The WHM Blog

Once again, we loved being a part of the Create Conference in St. Catharines, ON, Canada this year. (For those of you not up on your Canadian geography, that’s just short trip over the border from Buffalo, NY and Niagara Falls.) The organizers of the event put heart, soul, and a little elbow grease into creating a space where church creatives can be inspired and equipped. So thankful for all their hard work in serving the church.

Ben Cantelon led worship for the conference, and it was really cool to see motion backgrounds being used by one of our Canadian producers, Church Motion Graphics. These were the motions used:

http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/motions/38338/Awesome-Blend
http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/motions/36957/Elements-Rain-Down
http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/motions/35229/Starlight-Falling-Stars
http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/motions/36959/Elements-Dark-Sky
http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/motions/37894/Emerging-Light-Cross
http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/motions/35230/Starlight-Blue-Flare
http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/motions/37888/Emerging-Light-Freedom
http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/motions/26338/Lcd-Datastream

We also hosted a mini-movie premiere featuring new videos from Dan Stevers, Media that Matters, and the Inspire Collective. If you haven’t seen their new stuff yet, check them out here.

Father’s Day is around the corner, and we have a lot of really great content for you in the Father’s Day Seasonal Store, adding new videos each week! And of course that includes theme packs, one of our favorite things! We picked out some of our favorite packs for Father’s Day, to help you have a seamless service honoring the dads in your church. Check out our favorites, and be sure to check out more Father’s Day media in our Father’s Day Seasonal Store!

Service Pack: Father’s Day Volume 3 by Centerline New Media

Father’s Day Theme Pack by 4ThoughtMedia

A Very Special Daddy Collection by Steelehouse Media Group (includes the best selling mini-movie!)

We Salute You, Dads Title Graphics Collection by Igniter Media

Tell us, which theme pack will you use for your Father’s Day service? See all of our Father’s Day themed collections here.

Call them splash screens, title graphics, welcome motions… whatever. These cool little motion pieces are a great way to step up your intros, transitions, and announcements. And we have a ton of them!

Here are some of our new favorites:

Welcome Summer Palm Single Tree – Brightside Creative

Spring Shapes Welcome – Igniter Media

Welcome – Color Cubes – Invision Media

Heavenly Particles Welcome – Centerline New Media

Clean Type Welcome – Graceway Media

Worn Out Welcome – Church Motion Graphics

I’m always on the lookout for new backgrounds to add to my media library that are “evergreen” – meaning they can be used in a number of services and are not tied to a specific season or style. Our producers are always cranking out these kinds of motion and still backgrounds, so be sure you’re always checking the Just Added sort at WHM.

Here are a few that caught my eye recently, and that I’ll be using at my church in the near future.

Heavenly Particles 03 by Centerline New Media – Really nice depth and movement in this spacey motion. Would be great for songs like Tomlin’s Our God or Paul Baloche’s Hosanna (Praise is Rising) or any song dealing with the majesty of God.

Worn Out Sunshine by Church Motion Graphics – Looking for something that’s bright, but not too bright? You found it. Great for early in the set and pairs well with songs like Forever Reign from Hillsong and Mighty to Save.

Come Alive by Floodgate Productions – The opposite of Worn Out Sunshine, this is great for when you want something dark, but not too dark. I love the idea of light bursting through the darkness. Great for songs like Shout to the Lord and Tomlin’s Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) that shift in energy levels throughout the song.

Roses Orange-Loop by Igniter Media – When you’re looking for something that’s bright and full of life, this is a great choice. Great for songs early in your set like 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) by Matt Redman and Blessed Be Your Name.

Seven Star Mountain 5 by Playback Media – Add a little extra depth to your background with this gorgeous mountain scene. (And No, I did not just pick this because I’m already ready for my trip to the Rockies this summer). I love using nature-themed backgrounds for songs about God’s greatness like How Great Thou Art, How Great is Our God, and Benton Brown’s Everlasting God.

Rainy Night 2 by Graceway Media – I’m a sucker for motions like this. Watching rain fall on the glass at night is something we can all relate to, and using that image in worship draws the congregation into that shared experience. This is great for more reflective songs like The Stand and It is Well.

What are some of your favorite backgrounds, and what songs do you use them with?

I’ve been known to say a couple of contradictory things about leading visual worship:

1. Like a good cat burglar, if a visual worship leader is doing their job, no one will know they’re there.

2. Visual worship will impact people when images are thrown on the screen that subvert their expectations.

It’s hard to subvert an expectation when no one knows you’re there. So how do I reconcile the two?

Last week, at Luminous Project in Nashville, Nate Ragan put it into really simple terms. Paraphrase: “The Visual Worship Leader does two things: Create Environments and Tell Stories. Sometimes they do this at the same time, and sometimes they do the two independently of each other.”

For me, “Creating Environments” is the cat burglar thing. I want to create an environment in the services I’m leading where visuals deepen and enrich worship in ways that, hopefully, go unnoticed by the worshipper. I don’t want their focus to be on what I’m projecting; I want their focus to be on the True Object of their worship.

The “Telling Stories” thing is where I want people to engage with what’s on the screen in such a way that it draws them into a larger story, and gives them new eyes to see God in a fresh way. The images are meant to be noticed, and the worshipper is invited into a new way of seeing and thinking.

I loved the way Nate Ragan and Stephen Proctor did both at Luminous, using some of The Work of the People‘s Visual Liturgies. Here are a few they used:

Telling Stories: Psalm 107 and The Merton Prayer

Creating Environments: Doves Loop and Rejoice Loop-1 (Note: these are longer than 30 seconds, and are meant to have some abstract components).

How do you create environments and tell stories through visual worship?

So you’ve found (or are planning to find) the perfect mini movie to intro your sermon or service the week, honoring moms for all that they do in the lives of children, young and old… BUT, you want to take your Mother’s Day Service to the next level. Take a look at some of our motion backgrounds, splash screens, stills, and countdowns. Here are a few of our favorites:

Motions
A splash screen is a great way to intro your service or transition from element to element. We love Mother’s Day Butterflies by Graceway Media and Mother’s Day Flowers by Life Scribe Media. Splash screens not your thing, but you still want to put something pretty up during worship for all the moms out there? Try Spring Flowers 02 from Centerline New Media.

Countdowns
One of the easiest ways to add a little something special into your service for moms, is a pre-service countdown. We really like Happy Mother’s Day Countdown from Centerline New Media (for something simple), Mother Always Said Countdown by Igniter Media (for something funny and sweet), and Mother’s Day Countdown from Life Scribe Media (for something a little shorter).

Collections
No post from me would be complete without a little love for collections. I love service packs and bundles because they allow you to brand your entire service around a unified theme AND they save you a bundle (get it?) of money. For Mother’s Day, we like Centerline New Media’s Mini-Pack: Mother’s Day Vol. 1, Playback Media’s Mother’s Day Digital Bundle, and Floodgate Productions’ Mother’s Day Watercolor Service Pack.

We’d love to share more of our favorites, but we’d rather point you to our Mother’s Day Store, FILLED with excellent media. You’re sure to find just the right mini movies, countdowns, motions and more for your services this Sunday.

Give your Kids’ Ministry some style with this FREE welcome motion! Featuring a vibrant assortment of colors, this motion loop would be a great background during your next worship service. Go grab Inspiral Sunny Welcome today!

While you’re there, make sure you check out all the other great content from Church Motion Graphics.

In addition to volunteering on the media team at my local church, I also serve another congregation that is, at times, very different stylistically from my own. One of their requests recently was for some slower, more subtle backgrounds. It’s been a fun challenge to find content that will add depth to worship and enhance the service, but that won’t be visually distracting for a demographic that isn’t as used to flashy or fast-paced media.

Here are some of my favorites (pictured above):

Blue Watercolor Grunge 02 – NewWorshipMedia

Subtle Colors – Igniter Media

Ambient Particles Blue – Life Scribe Media

Simple Circles Purple – Playback Media

New Blue 01 – Centerline New Media

Selah 2 – Dan Stevers

Subtle Mover Shadows – Church Motion Graphics

Holy Presence Gold – OneWay Arts

*Links go to the Motion version of each design, but many have a Still counterpart as well.