Honestly, it’s a bit sad that it took us this long to embrace Twitter, and even sadder that even after our delay we are still at the head of the pack among churches.  But no matter!  Today we’ll bask in the warm feeling that we kind of broke ground in the church media realm.  And honestly, twitter has been a great tool for us to communicate unique news in  timely manner.

Now, what’s next…

I’ll start with the freedom that we have in Christ, and then I’ll move to the position that I operate in.

The New Testament isn’t explicit on forbidding using a screen to put the lyrics up, or to put the scene of a waterfall behind it, or to make the waterfall actually move behind it, or to show a picture of your fishing trip to illustrate the big fish that you caught and how your people should now go out and be “fishers of men.” The Bible doesn’t forbid it.

I’ll be gone in a few years and you can do whatever you want to do, but I believe profoundly in the power and the till-Jesus-comes-validity of preaching. And by that I mean the spirit-anointed exposition of the Scripture through clear explanations and applications of what’s there. There’s something God-appointed about that.

I think the use of video and drama largely is a token of unbelief in the power of preaching. And I think that, to the degree that pastors begin to supplement their preaching with this entertaining spice to help people stay with them and be moved and get helped, it’s going to backfire. It’s going to backfire.

It’s going to communicate that preaching is weak, preaching doesn’t save, preaching doesn’t hold, but entertainment does. And we’ll just go further and further. So we don’t do video clips during the sermon. We don’t do skits.

I went to a drama at our church four days ago. I believe in drama. I believe in the power of drama. But let drama be drama! And let preaching be preaching! Let’s have the arts in our churches, but don’t try to squash it all into Sunday morning. So I get worked up about these things.

That’s where I am on that. Free. Nobody is going to go to hell because of this, in the short run.

My problem is this:  I REALLY respect John Piper and definitely lean toward his viewpoint on a number of issues.  And even though he really just wop-wopped my entire career path I must still stop to consider whether or not he might be right.  Perhaps there is a middle road between intent and abuse…

copied from Desiring God

By a nearly 2-to-1 ratio over any other option, unchurched Americans prefer churches that look more like a medieval cathedral than what most think of as a more contemporary church building.  The survey found that while billions are being spent on church buildings, overall church attendance is declining.

The article rightly implies that the unchurched prefer the more aesthetically pleasing look of gothic cathedrals because it speaks to a connectedness with the past.  The younger the person, the more they prefer the gothic to the contemporary.  “I don’t like modern churches, they seem cold,” said one survey respondent who chose the Gothic design. “I like the smell of candles burning, stained-glass windows, [and] an intimacy that’s transcendent.”

I’m finding that the ‘seeker’ of today is not the seeker of decades past.  For years we’ve built and programmed our churches on the philosophy that the ‘unchurched’ don’t really want a traditional church experience.  And in some respects, that is still true.  They don’t want the trappings of a church that is judgemental, lifeless, condescending, and more concerned with themselves and their tradition than those in need who need the love and life of Christ.  What they DO want is connectedness, unity, and a sense of something beyond themselves.  The ‘tradition’ of being involved in a church that has deep roots, a rich history, and is connected to the life of Christ through a vibrant community is very inviting.

As I am preaching, writing, teaching, design media, editing video, or programming services, these thoughts are always on my mind.  How can I help those around me connect with God on a level that is deeper, richer, and more connected with the world around them.

Stained glass, sculpture, art, hymn, call and response, and other traditional elements might just be what the churched AND unchurched are longing for.  I wonder where my clerical collar is…

How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?

A year ago we began planning and working towards a new online presence for Mountaintop Community Church, the progressive church where I serve as Minister of Creative Media.  We occasionally measured the year-long journey in miles and laughter.  But typically, it was inches and strife.

We had thought the process would take a couple of months.  We were grossly naive.  Fall turned to Winter and we had rejected our first round of designs from the vendor.  Winter turned to Spring and we’d passed rounds two and three.  As Spring gave way to Summer we’d said no to a fourth round and all communication had broken down. 

Seeing no light at the end of the tunnel, we took the bull by the horns (as they say in Texas) and set out to design the site ourselves.  I became the design firm and my pastor became the client.  During a week of hashing out the design during a retreat to the mountains (about which I care not to speak), we finally came to the design you see today.  If we had tried to do the design ourselves a year ago, I don’t believe we would have ended up with as good a design as we did.

Now, as Summer turns again to Autumn, the site is live and we are moving on with finishing smaller elements of the site such as podcasting, video archives, live streaming, an online store, etc.

Some things I’ve learned:

1. Make sure you are comfortable with both the back-end updating software and the front-end design capabilities your vendor is offering.
2. Find great examples of great work from other great designers and churches.  It will help you communicate your ideas.
3. Form follows function.  While the design needs to be eye-catching and engaging, the ultimate test is functionality.  Is it usable and easily navigable?
4. Everyone that sees a ‘design comp’ will have an opinion, and every opinion will be markedly different.  While they are all important, the job of the designer or project manager is to communicate well using excellent design principles.
5. Opinions will change. As the project drew out, our goals and aesthetic preferences changed several times.  Keep good notes and document everything.
6. Bring your staff and congregation along throughout the process.  Keep them updated well and often.
7. No matter how much time you have, it’s never enough. 
8. A project is never finished, only abandoned.
9. There are worse projects to spend a year of your life doing.

In the ensuing years, many have moved on to other ministries, other churches.

I have as well.

But here, at a going-away party, a snapshot tells a story that words cannot.  Perhaps my smile gives more insight than mere words are able.  What does it say?…

Here is a group of people that I loved. 

They are the threads that wove through the tapestry of my time at Prestonwood.  A time that, overall, I greatly enjoyed.

The picture tells a truth about that time, that moment in which it was taken in, but it also lulls me into false perception that nothing has changed since then.  And yet, as I recall the stories of these volunteers’ trials over the year’s since the photo, I know that much has changed.

But that is the beauty of the picture.  It remains. It remains forever, unchanging.  I can look at it and remember the good times, forgetting the bad.  And there were many, many good times.

And in that moment I am there again with them.

The Prestonwood Media Team

For whatever reason, businesses that rely on churches for a portion of their income are beating the bushes looking for business.

There was a time where I would receive a couple of ‘cold calls’ a month looking for business.  Now, I literally receive a couple a day. At least.

TV Stations wanting to sell commercials and online advertising.  Commercial Printers wanting to set up a meeting to talk about what they can do.  Copier Lease Companies wanting us to see their copy/fax/e-mail/kitchensink machines.  Radio Station Promotion Managers wanting to know if we’ve ever ‘thought about’ radio.  Media Sales/Install companies looking to get together to discuss our ‘needs’.  Spanish Yellow Page reps looking to see if we are ethnically savvy.  Media Content Creation Companies wanting us to buy their latest and greatest volume packages. The list goes on and on.

Now, I am the type of Creative Minister that loves meetings, synergy, and getting to know companies, their reps, and what they have to offer…

BUT I AM TIRED OF IT.

I find myself screening my calls using Caller ID and asking most all reps to simply drop off printed information for me to look over.  I simply don’t have enough time in a day to sit down with all of the sales people who simply have to meet with me.  And frankly, I am becoming jaded.

TO SALESMEN and YOUR CORPORATE MANAGERS:  I understand the need to meet the bottom line and keep sales high.  I completely understand the problem the economy has caused and that you must go in search of new clients to replace your previous clients that have reduced or completely cut the dollars you so desperately seek…. BUT…. You should have created a relationship with me before now!  Where were you when times were good?!  Why were you not seeking to create and maintain new relationships then??  Had you done so, you might not simply be one of many sharks that I try to avoid on a daily basis.

Times are tough.  But the businesses that had the foresight to plan for it are the ones that really deserve to survive.

Happy Hunting!

But until today, I’d never seen anything quite like this.

A postcard advertising church signs of the highest quality came to my attention. On it, the sign company has included a picture of what we can only imagine is their current best install (or perhaps their most recent): New Covenant Church.

It must have been quite an upsale to get the church to purchase a digital LED board to go with their sign. I can hear the salesman now… “Sure, the sign can say anything you want it to say for free… that’s the beauty of using an LED message board as part of your sign solution.”

And what does the church choose to use their new LED add-on for?? THE NAME OF THE CHURCH, it would seem. To me it seems a bit redundant.

So whom is more at fault? The church, for putting the name on both the analog and digital portion of the sign? Or the sign company, for snapping a picture of the faux pas and using it in their advertising.

Or perhaps, it is both/and.

ps – Don’t forget that visitors are included with every sign! ;)

While we are very excited about the end result of the process, a sweet website with tons of uber-cool features, the design process has been a bit rocky.

So in the interest of full disclosure I’d like to outline the road we’ve taken so far and the bumps and bruises along the way.

I knew it was going to be tough… redesigning something as important as a website always is… but I never expected the challenges and summits along the way. But it’s been a really opening process and one that I think everyone will enjoy reading about. So Enjoy…

First, our design company gathered lots of input from our staff and details about our church. They then went to work for 5 weeks and came up with this design. From our statements, they gathered (correctly) that our church’s mission was sports related (Turning fans into players on Jesus’ team). They heard us say that we wanted our website to capitalize on the sports theme if possible. But what they returned was not exactly what we had in mind. My fears were confirmed and I knew we were going to be in for along road during the design phase. So we sent the comps back for a rethinking on several key areas of design and execution. We asked that they rethink the announcement section, use our exact logo rather than a variation, move away from dark browns and reds, add area for more photos, and make the site feel more like a lodge/resort/mountain theme.

The second round blew me away. In my opinion we moved further away from the target I had in mind. To our liaison I translated it this way: When doing design work for a client, and they ask for revisions, I have a choice. I can either make their exact changes and be done with the process (no matter how bad it looks) or I can take what they said and rethink my entire design in light of their comments. Our design firm did the former, they just made the changes… it was the simpler route, but not the best one at this juncture. So we had a choice to make, do we simply submit and let the issues go or do we actually press for the changes we wanted. Tough call. In this design, they tried to remove the sports theme and make it more mountain lodge/resort in feel, but we felt they had not fulfilled any of our other requests. So we sent it back with their word we’d have a full redesign from the ground up, leaving this particular one in the dust behind us.

Round three really floored me. I thought I was communicating well but it seems I was not. The design firm had made our requested changes to the photo and announcements area but I felt we were continuing to move further away from a unified design that we could all be happy with. What was I to do? Our contract only called for two revisions and we had met that limit. If I gave it back to them again I wasn’t sure I could count on the design getting to a workable status. In such instances, I typically take the project in my own hands and do it myself. For better or worse, this is my instinct… and it turned out for the worst this time.

We took the project into our own hands, discussed the situation in-depth with our internal management and came up with a site from the ground up that melded what management liked and what I thought looked great. We spent over a week creating our version. We used several designers and got input from a number of people along the way. We used the best layout, the best colors, and the best pieces we could think of. We’d include blogs, frontpage video, rotating worship photos, flash content, and lots of other fun and useful stuff. And below you can see our progress from start to finish….

So I presented it to our peeps here at church as well as the design firm, and neither one really loved it. Uh Oh! :) At that point, what do we do? Neither I nor the firm can get a workable design done. Does this happen to all clients in web design? I bet it churches it happens more than we care to admit!

But the light was finally ‘on’ at the end of the tunnel. This opened up a discussion that has finally put us on track to getting a design approved and a direction that all of us agree is pretty cool. I really love our design form for helping us work through the bugs and kinks. They have a great product, but I am personally looking forward to the end of the design phase. So what took so long? I’m not sure exactly, but I think the most obvious problem to me is this: I wasn’t thinking outside of the box enough.

Stay tuned!

I won’t reveal the actual design and the sweet, sweet setup the Pastor chose until it is live on www.mountaintopchurch.com … sometime in late June or early July. :)