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

Finally... The Blog is Back Up

Hey all. You'll notice the site at www.eleven72.com is all new. We finally have the new site up and running. It's awesome. We're really pleased with it. But up until today I wasn't able to blog because we were having a lot of trouble integrating the blog into the new site and somewhere in the process of moving it, I lost the ability to update it. But that's all fixed now. For the time being, it's embedded here in this eleven72 page, which means you have to scroll in this window within a window, which isn't the best set up, but at least it's back up.

Thanks to all of you who helped make Christmas and New Years great seasons for eleven72. Our Christmas video, Breath of Heaven was a top 5 video at all the various distributors sites and our New Years video is currently the number one video on Sermon Spice and Worship House. We feel so blessed. Thank God and thank you :).

We're looking forward to an amazing, exciting, surprising, fabulous 2008.

Storme out.

Atemzug des Himmels

That's Breath of Heaven (or Breath of the sky) in German. We had some guys in Germany contact us. They want to use Breath of Heaven at their church for Christmas so they translated the text for us into German and we made a German language version. Pretty cool stuff. So, Breath of Heaven is one of the best selling Christmas videos in the world (currently number 4 of Sermon Spice and number 3 on Worship House) and now it's being translated into other languages. God is good. If you know anyone who could use a German language version of Breath of Heaven, let us know :)!

December is flying by so quickly... A lot of good things are happening for eleven72. Our Breath of Heaven video is currently the number 2 video on Worship House and the number 3 video on Sermon Spice, which is awesome. Our Peace on Earth, Just Ask, All Too Familiar and Christmas Presence videos are also selling well.

With Christmas almost here, I also wanted to point you to some of our New Years content that we're excited about. We've got a lot of fun videos for New Years. Change is Possible is popular year round but great for New Years. Resolve is our most popular New Years video to date. And we have really high hopes for our latest New Years video, This Year. All of the videos can be viewed and downloaded on our site (click here). Check out This Year on YouTube and please feel free to leave comments, rate it, favorite it, love it:

Interview With The Devil

We just finished another Christmas Video. Many thanks to our two fine actors Peter Malof and Caitlin Wehrle. When Peter's not playing the devil, he's got a recurring role as Principal Brecker on NBC's Friday Night Lights. Check out our new 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!

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.

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.

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.

New Years Videos (Ready to Serve!)






New Years is all about second, third, fourth or five hundredth chances. The beginning of the new year provides a great space for people to reflect on their lives and on the people they are and want to be. It is a time of Hope, Resolve and Change. Is it just a coincidence that we've got some brand new Countdowns and Sermon Illustration videos that are perfectly suited to those new year themes?

Check out the funny sermon illustration videos Change IS Possible and Resolve. And don't miss the incredible time-lapse photography and inspirational scripture that is New Year's Hope (Available as a Sermon Illustration or Countdown) on the New Years Tab.

Let us know what you think :).

New Worship Backgrounds on the Seasonal Tab:





We've added four new Christmas Backgrounds to the Seasonal Tab. These are great, Christmas themed, loop-able backgrounds that you can use in your upcoming worship services.

Christmas Time's a Comin' (And our Christmas Content is here!)

My wife has an old Emmylou Harris Christmas album that she dusts off every year about this time. The first track on the album is Christmas Time's a Comin'. Now I think Emmylou Harris is great, but that album get's played over and over around here. And there's only so many times you want to hear about how Christmas time's a comin', you know? My wife's musical inclinations aside, we're really excited about Christmas around here.

I'd like to welcome our first time readers who found out about the blog through the newsletter we sent out late last night. If you don't yet subscribe to our email list, you can sign up on our home page (new subscribers get a free video!). Our newsletter helps us keep you up to date on what's going on at eleven72 and we also offer specials and discounts periodically to subscribers. If you got the newsletter, then this post is old news, but please scroll down and check out some of the other blog posts.

Here we are at the third paragraph. It would appear I've gone and buried the lead. Well, here it is anyway: I know a lot of you will be starting to work out the finer details of your Christmas services this week or next week or the week before :). I want to encourage you to check out our Seasonal Tab. We're really excited about our content this year. I've copied in the ad from our home page below. The ad features one of the great new Nativity still backgrounds we have available. There are 5 Sermon Illustrations on the tab, a series of Advent loops, and some great Still Backgrounds as well. Click here and you can head over to the Seasonal Tab and browse around. We hope you find something you can use this season.

Happy Thanksgiving !

eleven72 would like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. We know time with family can sometimes be crazy, but we hope your Turkey Day is filled with fun, relaxation and good food.

For all you procrastinators, we still have some great Thanksgiving videos available for download on our Seasonal tab. Depending on your message, Giving Thanks, Pray With Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving to the Lord might make great visual additions to your weekend services. And you can kick off those services with our Thanksgiving Trivia Countdown or our Thanksgiving to the Lord Countdown. We've also got a Thanksgiving Volume that includes a sermon illustration, a countdown and three themed still backgrounds all in a convenient downloadable bundle. You can check out all the above mentioned videos at http://www.eleven72.com/media/seasonal.html.

And don't forget (click here to read all about it), our Seasonal tab will have all new Christmas videos on it this coming Tuesday, November 28th. We'll have four Christmas themed Sermon Illustrations, A series of Advent videos, and some great Nativity themed Still Backgrounds available Tuesday, so come back and check those out next week.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Christmas Content: Coming Very Soon!

We are extremely excited to bring you brand new Christmas content! All of our Christmas media will be available for download from our Seasonal tab this Tuesday, November 28th. Here's a break down of what you'll find on the Seasonal tab Tuesday:

Just Ask

We've all been given the opportunity, but how often do we actually step out of our comfort zone to invite a friend, colleague, or classmate to our church's Christmas service? Watch as one man imagines some crazy responses when he asks his co-worker to a Christmas Eve service. Great video for a pre-Christmas service.

Advent Intros and Stills

Each short Advent video and still is designed to be used during the lighting of the wreath and scripture reading portions of your Advent service. Use the short video as an introduction/transition in your service. Then simply put the text of your choice on the matching still for each video and place that still at the end of the video introduction. For example you might put up text on the December 3rd still that says, “A Season of Hope, Luke 21:25-36.” Then place the still ad the end of the Advent 1 Intro Video and transition directly to it from the video. It will match seamlessly and it will be a great visual addition to your Advent service.

Peace on Earth

Finding peace on earth while enduring the hardships of life can be a very difficult task. Several individuals share their story of surviving life. Is there peace on this earth? Find peace this Christmas in Christ.




The Nativity: All Too Familiar?

A man sent to fetch a Nativity from his Mother's attic wonders whether we've become so familiar with the Christmas story that we've forgotten what it really means. Who is this baby lying in the hay? And what makes his Nativity so important?



Nativity Stills(Click Here and Scroll Down Seasonal Page to see them)

This series of stills will feature gorgeous shots of a beautifully crafted wooden nativity set. Add a creative touch to your message with these wonderful still backgrounds. Perfect for your Christmas worship, sermon or scripture slides.