This weekend I got to be a part of an incredible church with an incredible ministry.  A local church (in Dallas) is quite literally in the inner city and helps people transform their lives away from addiction, poverty and crime into a life led by Christ. They were remodeling their worship space and wanted to have me in to add an Environmental Projection system, and all the physical work (electrical, mounting, cable pulls) were going to be done by the guys in the program.

I am totally speaking to myself on this one... I do a lot of live events and there are times when things are crazy and I'm stressed because I'm trying to get something technical working before doors open, and I still haven't programmed any visuals/lighting because I'm coming in blind for a one-off event and haven't even met the other people on the crew yet and we don't even have a set list.  WHEW!

Quick thought going into this week for all of you involved in planning your church's worship service... Make sure you are including your visual/media/lighting team in the planning process; they can add a lot of ideas and creativity!  If they aren't part of your staff day-to-day and work a full-time job elsewhere, grab coffee with them one evening after your meetings and let them start thinking and dreaming up ways to be visually creative in your space.

It's time for the ECHO Conference again!  As far as conferences go, this is the epitome of a gathering of visual worshipers, designers, and all-around awesome people doing media in Church.  Aside from the normal workshops, breakouts, keynotes, and worship; the guys and gals who put on ECHO build in so much free time and literal SPACE for people to simply hang out!

Fonts in worship lyrics can be an interesting topic to bring up.  When I mention changing the font to match the worship song, most people look at me like a deer in headlights.  They usually have to idea what to do with what I'm saying, and if they do, they are literally too skeptical to try it.

This is something I've always struggled with.  How do we use pictures of Jesus well, in visual worship?  This was actually a big conversation at my home church when I was doing visuals.

Color in worship lighting is one of the most over-looked and misunderstood visual worship elements.  I literally cringe when I see 17 different colors in a room during worship.  Just like each instrument has a part to play and has a specific tone, and just how every word of the song or prayer or sermon is chosen because it has a specific meaning, COLORS have their own meaning in worship, and we would be wise to be aware of what each one means.

Back when I first started doing Environmental Projection at my home church (before ProPresenter) we were using SundayPlus.  One of my favorite things about SundayPlus was that it let me change the color of my images right within the software!  It was awesome.

I borrowed this from Simon Sinek and he calls it the Golden Circle, but it applies directly to how I approach visual worship, Environmental Projection, and worship lighting.  I thought it was a great visual to share. When it comes to ‘doing’ visual worship, or anything related to it (EP, mini-movies, lighting, candles, drama…etc) it doesn’t start with HOW or even WHAT.  It starts with WHY.  So many times after a live worship night doing visuals and lighting; people will come up an...

Monday, February 21, I will be teaching a workshop at the Apple Store on ProPresenter!  If you’re in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and would like to learn more about Renewed Vision’s products, I encourage you to come! My friend Brian Certain / @certaintx (Creative Director of Digital Worship at First Methodist Mansfield) will be there to help with the session, and both of us will be available at the end to answer any questions and connect with y...

It’s time once again for the Planet Wisdom Student Conference!  This is easily one of my favorite annual events simply because of the people that I’m on the crew with.  It’s evolved over the years into a family and I am blessed to be able to serve with them.  I was responsible for the stage design and build, lighting design, and then lighting and screen operation during the conference. This year we wanted a large center screen to mimic what we did last year, but something mor...

A few days after getting back from Korea, I flew out to Boston, MA to help out friends of mine at a Seminars4Worship event.  Stephen Proctor couldn’t be there so he had me in to do Environmental Projection and teach classes on visual worship alongside my good friends Luke McElroy and Greg Moore.  Luke ran lyrics and videos and Greg rocked out lighting in the church’s worship space – all these guys have an authentic passion for what they do and it was ...

GREAT week in Atlanta!  We kicked off our first Visual Worshiper Experience at Hebron Baptist Church on Tuesday and ended the week talking and teaching at the WFX conference and expo.  It was a blessing and honor to get to share what Visual Worshiper does with Environmental Projection and lighting and share ideas and philosophies on visual worship.  I hope and pray that everyone who attended one of the classes was blessed, encouraged, and excited about the visual possibi...

I love running lighting and visuals for youth events.  There is something cool and encouraging about seeing students worship God unafraid of what others think.  Sometimes I wish more of us were like that… I did an event in Virginia a few weeks ago with B&L Sound and Lighting where we have about 500 students packed in a room right on the beach.  Serving with B&L is just fantastic.  They do 99% Christian events and have an amazing heart towards helping you com...

I just returned from Seoul, South Korea where I was helping Kevin Newhart demonstrate ProPresenter4 to Korean churches at the 2010 Seoul International Christian Expo. There were probably about 6000 people that came through the expo over the few days and they were so inspired and blown away by what ProPresenter could do! It was neat to see the reactions from people, and even though I couldn’t understand what they were saying, I could see how excited they were about a new tool ...

Welcome to the new Visual Worshiper site!  We are still in process of importing all the previous blog posts, as well as adding more pictures to the Gallery, so thanks for your patience!  Many thanks to Bradley Benson Design! Fantastic job!