Church Video Ideas

Today’s topic is capturing your service for video. We are working behind-the-scenes to launch a new video podcast of our pastor’s sermon. I’m curious as to how some of you capture your service/sermon. I know some churches capture straight into Final Cut, some capture in QuickTime Pro, some even in iMovie. How do you capture your service digitally at your church? I’d love to hear. I’d still love to hear from some of you about how you do digital signage at your church.

EXTRA:
I had a great time at the creative brainstorming meeting yesterday at Fellowship Church. They have a very gifted and cool team assembled there. It was fun to be in that environment and take part in a series planning session. They had their worship leaders from the local campuses all there, as well as 2 technical staff members and their Miami worship leader, who was video conferenced in. I enjoyed lunch (Mexican food!) with their worship pastor, Pace, afterwards. I do want to again encourage you to check out Pace’s blog and welcome him to the blogging world. He also mentioned that his pastor, Ed Young, has just started blogging as well. You can check his blog out HERE.

Besides this Sunday, Easter and a lot of other things campus-wide, one of the projects I’m working on is digital signage for our community space. I have several ideas and thoughts about what I’d like to do. I’m still very open and looking for ideas on the how to do it.

I’d love to hear what you’re doing at your church for digital signage - both content and how you do it (what hardware and software you use). Here’s more food for thought on digital signage.

EXTRA:
I know some of you are new readers of my blog (that I met at NRB). Here are the 2 articles I mentioned in my classes: One is called “Firing a Volunteer” and the other is called “Refining the Team“.

BONUS:
Today I’m attending a creative brainstorming meeting at Fellowship Church. I’ll also be meeting with their worship pastor, Pace and getting to know him better. You can check out his new blog HERE.

I’m am now back in good ‘ol Dallas. As I reflect upon my time in Nashville, many thoughts come to mind. Here goes:

• Staying with and hanging out with my best friend, Thomas, and his wife Dita. We played Nintendo Wii each night until about 3am. Good times! The Tiger Woods golf game on Wii is amazing! Thomas is the worship leader at Mosaic Nashville, where I went to church Sunday morning and night. It was also nice to eat twice with their pastor, Gary. God is doing some cool things at Mosaic Nashville. I’ve visited several times, so it’s been cool to see them grow and watch what God is doing in their community. If you’re in town, give them a visit.
• Seeing one of my friends from when I lived in Washington DC, who now lives in Nashville. Hanging out with Sarin (and his soon-to-be wife, Rebecca) was a true treat. Sarin is an amazing artist and is working on some very cool projects. We got to eat a couple of times together, catch some movies and he also played electric guitar at Mosaic Nashville on Sunday.
• Getting to hang out with and share many meals with Kirk Longhofer of Wichita, Kansas.
• Having lunch with Bill Seaver of MicroExplosion.
• Hanging out some with the crew from SermonSpice, my sponsor for my classes.
• Getting to speak with the Tech Directors of and hear about what’s going on at the following churches: Bellevue in Memphis, Brentwood Baptist, First Baptist Orlando and First Baptist Jacksonville, FL. Though my church is Non-denominational, I grew up Southern Baptist and have visited these churches before and know of their long history. It’s intriguing to me to see God doing a new thing at these long-standing churches that are trying to change and move forward. According to THIS article on Monday Morning Insight, 90% of churches are in decline.
• Meeting and speaking with some of the staff and key leaders at LifeWay.
• Seeing many Bent Tree members who were at NRB, including our pastor, Pete Briscoe, who was doing a meet and greet for his radio show: Telling the Truth.
• Catching a few classes at NRB. My favorite was my friend, Phil Cooke’s class on branding. He said a lot that is in his new book “Branding Faith“, which I’ve been reading the manuscript of for the last few months. It’s a great read and I’ll review it once I finish it. It was cool to see the actual hardcopy-version of his book. I encourage you to order a copy.
• Walking around the Exhibit Hall and meeting new people/companies, collecting free pens (something I enjoy) and doing a radio interview with a Jewish Ministry. The guy who works for the ministry used to be a tech director in San Antonio, TX and reads my blog. I’ll post a link to the interview when it’s ready.
• My biggest highlights were meeting some of you, regular readers of my blog, who came up and introduced yourself to me. It is so cool to look someone in the eyes, who has been commenting on your blog. I love it!
• Another highlight was my 2 classes that I spoke in. Here is a quick summary of what stuck out to me from the classes I spoke in:
  1. Large or small, every church has struggles/challenges and is constantly seeking to grow their ministry. I got to talk with people from very small churches to mega-mega-mega churches. It was humbling and amazing to meet fellow tech directors and be able to offer some of my philosophy of ministry and leadership.
  2. My class called “On the Air: Ten Attributes of a Winning Team” was filled with people that are broadcasting on television. I was absolutely shocked and floored that out of everyone of them that was on TV, none of them had a weekly rehearsal. Their first service was a rehearsal and they couldn’t imagine asking volunteers to come out to rehearsal during the week. I begged them to read my blog. You know how I love talking about leading volunteers!
  3. In my class, “The Ultimate Q & A”, where the panel just took random classes from the attendees, I got to share my philosophy on being and hiring “equippers” versus “doers”. I shared that leaders are to equip (based on the Ephesians 4 model). It seemed to strike a nerve and was something I believe God wanted me to share about. At Bent Tree, our leaders (whether volunteer or paid) are equippers.
  4. The major “God-moment” was during the “On the Air” class when I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to say the following, “Stop trying to revive what God is trying to kill.” Some gasped, some cried, some clapped, some said, Amen!”, some sat in silence. I have no doubt that God wanted me to say that and that it spoke right to someone’s (I don’t know who) situation. I’m amazed at the number of churches that have had a TV broadcast for years and never evaluate why they do it and if they should continue to.
  5. Below are some pictures of other highlights, including great food I consumed in Nashville:
     
     
• EXTRA:
  Yes, President Bush spoke at NRB, but no I did not get to see him. I missed it.

I know several people that are coming to Dallas this week for the C3 Conference at Fellowship Church. I’m planning to meet with a few of them and give them a tour of Bent Tree. If you’re coming to town this week and want to get together, just shoot me an email and let me know: greg@churchvideoideas.com.

EXTRA:
We have a team of leaders from our church in Pune, India training Church leaders for our adopted people group, the Marathas. This past Sunday we spoke with one of our elders live during our Sunday morning worship service. It was about 9pm his time and it was morning for us. It was very cool. We could all hear him clear as a bell and he heard us with no problem. We did it using Skype!

EXTRA, EXTRA:

According to TechCrunch yesterday, a source close to Microsoft says the company will launch a new desktop software called WorldWide Telescope on February 27. Pretty cool. You can read more about it HERE.

BONUS:
I read this in WIRED magazine: You can place a picture of you and/or your family on the moon - that’s right: on the moon. Check out HERE for more info.

As I always do, I try to visit as many churches as possible when I’m away from my church. This past Sunday I visited 3 churches in the upstate of South Carolina - 2 in the morning and 1 at night.

• 9:00 AM - I went to a church that I always try to visit whenever I’m in Greer, SC: Springwell Church. Springwell is a vibrant, fairly young church that has had a great impact on their community. This was my 3rd time getting to attend a service in their new (3 years old) worship center. As usual, I wrestled with trying to worship and turning off my analyzing and critiquing. All in all, I had a great experience. This was the first time I had seen them use IMAG (they had 3 cameras). I was disappointed with the quality of cameras/picture and the video directing. I also thought their left and right screens were too small for that size room. On the positive, I like how they used their screens. They had a left, giant middle and right screen. They did some cool stuff on the middle screen which was a nice touch. The had some nice looking backgrounds and FYI - they were using ProPresenter. The music was great. 2 young worship leaders co-lead and both had great voices and sang some of my favorite songs. Their youth pastor was preaching. I only got to listen to his intro and then had to slip out to go get my family and attend my mom’s church.
• 10:30 AM - I went to Tigerville Baptist Church, which is where my mom and step-dad go. My step-dad is the pastor there. TBC is located on the campus of North Greenville University. This church was probably the most special of the 3 churches I visited. Besides getting to hear my step-dad preach and worshiping with my kids and mom, it brought back all kinds of memories from the church I grew up in. This church is much like how I grew up - no screens/media, the music minister called out the hymn numbers and we turned in our hymnals to that song. Everybody knew everybody. There was a sweet spirit and family-type feel, which I can see being attractive to college students - which they have attending when school is in. There was no children’s ministry, so my 3 kids sat on the same pew with my wife, mom and me. I must say, they behaved very well and it was a memorable experience.
• 5:00 PM - Sunday night, I rode with my friend Don Chapman to his church: NewSpring in Anderson, SC. As you know, I’ve blogged about NewSpring several times. 2 of their staff members: Lee McDerment and Tony Morgan are a part of my upcoming book. Tony was on vacation, so I didn’t get to talk with him, but I did get to hang with Lee for a bit. Lee is an amazing worship leader and that band rocked! The whole experience was amazing. I was blown away. NewSpring lived up to all the hype (they are on the “Most Innovative Church” list and the “Fasting Growing Church in America” list). I knew of what they were doing, but had never seen it with my own eyes. Now I know why Don drives 30 minutes every week to go there. He won’t have to for long because they are launching a Greenville campus! I was blessed to be there for their last Sunday of the year, where they gave thanks to God for all He had done in 2007. You can listen to the message online. They played a highlight video, which was very moving. They had also had their congregation vote on their favorite songs of 2007 and did the top songs - I loved them. I was very impressed with everything I saw on the screens - the backgrounds, the picture quality, the video directing, everything - very well done. The sound was great - they are not afraid to raise the roof. I commented that I had never been to a church that played the pre-service/prelude music so loud - it was cranked! If you ever have the chance, you’ve got to check out what God is doing in this small city - it’s truly a God-thing. FYI - NewSpring used MediaShout.

We are coming upon the time at my church when we have to give up all our “Owner Provided” equipment, so they can be installed in our new worship center. We have some current equipment that we’re not going to use in the new building and will be selling. We’re getting rid of stuff like 2 Mackie 56 channel consoles, 1 Yamaha M-3000A (that we use for our monitor board) and our Clark 3-way splits. Maybe you have need of some of the above - just let me know. Email me at greg@churchvideoideas.com.

Today is my last day at work this week! I’m off Wednesday through Saturday. Gonna get me some smoked turkey.

EXTRA:

Want to see something wild? Check out my guest blog on Church Marketing Sucks HERE.

Before I tell you why I blog, let me start with how I got into blogging. A little over a year ago my friend, Don Chapman of WorshipIdeas.com, was visiting me in Dallas. I was driving to Oklahoma City to speak at a conference and Don came with me. It was about a 3 hour drive and I started sharing some ideas, resources and new companies that I had come across. Don directly and boldly said, “Dude, you have got to start blogging. Church leaders would really benefit from what you’re sharing with me.”

Not only that, that night Don went online to GoDaddy and bought the domain name: ChurchVideoIdeas.com and said, “Here you go. Now get to blogging!” I started a cheesy-looking WordPress blog and the rest is history. Thanks to my great “Charter Sponsors“, I was able to give my blog a face-lift via Kent and his team at Bombay Creative.

The “why” is simple. I have a heart for the Church (capital “C”). My heart and passion is for the Kingdom and equipping Church leaders - that’s why I write, that’s why I consult, that’s why I speak at conferences. I love Christ’s Bride and want to be a friend, helper, encourager and equipper to Church leaders around the world. Praise God, people actually care what I have to say. According to Google Analytics, thousands of Church leaders from around the world read and share this blog each week. That, to me, is surprising, shocking and extremely humbling. Almost every day I receive an email from a Church leader asking me a question and many of you reading this, who have sent me an email, hopefully have seen that I try to answer your email promptly and to the best of my knowledge.

The truth is: I don’t know it all. I don’t even come close. I just share what I’ve learned on my journey and if I think someone else can answer your question better, I point you in their direction. What would I like to change? I’d love to see more interaction on this blog. More of you making comments. There are a couple each day, but I can see (via my tracker) that a ton of you are reading this blog, but apparently not commenting. I always try to pose some type of question and ask for your feedback, ideas and I sincerely want to hear what you’re doing in your own ministry setting.

SO, with that being said… I’m glad Don talked me into blogging, I’m grateful to God for the sponsors that make all this possible, I praise God that he’s given me a passion and desire to write something fresh each day and I’m humbled, honored and excited that you are reading this and we have this cool sort-of virtual connection. What a great time to be alive!

As always, I want to again mention that I love meeting you in real life, too. If you’re in Dallas, let me know. If we’re at the same conference, let me know. I’m consulting with 2 churches for the rest of ‘07 and hope to work with a few more of you in ‘08. So, to wrap up: Glad to be blogging. Glad you’re reading. Hope you’ll continue to. Hope you’ll comment and add to the discussion. Also, feel free to email me questions or suggestions of topics to blog about.

TechMission has just launched www.UrbanMinistry.org as a Web portal for the Urban Ministry world. Some of the sections you may be interested in include:

* UrbanMinistry Blogs: including some of the top syndicated Blogs of Urban Ministry leaders.
* Sermon Videos & MP3s including John Perkins, Jim Wallis, Noel Castellanos, Wayne Gordon, Ray Backke, Effrim Smith and Martin Luther King Jr.
* Gospelpedia: similar to Wikipedia but covering youth ministry, addiction recovery, technology and ministry and volunteer management.
* Conference Materials: including over 100 keynote talks and workshops from CCDA, Kingdomworks and Compassionworks/YouthPartnersNet (coming soon).
* Local Volunteer Opportunities: including over 1,500 volunteer opportunities from nearly 900 organizations. National partners on this site include: CCDA, UYWI, YouthPartnersNet, HLIC, Salvation Army and AGRM.
* Online Courses
* Account Registration (FREE)

EXTRA:

Cory Miller (from Church Communications Pro - and is also a part of my book) is offering people a coupon code to get Granger’s Church Communications Form Bundle for FREE. I have it and it’s great! You can get it HERE.

BONUS:

Yesterday, WorshipHouse Media launched their Thanksgiving and Christmas seasonal stores. Check them out for the best in seasonal media (new for this year and good stuff from earlier years).

Well over half of Protestant churches use a large-screen projection system in their communication, according to a 2005 Barna study. Just five years earlier, only 39 percent were using that technology. And double the proportion of Protestant churches (61 percent) were integrating video content into their worship services in 2005 compared to 2000. Also, with the advent of big screens, fewer churches are providing Bibles in their pews – dropping from 86 percent in 2000 to 80 percent in 2005.

Last year, churches spent $8.1 billion on audio and projection equipment, according to TFCinfo, an audiovisual market research firm, as reported by the Post.

EXTRA:

My friend, Bill Seaver, of the MicroExplosion blog has just started his own company: microEXPLOSION media! Bill is a part of my book project and is the man when it comes to Web 2.0 and utilizing technology for ministry. Check out his announcement HERE.

BONUS:

Want to see something amazing? Check out the Hillsong Conference opening HERE. Hang on to the end and you might just see a familiar face. His first name sounds like “Chris” and his last name sounds like “Tomlin”.

Last week, in my weekly column for Monday Morning Insight, I wrote about Catalyst utilizing Web 2.0 technology throughout the conference. My friend, Bobby Gruenewald, in his Swerve blog, revealed how they did it. Below are his words:

At Catalyst, we built several interactive elements that promoted YouVersion.com in the general sessions. All of the applications utilized sms (text messaging), and we have been receiving phone calls every day this week from people asking about how we did that and where can they get it.

Here is a quick post to describe who/what we used and explain a little bit about the technology involved, and also get ideas/feedback from all of you.

1. What is SMS?

SMS or “Short Message Service” (wiki) allows you to send short (160 character) messages to and from mobile phones. SMS is often referred to as “texting”.

2. What did you do with texting at Catalyst (for those of you who were not there)?

* Thursday morning we introduced YouVersion.com and asked that people text Bible verses (ex. Hebrews 13:17) about leadership to a 5 digit number (it’s called a “shortcode”). We then displayed in real-time the full verses that were submitted on the screens in the arena.

* Thursday afternoon we had people text (a,b,c or d) to the shortcode to vote on which song was their favorite “reverb” song. We displayed the results and the band played that song.

* Friday morning we asked people to text words that they felt described Craig’s session. It could be a word that described how it made them feel, or a words that were “take away” words from the session. We then displayed a tag cloud of the words people submitted at the end of the session.

* Late Friday morning we asked people to text their names or email addresses if they were committing to pursue radical integrity and grace. It was in association with the Deadly Viper book that was launched at the conference.

3. How did you do it?

We worked with OpenMarket aka simplewire.com. They have connections to many of the cell phone carriers around the world and are able to send and receive SMS messages to each of those providers. They also provided our programmers with the ability to write web applications that connect to their services. Basically we wrote an application that would save all of the text messages to a database and in some cases respond to the user with a text message that told them more about YouVersion or asked them for more information. Additionally, we built a few flash applications that would query the database and display the information I described above to the audience in the arena.

4. How much does it cost?

It does require a financial investment to do it well. It really varies based on what you are trying to do, and it would be best to call the folks at simplewire to have them help you navigate through the costs of their service.

5. How long did it take to build?

It took our talented Digerati team a little over a week to build and test the various pieces of it once we had everything setup with simplewire.

6. Why didn’t you use Twitter or another “free” sms application?

Twitter is great…it just would not allow us to build the types of applications we built, and it has had some reliability challenges on top of that.
I am sure there are many other questions, but those are the main ones that we have been getting. I’d be happy to answer any other questions in the comments. We have additional plans to use the technology in our weekend experiences…but instead of telling you our plans, I’d love to hear what your thoughts/ideas would be for sms applications in the church. If you are already using it, I’d love to hear about that too!

*** I (Greg) will just add the same thing: If you’re using Web 2.0 technology and doing ministry via SMS apps, I’d love to hear about it, too. I’d also love for you to join my “Church 2.0″ group on Facebook HERE.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

The end of Heroes last night made my heart skip a beat. Good stuff. And YES, I realize I haven’t talked about the Cowboys since they lost.