Drive 2010

It has been a crazy couple of weeks for me. I am not normally one to like the routine or mundane  but I could really go for a normal week right now. I have been working non-stop for the past few weeks it seems. Between moving Ridge to SPCC for one week then traveling to Orlando for a week for a side job, then coming back to Charlotte for another side job, then starting a new series at Ridge, then going to Atlanta for DRIVE 2010…   wow, I need to sit down. Drive really wasn’t like work though. It was a lot of fun. Andy Stanley is freaking amazing! He spoke three times and every time it got better. He spoke on how North Point programs their services and why thinking about it is so important. Here is the video that set up his talk. Hilarious !!!!!!

A little down time.

This week I feel like I took the easy way out when it comes to the set. Just a simple matching of the logo for the series. Cut out 6 shapes and trace some letters. I did the outline with chalk and thought it would smudge easy. Tina ( my beautiful wife) told me a trick she learned as a teacher in preschool, spray it with hair spray and it won’t smudge. Amazing and Simple.

High Five

This one is for my friend Patrick.

Going around in Circles

Ridge started a new series last week so it was time for a new set. This is one of the things I enjoy the most about my job; trying to come up with new and original sets for Ridge Church. Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it isn’t. This one seemed to come together pretty easy. I wanted to come up with something that was large and three dimensional, but easy to store and assemble. My material of choice right now is Gator Foam. This is mainly due to the fact that it is available to me at a price I can afford. It is very light and easy to cut. I cut about 80 circles in two hours. After some trial and a little error I cut slots in the circles so I could fit them together. What I came up with turned out pretty good. Easy to transport, easy to assemble and easy to store. Here are a few pics of assembly.

Love @ Ridge

We kicked off a new series at Ridge this Sunday called Staying In Love. I am really excited about this one. Andy Stanley from our partner church, North Point Community Church, is the best person I have ever heard when it comes to this kind of stuff. The proof of that is he is copied so much. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard someone speak and I think to myself… hum I’ve have heard this somewhere before. I guess I long for the day when people rip me off.

Here is a few pictures from the day.

Fun with Foam

Recently I was able to help Next Level church with their Kid City set. We took a lot of gator foam and cut it into a futuristic city scape. I did the cutting and they did the painting. Great job Next Level.

A New Year

So we kicked off a new year at Ridge Church. A new set to go with our new series “Imagine”.  Adam Wilson did a great job leading worship for us and Andy brought a message that will rocked my world. A few picts.

GET OFF MY CASE !!!!!!!!!!!!

Back when Ridge was getting ready to launch on Sunday Nights back in 2007 we were making some equipment purchases. We were purchasing everything from lighting to truss to adding to an existing sound system. I started by making a wish list. In a perfect world, what equipment do I need to make Sundays the best they can be. There was a lot of stuff on that list. Trussing systems, moving lights, stage risers, and digital mixing consoles. After running this list through filter of a budget, most things were either cut or scaled back. One of those things was the digital console. We had purchased a Mackie Onyx mixer with the intention of passing it down when the time came to upgrade. The other thing that didn’t make it was the case for said console. We are a load-in, load-out church, so protecting our investments is important. I really thought that we could get by with the cardboard box that the console came in for the time being. After all, in a couple of months, when this thing takes off,  we should be able to purchase a case, and a new console… right. Well three years and lots of on and off a truck and in and out of storage later we finally bought a case. The box took a beating but with the help of a little gaffers tape, protected the console well.

Thank You Mackie and your cardboard box/case for standing up so well.

In The “Now”

Ridge is doing a series called “Now” the last two Sunday’s in Oct. The first one talked about how Jesus wants use to respond to the “little ones” aka the needy. I short treat them how you would treat Jesus if he was here. You can read about it here and listen to it here.

I was thinking about the set for the stage and the big 3D letters just made sense… right! I was blessed with some white Gatorboard and thought this should be pretty simple, cut out the front, box in the sides. But wait, how do I make an O? I case you don’t know Gatorboard does like to curve. After some experimenting I found if you relief cut the back it bends nicely and after making some calculations I brought some material home and began to make the some 200 plus cuts. 3 hours later I had and O. With the N and W already assembled and sitting at the office all I needed to do was get them all to the Levine Center. My main problem was that the 5′ across O was to big to go in the car. After some debating I decided to strap it to the top of the car and drive it my self. I think we all know what happened. The O refused to stay on top of the car. One mile from the house, off it goes, flying like a “Super Cheerio” I held back a few expletives (kids in the car) and stopped to pick up the pieces. To my surprise there was very little damage. Super Cheerio lives, to fight crime, another day.  I did manage to get them all there safely and looked very majestic standing on stage. Few people knew the story of how the “now” came to be.

When we are caught off guard

Sunday at Ridge was both stressful and satisfying. I went through the week before planning and picking music. We are in a series called “How To Be Rich”. The first week we came to realize we are rich. We all have more than we need. We planned some fun songs to start each service. Week 1 was “If I Had $1,000,000″ Week 2 was Beverly Hills by Weezer. It all sounded so easy. When we arrived on Sunday everything was going to plan until about 7:30AM when the band was scheduled to start rehearsal. That’s when we found out that the drummer that was scheduled had moved to Nashville and neglected to inform us. After going through the phone contacts we decided to push on with out a drummer. Adam Wilson, John Moore and Brett Banks were amazing. Maybe one of the best times of worship at Ridge. It really hit home that, even when we are caught off guard…  God is Not!

Here is one of the worship tunes from Sunday. Click the link below.

Adam Wilson, Lift High from Rusty Burchard on Vimeo.