Greg Atkinson

Sunday I leave for Atlanta. I’ll be a part of the Passion staff for the 3rd year in a row. The last two years Passion we met in Nashville. I will miss being in Nashville again, but know Atlanta will rock, too. I’m also looking forward to staying with and hanging out with my friend, Jake, and his family.

* If you missed my blog on New Year’s resources, you may want to read it to find out about some new resources for this Sunday and the winter season.

PERSONAL:

Today is my 11 year wedding anniversary – that is evidence of God’s grace and an amazing wife.

Tuesday night my wife and I had “date night”. My wife’s parents were in town for Christmas and graciously offered to watch our 3 kids so we could go out. We went to dinner and movie. It was rare because it’s tough to find and afford a babysitter for our 3 bundles of energy – I mean joy.

We saw Will Smith’s new movie, “The Pursuit of Happyness”. The movie was very moving and well done (Will Smith also produced it). Did you know that SermonSpice is offering FREE downloadable video clips from the movie? You can check them out HERE.

* If you missed my blog on New Year’s resources, you may want to read it to find out about some new resources.

* I’ve mentioned WiredChurches.com before – they just launched their new-and-improved website. Check it out HERE.

WorshipHouse Media just changed their House Collection to a collection of 4 mini-movies from Gorilla Pictures for only $40.00. You can check the collection out HERE.

Also, I haven’t given a shout out, yet to the two latest releases from Nooma, but I highly encourage you to check them out. Recently released are #13-Rich and #14-Breathe.

#13-Rich is available at The Shoutable Store and WorshipHouse Media. #14-Breathe is available at WorshipHouse Media.

BONUS:

Now THIS is a great deal. My friend, Craig, at SermonVideos.com has got swept up in the holiday spirit – offering his subscription service for half-off. That’s right, you can access all SermonVideos.com content for a year for only $75.00!! That’s 50% Off! Expires at the end of New Years Day. Click HERE to sign up for this amazing special and be sure to use coupon code: 50sub when you check out.

Let me further explain: If you just bought 5 of his great sermon illustration videos from his site or WorshipHouse Media, that would equal $75. With his subscription service you have access to hundreds of his videos, countdowns and motion backgrounds. I’M SERIOUS, this is a bargain and is worth every penny. If you have any end of the year budget left – grab it!

BONUS 2:

Michael and the crew at Highway Video are offering their back catalog DVD Volumes at HUGE discounts in order to make room for exciting new products in 2007. As you might expect, these DVDs are flying off the shelves. Since last Thursday, they’ve already sold out of Highway Video Vol. 7, Vibe Video Vol. 10 and Elements Vol. 1. Act now and complete your Highway Video library before additional volumes sell out!

This Sunday is New Year’s Eve. Here are some brand new New Year resources.

• New from eleven72: “Change is Possible” ($20), “Resolve” ($20) and “New Years Hope” as a mini-movie ($20), countdown ($15) and motion background ($8) are available at The Shoutable Store or WorshipHouse Media.
• New from Floodgate Productions: “January” ($20) available at Floodgate, SermonSpice and “New Year’s Quotes” ($20) available at Floodgate, “Resolutions” ($20) available at Floodgate or WorshipHouse Media.
• New from ImageVine: Several resources that you can browse HERE.
• New from SermonSpice: Several videos and resources that you can browse HERE.
• New from The Work of the People: “Reveal Volume” (on sale for $24) available at The Work of the People.
• New from Wasteland Media (that’s me): “Winter Backs” – 80 winter backgrounds (for just $25) available at Meatloaf Media,  Sermonade, The Shoutable Store or WorshipHouse Media.
• New from Worship Films: “New Year’s Countdown” ($12) available at The Shoutable Store, Worship Films or WorshipHouse Media.
• New from WorshipHouse Media: Several resources that you can browse HERE.
• Not New, but Good:
  1. “All Things New” ($20) from Floodgate Productions available at Floodgate, SermonSpice or WorshipHouse Media.
  2. “What Would You Change About Your Life?” ($15) from The Work of the People available at Sermonade, TWOP, or WorshipHouse Media.

BONUS:

1. Here’s a great FREE graphic for right after Christmas from Worship Graphics. This image shows a list of resolutions that many of us make. This is FREE through Dec. 29 at noon, so download today HERE.
2. Here’s a cool “Old Church Loop” from The Work of the People. This FREE resource is a loop of the exterior of an old church. Please click HERE to download.

EXTRA:

Now through the 2nd, get any of Midnight Oil’s Christmas resources for 50% off. Go HERE to take advantage of this opportunity.

LAST week I blogged my shortest blog ever – where I simply said I was recovering from my church’s Christmas production. It was a wild week as I was helping set up and prepare each day, was over all the media/visuals and ran Easy Worship for each rehearsal and performance. “Performance” is a word I usually don’t use. I hope you know what I mean. My desire is that we create welcoming, worshiping experiences for the church and the many visitors that attend this time of year.

THIS week I served as the Video Director/Switcher at another local church, Bent Tree Bible Fellowship. We had rehearsals Wednesday night, Thursday night and Friday night, 2 performances on Saturday and 3 today (Sunday/Christmas Eve). I think we had over 6000 people attend. Bent Tree has a wonderful group of tech volunteers and it was a joy to work with them.

Now I’m really going to rest, recover and enjoy Christmas with my family. Merry Christmas to you all.

*EXTRA:

I created some post-Christmas backgrounds called “Winter Backs”. You can get them at Sermonade, The Shoutable Store or WorshipHouse Media.

I wrote an article for my column on Monday Morning Insight this week entitled “Jesus Is the Reason”. It’s a healthy reminder for us all at this time of year. I encourage you to read it HERE.

What is ProPresenter and what’s new about version 3.0? Well, first you should now that I stand behind 4 presentation software companies. These are the 4 that I mention at each conference or seminar I do. The 4 are EasyWorship, LiveWorship, MediaShout and ProPresenter. ProPresenter is for those in Mac world. It’s a solid program used by groups like Passion and 7:22/Louie Giglio & Chris Tomlin.

Now with a fresh new look and incredible new video engine, ProPresenter 3 has never been easier or more spectacular. ProPresenter 3 has been completely re-written from the ground up with the following features:

* Universal Binary – Native to Mac OS X (requires 10.4)
* Sleek new interface with robust playlist management
* High-quality video playback with gorgeous cross-fading
* Dynamically selectable OR pre-programmed background selections
* Spell checking
* Quick Announcements / Nursery callouts
* Program window preview
* Multi-resolution playback (4:3, 16:9, or custom – supports up to 1280×1024 output resolution)
* In-Line thumbnail slide editing
* More features coming such as in-line scripture look-up, high-quality DVD playback, and more!
* Bundled with a wide range of 41 premium video backgrounds from the manufacturers below

Artbeats	a Luna Blue	Highway Video	12″ Design

	Retail Pricing
	• ProPresenter 3.0 Single User License	$399
	• ProPresenter 3.0 Site License	$799
	Upgrade Pricing
	• Any license purchased ON OR AFTER 8/01/06	FREE
	• Single License purchased PRIOR to 8/01/06	$199
	• Site License purchased PRIOR to 8/01/06	$399

Note: What is a Preview Release? While ProPresenter 3 is a major advancement to this application, it does not yet have feature parity with ProPresenter 2.7. If you use soundtrack sequencing or you play video out through the firewire port, you should NOT use ProPresenter 3, but continue using your current version. They will be adding these features into ProPresenter shortly. It is for this reason that the software is called a “Preview Release”.

Mark Batterson sent me a copy of his new book, which I blogged about a while back. I’m about halfway through it and loving it. Mark just announced on his blog that his church is going to try offering “Chase the Lion” resources for FREE. They are going to experiment with an open-source message series. Here’s why: They want to equip others churches to do a Chase the Lion series… so they’re making all of their graphics and videos downloadable and customizable.

Here are some of the free downloads @ chasethelion.com:

1) All series graphics including bookmark and poster.
2) The series trailer that we played each week before the message.
3) All audio messages
4) All message transcripts
5) All of our video illustrations

A few churches have already planned a Chase the Lion series for January. NCC hopes the free resources will help. Mark also would love to know who is going to do a series. Shoot him an email at mark@theaterchurch.com.

Chris Tomlin has a brand new site that he’s starting. It’s called WorshipFrequency.com. According to the sign-up page, as a free member you’ll be able to access instructional videos, Bible studies, thoughts and articles on worship, resource links and more. If you’d like more information or to sign-up for the launch, just click HERE.

BONUS:

Get more FREE Christmas resources from The Shoutable Store. These 2 freebies are from Highway Video.

I’m recovering from this past week and weekend, especially. I’ll write when I get a chance.

BONUS:
Get a FREE download of Aaron Shust singing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” HERE.