Ben Salzmann will be the next Technical Arts Director at Topeka Bible Church beginning June 17. His fiancé, Rebecca, and he will be married in two weeks on June 1.  Then, Ben & Rebecca will be with us officially starting June 17.  That’s one month from now.  They made a second, very quick, trip to Topeka to scope out housing and they’ve landed on an apartment in SW Topeka.  Ben will arrive in Topeka with a U-Haul to move in on Saturday, May 25 (10 days from now).  We’ll send out a separate invite for those of you who’d like to be available to help him move in.

Ben and Rebecca

A little bit about Ben…

Ben hails from Connecticut, graduated May of this year from Cedarville University (Cedarville, OH), and just finished up a 3 month studio internship in Nashville, TN.  While his sweet spots are video/film and audio.  But he shines most as being a guy that you enjoy hanging with.  There’s much more to Ben than what’s listed here…but you can friend him on Facebook and then check out his personal website at benjaminsalzmann.com where you can see some of his prior projects and work.

A little bit about Rebecca…

Originally from  San Antonio, TX, she and Ben met at Cedarville University and have been dating for 4 years.  But that might be the longest she’s staying in one location, since her family moved frequently.  Her dad serves in the Navy and is currently stationed about 2 hours from Topeka.  She graduated in May of this year with a BA in Education.  She has connections with Summit Ministries in Colorado and would love for Topeka to have a stand-alone Chick-fil-A (with the rest of us).  Look her up on Facebook while you can at Rebecca Rich (soon to be Rebecca Salzmann).

On a personal note, I wanted to express how incredible of a Worship Arts Family God has assembled at Topeka Bible Church. I don’t brag enough about what God has done on this front.  Personally, this has been a tough time.  It has stretched all us us to be without a FT paid Technical Arts Director and a PT paid Tech Assistant.   It was just this last week we’ve taken the stage down and back up several times for Sundays, weddings, memorial services, and concert.  Carrie Davidson and Sam Reid have shouldered the weekly hours.  Each week for the past 4 months they’ve been keeping things afloat.  Many others have pitched in to help out as well.

It’s a beautiful thing (and a goal) that many people don’t know what goes into making the environment work each week. We don’t want people to know or see this stuff — we want them to focus on the reason they come.  For example, did you know that the power-up begins at 5:45am and the power-down usually ends around 1:00pm each Sunday?  Yup, they are the first in and last out.  Did you know each stage strike/setup for a wedding/concert/memorial requires a crew of 4 to work about 8 hours to pull it off?  Did you know that each week the sermon needs to be distributed to all channels (online Vimeo, TBC website, CDs, DVDs, Xenos) takes several hours each week?  Did you know the stage design took several months to put together and countless hours to build?  I guess I’m pointing out these things so demonstrate the incredible amount of availability Carrie, Sam, and others have given these past couple of months.  With “availability” being one of our core values, you guys have gone way beyond.  If it weren’t for this team — we’d wouldn’t have had a very smooth last couple of months.  Instead, ministry has happened without a hitch.  This is a huge tribute to the availability, attitude, and ability you guys have given.

I’m glad we’ll soon have our creative margin back! And we’ll have Ben and Rebecca to share the adventure with.  May God use us to lead people to new and deeper life in Christ.

1. A Technical Arts Director that delegated responsibility, not just tasks.

2. An unpaid staff that is highly committed, available and teachable.

3. An open adventurous attitude of “we can do this, and it’s OK if we fail” by the team members.

4. The willingness to use the God given abilities, and to set those abilities aside to collaborate as a team to accomplish something greater together.

5. Lots of drinks in the tech fridge.

What makes a tech arts family kill it in your environment?

Tim Zimmerman and The King's Brass

If you like brass, piano, organ at 100 decibels, then mark your calendar! The King’s Brass will be in concert at Topeka Bible Church on Tuesday, July 30, 2013 at 7:00PM.  Tim Zimmerman and The King’s Brass present hymn classics with a contemporary flair.  The King’s Brass features three trumpets, three trombones, a tuba, percussion and keyboards.  These instruments blend together to create a time of innovative worship that will be enjoyed by all generations.  Secular and sacred music critics alike applaud their concerts as “superb in every way” and “innovative and well played.”  ”Truly, an unforgettable experience!”  The King’s Brass, formed over two decades ago, is comprised of professional musicians from across the country who desire to use the instruments they love to lead others in praise and worship.

The King’s Brass’ original arrangements are featured on twelve recordings.  The latest CD on the Summit Record label (www.summitrecords.com) is their “Classic Hymns” release, featuring organists Diane Bish, Rebecca Kleintop Owens and Samuel Metzger with the Ruffatti Pipe Organ of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

If you are like me, you really care about consolidating your iPhone and wallet stuff into one case.

I have been looking for a solution for my iPhone for a while. Many times I would find something that was a great case, but the wallet was not that great. Other times I would find a great wallet, but the case to not meet my expectations.  The following wallet case for iPhone from Twelve South is simply incredible.  You can get the wallet case here for the iPhone 4/4s body and here for the iPhone 5 body. And it’s available in both brown and black.

The absolute best thing about this is that it fits in one pocket. No separate pockets used for different things. It’s all in one location. And the fact that it is all in one location makes me sure that I won’t lose it.  Before when I had separate items, I would lose one or the other item. But I have yet to set this wallet case down and lose it. Why? Because it’s only one item. I always know where this one item is.

It’s called the BookBook. I know it’s a weird name. But it’s about the only weird thing about it.  It looks like a little book. It’s made of great quality leather.  You can get it in either brown or black.  I started with brown, but then they came out with black. So I sold my brown one and got a black one. It holds your ID and credit card as well as cash.

I have yet to find another better wallet case for my iPhone. It’s is absolutely the best one out there. Yes, it is a little pricey. But the fact that I sold my case when I was done with that prove the fact that it’s almost like “renting” a case.  It is such a good iPhone wallet case that someone else WILL buy it from you after you’re done with it.

Allow me to dispel the “nay” sayers. Someone mentioned that they felt it might look funny that you are holding it up to your year when you folded over to use it. The funny thing with this is that your hand covers the entire part of the phone and the case. You don’t see what it is when you’re talking on the iPhone.  Annually other thing that someone mentioned they don’t like about it is the fact that you slide the phone up to take a photo. I decided to work my hand and cut all hole for the camera. I have found that this does work better. But on the iPhone 5 wallet case, they included a hole for the camera. So when I upgrade my iPhone for S, I will most definitely stick with this case from Twelve South.

You can get the wallet case here for the iPhone 4/4S and here for the iPhone 5.

Many of you know that we have been without a Technical Arts Director for several months.

One of these key team members filling in the gap is Carrie Davidson. She recently wrote a blog post about some of her experience. Here is a small portion of it. Be sure to click the link to go over to her blog to read the entire article. And be sure to drop her a comment and a huge thank you for what she and many others are doing behind-the-scenes.

Start With the Simple

Here’s a situation we all encounter often in life:  Something is broken.  It doesn’t work how I expect it to.  I already tried to fix it by doing the thing that seemed most logical to me.  That didn’t work.

Where do we go from there?  Troubleshooting, that’s where.  It’s the art of resolving differences, impasses, or problems by discovering and eliminating the source of the problem.  I hate to admit that my personal propensity is to avoid troubleshooting at all costs…read more

Read the rest via Stuff I Learned From Other People: Start With the Simple.

Song key has NOTHING to do with the sing-ability of a song. However, SONG RANGE does.  Sometimes we get this confused.  We think, “The key of A isn’t a good key for me/my church.”  That’s not true.  It’s all about the range of the song.

So try out this key calculator – http://mymusicwriter.com/keycalculator. It will work on your computer, but it’s designed with a mobile device in mind.  Simply enter the song key, lowest pitch, and highest pitch in the song. The calculator will return results of keys that will be most singable.  And if you have any suggestions or recommendations for it, let me know how it could be improved.

This One Goes to 11

The event was called Summerfest. It was a joint effort with a local high school and the church where I was on staff to provide a fun and safe environment for youth. It was also, unashamedly, an event to share Christ with a young generation. We had comedian Tim Hawkins and a great band called “Monday Morning” — along with a pop/funk/Chicago-style horn section house band. The goal was to give Tim and the band an opportunity to share how their lives had been changed by Christ.

Some friends of mine from Clair Brothers provided the sound system. I’m using the term ‘sound system’ because I know that’s what most readers will connect with. However, this was no average sound system. This was a high-end system that the ‘big boys’ use for touring rigs.

In a word, the music was pristine and chest thumping. It was a rock concert. I wouldn’t select it for my current worship environment — but it was perfect for that night. I’m simply saying, the volume was loud — and it was great for what we were doing. We also had some of the world’s best professionals doing the audio. You can do rock concert audio — but you ought to have professionals doing it. And, yes, it met all of OSEA’s compliance standards. Ears didn’t spontaneously combust. But it was most definitely a real rock concert environment for this community.

But a small group of people complained. Why? Because, some people showed up that weren’t our target audience. They didn’t like volume. They didn’t like the style. They didn’t like much about it.

One person told me afterwards, “There’s no way God can use music at this chest thumping volume.” That’s when you smile and say, “I’m sorry it didn’t connect with you tonight.”

What none of us realized yet, was the loud volume saved someone’s life that night.

About 1/4 mile away, a man (we’ll call him Barry) was planning to kill himself that night. Barry’s life had fallen apart. He had turned to drugs. He self-medicated by drinking. His wife and kids wanted nothing to do with him. He had it all planned out. When the extreme volume of our event kicked in, he listened to the music — from 1/4 mile away. Instead of taking action, he walked the 1/4 mile through town that night to the outdoor venue. He then sat and listened.

He listened as people on stage shared how Jesus had saved them. He heard how He had changed their lives. And he heard that Jesus offered hope — to a world of people without hope. Barry knew he didn’t have any hope left.  I met Barry after the event. He shared his story with me. He told me that the only reason he came to the event that night was because of the chest thumping volume he could hear from 1/4 mile away at his apartment.

While this doesn’t give me, you, or anyone an excuse for ear-splitting-volume for most situations — it does remind me to never think God will reach people how I think it ought to be done. Please don’t use this story as a license to crank the volume at your church on the weekend.

Instead, remember that God has a purpose for everything — even things we may not like. Yes, God uses things you and I may not like to, “…make disciples of all nations,” and to teach them about the hope Christ offers. For example, some churches have 19th century children’s programs. Just because they are stuck in the 19th century — doesn’t mean God won’t use them. I can say that because I gave my 6 year old life to Christ in one of those cheesy Sunday school programs.

It’s the same reason I get hot under the collar when people say — “God can’t use any of those hymns done in a stuffy old-school way.” Wait a minute. He’s been doing it for years. And even before hymns, He was using other music mediums — like Gregorian chant, and even the same instruments used for idol worship. The same instruments used to demand that the three fiery furnace dudes bow down — were the same instruments used to praise God in the Old Testament. So, yes, God can use dubstep, just like He’s used pipe organs.

Just because someone doesn’t like something — whether opera, televangelists, rap, politically skewed, classical, denominationally different, or what-have-you — it doesn’t mean God won’t use it for His purpose. Yes, God can bless things you and I don’t like. Don’t think for one second that if you don’t like it, God doesn’t like it either.

And God might just use one of those things to transform a life, like Barry’s.

If you are looking for a way to save a gob of time typing (and you are on a Mac) — then TextExpander by Smile Software is your answer. It’s saved literally hours of time. How do I know? Because it keeps stats for me of how much time I’ve saved — 4.83 hours to be exact (from June to December this past year).  Is it worth $30 for this piece of software to save 5 hours of time?  That’s 10 every year.  No.  Actually, it’s worth the price to save my sanity from typing things that I really don’t need to be typing over and over again.

Basically, it expands custom keyboard shortcuts you create into long snippets you use regularly.  It’s great for frequently-used text and pictures you use.

Here’s how I use it…

TextExapander takes abbreviations that a user sets up — and expands text in it’s place.

I’m a musician. If I’m creating a chord chart and it’s two bar intro, I’ll type “.2m” which will return the following automatically…

| / / / / | / / / / |

(That’s two measures of 4/4 time for those who don’t write chord charts.)

If I type “.4m” the following is returned…

| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |

If I type “.8m”

| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |

| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |

How about typing a memo? If I type “.memo” it will return (automatically putting in the date and time for me)…

TO:
FM: Bryan Nelson
DT: 01/13/2013 at 9:53 PM
RE:

How about an address? If I type 1135, it returns…

1135 SW College Ave

If I type “.mp” it returns my mobile phone number.

If I type “.gm” it will return my gmail address.

If I type “.tbc” it returns Topeka Bible Church.

How about reimbursement codes? If I need something to be reimbursed with the music ministry code, I type “.rmusic” which returns:

Reimburse with code 5125 → Music

If I need something to be reimbursed with the ministry expense code, I type “.rministry” which returns:

Reimburse with code 5100 → Ministry expense

If I need something to be reimbursed with the computer expense code, I type “.rcomputer” which returns:

Reimburse with code 5100 → Ministry expense

There’s lots more TextExpander can do. But just the above can be a big time saver and reduce headaches in the long run.

[By the way, TextExpander isn't paying me to post this.  I'm sharing this because it's been a huge help to me personally. I'm sharing this because maybe it will be a help to you too?]