Church Media Blog

ProPresenter tutorials are a hot item. And it makes sense. ProPresenter is a powerful tool with a ton of options to help with our services. But as we all know, ProPresenter runs deep. Real deep! So tutorials are a great way to make sure we are getting the most out of this tool. If you click here, you will find 29 tutorials for ProPresenter 6. These are incredible resources designed to help you navigate ProPresenter in such a way that you master not only the basics of the software, but other, more in-depth components as well. For the past month, thousands of users have been checking out these tutorials. Here are the top 5:

Importing, Exporting, and Recording with ProPresenter 6

ProPresenter offers a multitude of ways to bring in and share content. Some of these include outputting recordings, saving a document as images, importing and exporting documents, and using the playlist. Find out how to use each of these features in this tutorial.

Edit Slides in ProPresenter Using the Advanced Slide Editor

If you haven’t used ProPresenter before, or if you’re interested in more advanced features, this tutorial is an excellent starting point. You will learn everything from creating simple slides for worship to making specific elements in a slide come onto the screen at different times for announcements.

Creating Countdowns, Clocks, & Timers in ProPresenter 6

Yay! There is now the freedom to use as many clocks and timers as you’d like in ProPresenter 6. But how do you harness all that extra power to do something productive?

Three Ways To Import Song Lyrics into ProPresenter 6

Quick! Tell me three ways to import song lyrics into ProPresenter 6! If you can’t name all three, try watching this tutorial on creating presentations with song lyrics in ProPresenter 6. These tips on importing lyrics are fast, easy, and will save you tons of time and prevent potential typos too. Watch or read on!

How to Stream Live Video with ProPresenter 6

Do you want to use ProPresenter to stream live video? Do you also want to display song lyrics over your live video? Great news! Once your hardware is in place, it’s easy to do. This tutorial explains how to set up your live video feed with ProPresenter and how to add graphics as an overlay.

I realized something a few months ago as I was writing my latest book, Creative Potential: Principles for Unleashing Your God-Given Calling that I had never thought of before:

Satan has never created anything.

Think about it. God created the entire world, Genesis tells us that he made every creature on earth and everything within it. Although that may not be that great of a revelation for you, here’s where it hit home for me: Even though Satan has never created anything, I still listen to him when it comes to creativity too often.

Satan keeps telling the same lie over and over. He wants us to stop creating, he wants us to steal what isn’t ours and claim it as our own, and he wants us to borrow from others so we would look good to those we’re trying to impress. And in this pursuit to be ‘perfect,’ we rob ourselves of our own creative potential because we take advice from someone who has never created anything.

Instead, as creatives in the church, we must learn to ignore the voice of the enemy and lean into the voice of the Creator of ALL creativity. God has invited us to step into the fullness of our calling, as we pursue the purpose that He has given each and every one of us. Here are a few quick thoughts on how to ignore the voice of the enemy.

1. Time in the Word.

My pastor says that one of the reasons we can’t hear the voice of God and distinguish it from Satan’s is that we often haven’t spent enough time to become familiar with the word and voice of God. The single best way to do this is to get into the word more often. As we do, we’ll begin to learn to the spiritual voice of our Father and recognize it because His word and His voice will never be contradictory. The will always be in conjunction with one another, because God does not contradict Himself.

2. Be Regular in Our Pursuit.

Worship leader and songwriter Carl Cartee said this on the SALT Tour last fall: “Random has no cumulative value.” What he meant by that is that getting into the word or spending time in the presence of God through worship, prayer, fasting or study without a regular pattern means that our pursuit of God is random. It’s nearly impossible to grow when you randomly do something. Imagine going to the gym to lift weights whenever it was convenient. That would be random, and you’d never gain much strength. A great way to tune out the enemy’s voice is to regularly pursue God.

3. Find Your Place in Community.

Lastly, it’s God’s desire for us to be in relationship with other Jesus-loving people who will encourage, equip and edify our pursuit of our calling. But often, the enemy wants us to think that we’re best in our creative gifts when we’re by ourselves. However, God modeled community and collaboration by collaborating with Himself! It’s not God, 1-in-1, but instead God, 3-in-1. Which means God shows our need for community by being in community with Himself in His sovereignty.

As you begin to step into the fullness of your Creative Potential and recognize the purpose and calling God has predetermined for your life, I hope you’ll ignore the lie that Satan is constantly feeding us. The world needs you to step into your God-given calling and unleash the fullness of your own creative potential!

Want to know more about my upcoming book? Click here for all the details or visit CreativePotentialBook.com

What is the worship like at your church?  As worship leaders, it is a question that we are often asked, and a question that others in the community are asking about us.

So how do you answer that question? What is worship like at your church? Perhaps the most obvious aspect of our worship starts with the songs themselves.  The songs we sing and the way we sing them go a long way in defining our worship.

When people walk into a church service on a Sunday morning, their first impression will be based in large part on the music, and at the heart of the music is the song itself.  The songs we choose are often the most visible aspect of our worship experience.

Here’s how you can choose songs that will create a meaningful worship experience:

Spend time in prayer. The first and most important part of choosing the right songs happens before we even look at songs! Before we go to our repertoire and start selecting music, we should first lift our services up in prayer, and ask God to create a clean heart in us personally before we lead our church. Making time to pray with our worship team before each service and at each rehearsal is also a priority.  It reminds us what we are all about, and keeps us focused on the One who is worthy of our worship.

Spend time in Scripture.  It goes without saying that we can’t lead others where we haven’t been ourselves.  As a worship leader, spending time in the Word of God is a priority in creating a heart of worship.  When we are actively engaged in daily worship, we will be much more effective in leading our community on Sundays.   

Be on the lookout for new music. We are blessed to live in a time when there is great new worship music regularly being written. That makes it easy to regularly seek out new music that could be a great fit for your church. Don’t try to find a spot in your service for every great new song out there – you’ll never learn them all – but do spend time listening to music that is God-honoring and will work well for your congregation.  Even if you never use a new song in church, it may lead you to a place of personal worship, making you more effective in leading others.

Know your people. Sunday mornings are often the one time in the week that our church will gather together as a body and worship corporately before going back to whatever Monday holds for us. Don’t overlook singability and familiarity. This is our chance to lead those who love singing and those who don’t! In order to engage such a diverse group, choose songs with easy-to-learn melodies and put them in a key that everyone can sing in.  Our job is to create an environment that allows anyone and everyone to engage in worship! As we seek out new music, also be sure to include old favorites that people know by heart and can sing without thinking.  People sing with more confidence when they know the songs. Learn what your people do and do not respond to or engage with. Be mindful of who is in front of you, and thoughtfully mix old songs and new songs, reflective songs and energetic upbeat songs.

Plan ahead.  It can be all too easy to get stuck in the rut of planning Sunday-to-Sunday.  This will limit our creative options and lead to burnout. For example, we all know Christmas and Easter are going to come around again the same time every year, so why not have a basic outline in place for each a few months out? Work towards having a detailed two week plan, a solid one month plan, and a three month outline in place.

Know the theme and ask for input. Too often, we can find ourselves at odds with our pastor, who may not ‘get’ music or what we are trying to accomplish by using certain songs in worship. Knowing this, it goes a long way to set a time each week to discuss the worship set, how the songs are effective for worship, and discuss any changes that need to be made.  This gets everyone on the same page, and allows the pastor to have input and suggest songs/topics that will relate to the theme of the message.  When we know the theme of the service and have input from others, we can to create a truly unified worship experience, and not just a list of songs that we enjoy singing that may or may not relate to the message.

Know your theology.  There are some great sounding songs out there that have a pretty shaky message.  If a song has questionable theology, don’t be tempted by its catchy melody!  As we said before, there are lots of songs out there, so there is no need to include a song that will have our congregation singing something weird, awkward, or just theologically inaccurate.  Be wise and discerning in what message a song sends.

When we follow these guidelines, we create an environment where we can successfully lead our church in worship.

Great question indeed! What media DO you use for the new year? There is so much great content to choose from, how do you search for it, find it, and then choose which to use for your congregation? That’s where WorshipHouse Media comes into play. WorshipHouse Media is a site that does the hard work for you. They curate the best media that is being created for churches and then presents it to you to choose what fits best for your context. I’ll share more about WorshipHouse Media later, but I wanted you to know that this year, WorshipHouse Media is the place to go for all things media.

In regards to the new year, WorshipHouse Media has some great options for you to choose from to use in your services. They are solid mini movies from producers such as Skit Guys Studios, Hyper Pixels Media, Bright Box Media, and Free Bridge Media. I know you’re going to love them, so be sure to check them out and use them in your services.

This Year I Mean It by Skit Guys Studios

A new year brings new resolutions, but we don’t always follow through so well. Watch as four people make commitments, and acknowledge their need for God to help them.

New Year and New Beginnings by Hyper Pixels Media

Was last year everything you hoped it would be? Many of us have regrets about the things we did, or even things we didn’t do. But, God is the God of new beginnings and second chances. This New Years mini-movie will remind your congregation to focus their eyes on Jesus in the new year, and let Him take care of everything else. That may sound like a simplistic approach to life, but isn’t that how Jesus taught us to live? This fun and uplifting New Years video will work great as a worship intro, sermon introduction, or as an opener for your New Years sermon.

New Years Resolutions by Bright Box Media

We’ve all made New Year’s Resolutions that we haven’t been able to keep. This funny video illustrates that without God being our strength, we’re going to end up giving up.

This Year by Freebridge Media

The new year is a time to rededicate ourselves to the cause of Christ and the glory of God. It’s a time to hit our knees, surrender our will and live out our faith. It’s a time to come before God in worship, giving Him the honor He deserves. This year, it’s time to fix our gaze on Jesus and live life for Him and Him alone.

There’s a lot of great media out there to use for Christmas, right? With all the great possibilities to choose from, how in the world do we narrow it down? How do you sift through all the Christmas trees, snow globes, stockings, cookies, mangers, donkeys, stars, shepherds, and babies in order to use the most relevant, impactful media you can find? Well, I think I can help you out with that!

Our friends at Playback Media have been creating compelling media for years, and they have some amazing Christmas collections I want to share with you. The word “collections” is important because I am only showing you one possible image that is part of a much larger collection that could include: motion backgrounds, still backgrounds, and countdowns. Be sure to look at each collection to see how the media might fit into your Christmas themed services this year.

Christmas Village Collection

Peaceful Advent Collection

Trendy Christmas Collection

Merry Evergreens Collection

Modern Christmas Collection

Wooden Christmas Collection