Sunday, October 15, 2006

Can a good thing get any better...?

Some of you might know that for a long time one of my all time fav bands has been the boys from Littlehampton, Delirious? And can you believe it, its been 14 years since they started out playing at a local youth event.

Last week they released a new live DVD/CD combo and being a hard core fan I had my copy on pre-order and last Monday on return from a hard day working at Uni (ok maybe not so hard working) my copy was waiting for me. So not being put off from the fact that it was getting on for midnight me and my bro sat down to watch the DVD.

The DVD is absolutely amazing and it never ceases to amaze me how the band continue to release such good quality products. Those of you who have seen the band live will know what an awesome experience it is, and the DVD captures it so well. Recorded live at the Willow Creek Conference in Chicago, and directed by the Willow Creek team and long term Delirious video and lighting director Andy Hutch, the DVD would easily match up to anything released by a secular band, and it is a lot better than some other live DVD's I have seen.

The sound quality of both the DVD and CD is amazing, captured by Sam Gibson who recorded and co-produced the most recent Delirious album The Mission Bell. And the visual experience is on par, with some great moments being created with both lighting and video, integrated seamlessly. But what the DVD captures really well, is the worship experience that a d:conference is. Ok, so it is a concert and there's a certain amount of performing, but the band are true worshippers and they seem to be able to take the attention away from themselves and onto God, and going to their gigs is like worshipping with ur fav band playing.

So, whether you're into the band or not, I highly reccommend the DVD, and it also has some great bonus features, including the delirious story and a backstage insight into the making of the DVD.

Hooray!!!!

For those of you regular blog readers (I think there's 2 of you) you may remember last week I posted about my frustration at the Uni messing my timetable about, and moving a lecture to a Wednesday lunchtime.

But to my suprise, but also to my pleasure on attending the lecture this Wednesday we were informed that the lecture would now be moved back to a Monday, hence leaving my Wednesdays free to work down at the church. Yipee!

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Worship in the new hall!

So, at LCF we have recently had our church hall refurbished including the installation of a new floor, creating a whole new level.

So its now time, after all the time spent planning, building and finishing the place, to start using it to its full potential. Today we had our first worship time on the new level for the 11-18's, and having a worship time for this age group on a Sunday morning is something we've committed to doing for the long term. Our aim is to really encourage and inspire the young people to worship and to create an environment and atmosphere where they feel they can be themselves.

But this morning didn't come without its teething problems. Firstly the space is like an echo chamber, with about 5 seconds of reverb on every noise you make. Consequently we have to push all the sound levels higher to get everything heard meaning it gets quite loud, even for youth worship. Then when we turned the video projector on we realised that being closer to the sky lights in the roof makes the space a lot brighter and consequently you couldn't see the words on the screen. So if anyone has any ideas about acoustically treating the hall, and how to block sunlight both on a tight budget then let me know.

But it reminded me how much I still rely on technology sometimes. Being a techy geek I always like things to sound and look as good as they can, but at the end of theday we dont really need any of it to worship God. In fact we don't even need any instruments. All these things can help us, but they are only aids to help us worship and they shouldn't become the focus of our worship times.

I've also been thinking about engaging all the young people in worship. I know for some guys they find it really hard to worship in the standard way of singing songs altogether. Don't get me wrong I don't think we should ever stop worshipping together in that way, but I wanna be able to engage those kids who find it hard so they still part of it.

I've got a few good books about interactive worship which I might re consult, but if anyone has any ideas of stuff they've tried or maybe not tried then please let me know.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Frustration!

For those of you who don't know for the last 2 years I have been working part time for my church LCF, and I am hoping to keep my 14 hours a week going while I am studying, as the money will be handy and I want to keep developing the work I've been doing. So it was with great relief that when I received my timetable last week I found there was a nice free Wednesday that I could use to do most of my church work.

But alas, nothing is ever that simple and having just got in from the church(which currently has no internet access, I have picked an email informing me that one of my Monday afternoon lectures has been moved to Wednesday 11.30am to 1pm, right slap bang in the middle of the day.

I fear there is nothing I can do about it, I should be able to work my church hours around it but it is just frustrating cos it means I dont get a clear shot at the church stuff. The flip side is we get a new timetable in the 2nd semester which starts mid- Jan so chances are everything will change anyway.

It just still annoys me tho, but what can you do!

Monday, October 02, 2006

Uni Student, can you believe it?

Believe it or not I am now a Student at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, and here's the proof...


Do you like the slightly confused Napolean Dynamite look in my photo? I'm sure they make you look silly on purpose.

It feels in some ways a bit strange starting Uni when most of my old friends from 6th Form are almost finished or even finished and moving onto other things, but at the same time it feels like the right thing to be doing.

Last week just involved registering and was a general induction week with lots of seminars and lectures about University life, and things like "How to meet coursework deadlines?". But strangely enough I've just been really looking forward to getting stuck in and started with the work. For some reason I've just got to the stage where I'm really eager to learn and take stuff in. I don't know how long this will last but I hope it lasts a while.

The course I'm doing, Sound Design and Technology, is such the right course for me as well. Just looking through all the different modules and stuff over the last week has really made me excited about it, cos its all stuff I really wanna learn about.(its sad I know!)

Anyway, this post has probably sounded a bit geeky so far, but there is the other side to Uni life which is probably the bit I'm more worried about. While studying at Herts Uni I'm still going to be living in Luton which has its advantages; its cheaper and means I can still keep contacts and stay involved with stuff here in Luton. But it also has its disadvantages the main one being missing out on the social side of living on Campus especially in the first year.

Being naturally quite a shy and quiet person I find it hard at the best of times to get to know people, especially in new places, and I don't wanna be a student who just goes to Uni to study, I wanna get to know people too, and be able to be a light for Jesus to them.

I'd really appreciate your prayers for boldness and opportunities to get to know people.

The one really good thing about being at Uni tho....... roll on student discounts;)

I am back!

After an extended break from blogging, in response to certain peoples comments on their blogs (not mentioning any names, Lillie!) and after persistent nagging from certain other people (yes thats you young Thomas) I have decided to make a come back to blogging.

Well, the summer has passed. LCET camp was a lot of hard work but an amazing thing to be part of, Soul Survivor was a new experience but just as good in different ways. I spent 3 weeks filming and editing videos for our cricket and soccer weeks at the church, and then finished August off by going to the last few days of Grapevine Bible week with my family. Although it was only short it was nice to get some input.

The church has now opened the newly refurbished hall, and a lot of September was spent getting ready for that. I also played with a jazz band, got food poisoning, and managed to solve a radio mic problem at the church.

That kind of briefly rounds up what I've been doin the last few months, but read more soon about University...