The past two Tuesday nights I’ve had the honor of leading worship at i55 (http://www.i55.org) here in Dallas – which is a young adult/college gathering, like 7:22 (http://www.722.org) in Atlanta.
i55 was started by a friend of mine, JP Findley, who is an awesome worship leader and a humble man. God is doing some great things through i55 and many other gatherings like it around the world. By the way, their CD (which is in my iTunes) is now available through IndependentBands.com (http://www.independentbands.com/cd/i55/i55.html) – check it out!
At i55, there is such a sweet spirit and anticipation for God to show up, the best the lead worshipper can do is get out of the way. Isn’t that what it’s all about; to simply point people to Christ and then disappear, letting the spotlight be on Him.
I should mention that i55 meets each week at Irving Bible Church (http://www.irvingbible.org). Here’s what I noticed about the media team, which serves both Irving Bible and i55 – they get “it”. They not only know that “less is more”, they demonstrate it.
They use SundayPlus as their presentation software. SundayPlus has the ability to put text over moving/motion backgrounds. Here’s what I teach at my conferences and am SO glad that they already do this: Don’t forget about still backgrounds! Just because we now have the ability to place our lyrics over motion backgrounds, doesn’t mean that we have to do it 100% of the time. Some of you may be thinking, “Duh!” But, believe me, I’ve seen countless churches get a presentation software like SundayPlus (or EasyWorship or MediaShout) and lose their mind. Motion backgrounds are wonderful – at WorshipHouse Media, we offer hundreds of them. But to me, the moving backgrounds add so much more and really stand out when used in contrast to still backgrounds.
Okay, I’m going to step down off my soapbox. You get the point. By the way, today is my last day in my 20s. Tomorrow I turn the big 30. I think I’m going to do like Kramer on Seinfeld and move to Florida for early retirement. 🙂