Do we need websites anymore?

Are we past the point of needing websites for our children’s ministry? I remember year’s ago thinking that I had to have a personalized website for my children’s ministry. I spent hours and weeks programming and designing the perfect site. It always seemed like the sites were never quite right. There was always the option to pay for a site to be developed, but the cost was always out of reach. It was a dilemma that I can tell many other ministries have faced too. There are so many sites that sit on the Internet unfinished. My feeling is that it’s better to have no website at all rather than on that is full of broken links or outdated content. Is there a better way?

I think the answer can be found through social media and micro sites. To give an upfront disclaimer, I think it’s wise to utilize your church’s main site to publicize your ministry, but even those pages should be feeders to social media. For me, it comes to three different methods that can be utilized: Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs (Google+ could become an option if usage increases).

Every ministry should have a Facebook page. It’s important to differentiate that from a group. Groups are helpful for volunteers or established members, but a FB page should be the public face. We constantly post videos, announcements, pictures, and take home papers on our FB page. I love the immediate contact and discussions that can be formed between parents and the Kidmin staff. Make sure that the content is updated regularly. It makes the ministry look bad when the most recent update is from two months ago. You could even make a photo album of your staff with their bio for the photo’s description. Don’t forget to lock in your URL when you create the page. Also, it’s key to advertise the page. You have get your parents to like the page. We created tent cards to advertise that was placed at each registration kiosk. A couple of months ago we made t-shirts that advertised the page. It had the “like” button and the FB URL. Be creative and put the URL on everything. We have a QR code at the bottom of our handouts that will take the parents straight to the page when scanned.

Twitter is the other great portal. It can be updated separately or by linking FB to Twitter. These short bursts of information are great for keeping the parents up to date. You can tweet pics, announcements, and links to registration forms. The 140 character limit is great for making us stay succinct.

Lastly, I thing blogs can be a great way to communicate longer form discussions. WordPress, Tumblr, and Blogger are all great options. The standard layouts work great. I don’t think these should be your primary communications, but they are great additions.

The bottom line is that all of these options are great for a couple of reasons. First, they’re free. Enough said. Second, they can be setup in minutes. No more months of preparation for a web launch. Third, they’re easier to update than traditional websites, i.e. they will get updated more often. Next, FB and Twitter will automatically show up in the feeds of the parents. The info is there when the parent logs in to check personal stuff. With a traditional site the parent has to navigate purposefully to that site-which often doesn’t happen. Lastly, they are media rich and the designs stay fresh.

I think we’re past the point of needing a special site for our kidmin. Embrace social media and enjoy how much easier it makes things.

Controlling A/V with the iOS

Have you ever had one of those days where all your A/V volunteers were out? You think everything is fine until someone calls in sick or there parents have planned a last minute trip. It’s frustrating. We depend heavily on A/V in our kid’s services, so not having an A/V volunteer ready to go is a problem. One solution is to always make sure you have a backup person ready to go. I agree, but I’ve also been in smaller churches where that isn’t always a perfect option. I found a work around that has really saved me. I know that not everyone has the same presentation software, but this might help inform your decision if you’re looking to make a change. We use Pro Presenter. It was previously only Mac compatible, but recently the company Renewed Vision released a Windows version. They also have Pro Presenter iOS app that works with both iPhone and iPad.  Once you set up your playlist, go into the program’s preferences and enable  the remote server settings, and the control and observe checkboxes. It will give you a password that you’ll type into the iOS app. Be sure that the computer and iPhone/iPad are on the same WiFi network. Log in to the iOS app and you’ll see the playlists. You can then click on the different videos and slides on the app and they will play from the computer. It works really well. I haven’t found a remote yet for Media Shout or Easy Worship. Of course there’s also an iOS app for Keynote if you choose to use that software. It’s worth the $4.99, though, for the Pro Presenter app. Check it out.

A Writing Challenge

I don’t know how many of you are writers, but I found a love for writing through children’s ministry. I don’t know if any of you experienced something similar. In high school and college I didn’t write creatively and I had no interest in school plays. Yet, through ministry God developed in me a newfound interest in creative writing and in performing. It’s neat how God develops these talents inside of us that we never knew were there. I’m thankful that God has decided to use me in this way.

That brings me to the point of my post. I’ve felt for sometime that God wants me to write a book for kids. If you’ve done any research into publishing you know that getting your book published is a monumental undertaking. It’s like trying to get a recording contract. However, technology has begun to level the playing field. With the advent of the Kindle, the age of indie publishers has begun. A potential author can release their book in digital format through Amazon for nothing. You simply share the profits. Amazon splits the revenue with the author (note that there are different percentages based on the price the author chooses for the book). Recently, a self-published author sold 1 million ebooks through Amazon.

Knowing those facts what is stopping me. That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out. I write constantly in my job as the creative/curriculum director at the Ark Church. I seem to talk myself out of it each time I try. But I want to be different this time. I’ve found an online tool that may just help me get on track. November is National Novel Writing Month (http://www.nanowrimo.org). This site is dedicated to helping would be writers create a novel in one month. Though the word count can vary wildly, the site sets 50,000 words as a goal for a novel. So, if you write 1,600 words a day you could write a novel by the end of November. I’ve already signed up for the site (it’s free) and I’m ready to begin. Do you have a book in your heart? It can be anything, fiction or non-fiction. What’s stopping you? Let’s get out there and write together. Comment if you sign up or hit me up on that site so we can encourage each other. We could make a big difference in the world and it will cost us nothing but time. I think that’s worth it.

Video Announcements

This is a new venture for us. We’ve decided to begin doing our children’s church announcements on video. We felt we weren’t getting enough consistency each week on our announcements. Either teachers forgot to mention them or information was missed. We’re going play these videos during the offering time. At the moment we’ll plan to do one per month unless events require us to do more. This was shot on a black backdrop with a Canon 60D. We used a shotgun mic and a full light setup. Church on the Move has some great tips and tricks on making announcement videos at seeds.churchonthemove.com. We know we can get better but it’s a start.

3D Pop Up Book Animation…

 

 

Never Fear God is Near: A Lesson in Courage.

This is video by my friends at The Fantastic World – Matthew and Jared Young. These guys are great and are producing some high quality media content for children’s ministries. I recommend you check out their website at www.thefantasticworld.com. They have a brand new Christmas curriculum that’s shipping next month.

This video is special to me because I made the pop up book animation on Esther that is found about midway through the video. It was great project to work on and I’m glad the guys gave me a chance to do it. They really gave me a lot of freedom to be creative. To give you some background on the project. Ben McKay help me with the video project as well. We created the book by take front and side pictures of an actual book. We made it a 3D image in After Effects. Each graphic was purchased from vectorstock.com (it’s a royalty free image site) and we took them into Photoshop and applied a paper texture and stroke to them. Each image was imported into After Effects. Each image was a 3D layer in After Effects. If the image was going to encompass both pages, I would bring it in, place it, then duplicate the layer. I would mask off each layer so that I could “fold” the graphic when the page was turned. To make the the pop ups look better I moved the anchor point of each graphic. By placing the anchor point at the bottom of say Esther, then I would be able to fold that image from laying flat to upright because the anchor point would keep it planted on the surface of the page. After the page turned, I would hand keyframe the images so they would follow the turn of the page. Once the page was almost closed, I would drop the opacity to 0 so that I could close the page and image wouldn’t pop through. The smoke was created using Trapcode Particular. The camera movement was created with the built-in camera from After Effects. We animated to a scratch track. The guys were going to put a final, so I made the output a .png sequence with transparency. The final output was 1920×1080. If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to comment.

Trying our hand…

I don’t think you should do things just because they seem like they might be a good idea. The more time I spend in ministry, the more I realize that we should be focusing on the things God is directing us to do. In my role as curriculum/creative director at The Ark Church I’ve really felt that God was calling us to attempt writing our own curriculum.  It’s an exciting and scary proposition all at the same time, not to mention an insane amount of work.  The truth is, though, that I’ve felt so blessed and strengthened during the process. I love presenting God’s word and seeing kids inspired by those truths.  We’re hoping over the next two years to cover every section of the Bible. We began in August with the Gospel of John and this month with the Book of Job. We’re working on a series on missions focusing on Paul’s first missionary journey. Each lesson includes a full script that can be taught with only two teachers. Each lesson also has a video called “The Scoop” which is like a mini sitcom that focuses on a group of teenagers that work at the school newspaper. We have been making one additional video that leads into the Bible story. We’ve really been inspired by what Church on the Move, in Tulsa, OK, is doing. They are giving away thousands of dollars of resources away at seeds.churchonthemove.com. They are making a tremendous investment in the kingdom of God. I hope that our church can do the same. We working on the curriculum with the purpose of giving each series away for churches to use free of charge. It’s in a beta process right now, but if you want to try it out and give me some feedback I’d love to give you a link so you can download it too. I’m including a couple of examples of our first two series. One on Job called “Tough Questions.”  The other is on John called “Hello, My Name is…” It might inspire you to do the same in your church.

A new way of planning services…

When I came to work at my latest church I found that they were using Planning Center to set up all of their services – adult, youth, and children. I had never used it, but I had heard about it.  I gave it a try. At first, there was some frustration at the lack of certain features, but eventually I worked through that.  I really like using the site now. It’s web based, so everyone that has an email address and internet access can use it. The site also has a universal iOS app.  For the adult services, the band can add songs with charts, audio files, lyrics – the works. For kids services I’ve really like the ability to add the media for the upcoming lesson. Teachers can watch the videos, look at the slides, or listen to the worship songs. We have good participation from our volunteers. I think that’s the key. If people are actively using it, then it’s not worth the price. However, if you notice your volunteer base growing and your services becoming more complex, then it might be time to give this site a shot.

Free Resources @seedscotm

If you’re not checking out the videos from Church on the Move in Tulsa, OK, then you’re missing out on some of the most creative ministry ideas out there. These guys are knocking it out of the park. Their Vimeo page is a treasure trove of great ideas. You can also check out their free (you heard it right free!) resource site seeds.churchonthemove.com. You can download tons of their videos, music, and graphics that you can use in their church. I’ve included one of the videos they put up of their Christmas family service from last year. It was amazing. Be sure to check it out. I know your ministry will be blessed.

Teaching video from Kid’s Camp…

This is a video we made for our Kid’s Camp this past summer. We wanted to give the kids a sense of scale. I thought it would be important for them to understand that this little boy was sitting in a crowd of thousands. We filmed it at a local rodeo stadium. We used a Canon 60D and utilized a basic tripod setup as well as a stedicam. I was used a lapel mic and we ran that into a recorder that I wore in my back pocket. I didn’t use cue cards; instead, we shot a multitude of different takes that the editor used to create the full story. Thankfully, I stayed close enough to script that he could piece it together.

New Curriculum Video

We did this video last week to help our kids better understand our Bible story. We were teaching about the Bread of Life, and part of that story involves an understanding of manna. Many of our kids would not remember the story of manna or may have never heard it before. This video preceded the Bible story and served to prep them for the strange term they would soon hear. We shot this with a Canon 60D on a green screen. I keyed out the green using Keylight in Adobe After Effects. The keyed video was exported as a .mov (with the alpha channel preserved) It was edited in Adobe Premiere. The background graphic came from a collection I purchased from Video Copilot called Riot Gear. I used Magic Bullet Looks from Red Giant Software to color correct the entire video. I thought it helped tie the composite together, and a levels effect to background. I also added a shadow just to sell the composite more.