Greg Atkinson

If you read my blog via email or RSS, you may not have noticed several things – such as the new blog design and some of the new sponsors recently added to my blog homepage. Sponsors such as HymnCharts and their Easter resources and my newest sponsor: Interactive Worship Live.

I’ve known Phillip Edwards for several years and remember when he called me and several Church leaders together in Dallas to show us his new resource and give us all an up-close-and-personal demo.

At my current home church in Georgia (where I play keys with the praise band when I’m in town), we use IWL each week and love it. I asked our worship pastor, Michael Wells, to share his thoughts on this resource for our church. Here are Michael’s thoughts:

I have been an Interactive Worship Live user for some time and would highly recommend it. There are three areas that IWL has made us more effective in.

First, because you can isolate studio quality musicians, our musicians can clearly hear things like strumming patterns or vocal inflections which has improved their skill level and learning speed.

Second, you don’t have to worry when a musician has to cancel last minute. If our bass player calls in late Saturday night sick I can unmute the bass player channel and sleep well.

Last, IWL fills out the sound by adding instruments not on our team. I may have an electric guitar but I do not have five and many artist tracks today will have multiple layers of instruments.

All three of these areas have made use a more skillful team.

*** I agree with Michael and have personally witnessed this great worship resource in action. We’ve had weeks where the drummer was out and we just plugged in the drummer track on IWL. We had a week when the bass player was out and we did the same thing. I also resonate with the third point Michael made of filling out our sound. We have a basic band, but love having the added percussion sounds added in and it’s always good to add a couple more electric guitars to fill out our sound.

Have you heard of IWL? Why don’t you check them out HERE at their website? If you use IWL at your church, please comment and share with us why you like it/use it and if it’s ever saved the day.

Yesterday, with the announcement of ProPresenter 4 (for Mac) – my friends at Renewed Vision threw in one other big announcement: they’re making a Windows version. I knew this, but couldn’t blog about it before. Here’s the announcement that came in their email:

For 10 years, we’ve developed ProPresenter for Mac only, and have been asked repeatedly if there was going to be a version for Windows. Our answers were always the same:

• The tools that enable us to do what we do on the Mac aren’t as robust on the Windows platform.
• We have nothing against Windows, but felt we could make a more powerful and reliable product on the Mac.
• We’d rather focus on making the best software for any platform, rather than divide our efforts by supporting two platforms.

All of these answers were valid, and as the marketshare of the Mac has increased over the last several years, the question has become a lot less frequent. At the same time, however, we’ve been troubled by some things:

• There are a lot of churches that don’t have Macs, particularly overseas
• There is a great variety of Windows-based machines on the market that are seemingly very capable.
• A new computer purchase is often difficult in today’s economy.
• Many PC users get excited about our product only to be let down when learning it’s Mac only.
• Some organizations will not purchase a Mac just to run ProPresenter.
• If we can improve the worship experience on the Mac, why not use our expertise to do the same for Windows?

Through the years, a lot has changed. Computers have become far more powerful and technologies have evolved. We’ve kept our eye on Windows technologies that would enable us to create a quality ProPresenter experience for Windows users, and we now believe we have found the right tool set, and assembled the right team of people to make ProPresenter for Windows a reality!

So, the cat’s out of the bag. We’ll be keeping you updated via our website as this story unfolds. Until then, here are answers to some questions we thought you might have:

WHAT WILL PROPRESENTER 4 WINDOWS LOOK LIKE?
We have put a great deal of thought into the user interface of ProPresenter 4 on the Mac, so why ruin a good thing? We are building the Windows version to look and function identically. If you know how to run ProPresenter 4 Mac, you will know instantly how to run ProPresenter 4 Windows.

WILL IT HAVE ALL THE FEATURES OF THE MAC VERSION?
We are working hard to make sure that every feature of the Mac version is implemented in Windows. In some cases, a feature may be less robust on the Windows platform while others may work even better. Some technical realities beyond the scope of ProPresenter may have an impact (video codecs, shared storage, etc.), but we’re going to make sure these are minimal.

WILL I BE ABLE TO USE BOTH IN MY ORGANIZATION?
From the ground up, we have worked to ensure interoperability between ProPresenter 4 Mac and ProPresenter 4 Windows. This means you will be able to move files back and forth, and they will run largely the same way on either platform.

WHAT ABOUT THE ADVANCED AND ALPHA KEYER MODULES, OR THE PROPRESENTER REMOTE FOR IPHONE?
We’re not planning our initial release of ProPresenter 4 Windows to include any modules or iPhone remote functionality. Depending on market acceptance and customer demand, however, we may consider developing them in the future. Be sure to let us know your interest in these additional features.

WHAT IS THE PRICING OF PROPRESENTER FOR WINDOWS?
ProPresenter for Windows has the same pricing structure as its Mac counterpart. Single user licenses will be platform specific and sold for $399. However, a Site License for ProPresenter 4 will work on either platform, allowing unlimited use on any platform for a single campus, making our site license an even better value add. This means for a $799 site license purchase, you can run ProPresenter 4 on either a Mac or a Windows machine. Existing ProPresenter 4 site license owners will be able to download and unlock the Windows version immediately after it becomes available.

WHY ARE WE ANNOUNCING IT NOW?
Because site licenses of ProPresenter 4 will work on both the Mac and Windows versions, we want people to know these benefits before placing their upgrade orders.

WHEN WILL PROPRESENTER 4 WINDOWS BE RELEASED?
We don’t have a specific date for release quite yet, but are working towards Summer 2010. We will certainly have a public beta test for registered ProPresenter users prior to the wide release. Stay tuned for such an announcement in the coming months.

Yesterday I met with my new friend, Boyd, from ChurchTeams.com (a great resource for your church – I encourage you to check them out).  We were talking about the future of the Church, technology and ministry and we talked about the reality that in the not too distant future, churches may not need internal servers. 

I was sharing my thoughts on the Church IT world and how quickly it’s changing. How most IT departments are not keeping up with the rapidly changing world around them and how I believe that we’re just on the edge of all the change coming to our Church tech and IT worlds. 

I talked about how North Point doesn’t use Microsoft Exchange – they’re all Google. Many churches are following in their footsteps. Think about it: North Point is a huge church with a large staff – if they can do it, you can, too.

I talked about how churches are using resources like Unifyer, 360Hubs, Arena, Fellowship One, Planning Center Online, ChurchTeams.com, etc., etc. – all web-based resources. 

Today I had lunch with the Emerging Media professor at the University of Texas Dallas. He started talking about this very reality without knowing I had already written most of this post. He talked about the new reality of sharing information via the cloud. I already collaborate with many people and writing partners via Google docs. 

Some of you may think I’m crazy and disagree with me strongly, but I’ve always been an early adopter and I believe you’ll look back on this post 3 years from now and think differently. In your own church world, how many programs that you use are web-based? How big of a stretch would it be to think of doing away with servers in your situation?

1. Communicate
2. Connect
3. Contribute
4. Collaborate

It’s been LONG overdue. I have been meaning to blog about LifeChurch.tv’s Digerati team for quite a while. I’ve blogged about LifeChurch.tv many times, but in this blog I’d like to spotlight the Digerati team and their projects. 

You might be wondering: “What in the world does “digerati” mean?” To get to the bottom of something, I go to Wikipedia. Wikipedia reads:”The digerati are the elite of the computer industry and online communities.” From what I know of my friends Terry Storch and Tony Steward (and the rest of the Digerati Team) this fits them very well. 

Maybe you don’t recognize the team, but you may recognize their work. Here is what the Digerati team has been up to and is responsible for:

• YouVersion (Web, Mobile, and iPhone)
• OPEN
• ChurchMetrics
• Internet Campus 
• LifeGroups
• LifeShare
• OnePrayer

The Don Moen Company Purchases MediaComplete (below is a press release from them):

We are excited to announce that the Don Moen Company has recently purchased MediaComplete Corp. The acquisition caps weeks of discussions and planning for how to best resource the church for a new generation of visual media. The new entity will be known as MediaComplete LLC. Don Moen recently founded the Don Moen Company. He is best known as a songwriter and worship leader having written some of the most recognizable songs in the church today.

Don commented on the acquisition, “We believe that making MediaComplete part of our organization will help us to better equip the Church to communicate more effectively and to lead life-changing worship which rests at the heart of God’s Kingdom. Additionally, we are committed to increasing financial and organizational support to the MediaComplete team as they strive to better serve the Church with cutting-edge technologies and expanded content offerings.”

All current staff will remain in place and the MediaComplete founders will continue with significant roles in the company including Todd Temple as Vice President and Chief Product Developer, and Paul Jackson as Vice President for Sales and Marketing. Additionally, MediaComplete will continue to be located at its present location in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.

We are very excited to join forces with The Don Moen Company to better serve the church, and we believe this relationship will allow us to significantly expedite our product development process. We are looking forward to increasing our customer service capabilities, as well as introducing several important new software releases in the months ahead.

Additionally, Kevin Weimer, son of Christian industry icon Jerry Weimer, will join the team as President and CEO of MediaComplete, LLC. Weimer worked with Moen and The Don Moen Company, Chief Operating Officer, Chris Long, during his tenure as VP of the Integrity Label Group.

Weimer stated, “It is a great honor to lead the MediaComplete Team for Don and Chris. As more high quality media is being developed for worship, youth and children’s ministries, we are committed to developing cutting-edge products and services that will enable the church to utilize these media tools in the most effective way for their local ministries.”

MediaComplete is the first major acquisition by the Don Moen Company, which was started in 2008 by Platinum selling recording artist, songwriter and worship leader, Don Moen. Over the next twelve months Moen will be demonstrating the software both domestically and internationally as he appears in markets including South Africa, Nigeria, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.

Besides my family, my job and writing a book, I’m also speaking twice this month. Once, this week at ECHO and next week at the Church 2.0 Local Forum – Atlanta.

I’m excited about both. For ECHO, I’m excited about the many friends and Church leaders from around the country that are coming and I get to hang out with, grab coffee and/or lunch with and take on a tour of Bent Tree.

There’s a great line-up of speakers at ECHO and I’m honored to be a part of this new conference. I’ll be doing 2 classes: “Which Worship Presentation Software is Best for Your Church?” and “Church 2.0″.

In the worship presentation software class, just like NAB, I’ll facilitate a discussion and demo between the Top 3 presentation software companies: EasyWorship, MediaShout and ProPresenter. This class is always fun to do and a great opportunity for you to see the best up-close and personal.

In the Church 2.0 class I give an overview of Web 2.0 technology, how you can use it for ministry and then share my heart behind “Church 2.0“, which goes way beyond technology. For the first time, I will be joined by some special guests (contributors to the book) that will be in Dallas from out of town. I’ll make a big announcement and share some new news with those in attendance!

For Atlanta next week, I’m pumped to meet Church leaders from around the ATL. I’ve been looking forward to this city for quite some time and can’t wait to see what God has in store. If you’re near Atlanta, I want to see you there.

SPECIAL THANKS:
As always, I want to thank my sponsors, which make all this possible and are partners with me in my ministry. My sponsor for ECHO is EasyWorship. Sponsors for the Church 2.0 Local Forum – Atlanta are EasyWorship, ProPresenter, Unifyer, Livekite and Phonevite.

Please hear my heart. I partner with companies that I think have something valid to offer the Church. Someone last week was surprised to learn that I turn down sponsorships. I don’t link my name and my ministry with just anyone. I really believe these companies (and the sponsors for previous conferences and Local Forums) have something unique and innovative to offer the Church as a resource and tool for ministry. Please check them out!

For those of you that haven’t got to spend too much time with me: my facial hair is always changing. I get bored. Lazy. Bored and lazy. I go from clean-shaven (always with the “soul patch“) to beard to full goatee to just the Crowder goatee, etc. It’s always changing. Again, mainly because I rush out in the morning, don’t shave and the next thing I know I have a beard.

I had a semi-beard at the Church 2.0 Local Forum in Santa Cruz (see pics HERE). I let it grow from there and then got tired of it. Before shaving it completely off, I had some fun and took some pics of what I call the crazy stache. It scares the kids. All kids, actually. I think people take a double-take to see if I was that guy on “America’s Most Wanted”. We took some pics, had some laughs and then I shaved it off. Maybe I’ll grow it back next year for Moustache May??? Who knows.

For more silly pics of me with the “crazy stache”, including some of me in my new Igniter Media t-shirt and my favorite hat, go to my Flickr page and check out “Pics of Greg”.

EXTRA:
This Sunday at Bent Tree we were rocking all new SermonVideos.com backgrounds. I love them! I just got Igniter Backs 04 and look forward to working them into the mix, too.

I was proud of my team. This Sunday we had a lot of first-timers. A stage manager, video engineer/shader, graphics operator and camera operator who all had their first Sunday serving. Sunday was a complex week and they handled it well. They are “official” now after going through what we did yesterday.

We had some friends and staff visiting from Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY and Brian Davis of Fellowship Dallas. It’s always good to have people from other churches visiting and worshiping with us. Check out Brian’s blog – they’ve done some cool stuff with their stage – using PVC pipe that looks like metal. Check it!

PERSONAL:
I’ll leave you with one more pic of me holding my 2 oldest kids. Katie, the youngest, was too freaked out to be in the picture. Poor girl needs counseling now.

From their Facebook update:

The wait is over. As the web is buzzing with reports of the new iPhone 3G and iPhone 2.0 update, we’re adding to the excitement with the debut of a Bible App for the iPhone, powered by YouVersion.com.

The ease of use you’ve come to expect from YouVersion.com now fits in the palm of your hand. We’re thrilled to launch this new application that iPhone and iPod Touch users will be able to download for free. It’s called the Bible App and it’s available now from Apple’s built-in App Store.

* Now that’s cool. Well done LifeChurch.tv! You can sign up on iTunes HERE or read more about it HERE.

Each week I get phone calls and emails from church members and visiting Church leaders asking where we get our backgrounds that we used during worship. Obviously, I have access to a ton of media and we use a number of products from companies that I’ve blogged about before, but one company we keep using again and again and again is SermonVideos.com.

One note about Bent Tree is that we are in HD, so our background selection is smaller and pickier. With that being said, there are a growing number of resources out there. I absolutely LOVE Igniter Backs and have raved about them before. I’m looking forward to them re-releasing volumes 1 and 2 in HD and am anxiously awaiting Backs 4.

What I don’t like is that you have to wait every one or two years for another volume to come out. I wish they’d release backgrounds as they create them and when they have enough, create a volume. What I LOVE about SermonVideos.com is that they add/upload brand new backgrounds weekly. As soon as they get them or create them, they’re up and ready to download. We have a subscription, so I just log on and in a matter of minutes have them loaded into my EasyWorship resource folder.

In my own church life, from week to week, we’ve worn out Igniter Backs Vol. 3. I have to take a break from them because our people were seeing them so much (they are the only thing they have in HD). I even went back and took a select few from Igniter Backs 1 and 2 and stretched them, which seemed to work okay (thanks Igniter for suggesting that).

I use a few from FortyOneTwenty and a few from BlueFish.tv. I’m truly grateful for the never-ending fresh supply from SermonVideos.com and am thrilled to add new backgrounds in the mix each week. My hats off to my friend Craig Lillard and his team of artists at SV. Thanks for a job well done!

EXTRA:
2 weeks ago we kicked off our service with a Call to Worship video from Restoration Videos: “Worship“. They didn’t have it in HD, but thankfully created it widescreen. This video was a powerful start to our service. Thanks to Restoration Videos!