10 church creative lid lifters

I believe the best way for me to grow is to surround myself with people that are better then me. People that can raise the lid of predictability. Without them even knowing, these individuals are helping me raise the bar of creativity. Who are some people or orginazations that are helping raise yours?

1.Carlos Whittaker

Among being a christian webblog rockstar he is also the Service Program Director for Buckhead Church in Atlanta. Whatever this guy does whether its leading worship, blogging, taking pics, he does it full of passion and realism.

2. Cameron Smith

Cameron is a graphic designer for Christ’s Church of The Valley in Peoria, Arizona. This guy has some mad skills and shares a love for bulletin layout.

3. Bryan Clark

Bryan is the Senior Graphic Designer for LifeChurch.tv. His designs are gold, you can check out some of his work here as well.

4. Daley Hake

A epic photographer with beautiful lighting and composition. Even though I don't take as much photos as I would like, I can learn a great deal from the compositions and moods of the photos.

5.Barton Damer

Another guy with some mad skills. He's the Creative Director for RT Productions Inc. He pushes the envelope with ways to use media creatively in the local church. His print graphics are great but his motion graphics are sick.

6. Michael Buckingham

The up and coming Seth Godin of church marketing. Really this guy has a huge passion to see the church communicate with excellence and originality.

7. Kim Meyer

A communications queen who just publish the book "Less Clutter, Less Noise" which is on my list of books to buy. She shares the belief that the local church is the hope for the world. She is the Communications Director at Granger Community Church.

8.Andrew Hunt

I came across Andrew's blog while sniffing around flickr for stage designs. This guy is a jack-of-all trades working with different forms of media at Blue Ridge Community Church in Forest, VA.

9. Mitch Idol

I actually have the privilege of working with this guy, he offices down the hall and to the right.  Not just because he's my boss or friend did he make on this list, but because he is lid lifter expert.  Always helping me see the big picture in projects. 

10. Jorge Cruz

Jorge is another local, not only is he the worship leader here at PVC he is also my cousin.  His passion for true authentic worship pours out on and off the stage.  Musically he's made me step up on my guitar playing skills and done things I thought I would never do. 

Video a la "In plain english"

I thought this was a creative promo spot for PVC groups that our team did.  Props to Oz on the editting and Cierra's voice over.

Walking Billboards! Part - 1

Like probably most churches around the nation our attendance took a dip this past Sunday, due to the daylight savings time. That wasn’t the surprising part though, what really shook my world was to hear that attendance was up 30% over last year. YAY GOD!

I began to wonder how this growth has happened. Certainly this has been the hand of God, but aside from the mystical how do people find out about PVC? I haven’t heard of many that have decided to come because a burning bush told them. We are not advertising, we don’t send mailers to the community, we are not on TV, we don’t give away ipods.

Last week during lunch with some friends, I overheard a lady at the table next to us talking about PVC and the changes in her life. Her excitement to share the good news with her friends was energizing.

This might go against most marketing strategies. I believe that people bring people. And if we look back at the way Jesus did ministry it was about people sharing the good news to those that haven’t heard it.

Stay tuned, in this “Walking Billboards” series I want to discus some practical principles that have worked for us.

The Boring Stuff

So in my poor attempt to stay organized I keep all of my task on a iCal to-do list. It’s probably not the best solution but so far it’s working for me. The problem I’ve always had is, I love doing the cool stuff. Posters, shirts and series designs are more tempting then gold to me. I eventually catch up and all I’m left with is the boring stuff. Usually on the bottom of the list are things like forms, booklets, and flossing. Regardless of my likes and dislikes these tasks need to get done.

Getting through the boring stuff requires more inspiration then ColdPlay & Tomlin can offer. So I created a folder called inspiration in my mailbox where I put testimonies and encouraging notes that I’ve collected from my time at PVC. These stories do much more then motivate me to get pass the forms and paper folding, it puts everything into perspective and they remind me why I do what I do.
So how do you handle the boring stuff? What are some particle ways that help you get through the list?

Announcements PVC Style

One of the difficulties we've face here was how to handle service announcements. For the most part we didn't announce much from the pulpit.  But when we switched to 3 services we new we had to tighten up the time spent on every element within the service.  In most cases we only have one hour to impact a person's life and want to make the most of it.  So the production team at PVC implemented the 5-Till a few months back.  It plays right before service and averages in length from 2-5 minutes.  Planning starting points in service have always been awkward, this has help there to be a constant beginning to the service.  

We drew inspiration from North Point Church in how they handle their video announcements.  But much props too team members Oz & Cierra have really worked hard on improving and keeping it fresh every week.    Here's is last weekends video:

Discovery Class Design

It's feel like it's been weeks since I've designed something and feels good to get back into familiar territory.  This design is going to be the new look for PVC's growth classes.  Find out about them here.   

Our Poor Stage In A Year

ANother year has flown by here at PVC and another is in full swing!  I just wanted to give some props to the stage crew that has been involved in stage production over the last year!  It's been a fun ride.  Here are some pics of how our stage has changed through the year.  Enjoy, and if you want take take a peek at the current set be sure to go on over to mitchisms.com.

 

Peanut Butter & Jelly

I'm nut much of a peanut butter guy but every once and a while I get the urge to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a tall glass of milk.  The craving usually comes  in the middle of a football game or for a midnight snack.  It would never fail; I would have my bread and peanut butter ready to go but the jelly was never to be found.  I don't know about you, but a peanut butter sandwich is not the same with no jelly.  

Just like peanut butter needs jelly,  big ideas need execution.  In my line of work I'm always looking for the next big thing.  I read countless blogs, books and even comb the internet for who's doing what and how they are doing it. Sometime these ideas are inspired by other ideas, sometimes they come in the middle of the night or they come from some overly priced conference you just came back from. Wherever they are birthed from, one thing is certain, a Idea without execution is just plain peanut butter.  

Gotta Love Istock

Istockphoto.com has to be one of my biggest resources when it come down to crunch time.  Now I'm a believer of being original and taking the photo if you have the resources to do it.  But sometime there just isn't enough time.  This is where istock comes in handy.

This design below was made using the lower images off of istock.  This is a very bussy week and didn't have time to go out and take pictures or even sketchup the design.  The great thing is I can probably use these images again for something else down the road.  

Bring On The FooFooness

This week we finished off our "Church I See" series.  Which means a new set design this week.  Big props to Cierra for leading on this set and making it happen.  We kept the basic lighting frame and brought some old fabric we had used last year for Christmas.  Check out my flick photo-stream for more shots.