The Big Diehl

Hop on iTunes and get the song “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” by “The Buddy Rich Band.”

If you ever need to get your blood flowing sometime … pop that in. Make it a “Buddy Rich Day.” That’s what I did today. And crank it. Brass and saxophones always sound best when they’re loud.

Okay, I need to take this silly April Fools Day opportunity to tell everyone about my favorite website: www.something.com. Check out the website - its amazing. I found this website when I was in the 10th grade bored on a computer and I just typed in “www.something.com” to see what was there. I laughed and laughed. To this day, I laugh hysterically every time I visit the page. I can only imagine the enjoyment the site owner gets . . . seeing how many millions or billions of hits he gets on his nonsense page every day. It just cracks me up.

For the html-ers out there, you also might enjoy to look at the simplicity of the html code.

The past several weeks I’ve been amazed at two CDs. I wanted to give a plug for them.

Israel and New Breed’s “A Deeper Level”
It’s got the classic “Israel Hougton” sound (and beats) that makes my mind spin, energy that competes with the Energizer Bunny, and a deeper message than most of Israel’s stuff. It is well deserving of its Grammy for the best pop/Contemporary Gospel album of the year. You can buy it here.

Leeland’s “Opposite Way”
Leeland is the best. That’s all there is to it. It is a powerful, powerful CD. God’s raising up a new generation of worshipers who aren’t afraid to go “the opposite way.” It’s great stuff. You’ve got to check them out. Their website has a link to where you can buy the CD and also has a thing on the front page where you can click to listen to the entire album (streaming). Go check them out.

Recently I collaborated with Youtuber Kevin Nalts, providing the music for a cute video of his son Charlie and his girlfriend. Go watch it - Charlie is the cutest kid in the world.

If you’re arriving here from the link provided in Nalt’s video, WELCOME! This is my blog, “The Big Diehl.” I write about a lot of stuff, but mostly thoughts to help other Christians — but a lot of them could help anyone. So go ahead and subscribe. Seriously. Subscribe! You know you want to.

I recommend Google Reader if you don’t have a blog reader already.

If you’re not interested in live sound, stop reading now — you’ll only bore yourself. I know I know I have a cult following of church sound techs.

Several weeks ago I was in a pickle, needing to take a STEREO signal (2 channels) from a computer’s soundcard, and combine them into one balanced signal to go to the board (mixer channels are limited, I don’t have 2 channels to dedicate for computer audio). I talked with a Sweetwater sales rep and he didn’t think there was any product that could do work as a DI box AND also combine the channels — I poked around until we found the Radial ProAV1. This DI-Box will take stereo inputs of any typical device and combine it into a single balanced XLR line. How awesome is that? I was pretty pumped that I found something the Sweetwater guy didn’t even know existed.

A few weeks before that I was faced with a situation where we needed to replace a line combiner (mic splitter). My Sweetwater guy said that the ART Mic Splitter was the only product that would do the trick. Eat your heart out, Sweetwater guy — this morning I found the Radial JS-2 MicSplitter. Gosh I am such a stud for finding that. Boo-Ya!

Radial engineering also has guitar reamers, laptop DI boxes, any DI box for about any purpose, and even the SGI (Studio Guitar Interface). If you’re still reading this and actually understand what I’m saying, then you probably know that nothing causes more problems on a live stage than loud amps and monitors. This SGI unit will allow you to hook your guitar up to an amp that is up to 500 feet away — practialy no signal loss. This is made especially for a studio setting, but I certainly see use for a live sound setting where the guitar player needs the tone from an amp, but doesn’t want to provide the extra noise on stage. Radial says it best in their own description of this product, “Far Out.”

Seriously — I have imagined different types of boxes — but now I actually see that they have been made by Radial. So cool. Keep in mind that I have not actually used any of these products — but I’ve read about them — and it looks like they are making products that nobody else is making so I wanted to give a plug for Radial so they might be of service to you. Be on the lookout for Radial stuff. Plus their prices are not outrageous — very similar to pricing of Pro-Co DI Boxes (only Radial makes a bunch of stuff ProCo doesn’t).

Now if you know me personally, you know that I’m no expert here. But I believe most man-woman relationships fail because the attention was given to the relationship between the man and the woman. That’s all screwed up. A proper relationship would be set up like a triangle, with God at the top:

. .  . . . . . . . .   God

.

.

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Woman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Man

Now if the woman focuses on getting closer to God, and the man focuses on getting closer to God, the result would be the man and woman getting closer to each other.

Craig Groeschel has a new book about this very idea called, “Going All the Way.” I haven’t read it yet, but the reviews are very impressive — saying how its great for singles and marrieds alike. I’m pumped about reading this book — you should be to. Go get it.

If you are or have ever been in a paid ministry position, this post is about you.
If you are or have ever been related to someone in a paid ministry position, this post is about you.
If you are or have ever volunteered for a church, this post is about you.

Many people who get involved in church ministry experience “burnout” for various reasons. One author is calling this “Mad Church Disease,” which is the title of the book she is writing. To help with her research, she is conducting a mass survey of anyone who is (or ever has been) in a paid ministry position, related to a someone in a paid ministry position, or a volunteer in a church ministry. If you connect in one of these three categories please take 5 minutes to fill out a survey for this very important book. You can find the surveys here.

Wow. This band is incredible. Michael W. Smith says they are the best thing he’s heard in a long long time. I agree with him. Check out their myspace and listen to their stuff — it’s awesome. Especially “Carried to the Table.” That one is really moving, at least for me.

A recent poll indicated that only around 10% of Christian church attenders tithe. That’s . . . sad.

Tithing is giving 10% of our increase to God (by giving to the local church). A Christian should (and often will song songs about) complete surrender to God. Everything we have ultimately belongs to God, but God says we need to give him 10% of it. Malachi 3 says that if you are not tithing, you are robbing God. I doubt any Christian church attender would even consider stealing something of value from another person — yet roughly 90% of them steal from God on a weekly basis.

“But I cannot afford to tithe!” Psh. You can’t afford not to. Malachi 3:10-12 says that when God’s people tithe, he will bless them! The inverse of that would be that if God’s people don’t tithe, he will not bless them. Do you trust God’s Word? If he says he’s going to bless you if you tithe — he will. You can take that to the bank.

If you are not giving 10% of your increase (i.e. your paycheck or allowance) to your local church - you are robbing God. Knock it off. Start giving to your local church. Like . . . now. God says so.

New Hope just introduced an online tithing program where you can electronically donate money to the church. If you consider New Hope your church home and you’re comfortable with “online payment” methods, I encourage you to check out New Hope’s Online Giving. It’s been tested for several months and it works great! I’ve used it myself and I’ve found it to be completely safe. Just visit NewHope.in and click on the Online Giving link in the bottom left corner.

As the Worship Arts pastor at New Hope, I have many tools I can use to help me with my job. Today I am sludging through hundreds of choral songs to choose music for the summer choir starting in a few weeks. It’s not easy to find songs that are both musically and thematically appropriate!

This task would be a huge pain if it weren’t for iTunes. iTunes is the free music player program from the Apple company, yet it runs on a Windows PC as well. It’s available at www.apple.com. Today, instead of searching for several CDs, I can simply search through the iTunes library and listen to all the choir sample CDs that publishing companies have sent in — many of these sample CDs are buried deep inside cabinets, but with iTunes I can access everything on my computer. iTunes is saving me a lot of time today, although I’m making up for that saved time by spending it writing a blog to tell you about it. lol.

In the words of Kip, “I love technology . . .”