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

Happy Thanksgiving!

As our way of saying Happy Thanksgiving, enjoy the full version of our Thanksgiving Fanatic video:

This Just In...

We've been hard at work on seasonal content these last few weeks. Busy producing four videos simultaneously. Our first of the four is posted on our site now. It's called Thanksgiving Fanatic and it's a funny little mocumentary about a guy who's absolutely crazy about Thanksgiving. We'll be posting a version to YouTube soon, but until then you can Click Here to check it out on our site.

The guy playing the fanatic is a fabulous actor by the name of Ryan Wickerham. Google him, he's done some great work. He's largely responsible for bringing the funny to this short and he also brought in all the other great actors you see in it. It was so exciting to work with such great talent and I'm looking forward to future productions with this cast and crew.

Look for two brand new Christmas illustrations and a brand new New Years illustration very soon.

Happy Birthday America

I know the 4th is still a few days away, but I wanted to send out this birthday greeting. What a blessing to live in a country where we are free to worship God and to follow after Christ. It's my prayer that we would take advantage of that freedom and allow God to work in and through us to reach people with His life changing message of true freedom. The freedom found only in putting your life fully and completely in the hands of Christ.

We have some great 4th of July resources on our Seasonal Tab. Jump over there and check them out. We made a 4th friendly version of our very popular For Freedom video and we've also got a couple of great countdowns for your 4th of July festivities. Click here to peruse our 4th collection. We hope you find something you can use.

I'm going out of town next week, so keep an eye out for some brilliant blog posts from my partner Lee. I'm retreating to the mountains of New Mexico and will be without an internet connection. Although I'll be spending time with family, I also hope to find time to connect more deeply with God in His beautiful creation.

Happy 4th and God Bless!

Best Wishes for Memorial Day

We wanted to wish everyone a happy Memorial Day. We hope you enjoy the day with family and friends. And don't forget to take some time out to reflect on and remember those who have given their lives so that we can have the freedom to enjoy days like this. Thank you to all the soldiers past and present who have served and are serving.

And thank you to everyone out there who helped make our Memorial Day video, For Freedom, our best selling video ever. We are so humbled and honored that our simple tribute video resonated with so many people out there. To think that we were a part of so many of your Memorial Day services all over the country just blows us away. We thank you and we thank God for his inspiration, for his blessings, and for the freedom he has afforded us all in Christ.

For Freedom and Other News

We're really excited that our brand new Memorial Day video, For Freedom has been received so enthusiastically. We're setting daily sales records with it on our site and it's also selling really well with other distributors. It's always really gratifying to make something that so many people can use. It's humbling to think about and we're really grateful that God is blessing the video in this way. You can check it out by clicking here.

I'm also really excited about the reponses we've received on last Friday's post, Been Caught Stealing. Check out the comments we've gotten and jump into the fray with your own. I'm thinking we need to talk some more about what actually constitutes a parody. So, that will be food for a new post some time soon.

In other news, it's been a busy week here in eleven72 country and that's kept me off the blog. It's mostly personal stuff, but I'll let you in on some of the what's goings ons...

I wrecked my car a couple of weeks ago (no serious injuries but the car was totalled) and so I'd spent the last 10 days or so hunting for a replacement. Yesterday, after much research and agonizing, I became the proud owner of a 2003 Ford F-150. There was much rejoicing as I can now get back to work and eleven72 now has a work truck to haul around production equipment, props and what not.

And earlier today, I helped Lee and his family move into a new place. So, their family is in transition to a new house today. And this should be the start of a great new chapter in their families history. So that's exciting.

Talk to you later.

Last Call for Mother's Day Media

There's still time to sign up and get our free Mother's Day Media pack. Click here to go to the homepage and sign up. Once you've signed up, you will be emailed a link to download the free Mother's Day media. If you'd like to see what you'll get, click here to see our FREE MEDIA page.

We've also got a great Mother's Day Sermon Illustration and Countdown available on the Seasonal Tab of our website. For Mom: A Breakfast Story is our best selling video ever, so we must have done something right with that one. Here's a comment we received about For Mom:

Well done! Way to give Moms a good laugh and recall good memories at the same time.
Michael Yaeger
Temple Baptist Church

We've also got a great Mother's Day Countdown where real women share their answers to the question: What's the worst Mother's Day gift you could get? Hint: Don't buy her a Dieting Cookbook!

Here's wishing you all a very Happy Mother's Day.

New Mother's Day Page and New April Freebies

We've got a whole lot of Mother's Day content up on the Seasonal Tab (click here to see it now). The Sermon Illustrations and the Countdown are some of our best selling videos ever, so we're really excited to have them all available this year at eleven72.com. And don't miss the new Worship Backgrounds and Still Backgrounds (most of them free - read below for details).

In the why did we make it category- We'd like to think For Mom: A Breakfast Story is a great video for setting up Mother's Day. Show the video, let everyone get a kick out of it, and then get up there and welcome everyone to the service and wish all the moms a Happy Mother's Day (this would be a good way to lead into a special portion of your service that honors the moms). Or use it to lead into your sermon and when you come out of it, say something like, "any one have a morning like that?" or "can anyone relate?" Whether you use it to kick off your service, lead into your announcements or get your sermon started, we made it to be a realistic, yet funny/heartwarming way to introduce Mother's Day.

For the Worst Mother's Day Gift Ideas and Mother's Day Countdown videos, we actually surveyed all the real moms and mom's to be we could and came up with this video based on the real answers they gave us. We thought, who better to let us know what moms don't want! The answers are a whole lot of fun. Use this as a stand alone video to give your congregation a laugh and lead into your sermon or announcements and/or use the countdown as a funny way to get your service started by pointing out what not to get mom for Mother's Day.

FREE ALERT :) Don't miss the new free stuff. We're giving away 10 (yes 10, they're somewhat similar, but still 10 freebies, that's good stuff, right?) Mother's Day themed Still Backgrounds and two new Worship Backgrounds. Lee did a great job on these backgrounds and I can't wait for you to check them out. I just can't get enough of the slomo rose petals - they're totally mesmerizing - and the loopable Gerber Daisy Background is just really clean and awesome looking. See it for yourself by clicking here. The freebies are available to email subscribers. If you're not yet a subscriber, click here to sign up on our homepage and we'll email you a link to download the new content. If you are a subscriber, stand by, and you'll get the link in our newsletter that goes out on Wednesday.

Signing off...

Important Dates and Resources for May

I wanted post an update on what's happening around eleven72. First, we're hard at work getting our April round of free still backgrounds and free worship backgrounds ready to post and send out with our next newsletter. Look for that newsletter early next week. If you're not in the know, we give away free stills, backgrounds and other stuff every month to our email subscribers. To sign up, go to our homepage and you'll find the information in the lower right hand part of the page. If you sign up now, you can still get last months free stuff and then the new stuff when the newsletter goes out next week.

The National Day of Prayer is coming up May 3rd. If you've got plans to do a Prayer focused service the weekend before (April 28th-29th), we've got some resources that would work great for you.

Check out our Prayer Volume 1, a bundle of prayer related media pieces that include two Sermon Illustrations, a Countdown, five Still Backgrounds and two moving Worship Backgrounds. This has been a very popular volume for us, in particular, people have really responded well to the Prayer Illustration, which features thoughtful and inspirational quotes on Prayer, as well as original photography by esteemed photographer Joel Salcido. You can get a great deal by purchasing the entire volume, or you can order ala carte and get whatever you need.

Next up, in May, Mother's Day falls on May 13th. We're currently working on some new Mother's Day resources which I'll post about in the next few days. In the mean time, check out our wildly popular Sermon Illustration, For Mom: A Breakfast Story, which is a really honest, funny and heart warming look at some kids who are trying to make Mom's day extra special. While you're looking, don't miss our even more popular Mother's Day Countdown, which is based on an actual survey we took asking Moms the question, what's the worst Mother's Day gift you have either received or can think of (hint: getting her a scale is a really bad idea). The answers we got are hilarious. These two videos have been the most popular seasonal videos we've ever produced. Check them out.

Finally up in May is Memorial Day on May 28th. For those of you having Memorial Day services on May 27th, we're working on a brand new Sermon Illustration just for you. It's going to be a powerful piece that highlights the history of Memorial Day and ties that rich history into our remembering those who have fallen today. I'll be sure to post about that video when it's finished and available. Another great video we have that would work well on Memorial Day is Let Freedom Ring, a thoughtful collection of quotes and scripture that highlights the God centered values and principles our nation was founded on Let Freedom Ring is available as an Illustration and as a Countdown.

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.

Happy Valentine's Day from eleven72

We don't really have any Valentinesy videos here, but we wanted to send a little love your way. Change is Possible (available on our site here) is one of our favorite Sermon Illustrations. Here's wishing you something fun(ny) this Valentine's Day: