This also means that the Pastor and Music Minister need to be way ahead of the game. Last minute ideas are sometimes great - but rushed projects usually have diminished results.
Since I'm stepping on toes already, let me press down a bit.
Pastors: tell your media team what you're preaching on, if only it is just the theme and basic outline, three to six weeks in advance. This can't always be the case, but it should be the norm, not the exception.
Music Ministers: give your media team the words to the songs and the song list weeks before the service happens. Notify them if you plan on using a drama, and what it will be about.
Why? To allow time to produce spots, or video "shorts" that build up to that new study. To find testimonies that fit within the theme of the message. To get with some people in the church who want to do a drama that fits - and they need to create a small video that sets the stage for the
drama. To advertise this new, life-application series to the lost and dying world in our community, or to our own congregation. To have time to find graphics, clips and sound bites that they will need to get permission to use - and incorporate them into the service itself! That's why.
What about when something big happens, and we need to react quickly to the event? Ah-ha!
You've got me! Or do you...
"Use Available Resources"
Remember Columbine? I was in Las Vegas at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention when that happened. The next weekend (about 10 days later), we had secured footage from CNN ImageSource to create a dramatic, newsy spot that lasted about a minute and a half.
The spot was used to begin the sermon. Images of kids running, police and firemen cautiously entering the building with bullet-proof shields and a boy being pulled from a window and slamming into the side of the vehicle. The audience was rivited.
The footage changed to that of ambulances and a hospital spokesperson counting off the types of gunshot wounds, a father who hadn't heard if his child was dead or alive, and Isaiah Sholes' father in front of a news crew which then dissolved into a shot of him closing his son's casket. A silhouette of the crosses erected on a nearby hill and students praying soon turned into a picture montage. Small box windows of pictures appeared and moved across and around the screen, superimposed on a slowly moving background.
Finally, when the graphic of a gun with the text "Lessons from Littleton" appeared at the end of the spot, the lights came up to reveal the Pastor - already standing behind the pulpit - and his haunting first line "It was Adolph Hitler's birthday." The impact was immense.
This spot was hugely successful...and extremely time consuming. I edited for two solid days to create a minute and a half of content. All other work stopped. This was the focus. The rights to use the footage cost money, too. CNN doesn't give footage away, but the need was great enough
to justify the cost. What a phenomenal return on investment.
"Money! That's the culprit here! You have to actually buy the video footage," says the left-brainer. In some cases, yes. In other cases, you can literally spend 90 minutes and create a spot with a camcorder and a VCR. Let me give you the perfect example.
Experiencing Worship, The Study
Used by churches all over the world to help teach worship, the Experiencing Worship study can help your worship team too.
Your team will learn why we worship and gain a better understanding of how to worship.
One user said..."Your 5 week study course has made a tremendous impact on my life in the study of worship... I would like to express my thanks for a well written study course that leads into a higher realm of praise and worship."
Experiencing Worship, The Study