Friday Funny

Here is the third installment of our Annual Church Business Meeting spots. This time, it features our editor, Adam. This one is my personal favorite.

Also, for those of you who have inquired about the availability of the pieces for sale:  I'm in the process of encoding an uploading, and I hope to have them on our site, as well as the resellers' sites within the next week or so.

Inaugural Address

This past weekend, we started our new sermon series. Our pastor wanted to do a message series about vision and goal setting (which he does every January), so with the concurrence of a truly historic presidential inauguration, his idea was to do a series titled "Inaugural Address."

So...what do you do with that? Well, this is what we came up with...

All of the audio after the first shot was 100% post-production. None of it is real. Not even the footsteps. I'm the voice of the courier and the announcer at the end, our graphic artist is the voice of the lady, and our editor is the voice of the presidential aide/secret service guy.

I really hope you like it!

Christmas is Over...

...and I'm back to business-as-usual. This week, we finish up our new sermon intro for our new series "Inaugural Address." I may post it once it's done.

We are also working on a new set design that will incorporate some other textures than the normal white-spandex-over-shapes. We'll have some corrugated semi-transparent plastic and some perforated metal panels. I should be able to light behind the plastic, and create some interesting effects. Maybe I'll put up some pics of that too.

Anyway, hope everyone has a great 2009!

Have You Heard of Church 2.0?

My good friend Greg Atkinson hosts a discussion group called Church 2.0. Basically, he travels around the country, putting on local forums to open up the discussion on where the church is and where it's headed.

Here are the links:

Greg's Blog

Church 2.0 Facebook

Church 2.0 Blog

Personally, I'm very fond of Greg, and I certainly appreciate his Kingdom-mindedness. He's helped me out with Crossroads Creative, and he's opened his doors to me at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship, where he works. He is a well-connected guy, speaking at conferences and conventions around the country.

Greg doesn't make any money off of Church 2.0 forums. He's just a very generous guy, doing his part to help open up the dialog.

If you're in the Boston, Tulsa, or Portland areas, I strongly encourage you to be a part of what God is doing through Church 2.0.

2009's Coming...

...And today we plan for it. We'll be in meetings all day, discussing our goals and dreaming together for what God has in store for Crossroads Church in 2009. We'll also do our calendar-clearing marathon, which is always...ahem...interesting. It usually involves our incredibly busy youth department vying for spots against our even-more-incredibly busy children's department. I am more than content to just sit back and watch the carnage!

Crossroads Creative/Crossroads Church Media Dept. 2009 Goals:

- Finish addition of 2 cameras (5 total)

- Better local marketing (TV/radio/print)

- Continued Crossroads Creative distribution

- New Crossroads Church website

- Train and utilize more production & presentation personnel

- More involvement in staff's & volunteers' lives

- Continue streamlining of policies & procedures

- Expand/create relationships in local arts community

- Use majority of equipment budget towards gear in new building

The last one is a direct result of us possibly not having enough money to do everything we want to do technology-wise, so I'm taking most of my equipment budget for 2009 and 2010 and, instead of using it on our current facility, putting it towards new gear in the new building.

Pray for us as we go about our 2009 planning.

One thing I am totally looking forward to is seeing my wife give her premier goals as our new women's ministry director. I'm totally proud of her.

Oh, yeah, by the way, we'll cap off the day with a trip to Baton Rouge to eat at the most beloved P.F. Chang's. It's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it!

Dallas Trip, Part 8 and I'm Done

I really had a great time on my trip. I saw some great facilities, saw some great gear, and met some great guys.

What I took away most from the experience is this:  Dallas tech guys have it going on. Why do I say this?

They all have a spirit of excellence. Neat departments, well-run programs.

They share a mutual respect for each other. To take it a step further, I'll go as far as to say that they all share a real love for each other. When Greg Atkinson asked me where all I was going, he offered nothing but glowing praise of his comrades. When I told Ryan Howell I'd be going to see Greg Davis, he said, "You're gonna love him and Fellowship." Greg Bacus had a really boyish smile when I mentioned Watermark. When one of them has something new going on, they all get together, have lunch, then check it out...together.

Obviously, these aren't the only guys doing great things in the Dallas area. These are just the ones I was fortunate enough to meet. They've inspired me to try to start up a forum of tech and creative people here in Lafayette.

But that's another post for another day...

Dallas Trip, Part 2 of Many

The last week of August, I flew up to Dallas to check out some large churches there, because Crossroads Church is building a 1500-seat auditorium. I got to make some great new friends.

My first stop was at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship, where Greg Atkinson serves as the Director of Technical Arts. Greg is a highly influential and well-connected guy, and I'm sure he had plenty of things he could have been doing, other than giving me the tour of their truly awesome facility.

Here are the pics...

This is their baptistry in the foyer. This photo doesn't do it justice... 

This is their coffee shop. really cool...

Here's a shot of their auditorium...

And here I am with the man...

(By the way, I'm 6 feet tall. Greg is like 9'47").

Their facility is simply beautiful, and extremely (and tastefully) well-done. We capped off our visit with a trip to La Hacienda. If you've read his blog, you've heard of it. Thanks again, Greg, for your hospitality.

Tomorrow, Fellowship Church.

Vision

We hear a lot of talk about vision.  We're told that "without vision, the people perish."  Some would say that you'll never prosper financially unless you can envision yourself in that lifestyle.

But what about vision for the church media guy?

My vision, which I'll admit is sometimes (often) limited, has less to do with our weekend services than does the vision of (wait for it, this is going to be revolutionary to the ENTIRE church media community) my pastor.  So often, we creative folks thrust our vision (and our agenda) onto the pastor, but I believe we do our jobs best when we let his vision be thrust upon us, then do what we can to accommodate that vision.

I recently read a new Christian arts-type magazine.  They're just on the market.  It was one of the cooler things I've seen in a while. There were articles on creativity, relevance, pop culture, relevance, music, relevance...well, you get the picture.  What I didn't find therein was anything relating to finding out what your pastors wants and executing THAT.  Although everything in the magazine was cool, and correct, I just found that last little bit of information lacking.

You want to have a successful church media ministry?  You want to have people touched by what you do? You want to keep your job? Learn the vision of your pastor.  A somewhat well-done video piece that falls in line with where the pastor is going will do far more than the most slickly-produced video filled with eye (and ear - can't forget the audio guys!) candy that doesn't take the audience from where the pastor is to where he is going.

Fortunately, I serve a pastor with great vision, and he gives me 99.762% creative control over what we produce (the other .238% drives me nuts, and he knows it). You may not find yourself in that position.  But trust me, learning his vision, and catering to it, will go much farther towards bringing the changes you'd like to see than imposing your views on him.  But guess what, if those changes never come, you still have to serve his vision.

On another note, we shot a video piece with my 7-year-old daughter yesterday.  It's a sermon intro for our Thanksgiving series.  When it's done, I'll post it.