JonathanBryant.info

So today was the most encouraging staff meeting I’ve ever been a part of… not kidding.
The people I get to work with are ridiculously talented and sold out to Jesus.
The church I get to work in is committed to seeing unchurched people become fully devoted followers of Christ.
Life is good.
Here are some keys phrases I wrote down this morning, from various people:

-God doesn’t supply according to what I need, but according to His riches in glory. That’s a lot more.
-A big part of growth is acting like it.
-If you’re providing the energy for a task, you’re blocking the Spirit.
-(Speaking of a conversation with a hurting woman) God was saying to me, “There is no problem this lady has that I’m not the answer to.”
-Life Change = the next step. Not fifty steps, just the next one.
-As pastors, we have to always be on guard… we can’t give what we don’t have.
-We have to ask God everyday, “God, do what is not capable by anyone except You.”
-Christ in us equals unlimited power and influence.
-Four steps to a dying church – Starts with a MAN, God starts a MOVEMENT, we turn it into a MACHINE, and it ends up being a MONUMENT.
-It’s not my choice to tell God, “I can’t handle anymore.” That’s for Him to decide and provide.
-(Referencing the “people praying for Peter to get out of jail, and then him showing up and they didn’t believe” story) We can’t pray for something to happen and then when it shows up act surprised. We need to pray and then GET READY!
-Nothing of eternal significance ever happens apart from prayer.

So much more than I wrote down… I’ll be sharing in the coming days.
Just to go ahead and say it, I’M FIRED UP!

-Today was OFF THE CHARTS!
-I feel like we are hitting our niche lately, as far as music goes. I have really been in prayer about how our campus should SOUND (since that’s my primary task), and I think today was a great indication.
-Recognizable songs, but we put a bit more edge to them than is on the original recordings. I feel like this gives a better connection between people and the lyrics and music in a live setting. It feels good!
-Today’s set: Center of it All/Hughes – Freedom Song/Desperation Band – Marvelous Light/Hall – Stronger/Hillsong
-I have to stop here and say we have the BEST VOLUNTEERS IN THE WORLD! Thinking over this past week: the new building work day, set-up, Sunday morning, tear-down, etc. Wow!
-To piggyback on that, I asked one of our key volunteers if she was happy that we only had a few more weeks of set-up/tear-down and she said, “I really am gonna miss it.” ARE YOU KIDDING?! These people are great! THANKS A TON TO OUR VOLUNTEERS!
-I really liked the new show on ABC, Shark Tank. It could be my favorite reality show on TV right now. I hope it sticks.
-We had Mary Douglas from the Seneca campus on stage with us this week. She has an amazing voice and adds a cool dynamic… I hope to see her on stage with us again soon.
-We had a Worship Leader roundtable this past Thursday on the Seneca Campus. The three FCC worship leaders put together a cool group of guys and spent about 5 hours brainstorming, sharing successes, and encouraging each other. If you weren’t at this one, we’re planning another one for November… BE THERE!
-I’m out… gearing up for another great week at FCC!

So today was a great day and I’m barely able to type this… all my energy has been drained and I’m fading fast! Just kidding, not really.
Anyway, here are some pics from today! We got the whole front of the building painted and most of the demolition work on the worship area side complete. GREAT DAY! Thanks to everyone who helped out!

You can find the rest of the pics here.

We are going to have our first workday at the new building this Saturday. One of the first things we want to do is paint the exterior. We will be doing at least a coat of primer this weekend….maybe paint if I can get the color sample in time. We will also start some demolition of existing walls inside. We will be starting @ about 9:00am. Please bring paint brushes, rollers, ladders, and any other painting tools we might need.

For the demolition bring sledgehammers, saws, pry bars, etc.

It is going to be a hot one on Saturday so if someone could volunteer to bring water, etc to keep the workers hydrated that would be awesome!

If you have any questions call Sam McMillan @ 864-903-5137. Sam and Jody have agree to be the point person for organizing and directing all the remodeling activities! Please give them your support.

Ok, over the next few weeks, we’re going in implement a ton of ways for you to get connected with work days on the new building.

1. ANNOUNCEMENTS! Listen for the announcements on Sunday mornings about when the next work day is happening and what it involves.

2. EMAIL! We will be emailing work day information regularly. Please comment here, email us, call us, etc if you want on the Email list.

3. TEXT! We have set up a service that lets us mass text a bunch of you at once. We will not text you more than twice a week, promise. Please comment here, email us, call us, etc if you want on the Text list.

4. BLOGS! We have a few blogs that we will use to let you in on work day info.
-Shannon’s Blog – http://shannonchiles.blogspot.com
-Jonathan’s Blog – http://jonathanbryant.info
-FCC Toccoa Blog – http://foothillstoccoa.blogspot.com
These will all three say the same thing, so please don’t feel overwhelmed about having to look at all three.

Thanks I and look forward to getting connected with you.

-JB

We are having a big baptism party Sunday, July 5th starting @ 3:30pm. It is going to be at Josh Schaeffers lakehouse. Come ready to eat, swim, boat….bring tailgate games…..etc….it’s going to be a blast!!!

Here are the details:

Location: 538 Imperial, Martin, GA (map to follow)
Time: 3:30pm – ?
Food: Grilled chicken, ribs, sausage, and hotdogs will be provided. Bring a side dish or a dessert to share.
Drinks: Drinks will be provided.
What else: Bring lawnchairs, swimming stuff, boat, tailgate games.

If you don’t feel confident that you can find the location….we will have groups leaving from Toccoa Campus and the Walmart parking lot @ about 3:15.

Also…if you want to be baptized, please let me know!

See you there!
Shannon

Here’s a simple tutorial on Reason. Make sure you check out my post 1 of 6 on Equipment.

First off in Reason you’ll open an empty rack (automatically when you click New in the File menu)

Next we’ll select an Instrument to use. You can do this a couple of ways:
1 – Click Create in the top menu and Click on Create Instrument.
2 – Drag an instrument from the menu bar on the right
3 – Click Create Instrument in the Menu bar on the right.

Any of those three ways will bring up this screen…

In this screen, find the instrument you want by navigating the menus and selecting the sound that best suits your application.

A side note, if your MIDI controller is plugged in you can sample the sounds as you click through this menu. VERY HELPFUL!

Next, it’s simple, you’re gonna hit the record button on the bottom and play your sound as the track records your notes.
Here is what it will look like after you add two instruments and record different parts:

A couple tips:
1 – if you arm the CLICK button (bottom lefthand corner of the main window) it will give you an audible metronome so you can play in time
2 – The time can be adjusted with the tempo input right next to the click button.
3 – If you arm the PRE button, it will give you a 4count before it starts recording… this good for coming in on the down beat
4 – The Click Level can be adjusted right beneath the click and pre buttons.
5 – Notice in the last picture there is a Reverb module attached to the last instrument. To achieve this, after you add an instrument simply add (from the Create menu) Reverb, Delay, Distortion, Flange, Phase, etc. Try combining these effects also… it’s a BLAST!

Now to the mixdown process.
Once you’re recorded a bunch of tracks, your rack should look like this…

Notice that every instrument you added to the rack has also been added to mixer at the top. As you play your tracks, you can pull the faders up or down as needed to mix the song… just like a live mixer. Need more keys? Just pull the fader up. Less pad? Pull the fader down. Your synth sound needs to cut through the mix? Change the EQ on the mixer to compensate. SIMPLE!!

Like I said, this is a basic tutorial. I post 4 we’ll talk about how to bounce this into Ableton Live for live use. Also, in more advanced posts, we’ll discuss Automation (mixing different parts of the song differently by making faders move on their own), different instruments and effects, etc.

Stay tuned for the next post on tracking in Garageband and/or Protools. This will be helpful in compensating for a missing player, as you can record live parts and attach them to your tracks.

Again if you have any questions, email me at JonathanTBryant@gmail.com or comment on the blog. Thanks and have a great day!

-Yesterday was amazing
-Sunday Morning Set: Surrender/Vineyard – I Surrender All – Today is the Day/Brewster – This is Our God/Hillsong
-This is Our God is one of my new favorite songs. Look for it again in the coming weeks!
-After a quick lunch and about a 30min sitdown, practice started for our Night of Praise that happened at 6p last night.
-2p-5p was the fastest three hours of my life! Haha, no kidding… we had a ton to do, and got it all done… but it was tight.
-Night of Praise Set: You Are Good/Matt Papa – We Shine/Fee – True Love/Phil Wickham – Reign in Us/Starfield – All B/c of Jesus/Fee – Everything Glorious/Crowder – Jesus Messiah/Tomlin – Salvation is Here/Brewster arrangement
-I am honored to work with David Odom and Eric Peters. They’re pretty much ridiculous at what they do. It was great to share a stage with them last night!
-I was seriously proud of us for only doing 2 Passion songs last night. I think sometimes, as worship leaders (MYSELF DEFINITELY INCLUDED) we turn to Tomlin/Hall/Crowder/Redman stuff because it’s easy. It’s good to have a church and band that loves to branch out into the other stuff, though.
-I HAD A BLAST LEADING WORSHIP LAST NIGHT! No kidding.
-Words don’t really do justice, so I’ll stop. I’m going to try and get a recording of the service online sometime this week. Hopefully it’ll turn out great. I’ll let you know.

Do you love watching people show their faith through baptism?
Do you love participating in Communion with your Foothills family?
Do you love worshiping with all three FCC worship leaders?
Do you love fellowship before the service and after?
Do you love combining BOTH FCC CAMPUSES for a joint worship night?
Do you love seeing people on stage in worship from Dave’s band, Eric’s band, and Jonathan’s band in Toccoa?

If you answered yes to all these questions,
and you WANT TO MISS OUT ON SOMETHING AWESOME…
Don’t come this Sunday night.

IF YOU ANSWERED YES TO ALL THE QUESTIONS,
AND DON’T WANNA MISS AN AMAZING NIGHT OF WORSHIP, COMMUNION, AND BAPTISMS…

COME TO NIGHT OF PRAISE, THIS SUNDAY NIGHT, APRIL 26TH, AT 6P, ON THE SENECA CAMPUS!!

Trust me, you want to be there.

Praise Night

April 26th @ 6:00
A Night of Worship, Sharing the Lord’s Supper, & Baptism!

You and your family won’t want to miss out on this special event at Foothills Community Church.  We will be celebrating life!  A life found in Christ.  We’ll be doing this through a time of worship led by our three worship leaders: Eric Peters, David Odom and Jonathan Bryant.  We will also be spending time sharing in the Lord’s Supper, remembering and celebrating the price that he paid on the cross for us.  Following this time we will continue our night of praise with a baptism celebration.  Please plan on joining us for this time of celebration.  Child care will be available for those 6 weeks up to Kindergarten.

If you are interested in being baptized please contact our church office.