Want to know how you can improve your Church’s web site? Obviously, you can start surveying members and visitors alike to identify ways to improve. And you should always be listening to what people in the congregation are saying about the site. Do they find it helpful in finding a particular event? Can they identify the staff person responsible for that event? And do they get lost in the menus? These are all good questions to address, but what if you want to look harder? There is a web site the supports a formal review process. You run the review page and it generates a report that helps you focus on areas that need improvement. The link is:
And while you’re there, check out the web evangelism event, held the last Sunday in April of every year. It is a time to focus on evangelism through your Church’s web presence.
When you make a New Year’s Resolution, you should ask yourself whether you really are resolved to change. It is all too easy to intend to change, but not really commit to the process of change. And change is a process that takes hard work.
Can technology help us change? Yes, if we’re serious about it. But it takes a willingness to be held accountable for the hard work of changing, whether it be a bad habit or a new discipline. One idea would be to set up a page where people could enter their new year resolves and an eMail. The web site would then track those for 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months. At the end of that time, it could send out an email reminder to help reinforce the change. That way, people could hold themselves accountable to really change.
How do you celebrate the Advent season? It is always a special time in the life of any Church. Advent reminds us to prepare for the coming of the Christ child. And every Church has a rich tradition of Christmas programs and events. But how do you truly prepare for the Christ? The technology can offer some new ways to tell the “Good News” that Christ is born this day! Whether it be a special video, or a full blown Christmas Cantata, the emphasis needs to be on Jesus – the reason for the season. May your Christmas events draw people to the manger in a fresh, new way. Feel free to comment on your innovations in this area.
Does your Church have a policy for outside groups to come in and use the facilities? If so, then does it include clear guidelines for the use of all technical equipment, or do you require them to bring their own? It seems logical to expect that a group that rents a room at the Church would expect to have access to the technology in that room. The question then becomes how do you know that they will take good care of it?
If the room only contains a TV and a DVD player, then there is not much concern. Most people know how to run a DVD player, or they can figure it out. But what about the sanctuary, with audio and video systems? For a wedding, lighting might also enter into the picture. No doubt some Churches require that one of their staff be on site for the event given by the outside group, just to make sure that the technology is not abused.
Those outside the Roman Catholic denomination probably have little appreciation for November 1st – i.e. All Saints Day. Yet it is a Church tradition dating back to the writing of Hebrews 11. It has been celebrated on November 1st since the time of Charlemagne. At it’s best, it recognizes the Christians that have gone before us. They form the great cloud of witnesses spoken of in scripture. At it’s worst, it can become another form of idolatry, with patron saints taking the place of God in our lives.
How should we celebrate this day? Should we have videos and sermons on the subject, or just a few songs that mention it? Can we celebrate it as protestants without subscribing to the corpus of catholic saints? Is there a patron saint for all things technical in ministry? Good questions to ask as this day rolls around again.
Having someone on staff in charge of the assimilation of new members is not enough. Although they may work hard to develop an effective process, and they may bring together the resources needed for that process, some people will only go so far with it. The new member may have ideas of their own as to how much they want to get involved with the new Church. We tend to presume that they want to go 100%, but in reality they have a certain “comfort zone” in mind. How do you discover this degree of assimilation that represents their comfort zone? Well, why not ask them? You can use an online survey for new members to gauge how far they have gone down the path of assimilation. On that basis, you could offer them an opportunity to get involved with a specific ministry in a different way, one that was not listed on the annual ministry opportunities brochure. This opens the door for them to move to the other side of their comfort zone, which is probably the most that can be expected. After all, people have work commitments, family commitments, and commitments to friends and social groups. You want them to be effective in their own style of ministry, be that meals on wheels or an ad hoc outreach to one person who needs them as a friend. Be flexible, and look for ways to involve people the most in things they’ll enjoy doing. The Church as a volunteer community will then really take off!
There are multiple Bible translations in use, and that’s just in english. Which one do you display on your worship screens? All of them are valid translations. The preacher should get to choose, and he can choose different translations for the same sermon. Often times there is a subtle emphasis in one translation versus another. How many Bible translations can you support? Probably not all of them, but with advanced notice, you should be able to support most of them.
As worship spaces have grown, so has the need for powerful video projectors. Various technologies exist, depending on whether you want to use front projection or rear projection. You can use LCD, DLP, or LCoS technology to provide video quality images using a front projector in the worship space. For more information, see the “Projector Basics” article at Church Production Magazine.
The people who come to serve the ministry through technology are a diverse group. Some have great technical skills, but they lack spiritual depth. Others are spiritually mature Christians, but they aren’t always knowledgeable about the technology we use. Seems like there ought to be a happy medium case, where these servants are great at both. But how do you get there?
Christians are called to be mature – i.e. Eph 4:12-13. Those who already are mature should help those who are not, that the “body of Christ may be built up.” Technology has been well developed in the secular world, so that anyone can gain maturity in their technology skills by reading, or going through tutorials, or getting training in specific class settings. We should mentor each other until we are all mature in both our faith and in our technology in the Church!
Some possibilities for this include having a tech team Bible study, training nights to focus on the technology, outside training events in new technology that we are considering implementing, …. The possibilities and the challenges are enormous. And it doesn’t require a huge IT training budget to accomplish this. What it does require is time spent outside the Sunday worship experience, when you can focus on learning. Practice makes perfect, but training is the best kind of practice, for it allows you to make mistakes when nobody is looking! How do you find time to practice? That’s something to comment on.
Where are the lyrics to your congregational music? It used to be that the music director simply announced the page number, and everyone turned in their hymnals to the matching hymn. Everyone read the lyrics at their own reading pace, looking down at their hymn book. Today, in most worship in large Churches, the lyrics are projected onto one or more screens. Everyone looks up to read the words and sing. But how do you decide on the timing of those screens?
A number of presentation programs are geared to congregational singing. Some allow you to set the pacing by recording the sequence. Some will even match the transitions up to a “click track” or metronome beat. Most require that an operator press the “go forward” key at just the right time as the congregation is singing. How do you know the right time to change screens? That is often a matter of style.
IMHO, you should change to the next screen at the point where people are singing the last word on the last line in a slow song, or the first word of the last line in a fast song. The objective should be to give people enough time to read the next line before they have to sing it. When I have been running the lyrics, I have always sought to meet that objective precisely. It just makes it easier for people to follow along and sing.
Of course, some would argue that the congregation probably knows the lyrics anyway, so what difference does it make when you put them up? There will always be someone in the congregation that either doesn’t know the song, or is a little intimidated by singing. For those people, the lyrics are the best way to help them sing out. So the timing of the transitions does matter. For example, it would be ludicrous to switch to the next screen of words after everyone has sung them. And you want to match what the lead singer is singing, so that it reinforces their leadership.
You often have volunteers running the presentation software, so it may be difficult to be consistent. But you should strive to all be following the same rule for timing transitions. That way, people know when to expect the words to change. It will help the whole congregation sing out loud and strong!
Sometimes a cup of water makes all the difference. In many African villages, children walk several miles to bring home water for domestic uses. The
water often comes from a polluted river, erosion ditch, gully, or muddy stream, and brings illness. This impacts the general health of the people in
the village, and is a prime reason why the average life expectancy is only 47.
Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.”
Christians are making a difference. Through organizations like Christian Relief Networks, they are bringing clean, disease free water to villages. They honor Christ and bring sanitary conditions to these villages.
Most commercial software is geared around individuals. We need software that is FamilyWare – i.e. specifically designed to support families. This means handling multiple last names, multiple addresses, and multiple phone numbers. It means having a host of email addresses. And all of that information, in whatever structure it takes, must be treated as a whole. How do you do this? It takes a different approach to the development process.
It is easy to take cheap, abundant, reliable electricity for granted. And it is easy to hold the presumption that it will always be available to run whatever equipment we have available. So you chain power strips together and keep plugging electrical devices in – i.e. ad infinitum.
However, there is a limit to how much current any one circuit will bear. I have discovered that the hard way. And there are places in the world where electricity is unreliable – also another personal discovery. What do you do?
We all need to be conservation minded about electricity. We need to only power up those devices that have a purpose, and not just leave everything running because it is convenient. A recent TV spot recommended disconnecting the cell phone charger when not in use. Sounds like a good idea. And we need to assess the load we are putting on circuits, lest we put them in an overloaded state (i.e. if you cause more electricity to flow through a wire than it was designed to carry, you increase the risk of fire.) Most powerstrips have a built in 15 amp circuit breaker, so that limits the number of devices on any one circuit – no matter how many powerstrips you chain together.
In foreign lands, electricity is not necessarily reliable. You can add surge protectors, UPSs, extra generators. However, you can not always guarantee that the electrons will flow reliably. You need to be conservation minded, and choose which devices to power when needed.
Multi-media is well established. In essence, any time you use more than one media – i.e. visual, audio, etc… – you are doing multi-media. But what happens when you mix live drama with video? This could be described as multi-faceted media.
The logistics involved in doing a combination are pretty intense. Not only do you have to have the audio channels all set up to work together, but you also have to have lighting coordinated down to the second. Preprogramming these sequences will help, but the timing has to be perfect to make it come off well. This opens up a whole can of worms in terms of possible things that can go wrong. But if done well, a multi-faceted media presentation will capture the attention of the congregation in a new way.
Growing up, I remember having sword drills with your Bible. The idea was that the Bible study leader would call out a verse, and you would turn to it as fast as you could. The first person to get there got to read the verse. You had to really know where things were in the Bible for that to happen.
In the context of a sermon, you could easily get in the situation where you are having a sword drill on screen. How fast can you look up a verse and put it on the screen? If you know it in advance, you obviously have an edge, but what about an extemporaneous reference to a scripture by the preacher? Your presentation software should be able to look up and format a verse reference on demand in real time. That way, you can deliver for the sword drill on screen before the sermon is over.
Easter is really a Miracle. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is an incredible event. When it happened 2,000 years ago, it was unheard of. Today, even with the best of medical science, it can not be duplicated. It surely is a miracle that Jesus was resurrected from the dead.
Why did God do it? To prove to us that He had the power! And that power is what saves our souls. Had Jesus not been raised, His message would have just died with Him. Yet, because He was raised, His Gospel message continues to spread all over the world! Thanks be to God. Christ is Risen!
Count down video segments are useful for coordinating the showing of a video with another event. In the motion picture industry, they were originally used to synchronize the sound with the picture (i.e. when they were on separate media.) Here is an example of a 10 second count:
Is there any point in including this type of segment in production video clips? Or is it just an annoyance? What do you think?
At Easter time, we look for ways to reenact the Passion of Christ. In so doing, we gain new appreciation for the Way of the Cross. Jesus walked that way, knowing full well that death waited for Him at the end of it. And more excruciating still, He knew that one of His own, Judas Iscariot, would betray Him.
Bringing the Crucifixion to life has been the subject of many movies. The sophistication of computer graphics can take us there – at least visually. But some would raise a concern about the gory nature of the crucifixion. After all, the Romans perfected the art of brutal torture and death. The barbarity of the cross is incredible. How far should the Church go in showing the gory parts of the Crucifixion? To a culture that is in many ways innoculated against violence, this may not seem like much. But to those who are trying to stem the tide of violence in our culture, it may be a big deal. We need to approach the subject of Good Friday with sensitive hearts and open minds.
Everyone seems to be security conscious these days. And you even have to be concerned about security in the Church – of all places! Because our doors are open to the public, anyone can walk in. And that means the sinners and the criminals get to come in the door. With all of the news lately about incidents within the Church, you need a security policy. And the support staff needs a certain amount of training in handling security situations. Here is one article on designing such a policy:
Most Churches today have a global reach. Many call it missions. In the past, it was focused on one Sunday out of the year, and there was usually a special offering which was passed on to the Global Mission program of the denomination. Today, it is not uncommon for a single Church to sponsor multiple, short-term mission teams to foreign lands. They may be engaged in general evangelism, or specialized in technology. These mission teams go forth to support missionaries in their activities to fulfill the Great Commission. And they are succeeding.
One example of this is Africa. Once called the Dark Continent – because it was completely unreached – it is now the home of 400 million Christians. And the Churches in Africa are now starting to send their own missionaries out – to other parts of the world. You could say that they now have a Global Reach of their own. It is exciting to see what the Church is doing in this day and age.
Remember the old song, “Count your many blessings, name them one by one?” Why not add a feature to your web site to let people count their blessings in life. It would allow people to share the blessings that they had received, and express their gratitude. You could then have a composite report show up. It might read something like “234 people blessed by Good Samaritans this week.” This would in turn inspire others to share their blessings with the congregation.
There is a lot of joy in the Christian life. Sometimes we fail to perceive that, given how many things people gripe about. By counting the blessings of the congregation, we might change that prevailing attitude that says things are negative. Let’s turn it into a positive attitude. God is Good!
Christmas is a Wonderful Time of Year, and worship takes on a new dynamic. The Advent season brings all sorts of special events. These demand more from our technologies than at any other time of year. Special lighting might include lighting the Advent Candles so the person in the back row can tell that they were really lit. Musical cantatas celebrate the joy of Christmas with praise and even drama. Do you or do you not mike the baby Jesus in the manger? The end of the year brings many opportunities to take advantage of our technical ministry capabilities. There are special videos, special music, and unique lighting requests – e.g. Christmas trees in the back of the choir that need to twinkle. And all of this plays out before record crowds. All the more reason for advance planning and development long before December rolls around!
Of course, Christmas has deep spiritual meaning. Coming from the Church tradition of the Christ Mass, there is a significance that transcends any other season. The Christ is born means that God is incarnate, stepping down out of Heaven to walk among us here on earth. How and when are not so important as the why of that event. But you can expect that the minister will have a special sermon series that focuses on that question. And perhaps that demands a new, refreshing way of looking at things. So a new look to the videos may be in order. Or a new style to the website may be just the thing to help visitors find Joy in our Savior’s Birth! Yes, Christmas is a Wonderful time of year, and a tremendous opportunity to apply technology to worship in new ways!
Merry Christmas and May the Light of our Savior strike your eye in a new way this coming year!
There are many translations of the Bible available to us today. Here is one list of current English translations:
21st Century King James Version
American Standard Version
Amplified Bible
Contemporary English Version
Darby Translation
English Standard Version
Holman Christian Standard Bible
King James Version
New American Standard Bible
New Century Version
New International Version
New King James Version
New Living Translation
The Message
Today’s New International Version
Worldwide English
Wycliffe New Testament
Young’s Literal Translation
Each of these has advantages and disadvantages, which we could easily debate for a very long time. What is important is that each Christian read the Bible, and they can choose their favorite translation to do so. All translations of the Bible tell the incredible story of Jesus the Christ, and we should accurately handle that story (2 Timothy 2:15). What does it take to do that?
Whenever the Bible is presented, it should be accurately quoted. The book, chapter, and verse should be indicated clearly. The translation used should also be indicated – i.e. by an abbreviation such as NIV for New International Version. This enables anyone viewing the presentation to go look up the passage for themselves. They can easily find the specific verse. I usually find that there is a lot more to the passage than we have time to present, so I often go read the context. Just reading the whole chapter will usually give you a good sense of the context, but you may also want to dig into passage using a concordance. See the article on Bible Study Tools for more ideas on Bible study.
July is a month to celebrate our Patriotism, as the 4th of July rolls around. Most of our Churches celebrate this with a special worship service emphasizing a patriotic theme. This is a good way to recognize our nation’s birthday. However, you can take this too far. For example, it would be easy to put the American flag up as a background image for all of the worship slides. But would it be appropriate to have the Apostle’s Creed appear on top of the American Flag? Maybe. Maybe not. Americans believe strongly in the Separation of Church and State. However, where do you draw the line? Perhaps a better idea would be to put the Christian Flag up as the background for the Apostle’s Creed. That demonstrates both your patriotism – i.e. by showing a flag – and your belief that God is the ultimate one you worship – i.e. by saying the Apostle’s Creed. Here is what the Christian flag looks like:
There was a time when you had to publish the monthly newsletter on paper, incurring ever rising printing costs and postage. Now, you can get the same information out in electronic form, using EMail. But how do you manage a large mailing list? Just building a huge distribution list in Outlook is not very effective, and opens you up to spammers. EMail Communication Services exist to help you with this communication. They provide huge capacity and security at relatively low cost. Many will support multi-user access and scheduling of EMails in advance. Here is a review of some of the commercial services available:
Does your Church use such a service for the weekly or monthly newsletter? If so, please comment and let us know how you use this service. What are the pros and cons?
Bradley Roberts has both deep roots in the Church and a long career involving technology. Browsing these pages, you´ll find a vibrant faith and a servant´s heart.
