Hello all!! I’ve only been here three months but at times it feels like it’s been three years. I want to start by apologizing for waiting so long to send out my first update. It was my plan to send out an updated within the first month of being here. There has been so much going on that I kept pushing it back to a point where it became even more difficult to write as all of the things to write about kept piling up. I haven’t been faithful to keep you updated and can assure you that updates will be coming more frequently. With that being said, I’ve had two major goals and visions for this residency from the beginning that I shared with all of my supporters. First and foremost I desperately want to grow as a disciple of Jesus and grow in my knowledge and love for him. In my opinion, this residency would be in vain if God doesn’t move in my heart and make me look more like Jesus. Secondly, I have the vision to eventually be able to train and equip the local church in live audio. That can only come through lots of experience and training, which this residency gives. And so, I want to share with you some of the things I am a part of and doing in this residency that are helping grow me in those areas and equipping me to run towards those goals and ultimately, God’s purpose. Ways I am growing as a disciple: Men’s and Women’s Development Program - For the first year of my residency I will be participating in the men’s & women’s development program along with about 300 other believers. Each week I get to sit under the teaching of an Austin Stone pastor for an hour and a half to study biblical theology very in depth to learn God’s mission to redeem and restore creation. Some of the things I have learned include learning how to better articulate the gospel and even preach the gospel more accurately to my own heart, how the scriptures are inerrant and inspired by God, and my own depravity in Sin and how the person of Christ saves me from that. It has been so good to go deep into these doctrines to help grow my faith and become more confident in talking about these things with nonbelievers. Within this class, each person is broken into a group called a cohort of about 8-12 other people. I am in a cohort with the Austin Stone Production Team where we are able to personally sharpen each other and press into each others lives. I have learned so much through the first few months of being in this class. More than anything I have learned that God is so much more magnificent and worthy of my glory than my heart previously believed. The more I get to know Him through this class, the more I fall in love with Jesus and want all I do to be for Him and His glory. Life Transformation Group - Once a week, I meet with two other guys for our Life Transformation Group for about an hour. The purpose of this group is to talk about how we are doing with our daily time in the word and what God is showing us, share and confess sins to one another and preaching the gospel to that area of sin, and then to pray for our non-believing friends. One of the true marks of a follower of Jesus is a life marked with confession and repentance. That is an area that God has really been pressing in my heart. My flesh so badly wants to harbor sin and hide it but the Spirit living in me wants to live in freedom. Praise God that my identity is a battered, messy sinner, who is COVERED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS. Jesus knew all the deepest areas of sin in my heart while on the cross and still went joyfully and willingly. That completely frees me to bring sin into and walk in freedom. Such a liberating truth that God continues to mold my heart to. One of the blessing of LTG is having guys who firmly yet gracefully speak those truths into my heart and pushing me to walk in that truth. Ways I am growing as an Audio Engineer: Worship Conference - Between November 10 and November 12, our worship team hosted the Austin Stone Worship Conference which I had the privilege to be a part of. We had around 600 worship pastors, worship musicians, and others join us in Austin from around the world to be poured into by our team. It was an incredible week and I learned so much from a production stand point and was also able to see burnt out worship pastors hearts be restored in the short amount of time they had with us. Some of the audio things I learned included how to set rigging points to fly a PA, how a monitor engineer sets up and works with the band, how to communicate with a lighting crew and broadcast crew to work through cues and setup, and a host of other things. I also got to run point on audio for what we called the Artist Gathering, which was a night to hang out with the conference attenders at a local place in Austin. I was in charge of all things audio for the night and got the opportunity to mix for Jon Guerra. It was a good experience and a good place to put to practice all that I was learning in my residency. It was also a good measure on how much I had grown since I have been here which was extremely encouraging to see. Audio Engineering Development - Once a week, I am in a three-hour Audio Engineering Development class taught by Todd Hartmann, who is also my supervisor. Todd was a senior A1 engineer for a company called Big House Sound in Austin before coming on board with The Austin Stone and has been doing professional audio for about 10 years. He has been in almost every live audio situation imaginable and has a knowledge base and skill set in live audio that few have so it’s incredibly humbling to sit under his teaching and leadership. In this class, we have the opportunity to learn theory and hands on practical skills that directly apply to our career with some of the leading edge technology and software. I have learned things ranging from mic pick up patterns, to properly tuning a system with advanced software, to the physics behind sound and how our ears perceive sound. Everything I have learned in the class so far I have been able to immediately apply to what I am doing in my residency. The heartbeat behind the class is to train aspiring audio engineers to help equip the local church. One of the things being engrained into me is to pursue humility in this profession. It is so easy to begin to have success within the audio field and allow that to become the driving force behind it all. So often we want the glory for what we’ve accomplished instead of pointing it all to the creator. I am grateful to be under the leadership of Todd who constantly points his success to Jesus and continually reminds me of that. Daily Routine and Sundays - Since the Downtown Campus of the Austin Stone meets in a high school gym, it requires our team to load all of the audio gear in the night before. The audio rig that we set up every week was designed as a touring rig very similar to those you will see at concert venues. Part of the benefit of this has been learning the inner workings of how a system works. Through setting up every week, I have learned how to fly a PA, set up a sub array, the interconnectivity of audio I/O, amps, and In Ear Monitors, how to correctly set up a stage, and set up Front of House. (If some of that terminology doesn’t make sense, its ok.) These are things so vital to learning live audio and it is learned best by repetition after repetition. Just by being a part of this every week has taught me so much about how all of the components work together and I have such a better grasp what all goes into an audio system. All of that knowledge is extremely helpful when equipping and teaching others. I also have the opportunity to run sound for various weekly events. These are opportunities to put to practice things I have been learning and sharpen my craft. Sunday afternoons I go to the downtown campus services (5pm and 7pm) and shadow Todd and very intentionally and precisely listen to his mix. This is so important because it helps me build a solid reference point on what a mix should sound like. Without a solid reference point, it is nearly impossible to be a great engineer and it is something that takes many, many times of listening to build. By the time this residency is over, I will have listened to quality mixes hundreds of times and will have a solid reference point to work with. Prayer Requests One of the temptations of doing this residency is to get so focused on learning live audio that it becomes my source of joy and identity. Pray that I would continue to know that I am a minister of the Gospel who just so happens to be an audio engineer, not the other way around. I want my primary focus to be knowing God and I desperately want to continue falling in love with Jesus more than anything.
Pray for the relationships I am building with those who don’t know Jesus. Pray that God would give me opportunities to love on them and share with them the hope and rest there is in Jesus. Specifically pray for Paul, who is one of my neighbors, that God would use my roommates and I to open his eyes to Jesus. Only God can do that, but we know He can use us. Let me know if there are ways I can pray for you! Thank you for taking the time to read this and for sacrificially supporting me. I really and truly wouldn’t be able to do this without your support and prayers and hope you know how much I mean that and love you. I can assure you that blog posts will come much more frequently in the future and am excited to continually share with you what God is doing in my life. If you have any questions or just want to chat and catch up, please don’t hesitate to email me or call me or even shoot a text my way. I would love to hear from you! Grace and Peace! Ryan Robertson
Pictures from my residency!
