New Easter Video In the House

We just finished and posted our latest Easter video, "The Cross: A Curse For Us?" We also posted some new Cross Stills that make great backgrounds for songs, Scripture slides and other text. Check out the video and let us know what you think:

New Easter Video Coming Soon...

We're working on an Easter video that I'm really excited about. It's a poem, read by this really great slam poet spoken word dude, set to some fantastic piano music, and backed up by high end HD footage of a cross. Did you get all that? Anyway, I know we're a little late to the Easter party with this one, but I'm really pleased with it nonetheless. Here's a still I took while shooting footage for the video (keep an eye out for some of these stills going up on the website):

Three Reasons Church Videos Help to Deliver a Powerful Easter Message

Easter is a big deal. Palm Sunday. Good Friday. Resurrection Sunday. These are seismic events in God's redemptive storyline. Add to that the fact that tons of people who aren't regularly in church are in church on Easter and you have a situation where, as a pastor or worship leader, you feel a great deal of pressure to deliver great services that powerfully reflect the Gospel of Christ. So what do you do?

Using video in your Easter services certainly won't solve all your problems, but church videos are what I know, and so I would like to give you a few reasons why I think using video can help to alleviate some of the pressure you feel to deliver powerfully at Easter.

Video...

1. Meets people where they are. You've heard it before but it’s worth repeating: We live in a visual culture. Incorporating video and other forms of visual media into your service will put people at ease, so they can settle in and prepare to hear the message. For example, starting the service with a funny clip is a great way to put the congregation at ease.

2. Connects emotionally. Video operates on an emotional level and provides you with a great tool for getting the congregation emotionally prepared to hear your message. Using a Sermon Illustration video is an excellent way to set up your message. The video you choose can illustrate one of your points, demonstrate a situation where people need to hear your message or raise questions that you can then deal with in your message.

3. Gives people space to reflect. Using video is also a great way to guide the congregation into a time of reflection and also helps focus them on the things you want them to reflect on. Use it to start the service to prepare their hearts for what they will hear. Use it during a special time in the service such as Communion to guide them through what you would have them reflecting on. Use it at the end of your message to give them space to think about and respond to what they've heard.

In all these ways and more, video provides you with a powerful tool to help do the most important thing at Easter" connect people to the life-changing message of Christ.

For God So Loved...
We just put up a new Easter video. Check it out:
You can find it on our website HERE

Why Good Friday?

Two thousand years ago, on a day much like today, God, in the form of his son Jesus, was tried, tortured and crucified on a Roman cross. The God who created the heavens and the earth hung on a hill with common criminals. To pay the price for our sin. To bear our ultimate burden and to save us from death. What an incredible, unbelievably amazing act. But why do we call a day when such an injustice was paid to God by man Good Friday?

I found an explanation that I like on the United Methodist Church's website that I wanted to share:

The source of our term for the Friday before Easter, "Good Friday," is not clear. It may be a corruption of the English phrase "God's Friday," according to Professor Laurence Hull Stookey in Calendar: Christ's Time for the Church (p. 96). It is the common name for the day among English- and Dutch-speaking people. It is a day that proclaims God's purpose of loving and redeeming the world through the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It is a day that is good because God was drawing the world to God's self in Christ. As seen in John's gospel, particularly, God was in control. God was not making the best of a bad situation, but was working out God's intention for the world — winning salvation for all people. We call it "good" because we look backward at the crucifixion through the lens of Easter!

"Good Friday" is not a universal name for the day. The liturgical title for the day in the Western church was "Friday of Preparation," since the time Jews used the word paraskeue (getting ready) for Friday, meaning the "day of preparation." Popular names for the day are "Holy Friday" among the Latin nations, "Great Friday" among the Slavic peoples, "Friday of Mourning" in Germany, "Long Friday" in Norway, and "Holy Friday" (Viernes Santo) among Hispanic peoples.

I'd like to wish everyone a Good Good Friday. As I write this, the Body of Christ all over the world begins to celebrate the most incredible act in human history. God's sacrifice, perfect blood shed, blood that makes us clean. Grace that none of us deserve, extended by the hand of the Creator of the universe. And through this act and our belief in Jesus Christ, we pass from death to life and become the adopted sons and daughters of the Most High. As we move from Good Friday to Easter, we rejoice as the apostle Paul says in Romans 5: 10-11:

10For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Happy Easter everyone. Our redeemer lives. And that is more than good!

Free Easter Worship Backgrounds and Stills

This is a message for all you last minute shoppers :). We're getting a lot of traffic this week from Google folks who are searching for free Easter resources. For those of you who don't know or haven't been here before, our free Easter resources are available by signing up for our email list on the homepage (Click Here to go to there now). And while you're here, please check out our other great Easter videos here in our Seasonal store.

Sign up for our email list and you will receive a link to download two Easter themed loopable worship backgrounds and two awesome Easter themed still backgrounds that would make great backgrounds for your Easter Power Point slides. The free Easter pack is really well done. I have to give props to my partner Lee for that. He's done a great job designing these. We have these media pieces available on other sites for sale this Easter season and they're selling really well. But you can get them for free here! You can check out the whole package by visiting our Free Media page. Then go back to the homepage and sign up!

Once you sign up, we'll send you links to free stuff like this every month. So we really hope you'll sign up.

Palm Sunday Resources

If you're looking for media to plug into your Palm Sunday service this weekend, we've got a Palm Sunday Countdown and a Palm Sunday Worship Background that would work great. Count down to the service and then use our background for worship to continue the Palm Sunday theme. You can find both these videos, along with a ton of other Easter resources on our Seasonal page.

And don't forget, if you sign up for our email list on the homepage, you'll be emailed a link to download our free Easter Resource Pack. You'll get our Crosses on Hill Background, Praising Man Background, Jesus on the Cross Still and Jesus on the Hill Still. You can't beat free Power Point Backgrounds and free loopable backgrounds. And they're for Easter! Check it all out on our Free Media page. We give away stuff like this every month. So sign up already :).

End of plug.

Easter. Then What?

We just finished and posted our newest Sermon Illustration and we're really excited about it! So, what's the story? A few weeks ago, Lee and I sat down with the Teaching Pastor (Ted Beasley/Gateway) at our home church to talk about Easter. The conversation eventually got around to how a lot of people, Christians and non alike, can feel stuck and even depressed around this time of year because they aren't sure how to apply the message of Easter to their everyday lives.

Our Easter video was born out of that conversation. Out of a desire to give voice to that feeling, to set pastors up to take the podium and teach on the Good News that what Jesus did for us isn't just for "fire insurance." His sacrifice was made so that we could have a relationship with God now, a relationship and a freedom in Christ that can be a very real part of our everyday lives.

Click here to check out the video. Then leave us a comment on this post and let us know what you think.

Bono, Bill Gates and The Art of Storytelling

While headline surfing this morning, I came across an interesting article in the online edition of the New York Times. Citizen Bono Brings Africa to Idle Rich details how Bono is guest editing the July issue of Vanity Fair. Here's my favorite quote from the article:

“We need to get better at storytelling,” Bono said, sitting in the 22nd floor of the office of Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair. “Bill Gates tells me this all the time. We’ve got to get better at telling the success stories of Africa in addition to the horror stories. And this magazine tells great stories.”

After digesting the surreal sound of "Bill Gates tells me this all the time," I thought about the need for better storytelling. I've mentioned it before, but I really believe that one of the big keys to breaching the walls and defenses that people have, to really reaching people at a heart level is good storytelling. But what is good storytelling? Bono makes another great point later in the article:

“We are trying to deal with the Sally Struthers thing,” he said... “When you see people humiliated by extreme poverty and wasting away with flies buzzing around their eyes, it is easy not to believe that they are the same as us.”

In this context, warning against what he calls "the Sally Struthers thing," good storytelling requires that we are careful not to give people an easy way out. Our stories need to do more than point out a need or guilt people into responding, they need to connect "us" to "them" in a way that makes everyone appear more the same than different.

Like Bill Gates says all the time :), we need to get better at storytelling. With Easter coming, let's use our God given imagination and talents to think of new, exciting and better ways to tell the most incredible story of all time!

Free Easter Worship Backgrounds and Stills

The March Free Media is here! Check out the add on the homepage. You'll notice the ad is now clickable. Click on it and you'll be taken to our new FREE MEDIA page, where you can preview the free downloads each month.

My hat's off to Lee this time. He has really created two awesome backgrounds and stills that are highly usable for Easter. And we're giving them away! We're so pumped about Easter and it makes our hearts glad that we can participate in your services by offering you this media. It's our gift to you because God has given us so much.

We also have other Easter content available on our Seasonal page. Check out Jesus Is and I Will Remember. We've got a Palm Sunday themed background and countdown, as well as some great Sunrise stuff (Sunrise Countdown w/Scripture, Sunrise Countdown and Sunrise Worship Background). Check out the Seasonal page to see them all!

We would really love to hear from any and all of you. Please let us know what you think of our stuff and how you're using it. We want to help share your stories with others and learn from you how to better serve God's church with our gifts.

God Bless,
Storme

Easter Freebies Coming Soon!

Be sure to check your inboxes tomorrow. Our latest newletter is going out complete with a link to the latest free stuff. Among the freebies will be two new worship backgrounds that will work great for Easter. Here's a sneak peak frame grab of one of the motion backgrounds:

If you don't yet subscribe to our list, get thee to the homepage and sign up. If you hurry, you can still get the free stuff from February and then, when the link goes out tomorrow, the free stuff for March. What are you waiting for :).

Click Image Above To Watch our Easter Worship Video, I Will Remember

We Remember

With Easter approaching, I've been thinking about our video, I Will Remember. The video is a simple illustration of a song that means a lot to us here at eleven72. It's a song written by the Music Director of our church, JJ Plasencio. JJ recorded it on an album of praise songs that he wrote for our church (you can get the CD at gatewaychurch.com). The album was recorded with and by Gateway's volunteer praise and worship band members. The singer on this track is a guy named Scott Leger who is the singer for what I think is the greatest unsigned band I've ever heard, WideAwake (you should check them out).

When our church first started out, we were meeting in movie theaters and hotel banquet rooms, loading in and out before and after the services, completely portable. At one point, we were moving around so often that our pastor joked, "if you can find us, you can go here."

Each week, as our little body grew and as more and more seekers became true believers, we would sing this song that JJ had written. We will remember your name! We will remember your grace. We were seeing Him do mighty things among us. Redeemer. Prince of Peace. The Lamb Who has Died in my Place. Lyrics from this wonderful song.

The video for I Will Remember was really a labor of love for Lee (see our about page to learn more about Lee). He put his heart and his considerable talent to work illustrating this beautiful praise song. And I think the love he put into it shows through in the work.

Over time, I Will Remember has become one of our most popular videos, especially at this time of year. It's a great piece to use as you give the congregation time to reflect on who Jesus Is and what He has done for us. It's a great video to use to end a sermon with. Build up your sermon about Jesus' life, death, resurrection and sacrifice and then let this video make a powerful ending statement that moves people closer to Christ. We've also heard that the video is really useful during the celebration of Communion as the congregation reflects on the body and the blood of Christ.

However you use it, know that it means a lot to us and we pray that it might mean something to you and your congregation as well.

Easter? Already?

Well, Easter is coming up on us, but there's still plenty of time. Whew! Yes, April 8th is Easter so we're just under 2 months away. I'm sure you're feverishly planning for that season with Lent, Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Lots coming up. What a great time of year for the Church! We get to celebrate the greatest story in history and invite the world to celebrate with us!

So to get you started, we've added a few illustrations, backgrounds and countdowns to our seasonal section of our site. Check out the resources we have already as you begin to prepare for the upcoming season.




We'll have much more in the way of media for this season in the coming weeks, so make sure you check back frequently to the updates. Also, if you're an email subscriber, you'll be getting an email with Free Easter media in the next few weeks. If you're not already a subscriber, then sign up today and get the Free media package we're offering February. Really cool backgrounds and stills.

Happy Valentines Day!

Lee