Every Monday night, Mark Pierson curates a worship gathering called “Transient”. It’s unlike any worship event you’ve probably been to. There’s no stage, no band, no “front”.  It’s not meant for a large crowd but designed and hand-crafted for just a few. You won’t hear any well-known worship songs, in fact, you probably won’t sing at all. There’s no real start time, however, you are greeted with a “reflective space” that lasts for a half hour or so. When the mood feels “right”, the curator welcomes everyone, leads a responsive reading & prayer time, then goes on to explain the theme & direction for the night. The room is set up with stations for the worshipers to interact with. Jesus-centered & thought-provoking activities that allow you to express a prayer or response in many ways. It’s sometimes messy and left unfinished…and I’ve learned that sometimes that’s the whole point.

Last night, Mark invited me to curate with him by projecting visuals around the room. It was an experience I will never forget; I was left inspired & challenged. It tapped into some dreams and visions that I’ve had for a while but never really fleshed out before. I don’t know what it would look like, but I really want to carry this back home and try this out in my own community.

I’ve been asked before how “visual worship” (in the projected media context) could translate into small, intimate group settings. I’ve never really had a good answer… until last night.

I heart New Zealand!

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•  I’ve been on the road way more than usual lately. I’m typically home (in Nashville) about 1-3 days each week. People ask if I’m burnt out or tired, and I can honestly say no. In fact, I’ve enjoyed it a lot more lately and strangely find “home” to be wherever I am, as long as friends are there with me. For the first time in my life, I feel truly nomadic! It’s definitely not for everyone…and it has it’s downsides…but I’m loving it right now! And it’s hilarious when people ask me, “Why do you even have a house in Nashville?!”

•  My mom just turned 60 and we threw a huge surprise party for her! She had no idea I was coming home…it was awesome!! the whole family (and the whole church) showed up at our house. My dad even brought in a string trio to play Andrew Lloyd Webber & classical music! Happy Birthday Mama!

•  Most of my time on the road has been with the Living Proof Live events (LifeWay, Beth Moore, Travis Cottrell). I’m thankful for these events and for the family-like team I travel with. None of these events are cookie-cutter…each one is specifically designed for each city. So it keeps me on my toes and brings some really creative challenges to my role! They are the best leaders I have ever worked with…they make room for mistakes (which allows for authenticity) and empower each of us to operate in our gifting with great freedom. And they encourage me like no one else does. We always say, “We’re not slick, but we’ll give you everything we’ve got!” I heart them big time!

•  Last week I got the privilege of subbing for Nate (my biz partner) on the GUNGOR tour. It was one of the most creative experiences I’ve ever been a part of. And Nate did a killer job at creating the VJ playlists for the tour. A new addition last weekend was hanging a scrim in front of the band & shining work lights from behind to create shadows. Similar to what I hear the Sigur Ros tour did; I hope to see them one day. Then I would project content onto the scrim at various moments. We did this at the beginning of each movement (there are three movements during the concert) and then pulled the scrim back (or up) to reveal the band. The anticipation & “reveal” moments it produced were infectious.

•  Speaking of Nate, we’ve been trying out a new concept called “Art Fusion”. We think it’s a big part of our future together at GI. I’ll have to share more on this later…deserves it’s own blog post, esp since we’ve been documenting the process and capturing live moments on video.

•  Speaking of GI (our company), it’s been a season of handing it all back over to God and allowing Him to do something new. Truly, a process of death and rebirth. This has resulted in some re-strategizing and re-structuring, and so far, it’s turned out to be a very successful & seamless move that we’re both thankful for. Here’s to GI 2.0!

•  As many of you know, Nathaniel Schweinberg joined us this summer as our intern. It’s been an incredible experience getting to show him the ropes of Nashville, creating original motion graphics, and taking him to a few events. His new site/blog “Fight the Current” is about to launch. Very excited for him and his future!

•  Content creation (at least the type that we sell on WorshipHouse) has never been our forte, but we are proud of the few gems we’ve released so far. In the coming weeks, there will be an influx of new loops, and some of them were shot all over the world! Pretty stoked about it. I’ll announce when they are released. Hopefully by ECHO. Here’s a sneak peak:

•  Speaking of ECHO, it’s just a few weeks away!! I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited about returning this year. Camron Ware and I are working on our brand new session entitled “Visual Worship: Environment & Content Curation”. I’m pretty stoked about sharing these new concepts & the VJ workflow!

•  Katie Strandlund has come on board the VWRT team and is working on a brand new official Visual Worship Roundtable site, as we have a few gatherings scheduled (namely at ECHO & STORY). I can’t wait for you to see it. I’m very excited about the direction it’s taken.

•  New Zealand: today, I embark for Middle Earth where I’ll be teaching and VJ-ing at Frequency, a church production conference, as well as visiting some other churches, universities, and more. Mark Pierson, the genius behind this “curation” concept you’ll be hearing more about, will be my host. Below are pictures of City Impact Church in Auckland where Frequency will be hosted. Hopefully along the trail, I’ll get to see some spots where they filmed Lord of the Rings!


•  Poland: remember Mat Smalec that i featured a few months ago? Well, he’s organized a “worshipVJ” conference that he and I will be leading together in Warsaw for the youth of the Church in Poland. I leave in September, but will travel to Belfast, Ireland first to hang with some friends of mine, including the world renowned VJ & Quartz master Shakinda!

•  Hong Kong/China: it looks like the Lord is opening up another opportunity to travel back to my home away from home!!! This time, I’ll be going there with my mentor Roy Cochran (of worship foundations int’l) on a vision trip. We’re hoping to find ways to send worship leaders and their teams over to China for a week or two. We’ll also hook up with ELIC and travel to Mongolia. Two of my bromances, Biscuet & Matt Stowell, will already be over there, as well as Nate, so we’ll all be traveling the countryside together!. I love that my story is continuing to unfold in Asia, and better yet, it involves figuring out ways to get people like YOU over there!

•  Then in October, Integrity Live kicks off the new seminars4worship tour. Luke McElory will be out on the tour with me, as Playback Drive/Orange Thread will be a sponsoring the tour. And if you are near the Boston area, you are in for a real treat…b/c Camron Ware will be VJ-ing & teaching!

So this turned out to be more of a list of upcoming events than anything. But it’s still the update on my life…b/c that’s about all I’m doing these days! I’m really thankful for the community I have in all these places and for God giving me a lot of extra grace and strength to not only maintain a healthy balance on the road, but to absolutely LOVE what I do!! I am truly blessed. Especially when Mexican food is involved! Love me some fajitas!!!

I prayed a while back, “Lord, show me Your global Church!” He has not been slow to answer that prayer. Whoa! He’s not joking around when He tells us that if we take Him at His Word and make ourselves available to Him, He will BLOW OUR MINDS. He is so faithful and has a specific unique plan for each of us!

I leave you with some creative inspiration that a friend of mine showed me this week. Get ready for this. This 26-year-old conductor & these Venezuelan teens are about to make you crap your pants:

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( HT: Collide )

A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, was recently inside North Korea (legally) and was able to attend one of these events. He filmed as much as he could with his cell phone and passed it along to me, giving me his blessing to share with all I come in contact with, even on this blog.

When I first saw this I was jumping out of my chair, laughing & saying “Shut up! SHUT…UP!!!! Are you kidding me?! NORTH KOREA?!” It was one of those moments like watching the Opening Ceremony to the Beijing Olympics where your jaw is to the floor, tears well up in your eyes, and you are simply dumbfounded. I have never seen such a creative collaborative effort on such a massive, epic scale. This makes me want to throw in the towel, and yet it inspires me to pick back up again and dream bigger.

I’ll never look at a projector the same way again. Every time I see a little pixel, I will be reminded of North Korea, where they don’t need projectors, and where thousands of people have one job: to be a single pixel. I hope I get to visit there one day soon.

Many of you already know about Barton Damer. And those of you who follow him probably saw that he just launched his new site today. But for those of you not “in the know”, this post is for you!

I would say Barton is one of the best visual artists I know. His work not only inspires me but leaves me with my jaw dropped to the floor and usually one word …or sound… “uhhhhhhh.” Words like wow, cool, awesome, neato, groovy, epic, etc… they all fall short.

His portfolio and client list includes Igniter Media (where he used to work full time), Collide Magazine, tobyMac, Scion cars, Owl City, Wolfmother, Integrity Media, Story/Wibo, Catalyst, and a few skateboard companies. His company and blog URL “Already Been Chewed” lives up to it’s name in that, like gum, no one likes media that has already been chewed. Seeing his work is as refreshing as popping a Mentos in your mouth.

The world can be a drab and boring place. There is visual disease all around. And then “BAM!” a Barton Damer video hits the streets and it’s as if the world went from black & white to technicolor! Don’t believe all this hype? All I can say is watch this. It speaks for itself:

Over the past year, I’ve gotten the privilege to know Barton, and he’s as real as it gets.  For him, his relationships come first and his artistry/career come second. I’ve also been one of the fortunate ones to hire Barton for a few projects. Our first was a doozy… wow. We had to produce three concert visuals to be VJ’d in a feature-length film starring Tim McGraw & Gwyneth Paltrow. It was my first true “Hollywood” experience and I learned a lot about how the industry works (or how it doesn’t work, I should say.) It was a classic case of the client not knowing what they wanted and going back and forth like nobody’s business, but Barton was a trooper and delivered what they called a “homerun”. We thought otherwise…but that’s another story. ;) But the best part of that project was getting to work with Barton, hands down. I’ll let you know when the movie releases!

Brad Zimmerman (CMDtv) interviewed Barton recently; I highly recommend watching it. And if I haven’t been obvious enough, go check out his new site and let some fresh visual goodness into your life!

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(you’ve got to watch this in full-screen! still doesn’t do it justice though.)

You can imagine we were in heaven that night. We were all geeking out! If you ever get the chance to visit Hong Kong, I highly recommend seeing the show!

Easter’s a funny thing in churches these days. As I talk with church leaders all over the nation, there seems to be many approaches and ideas on what to do for Easter and why. Some are pulling out all the stops, using the big day to try out new things like TripleWide projection, new songs (but not too many new songs so that there’s still familiarity), introducing a new service time, opening a new building…the list goes on and on. But then the problem many face with doing something new and different for Easter is being able to replicate it each week. Some go the extreme opposite and do nothing new and different for the sake of staying authentic to who they’ve been throughout the year; this way, if newcomers come back next week, they aren’t being “let down” by getting a stripped down version of what they experienced on Easter. (side-note: I heard an interesting (and sad) fact the other day that the Sunday after Easter is the lowest attended day all year for churches.)

No approach is necessarily right or wrong…I just find it interesting & intriguing. But that’s what makes the Church the Church. Everyone has a different approach unique to it’s own community. And with each approach comes a fine balance. On one hand, there’s a ton of new “un-churched” people coming through the doors of our sanctuaries; what an opportunity we have to meet them where they are and to create an irresistible experience that shares the Good News & draws them into our community! On the other hand, our worship isn’t about pleasing man, it’s about pleasing God. For if we made our “experiences” about pleasing & impressing man, then we would not be servants of Christ.  (Galatians 1:10) It’s a balance we must all consider & walk humbly in…praying for wisdom each step of the way.

One fact remains…we are all depraved. The Church is broken and we will never get it completely right…no matter what side of the fence we fall on (and for those of us trying not to fall on either side of the fence, we will rack ourselves eventually!) But that’s what this weekend reminds us…that despite our best intentions & motives, we fall short. Even Church leaders….ESPECIALLY Church leaders! Thank You, Jesus, for the Cross!

And so we remember His death and celebrate His Resurrection! And we are expressing this is new and visual ways! I’m so thankful we live in a day where we can project the story of Jesus all around us…whether through images, color, lighting, online or off. I want to do all I can do build up our visual community and to encourage each and every one of you who poured out all that you had this weekend.

Here’s a snapshot of our community. Here’s what Easter looked like…from YOUR perspective! (if you have a picture that wasn’t posted, then leave a comment…who you are, where you serve, and a link to your picture.)

From Robert J. Crisler in Miami, FL: “Easter service at #ChristFellowshipWK this morning!! A awesome view from the sound board.”

From John David Boreing @ First Family in Columbia, TN:

From Matthew Kelling @ Argyle UMC in Argyle, TX: “My view this morning during the middle service.”

From Camron Ware: “My view this morning/afternoon.  @mission68 in Phoenix.”

From @jtmar10: “View from the sound board. #VisualEaster thanks to @churchstages for the inspiration.”

From Matt Cooper @ Southland Christian Church in Lexington, KY: “@southlandcc rolling orginal scenic content by @jeff_laub.”

From Brian Van Volkinburg @ Valley Family Church in Kalamazoo, FL: “Easter service @ValleyFamily”

From Matthew March in Nashville, TN: “Media/Tech community: the view from where u r this morning? #VisualEaster!
Church plant in the boro!”

From Jonathan Norton @ Westside Church in Omaha.

From Billy Adams in Norman, OK: “My vid director view this sunday.”

From Janel Moore in Charleston, IL:

From Jude Horn @ LifeChurch in Memphis, TN:

From ChurchTechGuy in Guelph, Ontario: “Hosted both online services.#VisualEaster from Nunavut to Guatemala, British Columbia to Denmark.”

From Fraser Hess in Centennial, CO: “The Passion.”

From Justin Kirk @ Manley Baptist Church in Morristown, TN:

From yours truly @ Journey Church in Franklin, TN…our first Sunday in Liberty Hall at the Factory:

Lord, may our offerings of visual worship…from the creativity, motivation, efforts, sacrifice and relationships involved….be pleasing to You.

I hope I get to see Muse on tour one day. I can’t imagine how fun it must be to VJ and run lights/lasers for them. All those lasers create such a holographic motion graphic effect. Wow. Thanks to Nick Rivero for showing this to me. Nick, Muse needs your help on their next tour…I know you could bring much more to the table! :)

An original and powerful spoken word piece from Mike Perez of City Community Church in Indianapolis.

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There are no words I can add to this.

Lord, teach us what true worship really looks like.

- There is something powerful when people come together to create.

- Both of those guys (Camron & Nate) rank at the top of my list of creative people I know. … But as we focused on communication and our friendship, we all learned to die to our preferences and serve a greater cause.

- What happened in Thailand was probably one of the most creative worship experiences I have ever had.

- They wanted each of these nights to be set apart…very unique and special. So Saturday & Tuesday nights were our two main opportunities to bring all we had.

- Both nights incorporated Nate painting live during a segment of the worship while Camron and I took turns VJ-ing & running lyrics. As we dreamed together, we stumbled onto a few simple and innovative things that none of us had tried before. But what sent this experience over the edge was the participation of everyone else in the room…all contributing and leading through their own acts of visual worship. It was “co-creation” like I had never seen before.

- It’s all about relationships.

The Setup:

Saturday Night: Entering into Sabbath rest.

We wanted the worship space to be a sanctuary when people walked in. Lights dimmed, quiet & reflective music playing, and images/text on the screens that focused their hearts on God. People entered quietly and reverently.

The worship songs that night were played in a softer manner, and during a few of the songs, we didn’t even project lyrics. Instead, we projected various scriptures that focused on the Cross. The songs were well-known, so the need for lyrics wasn’t even there to begin with.

During this time of projecting scriptures, I felt the need (in the moment) to VJ scenes from “The Passion of the Christ”…slowed down to half-speed, saturation very low, and barely blended in with the scriptures. Then two people from the congregation got up and started reading scriptures while the worship leader lightly played his guitar. (For us, the scripture reading was a last minute add-on and someone else’s idea… a “curve ball” for us production guys…but we went with it.) It was POWERFUL. And the “Passion” scenes mysteriously lined up with what they were reading aloud. I love it when that happens.

Nate stepped on stage and started painting. No one could really tell what he was painting though…but we all sensed it was something profound. We continued to sing and hear scriptures. After a while, Nate turns the painting upside down and walks away. We were stunned as we made out the image…and overwhelmed given the powerful, scripture-filled worship moment we were in the midst of having.

Nate had also written out a beautiful treatment that I took and made into a video (all this was written and edited on the afternoon of). We also wanted to bring the experience back home for ELIC, and so Camron took his “Names of God” template and created a video of all the city names that ELIC is currently working in.

As you saw in the “setup” video, Camron had figured out in PVP (ProVideoPlayer) how to pixel-map the double-wide projection to fit exactly where the painting was hanging. This is an advanced setting in PVP and fairly easy to setup if you know what you’re doing.

And all at once, the elements came together. We captured this experience so that we could bring it back home and remember it, and we wanted to share it with you. (on the left, you’ll see the painting and what happened live, and on the right you’ll see what we projected on the side screens.)

And then we partook in communion.

Tuesday Night: The Sending Out.

This night was similar to Saturday night in that we had people enter quietly and reverently. However, this night was focused on the “sending out” of ELIC back to their cities.  This time, I VJ’d scenes of creation and people groups from all over the world. The music was less contemplative and more “other worldly” and “epic”…lots of movie soundtracks with a haunting yet inspirational rhythm.

Nate had painted a map of Asia earlier in the week and hung it on display in the back of the room. On Saturday night, people were invited to take sharpies and write prayers for their cities and friends over the regions where they were teaching. Some of the things that were written would break your heart.

We rearranged the chairs into a “U” shape, creating more of an “in the round” effect. I love doing this because it reinforces the community aspect of worship. (Nothing screams “community” like seeing the backs of people’s heads…just sayin’.) The band and speaker never stepped foot on the stage, but led from the floor down front. Many people could not see the worship leader, but this was kind of the whole point.

At the end of the night, after communion, Nate stepped back on stage and completed the painting of Asia. The first painting (from “Agnus Dei”) was hanging next to it. Nate finished painting, and what we were left seeing was the Hand of God holding Asia…prayers and all.

Then the worship leader led us in “God of This City”. In between the two paintings we projected faces of Asian people and then brought back the “Names of Asian Cities” that Camron had created for Saturday night.

Next came the last song of the night: “Mighty to Save”. Earlier in the day, Camron had taken his Canon 5D Mark II and took pictures of all the prayers that had been written throughout the week. After a little Photoshop magic, he opened up his editing program and created a double-wide video of all the actual handwritten prayers.

The people’s visual worship became our motion background! And it was the most powerful visual I could ever imagine while singing “Savior, He can move the mountains!” Spiritual mountains, one right after another, filled the wall. It was too much to handle. People were crying, raising their hands, and yelling “Yes, Lord! Do it!”

The last prayer came across the screen as we ended the song. In one person’s own handwriting, it read…

The president of ELIC got up, spoke a blessing over us, and prayed a benediction. The room continued to be a sanctuary. Most people just sat there in silence. Filled to the brim and ready to get back to the Work.

We had dreamed of merging live art and media all at the same time, but this was the first time we all worked together to make it happen. Even though the content was unique & creative, what made this experience so special was the context we were working with… 500 amazing individuals that make up ELIC. There’s no way we could replicate what happened that night…nor should we try…it was special for that time and for those amazing people. Again, it was co-creation like I had never seen before. What’s even better is that it took zero dollars to pull this off. Just a little time, creativity, a few of our own resources, unity and love for each other is all that we needed. I will never forget it.

It wasn’t the cool experience or our creativity that made the “worship” happen…it was the offering and surrender of people’s hearts…all of our hearts. That is what was pleasing and acceptable to God. It’s amazing when He chooses to use our talents in the midst of worship. He can do great things through us when we get out of the way, die to our preferences, and make ourselves available to Him.

There is something powerful when people come together to create. You see, when it comes to playing videos, I’m pretty much by myself, choosing the videos I want and doing it my way. Sure, there’s community with the band, leader and production guys, and a hope for some sense of “community” with the people in the pews…but let’s face it, when I sit down at my laptop, it’s pretty much whatever I decide. And very quickly, it can become all about me and my own artistic preferences.

In Thailand, I ran smack dab into a wall of frustration, tension and confusion over what needed to happen visually. Nate & I experience this tension frequently in our projects, and we’ve learned over the years to embrace and wield this tension to our benefit. Add the fact that Camron and I teach together a lot but rarely VJ together. Now put all three of us in a room together; it was the making of something very interesting.

Both of those guys rank at the top of my list of creative people I know. But working together in a close environment brought out some crazy things. I realized very quickly that we have different creative/artistic preferences. We each gravitate to different types of images & styles of VJ-ing; there were even moments when I thought, “I would never use that picture!” But as we focused on communication and our friendship, we all learned to die to our preferences and serve a greater cause.

You see, it’s all about relationships! This applies to all of us. I don’t care how big or little your budget is, how cool that video effect is, how many projectors and screens you have, or what version of ProPresenter you’re running…if you don’t have love, game over. It’s probably the single most important & foundational element for an effective ministry. I cannot stress this enough!

What happened in Thailand was probably one of the most creative worship experiences I have ever had. It involved all of us working together…as a team…loving each other and encouraging each other along the way. I failed many times at this during the process, but God trumped all that in the end and decided to accept our offering and do something great with it.

The conference went from a Wednesday thru Tuesday. For ELIC, Sabbath rest was ushered in Saturday night and ended Tuesday night with a sending out. They wanted each of these nights to be set apart…very unique and special. So Saturday & Tuesday nights were our two main opportunities to bring all we had. We still VJ’d the rest of the time, but it was much more simplified & stripped down.

Both nights incorporated Nate painting live during a segment of the worship while Camron and I took turns VJ-ing & running lyrics. As we dreamed together, we stumbled onto a few simple and innovative things that none of us had tried before. But what sent this experience over the edge was the participation of everyone else in the room…all contributing and leading the rest of us through their own acts of visual worship. It was “co-creation” like I had never seen before.

To be continued…

“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – John 13:35 (NIV)