I’ve been using EasyWorship 2009 at our church for a few months now in its beta form, and it has been rock-solid. Our worship team really likes the Display Foldback capabilities, and has made it clear that this feature alone is worth the upgrade fee.

So, what is Display Foldback? Basically, it’s support for a third output from the computer that is intended specifically for the people on stage. It supports different settings for backgrounds and font size and style. In addition, you can display a clock for the worship team and preacher to use. Perhaps my favorite part of the system is that you can display the first line of the next slide in case your slide operator falls asleep at the wheel.

Display Foldback requires an additional level of hardware that you may not already have. You’ll need a third display output, which for many churches, means purchasing an extra video card. Our setup is unconventional, but it works all the same. We use the integrated video on the motherboard for our control screen. Then, a single PCI-E video card sends VGA to the congregation and Foldback to the stage via composite video. You could do any combination of video cards and monitors from something like what we use all the way to three independent cards.

Once your hardware is in place, setup is simple. First, configure Windows so that all three outputs are active. Hit the “Identify” button to be sure you’re not duplicating a certain output across two screens. You’ll want to see a “1” on the control screen, a “2” on the congregation screen, and a “3” on the foldback monitor. Then, start up EasyWorship. In the Live > Options pane, set the main (congregation) output to “Secondary Monitor”. Click Ok. Now, in the Live > Display Foldback Options pane and under the “Display Foldback” heading, change the dropdown menu selection to “Monitor 3” or whatever yours may be called.

That’s it! Change the Display Foldback settings as you see fit. Most of the foldback pane is similar to what you’ll see in the main Display Options pane, so you should be familiar with what you’re looking at. A plain background with the clock and next line preview turned on seems to work well for us.

There are two more features related to Display Foldback I’d like to mention. First is the “Foldback Alert”, found at Live > Alerts > Foldback Alert, or the Alerts button just to the left of the Logo, Black and Clear buttons. There, you can send a message only to the stage. Operation is identical to the “Message Alert”.

The other feature is enhanced PowerPoint slide operation. In the Live > Display Foldback Options pane and in the PowerPoint Options tab, there are some options to add thumbnails of the next few upcoming slides. You can change the size of the previews as a percentage of screen height. However, if your foldback monitor is not very large or it is positioned far away, sharing that screen with thumbnails makes the primary slide small and hard to read very quickly.

All in all, EasyWorship 2009 is a good upgrade, and there are many more features besides Display Foldback. Another feature that I like is webpage integration, especially for YouTube.

Prices are $399 for a new license, $99 for an upgrade and free if you have purchased since the beginning of 2009. More information can be found at http://www.easyworship.com

Yesterday was one of those days, a day where we had one problem after another.  When I got to church, Daniel was there getting things set up with sound so I proceeded to log in to the EasyWorship computer.  The mouse worked but the keyboard did not, no response at all.  It’s wireless, which I wouldn’t advise but it has done ok.  No AAA batteries on hand and no time to run and get any, so, I ran back to the tech ministry wall….we get a wall in a room, which I had to fight for, so I’m glad to have that much…. so I went there and pulled a spare keyboard. Not a big thing.

Then, once EasyWorship was up, I clearly had no secondary monitor, aka projection to the big screens, which poses a slight problem.  On other systems, it may be an easy thing to troubleshoot but not ours.  I have mentioned our redneck system and I stand by that, it’s redneck!  It works great but when someone who knows nothing about our setup starts unplugging things, it’s a problem.

Over the years, it has been pieced together and a couple of pieces of hardware in the rack are not even used anymore.  So, I got on the floor under the counter chasing wires.  About a year ago, when I was barely getting started here, a similar thing happened and that’s when I learned that our setup was redneck.

First service we had no projection, which isn’t a big thing, the hymns that they sing are all known and they have sung them for years.  We were able to get things up for second service.  After plugging things in correctly, we also power cycled the scan converter.

Over time, including yesterday, people suggest what needs to be done to fix all of our problems and my response, including yesterday, is that I agree but their suggestion costs money, usually big money, and for now, my goal is to make this current system work the best it should.

This current budget year, my big expenditure is a new firewall and other network upgrades and I’m in the process of getting that done right now.  That is necessary and last year at budget time, I focused on what I knew, which is more the IT side of things.  For next year’s budget, I’m focusing on replacing the video/projection equipment in the sound booth.  It fascinates me that people who have little to no involvement with this ministry sure do know how to spend the tech budget, at least they think they do.

Part of being a good steward is making the most with what God has provided, not just complain about how much better it could be.

We had other issues too:

• the DI on the piano was static-y, so it wasn’t mic’d.
• Even though sound got to the laptop we were streaming too, there was no sound on the stream and we have done this for the last few weeks successfully.

This was my first post in nearly a month!  I have been busy and distracted and traveling and trying to figure out where God is taking me.  Still not sure exactly but I have an idea what the near future holds, hoping to finalize the details this week.  Of course, it could all change too, so I will share more about that as things firm up.

I would love to write more, even full time, even though that hasn’t been evident lately.

How was your Sunday?

Also, Greg gave us a tip for correcting our underwater sounding audio and with that resolved, I think we will be streaming many things that we do as a team.

Check us out!

John, our worship pastor came back and mentioned that it looks like the dream team and I said something about that’s why I wasn’t up there. He went on to say even more reason to call it the dream team then. I said thank you, jokingly, but as I have thought that through, I mean it. Thank you, John!

The way I figure it, if I can build a dream team that functions as well or better without me, then I’m doing something right. God has blessed this church with many willing, talented servants in the tech ministry .

For the record, from left to right is Daniel, the nuts and bolts guy of the team, if it needs to get done, Daniel is on it, Rachel (sitting down), she is the owner of the lights and she takes lighting very seriously, Jim (the other Jim), the newest member of the team, already proving his value and Nina, a true servant, the one that does far more for the smooth operation of the tech ministry on Sunday morning than she realizes and I appreciate that so much.

Here is the lean and mean second service dream team, Steven running sound, I think he started running sound about a day after birth, and Mary, the master of EasyWorship and the most attractive person on the team, in my humble opinion. We are missing Chris, who usually runs lights but I told him last week he could take some time off and Jim (the other Jim) was still around running the camera, though not when I took the pic. Of course, I can’t forget Mike, he floats in and out of the sound booth on Sunday morning, mostly to be social. There’s nothing wrong with that because I know he’s not a soundbooth kind of guy.

I appreciate all of these people a great deal and they are all vital to the smooth operation of this ministry. This is a very eclectic group of people that has come together to function like a well oiled machine.

One thing that I am excited about is that Daniel is going to be stepping up and taking on more of a leadership role and some time in the near future, he and I will alternate Sunday’s, so on his Sunday, he will take the lead in both services as well as run sound. On my Sunday, I will do the same, except Steven will be in the house to cover second service sound.

We all love hiding in the back and prefer to go unnoticed, except for Donna. She would rather be on stage singing, but she is still a vital part of the Dream Team. Beyond A/V/L, we also support all I.T. functions in the church and that’s a large part of Donna’s role.  Plus, she has given us a perspective of what it’s like to be on stage, as we deal with lighting, monitor placement and other things like that.

So, things are taking shape. I need to get a solid backup for Mary in place so we can have the same alternating Sunday’s off, that’s a definite need. All in all, I’m very happy with where we are at this point.

Thank you, Dream Team!

Honestly, I am making plans for my future, which I plan to share on here soon, but for now, I am still focused on the task at hand.  Regardless of all that, the reality is a good leader should work to replace himself.

Over the last 6 months or so, I have built up a team of servants that serve in a variety of ways and lately, I have been working hard to do less.  I am surrounded by talented, smart, Godly people who are willing to serve, using skills and desires they have always had, and they enjoy serving in the tech ministry.

Everyone is not a leader but some people are and I have raised those people up and challenged them to take on more.  This is a very necessary thing because we are adding A/V/L equipment to 3 additional areas in the church and I am planning to be available to help lead those areas as they come online.

So, it is absolutely necessary to have others who are capable and willing to serve and empowering them to lead in my absence.

That’s about all I’ve got on this one.

The point is that a good leader should raise up other leaders and support them as they learn to lead.

How are you raising up leaders under you?

Lately, Daniel and I talked and he is stepping up to take on more of a leadership role in many ways and we talked about other ways to use the blog, as well.   One thing we will definitely try to do is document processes via the blog and categorize them in some way.  That way we can refer back to it when necessary.

I also like to write about what we, as a team, are doing via this blog.   Daniel agreed to begin writing on there and he did just that for the first time a few days ago.  I was out of town last weekend and asked Daniel to take the lead on everything Sunday morning, basically, he had to be me.  I had no worries, he is very willing and very capable and he did a great job.

To top it off, he wrote a great post about Sunday morning and it is here.  Check it out! It is very well written and he articulates many details, from his perspective.  He got a first hand experience on knowing what it’s like to be the guy calling the shots.  It won’t be his last time, for sure.  Thanks again, Daniel! I appreciate your willingness and I’m looking forward to how things are shaping up.

To introduce Daniel, I’ll let him do it:

I’m 18 years old, and I’ve been with the tech team for 6 years now, I guess. Yeah, when it was really bad. But that was before Jim! With Jim, you can get your shower twice as clean with half the scrubbing!

What a great quote!  Daniel has been the one hanging around more than anyone else has.  Yes, he started when he as about 12 years old.  He goes on to say:

“Heading up the sound booth for Sunday Morning services” sounds big, but I really don’t think it was. Jim and I work pretty much side-by-side up there, so the title of “in charge” doesn’t have as much impact as it would at, say, a nuclear power plant. Biggest difference was, we were down one man.

He sums it up this way:

It’s kind of weird to have a problem and not have Jim to turn around to to “Buy this this week” or “Quick! Fix that!” As important as the team is to our success, it’s also important to have a degree of self-sufficiency because people are going to be gone from time to time. Never would I say we’re going to give Jim the boot, but I think I can do it when I need to.

I guess I can’t get out of this gig that easily.

So check out Daniel’s post!

The blog is Fairview Tech Arts Ministry.  I would encourage you to subscribe via e-mail or RSS, so you will get our updates regularly, especially for when Daniel writes.

There is also a resources site that I created and it is here.  It’s primarily resources for the PC Workshop but I want to continue to add to it.

Check us out and learn what we are up to at Fairview, there is a lot of cool stuff happening.  We are doing some neat things to help enhance the message of Jesus.

Every one of the volunteers that serves on my team has other responsibilities such as work and school and of course family.  So, the time they devote to the church has to fit between everything else.  Don’t miss that point!

Something I have learned in the last year or so is that I need to devote most of my time to casting a vision and managing people.  Put simply, casting a vision is just pointing the direction to go.  Oftentimes, I will share the desired end result, so we know the goal and we know where we are today, all that’s left is to work out the details in between.

But back to the people side of things, the key to keeping people plugged in is to show appreciation and don’t take anyone for granted.  There are about 10 people directly involved in the Tech Arts Ministry at my church, plus a number of other people that we interact with, such as the worship pastor and other musicians. My job is to make sure everyone, both within my ministry and otherwise, are happy with what’s going on and has what they need to do what they do. 

It’s really all about relationships.

If I take anyone for granted, that definitely hurts the relationship, so to be an effective leader, I need to show appreciation to people constantly.  It’s not just empty words either, it’s true appreciation for serving along side me.

Another challenge in the church tech world is that most everything we do is behind the scenes and unnoticed.  We are not on stage or at the door, we are keeping things running smooth, whether it’s computer related or website related or in the sound booth on Sunday morning.

For some, they don’t do well not being in the spotlight and in that case, this kind of ministry may not be for them.  I need to do a better job of appreciating my team, I know.  They are awesome and I definitely could not do the things we do on my own.

If you are in a ministry leadership role, don’t be afraid to sincerely let your people know how much you appreciate them.

What are some tangible ways that you show your people appreciation?

NEXT: Our Tech Arts Ministry blog and other resources

In a former church, I was the lone tech volunteer and I did it all. By the time I left, I was supporting nearly 50 desktops and 3 servers and I knew everything about everything there. I knew the amount of expertise each user had…or didn’t have, I knew what computers had what quirks and things were going well, as far as I knew.

I thought I wanted some volunteers to help me but didn’t really know how to go about getting them.  It might have had something to do with the environment in the church or it might had to do with my heart.  Did I really need help? Was there anything that anyone could add to what I was already doing? The answers I kept going back to was no.

The short answer to a very long story is that gig went down in flames, my family was affected and many other families were affected and still, to this day, over two years later, are being affected.

Through that, God led us through what Mary and I consider to be our wilderness experience, a period of over a year where we searched for something, anything, and did not find.  God grew us during that time and humbled us and showed us that He mattered more than “game” we were trying to play at church.  After not being committed to a church during that time, we landed where we are now, at a church that has always been less than a mile from our home.

Again, to make a long story short, God provided an opportunity to me, more than I expected and I resisted at first. I wanted to do it but I didn’t want to get back into a similar situation. I finally agreed to take on the role of overseeing all things technical in the church.

Right away, I made it clear that I wasn’t going to do it alone and I planned to build a team of volunteers, yet I had no clue how I was going to do that. Plus, I didn’t really know anyone.  It took a few months for this transition to occur, so I observed and learned and watched people and got to know people.

As I talked to people, I started telling them about some areas that I felt I needed help in and wondered if they would be interested in serving.  Also, right away, I came out with this crazy idea of doing this thing called a PC Workshop and it was sponsored by the Tech Ministry.  When that was first publicized, the Tech Ministry consisted of…me!  In the announcement, I invited people to come and help if they were technically inclined and they did.

From there, I took this handful of people and started doing other things.  Plus, I had a built in team already working the sound booth and I had to begin to lead them, without offending or disrupting things some had been doing the same way for years.

So, I just talked to people. I asked what they did, how they did it and left it alone.   There were things, at some point, where I said lets change this and of course I was told no, we’ve always done it that way.  I said I understand but let’s try doing it a different way, just once, and if it goes down in flames, I’ll take the hit and we’ll go back to doing it your way.  To date, I’ve taken very few, if any, hits.  Slowly, things have changed and people have stayed on board and more people have joined.

What’s the secret? God’s blessing! My role in this is to put people first, listen and provide opportunities.  My goal in doing what I do is to really not do that much, I want to empower people to serve in ways that they are gifted and interested. I also encourage people to take ownership of their area and to make it their own.

I did quickly learn to set boundaries on what volunteers can do, such as not having free reign on the network and that kind of thing.  I still hold network access pretty tight, but the desktop support people know the routine when they do get on someone’s computer and I am always there at the time they are on.

I have been told I have a way of listening to people and showing that I care about them, which is a new thing for me, I think. God has grown me to be that person.  I don’t look for skill first, although that’s cool to find skill, but I look at a person’s heart and their willingness to serve.  I can teach you anything and more than likely, we’ll be learning things together.

My role in leading this ministry is serve the people that serve under me and provide the way for them to do their thing.

Oh yeah, at this point, I’m a volunteer too, so maybe that’s part of it. I understand working 40-50 hours a week and squeezing church stuff in around that and I truly appreciate all that everyone does.  I’m praying for the day when God allows me to do even more in the church, but for now, I’m doing my best to help a growing team of volunteers do more to help Jesus shine.

Technorati Tags: FCCtechTeam, ReachingCarthage

Also, if you want a behind the scenes peek into the Fairview Tech Arts Ministry, check out our blog, I use it to communicate with my team. (Imagine that, me using a blog to communicate with people.)  I use this as a way to share what’s coming up and we can communicate both through this blog or e-mail.  I think they all signed up for e-mail, so they can respond directly to me from the post.

Please feel free to subscribe via e-mail or RSS if you are interested in following what we are up to.

I really don’t always have a handle on things and don’t always know the best way to do things, I just do what I do and keep improving on it.   Plus, I happen to be putting it out here for my team and anyone else to see what we are doing.

If you have any feedback or suggestions for me or my team, please let me know here or there.

We will both be Twittering and blogging throughout the entire week so tune in to hear about what we are hearing and learning.  We will only be in one breakout session together and the rest we are on our own, so we are able to cover a lot of ground.

We are the two good looking, bald guys, so we should be easy to spot.  Track us down, we would love to meet you.

Mike’s Twitter – @downtownmike
Jim’s Twitter – @jimwalton

Mike’s blog
Jim’s blog

See ya in OKC!