as a substitute for other methods (think about all the senses)
solely for entertainment (understand that entertainment is not bad itself and CAN be used as a tool when the timing/context is right)
visual media is not a crowd-getter or a cure-all
visual media is not a substitute for preparation
visual media is not for the personal satisfaction of the visual enthusiast
to keep the “young people” interested in worship.
“it’s time to boost our congregational singing.”
to change with the culture b/c we might lose church members to another church.
we have to create more powerful worship experiences (visual media won’t create it)
we want outsiders/visitors to know that we are a first-rate/”cutting edge” church (keeping up with the Joneses)
Without using the latest technology, we won’t be able to increase the size of our congregation.
Presentational technologies will allow us to grow and expand. (only the church can do CHURCH. Technology will not secure that a congregation will act as/be the Church.
References:
“Using Visual Aids in a Church” by Earl Waldrup (published 1949) - Amazon.com
BuildingChurchLeaders.com - “building visual media into your ministry”
———————
At many conferences this year, we (Nate, Camron and I) are teaching on Visual Worship. You can download our notes, located under “Visual Worship Class Notes” in the sidebar.
We will constantly be updating and editing our notes, so check back from time to time for the revised versions.
So far, it’s been one of the best worship conferences i’ve ever been a part of. i can’t say enough about the leadership here…from Ross Parsley (worship pastor) to the Desperation Band guys, to Kevin Morehouse (tech director) & his media team. Kevin even created his own worship software that is pretty stellar (both PC & MAC!!)…it’s called SongScreen Liquid.
The other day, Nate’s iPhone conveniently fell into the pool, so he was forced to get the new iPhone 3Gs. And we’re benefitting from the new video recording capabilities and were able to capture some pretty cool VJ moments during worship while Jared Anderson led.
nate brought it with the visuals, and i was busy capturing & tweeting video (via Tweetie).
-how many MegaChurch Tech/Production guys have said something like that, that iMAG makes the worship experience feel sterile. #visualworshipabout 9 hours agofrom Tweetie
…Their Tech Dir, said “i like this vibe. i feel like iMAG makes the worship feel sterile.” & he continued w/ some great thoughts.about 9 hours agofrom Tweetie
there’s around 1200+ people @ #ENTERconference - we aren’t doing ANY iMAG during worship. and that’s different for New Life Church….about 9 hours agofrom Tweetie
wow. can’t sum up what just happened in words. glad i can VIDEO TWEET now! #videoscomingsoon #ENTERconferenceabout 11 hours agofrom Tweetie
Jared Anderson is leading this morning @ #ENTERconference. & @kanakanate is leading w/ visuals. Jared’s new live album rocks, releases soon.about 12 hours agofrom TwitterFon
This post has nothing to do with VJ-ing or visual worship; so if you’re upset about that, get over it. Because this past weekend was truly EPIC.
I spent it away from the noise of work and VJ-ing, and i got to hang out with my nieces and nephews in Arkansas. We kicked off the weekend in a monumental way…by launching the rocket i had bought Seth (my nephew) for Christmas.
Now that is the best $13 i have ever spent!
(FYI, the whole movie was shot on the FLIP Mino HD & edited/effected in iMovie ‘09!)
Meet Mrs. Jo Waldrup. She’s the wife of the late Earl Waldrup, author of "Using Visual Aids in a Church" (published in 1949).
Since Camron Ware bought this book for me, i’ve been pouring over it in amazement that something written 60 years ago could be so relevant for today. Earl NAILS it. Or as LosWhit would say, "He’snails." Seriously, almost everything that has been stirring in my heart (and the hearts of others, i’m finding out) concerning "visual worship" is pretty much summed up in this book. i’m using it in all the visual worship classes i’m teaching, and encouraging everyone to go buy the book . I think it’s so important to learn about and read the writings of those who have gone before us.
It has a heavy focus on the "why" . The whole book begins with "why use visual aids in a church? Each user must know the answer to this questions if he is to use visual aids effectively." He was a leader & pioneer in church media in his own generation. And he paved the way for so many of us to do what we’re doing in church today.
I had this book out at one of the last Living Proof Live events. You should’ve seen Beth Moore’s reaction, amazed that it was written 60 years ago! One of the ladies on our event team, Michelle Hicks, saw what i was reading and said "hey, i know the Waldrup family!" NO WAY. So after some calling around, she found out that Mr. Waldrup had already passed away, but that his wife was living in Franklin, TN.
Michelle told Mrs. Waldrup about me and the others who have recently been affected by her husband’s writings, and she immediately set up a time for me to come and visit with Mrs. Waldrup. So just the other day, I got to meet her! And it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.
Mrs. Waldrup is 92 years old but has one of the youngest hearts i’ve encountered. She’s ornery and is a real firecracker. She was up on her feet showing me around and telling me all about Earl. We both sat in blessed unbelief that we connected on so much. Just as much as I couldn’t believe someone 60 years ago could be so "spot on", she, too, couldn’t believe that generations later her husband’s passionate writings were being carried well and lived out all across the globe.
I’ve discovered something about myself. I love to tell stories. And I love to share my experiences with others. This is one story I can’t help but tell you. So here is a glimpse into the life and story of Earl Waldrup, as told by Mrs. Jo:
Earl had a passion for directing Christian films, when NOBODY was making Christian films. This is Earl directing a film out in California.
She later told me that Earl traveled overseas some with the Foreign Mission Board, directing films for them to use. I was stunned. If you don’t know, Nate & I work with New Tribes Mission to help direct/produce films for them to use.
This is just cool. How can I get one of these plaques?
This is Earl Waldrup’s study in Franklin, TN.
A collage of pictures depicting Earl’s involvement in visual aids.
Mrs. Waldrup is one of the coolest ladies i’ve ever met. She’s my late grandmother’s age, who also was involved in visual media (that’s another blog post coming soon). This was a sign she hung up in her kitchen after Earl passed away. But she made me homemade fruit tea and sugar cookies when i came to visit. and for those of you who know me, i have an ADDICTION to Baja Burrito and their fruit tea. When she found that out, she sent me home with a whole jug of it!!
I will end on this: Mrs. Waldrup told me that two times in her life the Lord spoke clearly to her and said, "You must get out of the four walls of the church!" She is a lady who truly has lived her life as worship . Her worship is in motion like nobody’s business. The local newspaper did a feature on her not too long ago, featuring the prison ministry she’s led. When the article came out, she was 89. Now that is true "visual worship".
If you’ve bought the book, leave a comment. I’d be curious as to how many people like me are out there that have been directly inspired by Earl Waldrup’s writings.
I just stumbled across this really cool short documentary on VJ-ing.
It’s interesting to me that the origins of "VJ-ing" in it’s purest form come from an underground culture, birthed in the club/rave scene back in the 90s. And here we are years later applying the same art-form to our worship experiences. And after watching this and seeing what other VJs are doing, i don’t even feel like a VJ. and i’m definitely not European.
"Michael Faulkner of D-FUSE says the most interesting thing in this video: it’s when technology becomes redundant that it’s accepted as art. Photography gets invented, and suddenly painting - a business and a craft for centuries - is “high art.” (Don’t ask, incidentally, about what late 19th Century art critics and salon organizers thought was great painting. It was utterly dreadful.)
Ctrl Alt Shift is a 10-minute documentary, pointed out by Resolume developer Bart on their forums , featuring live visualists and audiovisualists. It has a number of things going for it: a terrific artist lineup, asking the tough, obvious questions about why fundamentally we do this stuff, and an editing style that makes projection, live-style edits, and eye candy animation part of the documentary object. It’s a tasty treat to watch if you know the artists, and even if the chatter in this video is the sort of thing you discuss over beers and V4s with your mates, it could be an ideal video to pass along to your friends who don’t yet entirely get what this whole thing is about."
hey everyone. this isn’t going to be the blog post i’d want it to be. honestly, i’m really really tired right now and i desperately need sleep. it’s been a wild ride in China so far and i still have another few days of adventure left. i haven’t been able to blog throughout this trip like i wanted to, but trust me, there is some GOOD blog material coming. More than i could have imagined.
Just a few bullet points, though, and then i’m going to bed and let my stomach digest the crazy food i just ate.
- Call2All was very interesting…lots of denominations, organizations, charismatic and not….all focused on missions. it’s always interesting to see so many members of the “family” come together… you get to see the “cool cousins”, stare at weird “uncle harry”, hear crazy stories from your “aunt”…yeah, it was kind of like that. such an experience. and lots to take in and process.
- i’m now in Shenyang, China, and very close to Tieling. Nate & I are shooting video and photography for some new friends at Harmony World (harmony-land.com)…it’s an incredible vision that is going to make a huge impact in China. And it’s all ok’d by the gov’t, too!
- HK is one of my favorite cities. I highly envy people like Matt Dean (Grace Campus Ministries) who are moving there soon. I seriously could see myself moving there one day. we’ll see. lots brewing in my head and heart right now. more to come…
- my main reason for loving HK is the people i’ve met. i’m not just talking random cool people, but people who i feel like are going to be life-long friends. i have lost count of how many are interested in “visual worship” and want to see it come to first, the Church in HK, and then to take it to churches in mainland China. but our conversations aren’t really about technology, but more about true “visual worship” and the philosophy and theology behind the use of images and production in worship. You would really be surprised as to how many people i’ve met areinterested in this….and it’s apparent that this “conversation” is truly global. Our verbiage and our convictions are so much THE SAME, it’s scary. It’s only evidence to me that it’s a movement by the Holy Spirit.
So like i said, there’s some good blog material coming…some people i’m going to introduce you to, and some debriefing of the conversations i’ve been having over here.
and i can say that this is just the beginning. This isn’t just a cool trip and some cool stories to blog about….but i believe this is the start of something massive. There is truly a movement of God happening over here, in so many areas. Visual Worship is just one of them. I’m thinking this is going to take multiple trips and some creative thinking. I’m not going to knock any other countries or churches or whatever here, but i can truly say that the Church in China is going to be leading the charge in the coming days, and i want to be there to serve and equip them as much as possible. there is a LOT to learn from our “family” over here…A LOT…. anyone wanna join me for the ride?
Today is the day!!! Go buy it on iTunes or pick up a CD NOW!! (if you get the CD, you’ll also get a bonus DVD with a preview of the upcoming live DVD release in September!)
Meet "Biscuet ". Biscuet’s a Visual Worshiper. And Biscuet lives in CHINA.
I like China. It’s starting to grow on me. Today starts my 2nd journey (and Nate’s 3rd) to China, so it seems only appropriate that we talk about what "visual worship" looks like in China.
I’ve been having a lot of conversations with fellow visual worshipers lately, and one thing I’ve been wanting to do is include you guys in on that dialogue somehow. So Biscuet and I got on iChat and I hit the record button….and what happened next was exciting. So here is what I hope to be the first of many video interviews discussing the multi-faceted concept of "visual worship". (the video was almost 40 minutes long, so i cut it down to 9-10 minutes for all of you ADD people like me out there…but a little further down, i’ve posted the full length interview.)
I highly recommend watching the full length video when you get a chance. Biscuet goes into a lot more detail on his experiences in the Chinese Church and what visual worship looks like there. A lot of what he said moved my heart and started messing with my head. Some of what we talk about might frustrate you, but hopefully it will inspire you. But the point for me in doing this is NOT to impress upon you or convince you of what I think to be right or wrong, but to instigate a dialogue in your own heart… to cause you to take a few steps back and look at the bigger picture… to evaluate if you are allowing yourself room in your worship experiences for God to reveal Himself in a new and fresh way.
To make it easier, I put chapter markers on the full length video. and if you download the video from my Vimeo site and play it in QuickTime, you’ll see the chapter markers in the playback area. But if you want to skim through this long video, then here’s the timecode for the chapers:
0:11 - Introducing Biscuet
4:12 - What is "visual worship"?
7:54 - Biscuet: a Visual Worshiper
11:12 - the Chinese Church
15:00 - Production & the Chinese Church
17:45 - Biscuet’s Shifting Perspective
20:31 - My Shifting Perspective: Visual Silence
24:26 - Visual Worship in China
27:29 - My Response
33:14 - The Heart of the Visual Worshiper
35:13 - A Great Spiritual Awakening
37:10 - Conclusion
There is a very missional purpose behind Nate’s & my journey to China this week. From the very beginning of Grateful Inconvenience , we decided that we would hold any ministry/missions opportunity in equal standing with any business/profit-making opportunity. It is very inconvenient at times, but the gratefulness is far beyond what i could comprehend…hence, our company name. We’ve been invited to go to an event called Call2All , taking place in Hong Kong. We will be doing a myriad of jobs in the realm of video production, including VJ-ing and also sitting on a panel discussion on Visual Media & Worship in the 21st Century. After the conference, we will be heading up north to Tieling with a team from Call2All to do some more unusual work.
I plan to tweet and blog as much as I can while I’m there about what’s going on; the Flip Mino HD is charged up!
Please be praying for both Nate and me, as int’l traveling always has it’s curve-balls: physically, culturally and spiritually.
In the next 22 hrs, you can register for ECHO Conference for only $209!!! Camron, Nate and I will be there leading some discussions on visual worship on the first day, and there is a myriad of amazing mind-blowing speakers who will be there. If you are debating on going or not, just stop what you’re doing, register, and then figure it out later. B/c if you are involved in church leadership or technology in any way, YOU NEED TO GO TO ECHO!
Scroll down & check out the interview between ECHO and Camron Ware that was recently posted on the ECHO BLOG.
Camron Ware is the founder of Visual Worshiper, a design consulting company that guides and mentors churches through the journey of what visual worship means in the Church today, and how and why to use technology in worship to tell visual stories.
ECHO: You’ve done a few “projection parties” in the past several months. What exactly are those and what kind of feedback have you gotten?
CW: A projection (or mapping) party is simply when you use multiple projectors to project on the outside of a building, VJ media content to music, and invite the community to come watch, enjoy, and fellowship. There are many other people and groups that do this on a much bigger scale, with brighter/better gear, but I think projecting on the outside of First Baptist Church Coppell was unique. The response was incredible. The church faced a main street into the city, so over the three nights we had about 100 people stop by, park, or walk over to the parking lot.
The other main projection party we did was in Nashville on the Marathon Village office complex. It was a smaller event simply due to time constraints, but when we are able to really get the word out about it, we will do it again and hopefully be able to invite more people.
ECHO: What does somebody need in order to throw a projection party of their own? CW: From a gear standpoint; you will need multiple projectors, plenty of data and power cable, a computer with VJ software, and content. That’s only half the picture though. The other is social networking. What makes these parties exciting is having a wide range of people come and enjoy the evening. Blog, Twitter, email and call to get the word out. Get a friend to DJ the music using an outdoor PA system. It’s relatively simple, but does take planning and communication.
ECHO: At Echo, you and Stephen Proctor are going to spend two breakout sessions on visual worship. Are there any misconceptions about visual worship that you’d like to clear up here and now? CW: Without writing a book here, I would say that visual worship is usually overrated and overdone. It’s not required for worship; it’s not the only form of worship during a ‘worship service’; it doesn’t bring people into your service; it doesn’t keep the youth group coming to your service…etc. I think that a lot of us have put too much importance on ALWAYS having something visual going on during the worship service, and think it is something required to be effective.
ECHO: You’re also going to do some VJing at Echo — how do you typically go about preparing to VJ an event? CW: I personally start by going over the set-list of the event with the worship leader, and talking through the flow and overall mood that is trying to be created. This usually helps me start gather media together in playlists that I will possibly use to VJ with. I rarely script out each and every song; most of the events I do are on-the-fly. Stephen Proctor (@vjProctor) does many more live events than I do, and would probably have more insight as to his process. He runs the WorshipVJ blog at www.worshipvj.com.
At Echo, Camron, along with Stephen Proctor and Nate Griffin, will be leading two back-to-back breakout sessions about visual worship and the Church. The second part of the Visual Worship breakout is setup so you can learn from not only these guys, but the other breakout attendees as well. Stephen, Nate and Camron want to create a community of church leaders and visual worshipers within the breakout that far outlast the conference. Camron’s also offering a great deal on what he does best - At anytime during the Conference, come find Camron and sign up for an on-site design session at your church. You’ll receive a 10% discount on the design session as well as an exclusive content kit from Awake Images containing Volume 1, and a coupon for 50% off another volume!
**This is the first in a series of interviews with our breakout speakers. We’ll be posting new interviews weekly so you can get to know our speakers and learn a little more about what they’ll be bringing to Echo**
though none of us know for sure what tomorrow holds, here is a list of open doors i am planning to walk through in the coming months. i still to this day cannot believe that God allows me to do what i do on a daily basis; i am truly over-blessed. i’ll either be VJ-ing or hosting conversations on visual worship (and sometimes both) at these conferences. At many of them, Nate Griffin & Camron Ware will be joining me.
i always like to connect with other VJs & visual worshipers out there. so if you are planning on being at any of these events, i’d love to connect while we’re both there. just send me a tweet and leave a comment so others can know where you’ll be, too.
Because this past weekend was truly EPIC.
