Creating an Environment
So let’s start at the very beginning (it’s a very good place to start). I started this post immediately following my last post regarding Simply Christmas eve service. Because to someone who doesn’t understand the vision I would imagine they’re wondering why in the world a bunch of people would spend collectively 297 hours over a 24 hour period? So why do we do what we do at Lifepoint, why do we have people showing up at 6:00am on a Sunday mornings and then spend several hours working?
Have you ever heard the story of the three men laying bricks? They were asked during their labor what they were doing. The first replied, I’m making fifteen dollars an hour, The second replied I’m laying bricks, but the third man replied, “I’m building an amazing cathedral”
So first what we do: We’re creating an environment conducive (big word for me) to learn about, and accept the message and gift of Salvation through Jesus the Christ. Everyone is preaching the gospel in the best way they know how through the talents and gifts that they have, it can vary from directing traffic to worshiping on the stage. (I had a much longer part earlier regarding every team, but I was a) bound to leave someone out, and b) probably boring you the reader). I suppose a term that would work well here Synergy, the whole of the team working in unison is greater than the sum of the individual parts.
And why we do it? To see lives changed for God’s glory. Or as I like to put it, to change forever, someone’s eternal destination.
~Matthew Furukawa
Creating an Environment
So let’s start at the very beginning (it’s a very good place to start). I started this post immediately following my last post regarding Simply Christmas eve service. Because to someone who doesn’t understand the vision I would imagine they’re wondering why in the world a bunch of people would spend collectively 297 hours over a 24 hour period? So why do we do what we do at Lifepoint, why do we have people showing up at 6:00am on a Sunday mornings and then spend several hours working?
Have you ever heard the story of the three men laying bricks? They were asked during their labor what they were doing. The first replied, I’m making fifteen dollars an hour, The second replied I’m laying bricks, but the third man replied, “I’m building an amazing cathedral”
So first what we do: We’re creating an environment conducive (big word for me) to learn about, and accept the message and gift of Salvation through Jesus the Christ. Everyone is preaching the gospel in the best way they know how through the talents and gifts that they have, it can vary from directing traffic to worshiping on the stage. (I had a much longer part earlier regarding every team, but I was a) bound to leave someone out, and b) probably boring you the reader). I suppose a term that would work well here Synergy, the whole of the team working in unison is greater than the sum of the individual parts.
And why we do it? To see lives changed for God’s glory. Or as I like to put it, to change forever, someone’s eternal destination.
~Matthew Furukawa
…And this isn’t even my music notes…
Okay, I’ve had a full day to ‘decompress’ after a phenomenal (and yes that’s spoken with extended accent) Christmas Eve service. I wanted to take a day to come off of the emotional highs regarding the service so that I could make clinical comments regarding such. (Okay, everyone who actually knows me, you can pick yourselves off the floor now, it’s not THAT funny… Come one I’m waiting, take slow deep breathes to calm down, that’s the kind of laughter that gets painful after a while).
I’ve seen a nice email regarding the service, and Jeremy’s Blog as well, so you might want to read his in addition/instead of mine. It’s bound to be more informative.
First lets take a glimpse into what went into this one night. Planning for this service began somewhere in mid/late October / early November, details fell in place around late November, and then the final push began the second week of December, here’s my completely unofficial stats. (Some of which are fairly accurate, some of which are a wild guess based on inductive reasoning, ie I know about how many people where there for about how long a time.)
Totals man hours of planning during programming meetings: (Because I can’ even begin to fathom how much time everyone spent individually planning for the service) 38 hours
Total Man Hours Spent During Set up/Tear down of the service: 105 hours
Total Man Hours Spent by technical/worship team during the run practices/service: 68 hours
Total Man Hours by Decorating Team: 60 hours
Total Man Ours By Parking/Greeting/Usher/Refreshment team: 60 hours
Number of hours it took the Video to compile: 20 hours
Number of hours it took Josh to Put together said video: I have no clue, but it was quite a few
Number of hours to build the loop for the song in the video: 4 hours
Number of barrels of food collected for food bank: 5 (from Jeremy’s Blog)
Number of Injuries to myself: 2
Number of sticks I broke while playing: 1
Number of cool new gear I got to buy for the service: 1 new pair of stick/mallet combos.
Amount collected for Simply love (Donation to Hope house and Thurman Brisben center): Over 10k (Again from Jeremy’s Blog)
Number if Times Jeremy Acted Grinch-ish: 3 (Mostly during initial planning, see this post for details)
Number of times I acted Grinch-ish: (Way more than 3)
Official Number of lives who have forever changed their eternal destination: 25 (At least according to Jeremy’s Blog)
Unofficial Number of lives who have forever changed their eternal destination: Unknown, but higher than the above number based on the hands that went up.
Amount of pride I feel from those last two stats: Immeasurable.
And really those last two items on the list are why we do what we do. Yes I love music and drumming, but that’s not why I play for our worship team, if it was just about music I’d be working as a session drummer and/or gigging at clubs on nights and weekends it’s about seeing what God is still doing in and around us, it’s about seeing lives changed, and it’s an amazing feeling.
Matthew Furukawa
Post Christmas Eve Service Reflections (Is that proper use of that word?) 2007
…And this isn’t even my music notes…
Okay, I’ve had a full day to ‘decompress’ after a phenomenal (and yes that’s spoken with extended accent) Christmas Eve service. I wanted to take a day to come off of the emotional highs regarding the service so that I could make clinical comments regarding such. (Okay, everyone who actually knows me, you can pick yourselves off the floor now, it’s not THAT funny… Come one I’m waiting, take slow deep breathes to calm down, that’s the kind of laughter that gets painful after a while).
I’ve seen a nice email regarding the service, and Jeremy’s Blog as well, so you might want to read his in addition/instead of mine. It’s bound to be more informative.
First lets take a glimpse into what went into this one night. Planning for this service began somewhere in mid/late October / early November, details fell in place around late November, and then the final push began the second week of December, here’s my completely unofficial stats. (Some of which are fairly accurate, some of which are a wild guess based on inductive reasoning, ie I know about how many people where there for about how long a time.)
Totals man hours of planning during programming meetings: (Because I can’ even begin to fathom how much time everyone spent individually planning for the service) 38 hours
Total Man Hours Spent During Set up/Tear down of the service: 105 hours
Total Man Hours Spent by technical/worship team during the run practices/service: 68 hours
Total Man Hours by Decorating Team: 60 hours
Total Man Ours By Parking/Greeting/Usher/Refreshment team: 60 hours
Number of hours it took the Video to compile: 20 hours
Number of hours it took Josh to Put together said video: I have no clue, but it was quite a few
Number of hours to build the loop for the song in the video: 4 hours
Number of barrels of food collected for food bank: 5 (from Jeremy’s Blog)
Number of Injuries to myself: 2
Number of sticks I broke while playing: 1
Number of cool new gear I got to buy for the service: 1 new pair of stick/mallet combos.
Amount collected for Simply love (Donation to Hope house and Thurman Brisben center): Over 10k (Again from Jeremy’s Blog)
Number if Times Jeremy Acted Grinch-ish: 3 (Mostly during initial planning, see this post for details)
Number of times I acted Grinch-ish: (Way more than 3)
Official Number of lives who have forever changed their eternal destination: 25 (At least according to Jeremy’s Blog)
Unofficial Number of lives who have forever changed their eternal destination: Unknown, but higher than the above number based on the hands that went up.
Amount of pride I feel from those last two stats: Immeasurable.
And really those last two items on the list are why we do what we do. Yes I love music and drumming, but that’s not why I play for our worship team, if it was just about music I’d be working as a session drummer and/or gigging at clubs on nights and weekends it’s about seeing what God is still doing in and around us, it’s about seeing lives changed, and it’s an amazing feeling.
Matthew Furukawa
Post Christmas Eve Service Reflections (Is that proper use of that word?) 2007
…And this isn’t even my music notes…
Okay, I’ve had a full day to ‘decompress’ after a phenomenal (and yes that’s spoken with extended accent) Christmas Eve service. I wanted to take a day to come off of the emotional highs regarding the service so that I could make clinical comments regarding such. (Okay, everyone who actually knows me, you can pick yourselves off the floor now, it’s not THAT funny… Come one I’m waiting, take slow deep breathes to calm down, that’s the kind of laughter that gets painful after a while).
I’ve seen a nice email regarding the service, and Jeremy’s Blog as well, so you might want to read his in addition/instead of mine. It’s bound to be more informative.
First lets take a glimpse into what went into this one night. Planning for this service began somewhere in mid/late October / early November, details fell in place around late November, and then the final push began the second week of December, here’s my completely unofficial stats. (Some of which are fairly accurate, some of which are a wild guess based on inductive reasoning, ie I know about how many people where there for about how long a time.)
Totals man hours of planning during programming meetings: (Because I can’ even begin to fathom how much time everyone spent individually planning for the service) 38 hours
Total Man Hours Spent During Set up/Tear down of the service: 105 hours
Total Man Hours Spent by technical/worship team during the run practices/service: 68 hours
Total Man Hours by Decorating Team: 60 hours
Total Man Ours By Parking/Greeting/Usher/Refreshment team: 60 hours
Number of hours it took the Video to compile: 20 hours
Number of hours it took Josh to Put together said video: I have no clue, but it was quite a few
Number of hours to build the loop for the song in the video: 4 hours
Number of barrels of food collected for food bank: 5 (from Jeremy’s Blog)
Number of Injuries to myself: 2
Number of sticks I broke while playing: 1
Number of cool new gear I got to buy for the service: 1 new pair of stick/mallet combos.
Amount collected for Simply love (Donation to Hope house and Thurman Brisben center): Over 10k (Again from Jeremy’s Blog)
Number if Times Jeremy Acted Grinch-ish: 3 (Mostly during initial planning, see this post for details)
Number of times I acted Grinch-ish: (Way more than 3)
Official Number of lives who have forever changed their eternal destination: 25 (At least according to Jeremy’s Blog)
Unofficial Number of lives who have forever changed their eternal destination: Unknown, but higher than the above number based on the hands that went up.
Amount of pride I feel from those last two stats: Immeasurable.
And really those last two items on the list are why we do what we do. Yes I love music and drumming, but that’s not why I play for our worship team, if it was just about music I’d be working as a session drummer and/or gigging at clubs on nights and weekends it’s about seeing what God is still doing in and around us, it’s about seeing lives changed, and it’s an amazing feeling.
Matthew Furukawa
Post Christmas Eve Service Reflections (Is that proper use of that word?) 2007
…And this isn’t even my music notes…
Okay, I’ve had a full day to ‘decompress’ after a phenomenal (and yes that’s spoken with extended accent) Christmas Eve service. I wanted to take a day to come off of the emotional highs regarding the service so that I could make clinical comments regarding such. (Okay, everyone who actually knows me, you can pick yourselves off the floor now, it’s not THAT funny… Come one I’m waiting, take slow deep breathes to calm down, that’s the kind of laughter that gets painful after a while).
I’ve seen a nice email regarding the service, and Jeremy’s Blog as well, so you might want to read his in addition/instead of mine. It’s bound to be more informative.
First lets take a glimpse into what went into this one night. Planning for this service began somewhere in mid/late October / early November, details fell in place around late November, and then the final push began the second week of December, here’s my completely unofficial stats. (Some of which are fairly accurate, some of which are a wild guess based on inductive reasoning, ie I know about how many people where there for about how long a time.)
Totals man hours of planning during programming meetings: (Because I can’ even begin to fathom how much time everyone spent individually planning for the service) 38 hours
Total Man Hours Spent During Set up/Tear down of the service: 105 hours
Total Man Hours Spent by technical/worship team during the run practices/service: 68 hours
Total Man Hours by Decorating Team: 60 hours
Total Man Ours By Parking/Greeting/Usher/Refreshment team: 60 hours
Number of hours it took the Video to compile: 20 hours
Number of hours it took Josh to Put together said video: I have no clue, but it was quite a few
Number of hours to build the loop for the song in the video: 4 hours
Number of barrels of food collected for food bank: 5 (from Jeremy’s Blog)
Number of Injuries to myself: 2
Number of sticks I broke while playing: 1
Number of cool new gear I got to buy for the service: 1 new pair of stick/mallet combos.
Amount collected for Simply love (Donation to Hope house and Thurman Brisben center): Over 10k (Again from Jeremy’s Blog)
Number if Times Jeremy Acted Grinch-ish: 3 (Mostly during initial planning, see this post for details)
Number of times I acted Grinch-ish: (Way more than 3)
Official Number of lives who have forever changed their eternal destination: 25 (At least according to Jeremy’s Blog)
Unofficial Number of lives who have forever changed their eternal destination: Unknown, but higher than the above number based on the hands that went up.
Amount of pride I feel from those last two stats: Immeasurable.
And really those last two items on the list are why we do what we do. Yes I love music and drumming, but that’s not why I play for our worship team, if it was just about music I’d be working as a session drummer and/or gigging at clubs on nights and weekends it’s about seeing what God is still doing in and around us, it’s about seeing lives changed, and it’s an amazing feeling.
Matthew Furukawa
Post Christmas Eve Service Reflections (Is that proper use of that word?) 2007
The Greatest Generation
Something of an introspective posting, I’m currently “reading” a book I picked up from our local used book store, it’s the Congressional Medal of Honor Library, World War 2, Volume 2 M-Z.
The world war two generation has often been called America’s greatest generation, reading through this book is a strong testament to this fact. Now I don’t want to cheapen the deeds by our military personal who served, or are serving in other times, but reading this book literally chokes me up. Most of the entries in it end in the phrase “He gallantly gave his life for his country.”
The scripture in John goes something like “No greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” I’ve read where men threw themselves on grenades knowing they would die to protect their squads, I’ve read where men would run out alone under severe fire to grab a man left behind, I’ve read where a pilot stayed at the controls to make sure his crew had enough time to escape a burning plane only have it explode before they themselves could make it out.
A part of me can’t help but wonder what’s going on now with our men and women waging a war against on terror on foreign soil so that we don’t have to face one on our own. And I wonder why the deeds of selfless courage that are doubtless happening don’t get reported, or what the real story behind some of what does get reported is.
It doesn’t help that I’ve been watching band of brothers lately.
It’s Christmas morning and I hope everyone stateside has a chance to spend it with family and friends. And when you see someone in uniform, thank them, because they are why you can. In fact, between the presents and the food, and whatever traditions you have, say a prayer thank God that you live in a country where you can freely celebrate his son’s birthday, then ask him to protect the men and women who are keeping it that way.
To our armed service personal, I offer my thanks and gratitude and I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Safe return,
God Bless.
Matthew Furukawa,
Christmas 2007
The Greatest Generation
Something of an introspective posting, I’m currently “reading” a book I picked up from our local used book store, it’s the Congressional Medal of Honor Library, World War 2, Volume 2 M-Z.
The world war two generation has often been called America’s greatest generation, reading through this book is a strong testament to this fact. Now I don’t want to cheapen the deeds by our military personal who served, or are serving in other times, but reading this book literally chokes me up. Most of the entries in it end in the phrase “He gallantly gave his life for his country.”
The scripture in John goes something like “No greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” I’ve read where men threw themselves on grenades knowing they would die to protect their squads, I’ve read where men would run out alone under severe fire to grab a man left behind, I’ve read where a pilot stayed at the controls to make sure his crew had enough time to escape a burning plane only have it explode before they themselves could make it out.
A part of me can’t help but wonder what’s going on now with our men and women waging a war against on terror on foreign soil so that we don’t have to face one on our own. And I wonder why the deeds of selfless courage that are doubtless happening don’t get reported, or what the real story behind some of what does get reported is.
It doesn’t help that I’ve been watching band of brothers lately.
It’s Christmas morning and I hope everyone stateside has a chance to spend it with family and friends. And when you see someone in uniform, thank them, because they are why you can. In fact, between the presents and the food, and whatever traditions you have, say a prayer thank God that you live in a country where you can freely celebrate his son’s birthday, then ask him to protect the men and women who are keeping it that way.
To our armed service personal, I offer my thanks and gratitude and I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Safe return,
God Bless.
Matthew Furukawa,
Christmas 2007
DHL gets Coal this year,
Right, I just finished a long ranting (it was at least two pages long) post about shipping companies and Christmas, but I’ll sum it up as such, DHL is getting coal this year, and next time place your orders 3 weeks in advanced, and next day shipping apparently isn’t, even when you have an entire week to get it.
I deleted the rant by the way, I just felt like venting.
DHL gets Coal this year,
Right, I just finished a long ranting (it was at least two pages long) post about shipping companies and Christmas, but I’ll sum it up as such, DHL is getting coal this year, and next time place your orders 3 weeks in advanced, and next day shipping apparently isn’t, even when you have an entire week to get it.
I deleted the rant by the way, I just felt like venting.
