Producer Spotlight
Craig Lillard (Sermonvideos.com)

This month WorshipHouse Media interviews Craig Lillard of SermonVideos.com.

Craig has been married to his wife Lynda for 10 years. Craig and Lynda have 2 kids. Craig lives in Frisco, TX and is involved with Bent Tree Bible Church. Craig is the President and chief producer of SermonVideos.com and Visual Reality.

A fun fact about Craig: One of Craig's amazing skills is his ability to roll his stomach. When he was a kid, he would pull his shirt up and roll his stomach and the girls would say, "ewwww." Now, he just pulls his shirt up and the girls say "ewwww."

WHM: Today I’m talking with Craig Lillard. What’s up, bro? Why don’t you start out by telling us about your background/education? Where did you go to school?

Craig: Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

WHM: Ah, Baylor. Home to one, David Crowder. How did you get into video production?

Craig: I have always loved creating movies and videos. When I was a kid I used my Dad’s Super 8 silent film camera and an assortment of Star Wars figures to create some of my proudest moments.
I majored in Film and video at Baylor, but honestly never thought I would be using it. At that time, I felt very strongly that I was being called into vocational ministry and was planning on going to Seminary. Someone suggested that I should major in something I really liked, since I would be receiving my ministry training at Seminary anyway. So, I chose film and video.

I served as a youth pastor for about 9 years when God providentially dropped some video equipment into my lap (that is another story for another time.) I had some ideas on how to create better video illustrations to impact students. After much prayer, my wife and I stepped out on faith to start creating some of these videos and the rest is history.

WHM: Very cool. As an artist and filmmaker, what inspires you? Where do you get ideas?

Craig: Many of the ideas that have been turned into videos came from illustrations I used as a youth pastor. For example, when talking with students about the influential power of the things they watch and listen to, I would allow a jug of milk to sit outside and spoil for about a week or more. Then I would bring it to our youth meeting and let the kids smell it. This would really drive home the scripture about craving only pure spiritual milk. Later on, we created a video illustration along the same lines called “Spiritual Milk.” The same is true with our 40 Million Minutes video. I used to share the same statistics with my students. That little illustration turned into one of our more popular video clips.

Sometimes, it is just what I call an epiphany. I can’t really explain where it comes from except God. There are just times when an idea pops into my head and I know it isn’t a coincidence. The hard part is trying to convey that idea visually.

Artistically, I get a lot of ideas from TV as well. There are some pretty amazing talents in the world and as a creator, just watching television can be like sitting in a classroom.

WHM: Very true. Well, who do you respect as an artist or filmmaker?

Craig: I respect a lot of people. I have a lot of respect for the people I have been privileged to meet over the years as this sub-culture of ministry-media producers has grown. However, if I need to be specific, I really like a lot of Rob Thomas’ work at Igniter Media Group. He has done some pretty cool stuff making 2D images look 3D. I think as a creator and artist one of the biggest complements we receive is when someone looks at our work and asks, “How did they do that?” I find myself asking that about Rob’s work many times. Very cool stuff.

WHM: Yep, he does some amazing work. You do, too. SermonVideos.com is one of our top mini-movie producers. You really have top quality sermon illustrations. I know you also do loops and really cool countdowns, too. What all does your company offer? Also, tell us about your subscription service.

Craig: Well, we started out almost 6 years ago only creating media for youth ministries. However, as the years passed we noticed that many pastors and worship leaders were using our videos as well. Once the whole “downloadable” movement started, we created SermonVideos.com so that pastors and worship leaders would be able to access our content in downloadable format. SermonVideos.com launched last July and we have been having a lot of fun with it. Offering content in downloadable form is great for everyone.

We also started creating and offering motion backgrounds for the SermonVideos.com site which has been a lot of fun. We also have a few countdowns on the site as well.

We decided not to resell other videos on our site as we wanted to offer an incredibly priced subscription in order to make our resources accessible to a wider audience at a great price.

WHM: Anything new coming out that you can share with us?

Craig: We have a new producer/creator who is going to be doing some stuff for us very soon, which we are excited about, so keep your eyes peeled for that!