Journey of Worship

Archive for the ‘Creative Stuff’ Category

The following video isn’t worship related, but it’s still amazingly awesome. I ran across this on one of the blogs I read by a key voice in the worship world, Dan Wilt.

This video is a great blend of artistry, story-telling, and expression. It’s a sand art work from Ukranian Artist Kseniya Simonova. The description from YouTube says this:

Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine’s version of “America’s Got Talent.” She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and “sand painting” skills to interpret Germany’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII.

It’s a little long, but you hardly notice. Both the story and the way she does her art is captivating.

Enjoy!

For August 20 and 21 (Thursday and Friday), Igniter Media is offering 50% off all downloadable videos. That’s right, 50% off ALL downloadable videos.

I’m a big fan of their stuff, and have used some of their stuff like “That’s My King,” “Together-Team Hoyt,” “99 Balloons,” and “Teamwork.” Their stuff is always well received and every time we’ve used one has helped to reinforce the truth of God for the congregation that day.

If you’ve never used their stuff, or have been waiting for the right price, don’t miss out on this offer. Check it out here. It ends on Friday, August 21. Enjoy!

Another edition of Weekend Report. Enjoy!

Weekend Report: 8/02/09 from Chris Gambill on Vimeo.

Yes, I know there is still a green fringe around her head and the audio isn’t the greatest. Probably need to look at securing a better camera…

This past weekend was our first attempt at doing video announcements with a green screen. Still some things to work out, but check it out below.

Weekend Report: 7/19/09 from Chris Gambill on Vimeo.

I recently received a copy of the new book by Len Wilson and Jason Moore titled “Taking Flight with Creativity: Worship Design Teams that Work.” Since getting started in worship media and design I’ve followed their career and writings since they were involved with Ginghamsburg Church in Tipp City, Ohio. They now run Midnight Oil Productions.

Wilson and Moore have written many other books related to technical and creative aspects of worship. They are well known for their passion of using metaphor in worship to communicate truth. The book itself is built around the metaphor of the Wright brothers and their pursuit of the first sustained flight by mankind.

Of all their books, this has been their best yet. They deal less with the technical aspects of media based worship and more with how to design worship in a way that is creative and effective regardless of style. They deal with theory and make it practical through personal examples so you are not left wondering what to do next. You don’t finish the book feeling as if you’re hands are tied to a specific implementation.

The book is logically laid out. They begin by talking about the why of creative worship design as a team, and then talk about actually forming and implementing the team. The later sections are especially valuable because they write about the “intangible necessities” of functioning as a team in the body of Christ doing worship design and what to do when there are relational challenges. There are great sections dealing with leadership, not being a gatekeeper, keeping ego under control, finding consensus, brainstorming, and working for the spiritual growth of the whole church.

Some lines that really stood out to me:

- When people worship (verb) together in corporate worship (noun), transformational things happen.

- This is the power of team planning – that exponentially more ideas emerge that wouldn’t have been considered alone.

- In teams, leadership is function, not position. This means that the position of leadership means very little.

- Many teams form, but many fail. What separates those that take flight is an elusive quality called koinonia, the transformative synergy of Holy Spirit-driven team collaboration that would be impossible if attempted by any one person. Koinonia is the purpose of having teams in the first place – the experience of being a part of something great. Koinonia is truly living as the body of Christ.

- It is difficult not to get ego and identity tied up in one’s ideas and work.

- A service can be absent a strong visual metaphor but still work if there is a single main idea and everything moves toward that one idea.

This is just a small sample of the great stuff in this book. Even having been exposed to these ideas in other ways, it was a great refresher for me while also expanding my understanding of this concept. If you’ve never thought through worship design as a team, or you’ve been doing it for a while, this book would be a great investment as we work to tell and remind people of the greatest story there is.

Get a copy here.

For my 50th post, I wanted to provide a free creative resource. We used this in our service on July 5, 2009 as we focused on remembering and entering into the holiness of God. The dramatic reading below is for one person to deliver as he/she describes what it might be like to enter the throne room of God because of Jesus and to be in His presence. It’s really effective with songs like Revelation Song, Exalted (Tomlin), Holy, Holy, Holy, and Agnus Dei.

Have some music playing underneath and invite people to close their eyes and imagine what is being read. When we used this, it was very impactful.

Adapt and use as necessary. This was originally told to my wife and her siblings by their mom as they were growing up. Enjoy!

I recently participated in a free online webinar (free webinars are great) about church copyright. It may not sound exciting but it was extremely informative. I thought I had a good understanding of the whole thing, but learned a lot that I didn’t know before. As a result, I’m having to look into some additional licenses to make sure we are doing ministry with integrity in today’s world. It seems that CCLI doesn’t cover everything.

If it’s been a while since you’ve thought about this (or else never have), let me encourage to head over to a post at www.copyrightcommunity.com where they write on copyright issues for the Christian Art community. This post here has a downloadable pdf (Church Copyright Blanket Licenses: What’s Covered and What’s Not) that has a great summary of what is and is not covered under the different licensing options available to churches.If you are doing anything other than public domain hymns, you need to go there.

We could debate all day about whether it’s “right” or not that we have to be conscious of all this, but the fact is that we do need to be aware. Ignorance is never an excuse.

Image via www.sxc.hu

Leading up to Easter, we did a four week series called “Final Words.” During the series we focused on the seven phrases that Jesus said from the cross as He was dying for the sins of the world. To help keep the phrases in front of people as we moved through them, we made signs for each one and hung them on either side of our screen.

The signs were made from foam board covered with red tissue paper. The black border was made with black paint, and the words were made from letters printed out, cut out, and glued on. They were hung with red yarn using duct tape on the foam board and nails in the wood. We tried fishing line, but it kept slipping out of the duct tape.

The idea came from a picture I had seen of something similar done by another church but with international people pictures hung. 

The only down side was the foam board ended up curling some. We think it was because of the way the red paper was attached to the board (watered down glue).

Check other creative ideas at Creative FuZion!