Emily and I went to Alva Copeland's "Transforming Singers into Outstanding Servants." It was outstanding. Some tidbits from her talk:
- When auditioning vocalists, the first question she asks is, "Did you come to serve?" If you came to sing, this is the wrong ministry!
- We're looking for servants who can sing, not people who are looking to be seen.
- Just like the disciples, sitting around looking at each other wondering "which one is the greatest?" instead striving for
- servant leadership: group of people submitting to each other to achieve something they could not do alone
- The platform is not for personal affirmation--the cross is for that.
- No level of importance is attached to an assignment.
- Nurture the "glad we can be doing something" spirit in the team. Don't ask them to make sacrifices you aren't willing to make.
- Do not allow the pursuit of excellence to foster or fuel a performance mentality (Quest for perfection). Excellence is more about discipline and sacrifice to give something that was costly to you.
- Set aside personal gain, abandon personal agenda.
After her session we went and got a burger at the famous "In N Out Burger" fast food chain. And yes, it was a good burger. I checked out of my hotel room and went back to campus where I explored their new "Refinery" building which is supposed to become their youth hangout facility. The building comes complete with skateboarding ramps,
a little place to buy food and chat with your friends,
an incomplete amphitheater,
a basketball court (behind the windows),
a nice view from the outside stairs going to the 2nd floor
and a game room.
From there, I wandered into the in-progress Deliriou5? concert. I wasn't too interested in hearing them, but I recorded part of their video word-feeding ideas which I thought was clever.
Finally, I met up with The Chapel gang one last time at Laguna Beach where we stood around for a while and tried to figure out where to have dinner.
They left for SNA and I hung out for a while and got some sun-setting pictures before heading off to LAX.
My flight was a 11:55pm departure to Atlanta. It was a four hour flight and I ended up in Atlanta at about 7:00am. I did not sleep well. I think I maybe got a total of two and a half hours. I was real conscientious of the guy next to me for some reason. Anyway, I slept more on the plane on the way from ATL to RDU. I don't remember the take off and when I woke up we were beginning our descent.
It was a great conference--it has been a treat to get to go there because you are surrounded by people just like you. My plea again will be for members of my staff and members of our volunteer team to be able to take it in together. There will be infinitely more musical benefit for us as a ministry and staff than yet another trip to NAB.
