Production Blog: Propresenter 4 is Coming

And they have 100 things they are adding, 100! I personally can't wait. Pro Presenter is the head of the class when it comes to church presentation software. It is quit possibly the most powerful presentation software and is the easiest to train volunteers on. Now they are adding 100 new things wow I can't wait to see what all they are going to do.




If you want a preview of the new additions follow @propresenter on twitter. Be sure to check out Pro Presenter 4 when it comes out. I know I will!

Production Blog:The future of DP Production

I am a firm believer in the fact that you have to have a vision and a plan for your ministry. Even if God changes the direction from time to time if you keep goals ahead of you then you are always reaching for something and you don't become content with what you have done. These are my future plans for the Production ministry at DPC. These plans may not be the plans of the rest of the staff although I shared most of these with them. These plans may change as our relatively new church continues to take shape. Today I am going to talk about my short term goals. Maybe in a few weeks I will come back and share my long term goals for this ministry.





1. Better training material. I am (as I have said many times before) a terrible teacher. I am a doer and doers do they don't teach. On the other hand I do lead a ministry and leaders do teach. So how do I balance the two? I have not figured that our yet. What I do know is that I need to put together better training packets. We have some cool equipment and I would love to be able to hand some one a training packet so they will at least have some idea whats going on before they step into the booth for their first day of practice.


2. A new position: Camera Operator - There will be a need for a camera operator very soon for reasons I will discuss below


3. I want to begin to put together a plan to control over flow. In case you have not noticed our services get fuller and fuller. We want everyone to be able to be on the service comfortably. What happens if more people show up then we have seats for? The answer is to create an overflow space. A space out in the lobby where people can see and hear the service on TV's. This would also allow us to run the countdown in lobby so you would have a better idea when the service is to begin.


4. I want to set up a Live Internet Broadcast of our services! Yes I would like to stream our services live over the Internet. It is all about reaching as many people as possible and live streaming events is easier than ever. Plus it provides you a way to join our services even if you are sick or out of town!

5. Increase production volunteers. With the addition of a position soon and the possibility of increasing the number of service at DPC I need volunteers I have 8 and I probably will need 16 within the next 6 months. That's a lot of training!


Like I said these goals could change or the time tables could change. All I know is that is your not working towards something your standing still.

Production Blog- Excellence

I believe that God calls us to be excellent in all we do. I don't think that means perfect just excellent. The other day a friend of mine ask me why I would not create videos with the current video camera we have (which is old and SD) and show them in church. He went as far as (in jest) telling me I was sinning for not showing the low quality video because it could help some one come to Christ. On the other hand it could turn someone off. We spend our week watching HD TVs (well not me) listening to ipods and looking at high quality websites. Why should we think that we as a church can be outdated and still appeal to people who spend their life in High Definition? I am all for integrating Pop Culture into services. Not for entertainment but to help bridge the gap between what non believers know and what I have learned. What I am not for is integrating video that sucks! If you are going to show videos in your church, if you are going to playing secular music, if you are going to integrate pop culture into your services in any way do it with excellence.



I know money plays a factor. This is where you have to be creative. You also have to learn to say no. If something is planned but it looks or sound horrible, Scrap it, don't do it and walk away. We have been wanting to add a drama element to our services for a long time but we do not have the people, tools or time to do it right. Until God provides those things we will not have a drama element in our services even though I know we want one really bad. Same thing with video I really want to start doing more and more video (I do a lot now with motion graphics now but not footage) but I won't until I have better technology (that is not cry for help). I just simply do not want to put a product out there that is half done.



What are your thoughts?

Production Blog: Be Prepared

Anything can happen at any given moment in any given service. Volunteers can call out, equipment can go down and you can get sick. I have learned that I needed something new every week since moving into our new complex. This week I ask David (worship arts pastor extraordinaire) to start bringing an extra set  of tab sheets for the Computer tech. I know this seems like something small but it can make a huge difference. Next week I am going to start walking a different volunteers through my morning routine of turning on equipment and I will do the same for closing down the equipment. I go over each Song like 6 times before I declare it good for Sunday. I make the computer techs read through the Sermon for spelling errors even though ProPresenter has spell check. The biggest issue I have as far as my backup plan goes is there is no back up equipment and there is no money to buy back up equipment. So outside of a projector and 2 LED Par cans I have no backup equipment and I know this is an issue for a lot of churches. That issue is truly out of my hands, so it is extra important that my team and I are prepared in the areas that we can control. There is no more nauseating feeling than when you ruin a powerful moment in the service because you weren't prepared. God called us to do all things to the best of our ability I believe that includes the things we do in the production both on Sunday mornings. Be Prepared

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Production Blog: Pro Presenter Tips

I love Pro Presenter as a presentation software. We use a projector and two 52" LCD TVs in our service area so I also use the advanced module and a Matrox Triple Head To-Go. We have a fun set up that I can manipulate several different ways to give the service a little different look every week. If you are using Power Point to do you song and Message slides ( and of course if you can afford it). Here are my reasons why I choose ProPresenter over the competition.

• It just works.
• The code is clean and the interface is simple.
• It gives you lots of options.
• The production volunteers pick up on it really quick.
• Options, Options, Options

I know this i snot a real in dept review (which I will do in a few weeks) but I was playing with our old presentation software the other day and I could not beleive how much better ProPresenter was. Now its not perfect and like anything else it has its quirks but I love it. Unfortunately it is only available for Macs and I know that is a big turn off for a lot of people. If you ever get a chance to demo ProPresenter Play with it for awhile and and I think most people would agree.

Production Blog- Communication and Presentation

This is continued from last week's Production blog you can read it here




Sometimes I think we think that everyone knows what we know. That everyone thinks how we think. This could not be further from the truth.



Some people don't know the songs we sing. Some people don't know who we are singing to. Its is important that we spend the time during the worship service trying to connect people to God. If they don't know how, who is going to teach them. This can't be done over 1 week or 1 month or even a year. It is done by consistently communicating the "why" and the "who" of worship. Now I am not a worship leader (and I never will be) but over the past 2 months I have spend a lot of time studying worship leaders from all over via the internet. I have seen many styles but 1 thing that all of the good ones do is communicate. They have a planned clear message on stage. They don't ramble, they don't make it up as they go, they have a message and they know exactly what they want to say. They know exactly what they are trying to communicate. Communication in worship is vital to connecting people in worship. I also think it is important how worship leaders communicate. You get up on stage and start using "church words" that only people who have been in church for over 10 years can understand to communicate with people, then you have still not successfully communicated.

The last thing I want to write about here is Presentation. The other week we had a guest band (which was made up of members of our band) Standby (check them out at standbyband.com)and they did a version of old rugged cross that rocked! That is just as much worship to me as singing the hymn out of a hymnal. The plus side of the song was it rocked and it was so well done that it connected with not only Christ followers but with people who had never been to church before. Another thing about presentation to me is it has to be distraction free. If your production team and your worship leader are not in sync with each other it can turn people off. If your lighting guy goes nuts and decides to strobe multicolor light during a slow moment it can be disastrous. If your computer tech does not know the song well enough to follow along or if your worship leader ad libs too much it can be distracting.



Please understand me, I want to see people come to Christ. I think the way we present worship has a huge part in whether or not they feel connected at a church. Some people will not connect at your church and that's okay. The point is in all we do in our services we have to find a way to connect to people who have yet to develop a relationship with Jesus and yet not get away from worshiping our God. Please let me know what you think.

Sunday Look Back 6-20-09

1. Another year of being a father. It only gets better!

2. On the Production side: I got some of the robotic lights back and trained Rusty how to use them. They are so much fun and add a lot to the service. I wish I had more but I am thankful for what I have to work with.

3. "Freedom is Here" by Hillsong went off great!

4. Added 2 new band members this week James Greene on the keyboard and our summer intern Daniel McCullers on the electric. I was impressed!

5. I think this is the first time I have ever heard David Collinsworth play the Bass guitar. For our size we are very blessed to have the level of talent in our musicians that we have

6. "God is Father" was amazing and refreshing!

7. Spoke with a guy trying to get his church more savvy in the media presentation world. I love to help people but I am a terrible teacher.

8. Added 2 new volunteers to the Production Team!

9. Next week should be another great week at DP!!!

Production Blog- The Last Minute Musical Chair Phenomenon

So you have worked all week to put together a great lineup for your Sunday morning service. You have worked out song order with the worship leader, videos and everything else. You have everything on a nice little sheet of paper with notes for all of the production staff. You have practised the order with the band and its only the night before the service. You go to bed knowing that in the morning the chances are 50/50 that everything you have scheduled will actually take place. We have all been there. Some one will have last minute changes that require you to pull off some serious musical chairs. Now I must first say at my church we are really good at pulling things off at the last minute, we have had a lot of practice. I most say also that my guys are good about not trying to do too much at the last minute (mostly because of my griping) but that was not always the case.

I think people who try to change things at the last minute have 2 mind sets.

1. They think that moving things around 1 hour before the service starts is easy

or 2. They think you are so good at you job that you can pull it off.

Please do not misunderstand me I want the service to be the best it can be. If some one comes along with a last minute idea that would make the service rock and it can be done well in a short amount of time. I will do flips to get it done.

So some simple things I have done to change the mindsets of my pastor and worship leaders (who are both close friends).

1. The biggest thing is to say no! Make whoever it is understand that putting some thing together at the last minute can ruin a service. It could be distracting. It could be responsible for someone not hearing what they need to hear from God. Say no but do it with respect and tact.

2. Teach people to plan. Let them know your planning schedule. Some people are not planers. If they can;t plan on there own help them plan. I know I drive my pastor crazy with emails sometimes trying to get answers but most of the time, in the end, I know he is thankful for it.

3.Teach them how all of the graphic art, videos, stage design and whatever else you handle are done so they know how much time you and your staff put into the work. There is nothing worse to me then having to tell a volunteer that we can't use his work because someone decided to show another video and your got bumped. That can be real discouraging


4. Make service change deadlines and stick to them unless you just can't. Sometimes you have to do things at the last minute. It just should not be a habit

So these are a few of my ideas. Any thoughts?

Next week I am writing about Worship music vs the Rock Concert