I know, North Point didn’t get there overnight; but I’ve seen churches with the same or more resources to pull from and they still look like something I would see on the local Christian TV station at 2am. In addition, a lot of the techniques used at North Point aren’t rocket surgery – it’s just letting talented people do their thing and use the gifts God has given them.

But the real reason I admire North Point is they put it all out there for everyone to see. Successes, failures, etc., doesn’t matter. If other churches can learn from them, then it’s available, and usually for free.

Anyways, here is the video that is the finished product; for the full story behind the production of this spot (which was used in their 10B4 video announcements), click here.

North Point LIVE Interview from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Yes, this weekend was hectic. 

We paid to get into Pickett’s Mill Elementary a day early, so Saturday night we set everything up and let the band rehearse. That’s when problem numero uno presented itself: apparently one of our VGA cables decided it wanted that projector to be in sepia tone. Considering it was after 8:00 at night and no store carries 150′ VGA cables anyways (we had to special order both of ours), we were pretty much screwed. I won’t go into details, but we ran with one projector in sepia. But thanks to everyone who helped me in trying to find a solution.

So, Sunday morning came and things were going well; except of course for the projector. At 9:55 the band started into Depravity (John Mayer’s Gravity rewritten). And they sounded great – until about halfway through the song when we tripped a breaker. Luckily, the amps were still running, so the guitars could still be heard. They stalled long enough to get the breaker fixed. Then, what I consider the most awesome part of service; the band went into Jesus Paid It All and even above our volume levels I could hear the audience singing and worshipping. I’ve heard that at conferences and megachurches, but never at a church I’ve been a part of. That was awesome.

We followed up with a video history of Four Points that I shot and edited. Pretty sweet considering I was working with a handycam and iMovie. 

Brent started part one of Losing My Religion. Pretty cool message. I’m gonna post what I have on iTunes; for some reason there was interference for the first half of the message, but it’s still good.

All in all, great launch service. Last count I heard was 140 people, which is double our usual attendance. That’s awesome.

J

Act II Teaser

J

For those who wish to see this service click here and then click ALL ACCESS. You can watch the service in either Windows Media (BOO) or Flash. Also, make sure you silence or pause the site’s audio track. For some reason, it keeps playing even while service audio is playing.

Ya know, living in a major metro area, I may have to put up with things like increased traffic, but it definitely has its perks. Let’s face it, Charlie Hall and Dan Kimball ain’t gonna be in Monroe, LA ANYTIME soon (if ever). Yet both were at 7|22 tonight.

And yes, I’m still a geek. Had to get a pic of the Venue console they use at Buckhead Church.

J

Yup.

Awesome experience though. Really inspiring as a church planter to see young churches that are doing so well. North Point is less than 15 years old, and they have two (yeah, 2) sanctuaries (3 services in each) at their main campus in Alpharetta, plus Buckhead Church in Atlanta and Browns Bridge in Cumming. I could go on and on about everything there, but you really have to experience it for yourself. Even though it is huge, it feels as intimate as my church. The people are all friendly and I caught myself conversing with people without even knowing their names. So it is possible to have a mega-church where you are more than “just a number”. And I gotta give props to worship leader Carlos Whittaker (look in my blogroll for Ragamuffin Soul). First off, dude has sleeves. I love that! But, as the production guy at my church, I rarely get a chance to just stand back and worship. I mean, I love what I do, and I believe God has called me to production and music ministry, but every now and then it is nice to go to a place and not have to worry about the sound or video or whatever, and just worship. And Carlos and his band came with their A game. They were prayed up and ready to lead us in worship.

Then they had two baptisms, which was really cool. Each person gave a video testimony and they was baptised.

Finally, we got to see part three of “Letters to the Next President”.
Yup, Andy Stanley on a giant, HD screen, center stage.
Really good message too.

But there is one thing I can’t leave out: they opened service with a Beatles cover band. Full-on “mop top” costumes and wigs, even down to matching suits and the bass player even had a lefty bass shaped like a stand up bass, just like Paul McCartney! Anyways, they performed “Revolution” and nailed it. And the camera shots were projected in black and white on the screens; little things like that are what make it special.

Anyways, all-in-all, great service.

J

P.S.
Added two pics from Buckhead I found online to give you guys an idea of what it looks like. Looks huge (it is), but the seating is really intimate. You don’t realize you’re sitting amongst 3,000 people. And, as a geek, I love that the FOH booth is on the main floor, so the FOH engineer hears exactly what the majority of the congregation hears.

Know Your Role: Pastor’s Perspective

Know Your Role: Artist’s Perspective

Enjoy!
J

So day one was pretty cool. We ate dinner in the artist/staff cafe and then wandered around the grounds a bit. Took the cable car ride up to the top of Stone Mountain which was cool and then got back to the concert grounds in time to catch tobyMac’s performance, which was amazing. Especially considering that he is 43. He had more energy than most of the audience. Of course, Ignition and Boomin‘ were awesome live, but for a guy that grew up on dc Talk, getting to hear In the Light and Jesus Freak live was priceless.

Day two we showed up in time for dinner again, but this is where things got interesting. Telitha, Dan and I are eating dinner when a guy asks if he can sit with us. I look over to say yes and it’s Mike from Tenth Avenue North along with his wife. So they joined us and we chatted for awhile. Got to talk about the church plant with him a bit and I gave him an impact card. Not that I expect him to visit, since they live in Nashville, but who knows; networking? Anyways, we’re just talking and then Mark from Sanctus Real comes over and sits down with us. By now I was totally stoked. And both guys were so down to earth. I know that sounds cliched, but there was no attitude or ego from either. Just really genuine, honest, open nice people.

So dinner is over, we say our goodbyes and go our separate ways. Dan and I decide to go back to the car and get the video camera, cause wouldn’t it be cool if we could get someone to do a little Four Points promo on camera? We get back to the cafe area and guess who just happens to be hanging around outside the Chick-Fil-A bus?

Jeremy Camp.

Yes, the Jeremy Camp.

And guess what?

We got the video.

I’ll post it soon enough. I’m gonna edit it a bit so we can display it at church. Then I’ll put it online. But that was just flippin’ awesome.

So after that, we wandered around a bit more. Dan decided he wanted to ride the cable car again, so I went and listened to Barlow Girl for a few minutes before heading to the second stage to check out Day of Fire. Awesome band live. What was really cool was that their front of house mixer was on the floor level, so I was able to go and sit with the engineer and just watch him do his thing. Really cool for a geek like me.

After Day of Fire, it was time to head back to the main stage for Jeremy Camp. What can I say, it was an awesome set. Little bit of new stuff, several classics and even a worship set thrown in. Great show. I was a little skeptical, but I really enjoyed myself the past two days. Really wish I could be there tomorrow (okay, tonight) for Big Daddy Weave, but I’ve got my own band to take care of and I wouldn’t trade them for any band at AtlantaFest.

J

It makes me appreciate albums such as Metallica’s black album even more.

Albums that took over a year to record.

Yeah.

I thought five hours was bad.

Imagine spending a year in a studio.

I’m going to bed.

All of you should go listen to the black album just to hear what happens when you spend one year and over $1,000,000 to record an album.

And that was in 1990. Considering inflation, what is the equivalent in 2008?

J