With the advent of cheaper projection systems and the “digital age,” we have moved from hymnals to stage screens. Screens are more cost efficient and easier for everyone in the church body. Hymnals are hard to revise and as Christian worship music continues to increase in diversity and hit our culture at a much quicker pace, so we are able to be more dynamic. However, that doesn’t mean we should throw the kitchen sink at it.
The Kitchen Sink Mentality
With this brave new world at our fingertips, the Church has done a great job trying to implement technology in ways that are edifying. However, we have slowly worked ourselves into what I consider the “kitchen sink mentality”.
Most presentation software designed for the Church allows video backgrounds. This is a valuable tool that has become the digital wallpaper of our services. Just because you have the ability to do something doesn’t mean you should always do it. Video backgrounds lose their impact when they aren’t used on purpose.
The church I am at used video backgrounds for every song for years. I’d only been on staff for about six months when we went into a series called “Glory,” with the purpose of pointing everyone back to the glory of God devoid of our world’s distractions. I suggested, with a little bit of selling, that we do the entire six week series without any video backgrounds during worship. So for a month and a half with had just the lyrics of our songs on the screen; there were no swirling vortexes, swooping clouds, crashing waves, or space-scapes.
The Effects of No Video Backgrounds
By the end of the second week everyone on staff, as well as in our church body, started giving positive feedback about the change. People were less distracted. They felt more connected to the worship team, and the lighting tech had more freedom without the added color palette of the backgrounds.
As the series came to a close I advised the tech team to continue without backgrounds on the lyrics. We made our way through the Christmas season and it was the New Year before anyone inquired when we would start using backgrounds again. God intervened this time, because as that conversation was starting up our teaching team decided this year would be a year of Sabbath. Every series would be connected to the idea of Sabbath. It was settled, if we were to teach a year on rest, then we couldn’t possibly muddy up the Sundays with over-stimulation.
A Year Without Video Backgrounds
It has been a solid year since we stopped using video backgrounds in our Sunday worship, and to date, no one has ever had a complaint or a substantial argument to the change. In fact, the positive feedback has never stopped, even as new visitors hit our seats. In that time we have been able to outline how and when to use a video background should the occasion arise. We have also been able to start exploring new and inventive ways to use what we have at our disposal, because we aren’t saturating our worship with unintentional information.
Our method is simple: do it on purpose or don’t do it at all.
If the video background doesn’t build unto the point we are making or tell a story in a particular way, then we won’t do it. We are trying to be on purpose with everything we do from a technology standpoint.
I would suggest you and your team definitely take some time to pray through and openly discuss this idea. At the very least, you’ll come out knowing why you do what you do.
Be on purpose with what God has entrusted to you.
[Static image via B.S. Wise via Compfight cc]
Chad Ferris
I have been in the tech world for about 14 years. I owned my own consulting firm focused on small and medium sized business' IT needs. I currently work at Momentum Christian Church in McDonough Ga. as the Tech Pastor/Jack of all trades. I ended up here through countless hours of tech team volunteer work, and the gentle shove of God. I love my team, and I love my church. I just want to leverage it to be edifying and life giving, transitioning away from a consumeristic perspective to understanding it is here for Christ, not to compete with him.
At my church we use OpenSong (http://opensong.org/) and that doesn’t even do motion backgrounds! It’s pretty simple compared to many of the projection software packages out there, but it works, is amazingly easy to use and is FREE! 😉
I actually prefer non moving backgrounds anyway. I really find some of the ‘really fast and funky’ backgrounds amazingly distracting.
We just use a selection of classy static backgrounds (some nature/space, some design/light/bokeh type ones) that I’ve found. We also use left alignment rather than centering everything (usability wise left aligning is easier to read as your brain knows where to easily find the start of the next line).
I am downloading opensong now because I love finding out about cost effective ways to use technology in church. We still keep our songs centered but we tend to separate the lyrics out into mare slides so there are less words on the screen at any given time to maximize visibility. Kudos for knowing why you do what you do man.
Cool. Songs (and sets) in OS are in stored in xml files. In the program you can easily split things across screen by just putting — at the end of a line, that forces a new ‘screen’.
Sometimes, less really is more.
Yes.
We recently remodeled our platform and begun to culturally shift toward creativity in our worship services. We will sometimes use video backgrounds or still backgrounds for an entire service, and sometimes change them per song or per theme, depending on what effect we’re trying to achieve. I honestly would never have thought to include a background-free slide set until now. But I love the concept and it’s given me a lot to think about. Thanks!
That’s awesome Bob. I love hearing how others have implemented technology into their church. Also as an extra tip if you have a song with no background and point a few colored lights at the screen on very acute opposing angles you can create some very interesting looks that bleed from the backdrop to the screen.
This was really awesome, Chad. 😀
Thanks for this post. I appreciated you and your church’s thoughtful approach toward how you integrate graphics with your services.
One of my church’s staff members is a graphic and multimedia designer who creates a brand design to complement each sermon series. This involves carrying that brand through a few different outputs. First, the is one simple and tasteful static background for our worship song lyrics projected up front. He also creates a short 30-second video/animation intro using the brand to segue into the sermon. Lastly, during the sermon, there is a static graphic with the series title using the brand. It all works nicely to tie things together and give a cohesiveness to the service and series. More importantly, it doesn’t distract but helps everyone focus and identify with the message.