Welcome to Grace

We shot footage for this video last November and I finally finished it this week. This is procrastination at it's finest. A common thread in many creative resources is that a true creative can create and drum up inspiration whenever and wherever and just be creative. I agree with this to a point as there are times when we are required to get a job done. Those who work in a creative field deal with deadlines and jobs that need to finished regardless of if the inspiration. Imagine a world where inspiration ruled: "Sorry, professor, I just didn't have any inspiration to write the paper." I also agree that having a deadline and routine outlets to create are great motivators which in a sense force us to create. I personally find the most enjoyment in my creativity, however, when I allow it to express itself and act when I feel inspired. My favorite songs, videos, drawings, and ideas all come from these times.

This video is no exception. At Grace we all wear so many hats that part of our day-to-day is doing a continual shuffle of priorities: the most immediate and pressing get done first and what can wait for tomorrow, or the things that are not necessarily in our direct field of expertise also somehow take a backseat! I've never considered myself a videographer and when there are charts to write, services to plan, and people to schedule, these elements often wait. Sometimes a long time.

I get to work with some cool guys. One of our associate pastors, Kyle Pierpont, is a photographer and captured these images of Jay and our congregation. My good friend Tyler Ewing writes source music for Guiding Light, As the World Turns, the Oprah Winfrey Network, and much more. Check out his company, Intrigue Audio to hear more of what this talented guy does. He wrote and orchestrated the soundtrack to our video, our pastor, Jay Klopfenstein shared our hearts at Grace, I slapped a few shots together and tah-da!

Christmas at Grace

I would venture to generalize that Christmas time is perhaps the most challenging month for a church worship pastor/music director. Compared to the rest of the year, December has so much emphasis put on it: typically more visitors at the Christmas Eve service, expectations for what songs are done with a modern or traditional approach, all for one month! Even though the congregation grits their teeth when introducing new songs (every week!) I still sing them. They always come around. A typical Sunday morning comment I hear is, "I didn't really like that song the first time you played it, but man, I can't get it out of my head now. It's really good!" Told you.

Christmas feels different though. So much work goes into learning obscure arrangements from desperate artists trying to put their own unique spin on an over-sung carol. Christmas songs aren't easy to begin with! All that to say, in the church world where staff members wear numerous hats and it's already a struggle to look two weeks ahead it feels like an uneconomical use of time to designate so much attention to one month.

The same presents a similar challenge for the touring industry as well, but perhaps the redemption for all of the hard work is that a Christmas tour can offer a large portion of an artists income for the year. The difference between a Nashville Christmas touring act and a church band presents quite a challenge as well. A touring band by profession doesn't need as much preparation or extensive rehearsal time to pull off a polished production like a church band does. Even with extensive practice time and easy arrangements a church band will often still struggle to pull off the polished professional sound of a studio recording or a professional act.

This is a bigger issue than Christmas music alone. Civilians (my composition professor at Belmont called normal, non-musical people) cruise around in their cars listening to auto-tuned, quantized, professionally mixed and mastered tracks which they grow accustomed to and become in their listening ear their standard for normal. The same civilians step into church and as the band fails to sound anything like what they hear pumping from their Bose system in their Escalade they become critical and disengaged. Of course there is the Biblical call to worship that criticizes civilians for not engaging with their hearts and showing up at church for the show and this should challenge us all to worship regardless of the sound, or the professionally musicality of the band.

Our responsibility, however, as worship artists, leaders and bands is to push our musicians and bands to maintain quality and excellence in everything we do. The charge to our congregation to worship regardless of what we give them is great, but we need to step up to the plate and musically help the church keep up with the standard that technology is advancing to. This is more philosophical than practical which is a direction I quickly get over my head in, but being a part of my philosophy of worship ministry I'll mention it briefly: historically the church and Christian industries have followed secular trends which has removed the church and Christian leaders as trend setters and industry leaders, especially in the entertainment world. In our small community in South Bend, IN where my band consists of extremely intelligent hard-working engineers, computer analysts, doctors, steel workers and salesman, my challenge but desire is to slowly set a new standard of excellence at least at Grace that leads our community in a new appreciation and respect for the arts. Pray for me!

I promise I didn't say all that as a disclaimer to this video of some of worship a few weekends ago, but if it helps as one then I'll take it. Here's our attempt at making Christmas carols relevant, fresh, but not overly difficult for the band. What you are about to witness is a "standard of excellence" set by a single standard definition camera and a board mix. Pure beauty. Hopefully the whisper, "hypocrite" doesn't escape your partially opened lips as you watch with a furrowed brow trying to comprehend what's happening. By the way our church name is Grace. Extend it.



Collin

Jesus is Power Over Death, Video series #4

Last week I interviewed several people from church who've experienced the loss of a loved one. These were tough interviews to do and even though they spoke of hope and the assurance of their salvation and an eternity with our Creator there were still lots of tears and emotions to wade through. It was tough enough capturing the footage and experiencing it once and over the next few days as I edited this I lived through these stories probably a hundred times! One might become calloused by such repetition. Not me. Cried every time. Not sure if this is good or not.

I had originally hoped to write a song about the heart-ache in death and the joy of eternal life, but ended up recording the solo piano and guitar pieces instead as a subtle background to let the stories speak for themselves.

More than anything I found myself incredibly encouraged by the stories and courage of these sweet families. Even in the midst of extreme tragedy, sadness and loss, God remained close to Jessica, Corey and Dan. We have hope that when this happens to us as believers we have the same hope and promise.

Jesus is Power Video Series #2

This Sunday Jay spoke on spiritual warfare and the passage in Mark when Jesus cast the demons into the pigs. Tim Whatley is a missionary with New Tribes Canada and he recorded himself and sent me a few stories. This guy is awesome and his stories are inspiring. Check it out!

Jesus's Power Video Series #1

As we're plowing through Mark, Jay is entering a five week mini-series on Jesus's Power and this week he's talking about how we can see it through nature.



Since we'll be having baby-dedication this Sunday I did this piece showing God's power through the gift of children and the impact they have on us as parents. It was honestly thrilling simply putting the camera on these awesome couples and capturing their hearts on film. I honestly didn't even have to ask them any leading questions, they just spoke and U edited it down to this. I wish I would have had longer to capture more of their hearts!



I love the different hats I get to wear in my job, and video editor/director/producer is a fun one, I just wish I had more classes on film/media development in college! That goes to show that when you're in college take the most of every opportunity and dive in, because you don't know where it will take you or when you will need to add a new tool to your tool belt!

Shaken Concert Promo Video