FaithEngineer

NewSpring has relaunched their website for free graphics and print resources for churches. Check it out at

http://www.newspring.cc/resources

They are offering both print and video downloads for many of their sermon series. I’m a big fan of free graphical resources, because they enable churches who don’t have the technology, resources, or manpower to incorporate technology without spending huge amounts of money. It helps smaller churches like ours to focus on the message and not spend countless hours on preparing graphic files. It shows that churches like Lifechurch and NewSpring have a huge Kingdom focus to give away resources for free.

I’m always on the lookout for new websites that share high-quality graphic files.  Here are two places you can find

First, I’ll share the free stuff.  Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina is offering their high quality graphic files for absolutely FREE.  Check out http://resources.elevationchurch.org/ I love their Kingdom focus of helping other churches.

Second, Floodgate Productions has launched a new site offering sermon graphics for sale.  Sermolicious has some great print and video media for sale.  These are great for youth or adults.  Here is a video that shows more about their website.

Sermolicious Promo from Floodgate & Sermolicious on Vimeo.

And finally, don’t forget about Lifechurch.tv Open Resources. I’ve talked about them before, but they are another great source for free graphic files and sermon ideas.

We have some awesome new tshirts for Cornerstone. We plan on wearing them in the parade and during the July 4th activities this weekend. We got them from Shawn McCarthy at Our Shirts Don’t Suck. They are doing some great design work down near Charleston and have been working with several churches. We told them a little about our church and provided the logo files and they came up with a great design that fits who we are. The best part is they have an awesome summer special so that the shirts were only $5 for five-color printing, and that even includes the design time. Check them out, they were great to work with and let them know that I sent you their way.

If you want to buy one, stop by the church. We have adult tees, ladies tees, and children’s sizes available.

I’m continually amazed at how the internet is shaping technology.   I spent a couple of hours experimenting with streaming live video from church.  It was incredibly easy to setup and even more importantly, it was free.  We are looking at hosting a seminar at Cornerstone here in Virginia and broadcasting it live over the internet to two churches in Michigan that are wanting to join in.  Our first run-through was very positive, so I think we will proceed with our plans.

I hooked up an old mini-dv camcorder to my macbook pro through firewire, and then tried out both Mogulus and Ustream.tv.   Both services are relatively simple to configure and start your broadcast.  The only annoying thing about both services is that they are ad-supported.  Mogulus offers a pro version for around $350 a month that removes the ads, but that is out of our reach for a small seminar like we are planning.

I read recently about Watershed, which is a service of Ustream, and I think it will work perfectly.  Basically, for lower usages, you pay $1 per hour per viewer.  You can brand everything with your own logo, embed the player in your own website, and all ads are removed.  You can read more about using watershed with churches at ChurchCrunch.

A few lessons I learned:

• If you want to go without ads and make it look more professional, then be willing to pay.  Mogulus offers a pro account, and Ustream has the Watershed service
• If you want to broadcast your worship service, make sure you have the correct licensing. You’ll probably want to start with WorshipCast and CCLI
• If you are using a mac, then check out CamTwist.  It’s an amazing free program that lets you overlay text, graphics, and even show your desktop, movies, and slideshows.  I also have a copy of BoinxTV, and I might end up using that.
• If you are using a PC, then definitely check out Procaster – It’s a great front-end for Mogulus that is super easy to use.  You can quickly switch between the video and your screen.
• Run your sound through a soundboard if possible if you are mixing multiple sources.  Be sure to set the sound volume on the streaming setup so that it’s not too loud or too soft.
• And the biggest lesson … It doesn’t require a huge budget to broadcast.  If you don’t mind having ads, then it is easy and free to setup a live streaming channel for your church.

It’s Friday, it’s dark, it’s bleak, it’s hopeless …

but there is hope, there is grace, there is redemption because Sunday’s comin’.

We’re starting a new series at Cornerstone this weekend called Paralyzed, Frozen by Fear. I got the idea from a series at Crosspoint.tv in Nashville.

I had some great ideas for an opening video, but I didn’t have time to get everything together. So I created a quick Keynote presentation with some cool background videos, added some music and sound effects in Garageband, and came up with the following video. Invite your friends and join us this weekend. If you are a Cornerstone regular, then you may want to consider coming to the Saturday night service this weekend, since we will be packed out on Sunday morning. I’m excited to open up this series talking about Peter at the cross, and why he had a fear of being found out for who he really was.

Competition is good in the software business.  It forces companies to continually innovate and improve their software.   If they wait too long, somebody will swoop in with more features and try to lure their customers away.   I feel like that is what is happening right now in the worship presentation industry.  I have been a huge fan of Easyworship 2007 for several years now.  I have blogged about it several times and I still recommend it to most churches who are wanting to get started with a video projection system.  Even though Easyworship is working on a new version that will be mac compatible, it has still gone about 18 months without any major changes.

ProPresenter for the mac is gaining customers who want power and ease of use.   For anybody who wants to use Apple hardware, this is the software that is revolutionizing the church video world.   And now, it looks like Windows users might have a worthy competitor.   Mediashout has released version 4 and it looks very cool.  Mediashout has always intrigued me because of the power and features it offers.  However, the learning curve has always been steep.   With version 4, the program adds even more features, and it looks like the user interface has been completely overhauled.

Here are some big features that grab my attention:

If you are a church looking to buy software right now, I would seriously consider Mediashout.  I have used it in the past and this new version looks awesome.  I still like Easyworship for it’s ease of use, but if they don’t get a new version out soon, I’m afraid the other companies will pass them by.

Check out the info from Mediashout’s website

One of the easiest ways for churches to get more involved with video is by creating photo slideshows.  You can just take your pictures straight from your digital camera and use them to make a video.   It is easy, effective, and quick.   I have used the free Microsoft Photostory which does a good job of panning and zooming through your pictures, but it doesn’t do anything fancy, and the results are less than spectacular.   On my mac, I like to use iPhoto ‘09 to do photo slideshows.  You have several options, and the new “shatter” theme is awesome.  You can show photo captions, but you can’t really add text slides in the final slideshow.

That brings me to the new kid on the block, Animoto.com.   I’ve blogged about it before, but it has gotten even better than before.   You simply upload your photos to their website, add text, choose music, and hit create. That’s it. It’s not complicated or hard, and you’ll be amazed at the end result.  You can upload your own music, or choose from their library of great songs.  Animoto actually analyzes your photos and creates a video to match them to the music.  Animoto then provides you with the finished video file, embed codes, and several ways to share the final video, so you can easily incorporate the video into your website or show in your church.

Videos under 30 seconds are free, but you’ll have to pay $3 per video, or $30 per year for unlimited use.  I’ll even help you get started with Animoto. If you sign up for the one-year pass, you can get $5 off by using the referral code DPQIVMCW.

Here is a recent video that my wife created for our local community-wide Bible school.  I’ve done enough video-editing to know how hard it would be to create a video like this.  You could use videos like this to promote upcoming events or show highlights from past events.  We’ve even thought about making announcement videos for church using it.  What are some ways you have used Animoto?