Kyle O'Neal

Melissa and I are in the process of purchasing our first home so we’re selling some things in order to get different things.  Just click on the links for the details about the items on Craigslist.  Thanks!

• Couch and Loveseat Set ($350)
• Modern Couch, Loveseat, Chair, Rug, and Pillows SOLD!
• Black Dining Set with 4 Chairs and extras SOLD!
• Cherry Coffee Table and 2 Side Tables SOLD!
• Black and Glass L-Shaped Desk ($100)
• 4 Drawer Dresser on Casters ($100)
• Sharp Microwave ($50)
• Black Office Desk Chair ($20)

So this past Sunday I struggled with playing a couple of songs that…just aren’t my favorite songs in the world.  I mean, they were great songs at one point…they were just overdone or overplayed or just not my thing.  We are in the middle of a series called “Just Ask” and the messages are based on questions people asked within the church.  Well, 80% of the songs were also requested by people.  Most of the requests were songs already in our rotation and I had no problem adding them.

However, 2 came up and I wanted nothing to do with them.  It just so happened that these 2 songs were the absolute most requested songs, with both of them having over 20 requests.  These epic songs were “I’ll Fly Away” and “I Can Only Imagine” by MercyMe.  After fighting it for a while, and knowing other staff members already saw a few of the requests, I decided to go ahead and use them.  This past Sunday’s main question was “Is there more than one way to heaven?” so naturally…they both fit.  Yay!  I’d be lying to you if I said I still wasn’t struggling about playing them on the morning of.  I decided on a Jars of Clay rendition of “I’ll Fly Away” I felt I could live with.  And in rehearsal, we actually had a lot of fun with it making it sound super country.  Clay Goswick even threw a country solo on the end of it.

To say the very least, God used these 2 songs in huge ways.  We opened up the service with “I’ll Fly Away” and people went crazy when they heard the first line, “Some glad morning…”  This was a song that a lot of people connected with.  A large portion of our church was  un-churched or de-churched prior to The Well, but connected to “I’ll Fly Away” and brought back a connection to God when they heard it.  With “I Can Only Imagine”, I’ve NEVER seen our church react in the way they did when we started that song!  The main lady I remember requesting it, just lost her father 3 weeks before and watched her be brought to tears as I was singing.  God moved in a HUGE way in that room and I felt His Spirit move SO much during that song.

Worship Leaders,
Don’t be afraid to play the songs YOU don’t want to play.  After all, it’s not about YOU.  And I’m speaking to myself more than anyone right now.  Every worship leader or musician has those songs they see on a set list and think, “Why do we have to play this? I hate this song!”  I KNOW it’s happened to you before.  Coming from a worship leader who picks the sets, I can promise you that at The Well we ONLY play a song that will enhance the worship service or bring home the point of the message.  So #1, there IS a reason for it.  And #2, GOD CAN AND WILL USE IT SO THAT PEOPLE CAN CONNECT TO HIM!

Our “At the Movies” series was probably the most simple, yet neat set I’ve ever done.  We really themed out the whole church for this one.  When you walked into the doors, we had movie posters and movie stand-ups we got donated from the local movie theater.  They were AWESOME to donate to us movie posters of movies that hadn’t even came out yet.  Also as you walked in you smelled the smell of fresh popcorn…and could even get a bag of it for free.

For our worship center, we played our set design mostly into videos.  For example, when you sat down there were pre-service slides going, complete with movie facts, trivia, and upcoming flicks.  We used video movie trailers for each of our announcements.  This took a lot more work in video editing but gave the whole service a complete feel of the movie theater.  Then at the end of the service, we played movie credits.  The credits included the musicians in the band, the featured movie of the day, the songs of each day, and every volunteer involved in making a Sunday morning happen.  This was a really cool element that I would recommend to anyone doing a movie series.

Our main element/focus was the movie screen.  I really fought myself on not using the side screens but after going to see a movie for inspiration, my mind was made up.  We turned off our side screens and I bought a huge 20′x24′ piece of canvas from Rosebrand.  We opened up the curtains and hung it flat against the wall.  Calhoun First United Methodist Church donated to us a crazy bright and very nice projector that already had a long throw lens on it (sense we project about 60′ away).  This will come into play in a lot of upcoming set designs.  So we moved the drums and band to the far edges of our stage and used our new projector on the canvas and everything came out SO great!  This is a series I hope we plan to do every year.

For our Old Time Religion series we wanted to take it back to the old school traditional look.  I had to be very careful in doing this because you can very easily look like you are mocking a traditional church and that was in NO WAY our intent.  Our statement for this series was this:

The Well is a new school church with old school values. And like your Mom always says, “Don’t forget where you came from!” In this three week series, we’re moving forward by looking back!

For the set design, we couldn’t have asked for a better meeting space.  Excel Christian Academy used to be Cartersville Church of God and already has a very traditional look to it.  Everything that we NORMALLY try to cover up or modernize on Sunday mornings, we left alone or emphasized. We borrowed a pulpit from another church in town that had an extra and I lead worship from there and Andy spoke from there.  Excel happened to have a TON of greenery that they don’t use so we used that all over the stage.  We also were able to use some chairs and the back of a desk they had to use on the stage.  The stained glass windows and the cross were the only things we had to actually create.

For the windows, I took a piece of 4′x8′ insulation foam (bought at Home Depot) and used a jig saw to cut out a pattern of the windows.  Then I painted them dark brown with some left over paint from our “He Said. She Said.” series.  My friend, Theresa helped me out with the glass part.  She randomly cut different colored tissue paper, layed it out, and laminated it.  Then I duct taped that to the back of the windows and we threw some lights on them.

For the cross, we opened up the curtains to reveal our baptistry (that we normally hide, unless we have baptisms).  I cut the cross out of a really thick piece of the same foam board, painted it, distressed it, and used other paints to add texture.  I was amazed at how many people thought it was real wood and that it was normally there.  Goes to show what a piece of $12 foam and some creativity can do.

Our “You Don’t Have What it Takes” set design was probably the most elaborate set I’ve done in a while…especially knowing that we had to set it  up and tear it down every week.  This was a circus themed series so I  had a BLAST creating the circus out of our worship center.  We normally try to contain a set design just to the stage, but I wanted to give the whole room a circus vibe.  We even had circus music playing before and after the service.

First, we used our middle projector again to project our title for the series on the curtain and that gave it a great look.  For the Christmas lights, I borrowed a TON of strands from a friend.  I painted some PVC pipes black and drilled holes every few feet.  I laid out the strands and zip-tied them to the holes and plugged each strand into each other.  Then I put a few screws up on the wall and we just had to hang them up, let the rest fall down, and plug in 1 plug.  It was a very simple and great look.

The circus rings (3 rings) I had a little help with.  I had my friend, Theresa, build these out of really thin wood, paint them red with white stars, and then we assembled them by screwing them together each week.

We also had pennants going all the way around the room.  These were the cheapest thing I’ve ever made.  I bought a pack of construction paper and printed 3 triangles on each sheet.  I had someone cut them out and fold them over and we stapled them to a long string of yarn.  Then we put a nail about every 10′ on the balcony and let there be a little slack.  Then we printed out a circus style poster of the message titles for each week and hung them under the screens.

Lastly, we used 8 par can with red gels and lit the ceiling completely red.  This gave the room a COMPLETE feel of being “under the red top”.  You can see in a couple of the pictures that there is a large blue mat.  This actually was only used the first week for a gymnastics group that we had come out.  We also had a guy on a unicycle the last week as part of our “circus acts” to kick off the service.  Then to top it off, we had a Ringmaster (completely dressed up) each week that helped us our with our announcements and introduced our circus acts.  It was a GREAT feel and great series.

So I’ve had a few facebook messages and emails about what gear I use.  So, I’ll repeat the typical blog that most guitar players are posting these days…but hey, what guitar player is not a gear head?  So here’s the list:

ACOUSTIC

Acoustic Guitars/Preamp:

• Larrivee OM-09E
• Larrivee D03-RE

Preamp/Tuner:

• Avalon U5
• Boss TU-2 Tuner

ELECTRIC

Electric Guitars:

• Fender Telecaster

Amp:

• Vox AC15

Pedals (in order of chain):

• (all mounted on a Pedaltrain 2 pedalboard)
• Boss Tuner (tuner)
• Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive (overdrive)
• Fulltone OCD (overdrive)
• Line 6 Echo Park (delay)
• Line 6 DL4 (delay)
• Line 6 Verbzilla (reverb)
• (All powered by Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2+ mounted under the board)

So we had a lot of fun doing the Word Scramble and had a LOT of buzz going all over Facebook, Twitter, and our family blog.  Melissa and I are so excited and simply cannot wait to meet and introduce you to our little princess, Madison.  We’ve decided on the name Faith for her middle name, naming her after Melissa’s mom’s middle name.  Stay tuned in to our family blog for all the details and more announcements about Melissa’s pregnancy and Madison’s birth.

Relevant Lives

(by Tom Lane)

Musicians and artists provide a backdrop for living and help shape the church and culture. With this influence we have an even greater responsibility to steward the talents we’re given by God for a purpose! Where we may miss it is, understanding who we are and what we’re called to in the first place. Instead of leading the way we’re often following the paths of others proven successes – and what band, artist, or musician doesn’t want success or affirmation? We are, indeed, supposed to be leading.

To know where we need to go, we must know from were we come. If we believe what we say we do about the hope and glory of our God through faith in Christ, then we have to first accept and acknowledge that the call is to Him and His will. In the days of chivalry, knights rode and fought in the name of their king. They carried his permission, authority, power and backing. Our King – “The King of Kings” – has clearly commissioned us to carry this hope filled good news gospel to the dying world we live in. Love has to be the underlying motivation! We are living modern-day priests, servants and examples, endowed with the Spirit of Almighty God. We’re not simply looking to replicate movements of the past or camp out on history; we are moving towards an end. Our King will return and again has forewarned us to watch, wait, and be prepared for His coming.

“Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” Matthew 13:52

As creatively gifted Christians, we have a mandate to live, a story to tell, a role to play, a responsibility to steward and a future to look forward to and prepare for!

Our context is the community of believers of which we are a part: each serving a distinctively different purpose, according to the gifts and talents we have. Drawing out treasures from the storeroom of faith and not an empty well. The Call is not to hold up away from the world in seclusion, as creative hermits. We are to be very much involved and present within it- just not of it! We don’t worship its way or do life its way. We don’t copy; we create! Resident within us is the beauty of the One True God who made the earth and stars and the same power that raised Him from the grave.

We do have a new song to sing!

We also have a choice to aim for targets that are of human design or to fulfill a divine destiny we were made for. For many talented people this is a huge challenge, as their dreams are in contrast to what they’re called to do and often win out over God’s plan A. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with our works and expressions being promulgated to places of renown or importance. What matters is WHO does the promoting.

Chasing success at any cost will surely cost more than we ever imagined!

History proves God can make us famous in an instant if He decides to – and that He can take it all away as fast is it comes. We want to be about His business: faithful in the little, which is the fastest track to being ready for success His way.

The first question we have to answer rightly is: Who’s glory are we doing it for? Laying down our burdens and dreams at the cross of Jesus is daunting, because it usually requires having our fingers pried off of things dearest to our hearts. I’ve always loved the analogy of a wild horse being bridled. Once tamed and harnessed all of its innate strength and powers at the control and direction of the skilled rider. In our case God is the most merciful Master we could ever hope to be fully surrendered to. Once harnessed, our talents, gifts, our entire being; are now in the hands of the Supreme Archer. He can and will fire at will all of the arrows in the quiver that are ready to be fired.

Where do you want to be? What do you want to do? There’s freedom, yet immense responsibility with the Lord. We can ask what we will, but we must ask in His name. We can go wherever, but He directs the steps ultimately. We can do anything, but not all things are profitable and worthy in His eyes.

The other side of free will is consequence!

We will reap what we sow and it comes down to choosing Christ first in all things. No one can make us read and understand the road map we’ve been given in His word, but if we do seek the Wisdom of God that it contains He will miraculously open our spiritual eyes and give understanding. Because He gives gifts and doesn’t take them back, He will also allow you to “go your own way” and many do.

We live in a time when there are more resources than ever available to us, in order to improve the quality and excellence in worship, but technology and skill are not adequate substitutes for the posture of our hearts. As good as we may sound or prepared as we may be, the point of our worship is to honor the Lord with our lives, then our music and art will have a greater impact on the world we live in. If all doesn’t point and lead people to the cross of Christ then it’s in vain.

Let’s guard our hearts and minds from being lured away by our own ambitions and lead the way by serving God first with our worship.