I recently wrote what I thought was a silly, light-hearted post about a Tumblr that collects bad church announcement videos. It was meant to be a funny post, but the intent certainly wasn’t to mock the individuals or churches involved.
It seems that I made a misstep. Here’s an expert from a comment ChurchMag received on a Facebook sharing of the post:
Are we trying to mock or insult our fellow brothers/sisters? How is highlighting their work in a negative light, with no suggestions for improvement, kind? There has to be a way to do this with love.
Ouch. This Facebook commenter brings up some great points that I honestly hadn’t thought of when I wrote the first post. I’d like to take a minute now to thoughtfully and carefully respond.
Making Fun of Family
I have three brothers whom I grew up joking with. Sometimes, our joking and teasing went too far. We never intended to hurt each other’s feelings—well, not usually—but that would happen from time to time. With this post, I never meant to hurt anyone’s feelings, and to my knowledge, I haven’t.* I don’t think there is anything wrong with gentle teasing or razzing. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think that many in the Church are far too sensitive about things like this.
At the same time, we who found these videos funny out to admit that part of what makes these videos funny is their lack of context. All of these videos were tailor-made for a specific congregation. The humor fits the body. However, that fact should lead us to ask the question, “If your announcement video is a big ‘inside joke,’ then why share it?”
And with that question, here are some long overdue suggestions for improvement.
Making Better Videos
I’m no video expert. Just being honest, but I do think I’ve got three basic tips that might make it harder to find bad announcement videos.
1. Keep the context in mind.
I mentioned above that what makes all of these videos funny, even the not-so-bad ones, is their lack of context. A few years ago, my church tried to do a simulcast with another church. It wasn’t terrible, but at the same time, one or two inside jokes didn’t land in the other church because they had no context for them. My suggestion, then, is to either make videos that work in and out of the context of the Sunday morning announcement time or make two versions: one for in-service use, rife with inside jokes, and one for the church website/social media that can be safely viewed out of context.
2. The shorter the better.
I have always thought that the point of video announcements was to save time in service, and yet some of these videos are very long, upwards of three minutes. Now, you may not think that a three minute video is long, but try sitting through more than three minutes of low to mid-quality video in a large room full of people. It begins to feel awkward very quickly. Announcements are supposed to be brief; if you want to do a lot of content that you’d like to put in a video, then I’d recommend that your church set up a YouTube channel and produce a weekly show.
3. Simplicity is a virtue.
Some of these videos Thriller seem way more complicated than they should have been. I’m all for doing stuff to get a good laugh, but I think that some videos take it too far. Give the announcements and move on. If you want to generate some laughter or lighten the mood, then do that. We made this video at my church as part of our opening for Easter service. (It’s missing a lot of context, but one crucial element is that after the video, Chris, our youth pastor, walked out onto stage wearing his “party pants” and proceeded to give our formal opener.)
[via YouTube]
And that video isn’t great. The camera work sucks—they call me “Shakes”—and the acting isn’t very good either. Then again, I don’t think anyone wants their pastor to be all that good at faking it. Go ahead and mock it. I’m cool with it. Why? Because it’s just a silly video. It’s only purpose was to be silly. Announcement videos have a job to do, and yet I don’t know how well these videos are doing that job.
If you were involved in making one of these videos, I’d to officially extend an apology to you for any hurt feelings. I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad; I was merely having a laugh at some videos. At the same time, I’d like to know what you think of my suggestions?
Have you ever tried to tease someone only to end up hurting their feelings?
*I can’t speak for whoever set up the Tumblr. It wasn’t me.
MillennialMinister says
If I created a video that was embarrassing, I hope someone would have the courage to tell me it was bad. If I preached a sermon that was sloppy, I hope someone would tell me to work on it.
If my church put on a amateur program that that turned outsiders away, I want to hear about it!
As Christians we MUST evaluate what we produce. The mission is too important. The cost is too high if we screw up. I’m not saying that we need million-dollar budgets and the best gear. I’m saying we need to know the message that we are communicating. Does a “Thriller” announcement video suggest that we care for people’s time (and monetary investment into our ministry)? Does a talking car trunk encourage us to engage or dismiss the announcement that they are sharing? Does a minute of outtakes distract from the goal of our service–the worship of God and teaching of his word?
I love those guys and gals that put effort into those videos, but unless they’re speaking to a culture that I am unaware of–they’re terrible. They can do better, and unless someone tells them that, they won’t.
Phil Schneider says
Thanks for the comment! I can tell that you take this stuff pretty seriously, and while I appreciate your defense of my initial criticism, I don’t think bad/awkward video announcements are enough to derail the mission. If anything, they simply make us look hockey and lacking excellence, and frankly, there’s enough excellence lacking in other areas of the Church that is probably ends up being white noise.
Jared M says
I think the big point here is the context. We do a lot of stuff in our church that, if viewed from the outside, would be terrible, but it fits perfectly in the culture of our church. And if any videos of those things leak, I don’t mind you posting them for others to laugh at.
Thanks for being willing to admit that a misstep might have been made.
Phil Schneider says
I totally agree, Jared. Context makes it work. (or not). Thanks for the comment!
Eric Dye says
You’re stellar, Phil.
The end.
😉
Phil Schneider says
That’s the word on the street, anyway.
Bob Miller says
I think there’s a misconception out there that we Christians need to be ridiculously gentle with each other, to the extent of not pointing out poor quality work. In doing work for the Kingdom, we all have to rise above ourselves and pursue excellence that’s beyond what we produce at our paying jobs (for those not in paid ministry) and always beyond what we’re currently capable of. We should _seek_ out criticism and willingly consider it and apply it to what we do. Those church videos are wonderful resources of what not to do – and thereby producing better quality work if we approach it that way.
Even though announcements are not going to advance the Kingdom or spread the Word, they are part of how we are seen by others – in and outside of Christ. And if we produce low-quality, non-excellence-seeking materials, and say it’s for our church family or the Kingdom, then we are declaring that “this is what my family and God deserve from me.” Ouch.
Who wouldn’t want to improve for the love of their family or the love of the God who made everything that exists? We all should. And that means we should be able to handle a little bit of well-intentioned criticism or playful humor.
Phil Schneider says
Excellence makes for a good point, but I think I’m pulling back as I think about it more.
Context is huge. Family videos aren’t very engaging outside the family. I think some of that applies.
If a guest has come to your church, chances are that they’re seeing some of the context. A cheesy video, relatively speaking, isn’t going to make or break it. (Although, some of those videos were like ten minutes long!!!)
Of course, if you were using these videos to promote your church on the outside, that might be a bigger deal.
tate says
Hi Phil,
Thanks for your input in this area. I think too many people think that because we are believers, we are allowed to get away with low quality work because half the time we are working with volunteers and low budgets. But I think even with limited resources people can put a little more thought into the work they are producing especially if it is meant to be shown to the public. At our church I’m one of those responsible for video work and I’m not nearly as good as I wish I could be but we make do with what we have and make the conscious decision to not do certain things until we are at a level where we can produce something of a decent quality. Our announcements videos are short and at the moment mostly text and image based because we are still learning. The rest of our videos are hidden from the public because of context although some make it onto our Vimeo channel.
Phil Schneider says
Very astute comments, Tate. It’s a very good point that if we don’t want our work to be critiqued then we ought not release it publicly. Personally, you’re statement about saying “no” to things you can’t do (yet) is worth its weight gold. There’s nothing wrong with stretching for new heights but equally as important is knowing your limits.
Thanks for the comments!