Browsing Category: Visual Worship

Understanding Is Not Our Job

A question I get asked often, and one that I’ve asked myself, is “How do we as visual worship leaders help the congregation understand the visual media we use?”

The conclusion I’ve come to is this: getting the congregation to understand the visual elements we as visual worship leaders use during worship is not our job.

Art is by nature open to interpretation – each person is going to walk away with a slightly different understanding. The same is true of the message given by the pastor on a Sunday morning – each person, based on where they’re at in their journey, their past experiences, etc., is going to walk away with a slightly different understanding. And that’s okay!

I’m not sure we’re asking the right question when we ask “How do we help the congregation understand?” Perhaps a better question is “How do we help the congregation engage with visual media?” Although I think we have to be careful in defining what “engaged” looks like as it too looks slightly different for everyone. And while I contend that understanding isn’t our job, I think we do have a responsibility to invite people to engage with the visual media in worship…to create an environment where people feel free to worship with their eyes and through their eyes. I think without that we fail to lead…without the invitation to participate I think it can quickly become a show for ourselves. It is no different than the invitation a musical worship leader offers for people to join their voices in song.

So what exactly does that look like in a service? There are as many answer to that question as there are churches. But, based on my experience, here are a few things I’ve seen work:

  • A couple of sentences in a bulletin or program of some sort literally inviting people to engage with the visuals and helping them feel free to walk away with a meaning that is significant to them.
  • A similar message to the above but one that appears on the screen before the worship service.
  • I think the most powerful is an announcement from the “stage.” Whether that announcement comes from the pastor or the music worship leader, taking two minutes to invite people to engage visually in worship and conveying the freedom to find meaning in the visuals is extremely powerful.

Whatever it looks like in your environment, don’t worry so much about understanding…that’s something we can’t really control, but don’t forget the invitation.

Have you seen this done in your church’s worship environments? If so, how?

Comment Visual Worship

Live it. Sing it. See it. Worship.

A couple of weeks ago, Stephen Proctor wrote this post about 3D Worship. The idea is that worship has 3 dimensions – up, across, and out. If you haven’t read it, you should. I think we are pretty good at expressing the up dimension most of the time and even doing well with the across dimension. The whole out dimension, however, I think the Church struggles with. We sing a lot of songs about “out” but how often do our visuals reflect that? I don’t think they do a lot of times. How often does worship flow from being focused on the out? Sadly, I don’t think very often. I would contend that part of that is because we aren’t living the out. When we live the out, the out dimension of worship flows naturally – both as we worship corporately and how we as visual worship leaders lead.

Last week I had the opportunity to lead some visual worship for just under a 100 teens at Hope Experience in Memphis. First, let me say, if you don’t know Paul Briney, you need to! Truly an example of a worship leader. Not someone who stands up to perform but someone who stands in front of a group of people broken and humbly pouring out his heart to lead others to worship freely from their hearts. That makes an incredible difference. If that isn’t happening, I’m not sure that what I put up on a screen is going to matter a whole lot. Leading and serving with Paul and all of the others involved was truly an honor. There were some incredibly powerful moments in worship but I wanted to share my top three. Moments that I look at and say “Thank you, Jesus! This is how it should all work together.” Moments where the music and the images on the screen become the backdrop and people are truly worshiping freely and with their whole hearts.

Moment #1:
Song: You are Here (Same Power) by Hillsong
Media: Christ in Me Longplay from worshipVJ
Context: The constant prayer for the week was “Christ, may you live in us. May we reflect your love. May you be glorified.” As we were serving the community, that was our focus – to share the hope that we have because Christ lives in us. We prayed it, we lived it, then we sang it and saw it on a screen. We worshiped.
Why it moved me: First, I simply LOVE this longplay. LOVE it! On this particular night we were worshiping and I looked at the three slides that were coming up and where the video was at. This was one of those God orchestrated moments where the words & the video timing matched up and I paused the video on this screen. Sure, the image wasn’t crystal clear & polished as a result but it fit. It worked with the mood and couldn’t be more perfect for the words. And we all worshiped – fully, freely, from our hearts.

Moment #2:
Song: God of this City by Bluetree
Media: Walking Street Sample (I think I got this for guessing the fact that Proctor didn’t like the use of Papyrus in Avatar:)) You can find a similar loop on the new Playback Drive though. As well as self created photo video.
Context: Serving the city of Memphis every day – taking Christ’s light to the darkness, His hope to the hopeless, & His peace to the restless. We lived it then we sang it and saw it on a screen.
Why it moved me: I can’t tell you how many times in my life I’ve sang that song. And on different occasions in different contexts and at different points in my personal journey it has had unique significance. But, last week I think tops them all. When you are spending your days serving a city like Memphis and you see the darkness and have the chance to bring Christ’s light & hope this song takes on a whole new meaning! We sang this on the last night of worship. Paul encouraged everyone to worship freely – some gathered together to pray, some wrote prayers on posters outside that had been filling up throughout the week, some reflected silently, and some sang their hearts out. During the last Chorus we cut the lyrics and put up some images from the week of the hope that had been given. Wow! Talk about out. Talk about brining it home. What a powerful moment to be singing “You, God, are the God of this city…you are the hope to the hopeless,” while looking at images of how He had used us to give hope to the city of Memphis that week.

Moment #3: Acoustic Worship
One night we turned it all off. Lights off. Candles. Very few background images – lots of white text on a black screen. Everyone seated in a semi circle surrounding the candles – not facing the worship leader. A guy and his guitar. It was beautiful. We sang many of the same songs we had sung throughout the rest of the week but it’s amazing what a different feel they take on when you curate a completely different worship environment. My favorite part about it was the set up. Paul came to me about two hours before worship and told me what the plan was. He pointed to a box of candles and said he wanted them put on a platform around the projector and then the chairs arranged in a semi circle. I asked what the platform was going to be. The answer: whatever you can find. What I could find were three bread crates/trays, two empty coolers, and a case of bottled water. Arrange these items and you get a platform with some height variety. Cover it all in a couple of black sheets and place the candles on top. Done.

Did I mention our screen for the week was a full size white sheet pinned and duck taped to the wall? And that we had to cover the to windows behind it with black garbage bags to kill the light? It was great!! Seriously, it all reminded me once again that the tools are only part of the equation. Having a full stage sized, professional, triple-wide screen can be great and a powerful tool in leading worship. But so can a simple projector on a simple white sheet pinned to the wall in a gathering room with terrible acoustics at a camp outside of Memphis. At the end of the day, it’s about the heart and the focus. Through the words that were spoken, the Scripture that was read, the songs that were sung, and the media that was used people’s attention was directed not only up and across but out. And really the three dimensions intersected because one amplified another. As Proctor likes to say, the screen became a window to the world, not simply a mirror. But I think in order for that to happen we first have to live it. Then, we can sing about it and see it on and through a screen while worshiping fully and freely from the heart in a whole new way.

8 Comments Missions, Visual Worship

In One Month You’ll Hear the Echo

I really cannot tell you how incredibly excited I am that one month from today I’ll be in Dallas, TX with countless friends on the eve of the Echo Conference. Stephen Proctor described Echo as a pilgrimage to Mecca. And that’s exactly what it is for many of us in the church.

Beyond the fact that the brains behind this conference strive to push us all to better understand the heart and the WHY behind what we do (which I’m a big fan of) there really are countless great reasons to go. If you want to read some check out Proctor’s post, or perhaps this one from Tim Schraeder, or the Echo website. But, I’m only going to give you one reason: community. Yes there will be great speakers and and breakout sessions and I’m looking forward to learning a lot, but more than that I am looking forward to connecting and re-connecting with other creative/tech types in the church, members of my tribe. Echo is an opportunity to take the online community offline and have face to face conversations which is so important. Not only will you foster existing relationships but you’ll develop new ones.

If you aren’t registered yet, do it…today. And, if you head on over to worshipvj.com and check out his post you may even be able to save yourself some money on registration before July 1st. If you’re going to be there, let me know! I’d love to connect!

P.S. -For all you visual worship tribe folks, we’ll be hosting a late night Visual Worship Roundtable. Community bonus!

Comment Technology, Visual Worship

A STORY You Don’t Want to Miss

I am a huge proponent of taking online community offline. I believe it’s vital to fostering dialogue and relationships among tribes in the church. And if you are part of the creative tribe in the church, then STORY is an opportunity to take the online offline that you’re going to want to check out.

What is STORY?

I’m glad you asked. It’s a conference for the creative class in ministry. For those of you who hear the word “conference” and immediately stop reading, please don’t! STORY will be different. If you are an artist, writer, or producer in the church STORY is designed to fuel your creativity and inspire you as you strive to communicate the greatest story ever told. Check out some of the great creative voices both in ministry and the marketplace that you will have a chance to hear from at STORY:

Dan Allender – best-selling author, professor at Mars Hill Graduate School

Charlie Todd – creator of Improv Everywhere in New York City

Princess Zulu – AIDS victim from infancy, advocate for the oppressed

Jason Fried – founder of 37Signals, creator of Basecamp, author of Rework

John Sowers – president of Donald Miller’s The Mentoring Project

Shauna Niequist – former creative director at Mars Hill, author of Bittersweet

David Hodges – formerly of the band Evanescence, award-winning songwriter

Leonard Sweet – futurist, author of 40 books, professor at Drew University

David McFadzean – creator of Home Improvement, producer of Roseanne

Richard Walter – accomplished screenwriter and professor of film at UCLA

Sean Gladding – member of Communality, a new monastic community

Andrew Klavan – author of True Crime (Clint Eastwood) and numerous novels

Gary Dorsey – founder of Pixel Peach Studio in Austin, TX

Music by Vicky Beeching, Kari Jobe and Carlos Whittaker

When & Where is STORY?

STORY will be held September 23-24, 2010 at Park Community Church in downtown Chicago. Come for STORY and stay to experience life in the city for the weekend.

What is the Format?

STORY will be a two-day, main-stage event. While there won’t be any breakouts or workshops, there will be time for questions and dialogue both during and after the event.

Interested? Click here to register. Seating is limited to just 500 attendees and half of the seats have already been sold, so don’t wait!

Comment Creativity, Visual Worship

#Pbhd Review

This box arrived on Friday with the beautiful Orange Thread Media logo and I was EXCITED to say the least. I’ll admit I was skeptical of the whole Playback Drive idea in the beginning – you can ask any of the guys involved, I shared my thoughts. But, I honestly believe it’s a valuable tool for churches and have now bought one myself. So, I thought I’d take a minute to share some of my thoughts on the content of the drive.

Note: If you’re looking for a more technical review of the Playback Drive check out this post from Chris Rouse or the Playback Drive website for specs. Yes, the tools are important, but my main concern with this post is the art. So, here we go.

I’ll say right away, if you are looking for a drive full of very literal content (waterfalls that are too good to be true, wooden crosses photoshopped onto a sunset background, a crowd full of fake looking worshipers with their hands raised in the air, etc) then the Playback Drive probably isn’t for you.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for more artistic expressions of those very same concepts and ideas then the Playback Drive is most definitely for you!

There was a long period of time where I avoided using still images because they all looked the same. In my opinion, they looked computer generated and lacked an element of interest. The people at Awake Images and Thr-ve (also the minds behind Simple Backs) have redeemed the use of still imagery for me. And a ton of their content is included is included FREE as a BONUS on the drive! Visual Worshiper (Camron Ware) also has some great stills.

I can honestly say that I can see myself using most of the loops during a worship service. There are some I would probably never use not because they’re not good quality, but simply because they don’t fit the environment of my current church. But, there is a good variety of textures and colors included in the content which are great for setting different tones in a worship environment.

I had people ask me before I purchased the drive if I thought it would be a good resource. I can honestly say now that yes, I think it’s a great resource. However, I will say that you have to be ready to make the content work for your environment and that may mean stepping a bit outside of the comfort zone you’ve been in with regards to media. I know I’ve been guilty of underestimating people’s ability to understand what’s communicated visually and therefore thought I had to be as literal as possible with everything. I have come to learn the value of using visual media to set a tone or create a mood and trust that it will speak to people in different ways depending on their experiences and that’s okay.

Bottom line, the content on the Playback Drive is quality. And I believe it’s content that will push churches to a new level in regards to worship media. If your church isn’t there but you want to get there, buy the drive. If you are there but need new content to keep things fresh, get the drive.

Oh, and did I mention that you’ll get a new clip each month if you purchase the drive?

One more thing, if you want a closer look at some of the content for yourself and have 45 minutes to spare, check out this PBHD Guided Tour video from Stephen Proctor.

Comment Visual Worship

Lion King 1 1/2 meets Flickering Pixels

I was reading the book “Lion King 1 1/2” today to a 5 year old. She was loving the story of course because she has seen the movie countless times. I on the other hand, didn’t even know there was a Lion King 1 1/2…really?…they couldn’t come up with a better title? But, I’m reading along and this part of the story happens (Actual lines from the movie. Scene: Timon has left his family and is headed in search of paradise when he runs into Rafiki)

Timon: …I want to live in some beautiful place, outside…a carefree place where I don’t have to hide or worry.

Rafiki: Whoo! Hoo hoo hoo! Life without worry. You seek Hakuna Matata.

Timon: Harpoon a tomato?

Rafiki: Hakuna Matata, it means “no worries.”

Timon: Perfect! Mind taking that stick of yours and drawing me a map, bub?

Rafiki: (hits Timon with his stick) To find it, you must look beyond what you see.

Timon: What the heck is that supposed to mean?

Rafiki: It means look beyond what you see!

Timon: Beyond what I see. Ha. Get a load of the monkey, gettin’ all existential on me. Beyond what I see. Hmmm…beyond what I see…..

My mind immediately went to Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps which I just finished reading a couple of weeks ago. Living a “carefree life,” a life where we are not controlled by the objects or tools or technology around us is as simple as looking beyond what we see. We have to look beyond the mediums to the impact they have on us. When we do that, we gain understanding and in time, hopefully wisdom. With understanding and wisdom we are not controlled by the mediums and can live “carefree.”

What do you think? Have I just gone crazy reading Disney books?

And you can thank me for the song you’ll have in your head the next couple of hours

Comment Technology, Visual Worship