Church Video Ideas

This past Sunday night I got to hang out with worship leader Jason Upton and his band. He led worship at Deep Ellum Church and God really spoke to my heart that night. This week, with the staff retreat and all, has flown by. We had a good rehearsal last night.

Today I’m trying to work on my “Church 2.0” class for NAB. This will be the first time I’ve taught this class (and will be teaching a few more times this year at other conferences). I’ll be working on the class all day Friday and Saturday, too.

This Friday night I’ll be seeing Shawn McDonald and Downhere in concert and will hang out with them a little, too. I’m taking my intern to this concert and hope he’ll become a Shawn McDonald fan. I love SM! Saturday, I’ll be watching my kids while my wife works and working on my NAB presentation, when I can.

Sunday I’ll worship and pack. Monday morning I fly to Vegas and will hang out there with some friends, walk the exhibit floor and hope to see the Blue Man Group Monday night. Tuesday, we have a FREE tech get-together lunch at 11:30am at the Hilton Hotel buffet. Please email Kip (kkendrick@digitalresources.com) to let him know you’re coming. I really look forward to meeting many of you in Vegas.

EXTRA:

Here’s a sign of the times. You can watch a wedding live online - which would come in handy when distance or other circumstances won’t allow you or a dear family member or friend to attend. Check them out HERE.

God has been softly speaking to my heart through one of my favorite songs: “Everlasting God” by Brenton Brown. I’ve been thinking about the opening lines: “Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord. We will wait upon the Lord. We will wait upon the Lord. STRENGTH WILL RISE as we wait upon the Lord…

Nothing profound or groundbreaking today, friends. Just sharing what’s on my heart this week.

EXTRA:
It’s been cool to meet church staff from other churches around the country that are in town for the C3 Conference. I love meeting new friends and giving them a tour of our church. I look forward to more of that today and tomorrow.

Hello and a good day to you all. What a week it has been. I have definitely sensed the power of prayer and the presence of God this week. Thanks for all your calls, texts, prayers and emails. I haven’t been able to answer email since Monday, so forgive me for taking a while to reply.

This week has been amazing! We’ve had long days of setup, planning, building, buying, cleaning and prepping - mixed with full nights of training and rehearsals - followed by late nights of working after rehearsal. The transformation of seeing our “construction zone” change into a worship center has been indescribable. When I heard our worship pastor start to sing the first song from the stage 2 nights ago, I almost lost it. It was such as rush and breath of fresh air. You can get so caught up in all the details and fires to put out that you can easily forget that this is our new home and where future special times of corporate worship will take place.

I have never been so proud of a team, as I have been this week. From my staff, to volunteers taking off work to come and help out during the day, to my tech arts team training and rehearsing each night - it’s been wonderful to see the response. My admins have been pro-active and God-sends - they have literally thought for me, fought for me, answered and worked for me and protected me from any distractions. They also saw that we had home-made meals brought to the church each night, including a meal for my staff and our families last night.

Yesterday, we as a Worship & Arts staff had a mandatory meeting from noon to 2pm. Our worship pastor had planned a special trip and no one would tell us where we were going. Our admins had gotten us boxed lunches to eat in the car and flew to our unknown destination. We arrived shortly later at the local IMAX theater. I’m a “movie-guy”, so I was thinking cool - “I wonder which movie we’re going to see”.

Our worship pastor bought everyone’s tickets and gave them out without saying anything. The ticket lady handed us a pair of 3D glasses and we were rushed into the dark theater. We sat down to see, feel, almost touch and experience U2-3D on the IMAX screen. Words can’t describe it…

For the next 2 hours we were absolutely blown away by the most amazing movie and/or concert experience any of us have ever experienced - it was just what the doctor ordered. I smiled the whole time. We left the theater refreshed and with new wind in our sails. It was a moment I will never forget. My boss (our worship pastor) is the greatest and his love for us was poured out on us. I thank God for our team.

Speaking of teams - I’m watching my tech arts team grow each night. You can literally feel the excitement, energy and momentum. People that haven’t served since I started at the church (this Sunday is my one year anniversary) have come out of the woodworks to participate and get trained on the new gear. I have sat back in wonder and praised God for what he’s doing all around me.

That’s all for now. I must get some rest. I’ll be back in “blogging action” soon.

PERSONAL:

Yes, I did miss “Lost” due to work/rehearsal. Please don’t call or email me and tell me what happened. Shame on some of you!

Usually I do a thorough (and very time-consuming) review of all Christmas media resources each year, but this year I am swamped, so I’m going to link you to my review from last year HERE and the best of the new from this year HERE. I’ll be reviewing some select Christmas media products that are new for this year soon.

Also, a few years ago I worked on a template for a traditional “Lessons and Carols” service. I make it available to churches every year for free. If you’d like to use it, base yours off of it and make it your own, however it can serve you - download it HERE.

EXTRA:

A few years ago I arranged “O Holy Night” for worship leaders that lead from acoustic guitar and want something more modern sounding. You can download the chord chart HERE and listen to the arrangement HERE. On the recording, I’m playing guitar and a local worship leader friend (remember my blog on “The Network”) is singing.

PERSONAL:

I’m on vacation today through Wednesday. I hope to do a lot of reading and research for my book, as well as spend some time with my family and not think about church for a few days.

It’s rare that I post over the weekend. Just felt like blogging, I guess. Yesterday (Friday) was a day of running errands. I took my son with me, so it was some good father-son time.

Friday night I ended up running media (or VJ-ing) for a Michael English concert at Fellowship Dallas, where my friend Brian Davis serves as the Technical Director. Thanks to Brian for giving me the freedom to VJ and have some fun. I was running EasyWorship and doing some cool eye-candy on the screens while Michael English was singing. It was special for me, as I hadn’t seen him live in 12 years. It’s great to see that God did a big work in his heart and is still using him.

Tonight I get to take my oldest daughter on a date. We’re going to see the “Nutcracker”. I’m taking her to dinner before the ballet and she picked Denny’s. I don’t know why, but that’s where she wants to go, so Denny’s it is!

* On another note, I can’t believe it’s December!

Yesterday was a 14 hour day, so I’ll be brief. I’ll be reviewing some new Christmas media resources in the near future. For now, I’d like to mention 2 things: One from SermonVideos.com and one from WorshipHouse Media.

My boy, Craig, and his team at SermonVideos.com have created a new Christmas Pak for ‘07. Their Christmas Paks are a favorite each year. I’d encourage you to check out the first two if you don’t have them and if you do, it’s time to purchase their new Christmas Pak 3. Go HERE and look for the newest resource on the right.

My friends at WorshipHouse Media are giving away a FREE download every weekday until Christmas! That’s right… every weekday. Also you can watch a daily podcast from Dale and Kent. Go HERE and click on the “Daily Freebie” ad to go to each day’s freebie.

EXTRA:

If you’re a fan of Paul Baloche (like I am), you may want to check out his video of the Christmas version of his song, “Offering”. You can watch it HERE.

This past Sunday, my church beta-tested the unreleased Igniter Track: “Here Is Our King” by David Crowder. Igniter Media Group (one of my favorite church media producers) is coming out with a new line of products called: “Igniter Tracks“. They’ll be starting with 2 very cool volumes, which include some great songs and good song arrangements recorded professionally by Igniter.

As I mentioned, we used the “Here Is Our King” Igniter Track in our services this past weekend and it went very well. Our congregation was singing along to the video created by Igniter and our band was playing the song live with a click-track in their ear (all our band and singers where in-ear monitors).

This is like an iWorship video on crack. Every conference I do I hear from people that are tired of the same ‘ol, same ‘ol iWorship videos with stock aerial footage. Igniter Tracks offers cutting edge, creative, cool looking video tracks to play and/or sing along with. It’s truly taking the iWorship concept to the next level. If you haven’t already, you can pre-order both volumes now HERE. You can preview a video HERE.

My friend, Don Chapman, of WorshipIdeas.com has partnered with my friends from WorshipFilms on a new Christmas project called “Complete Christmas“. WorshipFilms made videos for of Don’s HymnCharts Christmas carol arrangements. This is a product similar to the Integrity iWorship series that you may be familiar with, but these are actually in normal keys that congregations can sing and use in church.

Chris Sligh, the Seacoast worship leader that was on American Idol, sang on “The First Noel”, “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”.

Here is the description of the product from WorshipFilm’s website:

• “Complete Christmas” is a unique collection of great music and great media for Christmas worship services. Included in this collection are:

- 6 Christmas songs (5 traditional carols in contemporary arrangements, plus an original Christmas worship song) - all accompanied by original videos! For each song, there is a demonstration version, a split/click track version with lyrics, a split track version without lyrics, and a chord chart.

- 6 Long Plays, taken from the accompanying song videos

- 7+ Looping Backgrounds

- 2 Five Minute Countdowns

- A video Sermon Illustration

SPECIAL NOTE: The downloadable individual song packages each contain: MPEG-1 demonstration version, MPEG-1 split/click track version with lyrics, MPEG-1 split/click track version without lyrics, MPEG-1 version of corresponding Long Play loop, and a chord chart. - which I think is pretty cool. Also note that this collection is available in both SD and HD versions!

This just in from SermonSpice: 25% Off Organic Videos: Organic is your source for distinctive backgrounds and one of my favorite producers of motion backgrounds. If you are looking to create a worship environment that communicates the power of the cross in a unique way, check out the Organic Collection. The new Liquid Distressed Collection features textured backgrounds with subtle water motions that will add a touch of motion without distracting worshipers. Right now, the entire Organic Collection of over 800 motion backgrounds is 25% off. Use the coupon code: 25ORG and stock up today. Offer ends November 12th.

EXTRA:

Did anyone catch MuteMath rock Conan O’Brian’s show Wednesday night?

PERSONAL:

I just got back from taking my 2 youngest kids to play Putt-Putt. My middle child is a 5 year old boy and my youngest is a 3 year old girl. My boy got 4 holes-in-one. Watch out Tiger!

If you don’t read WIRED magazine, I highly suggest you check it out. This past month’s issue came with a cool supplement called their “Geekipedia” - “149 people, places, ideas and trends you need to know now”. It’s pretty cool. I’ve asked this before, but I like getting updates. What magazines do you read? How many of you have checked out the new Collide Magazine? On my “Charter Sponsors” page, you can see some other magazines that I subscribe to and recommend. One final question: Do you have a favorite magazine? If so, what is it?