Finding the Balance

Finding the Balance


There is a massive trend taking place in the Sunday morning church service. Many, if not most, churches are stepping up their efforts to be creative in the way they communicate, and in large part, this is a good thing. But it comes with a price tag and raises some questions that deserve serious consideration.

The price tag comes in three forms:

1. Capital Expenditures. There is no end to the list of equipment that we can purchase and implement to help us "do better" on Sundays. Intelligent lights, audio recording equipment, in-ear monitors, fog machines, projectors for environmental projection, faster computers - they all represent significant investments.

2. Manpower. Creativity takes time. Time to brainstorm, write, rehearse, build and install sets, coordinate lighting and projection, create videos, and more.

3. Opportunity Costs. This may be the biggest expense of all. What things are being left undone that could have been accomplished with the money and manpower we are pouring into our creativity?

As we consider these costs, and weigh them against the need to be more creative in our communication, how do we find the place of balance? Where is the line between what is needed and what is unnecessary extravagance? Unfortunately, there is not one right answer, but here are a couple guideposts they may help us as we seek God for His leading:

1. Who are we (as a local church body) called to reach? And are we the type of congregation that depends heavily on the Sunday service to see people won to Christ, or are we more missions-oriented and evangelistic? The answer to the question of how much to invest in creativity is significantly tied to those two questions.

2. Is the payoff there? If it cost us 40 man hours to get a skit together, does the skit move the hearts of our people and make the message memorable enough to justify it? If we are using 20 man hours per week to prepare video announcements for the service, does the impact of those videos justify the time spent?

3. What is our motivation? If our motivation is that we want to help people grasp what God is wanting to say, or we want to help people enter into true worship, then we have to at least give serious consideration to the idea. If our motivation is to be the coolest looking church in town, or we want to be able to play with the latest tech toy, we probably need to back up and reconsider.

We need to be effective - effective in the way we use our time, and effective in the way we allocate our resources. And creativity is a tool that we should use only when it causes us to be more effective. Being creative for any other reason is a waste.

http://www.m-csn.com/EstherMui/WeddingSongs.htm

Lyrics

Verse 1:
In this place, Lord, our praises we bring
Our hearts are filled with joy and adoration
We thank You for the hearts You have joined
We thank You for the lives You have united as one
As they start their lives together
As they put their hands in Your hand

Chorus:
We pray for blessings from above to fill their lives
We pray love of the Father to flow through their hearts
We pray for joy of the Spirit, peace of the Son
And in Your presence each day they'll find
New strength to see them through

Verse 2:
In this place, Lord, our worship we bring
To You, our Lord and King, and the Rock of our salvation
To You and only You we will sing we bring
For You alone are worthy of the praises we bring
You're the One who made this union
You're the source of love eternal

Christian Praise Worship Songs Lyrics: The LORD is my Light and my Salvation - (Ps 27:1-4)

Christian Praise Worship Songs Lyrics 2011 - Surely Your Salvation is Coming (Isaiah 62)

Christian Praise Worship Songs Lyrics 2011 - Fear not, for I have Redeemed You (Isaiah 43)

Christian Worship Praise Songs Lyrics 2011: Hear My Cry, O God ( Psalm 61:1-4 )

Kannada Inscript Keyboard Layout

Choosing Fonts for Use in Worship Media

Font choice is an important consideration when preparing videos for worship. When done well, the fonts themselves are unnoticeable, and the congregation will read the words instead of seeing the font. Choose a font that does not call attention to itself. Here are a few basic tips when selecting fonts for your song lyrics:

Stick with simple fonts

Fonts that have a consistent body weight are the best choice for lyrics. Simple, classic fonts are the best choice for worship media. We read best that which we read most. Fonts like Times New Roman and Arial may totally overused in general design applications, but because people are familiar with these typefaces, these fonts are easy to read. Because these letter shapes are so familiar, they will disappear into the background, and people will read the words, rather than see the letters.

Consider your background image when selecting a font

Complex background images require the use of simpler fonts. The readability of each line of text is determined not just by the typeface used, but also by the background image behind the text. In the image below, we have used sans-serif fonts over the red images, and serif fonts over the blue images. A serif is a slight projection finishing off a stroke of a letter. Times New Roman is a serif font, whereas, Arial is a sans-serif font.

Choosing and using appropriate fonts is a complex topic, and we'll explore it further in next week's newsletter.

How Church Creatives Can Get Things Done

 


Your 'To Do' list coming undone before anything is accomplished? 
Here are five ways to avoid that pitfall.



When it comes to church communication, nobody cares more for the outcome or delivery than church creatives. But when it comes to creatives being organized and on top of their “to-do” lists, that’s a different matter.
Writer Jeff Goins is a creative’s creative with a neat understanding of how people who have creative tendencies think. In his recent blog post Jeff shares A Creative’s Guide to Getting Things Done. I’ve listed a summary below (click HERE for Jeff’s full post).

1) Keep short, disposable to-do lists.

Creatives identify what is tangible. As archaic as it sounds, having a notebook or physical means of writing down your tasks is important.  My personal habit is to write out a list of 10 items, get them all done, then start a new list.

2) Limit inbound communication.

For many of us, this means email, which you should not be checking every few minutes. Have a few specific times to check it and try getting your email down to zero every day. I like using the Michael Hyatt system of doing, delegating, or deleting whatever is in my inbox.

3) Have one project management system.

A friend once told me that he uses Basecamp, a Facebook group, Google calendar, Skype, and IM to communicate with coworkers and manage his workload. I told him I felt sorry for him and all the lost time he spends checking each one. If you can relate to this, please stop now. That is not efficient. Just pick a system and stick with it.

4) Show up.

This sounds ridiculously simple. But many artists struggle with this. The typical eight-hour work day feels rote. And it is. But that doesn’t excuse you from putting in the hours. The fact is that some breakthroughs only happen when you show up to to do your job. There’s nothing glamorous about it, but it has to be done.

5) Commit to shipping.

This is an important lesson for a creative to learn. If it’s your vocation to make a difference in the world through creativity, then you need to develop a bias towards action. Send the email. Launch the website. Do it now. Stop procrastinating and start sending stuff out the door. That’s not to say that there isn’t a place for refinement in this process, but most creatives hesitate too much. They’re scared of rejection.  

VCM: How to Choose Appropriate Media for Worship

Do you want a better understanding of why some videos "work" with certain songs, and why other videos don't quite fit? Well, there are actually some technical considerations when choosing your media. Here are some basic tips to keep in mind when choosing background media.

Pacing

Pacing is term that video editors use when they are editing the speed of the video content to match the music or dialogue of the video. How fast the objects are moving through the scene needs to match the tempo of the song. For example, if you're singing a song that has a medium/slow tempo (such as "Here I am to Worship"), our video Fast Small Squares would not be a good choice. A better video choice for "Here I am to Worship" would be: Man Arms Raised Sun. In turn, the ideal use for the Fast Small Squares video would be to accompany a children's song such as, "Jump Up and Down."

Imagery

The imagery in the background video should not detract from the lyrics of the song. For example, if you're singing, "As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs for thee," an inappropriate video choice would have giant fireballs shooting across the screen (believe or not, we have actually witnessed this combination). Be mindful that the content in your videos either matches, or at the very least, doesn't contradict the song lyrics.

Lighting

The lighting of the scene has an effect on the way we perceive the lyrics. If the scene in your video is dimly lit, it will bring more thoughts of introspection. Candle videos (commonly used during communion) are a good example of this. Conversely, a well-lit, or bright scene, would be more suitable for a song of celebration.

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Maintaining Excellence in the Summer Months

Summertime is awesome, but with so many people gone on the weekends over the summer months, it can be difficult to maintain the proper level of excellence in our worship services. Here are a few tips for keeping the quality high when volunteer staffing gets challenging: 

• Cross-train.  It gets much easier to fill holes when you have a large number of people that know how to do a job.  Use worship rehearsal nights to cross-train your tech volunteers at different positions, so they will be ready to step in if needed on Sunday morning.
   
• Require advance notice for absences.  Last minute phone calls can be a nightmare.  Sometimes, they cannot be helped (e.g., in the case of sickness). Summertime vacations, however, can be planned for, and your tech team should be required to give reasonable notice if they are going to be on vacation.  Some churches even make it the responsibility of the volunteer to find a replacement when they are going to be out of town.
   
• Add an "on-call" position to the schedule.  Because absenteeism is so frequent over the summer, it often makes sense to schedule an additional volunteer to be "on-call" for each service.  If a need arises, you have someone ready to step in, and if they are not needed, they are free to participate in the service.

• Simplify.  There are sometimes ways to simplify what we are doing over the summer without sacrificing quality.  For instance, maybe you can design your staging so that the same set is used for the entire summer (instead of changing it out more frequently); it may be possible to come up with several generic lighting schemes that can be used repeatedly, instead of having detailed plans for each service;  or you may even want to use the summer months to experiment with an "unplugged" version of your worship team.

The summer is generally a more relaxed time of year, and that is great.  But when it comes to church tech duties, we cannot afford to let "relaxed" become synonymous with "sloppy" or "lacking".  We can continue to give God our best while enjoying the summer, and we do so be being prepared, and by being faithful. 

Microwaves and Crockpots

It's a fast-paced world. Technology has brought us to the place where we can get a large portion of what we want instantly.  And that has conditioned our thinking about life in general.  But spiritual things are not subject to technology.

At our local church, we have been working in an inner-city neighborhood for over 2 years now, and the progress is very slow.  I wish I could tell you that people began to give their lives to Christ the first week we were there, that all our initiatives were immediately (or even ultimately) successful, that the people we minister to are always grateful and have no sense of entitlement.  But that is not true.

Here are a couple things that are true:

1. Community outreach is a crockpot-kinda-thing, not a microwave-kinda-thing. People have to know that you genuinely care about them before they will listen to what you have to say.  (BTW, "genuinely caring" and trying to sell someone on saying the “sinner’s prayer” are not necessarily the same thing.) Love that reaches out, in order to be believed, has to be long-term, consistent, and frequent.
   
2. Discipleship is ALWAYS a crockpot-kinda-thing.
    
3. Handouts are a decent starting point, but they don't change anything long-term.  We have to work towards partnerships and shared responsibilities that help the people being ministered to see their own value, and ultimately, that they are valuable because God has set His love on them.  Anytime we bestow dignity on someone who lives without it, we move them closer to the person God created them to be.
    
4. Desperate physical living conditions blind people to their desperate spiritual condition – often they can see nothing but the immediate physical need until it is dealt with.
    
5. It is never a waste to love on people, even if it is refused.  It all counts.
    
6. Maintaining energy and enthusiasm on ministry teams is really difficult over the long haul, especially when positive results are slow.  Encouraging and exhorting one another is critically important - God gave us each other for a reason.

Our small team here at WorshipFilms is passionate about seeing the community we live and work in transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We believe it will happen, and that it can happen where you live too, if people who love Jesus Christ will begin to take big risks and set their hearts on loving their neighbors.  Start somewhere.  Do something today. Then do it again tomorrow and the next day.                     

Give It Up

In America, we have almost a preoccupation with individual rights – it’s part of our national identity.  Our public discourse is filled with discussions of various rights on a consistent basis.  And I have started to wonder how much that has influenced the way we walk out our faith. 


If you study the word “right” in the New Testament, you find out that it is hardly used at all. 


As believers, the rights it lays out for us are, basically, 1) to be children of God and 2) to have eternal life.  That’s it.


As a matter of fact, if you listen to the whole of what Jesus said, you hear, "If you are going to follow Me, you give up all your rights - you die."  He says radical stuff like “If a person hits you on the right cheek, turn and give him the left one to hit.”  He says, “If somebody tries to steal your coat, give them your shirt too.”  Does any of that sound like standing up for your rights?


In the time and place we live in, we can read many articles that say things like, “It is my right as a child of God to have a decent car and a nice house.”  But the truth is that while that might sell magazines, you cannot find it in scripture.  Name one significant New Testament figure who got materially wealthy because they accepted Christ. 


Based on the characters we find in the New Testament, the abundant life Jesus promises us has everything to do with things like peace and joy and fulfillment and spiritual fruit, and very little to do with material things.


True enough - God delights in giving His kids good things.  But that is exactly the point – they are gifts God gives.  And when we recognize them as gifts, we can be free to enjoy them – they are great!  The problem comes when we take something God has given as a gift, and make it into a right.  The great danger of taking a gift and turning it into a right is that it binds us and restricts us and keeps us from doing the will of God.  We are not free to give and go and do as He leads us. Whereas if we see all our stuff is a gift that we can easily give back to God, we are free – free to live life abundantly.


So the road to spiritual maturity forces us to give up our rights, and to hold the gifts God gives us to enjoy with a open hand, ready to give any of it back to Him if He asks.

Setting the Mood:  Choosing Color

We have focused in previous articles on the importance of coordinating lighting and projection background choices (when you have the ability to vary lighting) in a worship setting. But let's say that we are already in agreement that these two tools should be coordinated. Is there an effective method for choosing color schemes for worship?  Does it make any difference?

Projection and lighting are tools to help the folks in our congregations enter into a place of true worship where their hearts are connected to God's.  They merely help to set the table and make a space for spiritual things to happen.  They are sensory in nature, and it turns out that our choice of colors does significantly influence our response and mood (even though actual worship itself is still a choice and decision of the will).
Although reactions to colors are, to a degree, subjective, there are some universal truths regarding the way most people respond to certain colors.  Here's a brief, generalized run-down:

Red.  The color red is the color of intensity and energy (think love, anger, etc.).  It can actually increase our pulse rate and breathing.



Orange.  Orange tends to invoke feelings of warmth, energy, and excitement.



Yellow.  Most people associate yellow with hope, happiness, and cheerfulness.  What you may not know is that yellow creates the most strain on the human eye.  And as a side note, people most often lose their tempers and babies cry more in yellow rooms. Hmmm - I don't really need more of either one of those.

Green.  Green is the easiest color on the human eye.  It tends to have a calming, relaxing effect on people.  One negative with green however, is that in stage lighting, green light on human skin can sometimes produce an undesirable, washed-out look - so experiment, and be careful with your light focus.

Blue.  The color blue causes the opposite reaction from red. Blue is calming and peaceful, and actually causes the body to release calmining chemicals.  It lowers the pulse rate and can even lower the body temperature.  The downside of blue is that is can invoke feelings of cold, and dark blues tend to invoke feelings of sadness.

Purple.  Purple tends to have the same calming effect on people that blue does, but without the sense of coolness (warmer).  It tends to have a restful quality.


So what does this mean for your worship space?  Only that you might want to experiment with differing color schemes matched with different types of songs.  For instance, you may want to try more reds and oranges with a high-energy, upbeat praise song or "power song", and test more blues and purples on slower, more "worshipful" songs.

If you make the decision to experiment with color, afterwards ask whether or not the different service elements seemed to flow together better.  The answer will determine whether or not color schemes are worth considering.

Background Mixing: What are the Rules?

Advances in most worship presentation software packages have made it easy for us to use multiple backgrounds (video and/or still-image) within the same song.  But how much is to much?  What is tasteful and what is distracting?

The answers aren't the same for everyone, but here are a couple general guidelines to consider (some of these are basic common sense, but I could tell you stories...):

1.  Keep your motivation right.  Our motivation should never be to show off the cool things we can do.  It should be to help bring the congregation into worship by providing visual reinforcement of the lyrics being sung or music being played.

2.  Keep to similiar styles.  Within the same song, it makes sense to stay within the same style of video or image.  For instance, if you are using a peaceful ocean scene behind verse one of the song, you will probably want to follow that with either another ocean scene or another peaceful scene for the chorus (if you are changing at all).  Switching to, say, a graphic animation at that time would be visually jarring.

3.  Keep to similiar tempos.  Assuming the tempo of the song is fairly even throughout, the speed of movement in our backgrounds should also be fairly consistent, and should be in keeping with the tempo of the song.

4.  Consider using transitions.  Unless the song is really up-tempo, it almost always makes sense to use a crossfade transition between backgrounds.  Doing so softens the visual shock that would otherwise be caused by a hard cut between backgrounds.

5.  Know your congregation.  For some congregations, changing backgrounds frequently is a plus - it helps them stay focused and engaged.  For others, changes cause distraction, which works against our goal of true worship.  You probably already have a pretty good idea of the preferred style for your church, but if you are not sure where most people in your congregation fall on the spectrum, ask them.

Is your church doing something innovative with video backgrounds?  Email us your story - we would love to hear it!                                                                                         

Make Your Testimony Videos Better

Many churches are starting to do some of their own video production, and often those videos take the form of testimonies or interviews.

Here's a couple quick tips for making those productions look even better:

1.  Place the camera at eye level or slightly lower.  Doing so will give you a better looking shot than if the camera is place up high.

2.  Frame your shot so that your subject is over to one side, not centered.  This 1) allows you to make better use of your background space and 2) makes for a more interesting looking shot.

3.  Try to separate your subject from the background.  Video tends to flatten your image, and you need to counter that, by:

• seating your subject at least 10ft in front of your background;
• lighting your subject and your background separately (possibly using colors or textures in your background lighting);
• back lighting your subject; and 
• positioning your camera so that your background is slightly out of focus.

4.  Do not allow your subject to look directly at the camera - they should be looking slightly to one side.  For your audience, this creates the feeling that they are listening in on a conversation between two people.

5.  One side of the subject's face (the side closest to the camera) should be better lit than the other.  The side that is not as well lit should be clearly visible but have subtle shadowing.

6.  Avoid too much empty space in the background.  Use bookcases, plants, or other objects to add interest and avoid the "prison wall" look.

Experiment with these techniques and see if they increase the quality of your videos.  And feel free to email us with your questions - we're always glad to help!                        

Making Your Projector Bulb Last

There is no way around it - projector lamps are expensive. At $150 to $600 or more per lamp, it is important to get as much use out of them as possible.  This is especially true for churches with multiple projectors.  Here's a couple ways to make your lamps last longer:

1.  Regular Filter Cleaning.  It is essential that the projector be able to cool the lamp by moving air through the projector's housing.  In order for this to happen the filter(s) must be cleaned regularly.  Generally, this means at least once per quarter - once per month if you are in an environment that has a higher than average amount of dust particles.
2.  Allow for good air flow.  The fan exhaust area of the projector should be at least 3-5 feet from any wall or other impediment to free air flow.  If air does not flow freely around the projector, it will overheat, which will shorten the life of your lamp. 
3.  Avoid temperature extremes.  If you store your projector in an extremely cold area (below 45 degrees or so), the bulb may burst when you turn it on.  If you store your projector in an extremely warm area (read: the back seat of your car in the summer), you can do permanent damage to the projector's electronics.

4.  Avoid turning the projector off and on.  When you turn on the projector, a burst of power excites the lamp filament, and over time it burns out. Switch your projector lamp off only when it will be at least 30 minutes before it is used again.
5.  Allow lamp to cool before switching off power or unplugging.  The projector fan should continue to run for a period of time after your turn the lamp off in order to cool the lamp. If the power is turned off before the end of the process, the life of the lamp will be shortened.
6.  Avoid moving the projector while it is on.The projector bulb is very sensitive when it is hot, and any movement can cause damage to it.  Make sure the lamp is permitted to fully cool before moving the unit.

 7.  Consider using the "economy" mode.Most projectors have an economy mode in which the projector operates at less than its brightest level.  If the environment in which you are projecting allows for operating the projector in this mode, it will extend the life of your lamp.                                                                                                      

Font Choices for Projection

Most people have a short list of type fonts that they love to use. But what looks nice on a poster or church bulletin may not work so well on a projection screen. Here's a couple tips on font choices and making your projected text look its best:

1.  Our first priority is to maximize contrast between our background and our text.  Having text that looks great is slightly less important than having text your audience can clearly read.  I generally prefer to stick with white letters on darker backgrounds, instead of off-white or yellow.

2.  Shadow and outline your text.  Doing this will help to clearly separate the text from the background, and will cause the text to "jump out".  You can often get away with using a lighter colored background when you are using this technique.

3.  When choosing fonts, remember clarity is king.  Many fonts are interesting to look at but very hard to read on a projection screen. In particular, some of the more ornate script fonts tend to be unusable for projection.  Thick block letter fonts such as Tahoma, Arial, Verdana, and Franklin Gothic are safe and very readable. Most projected fonts will also look better in bold.

4.  Experiment with using a variety of readable fonts.  While I would always suggest staying with the same font for an entire song, mixing them as we move from song to song is perfectly acceptable and can add creative interest.  For instance, we generally recommend script or brush fonts for slower, more worshipful songs, and more contemporary-looking fonts for faster praise songs.  You also will want to coordinate your font choice with your background choice - they should always blend nicely together and reflect the tempo and tone of the song.

For projected sermon notes, if there is a particular readable font to goes well with the theme and background, feel free to experiment with it.  Otherwise, sticking with one of the "safe" fonts is perfectly acceptable.

Push yourself creatively in the area of font choices.  It may seem inconsequential, but picking the right font can help add to the cohesiveness of your communication. 

Worship Films: Easter Presentations: Mixing It Up

Easter Presentations:  Mixing It Up

Easter is probably the biggest Sunday on the church calendar, as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Typically, our services on Easter Sunday are something out of the ordinary - either a live drama, a cantata, or special video presentations.

When we attempt to tell the Easter story, many churches take an either/or approach to video and live drama.  But have you ever considered combining these two effective tools?  Here's a couple possibilities to get your creative juices flowing:

• Alternate between the Biblical story of Easter and a current life story.  For example, you could do a live drama of the Easter story, and at certain points (set changes for instance) you could show pieces of a powerful testimony video.
• If you are doing a live drama version of the Easter story, you could use video to show certain events that are difficult to portray on a live stage (e.g. the tomb opening). You could also videotape certain scenes with your actors in remote locations that provide the appropriate scenery - scenery that would be difficult and/or expensive to create.
• Use video to pre-record the narrator of your drama.
• Use stock footage of areas such as the Judean hillside between set changes to provide a larger location context for your drama.

The point is to take a risk - try something different and out of the box.  God has given us our creative giftings not so we can maintain the status quo, but because He expects us to engage those giftings for the advancement of His kingdom and to His glory.                                                                                             

Are Blank Screens Ever Good?

We’ve made a big investment in projection equipment, computers, software, and media. We’ve spent a lot of time learning and tweaking the system so that everything looks the best that it can. We have to use it to its fullest potential – we have to get our money’s worth. So we should be projecting something every minute of the service, right? Well…no, not really.

Certainly, almost every church should be using imagery during the service. But remember, projection is only a tool. What is done on the screen should flow with the rest of the service. And sometimes, projecting nothing is the best we can do.

Here are some service points where you should consider projecting nothing:

• a quiet, reverent moment of worship when the congregation is completely silent.
• you are singing a slower, familiar song, you have repeated the chorus several times, and the instruments stop, so the congregation is worshipping acapella.
• the pastor has finished the main part of his message and is closing in a thoughtful, poignant tone.
• the pastor is giving a salvation invitation.
• someone is leading the congregation in prayer.

At those times, having something on the screen can potentially be more of a distraction than a help. Again, our aim is to flow with/be a part of what God is doing during the service – and sometimes, doing nothing at all is the best way to accomplish that.   

Coordination : Making Your Church Tech More Effective

Making Your Church Tech More Effective 

When we talk about keys to doing church tech better, we often discuss the need for prayer, reliance on the leading of the Holy Spirit, or more training for tech volunteers - all of which are legitimate keys.  But there is one key to effectiveness that, in my experience, is consistently overlooked: coordination.

We may, for instance, have a lighting plan for Sunday that looks amazing when considered by itself.  We may have also chosen the video backgrounds for our worship set that we think are most appropriate.  What's missing?  The synergy we get when we coordinate those two elements.

In another instance, our senior pastor may have been preparing a great message for Sunday, while our soloist has been working on getting an awesome song ready.  The thing is, the song and the message have nothing to do with each other - and that is not wrong.  It is just that it could be so much more effective with some advance coordination.

If your church has a technical director, he will most likely be the one charged with coordinating the technical side with the plans of the teaching pastor and worship leader.  If you do not have a technical director, consider experimenting with a weekly planning meeting that includes the senior or teaching pastor, the worship leader, the video director, the lighting director, and the head sound engineer.  At that meeting, you may wish to discuss coordinating these service elements (not an exhaustive list):

• sermon>>supporting video and visual notes
• sermon>>set (on platform) elements or objects
• sermon>>special music
• worship songs>>video backgrounds
• worship songs>>lighting
• video backgrounds>>lighting
• countdown/pre-service video>>sermon
• special music>>video projection
• special music>>lighting
• lighting>>set (on platform) elements or objects

In short, we are simply more effective when we unite our individual areas into a coordinated effort, instead of seeing each area as a stand-alone entity.  If you have not made much of an attempt to coordinate previously, try it.  Be intentional about it, and be disciplined.  I think you will see some immediate and positive results. 

Should You Move to HD Projection? 

Many churches are currently debating over whether or not to upgrade their projection equipment to high definition (HD).  Is the change inevitable? Necessary? Good stewardship?

The answer is certainly not the same for every church. But as you are seeking God for direction, here are a few questions you will want to be asking:

1.How important is your media ministry to the overall ministry of your church? 

•  Do you use projection every week?

•  Is your media an "out-in-front" ingredient in your worship service?

•  Do you consider your projection a key tool in drawing people to your services?

•  Do people routinely comment on how the media you display has impacted them?

•  Do you project full-length movies for outreaches or other purposes?

•  In what ways would a failure to make the upgrade hinder the ministry of the church? 

2.Can you afford the upgrade?

•  Have you done your homework on equipment and installation pricing?

•  Have you traced your video signal from end-to-end to make sure that all components can process an HD signal?  If you have a component that cannot, is the replacement cost for that component included in your estimates?
•  Will you have to take on additional debt to obtain the equipment, or have the funds already been budgeted?  

3.Will a change in screen size work with the architecture of your existing building?

•  Most HD projection is done using a 16:9 screen aspect ratio instead a 4:3 ratio.  Can your building easily accommodate the change?

4. Is the media that you want to project available in HD resolution?

•  Many Christian video producers are still creating content that is only available in standard resolution.  How about your favorite producers? (WorshipFilms.com has a ton of HD content - just for the record!)

•  If your favorite videos are not available in HD, have you experimented to see what they will look like "stretched"?  Some still look great, others - not so much... 

5.  Will making this expenditure, at a time of economic hardship for many, create a stumbling block to your members who have continued to sacrificially give, or are they supportive of making the investment, realizing it is important to your church's ministry?

6.  What other investments or new ministries will be put off or cancelled in order to make this change possible? 
Ultimately, of course, we want the heart of God on this decision, just as we do in every decision.  These questions are only meant as guideposts to be prayerfully considered.                                                                                                                                     

Finding the Balance: Money & Resource for Creativity

Finding the Balance 

There is a massive trend taking place in the Sunday morning church service. Many, if not most, churches are stepping up their efforts to be creative in the way they communicate, and in large part, this is a good thing.  But it comes with a price tag and raises some questions that deserve serious consideration.


The price tag comes in three forms:

1.  Capital Expenditures.  There is no end to the list of equipment that we can purchase and implement to help us "do better" on Sundays.  Intelligent lights, audio recording equipment, in-ear monitors, fog machines, projectors for environmental projection, faster computers - they all represent significant investments.

2.  Manpower.  Creativity takes time.  Time to brainstorm, write, rehearse, build and install sets, coordinate lighting and projection, create videos, and more.

3.  Opportunity Costs.  This may be the biggest expense of all. What things are being left undone that could have been accomplished with the money and manpower we are pouring into our creativity?

As we consider these costs, and weigh them against the need to be more creative in our communication, how do we find the place of balance?  Where is the line between what is needed and what is unnecessary extravagance? Unfortunately, there is not one right answer, but here are a couple guideposts they may help us as we seek God for His leading:

1.  Who are we (as a local church body) called to reach?  And are we the type of congregation that depends heavily on the Sunday service to see people won to Christ, or are we more missions-oriented and evangelistic?  The answer to the question of how much to invest in creativity is significantly tied to those two questions.

2.  Is the payoff there?  If it cost us 40 man hours to get a skit together, does the skit move the hearts of our people and make the message memorable enough to justify it?  If we are using 20 man hours per week to prepare video announcements for the service, does the impact of those videos justify the time spent?

3.  What is our motivation?  If our motivation is that we want to help people grasp what God is wanting to say, or we want to help people enter into true worship, then we have to at least give serious consideration to the idea.  If our motivation is to be the coolest looking church in town, or we want to be able to play with the latest tech toy, we probably need to back up and reconsider.

We need to be effective - effective in the way we use our time, and effective in the way we allocate our resources.  And creativity is a tool that we should use only when it causes us to be more effective. Being creative for any other reason is a waste.
                                                                 

Keith Green: Here I Am Send Me

Oh lord, there's just so much to be done.
Oh lord, so many souls to be won,
Oh lord, this world is falling apart,
Dying for love from a broken heart.

Here am i, send me, though there's really not that much i can do.
What i have seems so small, but i want to give it all to you.

Oh lord, you said the harvest was great,
But lord, looks like the workers are late.
It's getting hard to understand,
How they ignore your great command.

Here am i, send me, though you said the ones who labor are few,
Still my heart hears the call, and i wanna give it all to you.

Oh, to reach the ones nobody does,
Give up my pride and even work in the mud,
I wanna be like those who spilled their blood,
And gave it like water to you.

Oh lord, there's just so much to be done.
Oh lord, so many souls to be won,
It seem this world is falling apart,
Lord won't you send me?

Oh lord, there's just so much to be done.
Oh lord, so many souls to be won,
Oh lord, this world is falling apart,
Crying for love from a broken heart.

Here am i, send me, though there's really not that much i can do.
What i have seems so small, but i want to give it all to you.

Here am i, send me,
Though you said the ones you've chosen are few,
Still my heart hears you call,
And i wanna give it all to you.

All Because (The Passion of Christ) by Tree63

Blessed Be Your Name (worship video w/ lyrics)

Betlehemina Tangaliyalli Kannada Christmas Song

Shai Linne - Atonement Q+A (lyrics)

Make Your Testimony Videos Better

Many churches are starting to do some of their own video production, and often those videos take the form of testimonies or interviews.

Here's a couple quick tips for making those productions look even better:

1.  Place the camera at eye level or slightly lower.  Doing so will give you a better looking shot than if the camera is place up high.

2.  Frame your shot so that your subject is over to one side, not centered.  This 1) allows you to make better use of your background space and 2) makes for a more interesting looking shot.

3.  Try to separate your subject from the background.  Video tends to flatten your image, and you need to counter that, by:

• seating your subject at least 10ft in front of your background;
• lighting your subject and your background separately (possibly using colors or textures in your background lighting);
• back lighting your subject; and 
• positioning your camera so that your background is slightly out of focus.

4.  Do not allow your subject to look directly at the camera - they should be looking slightly to one side.  For your audience, this creates the feeling that they are listening in on a conversation between two people.

5.  One side of the subject's face (the side closest to the camera) should be better lit than the other.  The side that is not as well lit should be clearly visible but have subtle shadowing.

6.  Avoid too much empty space in the background.  Use bookcases, plants, or other objects to add interest and avoid the "prison wall" look.

Experiment with these techniques and see if they increase the quality of your videos.  And feel free to email us with your questions - we're always glad to help!      

Thoughts on Using IMAG

The use of IMAG (short for image magnification) has grown exponentially in churches across the US over the last several years.  The decision of whether or not to implement this concept should be weighed carefully.

By IMAG, we mean that one or more cameras are focused on a person or group of people (e.g., a teaching pastor or worship pastor), and the image from that camera is projected onto large screens in the sanctuary so that the congregation has a better view of that person or group.  It can be a great help to a church when used correctly.

But here are some random thoughts: 

1.   Make sure it fits the size and style of your church.  If the size of your church is not sufficient to necessitate its use, don't do it.  Also, anything that is projected should fit into the overall flow and style of the service.  So, for instance, if your church strives to create a 'big living room', homey-type feel, IMAG may not be the approach for you.
2.   Do not use the same video feed as you use for your broadcast ministry.  When selecting shots for broadcast, you generally will incorporate wide shots, and well as shots of the congregation.  These shots are not appropriate for IMAG (wide shots, because they would serve no purpose, and congregational shots, because they would be incredibly distracting.)  Side note:  NEVER turn a camera on the congregation during an invitation time - this can have a huge, unintended negative effect.
3.   Only attempt IMAG if you are able to do a good job with it.  If it is not done well, it can be more of a distraction than a help.  Do you have a competent director who can call the camera shots?  Do you have the cameras, tripods, lighting instruments, switcher, headsets, cabling, etc. that you need?  Take a good inventory before you get started to determine what pieces you might be missing.

For Pastors: What Your Tech Teams Wish You Knew

We have the privilege of traveling to different conferences every month and meeting a lot of great people involved in technical ministries.  As we do, we often hear stories that start like this:  “The thing is, I really wish my pastor understood…”  So what follows here is a sort of open letter to you, pastors, listing the things most often heard.  Please know that this is shared in humility from a heart that honors and respects your leadership, position and sacrifice, and believes wholeheartedly in serving under spiritual authority in the local church (which I gladly do!):

1. If your techies keep asking you to stick to a timetable for turning in sermon notes or getting sound checks or choosing videos, it’s only because they want to do the best that they can.  Some processes need to be done in sequence and require a certain amount of time to be done well.  When a task does not get done on time (and worse, when it is re-inserted later in the process), the chance of error increases dramatically, which is not fair to the people that show up early to see that everything will be working as it should.
2. Generally the more lead time your technical staff has from you, the better they can do for you.  Unique requirements, whether it’s mic placement or set design or videos, equate to extra time, and a high percentage of techies are perfectionists who get really frustrated when they don’t have the time to do their best.  So try to give them the time they need to do well.
3. When you ask someone to create a video, please be cognizant of the amount of time that is required to produce it.  A simple 3-minute testimony video can easily take 20 hours to produce.  Short projects with actors and costumes can take weeks. 
4. Your tech guys need you or someone on your staff to block for them before the service.  People are continually coming up to the sound booth or control room area asking for last-minute items to be projected or songs to be played – all at a time when the technicians need to be able to really focus.  It would help greatly if you would enforce a policy that says, in effect, last-minute requests cannot be honored, so please plan ahead.  As much as your technicians want to serve, these last-minute requests put undo stress on them, and often result in sub-par results.
5. Technicians need your positive feedback and encouragement.  Generally, we fail to notice the service of the folks in these positions until something goes very wrong – and then they hear from too many people.  Expressions of appreciation and recognition of excellence are two critical needs that your technical staff has.

Working as one team, from one playbook, is so key to having an awesome worship experience full of the presence of God.  May God bless your church with a great partnership between your technical staff and your pastoral team and worship teams!

Ideas for Tech Outreach

Many, if not most, readers of this newsletter would consider themselves church techies, and most church techies (including myself) often fall into the rut of getting trapped in the booth, and we tend to see that as our realm of ministry. But the truth is that every person who belongs to Christ is called to evangelize and disciple, and that requires us to get outside. So to that end, here's a short of list outreach ideas for techies:


Does your church have an outreach to an inner-city neighborhood? If so, tag along when they are in the neighborhood. Find a teenager that has audio-related interest, and ask him if he would be interested in learning how to run sound. Offer to pick him up and bring him to your next worship practice, and start teaching him. Get to know him and find out where he is coming from as you are driving back and forth. If he does not go to church, tell him you could use another guy on the sound crew and see if he wants to start coming on Sunday morning. In the meantime, you are finding out if he has any relationship with the Lord, and where you need to begin in the discipleship process.


Offer to start a media club at a local high school, teaching kids about sound, cameras, video editing, and lighting. Get them to the place that they can run tech for school events. In the meantime, again, get to know them and look for ways to expand your relationship with them. If you have decent camera guys and video editors, offer to make a short movie with them. Let them create the script, then use what they want to focus on to start a larger conversation.
Offer to run sound and/or projection for community events at no charge. It’s an easy way to use your gifts to love on your community, and it puts the church in the community in a highly visible way.


If your church is predominately of one ethnicity, try to form a relationship with the tech people at a new or small church that is predominately of a different ethnicity. Offer to help with tech training and sharing equipment that you are no longer using. Have your tech teams meet together to share ideas, and brainstorm possibilities of joint projects. Breaking down racial barriers in the body of Christ is, I believe, a critical component of our future effectiveness.
Host an outdoor movie night. This is the perfect time of year for this, when the nights are starting to get a little cooler. Set up your screen and projector and a good sound system, get any noise permits that you need to get and any licensing for the movie. Serve free popcorn or hot chocolate, and have blankets or chairs for people to sit on. It doesn’t have to be a movie with an overt salvation message, but you may want to consider having your pastor get up at the end and make a spiritual connection, and possibly even a salvation invitation, and invite people to your next church service.


Help your children’s pastor take their ministry into the community by offering tech support. Neighborhood parks are great places to set up kid’s ministry because you are going to where the kids are. But it can’t be done without the tech guys being involved. Sure, lugging sound stuff around is not fun, and you have to be careful about the wear and tear on the equipment. But there are so many neighborhoods out there where the kids are desperate for hope and attention, and they need to see that someone cares about them on a consistent basis. It will be worth the investment of your time and effort.
Document your church’s outreach efforts. If you have a video camera and can edit, go out and document what your church is doing around the city. Then bring the stories back and share them with your congregation. True stories about real impact encourage faith and inspire people to get involved, and being able to actually see real people that are being impacted makes a huge difference. One note of caution: Make sure that as you are videotaping, you are being discreet, and that you are respecting and honoring the people being helped. You never want them to feel like objects or feel used.

Builders Skit

Builder Skit.egg on Aviary.

What Video Cannot Do

Many churches over the last 7-10 years have rightly come to the conclusion that they need to tailor their communication styles on Sunday morning to the needs of the people filling the chairs (or pews). They have done this because, while not wanting to compromise the Gospel in any way, they want to be as effective as they can be in their communication. And of course, projection and media made for church services has been a huge part of that change in communication style.

However, as Sally Morgenthaler pointed out several years ago, there is a danger that comes with this change: we tend to start depending on the style to replace some of the big things the church is called to do, namely evangelize and disciple.

Videos can do a lot for you. They can bring practical application to a message. They can make a message point more memorable and stir the heart. They can enhance your worship time. They can help you communicate information in a way that grabs and keeps the attention of your audience. They are an important ministry tool.

But videos cannot go out and form a friendship with the guy who works in his yard on Sunday mornings. They cannot talk one-on-one with the woman who grew up being abused by a church member, and help her see that God really does love her. Videos cannot serve in the soup kitchen, or bring groceries to shut-ins.

Let’s face it: to have creative communication in your church service (videos, dramas, sets, object lessons) takes time and effort. So do evangelism and discipleship. A healthy church is a church that has found an effective way to do all of it.

And there is no short cut – the only way to do it all is for every member of the body of Christ to step up and do what they are called to do.

These are serious, sober times. We desperately need each other, whether we realize it or not, to be fully engaged in the cause of Christ. So this week, encourage your brother or sister who has been sitting on the sidelines to get back it the field. We need them!  

Tech Teams: 5 Questions for the New Church Year

This week marks the beginning of the new church year for most US churches.  With that in mind, it is a good time to take inventory of our tech teams, and make some plans for the new year.

To that end, here are 5 questions that can serve as discussion starters for your team:
Question #1:  Do we have the personnel we need, and are they properly trained?  Sub-questions:

• Do we have enough volunteers for rotation so that the same person isn't "working" every Sunday?
• Are our people cross-trained, so that they can cover staffing gaps in case of emergencies?
• Are our people in the right positions, so that they can best use the gifts God has given them?
• If we need to recruit, should we make a general appeal or make personal invitations?  And who will be responsible for training the new recruits?

Question #2:  What are our priorities for new equipment?  Sub-questions:

• Have we separated desired items into needs and wants, and needed items into critical and non-critical? How will each item help us further the mission of the church?
• Have we gotten responsible estimates of the costs of these items?  If not, who will be responsible for doing so?
• Once we have gotten cost estimates, have we organized them into an easily understandable proposal for the appropriate church government entity?

Question #3:  What can we as a team do this year to help each other grow spiritually?
Question #4:  Can we use our skills to help others? Sub-questions:

• Is there a new or small church in town that needs our help? Could we offer assistance in helping to train their technical volunteers or helping with equipment installs?
• Could we serve our community by offering to provide tech support for certain community events at no charge?
• Could we offer to teach local non-churched teens technical skills as an outreach?

Question #5:  Have we met with our senior pastor to discuss his vision for the new year, and how we might best support it?

I'm sure there are tons of other great questions we could discuss, but these will hopefully get us started in the direction of a technically better 2010 - 2011.