collide magazine preview issue

2 May/june 2010 www.collidemagazine.com

uPFROnT

When it comes to pop culture, summer is the most exciting time of the year. There are big movies and big albums and snow cones. OK, never mind the snow cones. Remember how big last summer was? Here are just a few of summer 2009’s biggest movies: X Men Origins: Wolverine, Star Trek, Angels & Demons, Terminator Salvation, Up, The Hangover, The Hurt Locker, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Plus, musical luminaries such as Dave Matthews, Regina Spektor, Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne, Wilco, Moby, Jordin Sparks, The Flaming Lips, and Brand New all dropped new albums last summer. So what promise does this summer hold? Well, check out our Summer Movie & Music Guide and decide for yourself. ≥

Jake Gyllenhaal starsin Prince of Persia:The Sands of Time

2010Summer

Movie & Music

Guide

May/june 2010 3www.collidemagazine.com

Band of Horses Infinite Arms ≥ May 18

LCD Soundsystem This is Happening ≥ May 18

Stone Temple PilotsStone Temple Pilots ≥ May 25

The Smashing Pumpkins Teargarden by Kaleidyscope 1: Songs for a Sailor ≥ May 25

Arcade FireTBA ≥ May

Jack JohnsonTo the Sea ≥ June 1

Travis McCoy Lazarus ≥ June 8

Christina AguileraBionic ≥ June 8

The Roots How I Got Over ≥ June 15

DrakeThank Me Later ≥ June 15

DiddyLast Train to Paris ≥ June 22

M.I.ATBA ≥ June 29

T.I.King UncagedAugust 24

New Music

Sex and the City 2 May 27 Just so you know, it kills us to include this one. But it’s big, and there’s no denying that. The first movie made $415 million at the box office.

Prince of Persia May 28Movies based on video games have a great track record. Remember how awesome Tomb Raider was? No?

The A-Team June 11Let’s be honest—there’s no way this movie will be as awesome as the TV show. We pity the fool who believes otherwise.

The Karate Kid June 11 Instead of the great Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita, the 2010 version of The Karate Kid stars Will Smith’s son and Jackie Chan. Sweep the leg!

Grown Ups June 25This film stars five famously funny guys. Will they dominate like the 1992 Dream Team in Barcelona or come up short like the 2004 Lakers?

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse June 30You either love the Twilight series or you don’t. We don’t. Even so, there’s no denying the mania surrounding Bella and her unusual friends.

Inception July 16Christopher Nolan directs Leonardo DiCaprio and Juno (OK, Ellen Page) in a thriller about stealing ideas and dreams. Count us in.

Salt July 23Angelina Jolie makes news when she sneezes or has another kid, let alone when she appears in a movie. In Salt, she replaced Tom Cruise in the role of a spy framed for treason.

Dinner for Schmucks July 23Get this: In Dinner for Schmucks, Steve Carrell plays a weirdo and hilarity ensues. You’re intrigued.

The Other Guys August 6Will Ferrell, Marky Mark, Samuel L. Jackson, and The Rock got together and made a cop comedy. We don’t know what to think.

Eat Pray Love August 13This movie features Julia Roberts (who everybody loves) and is adapted from a book that sold a bajillion copies, so it’s a big deal.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World August 13Michael Cera plays a guy a lot like Michael Cera who is forced to do superhero-style battle with seven ex-boyfriends of his new flame.

2010 Summer Movies


Designing theExperience

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4 May/june 2010

Worship Planning and Church LeadershipBy Ben Simpson


The process of designing a weekend worship experience begins well before the Sunday in

question and continues after the weekend has run its course. And as savvy church

leaders can attest, designing an engaging worship experience requires far more than a

sermon topic and set list.

Weekend worship. In most churches it is the biggest event in the life of the congregation. Each week we gather, we sing, we greet one another, we listen to the Word in Scripture and in sermon, and we are sent into the world. Leaders know that none of this happens by accident, and none of this takes place without design, intentionality, and purpose. Even services that are driven by spontaneity have to plan and create space for extempo-raneous worship.

But what does it take to plan a weekend worship experience? Different leaders have different approaches, and each strategy has its unique strengths. Design in worship is critical, and planning well can create the space needed for the Holy Spirit to work and to yield exponential growth in the life of individuals and in the life of the church as a whole.

Having a VisionHaving a vision for the worship experience both as a single event and as part of a series is the first step in establishing an effective approach to the worship planning process.

For churches that do not follow the liturgical calendar, preaching themes and order of worship are largely at the discretion of a group of leaders who determine Scripture readings, content and direction of the sermon, musical selection, visual elements, and the time and space for communion or baptism. In the absence of the church calendar, outside of Christmas and Easter, leaders must discern the doctrinal and pastoral needs of their congregation as well as the specific missional and communal direction to which their particular body is being called. Deter-mining these elements and weaving them together as a single thread results in the establishment of a common vision.

Connie Stella, Creative Director of Worship at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, says that the senior pastor, Adam Hamilton, largely determines the overall vision in their congrega-tion for each sermon series. But each week, Stella’s team of leaders asks, “What is the experience we want our congregation to have? What do we want to happen individually and congregationally?” These questions help set the tone for how their creative team works together to cast and solidify the vision they have for each worship experience.

From Vision to TeamworkOnce the vision is put into place and the direction for the weekend worship service is set, the next step in the worship planning process is working with a team to bring the vision to reality.

Depending on the specific context, different worship designers undertake the worship planning process in different ways. Some churches depend on teaching and leadership teams to develop ideas and chart a course for the weekend worship experience. Other churches depend foremost on the vision and direction of the senior pastor, who under the leading of the Holy Spirit speaks authoritatively concerning the major themes that will dominate the worship experience during those gatherings.

But every leader I talked to spoke of a creative process that involves a diverse blend of leaders in different ministry areas working together as part of a structure in which ideas are generated, processed, enhanced, rejected, and coalesced into a unified plan for the weekend worship expe-rience. For the worship designer, this requires keeping two major compo-nents in view, what Stella calls “big picture” and “detail picture.” Both


must work together to bring about a coherent and powerful experience.For worship designers who are responsible for working with a number

of other creatives on their team, this raises many important questions, such as:

≥ At what point (or points) during the week does our leadership need to meet and discuss the vision for worship? ≥ How much of our time will be devoted to the upcoming experience, and when will we designate time to dream about the weeks and months to come?≥ Who are the most important people to have around the table at each meeting? ≥ And who, ultimately, is the one who has the final call on important decisions?

These questions can help determine a set structure for teamwork in the planning process.

In addition to the questions listed above, there is another team activity that can help any worship planner in clarifying vision and bringing that vision to realization. Stella describes an exercise that the creative team at Resurrection uses to help them work together in creating a unified worship experience.

In the early stages of preparation, the Resurrection team generates a list of words, images, and color palates that reflect the mood and thrust of the direction of the series. Her team also generates a list of words, images, and colors that they do not believe best supports the overall direction. Going through this exercise helps the music and visual teams better imagine what type of sound, video, and digital and print imagery might suit the service in question.

Whether you are a solo pastor working with a volunteer music coor-dinator or a large church pastor working with a broadly diversified team, planning worship requires engaging with other people, laying out a plan, listening to their input, and finally executing the worship experience.

Continual EvaluationLeading and discipling people in the Christian life requires constant reflection and evaluation. Determining what is and what is not working, celebrating excellence, and altering the approach to worship over time helps leaders better prepare, plan, and direct each experience so that people might encounter Jesus Christ. Here is a list of questions that church leaders can ask in evaluating their worship experiences:

≥ Did we meet our communicative, visual, technical, and/or liturgical objectives for the weekend?≥ What positive lessons can we take away from this experience? What was received well? Where did our people experience God? Where did we see transformation happen?≥ Were there shortcomings or technical issues that could be refined for future worship experiences? Could we be clearer? Could we improve the experience by tightening transitions, adding other visual elements, or altering the progression of different liturgical elements?≥ Are there shifting trends or perceived needs that have emerged in our conversations with our people that may indicate a direction or a change in approach that may be needed within the coming weeks or years?

Connie Stella says, “The key thing for us in evaluation is to clearly define our objectives from the start. If you have different services, the objectives may be different for each. Your evaluation process may be the same across the board, but you should evaluate based on a specific set of expectations for that service.”

Among the leaders I spoke with, evaluation is a continual process. Leaders evaluate experiences as they unfold and after they are completed, seeking to better understand what works and what doesn’t for their congregation. Over time, this results in what Kim Miller, Campus Designer and worship coordinator at Ginghamsburg Church in Tipp City, Ohio, calls “congregational intelligence” and helps strengthen the worship design process over time.

Passionate, Powerful Encounters With GodA good worship planning process should bring about powerful encoun-ters with God. According to Miller, “Every event that we plan is life and death. If it doesn’t feel like life and death then you probably aren’t wired for worship design.”

In order to maximize the potential impact each experience will have on the congregation, worship planners must prepare well enough to have a clear picture of exactly what will happen in their minds before the worship experience takes place.

“I’ve been to this weekend already,” says Miller. “I can see ahead how things are going to play out, and if I don’t have a great feeling that something is going to be powerful or worth our time or really mesh with everything else, then I’m going to speak up. I’ve been in worship design for a long time and you get a sense of what is powerful and what is going to play out powerfully and what people may not get.”

If you are refining your worship planning process or installing an ordered approach for the first time, know that there is always more to learn. There is always room to grow. There is always room for innovation, for change, for streamlining, or expanding the scope of your creative team. And as you innovate, generate ideas, and utilize your God given creativity may your efforts, by God’s grace, bring glory to the King.

≥ Ben Simpson is a thinker and writer living in the Kansas City area. He’s also a regular contributor to COLLIDE. Follow him on Twitter: @bsimpson.

“Determining what is and what is not working, celebrating excel-lence, and altering the approach to worship over time helps leaders better prepare, plan, and direct each experience so that people might encounter Jesus Christ.”


Oops!{ Tales of Typos, Slip-Ups, and Bad Judgment }

By Scott McClellan

8 May/june 2010


in order to make more room in the Sunday morning worship services. Part of the church’s pitch to its attendees included a short video that identified a few things people could do on Sunday mornings if they weren’t in a rush to get to church—exercise, relax, and … um … celebrate the gift of marriage in an extremely private manner. If you know what I mean (and I think you do). Some people thought it was hilarious. Some people thought it was over the line. Looking back on it, the pastor can’t believe they showed the video, or that they showed it again in the next service. Oops!

In celebration of these wonderful mistakes, I turned to the COLLIDE blog and Twitter audience for their stories. Enjoy (and learn from) the cautionary tales of typos, bad assumptions, laziness, and poor judgment that follow.

Suffer the Little ChildrenA few years ago we were having Carol Kent speak at our Women’s Weekend. Carol has a powerful story and a powerful video. We were showing the video to promote the upcoming weekend. Carol and her husband were talking about their beautiful son being born, raising

him, and then having tragedy strike in the form of their son murdering his wife’s ex-husband. Great video. What I did not put together until it was too late (the video was already showing) was that we were having a child dedication the same day. So in the congregation were families who were so excited about their new babies watching this tragic video. Oops! — Bethany

Angels What?I volunteer as a computer graphics operator at my church. So I have to spell check every-thing that goes up on the screens on any given Sunday. Needless to say, the song, “All Hail the Power” now has a completely different meaning when this came on the screen: “All hail the power of Jesus’ name, let angels prostate fall.” I will never be able to sing that line without laughing. — Betsy B.

‘Tis the SeasonSeveral years ago, during the Christmas season, I had hurriedly put together a compilation CD to play before and after the service. Most were songs off CDs of mine, but some were “of undetermined origin.” Never having listened

Misery loves company, right? That’s why we invited our blog readers to share their stories of failures both epic and embarrassing. If you haven’t had an Oops! moment yet, you’ve been warned—you could be next.

Did I ever tell you about the time when I was in high school that some friends and I got to write and perform a bunch of sketch comedy at summer youth camp? It was a blast, and as is sometimes the case, there was minimal adult oversight. Most of it went pretty well, but there was one skit (which I helped write but didn’t perform) that angered our distinguished camp speaker and prompted my youth minister to hold a meeting with a group of concerned camp counselors. Let’s just say the skit featured a refrigerator box made to look like an outhouse, and let’s just say there was a guy inside that box wearing a wireless mic.

I honestly don’t know what I was thinking leading up to that moment, but I know what I was thinking after it: Oops! In thinking about that story, I realized there are some tragically funny church media and technology Oops! stories out there. For instance, when a friend of mine was a youth minister at a conservative small town church, he thought it’d be funny to show the “Farting Preacher” video from YouTube. The youth thought it was funny, but some adults weren’t too happy.

Along those same lines, I know of a church that wanted to persuade some people to start attending Sunday evening worship services


to the finished CD, I left it playing as I ran to address some audio-related issue about 15 minutes before the service. As Harry Connick finished crooning “Silent Night,” the mix burst into super-loud, super-distorted, gangster rap. I’ve never run so fast in my life. Thankfully, most people laughed. I can laugh now, but I melted into a puddle then. — Martin M.

Be Healed of Your Dry SkinThe guy running our video content wanted to go to our church online/chat site so he could tell the live video operator something (we use the free version of Livestream). He did this right before he had to play the sermon opener video. As it started playing, the audio from a Dove lotion ad on Livestream also started playing. He didn’t realize it because the audio from the video wasn’t loud in his monitors. I was producing that day and started yelling, “Kill the video!” into the headset. It scared his wife who was running lyrics, and she spilled her grape juice on the keyboard. He finally got

Safari closed and the room went silent, then filled with laughter. The good thing is that our pastor is a goofball and made a joke about the message that day being about dry skin. An embarrassed video team and a new keyboard later, all is well, but what a crazy 30 seconds that was. — Chris M.

Cue the CurtainsSeveral years ago our church moved into a new auditorium, complete with a proscenium style stage, stage lighting system, and a remotely controlled (by the tech booth) curtain and drape system. At the end of one of our services, the worship team was set to play a song after the message. The plan was to have us setup behind the curtains, have them open up and start

playing. About half way through the song the curtains decided to close and open at random, knocking into singers, instruments, etc. It was definitely our Spinal Tap moment. I don’t think we’ve tried using those curtains again during the middle of a service. — John V.

There’s Always Next YearMy biggest Oops! occurred a few years ago in the days of tape-recording the worship service. I often assisted the sound guy after covering for him while he was in college. It was Father’s Day, and the service began with the tech nowhere to be found. I reached over to turn on the pulpit mic and hit the “record” button on the tape player, thinking I was being helpful.

Upon the tech’s arrival, he discovered that I had not hit record on the blank tape; I was recording over the soundtrack for the soloist’s song during the offertory. That song was supposed to be sung by a 17-year-old girl ... for her father ... on Father’s Day ... and he was in attendance, which was a rare

occasion. Oh, and there wasn’t another copy immediately available.

I had the unpleasant task of sneaking downstairs to tell both the soloist and music minister about my mistake. The minister had to come up with an excuse for the congrega-tion and an alternative song for that time in the service. The girl, well, she ran from the sanctuary to the restroom to cry. — Nathan

Kill the Lights!About a week before our Christmas show we installed a new lightboard. In trying to program it for church and the Christmas program, I wound up accidently deleting our presets twice. The night before the show, I stayed at the church all night working out the kinks. Positive

of my ability to light everything sans tech rehearsal, I proudly hit the “go” button at show time. Unfortunately, I programmed the lights backwards, bringing up the lights on the next section of the stage while the actors from the previous scene were still frozen in the lights. It was awful and we will never again go without a tech run-through! And we now back everything up twice and on a memory stick, too! — Carol

Of Course I Was Paying AttentionWe had a computer operator once hit the wrong button during a guest speaker’s message and a nice game of Solitaire showed up on every large screen. The important thing was that he was winning. — Sabrina

More SolitaireYears back we ran our media computer from a room behind our stage. During the second service of the day our keyboard player decided she would head back there to wait out the

preaching. She saw the computer on and thought she’d pull up Solitaire to kill the time. Her game was displayed on all three screens in the auditorium! To make things worse, the preacher thought he’d go track down the offender whilst narrating to the congrega-tion. He expected to find an AWOL teen but found our respected keyboard player instead. Needless to say, she was horrified! — Cassie

The Hand You Were DealtMy old church used to put out some sort of gimmick or promo at the beginning of each year with the new theme for the year. This one particular year, we were to be focused on personal devotionals. We produced a nice spiral-bound devotional guide that

“About half way through the song the curtains decided to close and open at random, knocking into singers, instruments, etc.

It was definitely our Spinal Tap moment.”


would coincide with the year’s sermons. As a companion piece, we produced a deck of devo-tional cards. The deck was the same size as a regular deck of cards, but each card had a daily devotional and Scripture passage. We handed out the devotional booklets and card decks on Sunday and patted ourselves on the back for producing a successful, labor-intensive job. Monday morning, the church office received a call from one of our senior ladies asking why she had devotional cards mixed in her deck with “scantily clad men.” Well, the bindery we used to die-cut the cards also produced a gay men’s magazine (which we didn’t know at the time). One of their workers thought it would be funny to use press sheets from the magazine to slipsheet between sets of the card press sheets. It’s humorous now to look back, but at the time things didn’t look so rosy. We ended up getting a letter of apology from the bindery and made them comp the job. — Henry

Say What?!?Right out of college I was working for a church doing youth ministry. We were using a video clip for a sermon illustration one Sunday, and I was in charge of editing. It was a fantastic clip, with the exception of a few choice words. I edited all of the words out...except one that I missed on accident. So at the end of the message, we showed this clip for maximum dramatic effect. All was well - eyes were teary, hearts were moved towards God, and then BOOM...the “s” word hit us like a ton of bricks. All eyes turned back on me, so I made sure I pointed at the sound guy, like any respectable media guy does. Parents were not happy, but we survived to live another day. — Aaron A.

You Can’t Handle the Cussing!Years ago when I was first starting, I was running sound and video for a youth event for students & parents. The youth pastor wanted to use a clip from the last few scenes of the “A Few Good Men’ VHS in the middle of his talk. Because Jack Nicholson’s character cusses at a particular part in the clip, the plan was for me to mute the cuss word, but let the rest of the dialogue be heard.

We practiced it numerous times and after half a dozen successful mutes, we were both feeling confident that we wouldn’t have a slip-up. Well, being still very green, I got

really nervous, so when the clip played, not only did I hit the mute button too early killing the proceeding dialogue, but I unmuted it just in time to hear Jack Nicholson say, “I don’t give a D@&!” And then, I muted the rest of the dialogue in a panic. Yes I did.

Needless to say the pastor was in quite a predicament in the middle of his talk with parents and students in the room. He stammered out a few quick lines that I don’t remember and moved on. I was thoroughly embarrassed. Quite a lesson for both of us! — Deron Y.

Blame Gary SiniseA few years back our Sr. Pastor wanted to use a clip from Forrest Gump as an illustration for his sermon. This was a last minute addition, so I obtained the movie and cued the clip. Knowing the section he wanted and thinking I knew the movie well enough, I didn’t take time to watch/listen to the clip. I promptly hit the “play” button only to have Lt. Dan yell an expletive loud and clear for all to hear. Never again will I not test and watch/listen to the clip no matter how “last minute” it is. — Lucas B.

Double WhammyWe ran out of communion matzo one weekend. The youth group had a spaghetti dinner the night before and the ushers, in a rush, grabbed the leftover garlic bread and served it for communion. Good thing it’s California! Also, one time our children’s ministry was duplicating our kids worship CD for our 1,000 families. Someone had used the duplicator earlier to copy a CD by the comedian Demetri Martin

(yes, illegal!). When the children’s ministry completed their 1,000 copies, they mistakenly handed out 1,000 Demetri Martin CDs instead of worship CDs. We had some explaining to do! I’m thankful for a community that laughs with me and at me (lovingly)! — Russ G.

We Sorta Appreciate YouJust two weeks after Easter, we held a volunteer appreciation breakfast/leadership seminar for about 350 of our volunteers and staff. The media department was asked to produce several video elements for the seminar. We produced two of the three elements and simply ran out of time for the third video. So, we did what every good church media department would do—we went looking for one online! The type of video we needed was a simple “thank you for serving”-style video. We checked the usual church media resource sites and struck out. We went to YouTube and finally ended up on Vimeo. After searching through what seemed like hundreds of videos, we decided on one.

Our editor slapped the logo of our event at the end of the clip and sent it off to the team producing the event. Of course, I included a disclaimer that we didn’t actually create the video, that it was from another church, and they should watch it and decide whether or not to show it.

The next day, I was standing in the front-of-house booth as the video began to play. At that moment, it was apparent to me that this was a bad decision. The video contained a combination of talking heads saying, “thank you” and phrases Christians like such as, “you’re my hero.” Then came the telltale signs

“All was well - eyes were teary, hearts were moved towards God, and then BOOM...the “s” word hit us like a ton of bricks.”


that we had not produced this video. Besides the fact that the text on the screen said, “We honor you tonight,” and the all-white, Midwest faces and accents (we are a very multicultural church), there was one very critical line. One of the talking heads said, “Thank you to all our parking volunteers who serve even when it’s 30-below outside.”

Oops! That’s when I could see entire tables of heads turn back to look at me as if to say, “What the heck?” Yeah, we’re in Southern California and it barely reaches 45 degrees in our coldest winters. I literally knelt down in the booth, not to pray, but to hide. The video ended with a smattering of applause from the room and the emcee seemed like she didn’t quite know what to say. Yep, bad decision. Nothing communicates a sincere “thank you” to hundreds of your volunteers like a borrowed video from Vimeo! — Darrin G.

Carlos Whittaker Chimes in via TwitterLoswhit: @CollideMagazine How about the time I brought up a website on the big screen at my last church and spelled it wrong, and, well, let’s just say, “boobs.”

Return to SenderOne year I sent a bulk mailing to our immediate community (50,000+ mailers) inviting them to our upcoming series. It wasn’t until I received mine in the mail that I realized the church address wasn’t anywhere on the flyer—not even a return address.

Learning from this mistake, we made certain that on future mailings our address was prominently featured on every mailer.

Unfortunately, we were overzealous and the return address was printed so boldly on a subse-quent mailer that more of them came back to the church than were delivered. — Priscilla H.

Daddy’s Little GirlWhile trying the beta of ProPresenter 4 on a Sunday morning, the program decided to crash and display my desktop background image (which happened to be a picture of my daughter) on the two main screens. Luckily, my dad is one of the head pastors so he made a comment about how cute his granddaughter was and moved on. — Sam

Don’t Throw Away the Old Rugged Crosses!The Sunday after Easter I drove up to the church for our evening service and saw three large wooden crosses lying next to the dumpster. The crosses were obviously used for our Easter program, but were being replaced. I consider myself to have a pretty good sense of humor, so I decided to take a picture of the crosses lying next to the dumpster and post it on Facebook. Early the next morning I got an unpleasant call from the senior pastor—apparently he and a few other members of the church didn’t find the picture as amusing as I did. Darn you, social media! — Doug S.

With or Without YouMy story comes in the form of a PowerPoint presentation for a sermon. Our pastor’s sermon was titled, “With or Without Jesus.” He gave three examples of life without Jesus and two examples of life with Jesus. I copied the first

slide to use as a template (so the next slide would be identical) and just changed the appropriate wording, but I forgot to change the header. When I projected the second slide, I saw “Life Without Jesus is Joy & Rest” on the screen. Ah! I quickly adjusted the slide and the “o-u-t” disappeared from the screen letter by letter. — Stephanie

Come One, Come AllOur church was rolling out a new media campaign, and we wanted some key ministry leaders (around 80 or 90 people) to show up to a campaign kick-off event. The plan was to use our e-newsletter software to send them the invitation to the event. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong recipient list and ended up sending the invitation to more than 11,000 people! Over 700 people ended up coming to the kick-off event. — Steven P.

Sin No MoreI lead worship at my church and am responsible for typing the lyrics in our bulletins. One year during the Easter season, I planned to open our service with a hymn called, “Christ is Alive,” which starts out as follows: “Christ is alive, let Christians sing.” As I led the congregation in the hymn, many folks were snickering. As our pastor followed the song with the usual liturgy, he assured everyone that despite what we just sang, our church doesn’t encourage celebrating the resurrection of Christ by sinning. All got a good laugh; the joke was on me. I had typed, “Christ is alive, let Christians sin.” Oops. — Ben W.

Mentioning UnmentionablesAs pastor, I sometimes change the sign out front for upcoming messages and events. One week I was announcing our community “Food Pantry” for everyone to see.” However, I failed to place the “R” in Pantry. We received some interesting calls and comments from folks in the community. Oddly enough, we even increased our attendance. — Greg S.

≥ We hope you enjoyed those stories. Now, please, be careful out there!

“I literally kneltdown in the booth, not to pray, but to hide.”


visual

5 Signs You’re Watching a Bad Church VideoBy Dale Carter, Mo Lawson, and Beth Church


1) Excessive use of the Papyrus font Papyrus was created in 1982 and was meant to look old. In a church video, old typically equals bad. Unless you are James Cameron and you have the budget of Avatar, Papyrus will look outdated. Even Chris Costello, the typeface’s creator, has agreed that Papyrus is overused. Please avoid it or people will avoid watching your video.

HOW TO FIx IT: Simplify the fonts in your videos. You don’t need to go font wild in order to give your video a look, especially if you’re trying to use text to convey information. Settle for something readable that supports or complements the overall tone of your piece. Oh, and by the way, lay off the Rosewood, too.

2) Poorly-keyed green screen footage A green screen can be a media producer’s best friend. However, when you don’t put in the effort to get rid of all the green in the final product, you’ve just created a huge distraction. When everyone in your video is encapsulated in a thin layer of green, most people won’t be talking about your video’s message.

HOW TO FIx IT: There are a few ways to take your green screen footage up a notch. If possible shoot in 1080p (or at least shoot progressive footage). Place your subject 15 feet away from the green screen and use separate lights for your subject and your screen in order to avoid spill. Keep your subjects from wearing reflective (or green) clothing and make sure that your screen isn’t more brightly lit than your subject. Once you’ve shot your footage, use dvMatte Blast (www.dvgarage.com) or Keylight (www.thefoundry.co.uk) to rid yourself of the green.

3) Use of the on-camera microphoneAudio is just as important as the visuals in a short video. It’s not good to cause your audience to wonder whether or not your audio was recorded in the bathroom or on a busy street.

How to fix it: When you’re doing a shoot, employ a boom mic and a lavalier if possible and record them on separate tracks using your camera or a computer. Later, you can mix the best audio. To avoid room noise, pick a quiet location, turn off the AC, rent sound blankets, and position your microphones as close to the subject as possible. Once you’ve recorded your sound, see if you can get a professional to do the final mix. Audiences will forgive bad video before they’ll forgive bad audio.

4) Lack of narrative You’d think it would be hard to lose someone’s attention in less than five minutes, but it’s not. Even in a short video, story is extremely important. The structure and visuals must engage the viewer so they aren’t counting the minutes until your video ends.

HOW TO FIx IT: Your video needs a message; you need to know exactly what you’re trying to communicate before you ever pick up a camera. That means that the most important video work you do may be done in a word processor. Get the story straight, get the script right, and identify the arc of your video. Know where you’re starting, where you’re ending, and how you’re going to get there. Consider all the books, movies, TV shows, and commercials you’ve criticized because they “didn’t go anywhere.” Don’t leave yourself open to the same criticism.

5) Bad actors You don’t need to cast James Caviezel in order to make a good church video, but solid acting is a key element. A good actor pulls the viewer into the narrative but a shaky actor yanks the viewer out of the story.

HOW TO FIx IT: Do your best to recruit and cultivate acting and voiceover talent. Find out who in your church has performance experience and ask them to volunteer for your next video project. Teaching pastors and worship leaders are usually good with dramatic Scripture readings, so let yours do your next voiceover. If no one in your church has the necessary chops, you can either steer away from videos that require acting and voiceovers, or you could reach out to a local theatre troupe. You could also contact casting agencies in your area or post the gig on Craigslist to see if you can find someone within your budget. As a last resort, and only as a last resort, you can employ sock puppets.

≥ Dale Carter, Mo Lawson, and Beth Church are the knowledgeable and friendly staff behind WorshipHouse Media (worshiphousemedia.com), a one-stop shop for creative church resources.

Short videos are a great way to communicate a powerful message in a two- or three-minute package. Unfortunately, not every church video is created equal. Though produced with the best intentions, some church videos are just bad. In fact, the three of us have seen enough bad church videos that we’ve identi-fied five things that indicate, without a doubt, that you’re watching a bad church video.

Signs You’re Watching a Bad Church Video


Grey’s Anatomy – 1%

visual

ReelDirector: Making Movies On Your Phone

Your Favorite TV ShowsTHIS IS THE TIME OF YEAR when TV gets really good: May sweeps. Of course, it’s not long before TV gets really bad (all summer), but let’s not worry about that yet. We posted a poll on the COLLIDE blog asking you to identify your favorite show of the moment. Can we just say that we’re proud of you guys for keeping American Idol and Dancing with the Stars at the bottom of the list? Well done! Here’s the final tally:

By Trent Armstrong

For the most part, production cameras are bulky, cause people to stare when you’re shooting in public, and require time and effort to transfer the footage. The last piece of the puzzle is the editing process, which requires being in front of a computer (usually a desktop or a pretty bulky laptop). I’ve given myself tired-head just talking about it!

Well, folks the game has changed—at least it has for me. I recently bought an iPhone 3GS and am pretty happy with the video and audio quality. It doesn’t have zoom capabilities or manual controls but, hey, it fits in my pocket. And now there is video software that fits in my pocket in the form of an iPhone app from Nexvio, Inc. called ReelDirector ($7.99). The first version of this app changed the way I feel about the world, but each update adds more functionality and a more professional feel.

ReelDirector was featured as Best App on Apple’s Rewind 2009 list and is the first and only app to bring real video editing to the mobile platform. It gets my vote as most amazingly useful iPhone app.

After shooting video with the iPhone, it’s a simple process to drop video clips and photos into an iMovie-style timeline. ReelDirector allows for simple titles on the beginning and end of the video as well as a pan and zoom capability for photos. This app has transitions (although “dissolve” is all you’ll ever need), the ability to trim and split clips, and the option to add music or spoken audio after your video has been edited. Editing is not “frame accurate,” if that’s something you need, but ReelDirector is great for clipping together a quick montage without heading back to the office.

To take your production up a notch, create your own opening and closing graphics, import them into iPhoto, and sync them to your phone. Then you can be on the road at camp or a conference, turning in daily videos that take moments to create and have the potential to look very professional. Just render out the video and email it to the video guy or save it to your computer for posting to your website. ReelDirector videos can be rendered at 640x480 (regular TV size), 480x360, or 192x144, depending on how you want to use them. It’s easier to email a 192x144 movie file but the largest files will look best when projected or shared on YouTube.

Key Features:

≥ Import music files from computer and use as soundtracks (new!)≥ Add and stitch together clips ≥ Drag-and-drop to rearrange clip order≥ Add text watermarks to title, opening credits, and closing credits (with four styles and nine positions to choose from)≥ Insert transitions between clips to smooth ≥ Blend the change from one scene to another≥ Add photos with Ken Burns effect≥ Record voiceover and mix soundtracks≥ Nondestructively trim imported clips ≥ Split video seamlessly into two or three clips≥ Share your movies by email or save to Camera Roll.

Lost – 35%

The Office – 13%Modern Family – 9%

Fringe – 8%

24 – 7%

Glee – 5%

30 Rock – 5%

Big Bang Theory – 4%

NCIS – 4%

Chuck – 4%House – 3%Survivor – 2%

American Idol – 1%

Dancing with the Stars – 1%CSI – 1%

Dancing with the Stars – 1%

Your Favorite TV Shows

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CM

MY

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CMY

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WL0310_ChristianCopyrightSolutions.pdf 1 2/1/2010 4:24:43 PM


Whether you are a full-time pastor or a volunteer, relationships and content are the currency of ministry. Relationships form with those we are leading, learning from, or just getting to know. Content comes out of ideas that take shape and grow into teachings, lyrics, scripts—whatever means of expres-sion we might choose to express the gospel. Both relationships and content require time to grow and build.

A good workflow creates space for the things that matter most. This requires a trusted system to maintain the tasks and ideas that are readily found when you need them, but conversely are out of your way when you don’t need them. In other words, it’s incredibly important that church leaders develop productivity and workflow systems that work so we can efficiently accomplish what we need to accomplish, create what we need to create, and engage the people we need to engage. In my life, software plays a vital role in this pursuit.

I think of my productivity and workflow software as buckets. They are reliable and sturdy containers that can hold whatever I throw their way. I need them to easily capture my thoughts and allow me to sort them out later when I need them. Thus, it’s important to use the right tools for the right job. Tasks and ideas are two different things, and the right kind of software can help you manage each.

Task ManagersTasks are temporary. They can be checked off, completed, and best of all, forgotten. Once you are done with them, you don’t need to see them again. I can admit I get trou-bling amounts of satisfaction out of checking off little boxes, but it’s not how I want to spend most of my time. Task managers, when used right, can show us what needs to be done and when. They help us make the most of small or large windows of time when we need to roll up our sleeves and get some things done.

Good task managers function as more than a simple checklist. They allow the user to define dates, group related tasks into larger projects, and establish contexts for where certain tasks need to be completed. In short, they allow you to sort out your tasks so you can see only what you can and need to do in a particular time and place, whether it be your workplace, home, or somewhere in between.

For Mac users, there are two wildly popular choices for task manage-ment: Omni-Focus ($80 from www.omnigroup.com) and Things ($50 from www.culturedcode.com). I’ve tried both. I’m a devoted OmniFocus user myself, though I know and respect (even love) people who swear by Things. In general, Things is considered to be more user friendly from the get go, while OmniFocus is more robust as you dive into the features. Both can sync

Essential Productivity and Workflow AppsA few years ago, a friend of mine who’s a pastor sent off his laptop for repairs. His first response (well, second, after the cold sweats) was concern over how he was going to be able to work. By the time he got his laptop back, he’d expe-rienced four days of rich ministry focused on reflecting, reading, and time spent face to face with people.

By John Chandler

TeCH&WeB


with an iPhone version.The choices aren’t so clear on the Windows side. Most Windows users are

familiar with Outlook for task management since it is part of the Office suite. A few specialized task management apps have made a run at Outlook in the last few years. There is not a dominant market leader, but My Life Organized ($46 and up from www.mylifeorganized.net) is versatile and has a loyal user base.

If you don’t want to be tied down to one computer or you work on multiple plat-forms, there are as many web-based task managers as there are pages in this magazine. RememberTheMilk.com (free or $25/year) is the most popular and syncs with mobile phone apps if you subscribe to the pro version. Others worth taking a look at in-clude GTDAgenda.com, GetItDoneApp.com, and Toodledo.com.

Idea ManagersUnlike tasks, ideas have value beyond a certain timeframe. They don’t get checked off. They are usually incomplete thoughts—maybe a concept you want to develop for a new project or a piece of information that you will want to reference again. These are ideas you want to live with, to sit with, to revisit over and over, and develop more substance around. To add them to a task list isn’t helpful because they aren’t something that you can or want to complete and check off. A good idea manager can hold not only words, but photos, saved websites, scanned images, and more. And of course, they make it easy to sort your notes and search for them later.

It’s hard to go wrong with Evernote (free or $5/month from evernote.com). This hold-everything app can run on a Mac, PC, and almost any smartphone. It securely syncs all your notes online, so a photo snapped with your phone will be available almost instantly on your computer. Evernote even recognizes words in photos, so you can take a picture of a sign, and find it later by searching for the text. You can even login to your account on their website to browse and edit your notes.

Trying to find an idea manager on a Mac is like trying to find hay in a haystack. There are so many, it’s hard to know where to begin. Yojimbo ($39 from www.barebones.com) is my choice, and perhaps the most popular. It’s been around for years and is well polished. For power users, it is easy to find or create scripts that can quickly move data in and out of Yojimbo from other apps.

On the Windows side, there is OneNote ($100 from Microsoft). It ships with some Windows versions of Office, so you might already have it. OneNote is designed like a shelf full of tabbed notebooks, some shared with others and some personal. Information can be organized in ways that make sense to you and shared with others for collabora-tion.

Every piece of software described above offers a free demo. And for every one that I mentioned, there are at least a handful of others, so explore and tinker. But more impor-tant, find a system and stick with it. Once it’s working like it should, it will get out of your way and let you focus on the more important things.

≥ John Chandler balances life as the pastor of a church start-up called Austin Mustard Seed and a freelance web designer. He blogs about this kind of stuff at Creativityist.com, recently launched 501words.com, and mutters daily on Twitter as @johnchandler. He lives with his family in Austin and is powered by espresso bever-ages.

Application screenshots (from top):Omni-Focus, Evernote, Yojimbo,

Things, and Remember the Milk (iPhone App).


tech & web

The First Wave of iPad Apps

PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SPECULATING about how individuals would use their iPads since Steve Jobs first unveiled the “magical” and “revolutionary” device. We know that every iPad includes a web browser, a native mail client, and audio/video playback, and it’s safe to assume those features are frequently used by iPad owners. Beyond that, we think the iTunes lists of the most popular iPad apps—both paid and free—are pretty good indicators of how people are using their tablets on a day-to-day basis. Let’s take a closer look.

Podcasts:Recommended Listening

≥ Top Apps for NewsEvidently, iPad owners like to stay informed. Thankfully, there are a handful of nice apps that’ll help you do just that. If some of these news apps are so left-leaning that it disturbs your iPad’s accelerometer, well, that’s your problem.

≥ USA TODAY for iPad≥ The Weather Channel Max for iPad≥ NYT Editors’ Choice≥ Beat the Traffic HD≥ NPR for iPad≥ The Wall Street Journal

≥ Top Apps for Productivity and CreativityDon’t let people get away with calling your iPad a toy. Not when you can write memos, create spreadsheets, prepare presentations, review proposals, and sketch prototypes! That’s right; iPads are for people committed to their work.

≥ Pages ≥ Numbers≥ Keynote≥ GoodReader for iPad≥ Paper Desk for iPad≥ Magic Piano≥ Sketchbook Pro

≥ Top Apps for FunAfter you’re worn out from working on your iPad, it’s nice to know that you can also kick back with a good book, find a cool restaurant, stream a show you missed, or improve your hand-eye coordination. You know what they say—all work and no play makes Steve a dull boy.

≥ iBooks≥ Netflix≥ Urbanspoon for iPad≥ ABC Player≥ Pinball HD≥ Real Racing HD≥ SCRABBLE for iPad

Podcasting is nothing new, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t awesome. One example of a great podcast is This American Life (www.thisamericanlife.org) hosted by Ira Glass. TAL is actually a weekly radio show produced by Chicago Public Radio, but the podcast allows us to listen when we want to, where we want to, and as often as we want to. If you’re familiar with TAL, you know that its greatness comes from its ability to locate and communicate compelling stories. Listeners laugh, get goose bumps, bristle at injustice, and marvel at the tales TAL brings into the light. As church leaders, we ought to be students of the art of storytelling, and for our money, This American Life is a terrific place to start.

And while we’re on the topic of podcasting and church leaders, isn’t it about time we went beyond just podcaasting our Sunday sermon audio? Couldn’t we find something else to record and publish that would be beneficial to our congrega-tions in addition to the sermon? (We’ll step down from our soapbox now.)

This American Life only produces one episode a week, so we found ourselves in search of a few more quality podcasts to add to a portable media player of choice. We used our blog to solicit recommendations, and here are some favorite podcasts submitted by COLLIDE readers.

≥ The Moth The Moth features “true stories told without notes.” The stories, typically well told, are wild and fascinating.

≥ The Story The Story from American Public Media examines politics and current events from a personal perspective—a great alternative to two talking heads screaming at each other.

≥ Dan Carlin’s Hardcore HistoryThis unconventional approach to history comes highly recommended, even for people who don’t know how long the Seven Years’ War lasted.

≥ Stuff You Should KnowJosh and Chuck from HowStuffWorks.com do a nice job discussing stuff you should know, from the origin of the ninja to the principles of urban planning, so that you know the stuff you should.

≥ RadioLab We love how RadioLab describes itself: “science meets culture and informa-tion sounds like music.” Sounds cool, doesn’t it?

≥ Divine OfficeLiturgy of the Hours of the Roman Catholic Church — This interesting podcast puts a modern face on ancient Christian spirituality.

≥ The SteeleHouse PodcastHosts Mark Steele and Jeff Huston are two of our favorite people in the world, so hearing them discuss faith and pop culture is just plain fun!

≥ The Kindlings Muse Host Dick Staub facilitates “explorations of ideas that matter in contemporary life” from a Christian worldview. In other words, The Kindlings Muse is smart stuff, and it’s good for you.

This is Jim.Studies show that if connected, he is 5x more likely to stay.

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Fresh Life Church

responsibilities that I consistently need to take care of on a weekly basis like editing the video podcast, updating the website and putting the worship sets together for all of our services.

COLLIDE: Describe the creative process at Fresh Life Church.

Guido: I am a huge believer in the fact that great ideas come from a collaboration of different minds. If ideas only came from me, then most of our material would simply be a duplication of what’s already cool or forefront in the design world. Inviting others to be a part of the process brings different interpretations of life, different insights, and different ways of thinking to the table. Whenever we have a new series approaching or we have a crazy new idea for the church, we schedule a huge meeting with creatives, interns, assistants, pastors, and administrators. We all cram into a room equipped with a healthy supply of pizza, Red Bull, and Rockstars (maybe some carrots and ranch if the admins are lucky). We have a giant Post-It note easel that becomes the subject of reckless idea firing. One person takes the helm to write down ideas and guide the process along in order to keep us all moving in a somewhat consistent direction. No idea is too big or too ridiculous. Everything is written down and when a page is full, it is torn off and hung on the wall. By the end of the meeting we have a room full of empty energy drink cans and walls covered in great ideas. From that point, our creative department is usually equipped with a massive amount of inspiration to get our work done.

COLLIDE: Do you ever feel stuck on a design or video project? How do you get past that feeling?

Guido: Everybody gets stuck. It’s one of the biggest challenges of being creative for a living. Sometimes I sit there in front of a white screen wishing I could “see” the final project in my mind so that I can just make it happen. A lot of times, I find I need to simply start playing with whatever vague ideas or concepts that I do have. This venturing out, combined with a great album rocking loud in my iTunes is exactly what I need to ignite that creative spark which ultimately culminates in the final product. If I have time on my side, then the best thing for me to do is wait. Inspiration largely comes from the world around me, which I interact with on a daily basis. I watch people. I read. I drive. I listen to music. I eat out. I huck my bike off a cliff. I live life all while keeping my creative roadblock in the

≥ Kalispell, Montana

church Spotlight

Kevin Guido, Creative Arts Pastor and Worship Leader

COLLIDE: What does your average day consist of?

Kevin Guido: One of the things that I love about the creative world is that there are no average days. Every project is completely different, and everyday has different demands based on what is coming down the pipe. This is great because I’m super ADD, and I get bored fast. At any moment we could be loading equipment and props into a truck to shoot a video in the mountains, mixing down a song from a live show at Skull Church for YouTube, designing promo materials for the next series, sitting in a meeting, watching tutorials online, fixing the radio stream, writing songs, or drinking coffee and laughing. Of course, there are many

We’ll be honest with you: We’d never heard of Kalispell, Montana, before we were introduced to Fresh Life Church. Heck, on a map, Kalispell looks like it’s closer to the US-Canada border than it is to the nearest state (Idaho). With that in mind, we were impressed by Fresh Life Church’s commitment to creative excellence. The church creates all its media in-house, operates multiple sites using an HD video feed, streams its services, maintains a radio station (FM and streaming via www.freshliferadio.com), and invites its membership to explore the creative disciplines of music, film, photography, design and technical arts through semester-long courses. The pastor, Levi Lusko, even has text messages from congregants sent to an LCD screen on his pulpit, so he can address audience questions. Not bad, eh? We wanted to find out more, so we asked Kevin Guido from the Fresh Life team a few questions.


≥ To find out more about Fresh Life Church, visit www.freshlifechurch.org.

back of my mind. At some point, something that I interact with will light the fuse to a firework in my brain that will be the perfect solution to my project’s direction.

COLLIDE: What is your ideal project?

Guido: I thrive on being ridiculously intentional with creative direction. My ideal project would be something that incorporates as many people in as many creative capacities as possible all unified around a singular idea. I would want to gather musicians, videographers, designers, writers, programmers, engineers, fabricators, architects, and off-the-wall thinkers together in a room to figure out how we could intricately weave all of our potentials together in a way that blows that idea out of the water. Then sprinkle on some mystery and a little suspense, and I think we’ve got my ideal project.

COLLIDE: What hardware, software, and websites are essential for you as a Creative Arts Pastor?

Guido: Doing my job without a Mac would be like skydiving without a parachute. I have a MacPro that is lightning fast, which makes rendering quick and a lot less painful. I think that having a color accurate display is a necessity in the design world and saves me from a lot of bad prints and awful video. Photoshop is definitely the most used program on my

computer because of how intensely diverse the program can be. I use Final Cut Pro for editing video and Logic for audio production. All 3D work is done in Cinema4D and post-production video work is done in After Effects from Adobe. After Effects is a really fun program. It is like Photoshop for video. Coda is cheap and amazing for doing website work. One of my favorite programs in the world is a little program called Pipette that allows you to sample any pixel on your screen and then provides you with the Hex Color Code for that pixel.

For somebody like me who has no formal education or training, www.tutsplus.com is an incredible free resource. They have tutorials for everything the creative realm has to offer. Also, www.videocopilot.net is amazing for people who want to jump into the rabbit hole of video effects and processing;they offer a two-hour basic training for After Effects that is an awesome place to start. If you have some budget available for learning, www.lynda.com is the place to go. You can be trained by the best people in the world, on your timetable, and for as long as you are willing to hang with them.

COLLIDE: Have you ever created a piece that failed spectacularly?

Guido: I think we have enough checks and balances in our process that we can, for the most part, prevent spectacular fails. It seems like most of our fails come in bite size packages. I often misspell words, type the wrong dates, and even leave out valuable information. Once we printed 6,000 full-color bulletins through an online service, and I accidentally left out

our other campus and service time. We had to run every bulletin through a printer and use black ink to put that information back onto the print.

COLLIDE: Tell us about Skull Church. How is it different from what you guys do on weekends at Fresh Life Church?

Guido: Skull Church is an explicitly evangelistic service. It’s a platform to amplify the message of what happened at Calvary (the place called The Skull) to a lost generation using text-message interactions, surprise guest artists, hard-hitting gospel messages, and art that makes some Christians uncomfortable. To quote Craig Groeschel, “We are willing to do things that no one is doing to reach people that no one is reaching.” Skull Church is what we call a Bible Study on Red Bull. It is a verse-by-verse study on Wednesday nights and is saturated in creative media. We bring in killer artists like Kristian Stanfill, The Myriad, and Family Force 5, but we never announce when a band is coming. People attending don’t find out there is a guest band until the band is announced by the night’s emcee at the start of the service. The goal is not have the coolest or largest Bible study in town so that we pack a theater full of Christians but to have a place where those who don’t know God can get to know Him.


voices

≥ Ben Arment is the author of Church in the Making (released in April) and founder of STORY, the Whiteboard Sessions, and Dream Year. He lives in Virginia Beach with his wife and three sons. He blogs daily at BenArment.com.

voices

That’s what happens when you step outside of yourself.

David Robertson, a video editor at North Point Community Church in Atlanta, recently tweeted: “Have been repeating the same actions and getting the same results. Going to keep trying.” He meant it to be funny, but, sadly, it’s what most of us do. We repeat the same actions over and over again, hoping that something will be different this time around. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

You can become your own consul-tant. You can step outside of yourself, identify the problem and then make the necessary changes to improve your effectiveness.

Just ask yourself, “If I was fired from my job, what would my replace-ment do?” Then walk out of the room, come back in, and do exactly that.

The co-founder of Intel, Andy Grove, once asked his business partner, Gordon Moore, “If we were kicked out by the board, what would the new CEO do?” Gordon thought a moment and said, “He would get us out of memory chips.” Andy responded, “Then why shouldn’t you and I walk out the door, come back in, and do it ourselves?”

The rest is history. Intel left the memory chip business, which faced intense competition from overseas manufacturers, and became the global leader in microprocessors.

Sometimes it takes only one change to become more effective at what you do. Whether you’re a church leader, a designer, a writer, or a Kingdom entre-preneur, one tweak could make all the difference. But the question is, how do you identify that one change?

You have to think like a consultant.Jon Acuff was an advertising

copywriter who wanted an outlet for his humorous musings on Christianity. In March of 2008, he had been blogging for nine months at ProdigalJon.com but wasn’t seeing much traffic. When he noticed the popularity of a website called “Stuff White People Like,” he wondered if a Christian version might take off. So Jon did what any consultant would recommend and changed his blog. Sure enough, it only took one week for “Stuff Christians Like” to blow up. He had over 4,300 readers a day after just eight days. He recently released a book with the same title.

Consultants are paid good money to provide clarity. They come into an organization without any personal affections or sacred cows and recommend new courses of action. They’re like hit men for bad ideas. They don’t give in to the pleas of tradition or the tearful requests for familiarity. They’re ruthless about vision.

But they don’t do anything you or I couldn’t do if we would only think like a consultant. Unfortunately, this is a difficult

task for subjective creatures like us. We have to strip away our preferences, toss out tradition, and ignore our own comfort for the sake of effectiveness.

In the spring of 2001, Jeff Murphy launched Big Sky Church near Cumming, Georgia. The church had a hard time gaining momentum, and after five years, it became stagnant. So Jeff made a decision that only a consultant would have made: He shut down the church. Jeff moved back to Columbus, Georgia, where

he had ministered for years as a popular youth pastor at a mega-church. In January of 2008, he launched myChurch and drew 625 people on opening Sunday. They had to offer two services on their second week of existence. One change is all it took to create a thriving church.

One of the hottest TV shows right now is Undercover Boss on CBS. Each episode features a different company president going under-cover to learn more about the business. In some cases, the executives wear disguises and work in the most menial roles in order to see a different side of their companies. Each time, I think they’re going to fire all of the slackers and take revenge on the supervisors who belittled them, but it never happens. Instead, the bosses come back with a fresh perspective and start changing how they go about their operations.

How To Be Your Own Consultant

ben arment

“We have to strip away our preferences, toss out tradition, and ignore our own comfort for the sake of effectiveness.”


people tend to use a specific technology according to what it’s good at and what rakes in the advertising dollars. As tablets start to become commonplace, we’ll need to make sure that we are still following our God-given call to be culture-makers and not just culture-consumers.

The iPad is a Member of the FamilyIt’s been said that technology always functions to extend some part of our natural abilities. Microphones extend our voices, cameras extend our eyes, computers extend our memory, and so on. At the same time, technology tends to combine and converge features so that we have things like Swiss Army knives with laser pointers and camera-phones.

What this means is that if anyone ever asks you, “What technology do you think is coming next?” you can be clever and say, “More and more convergence, which means more and more human-likeness.” Deep, huh? You’ll be a hit at parties.

This increasing human-likeness explains in part why we feel so disconnected when we can’t find our phones. That feeling of connec-tion and disconnection will only increase as our tools get more powerful and feature-rich, and we’ll have to be even more careful to unplug and find connection with real people.

Speaking of which, my fingers are killing me from tapping on this thing, so I’m going to play with my son.

- Sent from my iPad.

By the time you read this article, you’ll probably have seen tons of reviews, rants, and raves about the iPad on Twitter, engadget, and all the other usual suspects. Some will point out how fast it is and how amazing the screen looks. Others will complain that it doesn’t have a USB port and still won’t run Flash. Several Christian bloggers will ask if you care more about iPads than Easter, while others will make lists of all the cool ministry-related things one could do with an iPad.

After a few weeks of using it, I can summarize all of the posts and reviews by saying: Yes, it’s incredibly cool and, no, almost no one actually needs one. Yet.

The iPad is a MicrowaveMy guess is that the iPad is sort of like the first microwaves. In 1947, when the Radarange first went on the market, people complained that it was too big, too heavy, and too expensive, and that it was less powerful than a real oven. People asked, “Why would you want both?”

Right now the iPad is heavy, expensive, and it feels a little silly to carry around a phone, a pad, and a laptop. And when I pull it out at church to use as a Bible, I’m pretty sure there are a few eyes burning judgment holes in my back.

But no one questions the fact that I have both an oven and a microwave at home, not to mention a toaster, a griddle, and a grill out back. When those devices first came out they were probably considered extravagant and unneces-sary, but today they seem perfectly normal. In a few years, I’m betting that owning a tablet along with a PC and a phone will be pretty common, and not having a tablet will be as uncommon as not owning a mobile phone today.

So where will that put us?

The iPad is the MessageDetecting what technology is new and cool isn’t terribly difficult. All you have to do is fire up a

website or walk into an electronics store to see what the latest thing is. What’s hard is detecting how using it will change our lives.

For example, 10 years ago, if I wanted to meet a friend somewhere I would call him for directions. Five years ago, I stopped calling and started printing out Google maps. Today, I get in the car, head off in the general direction I’m supposed to be going, and then at the first stoplight I start fiddling with my phone to get specific directions. These are the kinds of small changes that are hard to detect but have subtle and powerful effects on our lives.

Most of the predictions about the iPad are about how using it for reading will eventu-ally alter how we read. We’ll treat books like magazines, nibbling a bit here and a bit there as we please. Authors will need to compensate by re-organizing their material to account for these new reading patterns. Whatever happens, the iPad is a reminder that how we consume media is often as important as what we consume.

The iPad is a ConsumerEven a lowly PC user like myself knows that in the beauty department, Apple products are usually a few notches above what Microsoft or Google offer. Thankfully, the iPad doesn’t disappoint. It lives up to Arthur C. Clarke’s quip: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indis-tinguishable from magic.”

However, the beauty of using the iPad is the place where it begins to diverge from being what we normally call a “computer.” For a writer and a coder, part of the allure of computers is their unparalleled ability to create. But while a computer is good at creating things, an iPad is good at consuming things. Movies, books, pictures, music, social media, and comics are instantly available with just a few taps and swipes. It’s probably the most convenient means of consuming media ever built.

Certainly, you can write emails and assemble a Keynote presentation on it, but

My First Week with Apple’s Latest Wonder Gadget

john Dyer

≥ John Dyer is a web developer in Dallas, Texas, and he writes about issues related to faith and technology at www.donteatthefruit.com.

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