A Room Full of Artists

How do you know what the Creative Arts Staff and Volunteers in the local church are thinking?  Simple.  Put them in a room with no Lead Pastors, no Church Executives, and no Church Elders.  Now add a dose of other artists:  Worship pastors, filmmakers, web designers, a couple of painters, and a host of graphic artists.

And it happens.

Authentic conversation.

“You feel that way too?  I thought I was the only one.”

So to help Lead Pastors and Church Executives lead from a place of accuracy and honesty, listen to the voice of the people who are in that room.  They are artists.  They are evangelists.  And they are limping.

Theirs is a cry.  And here’s what they’re saying…

Please give me more time. This is, without a doubt, the most common desire heard from artists and media folks.  And because teaching pastors live in hundreds of one-week cycles, anyone attached to the creation of the big event at the end of those cycles will logically only have a week to prepare.  The artists we listen to wish Executive Leaders would understand that they can’t simply click the “Be Creative” button, and then turn it off when they’re done – that creativity comes in the middle of the night, or in the shower, or while they’re mowing their lawn.

If I say “no” to you, I feel like I’m saying “no” to God. You may think this is crappy theology (and it is), but many artists feel like God speaks to the Senior Pastor, then the pastor speaks to the staff with God’s message.  There is enormous potential freedom for the artist when a pastor says, “It’s okay to tell me no.”

Above all else, I want you to be pleased with my art. Artists need to know that you like the stuff they create.  They also need to know that their art is impacting the lives of real people.  Names and faces help artists make it real.

I spend more money out of my own pocket than you’ll ever know. When God plants an artistic idea deeply into the heart of a filmmaker or a graphic designer, they cannot NOT create it.  And much of the time, their creation consists of elements that cost money.  Conversely, they already know that the church doesn’t have any money to spend.  So it comes out of their pocket.

Ultimately, I want to get this right. Most artists desperately want to do whatever is best.  They’re willing to change and revise their art.  They’re willing to re-shoot, or re-envision an idea.  They just don’t want for a constant re-envisioning of their art to become the norm during the entire life-cycle of the project.

But here’s the real danger to this whole discussion.  Tragically, I’ve only met a couple of Executive Leaders who think they need to read an article like this.

New Mini-Movie: Redeemed

Seems like one of the most requested genres of mini-movies is the topic of Salvation. Pastors are not simply requesting mini-movies that explain salvation – they’re requesting a video that actually OFFERS it. So we decided to create this video.

We intentionally created this video to feel very slow, soft, and reflective. You’ll need to take a deep breath, turn the phone off, and allow yourself to be engaged. The musical underscore (”More Than a Friend”) is almost haunting, and is performed by Jeremy Riddle

So here’s our suggestion for using this video the most effectively: Preach your sermon. Then, toward the end, play the video. It’ll be extremely important to follow up the video with a real pastor/leader in your church.

So go ahead. Watch “Redeemed“, and see if it could work for you.

Video In Your Church

Welcome to the Floodgate Productions website.  We’re glad you stopped by.  We want you to know one simple truth:  When video is used strategically in your church, God is giving you one more tool to impact the hearts of people.  We’ve seen it play out again and again in the communal lives of countless local churches.  The people are stirred by impacting sermons with videos woven in.  Those people then enter their unique real worlds, better equipped to give Christ away to their freinds, family, and coworkers.

We’ve seen videos used in a number of different ways, and we want to share those with you,  By doing so, we pray that your heart is stirred to use videos uniquely in your local church.

Video as a Sermon Opener.  This is the most common use of video shorts.  Just before the pastor stands up to start preaching, there’s a video that introduces the topic.  When you’re choosing this video, it’s really important that the video doesn’t draw any conclusions.  There’s a place for a video with conclusions, but not as an opener.  A great example of a sermon opener is found here, with a video called “Worship: What Is It?”.  If you’re new at using videos in connection with your preaching, simply pick a video, and play it just before you preach.  You’ll be amazed at how quickly people connect.

Video as a Worship Drop.  If you’re a worship leader, you’ve probably discovered that 6-7 songs in a row can be long, even boring.  We’ve created a series of videos with that in mind, and we call them “Worship Drops”.  Simply play the video in the middle of the singing.  An example of a worship drop is found here, with a video called “The Gift of Worship”.

Video as a Service Opener.  Some videos work best when you start your service with them.  Or, if that wouldn’t work for you, simply play one worship song, then move directly into the video.  A great example of this type of video can be found here, with a piece called “Elevate”.

Video as a Sermon Closer.  When pastors close their sermon with a video, that video should probably be soft, reflective, and call for some sort of commitment.  These videos help draw the conclusion the pastor wants.  An example of a sermon-closing video is found here, with a video called “I’m Watching You Dad”.  There’s also a great sermon-closing video on our Free Resources page this month.

Video as a Scripture Reading.  Many videos do one simple thing:  They portray the actual words of Scripture in a creative way.  Worship pastors and teaching pastors can make great use of videos that creatively communicate the truth of God’s word.  An example is found here, with a video called “Isaiah 40″.

Video as a Service Closer.  Most of the time, the most important business God does in people’s hearts happens AFTER the sermon is over.  With that in mind, we created a unique video to play just before everyone is dismissed.  Many churches actually use this video AS the dismissal.  Check it out here, with a video called “The Point”.

There are many more ways to use video creatively in your worship services.  If you’ve found other ways, please post them below.  Our site is visited by thousands of pastors each week, and we would love for this to become a community where the Church (big “C”) thrives because each individual church (small “c”) is willing to take the time to help each other out.