This year at UNLEASH 2009 I finally attended a breakout session that was well organized and planned with excellent points and examples.  That session would be Video & Motion Graphics with Ken Wilson and team of truly gifted people.  Ken is the Visual Director at NewSpring Church and has the blog avclub.  I have watched these guys just get better and better.  Here are some points from their session at UNLEASH 2009 for you to chew on.  I won’t share them all because they were extensive.  Underneath each point will be some of my thoughts.  Hopefully the full notes of all the sessions will be up on the UNLEASH 2009 site SOON.

è    Be willing to sacrifice an idea

Even great ideas sometimes just don’t fit.

è    File ideas for later

Those great ideas might just have been premature but are useable the next project.

è    Collaborate

Be willing to work with others.  Great ideas usually come out of brainstorming session or two with others.

è    Dare to stretch

è    Sweat the pre-production

Attention to detail is crucial in planning and set up for just about everything but most certainly for video and motion graphic projects.

è    Be resourceful

Sometimes you just don’t have the budget to do what you have in your mind so you have to become resourceful and make the best you can with what you have.  You would be surprised what you can do with cheap junk.  Also something that you use for one project can be repurposed for another project.  We do this props all the time.

è    Sweat the post-production

Attention to detail is very important here too.  You can really make a project shine in post-production with some editing magic.

è    Tie things together

Make sure all the elements of you project come together to become one message.

è    Maintain proper perspective

Don’t let your project become the message.  It is an element to support and/or enhance the message but not to stand alone.

è    Watch your ego

I think this goes back to the first point of being willing to sacrifice an idea or certainly a big part of it.

è    Manage distractions

I think this comes down to time management.  You know what needs to be done on a project and how much time it is approximately going to take so manage your time wisely.  Set deadlines.

è    Read inspiring media

Magazines are a great resource for finding ideas.  I also watch movies, television shows, commercials and You Tube videos just catch some ideas.

è    Use what you have

This goes back to being resourceful.  Sometimes what you need to pull off an idea is already on your campus somewhere.

è    Creativity cost time

This is more for pastors and others that demand videos and motion graphics that if you want something great then remember that it takes time.  We take your message or sermon series concept and run with it so give us the time we need to make it fit.

è    Remember why you do this

When it comes down to it this all for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  He is the one that had made us creative and given the talent to make content that will support His Word.  We are serving Him and His Church.

One of the breakout sessions that I attended at Unleash was Technical Production with Joel Yates who is the Technical Director at NewSpring Church.  You could tell that Joel was exhausted and he told us why.  But he also shared that the Lord had been working on him and shared that God had impressed on him that “it’s not a job it’s about serving the church.”  That reminded me of an exchange on Facebook notes with one of my bright and shining stars in media ministry.  Josh is 17, very smart and apparently shares some of the frustration and passion that I do in the church.  Check out Josh’s note and my response below that.

First off, this is not pointing fingers, these are just some thoughts i had, and felt like sharing. Leave feedback and whatnot if u agree/disagree/whatever

God Bless,
Josh

Josh I understand where you are coming from but what would change if we focused more on Jesus?  What would that look like?

Let me speak to my heart since God has given me the responsibility of leading this ministry.  My spiritual gifts are discernment and prophesy.  That means I see and understand things that many others may or may not.  In addition to that God has given me the specific talent of knowing and understanding technology and how to use it.  I’m also very tasked oriented so I’m more inclined to be concerned with the task at hand than I am with person performing the task.  That does not mean that the task is more important than the person but I know that I come across that way often and I’m working on it.

What I want everyone serving in media ministry to understand is that worship is not just Sunday morning singing praise, lifting hands, praying etc.  Worship is giving yourself to God for His purpose for you.  Romans 12:1 says that we are to give ourselves as a living sacrifice which is our reasonable act of worship or as the NLT says, “This is truly the way to worship him.”   I love the way that The Message puts Romans 12:1-3

 ¹So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.  ²Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Worship is us offering everything we do to God and doing it for His glory and purpose.  That means that when we serve at church in mixing sound, presenting video, singing, playing an instrument etc. that we are not making everything work and run perfectly for us but for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Colossians 3:23-25 tells us to,

 “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. ²⁴Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. ²⁵But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites. 

So you see when we are striving to make everything work and striving for excellence we are focusing on Jesus because He has commanded us to do everything as if we are doing it for Him and hopefully we are doing it for Him and that would be doing this for the right reason.

So blog readers, what do you think?

Third question that churches should be asking.

Are we serious about reaching the world?

Perry jumped into this one with both feet.  Check out these definitions.  These are not the whole definition.  I couldn’t write fast enough.

“Contemporary…our pastor wears a sweater vest…”

“Blended…no one will proclaim where we stand.” “…in order to keep everyone happy we reach no one.”

I think I can honestly say that I serve at a blended church.

“Missional…no one is showing up so we picked a term to describe our dysfunction.”

“Emergent…we are a bunch of former church kids who have a problem with authority including scripture.  We side with satan to question God.”

This past Monday Perry expanded on his definitions of terminology in the church in the post.

These posts are only a fraction of what Perry was bringing to us.  To really grasp the whole thing you need to watch the session.  Check it out here or visit the Unleash 2009 website for this video and so much more.

Second question that churches should be asking.         Are we willing to work?

Perry had a lot to say about the church being known for what it is against than what it is for.  We have become very accustomed to condemnation, boycotting and trying to make people that don’t know Christ act as if they do.  Perry pointed out some of the hypocrisy with this statement;

“Baptist criticize beer but not the buffet.”

Perry then talked about the church being good about praying for change in their church and community but not willing to take action.  Often God is at work but we don’t lift our heads long enough to see what God is doing.

“If you want change you have to do more than pray.”

Perry had some sub points under this question:

Investigate the obvious

Are you doing things in your church that if you were not on staff you would not be a part of or attend?  Is there anything that you have to manufacturer energy for?  You know that there are programs that are still in place just because of a few people.  There are people serving in areas of ministry that they have no business serving.

Ignore the jackass

“In Greek jackass is translated as blogger”

There will always be detractors to your ministry.  There will be people that call themselves Christians who will viciously attack you.  Ignore them.

You will have people in your church who complain about wanting to go deeper or wanting more worship.  Ignore them.

“You’re only as deep as the last person you served.”

“’I want more worship’.  You have 6 other days…”

Perry Noble’s first main session was directed at the church as a whole.  He had 3 questions the church should be asking.

When listening to Perry speak it is often difficult to get everything that he is saying but I will give you mostly quotes from him that were meaningful to me as well as the main points.

Perry started out talking about Jesus’ interaction with Peter in Mathew 16 in which verse 18 states ¹⁸Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

“The Church belongs to Jesus”

“Instead of building His church we are building our church”

First question: Are we willing to embrace change?

Perry was speaking of how denominational church have been in a decline of membership for the last 20 years when he made this statement,

“When the church is as valuable to us as the stock market we will do something different…”

Perry spoke of the thing in the church that has become sacred to the point of being worshipped.  For example, the organ.

“When was the last time you stuck an organ music CD in your player to jam to.”

“The Church is dying because we are not willing to change”

On a personal note I don’t know how many times that I have seen ideas proposed and vision presented that have been dismissed, ignored or brushed off because no one is willing to change or even attempt change.

Acts 1:14 - 15 (NLT) ¹⁴They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus.  ¹⁵During this time, when about 120 believers were together in one place, Peter stood up and addressed them. 

Perry used this passage to show the beginning of the early church where it shows this relatively small number of believers who were manageable.

“If your church is manageable the God is not in it.  You can’t manage a movement of God.  You can’t plan a movement of God.”

Acts 2:41 (NLT) ⁴¹Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all. 

3000!  That early church went from 120 to 3,120 in one day!  Let me see someone explain that church growth model.  You can’t explain a movement of God.  Could you imagine if that happened today?  It would make some people extremely uncomfortable.  There are people at my church that are scared to death that they won’t know everybody at the church.  I believe that they would cap membership if allowed.  That makes it a social club, not a church.  As I have said before, I don’t care if people know me but I do care if they know Jesus Christ or not.

“We have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable”

Acts 4:32 - 37 (NLT) ³²All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had.  ³³The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all.  ³⁴There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them  ³⁵and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need. ³⁶For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus.  ³⁷He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles. 

“The church must be willing to make financial changes”

“Never let money drive a decision, let the voice of God drive the decision”

“Spend money on your youth…the world is.”

Another area that Perry spoke on where churches are unwilling to change is to work with each other.  We are too busy trying to out do each other and letting pride and ego get in the way of the mission.  Our area has recently seen a boom in population to I believe the number is 65,000.  There are no churches in our area that have 1000 in attendance on Sunday.  There are more than enough unchurched and dechurched people in our community to fill every seat in every church in our area and still see growth.

“We need to get out of the business of competing with each other and start completing each other.”

Stay tuned for question 2 that church should be asking…

  Another great thing about Unleash 2009 is always the music.  Worship Leader Lee McDerment and group were awesome.  They were playing a few songs from Lee’s album A Matchlight in the Dark in which all attendees received a CD.  They sound better every time I hear them.  Oh, and the CD is incredible.  A nice mix of rockin’ and softer tunes that are all worshipful.

Joel Yates knows his auditorium and how to get the best sound.  They also did a great job with set design and lighting.  I loved the new (at least to me) use of the big screen at the rear of center stage that was displaying motion graphics while the side screens were IMAG.  Another great touch was the RGB LED tubes that were mounted all around the stage that were displaying the same colors that were on the large center screen.  It gave the lighting a whole new dimension.

There was great lighting in the new youth building FUSE auditorium as well.  I love the touch of back lighting to give the illusion of a dawn or dusk sky with the tree silhouettes.  See photo. 

NewSpring has built and awesome space for kids and youth.  Perry Noble is not kidding when he says that they invest in their kids.

As we were all leaving volunteers were handing out sealed envelopes.  All the participating volunteers from NewSpring had hand written thank you notes in cards for all the attendees.  I want to thank Lorena for volunteering and challenging me to be contagious.  To all NewSpringers, keep doing what you are doing.

             I attended Unleash last week and then went on weekend getaway with my family so I have been playing catch up at work and have not had time to write about my experience…until now.

I have attended all three years that Unleash has been offered and I intend to continue.  I have enjoyed all three years.  The only downside is that the group from my church continues to get smaller.  I was by myself this year but other than that it was great.

One quirk to this year was that I received my tickets for Unleash in the mail on Friday the day after the event.  What’s up with that?

The best parts of Unleash 2009 were the two main sessions with Perry Noble.  The same can be said for the two previous years as well.  This year there were many more breakouts to choose from and I had some debate within myself on where I should fill my brain.  I chose Technical Production with NewSpring Technical Director Joel Yates in the morning breakout and Video & Motion Graphics with Ken Wilson and team in the afternoon.

Something different this year was something called Soapbox Sessions whereas volunteers and staff had 10 minutes to present their calling or passion or give insight into how NewSpring operates.  These sessions took place in the middle of the Atrium.  A nice concept but not very well planned.  The presenters had no amplification.  There were too many people, too much traffic and too much noise to hear and understand what was being said.  At one point someone brought out a bull horn but it was largely ineffective.  I’m sure there were some great things being said but I eventually opted out to go check my email and post on the blog.

Checked my email with no problems but for some reason could not get logged into my blog therefore there were no posts from the event.  Maybe next year I can live blog but probably not.  I’m an old school taking notes kind of guy and I took several pages of notes on the sessions from Unleash 2009, which I will share with you in the days to come.

The Masters of Metaphor, Len Wilson and Jason Moore have made some changes.  We are all about change right now so it is only fitting that these guys lead the way.  Len & Jason have announced a new and improved website for Midnight Oil Productions as well as joining up with ChurchMedia.net for hosting their Metaphorum.  So go on over and check out Midnight Oil 4.0 with many cool features including an improved search feature, new blog and new store.  Also check out the Metaphorum at ChurchMedia.net for the latest interaction from people just like you and me.

Yes, I’m actually still around.  I have had so many things to write about and discuss with you all but the blog has become a low priority due to several factors and chief among those is getting my priorities straight.  I would love to be able to write more frequently but boundaries have been established and I will not be quick to stretch those boundaries as I have in the past.  With all of that said, I had some things that struck me today about the church that I wanted to share.

I’m currently participating in leadership development for my day job but so much of it, I’m finding, is applicable to my life as a whole and to the church.

We spent the whole day with Rick Williams PhD from CMOE.  It was a great time of learning the inner workings of teams and participating in exceptional exercises designed to develop team building.

There were two things that Dr. Rick was talking about that really made me think about the church.  The first thing was when he was speaking of common team challenges and one of those challenges is change and risk taking.  Dr. Rick stated, “That which does not change stands still and soon becomes obsolete.”  How many churches do you know of that have declined to the point of being obsolete?  Their refusal to change has led them to become ineffective at reaching their community for Christ or making disciples.

Another thing that Dr. Rick was speaking about was the adverse identities to the Team.  The first was the Mob where everyone is for themselves, Gangs who define territories and seek to build an empire, Committees who put rules and structures before results, also described as an “eight cylinder car with four spark plugs removed.  It will get there but it will be jerky and slow”.  The last adverse identity is Groups who are in the same general proximity but with no leadership or communication whereas everyone does their own thing.  Which one of those describes your church or ministry?  I have seen at least three of these mentalities at work in the church.  None of them work.  None of them are a team.

Jesus as the greatest leader of all time put together the greatest team of all time in the 12 disciples.  Highly effective teams come down to relationships and tasks.  Jesus taught that those that produce much fruit are truly His disciples (John 15:8).  That’s the task.  Jesus also taught that love for one another will prove His true disciples (John 13:35).  That is relationships.  Many great teams in sports, corporations, military and personal have come and gone but none have made the impact as the team assembled and lead by Jesus while physically on earth.  We as the Church are now part of the team.