Church Video Ideas

This morning I fly to LA. I’ll be running some errands and hanging out with some friends today/tonight. Tomorrow we have our first official Church 2.0 Local Forum. If you’re near LA, please join us! Besides the people that RSVP on Facebook, we have some other guests joining that have responded via email. There will be Church leaders there from as far as San Diego and San Francisco!

I’ll be at the Biola Media Conference on Saturday and will return late Saturday night. Sunday is a special day at Bent Tree - we’re baptizing 101 people (including my oldest daughter)!

Yesterday at church, one of our stage managers offered me 2 free tickets to the Texas Rangers baseball game. I gladly accepted and took my 5 year old son, Tommy. This was my first Rangers game and my son’s first baseball game.

I can not the describe the feeling of when we walked into the stadium. We arrived during the first inning. Just as we walked through the chute and out into the open, Milton Bradley hit a homerun and the crowd went crazy. They started playing the song from the movie “The Natural” (I’m not lying) - just as we were walking out of the chute. It was like a Hollywood moment. I’ll never forget it as long as I live.

For the next few hours we watched the worst team in baseball (they really are) play like they were on fire. We got to see 2 more homeruns (experiencing the roar of the crowd, fireworks and the song from “The Natural” each time) and to everyone’s amazement, the Rangers won 10-0. Maybe Tommy brings good luck?

And to top it ALL off - we sat on the 4th row, right behind Nolan Ryan and the Rangers’ owner, Tom Hicks, gave Tommy a game ball. Then after the game, Tommy got to get on the actual field and run around the bases. What a day! What a day!

EXTRA:
Thank God the tickets and parking were free. What a blessing. 2 Cracker Jacks = $7.50, 2 sodas = $9.50, 1 hotdog and chips =$8.25 - the look on Tommy’s face = Priceless.

Check out the pics (forgive the quality - they’re from my cell phone):

Rangers’ star Michael Young on deck — Nolan Ryan in front of us

Tommy running to home plate —— Tommy in his Rangers’ outfit

My mini-vacation last week was great. I didn’t think about or do anything church-related. I just rested, relaxed and had fun. I now feel refueled and ready to serve again. I’m grateful to my church and my boss for allowing me to take all the time I needed to recharge. I was all fresh and ready to return yesterday, but got pink eye and ended up missing. I’ve got eye drops now and should not be contagious anymore.

Now, I’m back in action in many ways. I’m on a new diet and fitness program (that came to me last week - I had a lot of time to think). I’m back in the gym working out and cutting back what I eat. I’m more active and eating less crap - which should make for a good/healthy combo.

I’m also back writing and prepping for some upcoming conferences. One magazine that I’ve never really mentioned, but I write regularly for is LifeWay’s “Let’s Worship” magazine. I encourage you to check it out HERE. Besides writing articles and working on my book, I’m doing some audio projects, too.

This week I’ll be making 3 recordings.

1. Tonight, I’m recording an audio class entitled “Communicating to Those That Listen with Their Eyes” for WorshipMinistryU, which is a great new online seminar tool for those in worship ministry. I’m honored to be among their terrific faculty. I’ll let you know when my class is ready and available.
2. Later this week I will record an interview for the Church Media Podcast. One of the things we’ll discuss is a Media/Tech meet up at NAB on the night of the 15th. They’ll be a group of tech directors, media producers and software company reps that will all gather to hang out and eat. If you’re going to be there, you don’t want to miss this.
3. Also, later this week, we’ll be back in the studio to revive the Creative Synergy Podcast. I know it’s been forever - but we’ll be back in action soon.

EXTRA:
If you haven’t voted for the worship presentation software that your church uses, go HERE. I’d like to get a recent poll before my “Worship Presentation Software” class in April at NAB.

BONUS:
Birthdays - Yesterday, my youngest turned 4. Today is my brother’s birthday.

For the past several months I’ve been telling my family (and especially my wife), “Just let me make it through the first service in our new building” - THEN “Just let me make it through Easter”. No more. I have come to my end and will be straight chilling this week. I’m not going to do anything. No blog. No cell phone. No email. Just me and my family. Pray that God would refresh, renew and restore  me, personally, as well as my relationship with my family. Pray that I can return to my job with a fresh passion, vision and energy. God give me rest!

MORE:
I will have some Good Friday and Easter pictures for you guys soon. Probably some video, too!

Don’t worry: this is a G-rated blog. I was reflecting on what makes me smile these days and what I’ve used as a way to not go insane with all the craziness at church. It’s a special time that I look forward to each night. My wife and I started this months ago. Each night, after the kids go to bed, we pop in a DVD and watch various TV shows or movies together. It sounds simple, but it’s been a great stress reliever and is something we’re able to do together and just enjoy laughing together.

First we watched all 3 seasons of “Arrested Development”. I think that show has one of the greatest and most perfectly cast ensembles ever on television. Then we watched all the “Harry Potter” movies (because my wife had read the books, but never saw the movies). Then we watched all 3 “Lord of the Rings” (because my wife had read the books, but never saw the movies). Then we watched seasons 1-3 of “The Office” (gotta love Dwight!). Now we’ve gone back to Season One of “Lost” and have started working our way through each episode. We’re going to watch every episode of “Lost” and then I’m hoping I can get my wife hooked on my favorite show: “24″. I think if we start with Season One, she’ll get hooked!

The challenge of watching episodes on DVD is knowing when to go to bed. It’s so easy to say, “Let’s just watch one more.” Have you experienced that? I have to make myself stop and go to bed. What shows do you enjoy?

EXTRA:
My Tarheels are back on top. Number 1, baby!

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.

Tuesday, I worked 14 hours. Wednesday, I worked 15 hours and yesterday (Thursday), I worked 17 hours. I’m sleeping in today and catching up on some much needed rest.

I want to give God praise for friends and peers in the ministry. I’ve mentioned my “network” before, but I must brag on them again. This week, my Tech Director friends have been a huge support and blessing to me. One local tech director called the other day to say he is getting everything taken care of at his church, so he can be on hand to help out our first Sunday (Feb. 3rd). Another local tech director called me today just to say “hang in there”.

Wednesday, I had the great honor of hanging out with an amazing tech and communications director from Kansas - Kirk Longhofer of the Technopraxis blog. Besides having fun, food and fellowship, I took the opportunity to pick his brain and learn from his years of experience as a technical director and work with television before that. I look forward to hanging out with him again at NRB and NAB and think he’s going to try to come out for another visit the last Sunday in February (which, by the way, my house will be full of guests from Washington DC and Phoenix) to visit one of our services.

Having given a few tours of our campus in the last 2 weeks, it occurred to me that I may have mislead some of you. Many of you have sent me encouraging emails - telling me it’s “almost over”, “hang in until Feb. 3rd”, etc. As I took some peers around our campus, they realized that we’ve only just begun. Friends, we are under construction until May.

First we moved into our new offices, then into our new gym, next is our new worship center - after that we move into our new community space, then start the renovation of our current worship center, our education building, our old offices and our children’s building. When all is said and done, there will be 7 new venues featuring sound, video and lights (our new worship center, plus 6 for kids and youth that are all themed out). It’s going to be a long haul, but when it’s over, our campus will be pretty special and a thing of beauty. If you’re coming to Dallas, you’ve got to swing by and check it out.

PERSONAL:

Some dear friends have asked how my family is doing. I so appreciate their support, accountability and prayers. I neglected to mention that my wife has been bringing our 3 kids by the church during the day, so I can see them - since they are asleep when I get home. It’s not a huge amount of time right now, but it’s just enough to get me through the day.

After being gone for a solid week, I’m glad to be back in Dallas. We had a great visit to South Carolina, but with 3 small children in a van for over 15 hours I’m glad to be going back to work.

I’ll blog tomorrow about the 3 churches I visited this past Sunday.

As you know, 2008 will be a new season for my church as we move into our new worship center and begin renovating our current worship center (and some other rooms) into a theater for the kids. I’m having to be real picky about my time away and where I speak in ‘08. I’m not doing any conferences in January or February and have chosen one for March and one for April. Here’s what I know so far:

• I won’t be doing any conferences in January or February due to the move-in
• I’ll be speaking in 3 classes at NRB in Nashville in March
• I’ll be teaching 2 classes at NAB in Las Vegas in April

This is from my friends at Technologies for Worship Magazine:

TFWM just wanted to let you know that I will be speaking in conjunction with the Technologies for Worship Pavilion® and Conference at the 2008 NAB Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV from April 13-17, 2008.

I will be presenting the following seminars:

1. Which Worship Presentation Software is Best for Your Church?
2. Church 2.0

For my complete seminar descriptions and dates, click here.

To register, click here.

EXTRA:

We’re in South Carolina visiting my family. Today I’m visiting NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC. I’ll blog about them later.

PERSONAL:
Today is my 12 year wedding anniversary!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Yesterday I met with a tech director at another church here in Dallas. This is something I’ve done for the last 13 years. I guess you could say I’m a “networker”. It really comes natural to me and is a passion of mine. Everywhere that I’ve lived and each church I’ve served, I’ve always got to know the local churches and staff members. From my days as a college student serving part-time at a small church and meeting with a local mega-church staff member to meeting with churches the same size as mine and on and on.

I like to meet with churches that are smaller than mine to be a resource to them. I LOVE meeting with church leaders that serve at churches around the same size as mine. And I always love the sharing and learning that I do with church leaders that serve at churches larger than mine.

I’m glad to say that I have friends from serving in the Carolinas and friends in Washington DC, where I served before moving to Dallas, and these are guys that I stay in touch with and am glad to call friends. Here in Dallas, I’m a member of a few network groups: One is a group of Dallas area worship leaders, one is a ‘yal come/large group of tech staff from all size churches and the other is a small group of tech directors from churches around the same size as my church. I can’t recommend the food, fun and fellowship highly enough.

A couple of thoughts on networking:

• Church size doesn’t matter… no matter what size your church is, you can benefit from a local network.
• Denomination doesn’t matter… this is something I had to break free from years ago. You have a lot more than you realize in common with those from other denominations.
• Vent - take the opportunity to share struggles and frustrations with your local group. You’ll find that many others have some of the same frustrations. You need to be able to talk about these with someone outside your church.
• Share with each other. My local group shares equipment with each other and tries to help one another out with ideas, resources, contacts, etc. Just yesterday, I called up a local tech director (from the group) to ask where he would go in Dallas to rent wireless mics, as we’re going to have to rent some for Christmas.
• Be proactive. 95% of the time, people that I’ve had breakfast, lunch or coffee with were people that I called up or emailed and took the initiative to introduce myself to them. Again, this comes natural to me and may be out of your comfort zone, but it will be well worth your while.
• Take advantage of Web 2.0 technologies: things like Myspace and Facebook are great ways to meet people. I’ve met several people through one of them and then met them in real life.
• When you can, try to visit other local churches (for one of their services). I see local tech directors (and their teams) at my church from time to time and the past 2 Sundays, I’ve visited two different churches. It’s good to get out and see what others are doing.
• It’s ALL about the Kingdom. You’ve got to get this point. I can’t stand to hear of churches in competition with one another. We’re in this together. The reason I write, blog, speak at conferences and consult is because I want to help other churches grow, dream, do better, lead better and reach more people for Christ. Any spirit of competition is not of God and should be seen as sin. Get rid of it, friends!
• Not everyone will get this. I wish I could say that every person I’ve called or emailed has contacted me back and we met - that’s not the case. Some people have no desire to meet with someone from another church. What a shame and what a way to miss out on a blessing and possible new friend. My two cents: keep moving on and keep searching. Someone in your city will be interested in meeting and may turn out to be a great friend and resource for your ministry.

EXTRA (Free Christmas Countdown):

Get a really cool free, winter countdown from my friends at Igniter Media Group HERE.