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’s this guy you need to know about named Joel.

Joel Smith is the creative genius behind Thr-ve, a production company providing motion backgrounds, TripleWide loops, and mini-movies for worship. He has made some really quality stuff, like this, that, and this other thing . If you haven’t already checked him out, you really should do so now!

But one day, Joel got bored. And he saw a need…both for his creative expressions & for great art in the Church. So he went and started something new, and it’s called “SimpleBacks”.

SimpleBacks are collections of very simple, artistic & tasteful still images. And what does he use to take them? His iPhone! Yep. Everything you see on his site (www.simplebacks.com) was shot on his iPhone. Kind of makes you consider why you spent $1800 last month on that 7D, doesn’t it? ;)

He says he blames AT&T, but personally, I blame Apple. By golly, who wouldn’t? Apple made a little device terrible at making calls (thanks to AT&T), but wonderful at doing everything else, like taking photos!

I was pretty impressed when I saw them for the first time. The quality is pretty stunning! Now that the iPhone 4 is out, there’s no telling what kind of pictures we’ll be able to take on-the-fly. I can’t wait to see what Joel comes up with!

Speaking of the new iPhone 4, have you seen this new short film shot and edited entirely on the new gadget?

On the site, Joel talks about how he started SimpleBacks. The kicker? He “took pictures.” It’s such a simple idea. He just went out and did it. SimpleBacks is the result of that innovative effort. It’s awesome to see the pictures of buildings and cars and stuff that you have no idea what it is because its from a fresh perspective. His art really shows that it’s not the camera, the equipment, or machine, but rather it’s the person behind the camera/computer/brush/instrument that makes the art what it is. SimpleBacks proves that you can make great art with simple equipment. So what are you doing with yours? Quit making excuses that “I can’t do this, that, or the other” and START DOING. The best thing you can do is just DO.

So go do!

Oh, and one more little detail about SimpleBacks:

THEY’RE ALL FREE!

Nathaniel is Proctor’s awesome summer intern at Grateful Inconvenience. He does it all: somersaults, push-ups, and spit balls. Be careful: if you see him in the wild, he may walk up to you and give you a high five. Go ahead and follow him: @nathanielks.

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!

Zach Fonville is one of the few media producers that “gets it”. He creates stunning, creative visuals to use in the church that aren’t distracting. I was SO happy when I heard Brad Zimmerman at CMDtv talk about Zach because it changed my church’s Sunday morning. Before RedFerrisWheel, we were using some cool loops, but it just wasn’t “there”. But after hearing about RFW (and USING them), it just wasn’t the same.

Why do I say he “gets it”? I think that Zach understands that it isn’t the visual that matters, but rather the emotion and message in the song and in the worship that matters. His visuals just reinforce that emotion and message. His use of color and visual simplicity is fantastic. He forsakes a focused image for blur and abstraction. I love that because even though the worshiper is watching a video, there’s nothing to attract your eye to the video, but rather focus on the words and the worship, while also being able to take in the color and the visual. I LOVE that.

One of the defining characteristics of Zach’s pieces are their use of color. They are usually pretty simple, kept to 1 or 2 colors, but some offer more a variety in hue. One of the greatest things that you can do with ProPresenter 4 or ProVideoPlayer is change the hue of the video. So even though his original piece was blue, you can change the hue to green or yellow to match the environment you’re setting as one of the worship leaders! (If you haven’t heard of “color theory”, I highly recommend reading the first part of Smashing Magazine’s mini-series HERE.)

If you lead worship, you need to understand how color and visuals both aid and detract from worship. As Stephen pointed out in his “3D Worship” post, worship is for GOD and not for us. Yes, God gives us an awesome gift in being able to enjoy worship, but we need to remember it’s for his glory and not our own. Our worship needs to reflect this in every aspect, even down to the visuals we use. Are the videos you use during your services aiding worship or detracting from worship? I challenge you to ask yourself this question:

Why are you using it?

Do you have an answer? If not, you need to be careful. The point of using visuals in worship is not just to do it. God doesn’t JUST put trees in the ground to look pretty. He also put trees in the ground so that they can grow, get big and develop leaves that produce oxygen for us to breathe. God has a reason and purpose for EVERYTHING he does. Do you?

Like I said before, I love Fonville’s work because of its simplicity. In many cases, his work aids my congregation in worship. I highly recommend checking him out and taking his stuff for a spin. =]

Zach’s website is RedFerrisWheel.com – he offers all of his visual creations on his site for FREE…there’s a lot of motions on there, as well as bundles of stills. So knock yourself out, and spread the word! You can also follow Zach on Twitter: @redferriswheel

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Nathaniel is Proctor’s awesome summer intern at Grateful Inconvenience. He does it all: somersaults, push-ups, and spit balls. Be careful: if you see him in the wild, he may walk up to you and give you a high five.

I want to introduce you to Nathaniel Schweinberg, a good friend of mine and my new intern this summer!

I met Nathaniel at Gurus last year. And throughout the year, as I was following him on Twitter, he just seemed to stick out. Overall, he just impressed me. Later on in the year, he asked if I had any internship positions open. I normally don’t, but I wanted to make the exception for him. So this summer, Nathaniel is working with me and helping GI/worshipVJ out in a lot of areas. I’ve also asked Nathaniel to contribute a few guest posts to this blog, so be sure to look for those throughout the coming months!

Here’s s a little more about @nathanielks:

Nathaniel is a young creative who recently graduated from The Florida State University. He has a degree in Media and Communication Studies, which means that he knows how to talk to you, be it one on one, in a small group, or in a large group/mass venue. It doesn’t matter how or where, he can communicate a message! And that’s what he loves doing: communicating. His main venue? His designs.

Nathaniel is primarily a graphic designer, but also loves delving into motion design as well. A designer of 4 years, he is still green in comparison to some more established designers. But don’t let his relatively small portfolio fool you: he is growing quickly and is very excited about where God is taking him with his art. Not only is he passionate about art and technology, he is also fascinated with the philosophy and theology of design & technology. “Why?” is a question often running through his brain, and if there is no answer, it doesn’t make the cut. His desire is to share his passion with the rest of the world. If it will listen to him, of course.

God has placed a burden on Nathaniel’s heart for the Church. He has shown Nathaniel that the modern church is not what He desires it to be, and is seeking change. He knows that God desires the church to be one, just as He and his Son are one (John 17:20-21), but Nathaniel isn’t quite sure how God will use him in this endeavor. He does know, however, that God is faithful and will show Nathaniel in the proper time. The exciting thing is that life is an adventure and God wants us to explore and figure out exactly what it is he wants us to do (Romans 12:2).

Nathaniel is Proctor’s awesome summer intern at Grateful Incovenience. He does it all: somersaults, push-ups, and spit balls. Be careful: if you see him in the wild, he may walk up to you and give you a high five. Go ahead and follow him at http://www.nathanielks.com and @nathanielks!

Check out one of his latest creations: “Visual Liturgy” – it’s a finalist in the ChurchMediaDesign.tv Film Festival (Mini-Movies: Small Church)…currently it’s ahead…be sure and vote for it when you get the chance!

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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!

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)

You’ve heard me focus heavily on the “why”. This is an effort to help all of us re-prioritize the questions we have when leading worship…whether through technology, music, creativity, speaking, etc. Well, there’s one question that I believe is as important (if not more) than “why”…and that’s “who”.

The person(s) leading has a much greater impact on the direction of your organization/church than any gear you may own, your worship style, or any well-thought-out strategies your leadership can dream up. Yet so many churches struggle with finding the right person to lead. And sadly, there are many out there who have the talent & passion but don’t have a place to lead.

Slingshot Group exists to help churches find the right staff to lead their worship ministries, and throughout the process, speak into their strategy and structure. I’m excited to announce today that in addition to my current job, I have joined the Slingshot Group and will be developing their visual media/tech area. Simply put, I will be spending a significant chunk of time helping churches find & hire media directors/visual worship leaders!

Here’s how it works: a church is in need of a worship leader (or in this case, a media director). They then hire Slingshot for a moderate fee to go out and find the right leader. This involves visiting the church & getting schooled in who they are. Through Slingshot’s vast network, we present candidates for the job and help walk both church & selected candidate through the hiring process.There is no cost involved for the candidates.

What does this mean for you?

- you might be a church in need of hiring a media director/VJ/visual worship leader/etc. I can help you find the right person. There’s a journey involved though…it’s not just a simple hand out of my Rolodex.

- you might be a candidate…. a visual media/tech guru in need of a job at a church that can be a good home for you…a place where you can thrive in community & explore the gifts & talents you have in the context of ministry.

- neither of those? well, if you are a worship leader in search of a position, or a church in need of a new worship leader, then I can still help you out. The Slingshot Group’s main focus is on worship leading…so I can get you in contact with the right people there to hook you up.

If you’re interest is peaked, then here’s the 1st step: check out Slingshot Group’s website & read up…especially “How It Works”.

Want to go a little deeper down the rabbit hole? Email me – proctor@slingshotgroup.net – and let’s talk!

Aside from staffing, I will also be offering my consulting services through Slingshot Group. Kind of like a management/booking agency! Those services range from VJ-ing worship services, training teams on visual worship leading (everything from heart/philosophy, to software, to application), speaking into strategy & structure, & casting vision for leadership. If you are interested in bringing me to your local church, then please email Lesli Goetze – lesli@slingshotgroup.net.

I never could have come up with this kind of job description! I’m pretty stoked as I love focusing on relationships and the people-aspect of visual worship. Talk to me about projector models & firmware updates, and I just get lost. There are people out there way better at that stuff than me. ;)

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Follow us on Twitter – @slingshotgroup

Slingshot on Facebook

The first time I met Anthony Lee was in May/June of 2009 on my first trip ever to Hong Kong. I was VJ-ing the opening of a missions conference called “Call2All” as well as presenting a workshop on visual worship. Through the magical power of social media, Anthony reached out to me via Twitter and the rest was history.

At first, I thought, “Cool, a Chinese guy who’s into PowerPoint and things of that nature!” Little did I know, my world was about to be rocked. His entire community and network of VJs assembled; I was overwhelmed. Not only were they talking about technology, but they were concerned with the heart of visual worship….focusing on the “why” and the philosophies of using visual media and imagery during worship. They were saying verbatim the same words that only a few of us had uttered in conversations back home!

As I travel the globe, it becomes very evident to me that God is speaking to the whole Body…not just a select few. Very rarely am I “informing” anybody of anything; I am just sitting back and watching it all play out. Such is the case in Hong Kong. To me, this is evidence that “visual worship” is a work of the Holy Spirit and not a few guys who know how to run a laptop & projector.

Here’s an excerpt from an interview I had with Anthony while I was there last Summer. To see the full unedited (30 minute) version, click here. His English is great but his accent is thick. But I love the way he & his friends word things; it’s very refreshing to hear.

When I returned to Hong Kong in February (bringing Camron Ware with me this time), we made it a priority to meet up with Anthony and his friends. Anthony had organized a “VWRT” Roundtable-style dinner and hang time with a dozen other visual worship leaders all from different Chinese-speaking churches. We worshiped together, shared all of our stories, and ate some amazing food. The owner of the restaurant is also a pastor, and he makes his restaurant available as a place of worship each night after the kitchen closes.

Anthony began the evening by sharing his heart for visual worship. He said, “We can worship & glorify God with our eyes. If we were not able to do that, He would not have created us with eyes in the first place.” This has been one of the best descriptions I have heard in my entire life.

It was really cool seeing how they all responded to different things. They invited us to “show and tell” what we’ve been doing back in the States, and so we whipped out our VJ techniques and pictures of Environmental Projection. They were mostly wide-eyed and mystified, but they quickly guided the topic of conversation straight to the relationship aspect and the heart behind all of this…not the tools themselves. That goes to show you what is foremost on their hearts!

Anthony also cast vision for seeing visual artists rise up in the Chinese church…to start developing and creating their own visual content. He said that the American websites are great and all, and that he was very thankful for them, but that for China, they must find their own way of expressing visual worship. My heart just about beat out of my chest!

He also cast vision for going into Mainland China and helping the churches there by training them on the proper use of technology and imagery for worship. He created a flier to pass out at various events, and he gave it to me to give to you. Download here!

So keep a close watch on Anthony and his community. They may not be speaking at any of the cool conferences or showing up on any of the popular blogs in America, but I have a strong sense that God has chosen these guys as a royal priesthood to lead the Chinese church in worship in the days to come. And I want to do all that I can to get behind them and support them.

Anthony’s blog is called “Media4Christ”, and ironically, his domain is worshipVJ.hk!

Honestly, I don’t even know where to begin with this post. I feel like I’ve only climbed the foothills of a giant mountain. Some of you have never even heard of this mountain or at least didn’t know it was a mountain to begin with. Some of you have been on similar trails and paths as me, and I just want to sit down and share stories. And for some of you, you’ve climbed the mountain…and the rest of us just need to sit as your feet and listen for days.

I have to get over the fact that I cannot even begin to express what’s on my heart in this single blog post. This thing with China is going to take a lifetime of exploring, discovery and processing. I’ve only been to mainland China twice and to Hong Kong twice. They are separate places…kind of. Maybe this will be best described in bullets points…because I can tend to ramble.

- I wish I had a video to show you that explains the history of China over the past 100 years. That would really help. Hong Kong was owned/run by the British up until 1997, when it was handed back over to Communist China (“The Handover”). But because it was already Westernized with capitalism…well, a square peg doesn’t fit into a round hole. However, China is becoming more like Hong Kong each day…not the other way around.

- Hong Kong is treated like a separate country. Separate Visa, flag, etc. However, it’s still owned by China…so it’s fully China…and yet it’s not. Hong Kong is very free. It’s very busy…like New York City crammed into a very small place. It’s very dense.  And it’s also the most friendly place I’ve been to. The main language of Hong Kong is Cantonese, and most everyone speaks English; they write using “Traditional” Chinese characters. The language of Mainland China is Mandarin; they write using “Simplified” Chinese characters.

- Wake-up call: While in Thailand, I had dinner with some of Hong Kong’s finest (leaders in financial, government & ministry sectors)…we were discussing religious freedom in China and how things are changing. We were discussing one of my past trips to China where Nate & I helped visually document the building of a Biblically-themed amusement park (in mainland China, mind you).  Then the conversation switched to America, and they asked me, “Are there Biblically-themed parks in America? Can you even get away with that? We wouldn’t think so; America isn’t very free. You can’t pray in schools anymore, you can speak freely, you can’t….”

- the Church of China is divided into a few factions: The Gov’t established registered “Three-Self Church” (did you know that the Chinese Gov’t actually trains pastors?) …some of these “Three-Self Churches” are very free…a few have restrictions, but it isn’t what you’d think. Then there are the “underground” house churches…these are the churches who hide and refuse to register with the Gov’t and use their Gov’t Pastors. Some are persecuted more than others…but most are not persecuted at all; it all depends on the Province you are in. However, there are a few churches popping up (mostly in Beijing & larger cities) that are not registered but are still meeting publicly…it’s the first of it’s kind. The Gov’t is choosing to turn a “blind-eye”, and they view these “Christians” as friendly and doing good. Pretty epic, huh?

Here’s a little #VisualEaster for you…this is one of those churches in Beijing I’m referring to. This is a line of over 1,000 trying to get in this past weekend. And this is very typical each week. (HT: Biscuet)

- The Church in Hong Kong suffers from a different kind of division. First is the division between Int’l and local Chinese speaking churches. Secondly is the division between Evangelical (Conservative) and Charismatic churches (in both Int’l and local Chinese). However, this is most prevalent in the older generation of leaders…for the younger generation is praying and yearning for unity…meeting together many times a week to pray and worship together. Most of these worshipers come from different churches. For them, the denominational lines are blurring & even disappearing! And the focus of their prayers is on their own generation and the local churches of Mainland China.

- All of these churches and young leaders share a similar passion: the use of visual artistry and technology in worship. They all have a laptop, projector and images. Even the local house churches in China are incorporating technology into their gathering experiences. Many of the young worship leaders are embracing this technology and have a burden for seeing it used correctly. We’ll hear more on this later.

- Opportunities are presenting themselves left and right. Camron, Nate & I are overwhelmed with what’s going on over there, and we’re praying about what’s next. We had no plan when visiting Hong Kong. No agenda. We just wanted to see what’s up and to encourage people along the way. Out of nowhere, we ended up meeting with pastors from some of the largest and most influential churches in Hong Kong…both Int’l and local Chinese. And we were grafted into the younger generation’s community and welcomed with open arms. There are even opportunities opening up to teach visual worship at one of the universities there. The people God aligned us with would blow your mind….we’re still processing it all and wondering what to do with all this.

Camron & I got to visit a local Chinese speaking church:

This is where they meet:

And here’s their tech guy running sound & lyrics all at the same time (any of you out there relate?):

We also got the chance to visit Hong Kong City Church (one of the Int’l Churches):

Their worship style is very edgy and modern; their community is made up of local Hong Kong business people, Australians, Americans & many others:

And they meet at the top of the 2nd tallest building on Hong Kong Island. The owner of the building is a Christian and let’s them meet there for free! Talk about a powerful visual context for worship, especially when praying over the city. And some days, they’re literally caught up in the clouds!

- We have a vision for seeing the Western Church serving the Asian Church. Not Westernizing or commercializing…but truly serving and meeting their needs…training it’s leaders, encouraging them, and helping them to see what mistakes the Western Church has made so that they don’t repeat the same mishaps. But the fact is, when you go over there, you aren’t really teaching them much. You are learning more from them than you could ever imagine, and you are able to catch a clearer glimpse of how God is at work across the entire globe. You get a real sense that the awakening taking place in the Church is truly a global awakening! And visual worship is just a chapter in the story.

All that I have described to you barely scratches the surface. And I know that all that I have seen & will see in my lifetime is just a drop in the bucket.

Get ready. It’s bigger and more exciting than any of us could ever dream or imagine! As I learned when I was young, go where you see God moving. He’s moving in Asia people! He’s been there all along and I’m so grateful for getting to find Him there!

So I’m going. In fact, a bunch of us are going!

What will your response be?

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Every time I VJ, I get the golden question. “Where do you get all your backgrounds?” If you’ve been around me long enough, you’ll know there are many answers to that question. Much of what I use I download from sites like WorshipHouse Media, and some have even come from 20-year-old DVDs that I’ve discovered across the years. But more and more, the content I VJ is being created by friends of mine or even myself. Time and time again, I point to a shiny silver box sitting next to my MacBook Pro and explain, “This is my external hard drive. It contains all the videos & images I could ever need.” I get varied responses, from “Is that for sale?” to “You better not walk away b/c I might steal that!” (jokingly, of course…I think.)

Well, what if you COULD walk away with a hard drive loaded with content?

Now you can!

For a long time, a few buddies of mine and I have sat around dreaming. This usually takes place over a burning fire-pit, a stack of pancakes, or chips & salsa after loading out an event. We dream about everything from high-end technology that doesn’t exist (or isn’t affordable and user-friendly) to our philosophies on visual worship to the direction the Church is headed and what we love/hate about it.

One of those dreams was to start creating more content…a fresh wind of creativity that would sweep the Church and cause a shift in thinking in how we approach visual media for worship. And another dream of ours was to see all of this packaged onto a hard drive…a “one stop” solution that we could share with the Church at large. And not just a heaping pile of random clips…but media we could actually see ourselves using! A carefully curated collection of our prized gems.

This is way more than a product. It’s our expression of community & relationships. This project is a collaboration between Orange Thread Media, Visual Worshiper & worshipVJ. Those are our business names & brands…but most of you know us by our real names…Luke McElroy, Camron Ware, Nicholas Rivero, Nate Griffin, Jason Norris & Stephen Proctor. And many of you in our community have spoken into our lives and helped shape the way we think.

We hope that the Playback Drive will be a simple & effective solution that will empower you as you journey on this road of “visual worship”. Because no matter what software you are using, how big your HD screens are, or how simple or complex your approach may be, at the end of the day, you’ve got to have good content. The type of content loaded ranges from artistic & abstract to film-based images & realistic. There’s also a good selection of fast & vibrant loops for more energetic contexts, as well as slow & reflective imagery for more contemplative times. We wanted to make sure that there is a wide variety that suits every situation!

More importantly, we hope that this will be a tool that creates community and edifies the Church at large. To read more about why we are doing this & the community behind it all, read what Luke McElroy has to say.

And for those of you on Twitter wondering what the heck “#pbhd” means (that is, if you haven’t already figured it out), it stands for “Playback Hard Drive”. :)

Pre-orders begins TODAY! We will begin shipping on April 30th, 2010. If you pre-order before April 28th, we guarantee to have you drive shipped on April 30th.

Oh, and there is just one more thing…

…all Playback Drive Users will receive a new clip every month for FREE!

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.

- 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.