using bumptop?

Friend of mine mentioned this program to me, and I’m curious if some have used it yet.  As I’m watching the vid below I’m thinking of tons of different uses for it.  There’s a free version and a pro version.  You can check it out here: http://bumptop.com/mac/

super bowl XLIV powerpoint game

warning: totally shameless plug about to follow.

If you’re looking for a powerpoint game to use at Super Bowl parties, events or student ministry services, we’ve created one over at our 4ThoughtMedia.com site.  Check it.

Little or no budget? Innovate.

Love stuff like this.  With everyone it seems experiencing cutbacks in budgets, including creative media budgets, it pushes us to a couple of options.  One option is to sit back, and say what we can’t do.  The other is to ask “what can we do?”.  Innovation is often limited by leadership that is 1. focused on what we can’t do and 2. doesn’t give permission to experiment and fail.  I love what Craig Groeschel says about LifeChurch and their culture: “Failure isn’t just expected, it’s required.”  Here’s a church that built a very cool LED-esque wall with existing equipment and $1000.  Check it out:

outdoor projection

Thanks Ken for the heads up on this.  Love how they utilize projection on a building (check it out here).  Thinking through applications for message series, advertising, etc.  If you have a structure in an area with a decent amount of traffic, what a great use of space.

130 Million Dollars: Something Feels Wrong

I was reading over on Monday Morning Insight and they were discussing in one of their blog posts First Baptist Church of Dallas’ campaign to raise 130 Million Dollars to build a new complex in downtown Dallas.  FBC Dallas has an information page that has an extensive video collection which covers their history, and gives an explanation of the project.  You can tell they spent some serious change on these videos.  Take a minute to check the videos out when you can.  As I was watching the videos, I was just flooded with several thoughts on this.  Here are mine, would love to hear yours.

• I’ve got to admit, while watching it, I felt like I was watching something from Disney.  Very well, done mind you.  I don’t know if you’ve seen any reruns of the wonderful world of disney from the 60’s where Walt Disney is describing the layout of disney world before it was constructed.  Kinda felt like that.
• 130 million is alot of dough.  Yeah, I have a problem with that.  I understand that construction costs in the US are what they are.  I just think that there are way better solutions than that.
• How many of the families that come to FBC Dallas are driving into the downtown area for church.  You could take half of that, and fully fund 3 to 4 multi site campuses all over the city and suburbs, including full time staff.
• The project is based on a broken paradigm.  It is the “come and see” vs the “take the church” to where the people are.
• Is this about building the Kingdom or preserving our historical and geographical heritage in downtown Dallas?
• I’m sure that there are people from their pastor to the leadership that have wrestled with some of those questions.  I don’t doubt their sincerity to reach people for Christ.  Just think their methodology here is busted.
• I’m sitting here today editing a video of one of our folks who is just broken and blown away over seeing the FIRST converts in a previously unreached people group in a language where not even the whole Bible is translated as of yet, and I’m thinking to myself “What if we took just half of that 130 million and used it to reach more unreached people?
• Those arguments could be made about a lot of things that we spend our money on, and there are people on both sides that have legitimate points.  I mean, I’ve stood in some incredible cathedrals and was led to worship just from the architecture.  Just incredible.  Would love to hear your thoughts on your reaction to the videos.

U2 on YouTube…in case you missed it

Here’s the video of the U2 Concert on YouTube.  Couple of hours long so you may want to pull up a chair…or sofa

thank you U2…and You Tube

Just an incredible online experience and exceptional quality.  If this was a beta test for anything, I would say it was a home run.  Of course, the fact that they are one of my favorite bands helped the experience.  On the technical side, I was VERY impressed. I watched the whole experience from my DSL connection at my house, was great video quality even at full screen and it buffered on my computer…once….that’s almost unheard of.  Few screenshots.  Click on any to enlarge.

couple of On The Ridge Campus photos

Here are a couple of photos (compliments of Nick – Ridge Campus Pastor) of the worship center at Cedar Creek On the Ridge in Ridge Spring.  For those that don’t know, this is our second multi-site campus about to launch within the next few weeks.  It was very cool to see the reaction of those who had not seen the set completed (for the most part) this past week.  Tomorrow we’re having small worship gathering for the volunteers at the campus.  Just a few notes and comments from the production side of things.

• As you can see, the house lights are on full…as we found out from our electricians on Wednesday, these particular lights have to be on (per the manufacturer) for 100 hours straight before dimming them.  They actually use a fluorescent bulb (not a fan) vs an incandescent bulb but are dimmable.  Not ideal for tomorrow morning but should be good to go for the first public worship service.  Once that 100 hours is up, we can really set the lighting the way we want.
• Table at the front in the photos is for communion tomorrow.  Normally that is where Nick will be to greet, announce, speak, pray, etc.
• We utilized a combination of LED washes, par cans and ellipsoidals in our theatrical lighting.  We also have a large spot mounted in the back (not pictured).
• Ceiling was blacked out.  I was hoping that the back wall would be as well, but that was a no go.  I’m thinking perhaps some black fabric/curtain may be a good call to go behind the transformants and trusses on the back wall down the road.
• Lighting is controlled by some free Chauvet computer-based software.  It actually is pretty cool in that you can setup 2d and 3d renderings of your stage setup, create scenes on your computer anywhere, bring them in and load them up..nice for volunteers.
• Total of 4 screens, 2 on the sides, one on the rear wall (not pictured) and then the motorized screen that drops down from the center for the message.
• 2 analog way switcher/scalers for the screens.  One for the side and rear screens, one for the center screen.
• Imac using propresenter for media.
• Small behringer board for media mix before sending it to house sound.
• Right now we’re going week delay and using dvd’s for the ridge campus.  Quality is okay on the dvd, but we may quickly change over to using captured video from either p2 cards or from dvcpro deck.  We’ll see…still a work in progress.

to reach people that no one is reaching….

…you have to do things that no one is doing.  The message doesn’t change but the methods MUST.  Check out this clip from Craig Groeschel.

Twitter in Ministry

Had a chance earlier this week to speak with Kelly Jasper with the Augusta Chronicle for an article in today’s paper.  The article was on the use of social media in ministry, in particular Twitter.  You can check it out here.  At the bottom of the article, they give a listing of local pastors and notables that are on twitter, too.