Ok, so that phrase might be a cliche around here by now. But I've been obsessed with Christmas lights since I was a kid. Not just looking at them. I remember taking strands of lights apart and putting them back together, learning how the wiring worked, how I could work around the burnt out lights if they took out a whole string. I remember learning the hard way that incandescent lights that were designed to work in a circuit of 35 lights were not happy if you cut the same circuit down to just one bulb plugged into a 110v jack. I learned how to flip a circuit breaker when I was ten years old. Don't tell my mom.
I was excited when people started syncing light shows with music. One year I did all my research and ordered all the circuit boards, resisters, transistors, diodes, and IC chips I would need to solder together my own technology to build my own light show at home. By November I realized that since my job revolves around Christmas, I don't really have time to put something like that together at home. My box of parts has been sitting there for about 12 years now, and technology has changed quite a bit since then.
Enter 2020. I'm busy, but not the same kind of busy I would normally be because I don't have any ensembles to rehearse. The church is under construction and I'm looking forward to a time when our lighting technology is integrated with our video and cameras. We're streaming our services, and I'm desperate to find a way to make our online experience more special. And here I am with my soldering iron, a christmas light obsession, and a little extra time on my hands.
I'm not going to give away all the extra features we may have built into our worship moving forward. Some of them are permanent, and some of them we will feature for Christmas and then move back to my own holiday light bins. It certainly doesn't replace getting to see you all in person during the Christmas season, but I hope it adds just a few more special moments that we can experience online together.
Merry Christmas,
John