More than I could ever ask or imagine

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

I love this verse. I’m living proof that it is true.

I have been working at Seacoast Church for just shy of 5 years and it has been an amazing ride. The opportunity to work at this church could not have come a better time, it truly was God’s provision. There is no way to measure all that I have gained during my time here; amazing people, amazing opportunities, and amazing personal growth.

A paragraph like that can only mean one thing – my time at Seacoast is coming to en end.

Seacoast Creative Team – Animal Style

I am excited to report that late last week I received and accepted an offer to join the broadcast team of Joyce Meyer Ministries in Fenton, Missouri. I still can’t wrap my brain around what an incredible opportunity this is… Once again, immeasurably more.

I feel compelled to send out a very special THANK YOU to Shawn Wood and Geoff Surratt; two great friends who were so instrumental in my ‘rescue’ back in 2008. My time working for and with these gentlemen will always be a key component to who I am and am becoming. It’s amazing what one can do when he finds someone who believes in him. Imagine how much more when he finds two.

Thank you so much to Pastor Greg Surratt and the leadership of this great church; it has been my honor to call this place home for a fifth of their 25 years. So much solid bible teaching, so much spirit-filled worship, so many huge-hearted people. I look forward to watching from the mid-west as you continue to help people become fully devoted followers of Christ.

The adventure continues!

Confessions of a Church Video Director: Run Over

This post will start with a visual aid, a moment from my career as a TV camera operator back in 2003 when I was covering an NBA game in Phoenix, AZ.

(Embedded video HERE)

That was my job. Right on the court, just inches from large athletes moving at top speed.

This clip shows just one of the many times that I got run over while on the job.

My hat and glasses went flying. I rolled backwards like a turtle. But the show must go on… so I dusted myself off and got back to work. Just another night at the arena.

Here is where I spin that story into a blog post:

3 years ago, I was working at a church that had hired me to “take them to the next level“. Early on everything was fine; the next level often means changes and the folks there seemed to embrace the changes I was making; sometimes reluctantly, others with a little more vigor.

Taking the job was not easy for my family as it meant moving about 2,200 miles… Moving my wife away from her mother, sister and friends… Moving my daughter away during her junior year of high school.

And then I got run over.

I didn’t realize that I was being run over until about 8 months into the assignment. My character began to be  questioned, my work was minimized, and all of my next level thinking was rebuffed. It was much different than being plowed by a point guard… Rather than being struck, I found my self stuck.

Stuck in a job that was giving me ulcers.

Stuck in a job that was making me seriously question my faith. My calling. My ability to lead my family.

I was completely run over.

One big problem here: This wasn’t the sidelines of a major sporting event, this was a church. A place where people are supposed to be gracious, kind, and supportive. Perhaps I will go into more of the details of all that happened there another time, just understand that by the time that I knew I had to leave, I was near ready to call it quits with church-work and do something else. Fortunately, I found a new job with an amazing church that I love to this day.

My confession: While I love God’s Church with all that I am, some of the wounds that I incurred in my previous position still sting a bit. Much the way an old injury will leave you with a scar or a slight limp, I wonder if I will ever be able to shake all of what happened to me. I want to be all that God wants me to be and I don’t want my past to define my future. People let me down, God didn’t… I can’t ever lose sight of that.

Rather than this muse being just another indictment on the inner-workings of the Church, I’d rather have it be a step in the direction of healing and forgiveness. Maybe you have been hurt by a church’s leadership… maybe you’ve questioned God’s calling…

Maybe you’ve been run over too.

Be encouraged; You will heal. You may lose your hat and your glasses, but you can dust off and go back to work.

For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn. Romans 11:29

Taming the Chaos

As much as we might deny it, the first church service of the weekend, whether it’s Saturday night or first thing Sunday morning, often times really is a dress rehearsal.

There really is no end to the possibilities as to why… The bottom line is that this is the first time that we’re doing this service and there can be bumps in the road.

In one recent Saturday night service, it seemed that Murphy’s Law was going to play out in every possible way… everything that could go wrong, just about did. All of what went haywire really isn’t the point of this post, just know that it was a tense evening in the booth.

The point is this: After it was all over and I had some time to process things and talk to people about how we might avoid some of these snares in the future, I sent out a tweet that said,

“It will never cease to amaze me how chaotic things can be behind the scenes.”

A friend of mine, who is a Technical Director at another church, responded back to me with:

“We just love to tame the chaos.”

Thanks, Rick… That about sums it up!

As I thought about that some more, I realized that it’s a choice to tame the chaos. I’ve worked in the production of live television and events for many years, and in that time I’ve been around some leaders who seem to actually thrive on the chaos and it rarely made things any easier for anyone.

Our gear will fail… people will make mistakes… stuff will happen…

Whether you’re a staff leader at a church or a volunteer who runs the Power Point slides, you must choose to be a chaos tamer. Be quick to do what you can to remedy the problems and even quicker to speak peace over those who you are working with. When things seem to be falling apart, choose to be a strong part of the solution.

A gentle answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.

The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge,
but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.

Proverbs 15:1-2

Moving Pictures; Ideation Part 1

I’ve come to really appreciate the process of “ideation” here of late…

Ideation is an emerging buzzword (c. 2004) representing the creative process of generating, developing, and communicating new ideas, where an idea is understood as a basic element of thought that can be either visual, concrete, or abstract. As such, it is an essential part of the design process, both in education and practice. (from Wikipedia)

Idea-generation is nothing new, necessarily; it’s just a cool way to designate the time and effort necessary in planning the projects that we work on. This is how the process works for me and how it plays into a project I’m currently in the middle of:

Inspiration; This can be, quite literally, anything that gets you thinking about how to execute an idea. It might be a directive from your pastor or leader… it can be a story that you hear from a friend, or something you read about. Maybe the words to a song just beg for visuals… maybe it’s a combination of two or more if these things. Two things came together for me in this new project; it started when I heard a song by Skillet called “Monster”. Music is always an easy pathway to ideas for me; when I hear a cool song, I immediately start thinking about how to shoot a video for it.

(See/hear the song on youtube)

For me, the how comes easy; I can plan and execute a video shoot and easily dive deep into post-production… The bigger question might always be, Why? Is there a purpose for such a video and will that purpose justify the time and resources necessary to do it well? While I may love to shoot and edit, even if it’s just for fun, my boss and my church have certain expectations on my time. If I can find a worthy ‘why’, I will likely have a green light to move forward with an idea.

The second part of this idea came as I pondered the thought about monsters and what I could do with a video, and then I recalled a book that I had read a few years ago by Andy Stanley, “It Came From Within“, where he examines four issues that many of us deal with; guilt, greed, anger, and jealousy. What an amazing match! A song called “Monster” combined with a book that refers to our issues as monsters. This was starting to sound like a pretty cool thing! (Side note: Don’t ever stop reading books; you never know what will spark your next big idea!)

Since the song has a younger feel to it, I figured perhaps the best way to flesh this idea out would be to propose a series for our student ministries where they could break down each of the four monsters over 4 weeks. Then the clincher hit me; why not do something like this in the month of October when, like it or not, the whole monster-thing is rather prevalent? The truth is, even the coolest churches in America will have a group of people that are anti-Halloween… why not try to leverage what is so common in our culture and use it as a backdrop to help students deal with their own monsters? I pitched the idea to our youth pastor and he loved it!

Bottom line: While inspiration can come from many things, it takes time to really put together a good plan to bring a good idea to life.

• Pray: Ask God to give you crazy ideas that will bring Him fame
• Keep a notebook and write down everything that you can come up with (even ideas that seem silly or over your head!)
• Bounce your ideas off some one who you trust. Listen to their feedback; it will help you refine the ideas into real plans.

What does your ideation process look like?

(click HERE for part 2)

What about #26?

My oldest daughter has now started her first real teaching job; she has been given charge over a group of third graders in NW Arkansas. (Her dad is very proud!)

She was told that she would be given a maximum of 25 students, so she prepared her room for that total.

• 25 pencil boxes
• 25 folders
• 25 small white boards
• 25 mail boxes

One problem: she ended up with 26 students.

Now, mind you, I get a huge kick out of this because this is a girl who loves order and symmetry… so by telling her one thing and having it turn out another way makes her crazy! So, for at least a little while, the count on all of her resources will be one-off, and one 8 year old will go without all of the things that his classmates have.

This quickly became a word-picture for me:

Do we prepare our church services thinking that only a certain number of people will show up? Are we limiting ourselves and God with our own expectations?

Lord, please give us at least one more than we expect!

Does the gear matter?

I worked for a golf club manufacturer for several years back-in-the-day… stay with me.

Even though we liked to brag that our product was far superior to the competitor’s clubs, some one would quickly say that the best golfers could play well with a broom stick; it’s much more about the skill that the equipment.

In other words, only a bad craftsman blames his tools.

Right?

I’m not necessarily convinced.

While I will acknowledge that shooting good video does require a certain skill, there has been so much advancement in the technology of camera equipment in the last couple of years that I’m to the point now that I feel like one of the last few church media producers not using a MKII5D (or 7D) on the planet!

While I know that this isn’t true, I will confess that I think about it a whole lot more than I should!

I came across this beautiful piece today… On the title alone, I probably would have gone right by, but the thumbnail showed me that it had been shot on a DSLR; now I had to watch.

Not to take away anything from the beauty of seeing people get dunked in Jesus’ name, it’s always awesome… but I’ve seen dozens of these in the past. This one made me want to watch, all the way to the end, simply because of the beautiful video! (the editing was pretty good too!) For me, this one stands out because of the gear as much as the skill.

So, I’m up for some discussion on this; How much does the gear you use matter to the final product? …and perhaps an even deeper question, how much does the gear (cameras, mics, edit system, etc) affect the impact on the audience? Chime in!

Secrets to More Effective Short Films

Saw this great post from Phil Cooke and knew that I’d have to re-post it here (His blog is consistently amazing; you should subscribe!).

Phil was asked recently how he would encourage all of us to make more effective short films (and I take this to mean anything that we do on video for ministry); this is good stuff!

1. Learn the art of storytelling. We hear the word “story” so much these days, it’s becoming trite, but the truth is, it’s the heart of a great film, TV, or video project. It’s most evident when I receive films and programming sent to me from church media producers around the country. The graphics are great, the music is cool, and the editing is clean. But over and over, I find they don’t know how to tell stories. No matter how short the video, make sure it has a beginning, middle, and end. Take the audience on a journey and make them glad they went on the trip.

2. Understand a “call to action.” Your job as a video director isn’t to impress the audience with your creativity, it’s to compel them toward an action. Perhaps it’s buying the pastor’s new teaching series, coming to an event, or promoting some outreach of the church. Maybe it’s simply illustrating a scripture. Whatever the point, it’s not enough just to tell the story, you also need to call the audience to action. Be creative, but don’t be afraid to be direct, and always be clear. Audiences won’t understand your intention unless you tell them.

3. Finally, move me. If you’re sharing information, use a printed piece or a website. Video is about emotion, so don’t load it down with text or numbers, make it a powerful emotional experience. If it’s a product driven video, then create a sense of urgency. If it’s sharing an update on your homeless ministry, make the audience feel their struggle. Whatever the purpose, don’t just tell me, make me feel it.

I think my favorite part of this is where he says in point 3 about emotion; I think too often, churches (or church people) can get to enamored with the idea of doing everything on video. This can become a bad habit; some information is best conveyed in print or on your church’s website. The use of video should be reserved for telling stories that take people somewhere that they might not otherwise be able to go (literally and figuratively). What stood out to you?

Moving Pictures; Sermon Set-up

In previous posts, I’ve explained that there are many ways to use video elements within the context of a church service; another way is a sermon set-up video… this is different than a series bumper in that it is specifically built for one sermon or teaching. This is a great way to create an atmosphere with a metaphor or word-picture, thus setting up a theme that your pastor will then be able to carry within the live portion of his message. Pieces like this do require some forethought and a good sense for finding the visual elements in a message to build on.

In the following example, Pastor Greg Surratt called me as he was preparing his sermon based on The Book of Acts, chapter 5. He got a great idea on how to illustrate what was happening in the early days of the Church.

In just over 2 minutes, we were able to give the congregation a strong picture to relate to before the real teaching even began.

I encourage you to work with your pastor on thinking visually when the opportunities present themselves; they can turn out to be a good way to prepare people for a great message!

IMAG: Minimize Distraction

My pastor and others who appear on stage (or on video) say that I harp on them too much about what clothing they wear, perhaps you have run into the same angst. I can only hope that they all understand that my chief objective is to make them good as well as minimizing distractions during our worship services. I have a mantra that they are all learning (slowly):

No whites, no blacks, no stripes, no patterns, no plaids! (It has a little bit of a cool rhythm to it, if you say it right!)

Here’s an explanation:

White shirts/tops blow out the camera’s iris with even minimal stage lighting, thus making it very difficult to expose for a person’s skin tone. When I have to iris-down to expose properly for the bright white shirt, the subject’s face ends up very dark. I’m a firm believer that the eyes communicate as much as the mouth; we need to see your face! A little bit of white is OK (under a vest or sweater).

Black shirts pose a problem most when the stage’s background is dark. If the background is completely black, your subject can end up looking like a disembodied head and hands moving strangely across the stage! If you have a pastor who is completely enamored with the color black, suggest dark grays; something that picks up a little bit of light can make all the difference.

Stripes/patterns/plaids – There are a number of reasons that busy patterns can be a nuisance, mostly because they “dance” on screen.

{apologies to Rick Warren for making him the “don’t” example here!}

The other distracting problem with patterns is the potential for conflict with on-screen graphics. At Seacoast, our song lyrics are displayed as a lower-third with no background; a worship leader wearing a ‘loud’ shirt (or a shirt with a graphic design or lettering) can make the lyrics unreadable or confusing. I realize that your worship team is probably really cool, but they need to be mindful of how they look on screen. Everyone owns a solid colored shirt, or at least something that doesn’t pose as much on screen conflict. I’ve been working with our worship teams long enough now that they know that I’m looking out for the best interest of the worship experience and not just coming down on their wardrobe decisions. I have asked them to bring an alternative shirt/outfit if they are unsure about how something might look like on stage/screen.

Shooting Missions Trips and Tours

Summer time seems to be prime time for people to go on mission trips and with more trips including someone who is sent to bring back some good video documentation, I found the following tips to be quite timely! If you, or someone you know, are heading out to capture video on a mission trip, this is a great map shoot by. Special thanks to Dave Schwarz from Prolifik Films for permission to re-post this great information here.

You know the drill… a member of the church production staff goes along to document the (mission) trip.  Of course, there’s no “standard” for doing this, and a big part of the challenge is that most people end up doing it so infrequently (and with no real goal in mind) that we end up with a lot of footage we don’t need—and a lot of missed opportunities.

Even as a church video professional, the day-to-day work of directing IMAG, shooting announcements, or creating a camp promo may not qualify us to shoot footage that can tell a story, communicate a need, and ultimately help change people’s lives.  We’re hopeful that these tips can help us avoid the most common mistakes that we’re all prone to make.

With all of the tapes and drives that we’re going through, we’re seeing a number of common challenges that I’m hoping we can collectively improve upon in the future.  So, here are five tips for shooting missions/tours:

1. Shoot clean. Even as production professionals, all too often our footage ends up looking like a vacation shot on the family camcorder.  Yeah, there’s a lot of walking.  And a lot of standing.  And it’s hot.  And it’s just us.  But that’s no excuse to not shoot clean, intentional shots.  I’d take static, well-framed shots over an hour of pushing, pulling, panning and bobbling.  Who wouldn’t?

2. Move around. If you’re part of a group, do your best to not be IN the group.  Walking down a trail?  Get out in front & shoot a clean shot of people coming towards you.  Hearing from a local pastor?  Get out of the gaggle and get the angles that help illustrate how your church delegates spent their time.  Getting yourself out of the crowd gives you a lot more framing options (including cropping your people OUT of certain shots).

3. Shoot the environment. I’m scrubbing through hours of footage right now looking for a single shot of a dusty road.  Of a goat tied to a tree.  Any exterior of the shanty town.  Seems simple enough, but sometimes it can be hard to think “outside” of the situation we’re in.  You won’t need a high percentage of shots with your own people in them.  In fact, when you get home, the fanny packs and floppy hats will look comical.  Shoot the tour, but once you’ve got it, spend as much time as possible getting clean shots of the environment and it’s people.  If you’re with a SERVING team, that it’s a different story, but don’t forget to capture what that place is like when you’re NOT there.

4. Get illustrative shots. A cross on the side of the road.  A student at a computer.  A mother making a meal.  Workers fixing a bridge.  Someone getting water from a well.  It might not be exactly what you’re there to see, but there are things happening all around you that’ll be a lot more useful than what amounts to a group of tourists standing in a semi-circle looking at something.

5. Don’t be distracted by “the show” A missions tour can have a lot of planned events.  Local song & dance numbers by schoolchildren wearing traditional outfits, etc.  And it’s awesome to see a community put together a program to entertain guests—and we honor them by enjoying it.  But from a shooting perspective, a little bit of that footage will go a long way in the future.  

Under most circumstances, I set up my pocket audio recorder to capture good options for background & transitional music.  I roll a few minutes of video (from several angles) of the singing, dancing & the audience, then I take the opportunity to shoot the environment outside the school or church or hall.  

I’ve been in post-production situations where I’d trade 99% of the “show” footage for a single shot of barbed wire or a farmer in a nearby field.

Is there anything else that you have learned after shooting a mission trip? Feel free to leave a comment so that we can all learn from each other!