Hello Blog, some of the very few photos I took at Drive 11 will be posted some time in the next two weeks, I honestly didn't use my camera much I was too busy taking notes and absorbing information, kind of odd for me (the not taking photo part, not the taking notes part) but it works.
My quick Drive 11 quick recap
Bottom line drill downs rock.
Went down with an awesome group of Lifepointers
Got to sit in the Opener rehearsal with our production team that went down, to say it was incredible is an understatement, and while I'm talking about statements I'd like to say FOR the record that the version they did of Link Park's Waiting for the end was better, MUCH more rocking than the original.
Stayed in the rehearsal with Jacklyn and Shane watched them run the opener another 2-3 times flawlessly
Lined up to go back in for the opener,
After at keast 6 perfect runs the server crashed, they rebooted and it was once again AMAZING
Super Awesome worship phenomenal teaching message.
1st day complete.
EArly morning
Northpoint Sunday morning service experience was pretty darn cool.
Wonderful Breakout
Christian Fast food (Chick Fil A)
More amazing breakouts
the iband and Acapella "sing off" Acapella! enough said.
Jeff Henderson with the afternoon main session and I had a huge take away from it.
Got 2 tickers from mydrive11wish to participate in the backstage tour that was beyond words cool, got to spend 30 minutes geeking out in their video control room.
PRoduction team Night owl talking about what we learned what we wanted to apply and other general ideas of how to make our departments better for both the volunteers and the people who would be walking in on Sunday morning.
End Day 2
ANother early morning,
2 super awesome breakouts one of which I had tons of take-aways from.
CLosing session
Very different styled worship session but once again ( 2 for 2 at drive) I ended bawling my eyes out during worship it was soooooo good.
Pastor Andy Stanley gave the closing talk which I think alone was worth the price of the conference for me and the rest of our group.
13 hours on a bus back to home.
Arrived at 2:00
finally fell asleep around 330
up at 8, made it into my office at 930 a bit groggy but feeling very good about life right now.
Showing posts with label Lifepoint Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lifepoint Church. Show all posts
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Monday, April 19, 2010
Portfolio Update: 04.19.10
This is the shock mount I just got for my USB mic that I use to record practices and a few other side projects with.
All these are from Lifepoint Church, a few from Worship practice the rest from various Sunday morning service.
And these are from the last major snow storm of the year back in Feb.
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| From Drop Box |
All these are from Lifepoint Church, a few from Worship practice the rest from various Sunday morning service.
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| From Lifepoint Related |
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| From Lifepoint Related |
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| From Lifepoint Related |
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| From Lifepoint Related |
And these are from the last major snow storm of the year back in Feb.
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Monday, June 8, 2009
Cathedrals....
Before I begin, I wanted to say Congrat to Pastor Daniel and Tammie for the arrival of their daughter Faith. (Just in case you're not on twitter and somehow missed the news).
Having said that, let me begin...
This post is based off one of the talks at the Leadership convention I was at over the weekend, but this is something that stuck with me and reminded me so much about Lifepoint that I had to post it.
Most people I know who tour Europe always mention two things to me. 1) The castles and 2) The cathedrals... which if you read the topic of this post is what I'm going to be talking about.
These monolithic? neolithic? Ginormous structures were massive houses of worship, built in a time where drafting software didn't exist and heavy equipment was defined as a hammer that weighed more than 10 pounds....
Notre Dame I don't think anyone would argue with me if I were to say it's a architectural and artistic marvel... They began construction in 1163, the cathedral was completed in 1345 so that's a 182 year period, during which time life expectancy was 30 years at best, or over 7 generations of time, the people who began work on the cathedral did so knowing they would never see the completion, but that they were building something that would outlast them.
And yes there were several cathedrals that went up under in under 50 years, but even so that's beyond life expectancy for any one generation.
And the craftsmanship. There were artist who worked on the structures doing carvings and other touches, in places where people would never see the work their response when asked? God would see it. And they did this work and in some places it's there for all to see, and in others only God would be able to see their work. They dedicated their lives to build these structures and NO ONE knows their names, they were there to do something great.
People dedicated their lives to the work because they had a vision of greatness, and in their case it was building a location that honored God to worship him.
As I sit here and type this I don't know where you, the reader is in your life. I don't know if you're a member of an awesome church that's mission is to reach people far from God, or if you don't even know what this whole Christian thing is about and you look at people like me as if we're mad, my hope today is that you would understand this, when people grab hold of a dream, a vision that's bigger than they are, and when they're willing to sacrifice to see the vision through, then they can accomplish great things.
If you're a lifepointer and someone pointed you to this blog post I want to tell you a few things, that before the doors open on Sunday morning and people come pouring in, there's a team who shows up before the sun (though NOT before the Son) arrives and they go about the business of unloading tons of gear off of 3 trailers to build an environment that helps people to focus in on the Word of God that pastor is going to bring.
That during the service there's a small army of people working making sure that there's as little to distract someone as possible, they might be holding a baby, it might be pushing a sound knob, it might be teaching a 5 year-old.
That after the service and you've gone home, or more likely out to lunch (be honest!) that there's another group who'll spend over an hour restoring the school back to how it was before we began (And in some cases even better), including reloading those same three trailers.
That during the week the staff and at least a platoon's worth of volunteers are working behind the scenes to prepare for the next week,
That pastor is on his knees in desperate prayer to God his heart breaking for the lost that we KNOW is going to be walking into church, possible for the first time, possibly for the only time, and that we have one chance to reach them. That's a burden of a senior pastor and one that I'll never be able to fully comprehend. (Sorry off on a tangent).
For the most part, if you just come and go and show up to lifepoint you'll be blessed, you'll hear the Word of God preached straight from the Bible, you'll hear worship music that amplifies and glorifies our amazing God.
And you'll be just like a tourist walking through a cathedral amazed at the beauty of it all, and never know any of the stories behind the stories.
But if you get your hands on the net, if you decide to get out of the seat and join us in the field, you'll find your life on an amazing ride with other people, who like those who came before are willing to pour out their lives for a cause a purpose that's bigger then we are. You'll be putting your lives into creating something that's much more amazing than a giant building, it's seeing life change and we get to see results in our lifetime.
And should we go on for another seven generations, another 182 years, I doubt seriously that people will know our name.
But if they know the name of Jesus, if they enter a relationship with their Creator, and Savior, than like the amazing artisan ship of centuries past, our lives would have been poured out into something that truly does last.
God Bless
Matt Furukawa June 8, 2009
Having said that, let me begin...
This post is based off one of the talks at the Leadership convention I was at over the weekend, but this is something that stuck with me and reminded me so much about Lifepoint that I had to post it.
Most people I know who tour Europe always mention two things to me. 1) The castles and 2) The cathedrals... which if you read the topic of this post is what I'm going to be talking about.
These monolithic? neolithic? Ginormous structures were massive houses of worship, built in a time where drafting software didn't exist and heavy equipment was defined as a hammer that weighed more than 10 pounds....
Notre Dame I don't think anyone would argue with me if I were to say it's a architectural and artistic marvel... They began construction in 1163, the cathedral was completed in 1345 so that's a 182 year period, during which time life expectancy was 30 years at best, or over 7 generations of time, the people who began work on the cathedral did so knowing they would never see the completion, but that they were building something that would outlast them.
And yes there were several cathedrals that went up under in under 50 years, but even so that's beyond life expectancy for any one generation.
And the craftsmanship. There were artist who worked on the structures doing carvings and other touches, in places where people would never see the work their response when asked? God would see it. And they did this work and in some places it's there for all to see, and in others only God would be able to see their work. They dedicated their lives to build these structures and NO ONE knows their names, they were there to do something great.
People dedicated their lives to the work because they had a vision of greatness, and in their case it was building a location that honored God to worship him.
As I sit here and type this I don't know where you, the reader is in your life. I don't know if you're a member of an awesome church that's mission is to reach people far from God, or if you don't even know what this whole Christian thing is about and you look at people like me as if we're mad, my hope today is that you would understand this, when people grab hold of a dream, a vision that's bigger than they are, and when they're willing to sacrifice to see the vision through, then they can accomplish great things.
If you're a lifepointer and someone pointed you to this blog post I want to tell you a few things, that before the doors open on Sunday morning and people come pouring in, there's a team who shows up before the sun (though NOT before the Son) arrives and they go about the business of unloading tons of gear off of 3 trailers to build an environment that helps people to focus in on the Word of God that pastor is going to bring.
That during the service there's a small army of people working making sure that there's as little to distract someone as possible, they might be holding a baby, it might be pushing a sound knob, it might be teaching a 5 year-old.
That after the service and you've gone home, or more likely out to lunch (be honest!) that there's another group who'll spend over an hour restoring the school back to how it was before we began (And in some cases even better), including reloading those same three trailers.
That during the week the staff and at least a platoon's worth of volunteers are working behind the scenes to prepare for the next week,
That pastor is on his knees in desperate prayer to God his heart breaking for the lost that we KNOW is going to be walking into church, possible for the first time, possibly for the only time, and that we have one chance to reach them. That's a burden of a senior pastor and one that I'll never be able to fully comprehend. (Sorry off on a tangent).
For the most part, if you just come and go and show up to lifepoint you'll be blessed, you'll hear the Word of God preached straight from the Bible, you'll hear worship music that amplifies and glorifies our amazing God.
And you'll be just like a tourist walking through a cathedral amazed at the beauty of it all, and never know any of the stories behind the stories.
But if you get your hands on the net, if you decide to get out of the seat and join us in the field, you'll find your life on an amazing ride with other people, who like those who came before are willing to pour out their lives for a cause a purpose that's bigger then we are. You'll be putting your lives into creating something that's much more amazing than a giant building, it's seeing life change and we get to see results in our lifetime.
And should we go on for another seven generations, another 182 years, I doubt seriously that people will know our name.
But if they know the name of Jesus, if they enter a relationship with their Creator, and Savior, than like the amazing artisan ship of centuries past, our lives would have been poured out into something that truly does last.
God Bless
Matt Furukawa June 8, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Blessing...
Something we did at Lifepoint Yesterday, the people who participated (as they do so) are posting their stories here, check it out.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Planning Center Tutorial 1 of ?
If you use Planning center here's a quick tutorial on how to block out days you won't be available.
How to Block out dates in Planning Center from Matthew Furukawa on Vimeo.
How to Block out dates in Planning Center from Matthew Furukawa on Vimeo.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
VB
No, not Vacation Bible, not Visual Basic either.... but Volunteer Banquet, last night was Lifepoint's first annual Volunteer Banquet it was an amazing time, the staff went all out in showing their appreciation for the volunteer and volunteer staff of the church. Guest speaker Jonathon Falwell gave a great talk, Birch and Z our guest musicians from Christ Fellowship in Miami were awesome, and the food!
If you volunteer at Lifepoint I hope you felt as appreciated as I did, and if you're a staffer, thanks for an amazing night!
... and I'm off tomorrow I have no idea what I'm going to do with myself! And speaking of tomorrow, you do NOT want to miss tomorrow morning's worship set, and that's all I'm going to say on the matter.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
on baited breath....
Tomorrow night is our Christmas Eve service at Lifepoint (Chancellor High School Auditorium, 6:30pm), not counting tomorrow itself here's how many hour that has gone into it.
Planning: 50 man hours
Music Preparation: 67.75 man hours
Video/Tech preparation: 16 man hours (est)
And all this before the actual service tomorrow.
133.75 man hours or almost 17 working days of work straight, and like last year this is only counting the actual meeting times, this isn't taking in countless hours that our staff and volunteers have exerted on their own. That number will easily triple tomorrow.
Why?
It's simple really.
Tomorrow night people will arrive. Some of them may have been invited by a Lifepoint regular, some might have just seen one of our banner or road signs. some might be on the verge of divorce, some might be about to give up for good, some might be at a church service for the first time in their life, some might be there for the only chance they're giving this thing called church, some might be hurting inside, some may have emotional scars, some may have a terminal disease, many will not know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
That is why Lifepoint exists, To reach people far from Christ, so they can experience God's plan for their lives, and that's we we joyfully pour the hours in for a night like tomorrow. Because they Christmas story is truly the joy story for us.
Planning: 50 man hours
Music Preparation: 67.75 man hours
Video/Tech preparation: 16 man hours (est)
And all this before the actual service tomorrow.
133.75 man hours or almost 17 working days of work straight, and like last year this is only counting the actual meeting times, this isn't taking in countless hours that our staff and volunteers have exerted on their own. That number will easily triple tomorrow.
Why?
It's simple really.
Tomorrow night people will arrive. Some of them may have been invited by a Lifepoint regular, some might have just seen one of our banner or road signs. some might be on the verge of divorce, some might be about to give up for good, some might be at a church service for the first time in their life, some might be there for the only chance they're giving this thing called church, some might be hurting inside, some may have emotional scars, some may have a terminal disease, many will not know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
That is why Lifepoint exists, To reach people far from Christ, so they can experience God's plan for their lives, and that's we we joyfully pour the hours in for a night like tomorrow. Because they Christmas story is truly the joy story for us.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Stories and statistics
I couldn't tell you where I stole this line from, but I'm fairly confident I didn't come up with it myself... for now I'll give credit to the unknown source, but eventually I'll get to the point where I'll take credit for this expression, but here it is.
Looking at the church overall, and speaking from personal experience, I know that all too often people look at easily track-able numbers like attendance when it comes to looking at our statistics as a church to see "How we're doing". While this isn't the case at Lifepoint, I do know at churches I have been to in the past the focus seemed to be on attendance, and in force of habit, on occasion I have found myself regressing to see how we did on a Sunday by attendance, instead of focusing on things like that are nowhere near as easy to track such as salvations, baptisms, and/or as how we like to put it, Life Change.
But if you look at it even with attendance, how often do we really pay attention to what those numbers actually mean?
Every one of those "numbers" is a person with a story, that person? you know the one who was number four hundred ninety nine, do you know their story? do you know that their family was in discord before they started coming to Church and that it's made such a huge impact in their lives? What about person number four? They're the one who didn't want anything to do with God or church before a friend dragged them in (kicking and screaming) and now after encountering God their life has turned around and they're not only here every week, but helping with setup and now, bringing their friends!
What about volunteer number 49? They're the one who had been burned by "Religion" and was done with church, who never knew a church like this could exist, where the purpose is to reach people far from Christ, and now are back on fire for the Lord?
Or Kid number 87, who's parents brought them to kidspoint for the first time, who finally was told the gospel in a way that made sense to a 3rd grader and changed their life forever...
Those kind of stories go WAY beyond simple numbers, and this post is more of a mental reminder to myself than to anyone else and really help to drive that point home, maybe you're the Pastor of a Megachurch with over 3k in weekly attendance, or maybe your the choir director of a church that has more people in the choir then on the pews... is Life change happening at your church? What are the stories behind some of your statistics?
Behind every statistic is a story
Looking at the church overall, and speaking from personal experience, I know that all too often people look at easily track-able numbers like attendance when it comes to looking at our statistics as a church to see "How we're doing". While this isn't the case at Lifepoint, I do know at churches I have been to in the past the focus seemed to be on attendance, and in force of habit, on occasion I have found myself regressing to see how we did on a Sunday by attendance, instead of focusing on things like that are nowhere near as easy to track such as salvations, baptisms, and/or as how we like to put it, Life Change.
But if you look at it even with attendance, how often do we really pay attention to what those numbers actually mean?
Every one of those "numbers" is a person with a story, that person? you know the one who was number four hundred ninety nine, do you know their story? do you know that their family was in discord before they started coming to Church and that it's made such a huge impact in their lives? What about person number four? They're the one who didn't want anything to do with God or church before a friend dragged them in (kicking and screaming) and now after encountering God their life has turned around and they're not only here every week, but helping with setup and now, bringing their friends!
What about volunteer number 49? They're the one who had been burned by "Religion" and was done with church, who never knew a church like this could exist, where the purpose is to reach people far from Christ, and now are back on fire for the Lord?
Or Kid number 87, who's parents brought them to kidspoint for the first time, who finally was told the gospel in a way that made sense to a 3rd grader and changed their life forever...
Those kind of stories go WAY beyond simple numbers, and this post is more of a mental reminder to myself than to anyone else and really help to drive that point home, maybe you're the Pastor of a Megachurch with over 3k in weekly attendance, or maybe your the choir director of a church that has more people in the choir then on the pews... is Life change happening at your church? What are the stories behind some of your statistics?
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Healing to do healer...
I still distinctly remember how i felt when I first heard the song "Healer" by Mike Guglielmucci, I also (VERY distinctly) remember how disgusted I felt when I heard the truth behind the story. But, as Pick has pointed out to me on more than one occasion (mainly when I'm arguing about doing a performance song) is that Truth is truth, whether it's coming from an old hymn or a Train song. And after a bit of consideration I've come to accept that regardless of the means of promoting the song, there is strong truth to it, and it's an amazing worship song.
However, with far better words and scriptural backing allow me to share with you an email I received from one of our band members about using this song in worship, I've left out name references as i didn't ask this person permission to share this on the blog, but as awesome as this email was I wanted to share it.
I personally felt "ministered" to by this email and if you're a worship leader out there, or someone who's job is to find new worship music and you've been struggling with this song as much as I have I hope this helps you out.
God bless,
~Matt
However, with far better words and scriptural backing allow me to share with you an email I received from one of our band members about using this song in worship, I've left out name references as i didn't ask this person permission to share this on the blog, but as awesome as this email was I wanted to share it.
Man you sure know how to make a guy think...
When we were talking about this song at practice that night - about how the Hillsong guy Mike whatshisname lived a lie, promoted the song with his fake illness, the unbelieveable audacity of a very well-known Worship Leader to so distort everything related to the situation, I had no desire to ever do the song at all and said so that night. When I saw the Planning Center notification this morning, I "reviewed" the service to see what we were doing. I saw the song listed and the pit of stomach balled up in a humongous knot. I was getting ready to click the "Decline" button when something (had to be God) told me to wait. I then remembered something in Phillippians I had read before in my personal reading etc. Here's the passage...
Phillipians 1:15-18 (NIV)
15 It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16 The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.[c] 18 But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
I didn't remember anything false in the lyrics, but I listened to them again to make sure and yes there is truth in the song.
I went to planning center again and clicked the accept button. I'm just thankful the Lord and the Holy Spirit kept the promise from John 14 about the Comforter (Holy Spirit) being with us to bring to our rememberance everything He has taught us.
The reason I'm spelling all this out for you is in case someone else has doubts about the song feel free to share how God helped me.
Just don't expect to see the song on my "favorites" playlist :-)
I personally felt "ministered" to by this email and if you're a worship leader out there, or someone who's job is to find new worship music and you've been struggling with this song as much as I have I hope this helps you out.
God bless,
~Matt
Friday, September 12, 2008
The Payout...
Recently (well a week-ish) ago I had the chance to talk to Pastor about the payout for volunteers. Looking at what was it that got our teams to do the amazing things that they do, looking at what they do is nothing short of phenomenal, but why?
Why would people give up their Sunday (Morning for some, whole day for a few others) why would they make time during their week doing things for free that would astonish most people. Why do a few put 20+ hours a week into this?
Submitted for your approval (Yes with the accent): a few reasons why our Volunteer army does what it does. This list isn't all-inclusive in fact its quite short, and I'm sure that there are a lot of things that people would say that aren't on this list... but I'm the one blogging here and this is what I managed to come up with.
Reason number one: Bigger than yourself, AKA wanting to belong to something. People join many organization, or volunteer for community services because they like to be a part of something that it bigger than just them.
Reason number two: Emotional beneficiary, AKA That warm fuzzy feeling. A lot of people get a warm and fuzzy feeling for doing things for others.
Reason number three (and this is the real one I told pastor that I thought the pay out was for our volunteers): Life change, AKA grabbing the net. Or I could say buying into the vision.
Why would people give up their Sunday (Morning for some, whole day for a few others) why would they make time during their week doing things for free that would astonish most people. Why do a few put 20+ hours a week into this?
Submitted for your approval (Yes with the accent): a few reasons why our Volunteer army does what it does. This list isn't all-inclusive in fact its quite short, and I'm sure that there are a lot of things that people would say that aren't on this list... but I'm the one blogging here and this is what I managed to come up with.
Reason number one: Bigger than yourself, AKA wanting to belong to something. People join many organization, or volunteer for community services because they like to be a part of something that it bigger than just them.
Reason number two: Emotional beneficiary, AKA That warm fuzzy feeling. A lot of people get a warm and fuzzy feeling for doing things for others.
Reason number three (and this is the real one I told pastor that I thought the pay out was for our volunteers): Life change, AKA grabbing the net. Or I could say buying into the vision.
Lifepoint is about one thing, reaching people far from Christ so that they can experience God's plan for their life.That's what I think most of our volunteers get as their payout, we get the humbling honor to see peoples lives change. The day we talked about this I realized that we've seen more people take a radical step of faith and forever change their eternal destination than we started this church with, THIS YEAR ALONE, and we've got 4 months to go before the year is over, I don't think there is anything out there that compares to a payout like this, and I daresay that there isn't a single core volunteer who would disagree with me.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Changing it up...
I've modified setup for the church drum kit a bit...
switched out the 13" Tama for my personal 10" Grestch (Tom)
Switched out the 13" piccolo snare for the 14" Tama with fat cat strands.... Let me say for the record that I LOVE what these new snare strands have done to my sound. It really makes the snare pop.
Cymbal setup it pretty much the same, but I added a clasped in place hi-hat, it makes it easier for me to hit a couple grooves when I don't have to worry about the l/r cross factor... and it's easier (I know cheap cop-out) than me trying to learn how to play open handed (which is on my list to do!)
I'll have to post a picture when I get a chance to take one again.
switched out the 13" Tama for my personal 10" Grestch (Tom)
Switched out the 13" piccolo snare for the 14" Tama with fat cat strands.... Let me say for the record that I LOVE what these new snare strands have done to my sound. It really makes the snare pop.
Cymbal setup it pretty much the same, but I added a clasped in place hi-hat, it makes it easier for me to hit a couple grooves when I don't have to worry about the l/r cross factor... and it's easier (I know cheap cop-out) than me trying to learn how to play open handed (which is on my list to do!)
I'll have to post a picture when I get a chance to take one again.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
We Interrupt this regulary scheduled blog to bring you...
As probably the most active (and unquestionably the most verbose) Blogger in the Lifepoint Staff, (Both Volunteer and paid staff) I also try to keep current on what other churches and ministries are up to. As such I follow many other blogs, only some of which I have in my blog list.
The results of the above are occasionally I link to another blog for information or insight, or something of that nature. Today, though I just wanted to share something that I thought was really flipping (and by use of the term "flipping" I am merely attempting to state that this goes way beyond the term awesome) awesome.
As perhaps not everyone at Lifepoint knows (But will if they read this post) we are part of a network of churches (Ground Level Network) The church spearheading this is Elevation Pastored by Pastor Furtick. They are hugely impacting their community and have invested a lot into Lifepoint Church.
So back to the reason for this post, I was reading Wade Joy's Blog (Elevation's Worhsip Pastor) and found THIS POST, and then went to Pastor Furticks Blog and Read THIS POST and I got excited. and I mean excited, why? Read and see for yourself!
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