Last November, Bill Swaringim came to me with an idea: to create a gathering, a space to facilitate community and dialogue surround the topic of “visual worship”. Months later, we gathered in St. Louis. We had no expectations and braced ourselves for what might take place. And people came…hungry for community and for challenging dialogue. Not only did 20+ people attend, but 60+ people tuned in online for the majority of the day’s conversations.  The day seemed like a success, and we left with that “cloud 9″ kind of feeling. We knew this had to be the beginning of something exciting.

Only two months later, we decided to host a similar gathering in the Nashville area. The approach was the same, but the content of the day’s discussions was different than that of St. Louis. The online community forged over twitter and blogs went offline and grew even deeper over philosophical discussions on worship, new expressions of art, cutting edge technology & many bowls of chips & salsa. For it’s one thing for a “tribe” to connect online, but if you ever take your community “offline”, then you will quickly form a belief that social media is simply a means to an end.

For a while, we created a make-shift website that served as a home for information & registration for these first few gatherings. But this week, I’m excited to announce that we have a new online home @ VisualWorshipRoundtable.com! And for the sake of blog post titles, I’m calling it “VWRT 2.0″! A big shout-out to Katie Strandlund for coming on board and designing the new site! Thanks Katie!!

Visual Worship Roundtable gatherings (VWRT for short) were launched to challenge visual worshipers and the Church to use visual media to help others experience God and be transformed into who He has called us to be. Each VWRT is designed to be a space for intentional dialogue and relationship building among the visual worship tribe, which includes anyone who believes that visual media has the potential to add depth and meaning to our corporate worship gatherings.

These are not times to find out what the latest, greatest methods & tools are…nor are these times to be trained or learn how to do our jobs better. Instead, we dedicate the day’s discussions to why we do what we do and to dig deeper into the purpose of corporate worship and how the visual plays a role in that. By taking this approach, we believe we will develop into better visual worship leaders & curators.

On the new site, you will find out what to expect at a VWRT, a little about who’s leading these conversations, ways to continue the dialogue beyond the roundtable events, and information on upcoming gatherings.

Speaking of upcoming gatherings, I’ve got two to tell you about today!

1) ECHO – if you are registered for ECHO (taking place in Dallas next week!!!), then you will be able to attend our late night VWRT hang out on Thursday night! There will probably be an announcement made during the event sometime, but if not, just pay attention to the official @VisualWorship twitter feed for more details. The after-hours session will probably only last an hour, but it will be a good time to connect with each other and maybe dive into a discussion or two. And there just might be an announcement made about an after-ECHO lunch on Friday, but you’ll have to come to find out more. :)

2) STORY – for those of you attending Ben Arment’s STORY conference in Chicago, we are working on a lunch for those interested in visual worship for one of those days. More information will be given at the conference. But we are also hosting a post-STORY VWRT that Friday night and Saturday. If you aren’t able to come to STORY (which is a tragedy), you can still come to VWRT. We will have registration available for those dates soon.

Be sure and follow @VWRT for all the latest information and announcements as we continue to unfold this dream and facilitate future gatherings for our tribe!

•  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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There are few moments in time when such a large group of like-minded creative individuals gather together, united in their passion for new ways of expressing their worship & building the Kingdom of God. ECHO is one of these unique moments.

I was asked the other day by a worship pastor & mentor of mine, “If there was ONE conference this year that you & your team could go to, which one would it be and why?” My honest answer is ECHO…and here’s a few reasons why:

- I don’t trust marketing or branding…I trust leadership & the people behind it all. I can tell you this: Scott, Marc, Trent & the team at RT Creative Group have earned a great deal of trust & respect. I am impressed with their hearts, convictions & willingness to be a voice for creativity in the Church today.

- if you are a senior pastor, worship leader or any other leader who is leading creatives, ECHO is for you! You will be inspired beyond your imagination, and you will share an incredible experience with your creatives that you can take home with you. This will open your eyes in amazing ways & will help you better understand the digital/visual/media world & how it can impact your ministry & community.

- there are many tech conferences & trade-shows out there…and they are all well & good. However, ECHO focuses much more on the heart & inspiration behind the creativity. You will still learn A LOT & be exposed to tools & techniques like never before, but you will also get the heart behind it all, which is extremely important & foundational.

- the community you will find at this event is incredible. So much of the “echo community” stays regularly connected throughout the year via social media & other gatherings, but for most of us, this is our “mecca”. Come and connect with others in your area of passion & quit trying to do all of this alone on that desert island of a job you have! :)

- Camron Ware & I will be teaching together. We’re cooking up something brand new that we’ve never taught on before; it’s special for ECHO! We’ll be focusing on a concept called “curation”, which might be new to most of you. You can read more about it here.

- come experience a taste of what the Visual Worship Roundtable is like! We’ll be hosting a late night session on the Thursday night of ECHO!

- other random reasons: see an iPad control ProPresenter in multiple ways…experience the goodness of Pappasito’s Mexican food…see how many gallons of water you sweat in the summer heat of Dallas…laugh til you cry during Jon Acuff’s keynote session…check out all these people coming that you’ll be able to connect with!

So have I convinced you yet? Still on the fence? Seriously, take my word for it… you do NOT want to miss out on ECHO. By any means possible, get yourself there! You won’t be sorry, I promise.

If you haven’t registered yet, you can do so here. Use the code “stephen” and you will get 20% off registration. However, the code expires on July 1st! So you’ve got one week left to get in on that action.

Leave a comment if you are planning to go this year! I’d love to know who all will be there because I would love to connect with you!

Josh submitted 670 photos of Helvetica out in the wild! You can check out his photos on his Facebook profile (apparently Facebook maxes out at 200 per album, so there’s 4 albums total). Josh has a blog “God at Play” where he is diving into conversations about art, worship, VJ-ing & interactive technology like Nintendo WiiMotes controlling Quartz Compositions in a live setting. Be sure and read “Interactive Visual Worship”. Josh tweets as @godatplay; I would definitely suggest following him & keeping a close eye on this guy’s journey.

BUT…

…every good story has a twist! And Josh is NOT winning the free pass to Echo Conference! (cue record scratch) WHA?!?!?!

Before I started the #HelveticaChallenge, Camron Ware & I were discussing who we should give our free passes to. (Echo is cool enough to let each of us give one pass away to whomever we choose.) We have both been very impressed with Josh & all that he has been exploring. You should see the emails he’s sent me…wow! We’ve been trying to figure out how to meet up but it just hasn’t worked out yet. Anyway, Camron decided to go ahead & give his pass to Josh. So I thought it was only fair that if Josh wins the challenge, the free pass should go to the 2nd place winner. And Josh was totally cool with this.

So, the free ticket to ECHO is going to…

CODY THOMAS!!!

Congrats bro!

Cody came in with 237 photos. Check out his Flickr set here. Cody has a very cool website & blog completely designed like a large iPhone…very clever! Follow Cody on Twitter: @codylthomas

This year at ECHO is going to be better than any year. Sure, there are a lot of great speakers, artists, gurus, etc…but what makes ECHO an over-the-top experience is the community there. You will truly walk away having built amazing relationships with people who will not only inspire you but will become your lifelong friends. It will be fun to see Josh, Cody, Camron, Katie, Nathaniel, Nick, Scott, Nancy, Matt, Monty, Brian, Promise, Stan & a bunch of other friends hanging out in the same place, diving into creative dialogue & going out for late night Mexican food. I can’t wait!

I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite photos from the Helvetica Challenge.

This is hilarious & disturbing at the same time. I wonder what was going through the designer’s mind when he/she created this. (submitted by Katie Strandlund)

First, this looks like the most boring read in the world. wow. Second, this goes to show you that Helvetica has been”in” for some time now. Crazy. (submitted by Josh Larson)

This is “Mr. Miller”, Nancy Thompson’s cat. This has nothing to do with the font helvetica. But as she captioned, “Mr. Miller helping out with the #HelveticaChallenge. … OK, I know it doesn’t count, but I need to give him some recognition.” And that resulted in a very loud laugh! Very funny, Nancy!

…and in honor of the Season 6 Finale tonight: (submitted by Cody Thomas)

So you want to go to the Echo Conference.   Well, how would you like to go for FREE?! Now’s your chance!

I give you The Helvetica Challenge!

The basic premise is this: whoever captures & submits the most photos of the font “Helvetica” in use in the real world wins a free registration to ECHO! Here are the details/rules:

1) You must first watch the film doc “Helvetica”. It’s available on iTunes, Amazon, etc. I hear you can watch it online for free somewhere but I don’t know where exactly.

2) Take the test. “So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?”

3) Take pictures of Helvetica in use out in the wild. Streets signs, shops, magazine ads, TV, screens @ events, airports, etc. However, you cannot, I repeat, CANNOT take pictures of, print off or screen-grab shots of Helvetica on a computer or anywhere on that thing they call the “InterWeb”.  (the internet for those of you who don’t get the joke.) In other words, the subject has to be physical/tangible/out in the wild, not digital or online. Also, you cannot create or be involved any way in the creation of said subjects using Helvetica.

4) Upload your pictures to an online gallery. Your options are Flickr, Facebook, & MobileMe. Please submit them as an “album” which automatically counts the number of photos it contains. Only one photo per subject, too…no duplicates or different camera angles on the same thing. The album must also contain a picture of your receipt from purchasing the film or a picture of you watching it. You must also include a picture/screen-shot of your test results from the Arial vs Helvetica quiz. (scores don’t matter.)

5) Tweet the link to your online album of photos and hashtag it with “#HelveticaChallenge“. (If you aren’t on Twitter, then email your link to me at proctor@worshipVJ.com with the subject line “Helvetica Challenge”. Then go sign up on Twitter. haha… j/k!) You only need to tweet it once, and once it’s published, you can’t add anymore pictures to it.

DEADLINE: All tweets/emails must be posted by 10:00pm US Central Standard Time on May 19th (next Wednesday).

The winner will be announced the following day.

Simple enough? Any questions?

Ready.

Set.

GO!

This weekend I get to reunite with my Living Proof Live family and kick off the 2010 events in Toronto! Of all the speakers and “celebrities” I have worked with (or ever heard of for that matter), none are as genuine, humble & authentic as Beth Moore. She’s just as real off-stage as she is on-stage. And Travis Cottrell isn’t too bad either! I can’t believe I get to work with such an amazing team. We are always laughing our heads off…rarely do we have a serious moment.

I’m looking forward to staying a few days and exploring the city. And I’m pretty stoked about reconnecting with my bro Bryan Lee who I met randomly in Hong Kong last year! Good times shall be had.

Any suggestions on things I should do, see, places to eat?

Next Thursday (March 4th), another Visual Worship Roundtable (VWRT) will take place …this time at Journey Church in Franklin, TN. Everyone involved in the St. Louis Roundtable back in January was really pleased with how it turned out…so we have high expectations for this next one.

We’re doing things a little differently with these Roundtables, at least from our perspective. We’re not wanting to be different just for the sake of being different. These events are designed to be intimate and organic, loosely structured but full of purpose and vision. There’s no way of going in and knowing what’s going to happen. And it’s attracting everyone from club VJs to senior pastors to music gurus to tech-heads. We’ve designed it to where someone presents a topic/new idea and then everyone jumps in and take it to places no one else ever dreamed of. The collaborative dialogue is infectious.

We have decided to cut off registration for this event at 20, and it’s filling up fast. If you are wanting to be a part of next week, you might want to go register now. Just sayin’. :)

We will not live stream this next event. This is a deliberate choice to keep the dialogue as local and intimate as possible. The live stream from St. Louis was a huge success in our eyes, with 60+ viewers tuning in and dialoging via chat the entire day. It was awesome. But we want to experience what it would be like to not have any wires or microphones or anyone watching online this time. This isn’t to say future VWRTs won’t be streamed, but like I said, we’re doing things differently.

It would be so easy to turn this thing into a system and crank out a “product”…but this is not the heart of those of us leading the Roundtables… but I know, never say never…and who knows what will happen in the future. For now, we feel led to create a unique experience for each host city. No event will be the same. This thing is ever evolving.

Speaking of future events & cities, we have a few in the works. Right now there is dialogue with leaders in Atlanta & Southern California. We don’t know when these events will take place, but we’re hoping it’s sometime in 2010. Just watch this blog or the VWRT website for those announcements.

But…in the words of Steve Jobs & Renewed Vision…

…there is just one more thing. ;)

We’ve partnered with the folks at ECHO Conference in Dallas, and we’re working on confirming a Late Night Roundtable at ECHO! We’re excited that we can create a space for further dialogue since so much of the content at ECHO will spark the kind of discussions that the VWRT events were created for. We’re still working on the date, time & location…but however it looks, it’ll be cool to have a space carved out for us to hang out. So if you are going to ECHO, we hope to connect with you & dig further into this “visual worship” thing. And if you are on the fence about going to ECHO this year, then consider this a significant push towards going. It’s pretty rockin’. :)

What a journey it’s been… and in more ways than one. For the past few weeks, I’ve been bouncing around like a pinball between airports & MTR stations throughout Southeast Asia, getting to experience things & meet people I never would have dreamed of. There’s so much to unpack, and I don’t just mean my smelly socks & the souvenirs I bought for my nieces & nephews. Between spending a week in Thailand with some new missionary heroes of mine and meeting with church leaders (both visual worshipers & pastors) in Hong Kong, we’ve packed in a lot. I’m still processing it all…wondering what just happened…and thinking about what’s next.

I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog-front while I’ve been away, and for many reasons. Mainly, I knew that I needed to be 100% present with all that was going on. And what free time I had needed to be spent sleeping, hearing people’s stories, eating crazy spicy food, and getting $6 massages. :) It was also a great opportunity for me to relax and be removed from everything back home. But in the next few weeks, I hope to unpack some of these stories and share with you what God is up to in the Asian Church! It’s bigger than any of us could imagine…so get ready!

Once in a while, I’d check in and see what’s going on back home, and it seems that a lot of exciting stuff has been taking place! From iPads to LOST to Sabre buying out Dunder Mifflin, I’m coming home to a very different place. (ok, so the iPad isn’t that exciting…but whatever.) But even more exciting are the advancements & developments in the visual media community. Here’s a few that stuck out to me:

First, my friend Brad Zimmerman of CMDtv has been hard at work releasing his newly designed site. From the looks of it, the new experience at ChurchMediaDesign promises to be a refreshing oasis of training, inspiration, community, and free resources for those of us in the church media revolution. I love the new layout & design; if you haven’t experienced CMDtv yet, go do it now!

Second, Echo Conference has released their new site & has officially started promoting their 2010 conference. Last year was my first time at echo, and I was truly impressed by what Scott, Kami, Trent & the RT Creative staff pulled off. I’m humbled to be invited back to join this creative community. I’ll be teaching with Camron Ware again, and our focus will be on the “service programming” aspect of visual worship…the preparation & curation process of VJ-ing & Environmental Projection. I hope to see you there!

Last and definitely not least… the exciting news many of us have been waiting for. Just recently, Renewed Vision tweeted:

“Coming this week: The official ProPresenter 4 release… Oh, and there is “one more thing”. Stay tuned.”

FINALLY!!! It’s here!

I’ve been testing the beta in live settings for the past month or so, and with each update it has gotten more stable & exciting to use. I’m confident the gold master release will not disappoint. In fact, I just used Pro4 throughout the entire conference in Thailand, and it never crashed once! (fun fact: I bought my upgrade while in sitting outside a coffee-shop in Chiang Mai with elephants walking by & street vendors & all. Great memory.)

Brad Zimmerman gave a very thorough review of ProPresenter 4 on his new site; I highly suggest checking it out. Also, I’ll be hosting a Pro4 workshop at the Apple Store in Green Hills (Nashville) on March 3rd, and there’s a Germantown (Memphis) Store workshop in the works, as well.

I’m grateful for the guys at Renewed Vision and for their dedication to the vision they have for media & worship in the Church. They have once again brought relevant, cutting-edge technology and packaged it in an easy-to-use, affordable solution for us Mac users. I wonder what that “one more thing” is…hmmm…. any guesses out there? Whatever it is, they deserve our thanks and some much needed R&R.

Speaking of R&R, I’m gonna need some after being cooped up in a plane for 20+ hours. Flying around dodging islands with imploding hatches & frozen ancient wheels is nothing to take lightly. But nothing a little Mexican food can’t take of though in the end. :)

As amazing as Asia was, it will be good to get back home. And like I said before, I will try my best to unpack as many experiences, stories & opportunities as possible. Maybe some of it will end up on this blog, but the heart of it can only be shared in person! So if you’re up for it, let me know…but be careful, the journey may end up leading you to Asia!

There are many factors that contribute to this journey of “visual worship” i’m on. New software versions, cool loops with that latest edgy effect, creative “out of the box” (or “in the box“…haha) projection techniques, etc… these are all good and noteworthy things. But one thing contributes more than any of those combined, and that is community.

Thankfully, in this day we have social media that easily and freely connects us all, and if you know what you’re doing, you can quickly find your way into a tribe of like-minded people who share the same passion. In the past few years, i have met some of the most creative, passionate people ever through social media. But when it goes beyond 140 characters or the occasional blog comment, that’s where the real conversations start to take place.

That’s why i love events like Echo, Gurus & Dirt. Because these are gatherings that are designed to connect creative leaders passionate about media & worship in the Church. Any given day at one of these events is jam-packed with mind-blowing seminars, inspiring keynotes & eye-opening resources that will make your head spin. At one of these events, I met Bill Swaringim, a church tech director from St. Louis and a fellow twitter follower. He proposed an interesting idea to Camron Ware & me:  a whole event dedicated to “visual worship”.

This being a dream of ours for a year now, we jumped onboard immediately. Bill took the initiative and ran with the idea! So here are a few details for what i hope to be the first of many “Visual Worship Roundtables”.

- When is it? //  January 14th, 2010

- Where is it? //  St. Louis, MO @ Windsor Crossing Community Church

- Does it cost anything? //  Yes. And only $25.

- Where can I register & get more information? //   VisualWorship2010.com

- What can I expect to get out of this event? //   This is not a “conference”, so it won’t follow any format like one. Most of the day will be an open dialogue where all are invited to participate. There will be structure, but it will be informal and designed to flow freely. With a bunch of creative-techs in the room, i’m sure we’ll cover topics on technology and gear. But this isn’t a “tech” event…there aren’t going to be any training sessions on software (though we might be using/demonstrating certain softwares throughout the day). We will definitely talk about ways that all of us have implemented technology throughout the year, such as VJ-ing, Environmental Projection, creating atmosphere, new content ideas, etc. But in the midst of touching on the “whats” & “hows”, our priority will be the “why“. We hope to get into some deep & possibly controversial conversations on our philosophies of visual worship, theology, current Church culture, building stronger relationships, and ways to be more effective visual worship leaders. Hopefully through this experience we will draw closer to each other & to Jesus, to whom this is all for in the first place.

Some other questions you might ask:

- Q. I love a philosophical discussion just like the next guy, but I still have some questions about “gear”. Will there be any time or place to have my questions answered? //  A. Yes! While we don’t claim to have all the answers, we most definitely want to help you along your journey. Since everyone’s questions & situations are unique, we probably won’t address these in the large group setting. But there will be time during the day for individual conversations, no matter the topic. And if that’s not enough, then you’ll leave with everyone’s contact info.

- Q. Whoa! This event is just around the corner! I would love to come but it’s too short of a notice. Will there be more gatherings like this in the future? //  A. Yes. But we don’t know when yet. Hopefully a few of these will take place in 2010, and not just in the St. Louis area either. Watch this blog & the Events page for upcoming Roundtables.

- Q. Will this be a large event? //  A. My guess is no. And we’re fine with that. In fact, a smaller, more intimate setting will allow for more voices to be heard and for more flexibility in our conversations. But the more, the merrier, too! Numbers aren’t our focus…growing deeper in our understanding of visual worship IS. This will be an epic day, even if there’s 8 of us (and there will be at least that many!)

- Q. I’d like to host a Visual Worship Roundtable in my city. Is this possible? //  A. You bet your bottom dollar it is. Just e-mail me  ( proctor@worshipVJ.com )  and let’s talk.

- Q. Will this event be live-streamed? //  A. Despite our failed attempts in the past, yes, we are going to try our best to live-stream this event …and do it right this time!  :)   So on that day, tune in to live.worshipVJ.com.  (but we may have to call in Brad Zimmerman for this!)

- Q. I have another question that you haven’t covered. //  A. That’s not a question…it’s a statement. But i know what you mean. ;-) Just ask your question in the comments section.

thanks!

It’s my favorite time of year. I’m a sucker for all the old Christmas movies, the lights, the gaudy tree decorations, the egg nog…the whole nine yards. So it’s a dangerous thing when I get my hands on a few projectors, as you can imagine. :)

When you think about it, the Christmas/Advent season is filled with more imagery than any other time of the year. Not only in the story of Emmanuel, but in our own culture’s visual way of celebrating. And if we’re lucky, we get snow on top of that! (ok, i know you Northerners think i’m crazy, but those of us in the South enjoy our 1-2 snowfalls each year!)

This year, i get the privilege of participating in two different Christmas tours.

One of them is the Skaggs Family Christmas tour (as in Ricky Skaggs). Yeah, i know. I was shocked when I got that call. I’m intimidated by the fact that the Skaggs family is made up of prodigy-musicians and the last thing i would ever want to do is distract any audience with a bunch of video loops. I mean, really, Ricky Skaggs on mandolin is enough! But they really wanted to create a unique visual environment, and one of their family members that i work with brought our name up at the right time! However, I had already committed to another tour, so luckily Chris Rouse (who grew up on bluegrass) was available and ready to put his VJ hat on! Check the tour schedule, and if the Skaggs are coming to your town, touch base with Chris and come out to the show! (depending on the venue, you might even see some Environmental Projection in action.) And if you’re coming to the Nashville show on the 22nd, then let me know ’cause i’ll be there cheering Chris on.

The other tour, the one I’m currently on, is the Gloria Christmas tour, featuring Travis Cottrell, Cindy Morgan & Shaun Groves. They are a stellar combination of artists…i would call them the songwriters of songwriters. Their lyrical masterpieces make my job easy, as i just plug & play the videos where they fit. It’s an incredible experience.

The first half of the Gloria tour is much more fun & nostalgic, then it brings attention to the injustice of poverty around the world. Shaun Groves does in an incredible job of telling stories of injustice and calling the audience to action…. to forsake the spirit of consumerism that plagues Christmas, and to live out Christmas beyond the giving of gifts to each other.

The second half is completely focused on the Story of Christ. Over and over, the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus is sung about. It honestly was really hard to visually compliment this so many times, but thankfully i had just enough videos to do it differently each time. I’m using mostly older stock content videos as well, as some clips from a few movies & cartoons, and I did find some new gems on WorshipHouse Media a few weeks ago that look really nice. I love to find new ways of blending & projecting them.

Here’s a montage video I created that shows you just a few of the visual moments of the night.

My favorite moment of the night isn’t in the montage b/c it’s not on Travis’ Christmas record. The song is “What Child Is This?” with a new song he’s written called “This Is Our God”. I love it b/c it answers the question. During this song, I project Names of God all over the screens and walls. It’s a visual way of answering the question, as well. (a revelation that invites a response) It’s too much to take in sometimes. It’s so simple, yet the most powerful I’ve experienced in a long time. Here’s a moment I caught on my phone and posted to Twitter:

Please be sure to check the schedules and see if one of the tours are coming to a city near you…Chris & I would both love the chance to get away, grab a cup of coffee, and hear your story.

Merry Christmas!

The bad news…we were facing away from the camera! #directionFAIL  we were live streaming that day and most people were gathered in the space of the room where the screen is. The “gurus” camera was in the back of the room for other technical reasons (it’s a really cool but interesting in-the-round living room setup).

The good news…you get to see the screen really well! And the audio is WAY better than the live stream recordings. (you’d think a bunch of techies could have figured all this out! ha!)

Enjoy.

All photos taken by Camron Ware of VisualWorshiper.com. Check out some more photos from the night.

Kids, don’t try this at home! :) ok, just kidding…but there are some interesting articles coming out about “visual attacks” & guerrilla projection mapping. We had total permission by the fine folks at DIRT though, but if Camron & I disappear one day, look in the nearest jail… (based off the location of our last tweets, of course!) Thanks to Brad Weston @ Renewed Vision for helping & for making kick-butt VJ software!

(FYI, total gear included 1 MacBook Pro running PVP, External Hard Drive for content, one TripleHead2Go, three projectors – Hitachi 3000 lumens each, and a few strands of VGA.)

This weekend, i’ll be out on tour with Travis Cottrell & friends.

Tonight (Friday, Nov 13th) we’ll be in Jackson, TN at Englewood Baptist Church, 7:00pm.

Saturday, Nov 14th @ First Baptist Church in Cartersville, GA (6:30pm).

and Sunday, Nov 15th @ First Baptist Concord near Knoxville, TN (6:00pm).

If you are near any of these tour stops, i hope you can come out and enjoy a night of worship with us…i love connecting with others passionate about the Church and the movement of visual worship. Hit me up on Twitter or leave a comment if you can come!

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are you going to #Dirt09?

if so, i can’t wait to reconnect or meet you!

and if not, watch this video…and consider making the trip next week…and definitely plan on going next year!

we are collaborating with the amazing folks over at RT Creative Group (WorshipHouse Media) on a few projects to help get visual content into the hands of the local church in creative ways. One of these projects has just gone live… The worshipVJ Playlist.

at every event, i get THE QUESTION: “Where did you get all of those backgrounds?” … and lately, the questions have been very specific, down to the video. The Playlist is a collection of media that i have VJ’d for artists such as Travis Cottrell, Paul Baloche, Desperation Band/New Life Worship, Chris Tomlin, & many more. It’s a good representation of my favorite media available on WorshipHouse.

Explore. Experiment. And engage your congregation with the same media that is serving some of today’s leading worship songwriters and recording artists.

Thanks to Dale, Mo, Beth, Jeff & Rob at WorshipHouse/RT for your support & excitement. These guys have impressed me beyond my expectations and I can truly & authentically say that their main priority is serving the local Church.