Church Video Ideas

Me with my intern, Jonathan, on the top of our hotel (108th floor).

Jonathan and I on the world’s tallest thrill ride

Eating at the “Top of the World” restaurant with Jonathan and Brian Davis

Me with the band from Blue Man Group

Me with some locals on the street

Me with the “number companies”: From left to right - Lee from eleven72, Tom from eight20eight, me in the middle, Storme from eleven72 and Matt from Forty One Twenty.

* More info coming soon on my first “Church 2.0” class and the SMS tool I used for class participation.

OUR HOTEL:

Today I fly to Las Vegas to speak at NAB. I bring with me a crew of friends: my Video Intern - Jonathan, Brian Davis (Tech Director at Fellowship Dallas - who’s sharing a hotel room with me and my intern) and the volunteer leader of our Video Team - who’s going with his company. His company, Splash Media, just finished a huge project that you may have heard about - Adobe TV. I’m proud to say that our Video Team leader just headed up this project and oversaw the production of the videos you see on Adobe TV HERE.

My friend and member of our local tech director group, Kip Kendrick, arrived this past weekend and so we’ll catch up with him today, too. You know I’m a networker and love hanging out with peers, so I’m pumped about this trip. I have several tech director friends from around the country that I’m meeting up with and hanging out with.

Here’s a brief overview of my schedule for the next 3 days:

• Today - Arrive this morning in Vegas. Go to NAB and walk the exhibit floor. Check into our hotel, walk around the strip a bit and go see the Blue Man Group at night.
• Tuesday - We have a tech director lunch at 11:30am, where tech folks from around the country will meet and greet and eat! At 3pm, I lead a class on worship presentation software, where EasyWorship, MediaShout and ProPresenter will go head-to-head. Tuesday night, I bring 5 friends with me to see KA.
• Wednesday - At 9am, I teach my first “Church 2.0” class. I’ll be teaching this a few more times this year, but this will be the first time. I’m excited about this. I believe we’re going to try to video it and put it up on YouTube and GodTube for those of you that can’t make it to watch. Wednesday evening I fly back home and reunite with my family.
• Thursday - Meetings and playing catch-up at the church.

EXTRA:
Sometime this week, we plan on experiencing the following: The fountain show at the Bellagio. The Lady of the Lake show at the Wynn and the restaurant and rides atop our hotel, which you can see HERE. For more technical info on what it takes to do the Lady of the Lake show at the Wynn read THIS (scroll to the bottom).

EXTRA, EXTRA:

Yesterday’s service was great. Our pastor’s dad, Stuart Briscoe, preached and was a blessing to us all. Our pastor, Pete, and his parents have a radio show called “Telling the Truth“. You can listen to them daily online or via your local radio station. For more info go HERE.

BONUS:
I put some bigger (easier to see) pictures up of our Good Friday service. You can go back to the post to see them HERE. I’ll have a few Easter pics soon.

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.

Why God? - I asked that a lot yesterday. My morning flight was canceled yesterday (along with about 500 other flights). I still arrived around 11am to see if I could get on an earlier flight to Nashville (they had re-booked me on a 7:15pm flight). I spent the whole day going from Nashville flight to Nashville flight (all over the DFW airport) - waiting on standby with a hundred other people. Many times I came close, but never got on an earlier flight. I ended up taking that 7:15pm flight (which left at 8:30pm) and arrived in snowy Nashville at 10pm.

That’s right - Nashville looks like a winter wonderland. My best friend picked me up and we drove slowly back to his house, looking at wrecks all along the highways. From snow to snow. I’m here through Tuesday and the high temperature of my entire trip is supposed to be 40 degrees. I might be looking at another crazy day at the airport on Tuesday!

Anyway, I’m off to NRB and getting ready for my class this afternoon. See some of you soon!

If all goes well, I should be on my way to Nashville for NRB today. I was planning on having lunch in Nashville, but as I type this (Thursday night) there are hundreds of flights delayed out of DFW. I’m just hoping I make it in time for my class on Saturday! Pray for me. If you’re there - holla!

EXTRA:
I really Easter v.2 from Igniter Media Group. Not only are the stills and loops very usable, but they’re creative, edgy, artsy, and just plain cool. The video “Because He Lives” is a home-run. And to top it all off - they have an HD version of everything, which is crucial for my church now. Well done, Igniter!

UPDATE:
The snow canceled my flight this morning. They originally re-booked my flight for tomorrow night, meaning I would miss my class tomorrow afternoon. I called and got on a flight that leaves tonight. I’m going to go ahead over to the airport and see if I can catch an earlier flight. I’m still coming Nashville!

I’m looking forward to seeing some of you later this week at NRB in Nashville. Several of you have emailed me and asked to meet up. If you’re going to be at NRB or live in Nashville, give me a shout (greg@churchvideoideas.com).

Saturday I’ll be speaking in the class: “On-Air Church – 10 Attributes of a Winning Program” at 3:45pm - 5:15pm. Sunday, I’ll be part a panel called “How’d You Do That? The Ultimate Q&A”, also from 3:45pm - 5:15pm. The “Ultimate Q&A” class is a chance for you to ask me and a few other panelists anything you’d like. I always enjoy participating in this class at NRB!

Also, Saturday, I’ll be attending the Church Media Reception at 9pm. If you’re going to be there, I’d love to meet you.

Next month I’ll be teaching two classes at NAB in Las Vegas. On Tuesday, April 15th, I’ll be teaching “Which Worship Presentation Software is Right for Your Church?” at 3pm. This class will feature representatives from EasyWorship, MediaShout and ProPresenter. *** I want to make it clear that though we use EasyWorship at my church, I stand behind and endorse all 3 of the above mentioned companies. I encourage churches to try the free downloads of all three and see which is best for their church. ***

On Wednesday, April 16th at 9am, I’ll be teaching “Church 2.0″ - a class based on my upcoming book. This class will stretch and challenge your definition of creativity and innovation. I’ll be talking about Church 2.0 churches and Church 2.0 leaders.

I’d like to once again mention and thank my sponsors for both NRB and NAB: SermonSpice is sponsoring my classes at NRB. eleven72 and ProPresenter are sponsoring my classes at NAB.

I’ll talk more about other conferences I’m speaking at in future blog posts, but for now, would like to simply mention 2 brand new conferences that I’ll be speaking at. Interestingly enough, both are taking place in my hometown of Dallas, TX. One is ECHO and the other is Fusion ‘08. I’d encourage you to check them both out. If you attend one or both of these in Dallas, we can work out a time to come visit Bent Tree!

EXTRA:

I’ve been re-reading “Let the Nations Be Glad” by John Piper (the revised and expanded 2nd edition). What a great read. I forgot how much of my philosophy and feelings about worship and missions were shaped by this book. If you haven’t read it, I strongly urge you to check it out HERE.

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.

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!

Today I left at 5am for Atlanta. I’ll be in one long meeting all day and fly home late tonight. Pray for strength. I thought I’d link you to THIS article on “Saying Thanks” - as the Thanksgiving season quickly approaches.