Happy Days

Today I spent the entire day preparing for our move to the theater. Let me rewind and tell you why we're moving so soon.

Last Sunday I arrived to our location and found that the custodial staff (one guy) decided not to come in on New Year's Day. I think he may have had a little too much to drink. Anyway, we ultimately were not able to get in and I called several key families to get a phone tree going. It was likely to be a low day for us anyway but it certainly wasn't what I expected.

I ended up visiting a friend's church about 25 minutes from here. They're also a church plant so it was good to touch base with him and see how they are doing. Not to mention my wife and I actually enjoyed a worship service together. It was great. I love the band and my friend Jason did a great job with the message.

OKAY, now to what I've been doing all week.
I went and broke down... I bought a Mac. Well, it's a MacMini. I'm wanting to step into the Mac world but I've been afraid. I must say the little guy has been nice to me but it's a big change none-the-less. Anyway, I've been wanting to move to a cleaner computer that can handle video files with ease. All the rage I've ever heard has been that Mac is the way to go. So I wanted to put my toes in the water to test it out.

I got some great pointers from Bob and Carey Franquiz. They are fabulous people who've been huge for me recently. I've been able to pick their brains on theater stuff, theology stuff, book stuff and now MAC stuff! Bob's wife Carey does their videos and she's terrific. She's also very encouraging and a big help to a newbie like myself. One day Bob we've got to go to the same conference. How about Buzz?

Thanks to my new friend "Dr. Bob" we are the proud new owners of a new light board (part of the reason we abandoned our lighting). So... if you're keeping track: Computer for video- Check ... Lights on stands and new lighting console--Check.

Today was the day we moved our stuff into the theater. Let me tell you, this staff has been absolutely fabulous! I'm serious. From the General Manager for the chain to the mangers on site I don't believe I've heard "no" once. They have been bending over backwards on our behalf. I can't say for certain... but I've honestly taken up the habit of praying for God's favor in various situations and this is one time when I've gone to God over and over saying "Wow God, you rock." (not really those words, but with that excitement and thanksgiving.

So on Monday I called the theater and talked to the GM. I asked if we could come in this month instead of next. He said "Sure, when would you like to do it?" I said "This week if possible." Sure enough he was fine with it. They are providing us all sorts of storage and access. This is HUGE for us. The last 3 churches I've been apart of have been portable. I've never been in a portable church that had on-site storage. The difference in setup will be amazing. Finally I feel that we'll be able to get moving forward with many areas I've felt we've been lacking due to storage, manpower and transportation issues.

The storage was arranged for us right in the theaters themselves which allows us to have equipment literally staged 10 feet from where it will be used. I'm so excited for this.

Our load-in went well and the manager even sent us two guys to help with moving some things that were in our way. (I told you they've been great!)

So now our stage, sound, lighting, children's equipment... Everything... it's in there ready for us to use.

I'm even pumped about their willingness to let us put up some advertising that can stay in the theater's lobby at all times. We're going to take them up on that. It will cost us some cash up front because I want to buy a professionally made advertising stand used for contests in the malls. We're considering doing ipod giveaways on a 6-8 week rotation to gather contact info and give people a reason to check out our display.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll do another post on potential advertising partnerships I'm going to propose with them. For now, I praise God for his favor and grace in the midst of this process. I believe God will be bringing the increase to this local church in 2006.

This location will be a big help but to me these material changes are simply a visual change that's happening at Focal Point. The true change is within myself as the Pastor and our leadership team. We're pumped and looking forward to all God will do in and through us this year.

If you think about it, toss one up for us. I believe we're in for an awesome year.