound like these:

“We like to focus more on what Jesus said in our teaching.”

“Paul included too much of his personal views in his letters.”

“There are a lot of really sweet and good people included in this [group that engages in behavior some verses call sin]”

“Why would there be so many positive expressions of [some behavior] if it was really a sin?”

“One of the best Christians I know is a [member of a group that is doing something considered a sin by some]”

“[Members engaged in behavior considered sin by some] have overcome such bigotry and oppression in the church and still love God. Someone who is wrong would have left long ago.”

I feel it, the sentiment expressed here. How much easier would the Christian life be if we could just use circumstances to define theological practice?

The problem is that cultural beliefs ebb and flow. Twenty years ago some churches were convinced homosexual behavior was sin. Today, some of those same churches are convinced they were wrong. What position will they hold 20 years from now? 

Want another example? 100 years ago some churches believed in segregation and slavery. Today, those same churches believe they were wrong.

Now hold on. I’m am NOT saying 100 years ago those churches were right. I’m saying historically, churches have allowed cultural circumstances to influence theology. And that is wrong. This is not a new problem. (Read 1 Corinthians for more examples.)

So, why do churches drift theologically on cultural issues? 

I started to give some contemporary examples. but if you have not run into a Christian or a church where this happening, you will. Here is what you will find- A pastor or teacher who has stopped thinking of the Bible as an anchor. At some point, they stopped looking to scripture as the basis for doctrine and practice. 

When culture begins to put pressure on a particular theological point, without a biblical anchor the teacher will begin to move. And the teaching will begin to reflect this new position. And they may even give some reasons for the change, some of which may sound plausible at first glance. They may even quote scripture.

What they won’t do is provide an in depth, exegetical analysis of relevant scriptures which influenced their new position. Because they have not done any. Instead, you get appeals to emotion, appeals to authority, ad hominem attacks, and proof-texted passages that may or may not be out of context. Bad reasoning all around.

The gnostics infested the Corinthian church, bringing pressure to bear. And that church began to adopt those ideas, until Paul set them straight. Rich slave owners in the South put pressure on Baptist churches and refused to change, and they split from churches with a correct theology about slavery. Modern churches feel the pressure to bend on issues of sexual identity and practice. 

Our world is fallen. Culture will always drift away from the truth. The currents will push and pull on churches and believers. The only defense is to be anchored in truth by scripture.

Believers and churches must commit themselves to study the Bible. They must learn how to properly interpret scripture. They must develop a biblical worldview. And then must examine issues through that lens. 

That’s how to stop drift in churches.

When pastors and leaders give no biblical basis for theology. Or give bad interpretation of a few passages while ignoring verses that seemingly contradict the position as they shift toward a position that is more in line with our culture- church members will follow that example. (James 3:1 comes to mind)

You want to keep your church from drifting? Do the work of exegesis. When you find yourself at what seems to be opposite points from scripture, study the scripture and find the truth. If you are in error, then change yourself. Determine your theology and practice as it is based on the Bible. 

Churches may change their theology and practice. Churches have in the past. But make sure that change is based on study of scripture. Not cultural pressure.

Control ProPresenter 7 Video Playback from Ross Dashboard- Cue/Load, Play and Stop Video

What you need:

–A Ross Switcher with the Pro7 machine as an added “server” device.

-Dashboard computer should be on the same network as the switcher and Pro7 machine

-A MEDIA playlist on Pro7 with less than 20 videos in it. (Not a regular playlist)

-This uses the AMP protocol, and the Ross devices consider Pro7 to be a Server.

-This is for playing back video, not controlling lyrics or other presentations. ( I suggest a separate lyric machine)

Renewed Vision has added Rosstalk to ProPresenter 7 (Pro7). That’s great. But Pro7’s Rosstalk feature only talks to Ross devices, it does not listen. You can control certain functions on a Ross switcher. There are many ways that can be helpful. But you can’t control Pro7 from the switcher.

But what if you specifically wanted to use Dashboard to fire videos from a Pro7 machine? 

It is possible, if you have a Ross Switcher that allows you to add devices like Media Servers, We have a Ross Carbonite (The older one, not the Black series.). 

Add Pro7 to The Ross Switcher–

To add the Pro7 machine you need to add the device on the switcher panel, not Dashboard. Go into the menu and add a device, choose a server and put in the Pro7 IP address when prompted. Remember what slot you used, that will show up in Dashboard. Make sure to set the device up to “roll clip” when you switch to it.

Configure Pro7 to talk to Dashboard-

On the Pro7 machine, configure the preferences to communicate using the AMP protocol. This article will help: https://support.renewedvision.com/hc/en-us/articles/360060251553-Devices-AMP. If your switcher is set up, when you hit Connect it will change to green. Right click the media playlist and “select for communication.”

Now your Dashboard can talk to your Pro7 machine. The Dashboard software can send a few commands, like cue, play and stop. Here’s how to set up a macro to load a play a particular clip.

In Dashboard, Custom Controls, pick the control button you want to use.  Go into the shot editor, find the bank and button. 

Load the clip-

Modify Event list, select devices, server. Then select Cue. The settings should default to your server and slot for the Pro 7 machine. If not, select those. Channel 1. Then type the exact file name of the video clip you want to load. Insert command.

Play the clip-

Modify event list, device, server and select play, server and channel 1. Insert command.

Now, hit record in the custom control editor, put your Pro7 machine in preview and hit auto trans. Stop recording. Name the command and hit done. Switch back to the shot box and test the macro.

When you need to change videos, just edit the custom control and change the name in the Cue and hit Replace Item, Done.

You can also set commands to stop and play the Pro7 machine. It will only play a clip that is already loaded.

Limitations

You can only fire videos from this machine on this one media playlist. You could set up another Pro7 machine the same way and load it into another slot on the switcher, but you would need an entire extra Pro7 machine.

Cautions

ProPresenter is presentation software, not a professional video playback solution. It plays video fine. but it can glitch, and need to be restarted. Contrast that with the Grass Valley K2 device we had been using. For all its quirks, it played video every time. The 2nd week we were using the Pro7 set up the audio on our service intro video was just a square wave. I thought we had gone back to dial up internet. Restart Pro7 and the problem was fixed. So, restart each week. Listen to the playback (don’t just watch meters) and don’t think you have to keep updating a solid machine. Only update the video playback machine when you need it. Run lyrics and other presentations off another device.

Don’t spread gossip online. That’s it, that’s the post.

Proverbs 18:8 “A gossip’s words are like choice food that goes down to one’s innermost being.”

This is an admonition to fellow Christians to be mindful of what they believe and spread online. Maybe we think that because we don’t actually know the people, it’s not gossip?  It is gossip. It’s wrong. 

I get that it scores points on “Christian Twitter” to dunk on the Moderates/Libs. It’s always the mega church pastors that get hit, right? Mega churches put out sermons on video. So everyone can see what they teach. 

From time to time you see 1-2 minute clips from megachurch sermons pulled out to prove they have gone soft on sin. At no time is any benefit of the doubt given. The pastor can’t have misspoken, can’t have been taken out of context. The sermon may be 35 minutes of multiple points and sub points, but this 60 second clip is all that matters.

The clips are never plain. It’s never one of these guys saying, “I believe homosexual behavior is not a sin.” It’s never that clear.  The new clip is often tied back to another clip previously used for the same purposes.

The supposed heresy often contradicts what the church has previously, publicly said. Their belief statement on the web likely doesn’t reflect this new theological view.

The position is, the bad church/pastor publicly publishes their teachings where anyone can see them, but are, at the same time, secretly teaching heresy/bad theology. They have secretly decided to call sin holy and good. Not only are they wrong about their belief, but they are nefarious liars, saying the “right” thing in some places, but secretly leading the sheep astray.

This is the claim of some. These people take to social media and trumpet their discovery of false teaching. By all means, let’s get the mob back together. Who’s got the pitchforks and who has the torches?

You know what you don’t see? “I heard this and it disturbed me, so I called the pastor in question…. I reached out to the church highlighted in this clip…” Nope. Why would you ask a liar, right? They might be able to explain away your major issue. You might find out the clip doesn’t reveal the full theology of the speaker.

And then there are the guys who make a living out of doing this. They post hours of video proving some ministries have it all wrong.  You know what you never see? A video where they investigate and find out the critics were wrong. You will never see a headline that read, “We heard there was heresy, but we only found truth!”

Why is that? 

Why do regular Christian people retweet/repost/repeat unproven gossip? Why do people watch these expose’ videos? Proverbs 18:8 has it right. Gossip is so tasty.

Controversy breeds interest. If you feel you are right, or at least “righter” than them, you feel superior.  There’s a bit of allure to this “secret knowledge” that these posts and videos give out. You can be in the know. You can be someone who was not fooled. 

It’s “I may not be perfect, but I’m not that bad,”  combined with “I know things others don’t.”  Delicious, yet rotten to its core.

Here’s 3 problems with sharing these things:

1. You don’t know anything. You just don’t. Unless the person you’re criticizing said clearly, ‘This is my belief” you cannot know their theology from a few minutes of one sermon. You have to jump to too many conclusions. You don’t have enough information to use inductive logic properly. 
2. The experts you are listening to don’t know anything either. Every time I watch one of these long videos that “proves” something, it’s filled with conjecture. They have a list of things that, if you tilt your head and squint just right,  will prove what they are saying. But if anything is not exactly what they suggest, the house of cards tumbles down. I get it. They dug up some dirt, they got an insider feeding them info. They connected the dots, they put the jigsaw puzzle together. Those who subscribe to these theories refuse to entertain other possibilities. Because if they think for one second one piece of evidence might not be correctly interpreted, then their entire theory crashes down. 
3. It’s not biblical. This isn’t how you deal with false teachers. Before the internet you would never jump to public condemnation before you took several more steps. Matthew 18 lays out a pretty good path to conflict resolution. There are 4 steps. Even if you claim that public posts online counts as taking something to the Church, there are 2 steps before that point.  If you are really concerned about this brother, this congregation, then you will go to them and confront them in love. You will get the truth. But, if you are honest, you care more about feeling better about yourself than correcting a brother. 

That’s hard to hear. The tendency to believe the worst about fellow Christians is a cancer in the Church. The habit of attacking people who are wrong (or we think are wrong) rather than lovingly, biblically correcting them is a terrible thing in the Church. Spreading online gossip is spreading lies. Reposting these hit pieces doesn’t do one thing to grow the kingdom of God. 

When I see a post, I’m tempted to reply with “Wow, what did the church say when you reached out to them about this?”

Brother and sister, I implore you. Don’t share these posts, don’t spread gossip. I know it’s “choice food” and it feels so good. Resist. If you are truly concerned, reach out to the pastor, leader, congregation in question. I know that takes more time than hitting retweet, but it’s the right thing to do. 

If you can’t reach out, then pray. Everyone can do that. 

Upgrading the Audio in a 2010 Fit: Subwoofer and a Stock Radio

I decided not to change out the stock radio in my 2010 Honda Fit Sport. So, I’ve been doing upgrades here and there to the audio system. I had previously decided to not add a subwoofer to this car.

But, I had an old 10″ Infinity Subwoofer in a sealed enclosure and an old Phoenix Gold amp with a built in crossover. It’s rated at 300 Watts when bridged to mono. Someone had ordered this one painted white instead of the normal black. It’s pretty old (and dirty), but works well.

Since I was not swapping out the stock radio, I did not have easy access to RCA outputs for a subwoofer. Once in a wile I would miss the low end a subwoofer can bring, but not enough ti change out the radio. Then I basically ended up with a Line Out Converter for free.

A Line Out Converter (LOC) takes high output signals, like from the speaker lines of a stock radio, and converts them to RCA outputs. I had never used them before. The plan was to siphon off the audio from the rear speaker channels. The LOC gives me a remote turn on for the amplifier as well as two RCA outputs. To install the amp I needed a power cable from the battery and a ground.

This was easier said than done. The Fit has a small engine bay, and it seemed to be impossible to find a grommet to pass the wires through the firewall. I ended up, after some Googling, running the power cable through a hole in the fender, and then through a grommet near the door. The cable is covered by the inner fender lining, so you cannot see it, and it should be protected. I wrapped some electrical tape around the cable as well, for an added layer of protection.

I was able to get the power ran around to the battery, through the carpet and under the seat.

The amp fits right up under the seat. I used velcro to secure the amp, so I can remove it if needed. The LOC is supposed to take audio from the left and right speakers. But, I didn’t want to run the audio from two locations. I was curious if this would work. So, I hooked both left and right positive and left and right negative into the LOC inputs. Then I attached the remote turn on, and ground to the remote and ground of the amp. And I ran the RCA cables. And tied into the left rear speaker.

At this point, it should be done. When I turn on the stereo, the signal on the speaker wire should trigger the remote turn on and the amp should fire up. I had no idea if pulling the signal from just one side would give enough power. I know, if the low end is stereo I will miss it on the subwoofer. But I’m willing to try it.

Just a quick test, and I can already see the signal level is plenty high. I had to significantly reduce the sensitivity (Turn down the knob) on the amp. It was way too loud.

So, I still have some tweaking to do, and time will tell if I need to run wires to the right rear speaker or not. But I have enhanced low end in the Fit now. The LOC was very easy to use.

How to Take all Your Vacation While Working in Church Media (How to balance life and work in media ministry)

Inevitably, when I hang around a group of church media techs we end up talking about workload. After we share the crazy stories and the cool stuff we got to do, we wind up talking about hours and events Too many times I hear about people who routinely do not take all of their vacation days. And it’s not just vacation, it’s going home for dinner, or having days off.

There is an overworking epidemic infecting church media technicians.

To understand this, and ultimately fix it, we need to acknowledge some realities.

Reality 1: Non church media people will never understand what you do. 

They are busy with their own lives. When you get excited about a new piece of gear and start rattling off specs, their eyes glaze over. They don’t know, and don’t want to know. Mostly people respect us. They understand that our jobs are specific. But they didn’t choose to go into our line of work. While they may appreciate it, they will never know what goes into doing our jobs. 

Reality 2: For the most part, we don’t control our assignments at work.

In fact, most of the people who give us work to do are the same ones who don’t understand what we do. Generally, we don’t schedule events, dream up projects or initiatives. We don’t tell ministries what to do, we come alongside ministries to leverage technology to accomplish their ministry goals. 

That is a recipe for more work than you can get done in 40 hours. People who don’t know what you do, or how you do it, can unintentionally pile too much on you. I’ve heard more than one church media professional describe the hours they have to put in to get the job done right. Many times, after putting in hours and hours of overtime, they are not thanked or rewarded. 

Now, here’s where you expect me to start talking about educating people, and developing an understanding with your supervisors about proper work/life balance. I’m not saying these things aren’t worth the effort. But they require someone else to do something. They require others to learn and change their behavior.

I want to give you some things you can do, within your own department and ministry area, to reduce workload, get home more and take your vacation days.

Deal with your pride.

Just wanted to lay that out there. It doesn’t do any good for me to list the other things if you won’t actually do them. Too many of us labor under the prideful assumption that no one else can do it, or no one will be able to do it right. If you miss a Sunday, things will go wrong. Even if they don’t go terribly, they won’t be as good as when you are there. 

Get over yourself.

I mean that in Christian love.  Stop it. If you quit your job right now, church would still happen on Sunday. God would be worshipped. We like to say that we facilitate worship, but in reality we facilitate a certain style of worship. I’m not saying that isn’t important, but keep perspective here. If you can learn to do your job, someone else can learn to do it. But you have to be willing to let them do it.

Cross Train

Cross train other people to do multiple media positions.  My friend, Dr. Wes Hartley, has a lecture he gives on systems. He talks about creating repeatable and transferable processes designed to reduce cognitive load.  Make checklists, write down important information, then show others how to do your job. If you don’t, you can never be gone.

The key to cross training is not just showing someone how to do a job, it’s letting them do it before you are gone. You can’t just throw a checklist at someone and expect to miss a Sunday with no issues. I used to dread Sundays morning text messages when I was out. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Compare these two conversations… “Hey, boss, I’m taking Sunday off but don’t worry, I showed Billy how to do my job and made some notes for him. He has my phone number if you need me.” Vs “Hey, boss, Billy has been running this media position for several weeks. He has it down and has been doing a great job. He is going to fill in while I’m out next Sunday.”

Which makes the boss more comfortable? The latter, of course.  Cross training requires practice with a safety net. Over time, you can build a team of staff and volunteers who can fill into multiple positions. This team can fill needed positions for weekends and events, so your staff can be gone.

Automate

Technology is awesome. You can automate lyrics. You can tie PTZ camera moves to stream decks or other custom control computers. You can extend monitors and use wireless mice and keyboards to duplicate positions. You can automate lights. There are so many tools you can use to reduce the amount of people needed to cover simple events. 

A fully staffed crew in our Worship Center requires 7 people (staff and volunteers). But we have things set up so that 2 people can cover simple events.  On extremely simple events, we can even remote in with a computer and run the entire room with one person.  1 vs. 7.  That means less time away from family for our staff. 

Simplify

This is similar to automate. In some instances, technology can simplify an event. Other times we can manage expectations and what we provide.

Look at every event with an eye toward what you actually need to cover it.  Depending on how your tech requests may be set up, people might say that they need a technician, or multiple technicians, when they really don’t. Our education spaces are designed so that teachers can run their own presentations without technical help. 

How many people are expected? I recently failed at simplifying an event. The special night was scheduled for the Worship Center, which seats a lot. The past two times this event had been held, not a lot of people attended. It could fit into one of our smaller and simpler spaces. I should have gone to the ministry leader and persuaded them to move venues. Not only to save the effort and time of my team, but to help the event. 50 people in a room that seats 1000 feels like no one came. 50 people in a room that seats 250 feels better. Smaller spaces mean less techs to cover.

What have they asked for? Do they really need 7 wireless handhelds, or could most speak at a podium with a microphone? Are they comfortable running their own presentation from a laptop? Do you need multiple laptops and computers, or can you load everything onto one? 

We have a venue that could use 3 techs to operate audio, lights and CG. Because of cross training and simplicity of events, we normally staff it with one person. That doesn’t mean we won’t use a full crew when necessary, but our goal is to accomplish the tech needs with excellence, using as few people as possible.

Simplifying isn’t just about reducing staff at live events. Sometimes it’s about reducing your internal weekly workload. Are there times when a project comes up and you see that something can be improved? Sure. Is there time this week to do that improvement? Sometimes the answer is no. I know people who take every chance to make thing better, overall, even if no one else will notice the improvement. That’s a good thing. But doing it when it means you will have to work an extra 10 hours this week isn’t.

Sometimes, the time consuming complications we put up with are actually caused by us. I get the arguments. To do it “right” you need to swap out that gear or rewire that rack. And you do need to do that. But maybe not this time. How about you do that upgrade when you are not already filling your hours with other duties.

As with most things, balance is the key. We all want to improve. There will always be something left to do. You have to get OK with going home while you know work is left to be done. You have to realize that sometimes, the work that is left will not be missed by others. You can put it off.  And for the sake of your health and your family, you need to put it off.

When ministry leaders/ pastors/ bosses place work on your plate, they don’t know (or really care) how it gets done. It’s not because they don’t care about you, it’s because of reality #1. (How many graphic designers have been asked to “throw something together real quick”? ) They don’t know or care if you rewired the entire system or just made it work like last time. They don’t know if you went and shot your own B Roll or used a stock footage library. They only know you delivered with excellence.  

Stop piling on extra work. Get OK with going home. Be efficient and get things done. Find ways to use technology to automate and simplify your work. Identify staff and volunteers who can be trained to do your work. Train them, let them learn how to do it well. Set your vacation days. And take them.

That’s how you can take all your vacation, and see your family more even though you work in church media.

What Have I Been Doing?

Aside from the post the other day, it’s been more than 6 months since I posted anything here. What have I been doing?

Family– Family is good. I now have two kids who have graduated from High School, one more to go. House is generally good, but we still need to finish up the mess left from the rotten balcony. We are still heavily involved in homeschool speech & debate.

Work– Work has been crazy busy. At church, we lost a video staff person and the last remaining Communications person. For 6 months, I was doing 2.5 jobs as I covered for my team’s loss and helped out with some Communication tasks. They hired a new Communications Director, so that workload was lifted.

It is really hard to hire people since the Pandemic. Very few applications, and the ones we have moved on have not worked out. Character, chemistry and competence are what we are looking for.

Freelance– I’ve been doing a few projects for Church Media Squad. Just when they need help over holidays. I have done a few other small jobs.

The biggest project is the ballet documentary. I say documentary, it’s more of a documentary-style keepsake video. So that changes things. After more than 2.5 years of shooting generally, 1.5 years of focused work, I have a 50-minute piece that covers the last 50 years of the Longview Ballet Theater in East Texas. I was hired to shoot and edit this project. I’m not a huge ballet fan, but the story is compelling. Because this a keepsake, there are parts of the video that I would likely cut if it were up to me, but the clients will like them. I am close to wrapping this project. It’s been a long time working on it.

What’s next? I’m not sure. I have some creative ideas. I’m ready to hire the open position on my team. I’m ready to finish up the house, as soon as prices come down (ha!). I am thinking about a short doc project.

So, that’s it. Hopefully it won’t be another 6 months before you hear from me again.

Being Creative is Risky

Today, I accidentally stumbled onto a review of my old comedy series. 

It’s not kind. Written in 2018, for a series that first came out in 2012, the anonymous reviewer proceeds to list many of the things I knew were deficient in the series. He (She? The whole review site is anonymous, so just guessing here) said one positive thing: “Video and audio quality, for the most part, are fine.” Oddly, I disagree with this. 

Everything else is sarcastic, critical, and somewhat deserved. My disappointment with this review is not that he didn’t like the things I don’t like, but that he missed the entire point of the show. He seemed confused that we would make fun of Christians and Christianity. He seemed to think we were being completely serious. So, he didn’t get any of the jokes. 

Of course, this review site isn’t something you would ever know. If I were reviewing the site itself, I might say…

“Leaving aside the horrible, outdated WordPress build, it’s difficult to find anything on the page. Publishing under an anonymous name does nothing to establish the author as any authority on Christian content. When it comes to series reviews, the author has only two categories- The Chosen and bad Christian series. If he is reviewing something Dallas Jenkins isn’t involved in, expect a low score.”

[OK, that was a bit cathartic. I’m aware my blog is also on WordPress, but it’s a blog… not a full-on website with multiple pages and sections.]

You see, even though I am aware of the flaws in that series, it hurts when some anonymous guy on the internet points them out AND doesn’t get the good parts at the same time. I suspect that the reviewer has never put out anything creative is his life. He has no idea what it’s like to spend hours trying to make something and send it out into the world. 

Being creative is risky. 

In a humorous twist, I also found out that both the series and short ebook about how we made the series were cited in a textbook. The book is strangely about humor in Evangelical and Mormon contexts. I would have bought a copy, but like all textbooks, it’s too expensive. I have no idea what they said about the series, except the author did reference my comments about the Christian TV market and changing the model to allow for more non-traditional content production. I could see that from an excerpt.

If you had asked me in 2012 if I thought that creative work would be cited (for good or ill) in a textbook, I would have laughed. If you had asked me if it would still be on the air or streaming a decade later, I would have said no way. It’s not on many places, but it is on. 

Being creative is risky. 

One of episodes singled out as terrible by the anonymous reviewer was the same one that NRB reviewed and awarded 2014’s Best Creative TV Programming. Now, I know there were not a lot of entries that year, so that doesn’t mean it was amazing. But the National Religious Broadcasters didn’t think it was as bad as the anonymous reviewer. Not everyone gets everything. Especially in a comedy.

Nothing you do creatively is going to appeal to everyone. [Insert one of the many, many stories of super successful people not being appreciated, getting turned down, etc…]

I’m not gonna’ lie, it sucks hard when you read that negative review. When some random person says something (that literally happened to you before) is a “trope” or isn’t believable. When he just doesn’t get what you spent so much time working on. Yes, the internet allows anonymous people to “platform” their opinions alongside more qualified reviewers. But it is inevitable that you will get a bad review, especially if your work is flawed. (And this series is seriously flawed. I am amazed at what we were able to accomplish, but it’s not amazing, itself.)

But it is very cool when you get positive feedback. Whether it’s an award, or that email from a fan saying it’s her family’s favorite Christian TV series, positive feedback feels great. My feature length documentary came out in 2019, and I still have speech & debate kids and parents tell me how much it means to them. That is a very cool, thing.

But be aware, there is no guarantee that anything you do creatively will ever get any positive feedback. You must decide what is worth the risk? Is your passion for your project enough to carry you? Your early work will be flawed. Know that. Part of growing and learning is doing. And your initial “doing” can be pretty bad. But you need that bad to get to better.

So, take the risk. Not because your current project is awesome (though it could be) but because your next project will be better.