Greg Atkinson

Anthony and I left this afternoon and had a wild trip home. It’s 12:30am and I’m just now home. I was supposed to be back around 9pm. We missed our flight and had to switch airlines and take a later flight. When we finally arrived in Dallas, wouldn’t you know it: my bag didn’t make it!

Other than the trip home, it was a great conference. I met some great people and got to see some friends that I haven’t seen in a while. Anthony and I were able to get some interviews for our new podcast, which launches very soon.

Look for upcoming interviews with:

Kem Meyer (Granger Community Church)

Mark Batterson (Theater Church)

Brad Abare (Church Marketing Sucks)

Shawn Wood (Seacoast Church)

Today I spoke at Prestonwood again – this time to the teaching team. What a cool bunch of godly men! I did my seminar entitled “Communicating to Those that Listen with their Eyes”. My website is being redone and will soon have all my handouts in PDF form for you to download.

Tonight, as I do every Tuesday night, I played keys with a ministry I’m a part of called i55. We had an awesome time of worship. I love i55 because it’s something that we are able to do as a family (my wife and 3 kids come each week, too).

I’m finishing packing and then heading to bed. Tomorrow, Anthony Coppedge and I are off to Phoenix to speak at MinistryCOM. If you’re reading this and attending MinistryCOM, please stop by my class and say “hi”.

Yesterday, my church used EasyWorship instead of PowerPoint for the first time. Since I haven’t had a chance to train the computer operators on EasyWorship yet, I ran it for both services. I, very intentionally, did 2 things:

1. I continued using still backgrounds. Stills are great for contrast and can really add to our worship experiences when used creatively.
2. I used very subtle motion backgrounds, so our congregation wouldn’t even really notice the switch. Motion backgrounds or loops are wonderful, but need to be used creatively and cautiously, as over-stimulation can be a real factor in many modern worship services. If you throw too much at your people, especially too soon, it will be a distraction and will fight against your mission to “disappear”.

Functionality-wise it worked great. I use EasyWorship at several events and so am pretty familiar/comfortable with the software. Flexibility-wise it is an awesome tool for the Church. Once you go from PowerPoint to a presentation software that was designed for worship (like EasyWorship or MediaShout), you never want to go back to PPT.

Practical Thoughts:

• If your church is like mine, it really doesn’t matter what presentation software you go with, 9 times out of 10, the pastor gives you his slides in PowerPoint. Thankfully, EasyWorship integrates PowerPoint well and can allow you to run through the message slides just as if you were using PowerPoint.
• Keying works great. We keyed several things during the service – from lyrics over IMAG for special music to the names of our pastor or staff members that come up on the screen when they walk on the platform to make an announcement or pray. We had premade a slide template that is all black and has small text on the lower third of the slide.

All in all, it was a great day and “the big switch” was seamless and successful.

Today I was a part of a cool thing at Prestonwood Baptist here in Dallas.

Todd Bell, Worship Pastor at Prestonwood, arranged a special luncheon from 11am to 1pm for me to speak to his worship and tech team leaders. I did a very brief highlight of the “Multi-sensory Worship” class that I did at Saddleback, but my main time was spent on one of my favorite classes to teach: “Resources for Media Ministry”. This is a class where I look at all of the amazing resources from tons of companies that are available to the Church. We had a great time of fellowship and discussion and I look forward to going back to do a few more seminars in the near future.

PERSONAL THOUGHTS:
What I just did at Saddleback and at Prestonwood is a very cool thing that I’m glad to see starting around the country. I, at both churches, was the first in a series of periodic worship and tech team get-togethers, where they will eat together and experience a presentation/seminar during the luncheon. Both churches are going to continue to do something like this from time to time, maybe bi-monthly.

All church staffs and team members, regardless of church size, should be constantly growing, stretched and strengthening/sharpening their skill sets. I’m glad to see churches like Saddleback and Prestonwood lead the way in a model that I think is healthy for all growing churches (or churches that want to grow). Forgive my shameless plug, BUT, if you’d like to start something like this at your church and are looking for someone to come and speak to your staff, give me a shout at gatkinson.msw@gmail.com.

What a whirlwind weekend! Saddleback Church flew my wife and I out for a very special visit this past weekend. We returned late last night.

Rick Muchow, Worship Pastor at Saddleback, was our host and guide for the weekend. Rick is the “real deal” – a man of God, a family man and a man that I greatly respect. My wife and I were able to attend Saddleback’s staff retreat which was going on Friday night and was held at the same hotel that we were staying at. What a sight it was to see a room full (over 500) of staff and their spouses praising God.

Rick Warren had just returned from a 49 day trip in which he had spoke countless times in over 30 countries in the last 48 days. He spoke to his staff Friday night and encouraged them to keep pressing on and moving forward for Christ. It was a sweet time of worship, fellowship, time in the Word and we were honored to just be there and witness it.

Saturday morning and early afternoon, my wife and I got to sight see and walk around Laguna Beach. The weather was absolutely amazing. Saturday evening we arrived to the church so I could catch some of their sound check/rehearsal. At Saddleback’s main service (they also have several other venues with multiple services) they have 2 Saturday night services, 2 Sunday morning and 2 Sunday night. I got to attend and worship in the main service twice. During some of the other service times I walked around from venue to venue – from middle school, to senior high, to college/singles, to their Terrace Cafe venue, to their Ohanna service which is their island-style venue, complete with hula and island-style music.

God is using this church in a mighty way. It reminds me of our commission to go to Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the world. They are known and loved in their community and surrounding areas. They are influencing churches around the United States and they are sending teams and staff to minister to countries around the globe. What an example!

Sunday afternoon, Rick Muchow had arranged a special lunch for me to share one of my seminars with his worship/music, tech and creative arts staff and leaders. I presented my class on “Planning Multi-sensory Worship”. We had a fun and interactive time of learning and discussing ideas to become even better communicators of the Gospel. I was honored to be there and honored to be able to speak to such a gifted team of leaders.

Admit it. If we’re all being honest, we’ve all Googled ourselves. Don’t deny it. Guess what? You can search for yourself via a new website now: ZoomInfo.com. Check it out. You might be surprised what you find.

You may have seen this preview on TV or as a preview in the theaters for the new movie “Invincible“, which, by the way, was filmed mostly here in good ‘ol Dallas, TX. I actually went and auditioned to be an extra in the movie. I was going to dress up and play one of the random football players in the movie. I got the “call back” and was given a day/time to come back for filming, but had a schedule conflict and couldn’t make it. Oh well. Maybe next time!

And so it begins…Welcome to Church Video Ideas. Here, I (Greg Atkinson) will share various media ministry tools, companies, links and resources, including various ways to integrate them into your corporate worship gathering. My hope is that WE will explore and discuss “church video ideas” together. I’m counting on your feedback and comments.

Feel free to suggest what you’d like for me to address. Also, please let me know of creative and innovative ways your church is using media in your worship experience.