Design Consistency

Having been to a few bigger tech savvy churches, I'm always amazed when I see a lack of consistency at them. I guess that my thoughts on this have been influenced by a conference I went to WAY back in 2000 called "An Hour on Sunday". The whole point that was made at this thing is that we've only got access to the people that show up on Sunday for an hour, maybe hour & fifteen minutes. The other 167 hours of the week will be spent someplace else with other influences.

It's almost like the old Windows campaign "Where do you want to go today?" Knowing what's above, why would you want to have a Pastor who's spent 20+ hours crafting a sermon from the depths of God's Word be supported by tech & design staff or volunteers that don't want to take everyone to the exact same place the Pastor does? We've got limited time, space, and resources - we should be good stewards of all of them.

Anyway, what sparked that diatribe was this article from Midnight Oil Productions about how to create unified design themes. While it is not from the same perspective I gave above, it does give a good framework to get it done.

I hope that in your church you've got the opportunity as a designer to have a balance of creativity, but are still accountable to the vision and leading of the teaching pastors of your church.

Around the Horn - I Skipped a Few Posts Edition

Blogging is a skill that I hope yet to master. Here's the best of links from the previous week -

Recruiting volunteers for tech in church can seem like stuffing a camel through the eye of a needle, but here's some valuable tips from Worship Way blog.

Here's a another blog for aspiring church graphic artists - Adori Graphics

Finally, from Church Relevance, is a a list of the top 100 Church Blogs. Great design inspiration!

Around the Horn - Back from Vacation Edition

I just got back from my vacation in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It's a wonderful place to reconnect with creation. I was prepared wonderfully to go back to my day job. Thank God!

Here's the best of what was published while I was away...

Excellent list of awesome & inspiring church marketing designs from our friends at Inspiks

Does your church have an online streaming plan? It should. We'll need it when we've all been killed by the swine flu.

Here's a wonderful article that taught me that 'Twitter Strategy' is not an oxymoron.

Around the Horn - I'm on Vacation....NOW Edition

Well, I'm off to vacation in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan. But, I figure I'd better clear my back log of stuff to post, so here it is...

Here's a nifty little piece of tech that scares the crap out of me.

An excellent look at creative process at North Point Community Church. Thanks to churchmarketingsucks.com for finding the link!

And finally, the most dangerous of all questions is asked - Why? A great question for any church when it comes to process, programs, worship space, tech, etc. Come to think of it, a great question for any believer!

I hope you and yours have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend!

Tech is Changing You - but keep reading this blog!

Here's a fascinating article on how technology changes us all. It goes beyond the traditional "are you addicted to tech?" question and adds a theological twist. From the article -

But ultimately the use of technology is not neutral in that it transforms the user in some way. John gave the example of working with a shovel (a primitive technological tool). The shovel can be put to good use (church planting, building a home, etc.) and it can be put to bad use (killing someone, burying the body, etc.). But in either case it transforms the user in the form of blisters/calluses on the hand. The same is true of technology, whether you use it for good or bad, it still transforms you in some way when you use it.

Very astute. Good food for thought for all of us.

Around the Horn - Spiritual/Assymetric Warfare Edition

Looking through the Christian tech news that fit to pixelate, there seems to be a noticeable trend of the bad guys using technology against Christians - which is the EXACT opposite of what this blog is supposed to do!

A group called 4chan broke into an unnamed Christian dating service

That was the beachhead to assault Christian Facebook accounts

The good guys do still win sometimes, though. A church in England caught lead thieves by using nano-technology. (Think Borg nanites, but less exciting).

Big Church/Small Church

Most churches with a tech ministry tend to be on the bigger side, but not always. I've always gone to 'big churches', and heard from people both on the outside and the inside of the 'big church' that "We're making shallow disciples" or "Sure more people go to that church, but what do they REALLY know about God?"

Well, Barna Group just did a church survey comparing beliefs of small church folks with big church folks. The results? Fascinating.

Here's a link to the survey results. Most interesting to me are the responses to questions about Biblical accuracy, the nature of evil, and if Jesus sinned or not. On Biblical accuracy, 75% followers from churches over 1000 members said the Bible is completely accurate. Small churches? 60-63%. 51% of followers in big churchers say Satan is real, as opposed to 30% of small churchers. And most telling of all 74% of big churchers say Jesus never sinned, as opposed to 49% of small churchers.

In a word, I feel 'vindication'. Why do you think this survey got the results it did? Is the movement of the Spirit in our churches just that counter-intuitive?

Ring of Power

For those of you that have seen Lord of the Rings (or I guess read the book), do you remember the exchange between Gandalf and Frodo when Frodo tried to give Gandalf the ring? Gandalf, with a look of fear, told Frodo that if he took the ring it would be from a desire to do good, but the Ring would wield through him a terrible evil.

Many times I think a lot of Christians look at technology the same way. Sometimes correctly many times not. The National House of Prayer blog out of Canada has a great post on this as it relates to the printing press as technology. While yes, tech can lead to great evil it can also be used for great good. Much the same way the Bible tells us the same mouth can be used for cursing as is used for praising God (James 3:10). Is tech an extension of our mouth, out of which the overflow of the heart we speak? (Mt. 12:34).

I think it is.

Awesome Wordpress Theme for Churches/Ministries

Stumbled across this great Wordpress theme for churches and ministries. Now, as a freelance web designer, I can tell you there are some who are getting a little jittery over the whole Wordpress as web creation & content management solution.

My opinion? It's here to stay. And, it's the best solution possible for some small low-budget organizations. But for others, it's not right because no Wordpress theme is ever going to be customizable enough to be completely unique to an organization.

So, if you need to stand out from the Wordpress crowd, remember designers like me are always just a phone call or mouse click away. Have a blessed day!

Christian Technology - Around the Horn 8/21/09

All the news that's fit to print for Christian technology enthusiasts...

Ross Video has just gotten a new series of video switches to market. See the press release here
See the company website at rossvideo.com

Kind of blurring the line between tech and finance, here's two interesting stories of churches using tech to generate or save money -

Cell Phone Tower at Church (at least you know your iPhone will actually get a signal, right?!)

Geothermal Power - and despite what you remember being taught in school, no you don't have to live on the side of a volcano for this to work.

More Great Stuff for Church Designers

Over at Inspiks there's a great listing of resources for church/Christian design people. Here's their list of the Best of The Web for Christian Resources.

And here's a nice follow up on the Mars Hill iPhone App. The Washington Post's take on it is almost as insightful as Mars Hill's response.

Christian Technology - Around the Horn 8/18/09

Just a quick round up of comings and goings some interesting things about church technology

A great scriptural basis for excellence in Christian web design...that I think can be extended to worship graphics in general - Evangelical Outpost

Zondervan will be going digital, at least part way, with an interesting hybrid approach that blends their brick & mortar stores with an Amazon-like online digital content management system - Rapid Growth Media

Mars Hill has been assimilated - they've launched their first iPhone app - Mars Hill Blog

What news do you see happening?!

Copyright Legal Photos for Use in Design

One of the big battles that all (most?) church graphic designers deal with is how to come up with great photos/pictures to use with their designs and not violate copyright law. Especially on a limited budget and with limited resources.

A great resource to do this is compfight, which searches the flickr photo album for Creative Commons licensed photos. This site can be used to rapidly (and freely) build up a library of ready to use photos for use in print and video designs. It's helped me out a few times, and the interface is easy to use.

First Post

For over 10 years, I have been a volunteer of one sort or another for tech ministries in church. I have a fascination with graphic design and how the church uses modern technology to share its message with the modern world (ground rule # 1 - Christians use the term 'post modern' too much, I won't be using it in this blog). This blog is a reflection of those passions. I hope to be able to give insight into how technology impacts the church, how the church can use technology, and to be a resource for other graphic designers in the greater Christian community.