Where has the time gone?

It’s been about a month since my last post, and it’s been a little slow. The Lord provided our goal for financial support through friends and family, so it’s been a month of changing schedules, looking to the future, and lots of working.

Since out support goal was reached, I’ve slowly transitioned away from working two jobs to working full time at the Stone. This week, I’ll be revving it into high gear in regard to work, but lately, it’s been slowly winding down from support raising and planning ahead.

So basically, not too much has happened.

Here’s a cool story though. Shelby and I had the opportunity to visit family in New York, pick up our new car, which was given to us, and have a nice cross country trip back to Texas before the baby is born. It was nice to get away for a little bit, spend time with Shelby and see friends and family we haven’t been able to see in a while. It was a great trip!

What does Matt Chandler have to do with the Hunger Games?

So technically, Matt Chandler doesn’t have anything to do with the Hunger Games at all, so far as I know. But how these two relate to me and my internship, that’s what I’ve been up to for the last two and a half weeks.

On April 22nd, Matt Chandler, a close friend of the Austin Stone, paid us a visit during our 7pm service to speak on and give us a taste of his new book, The Explicit Gospel. Chandler’s book reminds us that, while we may go to church every Sunday or attend every Sunday School, that does not mean you have been exposed to or have fully grasped the real meaning of the gospel. And more importantly, beyond following rules about doing what is good and bad, right and wrong, and asking yourself “what would a Christian do,” we must ask ourselves whether or not our first and primary concern is our love for Jesus and the gospel.

Having Matt Chandler over that evening was a real blessing and a reminder for our church. It was fun hearing Chandler’s heart, not about his book, but his love of the gospel. It was also fun getting to see and learn a little bit about how other churches do production, especially when you are traveling on the road and at different churches. Definitely an interesting experience!

Now, about the Hunger Games. Each year, our staff, as a family, travels to Camp Tejas in Giddings, Texas to spend two and a half days together just to rest, recharge and have fun together. This year was a blast! To my knowledge, this was our first year to have a theme, and what could be more fun than the Hunger Games? The things I tend to remember the most are our times of worship together and also the ridiculous athletic events that happen on the second day. Let’s just say it was exactly like the Hunger Games, minus the killing, of course. It was a refreshing time together with my team, getting to know them better and just hanging out before the busy summer season starts.

If you would like to hear Matt Chandler’s sermon, click here.

And here are a few pictures of our time at staff retreat:

(District 7 was my team)

Can you guess what happened at the Erwin Center?

On April 8th, the Austin Stone held our Easter service at the Frank Erwin Center. Instead of having 9 different services at different times, that week we had one service, so that all our people, could invite whoever they wanted, never worry about whether there would be enough space and seats, and as one body worship our Risen King.

My weekend with the production team started Saturday morning at 7:30am. For this event, I was the production coordinator for the Denton-Cooley Pavilion. This meant that I was responsible for setting up, staffing and producing the “Arise” service, the volunteer pre-service in the Denton-Cooley Pavilion right next to the Erwin Center. It was a Saturday filled with setting up stages, a PA system, lights, curtains, a projector, screens, running cables, hanging signs and banners and sound checking all of the equipment we would be using for Sunday. After all that ended at 10:30pm, my responsibility then was to go home and sleep so that I wouldn’t be late for a 5:45am call time the next day.

Sunday morning came quick! Not only was it a great day because Jesus rose again, but because I had the opportunity to lead worship through production and also worship with approximately 700 volunteers prior to the actual service starting. Once the pre-service was over, I headed to the Erwin Center to sit in and help with whatever the production team needed.

The service was AMAZING! It was certainly a breathtaking experience to worship Christ with an arena full of people. I would go as far as saying I’ve not experienced anything quite like this.

Tear down went super smooth, and I was home at 3:30pm.

I have learned so much from that weekend.  It was challenging both mentally and physically, but at the end of the day, the dream of having our church family all together in one place to praise Jesus was made real. Not only have I learned the ins and outs of what it takes to be a production coordinator, I’ve also learned how I can improve in my leadership and communication skills in general.

If you’re interested in checking out the video of our service, click here!

If you’re interested in learning more about the Austin Stone Community Church, click here!

The All Consuming VERGE

On February 28th through March 2nd, I was a part of VERGE2012. Why do I call VERGE2012 all consuming? Because my life was utterly consumed by it for the entire week. Was it fun? Yes! Was it educational? Yes! Was it hands -down the hardest event that I’ve been a part of in my entire life? YES!

VERGE2012 was a conference held at Austin Music Hall that covered the importance of Missional Communities and provided training through videos, dozens of speakers, interviews and pre/post conference workshops. The pre/post conference covered 2 days, the main sessions covered 2 days, and the preparation and clean up before and afterward took more time than I think I am aware of. It was an amazing learning experience to hear the passions of the different speakers. It was also a challenging experience preparing and loading in all the equipment that was required for the conference to run smoothly.

During the pre-conference, my team and I were busy setting up and loading in to Austin Music Hall. This called for multiple computers for slides, videos and live streaming, and our production booth for switching between those videos and slides. We also partnered with LifeWay and Gemini that week for lighting and audio. And the last thing to be set up were 2,000 chairs! I thought it was pretty crazy how much stuff went up in 15 hours.

Then for the main sessions days, I was responsible for running and playing the intro videos, slides and documentaries during the talks from the speakers. It was definitely a struggle for me to not lose focus and be on my “A-game” for those 2 days.

Then load out was probably one of the fastest things I’ve ever seen happen. It was likely even more impressive than the load in. There was an army of volunteers and venue employees helping tear everything down.What took 15 hours to load in only took 3 to load out!

Like I said, VERGE2012 was a lot of fun. Would I do it again? Definitely! Was it draining? Definitely! When would I do this again? Not for another year!

(That’s me in the orange pullover sitting behind the sound guy in the middle right of the picture)

Here’s lookin’ at you kid

It’s been a crazy 3 months for Shelby and I in 2012. As I continue support raising for my internship at the Stone and as we continue to prepare for our baby, time seems to keep flying by and God has blessed us with so much and has taught us so much in this season of our lives already!

Support raising has been difficult, but it’s refreshing to connect and reconnect with people and to hear about the things going on in their lives and struggles they have encountered this year. Pray that the Lord continues to give me strength as I speak with people and that I endure and continue to trust in His provision. If you would like to pray specifically for Shelby and I, here is what we are asking:

1) Pray that God provides for us and works through our friends and family and that funds come in from our support raising. I am still $650/month short of reaching the halfway point by the end of this month. It seems like quite a bit, but if you break it up, that’s just 10 people supporting us with $65/month -or- 13 people supporting us $50/month -or- 26 people supporting us $25/month. Pray that the Lord would bring people to partner alongside us and invest in us and pray for us as we pursue Christ’s calling in leading the people at the Austin Stone and the students in the TeenRock ministry. We also ask that you would prayerfully consider partnering with us in this season.

If you feel that Christ is leading you to support us in our ministry, financially through a monthly or one time gift or through prayer, you can do that here.

2) Pray for the continued health of Shelby and the baby. She is about 20 weeks along now. Shelby is starting to get a bit of a baby bump and the joys of parenthood are becoming more and more real for us! We are looking forward to preparing the baby’s room, having a  baby shower and all the other cool things we get to do as expecting parents.

With all that said, we had our first ultrasound on Monday, and we would like you to meet…

Phoebe Lin

Bass Concert Hall is a Big Room

On February 15th, a month and a half into my new internship with the wX crew, our first big event came along for me to test and apply all the new skills I’ve learned so far.

Austin Stone on Campus was held at the University of Texas at Austin at Bass Concert Hall. It was a time for college students at UT to gather and worship together and to be taught by one of the pastors at the Stone. It was projected to be one of the largest Christian gatherings on campus at UT in years! And to be honest, it was truly an amazing experience and privilege to work with the wX crew and the crew from Bass Concert Hall.

I’m not going to lie, it was a pretty tough day considering that I’ve never set up or helped run an event at a venue that size. It was an early morning, long day, late night event. It was lots of running cables, setting up computers, projectors, screens and organizing. It was tough both mentally and physically, and at the end of the day, I just wanted to sink into my bed and go to sleep. But was it worth waking up early to see God move in the lives of students at UT? Was it worth fighting morning rush hour traffic on I-35 in a huge box truck to see students being drawn closer to God? Definitely.

Might was well start the year off with a bang right?

Back in action!

So it’s been about a year since I got married and my last post on here.  I apologize for being out of touch for so long. I’m back now, and there are quite a few updates for me to mention, but for the sake of time, I’ll cover just a couple of them.

First, I’ve switched internships! While it was a difficult change, it was definitely a necessary one as I continue to pursue Christ’s calling in my life. I’m not with KidStuff anymore, but rather with the Worship Christ team learning everything I can about production and developing as a worship leader. The switch happened January 1st of this year and it’s been great getting to work with my new team, living life with these guys and gals and serving the Austin Stone in this new way. It’s been a steep learning curve but nothing has overwhelmed me quite yet. As I continue to learn, gain experience and adapt to change with my new internship, I’ll continue to update you on the great things that will happen throughout this year.

Second, for those that haven’t heard, I’m going to have a baby! Shelby is about 15-16 weeks along now, and we couldn’t be more excited. So get ready for updates on that as well.

I’m really looking forward to all the things that God is going to be teaching me throughout this year and through this internship. I want to invite you along and share my ups and downs with me, so get ready, because 2012 is going be crazy!