Today’s post is a little different than normal. No iPad remotes, free resources, or musings about church & worship. I figured I’d post something a little more personal & give you an update on my life & a few things coming down the pipe.

•  I’ve been on the road way more than usual lately. I’m typically home (in Nashville) about 1-3 days each week. People ask if I’m burnt out or tired, and I can honestly say no. In fact, I’ve enjoyed it a lot more lately and strangely find “home” to be wherever I am, as long as friends are there with me. For the first time in my life, I feel truly nomadic! It’s definitely not for everyone…and it has it’s downsides…but I’m loving it right now! And it’s hilarious when people ask me, “Why do you even have a house in Nashville?!”

•  My mom just turned 60 and we threw a huge surprise party for her! She had no idea I was coming home…it was awesome!! the whole family (and the whole church) showed up at our house. My dad even brought in a string trio to play Andrew Lloyd Webber & classical music! Happy Birthday Mama!

•  Most of my time on the road has been with the Living Proof Live events (LifeWay, Beth Moore, Travis Cottrell). I’m thankful for these events and for the family-like team I travel with. None of these events are cookie-cutter…each one is specifically designed for each city. So it keeps me on my toes and brings some really creative challenges to my role! They are the best leaders I have ever worked with…they make room for mistakes (which allows for authenticity) and empower each of us to operate in our gifting with great freedom. And they encourage me like no one else does. We always say, “We’re not slick, but we’ll give you everything we’ve got!” I heart them big time!

•  Last week I got the privilege of subbing for Nate (my biz partner) on the GUNGOR tour. It was one of the most creative experiences I’ve ever been a part of. And Nate did a killer job at creating the VJ playlists for the tour. A new addition last weekend was hanging a scrim in front of the band & shining work lights from behind to create shadows. Similar to what I hear the Sigur Ros tour did; I hope to see them one day. Then I would project content onto the scrim at various moments. We did this at the beginning of each movement (there are three movements during the concert) and then pulled the scrim back (or up) to reveal the band. The anticipation & “reveal” moments it produced were infectious.

•  Speaking of Nate, we’ve been trying out a new concept called “Art Fusion”. We think it’s a big part of our future together at GI. I’ll have to share more on this later…deserves it’s own blog post, esp since we’ve been documenting the process and capturing live moments on video.

•  Speaking of GI (our company), it’s been a season of handing it all back over to God and allowing Him to do something new. Truly, a process of death and rebirth. This has resulted in some re-strategizing and re-structuring, and so far, it’s turned out to be a very successful & seamless move that we’re both thankful for. Here’s to GI 2.0!

•  As many of you know, Nathaniel Schweinberg joined us this summer as our intern. It’s been an incredible experience getting to show him the ropes of Nashville, creating original motion graphics, and taking him to a few events. His new site/blog “Fight the Current” is about to launch. Very excited for him and his future!

•  Content creation (at least the type that we sell on WorshipHouse) has never been our forte, but we are proud of the few gems we’ve released so far. In the coming weeks, there will be an influx of new loops, and some of them were shot all over the world! Pretty stoked about it. I’ll announce when they are released. Hopefully by ECHO. Here’s a sneak peak:

•  Speaking of ECHO, it’s just a few weeks away!! I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited about returning this year. Camron Ware and I are working on our brand new session entitled “Visual Worship: Environment & Content Curation”. I’m pretty stoked about sharing these new concepts & the VJ workflow!

•  Katie Strandlund has come on board the VWRT team and is working on a brand new official Visual Worship Roundtable site, as we have a few gatherings scheduled (namely at ECHO & STORY). I can’t wait for you to see it. I’m very excited about the direction it’s taken.

•  New Zealand: today, I embark for Middle Earth where I’ll be teaching and VJ-ing at Frequency, a church production conference, as well as visiting some other churches, universities, and more. Mark Pierson, the genius behind this “curation” concept you’ll be hearing more about, will be my host. Below are pictures of City Impact Church in Auckland where Frequency will be hosted. Hopefully along the trail, I’ll get to see some spots where they filmed Lord of the Rings!


•  Poland: remember Mat Smalec that i featured a few months ago? Well, he’s organized a “worshipVJ” conference that he and I will be leading together in Warsaw for the youth of the Church in Poland. I leave in September, but will travel to Belfast, Ireland first to hang with some friends of mine, including the world renowned VJ & Quartz master Shakinda!

•  Hong Kong/China: it looks like the Lord is opening up another opportunity to travel back to my home away from home!!! This time, I’ll be going there with my mentor Roy Cochran (of worship foundations int’l) on a vision trip. We’re hoping to find ways to send worship leaders and their teams over to China for a week or two. We’ll also hook up with ELIC and travel to Mongolia. Two of my bromances, Biscuet & Matt Stowell, will already be over there, as well as Nate, so we’ll all be traveling the countryside together!. I love that my story is continuing to unfold in Asia, and better yet, it involves figuring out ways to get people like YOU over there!

•  Then in October, Integrity Live kicks off the new seminars4worship tour. Luke McElory will be out on the tour with me, as Playback Drive/Orange Thread will be a sponsoring the tour. And if you are near the Boston area, you are in for a real treat…b/c Camron Ware will be VJ-ing & teaching!

So this turned out to be more of a list of upcoming events than anything. But it’s still the update on my life…b/c that’s about all I’m doing these days! I’m really thankful for the community I have in all these places and for God giving me a lot of extra grace and strength to not only maintain a healthy balance on the road, but to absolutely LOVE what I do!! I am truly blessed. Especially when Mexican food is involved! Love me some fajitas!!!

I prayed a while back, “Lord, show me Your global Church!” He has not been slow to answer that prayer. Whoa! He’s not joking around when He tells us that if we take Him at His Word and make ourselves available to Him, He will BLOW OUR MINDS. He is so faithful and has a specific unique plan for each of us!

I leave you with some creative inspiration that a friend of mine showed me this week. Get ready for this. This 26-year-old conductor & these Venezuelan teens are about to make you crap your pants:

——————————————–