Welcome to the Foothills Living Christmas Tree Technical Blog!

Have you ever seen a Living Christmas Tree program? You may not even know what I am talking about, so let me give you a quick description.

At its most basic, a Living Christmas Tree is an large structure for holding a choir, while they sing, and it is shaped like a Christmas tree. At the most elaborate, well, just watch this video:

This is a sample of our 2007 Christmas service and illustrates what you can do with a tree.

In this blog, I will be tracking the progress of producing the Foothills Baptist Church, in Phoenix Arizona, 2009 Living Christmas Tree service. Mostly, I will be tracking the technical issues involved, but will be touching on all aspects of service.

First, let touch on why we call it a "service" and not a "program". While we wish that you are entertained by what is presented, we are not going to all this work for that purpose. We look at the Living Christmas Tree as a chance to worship the "audience of One" and lead our Church body and the community in that worship. It is an act of service to God. We do not want to be "Performers" but "Servants".

I the next few months, I will be giving you a behind the scenes look at what what we do to put a Living Christmas Tree service together. About once or twice a week, I will be posting on topics like programming the Tree, Lighting and Sound Design, IMAG (Image Magnification) and Video Production, Service Planning, and other related topics.

Next time I will describe the technical equipment we use for the service.

The Lord Bless you all,

Mark.